/ 6 AU: TRAlIA
PRNME I1INISTER
FOR MEDIA FRIDAY, 22 OCTOBER 1982
CIVIC RECEPTION, PORT PIRIE
Thank you for your welcome and you hospitality and I wi. 3
take note of you offer of land and services for the uranium
enrichment industry. It has been exciting to see how p]:& role
here in the Iron Triangle want to graspthe development
opportunities that I hope are there just waiting to be
grasped. We went for a long while in the 1.950' s and 1960' rbel. iev. ing
development and program just happened, that the economy
would just grow, that jobs would automatically be available
and our standard of life would automatically inc: rease, but
then iwe came into some more difficult times and the world
itself is in a difficult phase, maybe the worst since before
the World War. We now know that the future is only going
to be secure if we go out and grasp it and take advantage
of the opportunities that are open to us, as and when they
come, and as and when we can jointly make those opportunities
come. There are opportunities ahead of South Australia, opportunities
ahead of the Iron Triangle and the possibility of real developme-nts
that would mean an enormous amovnt for this part of the
state and indeed, as I believe, to the whole state. The
developments at Roxby Downs themselves would be enormously
important. Doug Anthony gave some of the figures in Parliament
this week. The expected expenditure is nearly $ 1,500 billion,
up to 18,000 jobs during the construction phase, about
8,000 or a little better during production and up to
$ 650 million in each year's annual production. They are big
figures, it is big money, it is a lot of work and a lot of
opportunities not only for the people who are directly involved
in that kind of project but also for all the service industries
and other people who participate in that kind of venture.
As you know there has been the uranium enrichment study
which has been operating under Commonwealth auspices, and
David Tonkinand the State have been co-operating very closely
in that. . They have come out with a report which said
they believed the site for an enrichment industry should be
in South Australia or somewhere in Queensland. Now thai. puts
me immediately between David Tonkin and his arguments and
Joh Bjelke-Petersen and his. For a while at least I have to
be impartial in relation to that, but I can say that the
arguments that South Australia has put are very strongly based,
PORT PIRIE -2-22.10.82
they are very forcefully argued and they are ones that
obviously carry a great deal of weight. It doesn't need
emphasising that they will be given full consideration
when the matter finally comes for the Federal Cabinet
to determine. But to know that there are areas that want
the industry, where there is a local community that would
welcome the industry, of course all of that is paramount
because you cannot force industries on a district, you
cannot force industries on a local government. An industry,
and especially an important one which involves large investment,
wants to be in an area where it is going to be welcomed,
where it can become part of a co. anunity and where the two
can go ahead together. To have been able to see the warmth
and vigour of your. own advocacy and not just yours Mr Mayor,
but of other people in this part of the State for that
industry is a good thing, and it obviously is an attitude
that advances South Australia's claims to the ultimate site
of the enrichment industry.
Having said that I hope you won't mind if I make one or
two other com. ments because there was some reporting some
time ago about alleged changes in the Australian Labor
Party's policy to the uranium industr-y. Mr Hayden
made it perfectly plain that there had in fact been no
changes because he made several statements saying our
commitment to end the uranium industry is as strong as
ever it was, and that is one the record and it is undisputed.
If you read the words of the policy it is very plain. The
industry would be ended. Now if an industry is going to be
ended where it already exists in the Northern Territory or
in other parts of the Commonwealth does anyone believe that
people committed to that objective would allow Roxby Downs to
start to operate because so much of it would be dependent
on processing of the uranium in the mine. Or that they would
allow or encourage an enrichment industry to be established
in South Australia or Queensland or anywhere else in the
Commonwealth, it just wouldn't happen. Private enterprise,
the people who are going to put up the dollars and cents for
this kind of industry are not going to do it unless they know
that governments are in a full-blooded way in support of the
development and that they know they are not going to be
frustrated by policies of obstruction.
