EMBARGOED AGAINST CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
DELIVERY
ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER NATIONAL PRESS CLUB 29 NOVEMBER 1984
As this campaign draws to its close, the central issues for
the judgment of the Australian people on Saturday remain as
they were at the beginning whether we are, as a nation
under Labor, to consolidate and build upon the great gains
of 1983 and 1984, to sustain in the years ahead strong
economic growth without inflation, and on these firm
foundations to build a fairer, more equitable society in a
nation able to use its new self-respect and stunding in our
region and the world to add a persuasive, persistent and
consistent voice to the cause of peace and disarmament.
Or, by contrast, to accept the alternative offered a
return to the policies of the past and all that they
produced renewed and mounting unemployment, renewed and
mounting inflation, renewed and mounting industrial
disputation, confrontation and division.
It may have been your expectation held perhaps with soj,
trepidation on the part of those of you who have followed
the long campaign trail that I would use this last major
forum of the campaign to recapitulate it all again.
But I am sure you now know and the people of Austraii-now
know, the basic arguments and issues our record and
achievements and program, and that you and they know, all
too well, the record of our opponents and the consequences
of their proposals.
But rather today, beyond bringing together the major threads
and thrusts of our policies and commitments, I want, through
you to the people of Australia, to place our program for the
next three years firmly in the context of our longer vision
for the future of our country a clear, clear-eyed and
above all, clear-headed vision, which recognises, rationally
and objectively, the challenges, the problems, the
difficulties as well as the great opportunities which we all
face together in this decade and beyond.
It is a vision for a nation growing stronger year by year,
by the wise and full use of its rich human and material
resources, as a partner in the world's most dynamic economic
region; for a nation becoming year by yesr more equitable
and more fair, in which true equality of opportunity for all
is no mere slogan but a living reality; and for a nation
constructively, persistently, unremittingly contributing to
' he suoreme objective of a world and a region at peace, free
from tne threat. of nuclear h~ jOloaust.
Let me at once go to the three essential elements of our
program to give flesh and substance to these goals
economic, social., and international.
First, the economic foundations.
Sustained growth without inflation is the very basis and
condition for achieving the legitimate aspirations the
Australian people have for themselves and their families
for improved living standards, for secure employment, for
decent housing and for greater security and greater dignity,
in retirement and sickness or incapacity for whatever.
reason; and to enable us, as a nation, to improve the lot of
those who depend upon social security payments for their
entitlement to share in the prosperity of their country.
We have been described as the lucky country.
Perhaps, in the past, we accepted that description toc
easily. And perhaps, in the past, we allowed ourselves to
ignore the fact that the original author of the phrase
intended, riot mere self-congratulation but a warninq.
For too long we tended to assume that with our abundan1CC
of resources, growth would come naturally, without rea.
effort, and that the world would readily buy our surplus
production. And the result was that, in the halcyon days, opportu. nities
were squandered to place our growth and the maintenance of
our standards on an even firmer footing.
Now, that growth has once again been achieved and tlhis
time by the efforts, restraint and responsibility of tUie
whole community we must ensure we do not make that mist%-ake
again.
Above all, we cannot and must not allow our efforts and
energies to be dissipated in needless conflict and contrived
confrontation of the kind that occurred in the years before
March 1983.
To maintain high levels of growth over a long period without
fuelling inflation requires the right mix of fiscal and
monetary policies, and, as this Government has alone been
able to do, the establishment of an incomes policy through
the Accord, and wide-ranging consultative procedures for the
economy as a whole and for its component sectors.
I believe that on the basis of the approach and the
fl. r-r
undertakings given at the last ulection, we have been able
to move together with ex'-raordinary success in establishing
that vital co-operation and in est~ bli-; hing the essential
policy framework.
This campaign has enabled us to take a major and I believe
in the history of Australian elections, an unprecedented
step towards giving Australia an even stronger economic
policy framework to ensure strong, sustained and enduring
non-inflationary growth in theyears ahead.
And I repeat the commitment I have made on behalf of the
Labor Government of Australia:
In our next three year term of Government
the overall level Of taxation will not increase as a
proportion of gross domestic product;
the deficit will not increase as a proportion of Gross
Domestic Product;
Government spending increases will be restrained below
the rate of economic growth.
And when I say that no previous Prime Minister, no previous
Australian Government, has givcen so clear a forward
commitment, it is because no previous Government has been
able to establish the conditions which make such a
commitment achievable.
