AS DELIVERED
PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA MONDAY, 8 MARCH 1982
LOWE CAMPAIGN DINNER
It is certainly a very pleasant thing to come to Lowe to support
Phillip and Pat Taylor in this by-election because I suppose
there are candidates, but Phillip Taylor, if you were trying to
write out a copy-book candidate for Lowe, I think you would
have taken Phillip Taylor's specification and that would have been
it. I said a little earlier this afternoon that Phillip
Taylor, the electors of Lowe are going to be getting two for one,
because Pat has been working very hard with him and obviously
Lowe is going to be very well represented after Saturday.
I would like to thank Dr Stuart Smith, the club president for
allowing us to use his premises tonight, thank you very much.
I would like to speak to you for a few moments about a number
of issues of current importance to Australia. We live in a
changing world and while our policy objectives remain firm and
resolute, quite obviously the settings of policy, the approaches
that we might need to adopt to achieve our objectives change
as circumstances change.
We need to remember the Liberal Party since its foundation has
been instrumental in bringing to Australians and Australian
families the great advances which have been achieved in
living standards and in our way of life over the last 30 years.
Those of us who do remember the ordinary average house of the
average family in the late 1940s and the kind of house people
expect and so very often have taken for granted in recent times,
the difference in that house, the difference in its equipment
is just a mark and one mark of the changed living standards
of Australian families. Living standards in real terms have
doubled over these times and things that were the exception
are very much regarded as the norm and something that all
people come to acc6pt and this again represents the march of
Australia over those three decades.
It has always been the Liberal
objective to keep building Australia up for the future, to bring
growth and investment to Australia, to encourage private enterprise
and initiative, because this is the only sure foundation of
continuing prosperity for ourselves and our children.
This is the great legacy of the Liberal Party to Australia over
the last 30 years and I would believe for the next 30 years.
The Liberal Party is the only nation-wide party committed to
the well-being of all Australians. There was that famous / 2
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occasion going back when a Labor Prime Mlinister, it was John
Curtin or Ben Chifley, was in New Zealand during a christmas
period, so he sent a telegram to all the Labor people in Australia,
Christmas greetings. Well an Australian Prime Minister is meant
to represent all Australians and not just people of one kind.
Our Party has a profound responsibility to keep advancing
the policies on which Australia's continued prosperity depends.
That does not mean taking an easy part, it does not mean coming
out with a basket full of goodies to try and buy support in a byelection
for Lowe. It means explaining, doing what we believe
to be right, doing what we believe will really lead to an
improvement in the lives of Australians from one corner of this
country to another. That sometimes means taking difficult
decisions, but if people know politicians at all, they ought
to know they don't like taking difficult decisions for the
fun of it. We would all much sooner take the nice, easy pleasant
decisions, but if the country is to be well-governed that is not
always the way of it.
It is important that we realise that the future cannot be
taken for granted, important that we carry tcr* the community the
message that Liberal policies alone will carry Australia strongly
through the difficulties and uncertain conditions overseas
which inevitably affect us.
On the international front, there are obvious threats and
tensions, we see them not only in Poland and Afghanistan, but
also in Communist influence in Latin America and Africa.-New
threats can emerge with almost no notice and in these circumstances,
the Australian Covernment plainly needs to be giving its support
to our allies, and taking its share of the responsibilities
which arise under the western alliance.
In economic terms, the world scene is equally disturbing and we
do the Australian people no service at all by trying to turn our
back upon it, by trying to pretend that the world scene is other
than it in fact is. World trade has remained sluggish. Predicte
revivals, predicted at almost regular periods of six months
over the last six years have not taken place. Commodity prices
have fallen substantially in the last year and this of course,
inevitably hurts Australia. Wle are a great trading nation and
we live by our capacity to get access to and sell to the markets
of the world. There is little or no growth in the economies
of many of our trading partners and the unemployment situation
in some of those countries, is vastly disturbing. In Germany
it is over in the United States approaching in the
United Kingdom approaching 12%. But we think unemployment is
bad here, try and imagine what it is like in those countries.
And by the second half of this year, total unemployment in
the developed ( OECD) countries is expected to rise to a
massive total of 28 million people..
