FOR MEDIA THURSDAY' 24 APRIL' 1980
ADDRESS TO THE COMBINED ELECTORATES DINNER
Thank you for your welcome. It is good to be back amongst you;
amongst people who have worked hard in the past in the successful
support of the Liberal Party. I know that in what you have done
you have been driven by a commitment, not just to individuals but
also to ideals.
* They are ideals which find their, political expression in our
philosophy of liberalism ideals which are active through our
political beliefs arnd our political behaviour.
They are active:
* through our commitment to the-individual and our faith,
in his initiative and his willingness to accept
responsibility
* through our care and concern for those in genuine need
* through our belief in the rule of law as the best means
of securing our freedom.
* through our dedication to economic growth, high
productivity and efficient services achieved through
freedom and competition in our enterprises-
And liberalism, thirough its determination that economic power
should not be concentrated in Government, but dispersed throughout
the community, offers individuals a chance to work out their own
futures in their own way.
It is our dedication to these ideals which enables individuals
to live in an orderly and law-abiding society, free to choose,
to save and to invest; free to be ambitious, independent and
industrious; and free to take risks, seek rewards and make profit.
These freedoms will underwrite our prosperity in the decade ahea6.
But because we can never secure them for all time, we must work
to achieve ' a greater public involvement in our efforts to
protect them.
We can always do more to recruit people from the political
sidelines; get them on our side; pick them on our team; and carry
them with us on to the ' political battlefield.
And there, in the decades ahead, the sure victory of liberalism
over socialism awaits those who are committed enough and
conscientious enough to work for it.
Indeed, our achievements of the last four years have already
provided us with a platform for progress in the
They have been won against a difficult inheritance following three
Labor years of economic and investment decay.
And in spite of an increasingly difficult international economic
situation, we can confidently look forward to a decade of new
opportunities and expanded development.
But success id rarely accidental.
It derives from a plan and a conviction; and a capacity to carry
both of these through.
For four years, we have waged a successful fight against inflation
induced by the Labor Party.
Not only did we face a state of high recorded inflation, but also
Labor had fed a state of inflation in public expectations about
what government could provide.
Yet in what one newspaper article this week called " desperate
measures", the Labor Party continues to promise an expanded role
for government, a role which promises wider and more extravagant
government spending programmes.
This kind of behaviour would only plant the psychology of inflation
deeply within the nation.
Any society that does not attack the causes of inflation is little
better than a society that fails to respond to systematic breaches
of thelaw.
For inflation robs people of their freedom and thoir security.
To restore these to individual Australians, when we came to office
we began to use all the economic weapons at our disposal to attack
inflation; restraint in public expenditure, reduction of the budget
deficit, responsible monetary policies and increasing resistance to
excessive wage increases.
As a result, we enter the 80s with an inflation rate of 10 per
cent highly favbourable compared with that in the USA of over
14 per cent and in the UK of over 19 per cent.
Because of our economic strength, we have been able to lessen the
impact of overseas developments on our economy at a time when
inflation and interest rates have been rising rapidly overseas.
Contributing to our economic strength has been our ability in the
last three years to reduce the rate of growth in Commonwealth
budget outlays to virtually zero in real terms.
Yet in the three years under Labor they averaged an annual growth
rate of over 10 per cent.
Obviously to accommodate this, taxes went up and as the Labor
Government grabbed more and more of the national wealth,
individuals suffered, industry was squeezed and investment dried
* up, as inevitably it must.
That is why, since we came to government, we have sought to
-transfer economic power and decision making to individuals, and
-the private sector has responded magnificently.
Now, as we enter the 80s, Australia can look forward with optimism
to new levels of investment activity and economic growth.
And without economic growth, no government can properly provide
the standard of living to which citizens aspire.
Without economic growth we cannot provide job opportunities and
welfare programmes to those in need.
Without economic growt h, progress towards one goal can only be
achieved by impoverishing something or someone else.