Now I have necessarily couched the three elemcnts of that
commitment in the language of the ecnomist.
But let me put it directly in terms of relevance to ordinary
Australian families and citizens it means your tax burden
will be reduced in an economic environment of grow'Ji, with
low inflation and reduced pressure on interest rates.
It is a commitment based on a recognition of the fact that
~ nm oxre decoomythree out of every four Jobs is
provided by the private sector. A healthy, growing
Australian economy requires a healthy, growing private
sector. The demands of Government upon the income of
citizens and business should not inhibit initiative or
investment directly or through excessive expenditures
produce the same result indirectly by imposing upward
pressures on interest rates in the capital market. This can
and will be achieved. Our record shows that we can. And
the Australian and international business and financial
community has, by word and action, expressed its confidence
that we will.
The structure of Australian industry is constantly changing.
In the past that change has occurred haphazardly, often
destructively for both those who employ and those i: ho are
employed, and all too often wiihout any real concern for the
economic anid social implications for the community.
We are therefore committed to encouraging, with the
co-operation of business, trade unions and relevant levels
of Government, the orderly restructuring of Australian
industry. We want to see an1 industrial structure which is
competitive, export-oriented and capable of providing
increased, secure and satisfying employment. Wle have
demonstrated that this can be done in the steel industry
which was facing extinction when we came to o,' fice. And we
have shown it can be done in the motor vehicle industry.
On the part of Government, the pursuit of effective industry
restructuring requires a co-ordination of relevant policy
areas industry and commerce, trade, Science and
technology, education, employment and industrial relations,
defence support. We have already brought these portfolio
areas together at the Cabinet committee level under the
chairmanship of Senator Button. In our next term this
co-ordination will be made even more effective at the
Ministerial and official level..
Education and trainino is so important in thi~ s matter that I
should say something more about it.
We have strengthened and given certainty of funding to both
the public and the private sector at the primary and
secondary level, arid have provided the first real increases
in funding a'l the tertiary level for several years.
But we must not, as a nation, delude ourselves that
increased funding alone meets the requirements of the
future. We must be-concerned with the quality of our education
systerit to ensure that our young people are equipped as well
as possible to work and live in an increasingly complex and
rapidly changing world. Our Government has commissioned
Professor Karmel to report to uis on what is required to
achieve this outcome in the primary and secondary levels and
Mr Hudson, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Tertiary
Education Commission, in the tertiary area. We will a. ct
promptly upon their reports.
Our concern as a nation for our young people must go beyond
substantially improving the formal education system.
Over the years the whole range of employment, training and
retraining programs has evolved in a totally ad hoc,
unco-ordinated and often irrelevant fashion.
We will soon receive the report of Hr Peter Kirby on this
critically important subject and, on the basis of that
report, wqill move to create a coherent, integrated set of
proqrdms that will maich the aspirations and training of our
youth to the new and changing requirements of industry.
And in this area we should all note with satisfaction that
more of our young people are staying at school longer.
Education retention rates have been abysmally low by
international standards. But from thrity-six per cent in
1982 they have jumped to forty per cent in 1983, the highest
for a decade and will be higher again in 1984, as a result
of our policies. We will continue the Participation and
Equity Program, and other important initiatives, to bring
Australia up to levels which we need, and can achieve. We
cannot afford to be a second or third rate nation in the
training of the talents of our youth and under a Labor
Government, we will not be.
I have referred to our place in the world's most dynamic
region. If we are to maximise our own economic growth we
must increasingly, as I have often put it, mesh our econcmy
into the rapidly expanding economies of North-east,
South-east Asia and the Pacific. Our policies will continuWe
increasingly to be directed towards ensuring that we
contribute to and benefit from the growth of these
countries, not only in agricultural and mineral products but
through a range of processed and manufactured goods and
services, applying the best technology available.
One uf the most important single developments in the viorld
today is the econom~ ic revolution in China. The productivo
energies of almost a quarter of the world's population are
being released by that revolution which is opening up China
more and more to the Western world and as a result of our
endeavours, not those of the Government alone, but of the
business community as well, no country in the Western -, Orld
is better regarded or better placed to be involved, to our
mutual benefit, with China than Australia. We will continue
to strengthen this significant relationship.
And in the broader area of international trade, we will
continue our careful work in the international forums to
encourage the resumption of multilateral trade negotiations
and to defend Australia's interests against unfair and often
subsidised competition in world markets.