These difficulties overseas are not new, indeed Australia, has
through the determined application of policies, through
the energy initiative of Australians and Australian enterprise,
managed to swim against the adverse world tide for a number of
years. We have problems, and I don't try to suggest that there
are not. But if you take two examples in the United States,
four years ago their motor industry was producing 15 million / 3
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automobiles, this year they are going to produce 8 million if
they are lucky. Imagine what that means to unemployment in
Detroit arx the motor industry throughout the United States
and unemployment of a kind that Australia certainly has not
known for decades and maybe not even in the 1930s.
If you take the home building industry, where we know there are
some problems and our minds are being addressed to those probelms
at the moment, in the United States home starts are running at
bout 40% what they were 2 years ago. What is it down here,
or 12% and we recognise the nature of the problem, we believe
it is significant for us. But would our reaction be if we had
a problem of the kind there is is in the United States right
at this moment.
Australia has been growing economically at more than twice the
average rate of other advanced western countries over the last
few years. This year international organisations predict that
Australia will grow at three times the rate of those countries
and that of course, means better living standards for Australian
families and that is what it is all about, not some statistic
on the board, but how it translates and the kind of lives
that Australians can lead in all parts of this country-and in the
kinds of opportunities that we are able to create for young
Australians.
Business investment in Australia in the last financial year
had its highest rate of increase for 30 years, and a further
substantial increase is expected this financial year.. This not
only reflects the confidence of investors in Australia's
future, it will also'provide the underpinning for improvements
in living standards in years ahead. Of course, again, this is
what it is all about. I think sometimes people believe that
we want business investment for the sake of business investment.
I don't think businessmen believe that that is the end objective,
it is what you are enabled to do with that investment once it
is in place. It does translate into more wealth, more opportunities.
better living standards, more jobs, for Australians. But without
the strongly based business investment in many different
industries, primary, secondary, and mining. Without that the
opportunities ahead of us are going to be much less than they
can be and will be under our policies.
Real incomes have risen substantially over the last 18 months
and I think this is not really adequately understood. In the
last financial yeat;' very nearly $ 3 billion and after tax,
after the terrible taxman, not before the taxman and that is
quite a lot in anyone's terms was added to real household
disposable incomes, representing a real increase in the standards
of life of Australian families. Whatever figures are used, that
plain, basic fact cannot got be around. Putting it in another
way, in the two years to the September quarter average weekly
earnings have increased by over $ 13 a week in real terms. / 4
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We seek higher real wages through higher production. That is the
way to improve living standards right around this country. We seek
higher employment through investment in the private sector, and
under our policies over 380,000 new jobs were created in the
three years to January. Compare that with what has happened
in the United States, what is happening in Britain, what is
happening in Germany, what is happening in France. Name any
other country where private secotr employment has been growing
as strongly as that over recent years. I suggest you will
have to look very long and very hard and Australia is virtually
leading the band in relation to employment growth. Australia's success since
we came to office shows thatour-. approach works, and this is why,
in a deteriorating world situation, it is more important
than ever that we maintain the overall thrust? of our approach,
while remaining flexible to changing circumstances.
What a contrast there is between what we have achieved, the
way we have built Australia up, and the way that Labor's
irresponsible policies between 1972 and 1975 drove the economy
into the ground and destroyed confidence and the incentive to
invest.' This is a country where we want to build and expand our population
and after the war there began a great migration program and one
of the greatest achievements of Mr Whitlam and Labor-of those
years and of Mr Hayden who was his Treasurer, one of the greatest
achievements was to establish the one year in 1975 in which more
Australians left this country than came to this country. That
is how people thought of the Labor Government after 2 to 3 years.
They just did not want to be here any more and they were leaving
and of course in the years since the-migration programme has been
built again and the country is growing strongly-as a result of
migration. We have been building this country and we are
determined to keep on doing justthat.
It is plainly vital in the present situation that nothing should
happen in Australia that weakens our competitive position in
world markets, or for that matter in our own domestic-market
because with recession or even depression, quite obviously with
12% unemployment, it is not surprising if Britain gets 6%
of wage settlements, their industries will be becoming more
competitive and we will have to make sure that we can match
that competition. In the present circumstances, excessive wage demands,
and especially demands for a further general wage increase at this
time, are certainly against the interests of wage earners and
indeed, against the'-interests of all Australians.