One of our major claims to government in the 80s is our capacity
to offer economic responsibility in the context of controlled
inflation. This claim is well-founded
with inflation two percentage points below the average of OECD
countries; and growth in non-farm GDP expected to be 3 per cent
or better for the current financial year. Most importantly, our
growth has cnrelargely from our increased competitiveness.
In the year ended December 1979, the value of our total
exportEs was 33. per cent above the level of the previous twelve
months. And the value of our manufactured exports increased by even more
38 per cent.
Inevitably, these trends have contributed to our improved employment
position.
While unemployment remains too high, total employment in the year
to0 February 1980 rose by over 155,000.
Trhese are significant advances and they have been achieved in
spite of difficult international problems.
TChere is no doubt that the international scene has been complicated
by the instability in the Middle East and the massive escalation
: Ln oil prices.
But these developments only serve to remind us of the real
opportunities that exist in Australia as a result of the ch . anges
n the world economic and energy order.
What we are facing in Australia is not the kind of crisis that
i~ s facing some industrialised countries as a result of energy
shortages. Rather, we are facing a decade of opportunity. 4
4
And it is an opportunity that Australia is uniquely placed to
meet. Already, we are one of the few net energy exporters among OECD
countries.
We possess substantial reserves of uranium and black and brown
coal.
We have significant reserves of liquid petroleum gas and natural
gas. Arnd the possibilities for alternative sources of oil from shale
and coal liquefaction demonstrate that in a world increasingly
short of energy supplies, Australia occupies a privileged position.
The Government's role in response to this privilege is designed
to achieve three objectives:
Greater exploration and development of all our energy resources.
Conservation of our scarce energy resources, and greater use of
alternatives to our present oil supplies.
This total strategy can only be properly served by forward-looking
policies of government which set the climate in which these
objectives can be achieved.
The key element in our strategy is our oil parity pricing policy.,
which is already contributing significantly to meeting these
objectives. It represents the Government's determination, in the light of the
changing international energy situation to secure, in the short
term and in the long term, adequate supplies of local fuel.
Far from being a problem for Australia's energy users-, our oil
parity. pricing system is, in fact, the long term solution to
their needs.
It is calculated deception to talk of cheaper petrol when the end
result of such a practice would be no petrol at all.
our oil pricing policy will ensure a better energy base for all
our industries and a more secure future for all Australians.
It is a policy which is being pursued by all but one or two
countries throughout the world.
Yet our political opponents pretend to the electorate a sense of
indignation that the Government has pursued this course._
Behind the pretence is a desire to create in the public mind the
fact that the Labor Party could provide cheaper petrol.
They cannot and they will not.
Mr. Keating has made it quite clear that his proposals for the
taxation of oil revenues-will not mean cheaper petrol.
What Labor does admit is that it will impose a resources tax to
replace the present oil levy.
And in Mr. Keating's own words, the motorist will be no better of f
In February this year, he said:
" The debate aboutithe resources taxes doesn't matter
much to the motorist at all. What does matter is if,
over time, the resources tax collects more than the
levy and I expect it wills?.
By placing a penal tax on the oil industry whiqh would raise more
money than the levy, there could be no chance of cheaper petrol
for the motorist.
In fact, such a tax would kill off investment in oil exploration
and development, reduce our self-sufficiency and make us beggars
for fuel on the international market..
* There, owe would not be paying, as we are today, the lowest world
price for crude oil.
Rather, we would be forced on to the spot market where we would
have to pay the kind of prices that take advantage of limited
supply and unlimited demand.
We have a responsibility to the next generation of Australians and
to Australia's energy future to see that this does not occur.
What is not gen erally understood is that even with parity pricing
for oil, the price of super grade petrol in Australia at 32-33
cents a litre is amongst the cheapest in the Western world; on a
par with the USA and comparing more than favourably with New Zealan.
at 43 cents a litre; Germany at 59 cents; the UK-at 61 cents; Japan
at 62; the Netherlands at 67; Italy at 72 and France-at 75 cents
a litre.
our fuel prices, relative to those throughout the world, place us
in a more privileged position than we sometimes imagine.
