EMDA RGO: 5.00 PM
K PREME MINISTER
FOR MEDI[ A SUNDAY, .13 FEBRU7ARY 1983
ELECTORATE TALK
b~ aborls economic policies show ' That conteimpt the Labor Party
has for Australians. It is just a re-run of the tired, tried
policies that Mr Whitlarn forccd on Australia, and which caused
a great deal of hardship for all Australians.
It is Labor's age old answer to any economic question: to spend,
spend, spend. Labor would add according to their estimates,
a further-$ 2.75 billion to the Budgcet deficit, and the real
cost of their policies would be a lot higher. Labor adinits.
its big spending would require a greatly increased borrowing
program, and says it would raise some of that money with
indexed national recovery bonds. These are the kind of
securities-whlich would be required by a Government which was
having difficulty borrowing money, and if investors wcore
worried about higher Government spendi4ng and higher inflation.
It is extraordinary that Labor should feel it necessaryr to outL'. Lne
the steps it would take to deal with the consequences of big
spending and high inflation. Of course, their-b-igger borrowing
prograra and their indexed bonds would draw funds fromt banks and
building societi. es, and leave less money for housing and businoss.
Interest rates would be forced up; families paying off their homes
would be hit hard; small businesses would be hit hard, and
farmers, who are struggling with the severe effects of the
drought, would also be very hard hit.
The Labor policy docuant acknowledges that the Governmzent has built
up our exports, has .1. aid the fouiidation for a big increase in expOrt-S
when world trade picks tip, and has, Increased our international
reserves to a record level. But this same document fore, shatdow-S
a serious balance of payments crisis arising from policies they
would introduco. Th1ey go on to say how they would then deal with
that crisis by greatly increased borrowing overseas, and by
a higher tax on imports, which would of course add to costs.
It is again extraordinary that a Party offering itself for officf!
should predict a balance of payments crisis causod by the policie-s
it would introduce if it were to obtain office. It is a
recognitiom by Labor of the risks in their own policies. And
it more than that. it is a recognition that overse~ ts
investment, would flood out of Australia, and be replaced by
Khemlani type loans.
Electorate Talk--1323
Labor's economic policies also tell us what we have always known,
that Labor would iuunediately destroy the wage pause.
That of ' course is exactly what the trade union movement wants,
and if you ever wanted any evidence of the infliieace of the
trade unions over the Labor Party, you only had to look at the
front page of last Friday's Sydney Morning Herald where Mr
Hawke was shown happily shaking hands with those well-known
Left Wing unionists, Laurie Carmichael and John Halfpenny, after
receiving $ 50,000 for his campaign from t-heir union. Th at
picture tells its own story. Labor and the unions are totally
alone in wanting to wa~ sh the pause and
sabotage the return to Competitiveness and profitability in
our industries which the pause will give. But then that is
what the Left Wing union leaders want.
Labor's economic policies have not only been attacked and condemned
by the Government. Labor's spokesman on employment, Mr Young,
was asked last Friday whether two people in the studio would
have a better chance of employment if Labor was in government.
He said " No The Australian newspaper has described
Labor's policies as " disastrous" and " the road to recklessness". s
The Financial Review Editorial said that Labor was relying
" ion a naive 19th century faith in funny money". Labor's
economic program, far from being one of " reconciliation and
reconstruction", would plunge Australia and Australians into
despair. 00o--2 13.2.83