And that is an effort we will continue not only in defence
of Australia's interests but to avoid the great damage, if
not disaster that could be done to international trade if
there were to be increasing resort to these practices.
I now come to the second element our social program.
And let me say that for this L~ boc Government and for this
Labor Prime ' Minister, our social goals are in no w-y, a
secondary priority; they are a fundamental priority the
very heart of what Labor is about.
But our goals cannot be achieved, either in the short or
long-term, without sustained, non-inflationary growth.
But let me say : a society which dedicated itself, narrowly
and exclusively, to a single goal of economic growth, would
sow the seed of its ultimate disintegration.
True, growth should be pursued for the benefits it produces
for the direct participants in the process by which
productive growth is achieved.
But equally, as a national goal, it must justify itself, and
be inspired by, the recognition that growth is the basis for
ensuring that those of our fellowi Australians who are not
its direct beneficiaries receive from a compa~ ssionate
society the opportuity to share equitably in the fruits of
growth. Our vision is for an Austraila in -Which this will be assumed
as a natural obligation Of our society. Our commitment is
to that end and our policies will be directed to its
achievement. And it is to this goal that we have applied the benefits of
growth already achieved.
While all Australians have benefited from economic recovery,
the greatest beneficiaries in relative terms have been the
poor and disadvantaged, and low and middle income earners.
In framing our last 3udget, the Cabinet took the view that
the highest priority for new outlays should te accorded to
social welfare recipients, which was reflected in the
provision . of more than $ 1 billion additional funding in a
full financial year. The tax cuts now being enjoyed by all
Australians, are also highly progressive, with low and
middle income earners receiving the greatest benefits. As
well, of course, the Medicare levy is highly progressive,
with the lowest charges for health services being levied on
those who have the least capacity to pay.
The Government will also be giving the achievement of
twenty-five per cent of male average weekly earnings as the
basic pension rate, the highest priority among welfare
measures during its second term.
Already we have raised pensions as a percentage of male AWE
from 22.9 per cent in December 1982 to 23.8 per cent today.
But I put to you a broader vision. So often society is
called upon support those who would make no demand upon
the community if they had been able fully to develop the
talent,-within then.. Our visinn i~ s for an Australia within
which every person irrespective of' sex, race, ethnic origin
or income levels of parents, shall. have an equality of
opportunity to develop to the full their individual talents.
Our commitment is to that end, and our policies will be
directed to its achievement. And, in this respect, let me
say that there is no part of our record to date in which we
take greater pride than the many measures we have initiated
to remove discrimination against women in Australia.
No Government recognises more deeply than ours that so many
women still desire their fulfilment from the role of wife
and mother. We respect them and will continue as we have in
so many ways to increase the satisfaction of family life.
Equally, no Government has recognised more clearly the
obligation to give substance not just lip-service to
society's, claim that there is no di* J'scrimination against
women who seek their fulfilment outside or in addition to
the role in the home. We will continue to do so.
But underlying everything everything we hope for,
everything we are working for is the third element of cur
vision for Austialia a world free of the nightmare of
nuclear catastrophe.
Long before I became Prime Minister, long before I entered
Parliament, 2t every appropriate international and national
forum, and whenever the opportunity arose, I have affirmcd
and reaffirmed my deepest belief, that all the efforts to
create a more prosperous, a freer and a fairer society In
our own community and in the world community, all will have
been i vain, if we cannot live in a world at peace.
There can be no higher purpose in Government than the
pursuit ef positively peacef~ il relations between nations and
particularly the elimination of the threat of nuclear
devastation and destruction.
No person and no Party is entitled to claim a monopoly of
either morality or wisdom in these matters. My Party and my
Government make no such claim.
But we do claim credit for the hard, unremitting, purposeful
and effective work we have done in bilateral negotiations
and all relevant international forums to advance the cause
of effective disarmament, the reduction of conventional and
nuclear arsenals, the prevention of the spread of nuclear
weapons, the achievement of a convention against chemical
weapons, the prevention of an extension of the arms . race
into outer space and the initiative for a South Pacific
Nuclear Free Zone.
This week, Australia o'itained a larjer vote than last year
for our resolution to establish the processes leading to
negotiation of a comprehensive Test Ban Trpeaty. Again we
were ablE!, as last year, to persuade the super-pow.-ers and
the other nuclear weapons states not to oppose this year's
stronger resolution.