That is why all industry which is heavily dependent on increasingly
scarce local fuels, should take note of a recent observation, in
relation to Labor's oil pricing policy, by the Vice-Chairman of
the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association when he said:
" We hope the opposition clearly understands that the
industry's current assessment of what we deduce from
their resource tax scheme is quite negative, and in
the event of their coming to power, an unacceptable base
on which to continue exploring".
This is a clear warning that our increasing energy self-sufficiency
and the momentum to national development would be in severe jeopardy,
under Labor.
There is too much at stake for us to allow this to happen.
The last four years have seen a welcome resurgence in investment
activity.
Expenditure on exploration has gradually risen in response to
Government incentives and improved economic health.
In 1979 it totalled $ 228 million and in the first half of 1980
is estimated at $ 170 million.
Further, it is estimated that total expenditure on exploration
and development will exceed $ 500 million in 1980.
The recent announcement by Esso/ BHP that development expenditure
in the Bass Strait will exceed one billion dollars over four years,
is a striking illustration of the revived confidence in Australia's
oil exploration and development industry.
A~ nd that confidence is burgeoning in other energy related
industries.
overseas investors are increasingly being attracted to Australia
by the prospect of abundant supplies of electricity based on our
large reserves of easily mined coal.
These supplies are available in Australia at very competitive rates.
Their production costs are considerably lower than power prices
in other developed countries; much less than those in Japan; and
cheaper than power costs from new generating plants in the USA.
This advantage is already evidenced by the level of investment in
the bauxite, alumina and aluminium. industries which require massive
inputs of electricity.
billion of projects are either under construction in these
industries or about to co.
All of these are expected to be completed by the mid-
As well as this, a further $ 6 billion worth of projects in the
aluminium industry are seeking an investment home in Australia.
Such initiatives demonstrate some of the new resource based
development opportunities that are now available to investors.
* And there are others.
As well as th~ e use of coal in the provision of cheap electricity,
Australia will benefit in the 80s from the increasing export
potential availab-e through our abundant coal reserves.
The international energy agency estimates that Australia's annual
coal exports will rise from 38 to 200 million tonnes by the year
2000.
This kind of ' expanded development in the utilisation of our natural
resources means that with the right policies and aggressive
management, the decade ahead looms as one of promise.
Yet the new energy-related development in Australia is only part
of the story.
Most recent figures indicate that almost 17 billion dollars worth
of mining and manufacturing projects are about to go ahead in
Australia, or are in the final stages of preparation.
And even these figures, if anything, understate the likely
expenditure on-energy exploration and development in Bass Strait
and the North-West shelf and do not include the giant Rundle shale
oil project in Queensland.
What all this means is that Australia is already very much on the
go in the
Profitability has increased and confidence has returned to the
national economy.
And to secure a confident and aggressive private sector working
within a responsive economic environment is a central objective
of our policy determinations.
But it is not the sole objective of o ur policy initiatives.
Rather, it is a means by which other goals are more easily achieved.
For the end result of all that we are doing, is the well-being of
individual Australians.
In moves directed to the well-being of Australian families and
Australians in need, the Government has initiated beneficial reforms
over the last four years.
We h ave introduced family allowances designed to help low income
families.
By July 1, the spouse rebate will have increased * from $ 400 to
$ 800 during our term of office.
The sole parent rebate has risen from $ 200 to $ 560 in the last
four years, and in this period we extended the supporting parents'
benefit to include supporting fathers.
This is very substantial assistance to single income families.
Further, soon after we came to office, we acted upon our commitment
to the needs of handicapped children by increasing the handicapped
child's allowance by 50 per cent.
But even then it was only paid to the severely handicapped.
In 1977, we widened the eligibility for the allowance to include
substantially handicapped children whose family income is low.
A * nd in recognition of the special needs of handicapped students,
in 1978, we extended the allowance to cover students over 16 and
under 25 who-are not in receipt-of an invalid pension.