It is also important to avoid damage to our competitive position
and our reputation as a reliable supplier in world markets
which are threatened by strikes and industrial disruptions.
How often have we heard over the last several months, I am sorry
I cannot deliver those goods at the moment because the container
is still on the wharves. I called this Wran's navy the other day.
I was told I should have called it Nifty's navy, or Nev' s navy
or something, and I think it is all the same thing. I thought
there was one purpose to which he could put those ships. They
have probably all got generators. Well you got that message quite
quickly, but I think the Parliamentary Oposition should ask him if
it is true that he has bought 50 miles of underwater cables
for taking all this Dower, so that at least the ships can have
their generators running, in case nothing else can run in NSWI.
The high level of strikes in recent times has not only put at
risk our position and our reputation in world markets, it has
caused massive inconvenience and discomfort to average Australians
and especially in this State as you well know. It has destroyed
job prospects for a number of young people.
In the face of this industrial situation, the Government
is bringing forward a number of key legislative intiatives
and they will be introduced into the Federal Parliament in a very
few weeks. We are going to provide employers with'automatic
right of stand-downof workers who cannot be employed because
others are striking. We well know what the position. There hs
been a provision in the Arbitration Act and the C& A Act, but
employers who did not have that right of stand-down written
into their award probably had to argue beyond the length of
the dispute to get it and some time ago we gave the Commonwealth
that right in relation to our employees. We have used it on
a number of occasions and we have used it successfully on a
number of occasions so that is not a shot in the dark, it is
a proven measure and I believe it wilo equalise opportunities
and equalise bargaining positions between management and labour
and that certainly needs doing.
Also of course, that legislation will encourage the development
of industry unions and seek to protect the right of employees
through voluntary unionism and preference to unions and
mofifications to those present aspects of the law. We are also
acting in co-operation with the states in relation to aspects
of demarcation disputes and here we are looking at the
possibility of establishing a special panel or a division of the
Arbitration Act, but backed by powers, backed by legally
enforcable powers if other innocent parties are hurt as a result
of demarcation and that is being closely examined by the states
and we are looking for a report for the Premiers' Conference
in June. The waterfront is forth most in our discussions
with the states because they are heavily involved. They run
ports and harbours and to solve the problems we are facing in
that area, we need not only the cooperation of the industry,
but the co-operation of state governments also.
Labor always claims to have a special relationship with the
trade union movement. The words that I have got down here
say that the facts tell a different story, but in fact,
they do have a special relationship with the trade union
movement and we really need tounderstand that absolutely.
It is a relationsh4p in which the politicians who depend
upon trade unions for their money are subservient to the trade
union movement and the trade union movement expects the politicians
to do what they, the trade unions want in the interests of
militant trade union leaders and that is the special relationship
of the Australian Labor Party with the trade unions.
There was a comment by Mr Wran the other day which can be
paraphrased as saying well I have been nice to the union
movement, they should be nice to me. They have not been nice
to him or nice to the people of NSW and legislating to give
into the union movement is not to way to establish industrial
peace. / 6
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There was a time when the Labor Party had an unprecedented
opportunity to establish industrial pea ' ce. They ahd a Prime
Minister, Mr Whitlam and then they had two Mr Hawkes. One
as President of the Labor Party and one as President of the
Australian Council of Trade Unions. Now who could possibly,
Mr Hawke being as good as he obviously is, surely could have
established industrial peace even if he was only in one of those
positions. Being in both of those positions, he should have
been able to guarantee industrial peace for all time..
Now, manufacturers, industrialists, commercial people here
will know what happened in those days. Bad as industrial
relations were in the last part of last year, bad as they have
been in this state over the last months whatever they were
much worse when you had Mr Whitlam and Mr Hawke and Mr Hawke in
a record 6 6 million working days were lost in one year
alone. That again, is an example of the special relationship
which Labor had with the trade union movement. All you have seen
in NSW is that same special relationship translated into the
state arena. Even with recent high levels of strike activity,
there is nothing that approaches that Whitlam record of 1974/ 5.