We are doing this work without drafratics, without
grandstanding, without breast-beating because that, and
that alone, is the way anything worthwhile, anything
lasting, can be achieved.
This work has been pursued with integrity by my Foreign
Minis. ter. Bill Hayden, assisted by our Ambassador for
Disarmament and an expanded Arms Control and Disarmament
Branch in the Department of Foreign Affairs. We are
establishing an independent Peace Research Centre at the
Australiii National University.
We will riot pursue the dangerous futility and fatuity of
unilateralism. We are an aligned nation and our alliance
with the United States is an alliance of peaceful and
defensive purpose. Our Government will never initiate
offensive action against another country.
And, I repeat, we will continue to pursue the constructive
work of the past twenty months in the field of disapmament
so that Australia will retain the widespread inter-national
respect which was reflected in our recent record vote for
membership of the United Nations Security Council.
I know the depth off feeling on this supreme issue of our
time the supreme issue in human history. And everything I
have said, everything we have done as a government,
everything we are committed to continue to do, proves that
my colleagues and I share that feeling completely,
unequivocally, profoundly. There is no question about our
needing some kind of message from the electorate on this
matter, or a reminder about the deep feelings of the people
of Australia, particularly our young people. We need no
prompting.
We hear the voice of the people and it is the voice of
Labor and of this Labor Government.
And for our part, we will not need to analyse the results
next Saturday to learn the will of the Australian people on
this matter; or our responsibilities as the Government of
Australia the responsibility and the duty to continue our
unremitting efforts in the cause of world peace and nuclear
disarmament.
Conclusion We live in the most dramatically changing and challenging
times in recorded history.
The nature of the human condition has been put in a most
striking way by the American sociologist, Kenneth Boulding.
Speaking for his contemporaries, he said:
" I was born in the middle of human history. The world
in which I live is as different from the world in which
I was born as that world was from the worid of Julius
Caesar."
And the challenge to us, in this country and in this age, is
to face these times with purpose, with confidence and selfconfidence
confidence in ourselves, confidence in each
other that together, we can use our resources our
physical and material and above all, human resources to
build a better, a freer and a fairer Australia, and help
build a better, freer, fairer world,
And in putting this fundamental proposition this simple
statement of achievable goals -for ourselves, for our
children and our grandchildren -I find a deep continuity in
the themes of this election campaign and those of the la-t
campaign despite the great differences in Australia's
situation, now and then, and the great differences in
Australia's prospects, now and then.
For the uodez-lying message of that campaign and the
underlying strength of Labor's case in 1983, was hope,
confidence and co-operation, in place of despair and in
place of the politics of fear and confrontation.
And that remains the alternative in this election; and that
contr3st has provided the fundamental distinction between
our Government and the alternative.
And while in these opening remarks, I have deliberately
refrained from canvassing in any detail what the alternative
offers, I feel bound to raise one point specifically.
And that is their proposal I regard it, and I believe the
overwhelming majority of people in Australia will regard it,
as a threat to abolish the Arbitration Commission. There
Could be no clearer evidence that what they offer is a
return to the policies which produced the division,
disruption and disaster of their last term of office.
And one can only ask: will these people never learn the
lessons of history?
Friends, I firmly believe that no country is better endowed than
Australia to meet successiully the great challenges of our
time, the great challenges and opportunities of the region
and the world.
And we are now splendidly placed to hand over to our
children as we and they approach the 21st century a
nation of strength and growth, of fairness; a nation and 3
people entitled to look at itself, its achievements and its
standing in the world, with pride, dignity and self-respect.
In the body of this speech I have concentrated more on the
challenges, the complexities, the problems and the
difficulties we all undoubtedly must confront, together, in
the years ahead.
But it is precisely because there are challenges, precisely
because there are going to be problems and difficulties,
that Australia needs a strong, united government with a
clear and consistent idea of what lies ahead; and a
government with a clear and consistent program to meet those
challenges.
And in December 1984, and for the next three years and
beyond the leadership that Australia needs and deserves
can only come from an Australian Labor Government.
My colleagjues and I have devoted our public lives to
equipping ourselves to give that kind of leadership to our
great countr'y. We, together with you the people of
Australia, have successfully met the immediate challenge of
getting our country moving and growing again.
Let us now, in the same spirit and I believe with the same
certainty of success set out hands to the greater, the
more enduring task, of achievi1ng together these great
national purposes and goals I have set out today, for our
Australia of the future, and our children' s future.