The Gdvernment, along with individuals, accepts a responsibility
to see that there is dignity for people in old age.
In significant moves designed to achieve this, the Government has
replaced the complex means test for aged pensions with an easily
understandable income test; and, in the last four years has
approved the building of over 500 self-contained hostel and nursing
home projects for the aged and disabled.
It is a necessary concomitant of our improved economic health that
we are able to provide these benefits to those in need, while at
the same time improving the capacity of individual Australians to
provide for themselves.
The most important reform in this regard has been our modification
and simplification of the taxation structure.
A number of times, we have increased the tax-free income which may
be earned before tax first becomes payable by individuals or
families. In this way, approximately 300,000 Australians have been exempted
from paying tax on their income.
The announcements by the Treasurer last month mean that a further
50,000 Australians will be relieved from paying any tax.
Just as significantly, the Government has cut marginal tax rates
with the result that 90 per cent of Australian taxpayers are now
paying tax at the lowest marginal rate.
Because of this reform, a majority of taxpayers are able to
increase their income through overtime or part-time work without
moving into a higher tax bracket.
These reforms are consistent with our commitment to lowering taxes.
It is a commitment which is not shared by our political opponents.
Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition last year expressed the
view that, " the challenge to traditional democratic socialism i
the rapid spread of philosophies based on lower taxes
and smaller government".
Such a condemnation of our low tax and smaller government philosophy
is shared by Labor's Spokesman on Economic Affairs who acknowledgefi
in June, 197., that his Labor Party faced,
" a mammoth t-ask in rebuilding the public sector and
maybe an equally mammoth task in convincing the electorate
that it should pay a higher level of tax to enable us to
do so".
But our political opponents are not daunted by the task of raising
revenue through higher taxation from the Australian community.
In December last year, Mr. Hayden when reminding us that his
revenue raising programmes were "' somewhat more radical than had
been outlined up to 1972"' warned us about our taxation future
under Labor when he said:
have committed my organisation to a capital gains
tax, a resource rental tax, a levy on domestic oil
produacers, a number of initiatives in the tax area and
other measures of that nature
In what constitutes an elaboration of the " other mreasures" the
Opposition's Spokesman on Economic Affairs has said that it is
" wrrong" that we do not have " some form of tax on capital, be it
dEath duties, capital gains tax, wealth tax or perhaps some kind of
combination of those, or all three"
It: is our responsibility to make sure that these taxation threats
are understood by all Australians.
For they would sound the death knell of enterprise and economic
freedom.
Especially when t he commitment to higher taxation is complemented
by, a commitment to an extravagant extension of centralised
government with no regard for the consequences this would have on
th~ e economy.
Indeed, the Adelaide Conference of the ALP last year ended with no
anti-inflationary policy but with a total commitment to massive
additional expenditure.
And the same Conference bound a future Labor Party to the establishmeni
of' more than thirty different councils and statutory authorities as
well as more than a dozen forms of government intervention.
Such extravagances would involve the use of taxpayers' money to do
what private enterprise ought to be doing.
As a consequence, by government favouritism for their own enterprises,-
the Government would jeopardise the existence of private enterprise.
This particularly applies in the sensitive area of resource and
energy exploration and development.
As well as this, Labor has grandiose plans for expanded programmes
which they would administer through existing structures.
They have already announced a " make-work" scheme estimated to cost
taxpayers $ 1,000 million in spite of the fact that overseas
experience has shown that such programmes do not add to employment
bu~ t merely impose an additional burden on taxpayers.
In. housing and health they have committed themselves, on the most
conservative estimate, to expenditure of no less than $ 500 million.
If amounts of money of this kind existed to be spent, would-. the
public willingly let it be wasted on resurrected, re-named Labor
failures.
Some of these schemes were abandoned by Labor in the
Re-cycled again under a new name, they would fail again.