In NSW Mr Wran has demonstrated that he is unable to solve strikes
and none of you will forget recent battles to find food and
petrol, or the'lack of trains and buses, and all those ships
anchored out to sea. Power, that is just a question of
legislating to give power workers reduced working hours, of
making commitments to'the whole state that would not lead to
blackouts, would not increased to increase costs, trying
to hide it by cutting down on maintenance, so 3 out of 4 Lydell
generators are out of business and 50 people have had to come
out of Britain to rewind them. That is going to be a long
job and you probably have noticed that daylight saving is
continuing in this state a month longer than it should have
and a month longer than in Victoria and that is because Mr Wran
cannot produce the power that is necessary. If somebody is
going into the candle business, but watch out Lindsay Thompson
is hooking up more and more Igenerating capacity in Victoria,
1,400 million megawatts hooked up in the last 12. months* in
Victoria, the largest increase in the states grid at any
12 month period and that is why a lot power. is coming up from
Victoria at the present time. No doubt Victoria will continue
to do that and do everything it can to help NSW.
I would like to very briefly refer one or two other issues which
I think are on peoples' minds. Home ownership which is an
objective for which the Liberal Party has always worked and
will work. In 1950 home ownership in Australia was about
It has built up to around 70% under Liberal policy. We are
now in a higher interest rate environment. Past policies
are I think unlikely to work adequately in this environment,
but we want to make quite certain that when policy changed
that they aregoingto be adequate, they aregoing to be appropriate,
they are going to keep home ownership within the reach of
average Australian families. / 7
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Because these are fundamental matters and these are important
matters and they involve significant institutions in this
country, some under state legislation, some under Commonwealth.
The matters obviously need to be thought through very carefully
and not rushed into the public light just to see some other
kind of political timetable. The purpose is to get the policies
right and once we have done that and feel ourselves in that
position a statement will be made about it.
I think probably as a resultof-the last few days, the question
of pension eligibility has been adequately dealt with, but
there are plans within the Government, within Senator Chaney's
provence or no proposals coming forward now or in the budget
context to alter the eligibility provisions in a way which
would put pensioners at a disability. I was asked on one
occasion, would I guarantee that there will be no changes in
the next budget and I said no. I would guarantee that there
would be no changes because that would rule out changes for
the-better. Senator Chaney will be bringing some matters
before us in the budget discussions where he knows there is
some general concern about the inadequacy of one or two
provisions. I cannot give any commitment, but these matters
are obviously very seriously going-to be discussed and the
Liberal Party has done what it can to make sure that the
letter from me has been circulated to I think all households
in Lowe to make sure that the current position is understood.
I am sorry if some elderly people who were dependent upon
pensions and benefits had been disturbed by someof the public
debate that ha s gone on. I think the political process should
owe those people better than causing them concern in the
pursuit of political objectives.
Saturday's by-election there is no doubt that Phillip Taylor
is the outstanding candidate and the race is not yet finished,
it may be getting into the home straight and that is when
that extra energy, that extra skill, extra determination is
needed to make sure that the votes are there for Phillip
Taylor when Saturday comes around and when voting stops on
Saturday. So much depends on the energy, the efforts and
the enthusiasm of local people. One of the things that gives
me enormous confidence in this by-election is the enthusiasm,
not just of the candidate, candidates are always enthusiastic,
buthe enthusiasm of people around Phillip Taylor, the Party
workers right out in the branches, enthusiasm from people here,
people I have met during the course of the day and the othe-r
occasions when I hc~ ive been in Lowe. That enthusiasm is good,
that enthusiasm is infectious. It is that kind of confidence
that persuades people who might be wondering one way or the
other what to do, to say right, I should got with Phillip Taylor
and the liberals.
So, the more people you can speak to between now and Sd~ turday
the more people you can impress with Phillip Taylor's qualities,
capacity to represent the people and the more people that you
can persuade that this Government is here to serve all the
people of Australia and we are going to continue to do just that
to the very best of our ability, then the more votes you will
have for hillip Taylor and the more certain the result will be,
and the better the Liberal victory will be.
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