EMBARGO: 5. 00 Pm4
PRIME AMNISTER 7
FOR MEDIA SUNDAY, 1 AUGUST 1982
ELECTORATE TALK
The backdown of the Cain Labor Government on probate in
Victoria is yet another example of the confusion that follows
Labor Governments as their doctrinaire policies come face to
face with outraged comamonsense. The determination of the
Cain Government to re-impose probate on Victorians when the
rest of Australia had seen the great practical. difficulties
of the tax, and the damage it would do, shows very plainly indeed
the influence of doctrinaire ideology on Labor's thinking.
The Cain Government's proposal was always unrealistic. It was
poorly thought out and unsoundly based. It was plain from the
outset that Victoria's economy would be damaged by Mr Cain's
proposal, that investment in Victoria would dry LIP, that businesses
would leave, that house prices would fall. The Cain Government
was so blinded by its ideology that it kept insisting the tax would
only affect some 4% of estates, when the ' obvious reality was
that the tax would affect all Victorians, through its disastrous
impact on small business, on jobs, opportunities and confidence.
The Cain Government, by creating uncertainty anid instability, is
another example of the disaster of Labor Governm~ ent in office.
Victorians are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that the
Cain Government is highly ideological and deeply influenced
by the extreme Left wing unions affiliated with the Labor Party.
It is the Cain Government, which has increasingly attacked our
principal ally, the United States, as it attempts to carry out the
ordinary and proper activities of an ally in visits to
Australian ports. Despite Mr Cain's assurances that he has
no intention to intrude into the Federal Government's
responsibilities for defence and foreign affairs", he has sought
unceasingly to interfere in the diplomacy of Australia's
relations with the United States. Only last Wednesday, Mr Cain
tried to lecture the acting United States Cornsul.-General
on the Labor Party's ideology.
The infection of the Labor Party with an unwillingness to work
closely with our major ally is equally clear in the Federal
Party. Mr Hayden's vacillation on the Party's attitude
to visits by American ships, and his North-West Cape policy,
which would lead to shutting down of this base, has been
amplified this week by Mr Bocwen's proposa" Es for a nuclearfree
southern hemisphere which would prevent our major ally
from operating effectively anywhere near our shores. What / 2
2
confidence can Australians have in a Party which has a large
and influential group of members who actually oppose our
principal defence alliance?
We see the influence of extremists on Labor policy in case after
case. We see it in M4r Cain's sympathy for the BLF in his response
to the Royal Commission's Report, and in his opposition to the
deregistration of the BLF. We see it in Mr Wran's willingness
to circumvent his own Government's Industrial Arbitration Act
by granting shorter working hours to power workers in 1979, and
in the massive wage rises he has allowed in areas affecting
the power industry. These actions were significant steps
towards the bankrupting of NSW by the Wran Labor Government.
The story is the same whenever Labor is in office. They
bankrupted Tasmania and they very nearly bankrupted Austalia
when they held Goverr-ment in Canberra. This is plain from the
policies Labor adopted at its recent conference.
Asaresult of that conference, Labor is committed to policies
which would greatly damage private enterprise and the achievement
of economic progress in Australia. Labor is com-mitted
to a most radical and far-reaching program to increase the
power and privileges of the trade unions of this country,
regardless of the effect on the rest of Australians. Their
proposal for a resource rent tax, especially at a time of real
difficulty for the miners can only damage investment in this
vital industry. They want to shut down the uranium industry,
and their policy nowhere states that existing contracts can
be worked out.
The policies and actions of the divided Labor Party must be
of growing concern to all Australians. It is vital that all
Australians come to recognise the true character of the Labor
Party.