Butt the increasing intensity of the ALP's drive to centralising
political and economic power in Canberra would perhaps surprise
Victorians least of all.. 0
Because such a goal to centralise power is essential to the
achievement by the socialist left of its grand plan.
And up until recently, Victoria has been the home of the socialist
left.
Indeed, one Labor M. P. in Victoria was quoted in the Melbourne
AgEe recently as saying:
" As it is, the socialist left has a big say in most other
functions of the Party. They control the Party's newspaper
" Labor Star". They run the head office. They run the
weekly radio programme on 3KZ and the. Party's Administrative
Committee. If they get any more control, there won't be
anything left for anyone else".
T his lament is now echoed throughout Australia.
Aknd as a Bulletin article of March 11 said:
" Mr. Hayden has done more for the socialist left than they
could have ever managed for themselves".
' rhe wages policy that he steered through the ALP Conference, was
Partly instigated by Mr. Roulston, praised by Mr. Hartley, and
opposed by Mr. Hawke as " a gutless sell-out to the Left".
Further, Mr. Haydenintervened in the Queensland Branch of the ALP, handing
the balance of power aye? to the socialist left;
and dumped Dr. Klugman after Mr. Hayden had criticised
him for being too concerned about communism..
And the socialist left, in control of the Labor Party in Tasman ia,
recently dumped the National President of the Party and Deputy
Premier, from a respectable position on the Labor " How to Vote"
ticket. Presumably, through all this, Mr. Hayden is sustained by Mr.
Hartley's agreement, as recently as * yesterday, that Mr. Hayden is
" the best Labor leader for the socialist left..."
The pernicioup spread of left wing socialist philosophy into the
recesses of the Labor organisation is most manifest in the
opposition's respo~ nse to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and
its subsequent inertia in support of the Government's condemnation
of the Soviet Union.
Senator Georges, whom Mr. Hayden personally appointed to act as
his proxy at the Queensland ALP State Conference has argued that:
" There is more dignity and morality in the Soviet Union
than there is in our own society and in many Western societies".
And carrying this threatening comment to the bizarre he argued, 11
" Culturally, ( the Soviets) have achieved more and no
doubt physically they have achieved more than most
countries and possibly that is the basis of our objection
to the Olympic Games".
It is no wonder a journalist in the Melbourne Age only a week ago
was prompted to remark that
"... some aspects of Labor policy as presented by. senior
spokesmen are remarkably similar to those of one or
other of the Australian Communist groupings".
Mr. Hayden has moved from a position of commendable purpose in
mid-January when he argued that,
" an effective boycott of the Moscow Olympics undoubtedly
would be a major psychological weapon employed against
the Soviet Union",
To a position today of failing to act-upon this conviction; of
failing to do anything to secure an effective boycott.
At a time when there is a new and significant opportunity for the
free world to indicate that there is some bread we will not break
with the perpetrators of murder in Afghanistan, the ALP, almost
alone amongst major world political parties, demonstrates that it
is prepared to stand morality and the cause of humanity on its head.
The attempts of the ALP to divide Australia from its allies; and
to destroy the collective efforts we must make to contain naked
aggression and preserve national and individual freedom; these
attempts will tail, as they should, and those who have espoused
them will fail with them.
The 1980s have already presented us with new and testing challenges.
These challenges serve to remind us that in spite of~ our natural
and human resources and the great freedoms we enjoy, we need to do
more than just rely on remaining a lucky country.
The fact that we cannot rely on luck is well-evidenced by Labor's.
past record of Government and the catalogue of its existing
promises. This must challenge us to pursue, in what-ever we do, individual,
economic and national success.
Let us work together towards that success and the making of a
better Australia.-
Lot us not baulk in the face of struggles; because struggles in
life give us strength.
As a faumous American poet said,
* It takes fight for principles to make fortitude; it
taes crisis to give courage and singleness of purpose
to reach an objective".
What ' better text can there be for our nation to meet the challenges
and acc" pt'tbO opportunities of the decade ahead.
1, An