It is also worth noting and recalling that this industry
in other countries has now operated with a remarkable safety
record over a long period of years. Itis one in which the homes
and the factories of millions of people in Europe and the
northern hemisphere are dependent upon nuclear power for their
livelihoods. To keep their factories operating and to be able
to light and heat their homes. We in Australia need to understand
that. Most Australians do understand it and it is obvious
that here, you understand it completely. / 3
PORT PIRIE
I hope that it has been demonstrated that the Commonwealth
Government in recent times and together with the State
Governments which is represented by John -Olsen here today,
have sought to work closely with local government and
indeed assist local governments to meet some of the problems
and challenges that they have had in front of them.
When we first came into office we had an option of supporting
local government through specific programs when somebody in
Canberra would say we want to do certain things and then to
be in part. of the progam, every local government in the
Commonwealth, all 900 of them, would have had to do the same
thing. But we rejected that approach tota. ly and determined
on a policy of making a proportion of all your income taxes
available to local government and that is now a substantial
sum of several hundred million dollars a year available to
local government to be-spent as you Mr Mayor, your Aldermen
and your counterparts in all other municipalities to determine.
We believed in the end that that was the best way for the
Commonwealth to support local government because it is not
we, or public servants in Canberra who know your priorities,
you know them and if there are some dollars from the Federal
tax bill which should go towards local government, it is
you who should determine how those dollars should be spent.
The other thing that I would like to mention is the Bicentennial
Road Development Program which I think is-an imaginative one
as we work towards 1988. I hope that we can cast our eyes
to the future and have in mind the number of things that can
and should be done to help mark Australia's 200 years.
The Commonwealth has approved in principle and also the money
involved to back up the principle, in the Bicentennial Program
that the Authority under John Reid has recommended to us.
That program is now going around to the states to see if they
also agree and if they do then the draft program can be published
and local government, everyone else will know where they fit
into it. There are Commonwealth funds for important and
national projects but we also ope that many things can be done
as we cast our eyes ahead to that time and givena particular
bicentennial focus, and they might be things that have been
done in any case, but perhaps done a bit better in a more
imaginative way because we are leading up to the bicentennial.
To give one example, we provide funds for buying paintings
and works of art for the National Gallery but for the funds
that will be provided between now and 1988, we have said this
is how much it will be, it will be the Bicentennial Collection
and it is something that people can look forward to putting
together. If we look around at all levels of government, whether
it is local, state or federal, therearemany things which I
think are going tobe able to be given a bicentennial focus
and that will help us all celebrate a very significant year for
Australia but at a cost that all our taxpayers can reasonably
afford. / 4
-3-22.10.82
PORT PIRIE
One of the programs that we are funding separately and
distinctly from the program recommended by the Authority
is the Bicentennial Road Development Program which will in fact
have about $ 2,500 billion spent on it and governments are not
going to be able to snitch the money afterwards and put it into
the qeneral tax iool because the general legislation runs out'
in 1988. But by that time we hope there will have been an
enormous advance in the construction of national highways,
the basic National Highway Program should have been concluded.
There will be significant increases of funds for arterial
roads, urban arterial roads and if the state wanted to support
urban transport systems also. Of course additional funds for
local government for roads distinctly under the control of
local government. This is going to mean greater resources
for local government in the five years ahead of us, much
greater than would otherwise have been the case and I think
we will see a transformation of Australia's road system.
That doesn't just help people who live in provincial cities
and country towns, it is going to help all Australians, help
all our commerce, it will lower transport costs and I hope
it will reduce the road tolls and help Australians get about
this country to be able to see and learn something more about
Australia. This also is one of the bicentennial programs that
the Commonwealth is supporting and it is one thathas been
fairly warmly support around the Commonwealth.
I would like to thank you for your hospitality. Against I
am glad to not and thank you for your offer to find a paddock
for the enrichment industry. I will advise John Carrick of
that and I hope that it is not going to be all that long before
final decisions can be made. It does offer great opportunities
for this part of the State indeed for the whole of South
Australia and we need those opportunities if young Australians
are to have the opportunities they need and the jobs that they
want to look after themselves and their families; when their
turn comes. -4-22.10.82