E. O. E. PROOF ONLY
TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH TO TASMANIAN ALP STATE COUNCIL 25 MAY 1985
The President and delegates may I at the outset thank you for the
invitation to be here to address your council and the warmth of
your reception. I want at the outset of my remarks to put this
council meeting in its right context because there is at this
stage, as I see it, attempts on the part of some people, our
political opponents, to try and distort the current pol-itical
realities in Australia. Last December, our party, our great
party, had an historic victory. It was attempted in some quarters
to be feted as some form of defeat. Indeed Labor is back in
power, in Canberra, in its second successive term, with the second
highest majority that it has ever enjoyed in Government.
Now of course it is a tragedy for us, particularly for you, that
Tasmania in terms of House of Representatives seats wasn't able to
join with us directly in that great victory. But that shouldn't
hide the great contribution that was in fact made here in
Tasmania. As Leader of the Party, as your Prime Minister, I want
to thank you for the effort that you made. Because despite the
fact that those seats were won you did in f ' act show the underlying
strength of Labor support in that in this State there was a swing
to Labor against the national swing. I want to say to you that
that represents a springboard for the achievement of the two tasks
ahead of the Party as far as we are concerned in Australia
generally, and you are concerned here in particular in Tasmania.
The first task is to achieve the third successive national victory
of our Australian Labor Government and then here as far as
Tasmania is concerned, return of the Wriedt Labor Government
whenever the State elections are held.
That December result in itself, delegates, should be more than
sufficient to give the lie to one of the more fatuous propositions
currently being pedalled by the present Premier of this State, and
that is this suggestion that in some ways the people of Tasmania
are going to be penalised harshly, or treated unfairly by me and
the Australian Labor Gbvernment. I want here to nail that lie
directly. It's not just an insult to me and to our Government
it's an insult to the intelligence of the people of Tasmania.
We're just not in the business of deliberately inflicting
political punishment on this, or any other part of the Australian
nation, or any section of the Australian community. That's not my
way and it's not the Labor way, and it won't be the way of any
Government that I have the honour to lead. And that's my direct
answer Mr Gray.
You'll recall delegates, that the principle of justice and
fairness to Tasmania was the very first rule of conduct I set for
myself and my Government on the great night in March of 1983 when
we won Government on the 5th March. And I said it in our very
first moment of victory, I said as I made my way into the Canberra
tally room on that night, that there would never be any question
as long as I was Prime Minister that the people of Tasmania might
have to pay some sort of price or penalty for the politcal choice
they had made on that day. You know that we have honoured
absolutely the undertaking that I gave the people of Tasmania that
night and we will continue to honour that undertaking without
qualification, without reservation and without equivocation. And
it is absolutely essential that the people of Tasmania should
refuse to be the burden at this time by the alarmist and
completely distorted speculation which is currently emanating from
the Premier's office in this State.
I had brought to my attention before arriving here today, the
spread in today's press which sets out what I believe is called
the Cuthbertson Report, which purports to tell you the horror
stories of what will happen in this State as a result of the
bringing down of the Grants Commission's Report. It's very
important then for you, and through you the people of Tasmania,
that we place next week's Premiers' Conference in perspective.
Now the first thing that needs to be understood, of course you
wouldn't know it if you listen to Mr Gray, is that the existing
arrangements governing Commonwealth-State financial relations were
established not by me and this Government but by our predecessors.
Now part of the legacy, like so much else that we inherited, there
accumulated over the years as you know distortions, inefficiencies
and inequities. The important thing to understand about the
Commonwealth Grants Commission that every member of the
Commonwealth Grants Commission was appointed by Mr Fraser. That's
the independent body Mr Gray is bleating about. I didn't appoint
the Commonwealth Grants Commission. Mr Fraser appointed every
member of that Commission. It's an independent body, and I hope
Mr Gray, the media here, the people of Tasmania will understand
that point. I didn't commission the Report. I didn't appoint the
people. They were appointed accordi ng to the independent and
proper processes by the Fraser Government. Now that Fraser
appointed body made its report and that report is subject for
consideration by the Premiers next week. our approach to the
Grants Commission's recommendation will be the same as we have
always taken in our dealings with the States and in particular
with Tasmania over the' past two years.
What our record demonstrates with absolute clarity is that we will
not allow the interest of any State to be trampled on. We will
not allow the welfare of the people of any State or region or
section to be disadvantaged. You and the people of Tasmania can
be assured that in making a start in removing distortions and
discriminations that have developed in the system over a decade.
We're not going to create new distortions or new discriminations
against any State and certainly not against Tasmania. No way will
Tasmania be singled out for harsh treatment of any kind for any
reason.
Tasmania, as part of Australia, will have to exercise restraint.
Tasmania is not going to be put in a special position of privilege
but it is certainly not going to be singled out for particularly
and especially harsh treatment. As I say, our record has shown
that we do not work that way. Any suggestion that Tasmania is
going to be saddled with new unrealistic burdens or that we would
allow drastic draconian curtailment of Tasmania' s services and
standards should be dismissed for what it is and for what it
transparently is. And that is a diversionary tactic to obscure
the Tasmanian Government's own inadequacies and shortcomings. Let
me say this, that if you look back over the period that we've been
in Government, if I had had to rely, and my Government had had to
rely on Mr Gray and his representations for the protection of the
interests of this great State, then the people of Tasmania would
have suffered badly.
I have been greatly assisted in that period by the unostentatious,
quiet but nevertheless determined representations that have been
made to me and my Government by Ken Wriedt. Also, as distinct
from the political grandstanding the counterproductive political
grandstanding, of the Premier of this State, Ken Wriedt quietly
and not seeking to score political points, has come to us and said
these are the things that I think you ought to take into account
if you are reasonably going to deal with the fractured situation
which you inherited. And we listened to Ken Wriedt because we
knew that he was coming honourably. lie wasn't concerned with
trying to distort a situation. And in the result you can see that
in this period there has come about what I promised in March
of ' 83 that Tasmania would not suffer, remember all the horror
stories that you were told after March ' 83 about what would happen
to unemployment in this State as a result of what we've done. I
made a clear promise during that the first election campaign. I
said we will not allow unemployment to deteriorate in this State
as a result of the principle position that we had taken in the
lead up to and following that election.
As a result of listening, to Ken Wriedt, we were able to make
sensible decisions about the allocation of funds, and as a result
the unemployment situation has not only not deteriorated here, but
is somewhat better in that respect than the national average
because specifically of the funds that we have supplied and the
approach that we have 6dopted.
I would hope therefore that the people of Tasmania would learn
from that experience of the past, they are better off now because
there has been that balance provided by Ken Wriedt against the
hysterical distortions that the Premier went on with prior to
March ' 83 and immediately following March ' 83. He does not seem
to have learned because your press today has a repeat performanc.,
This stark horror story is spelt out. Now I'm not helped, but
most importantly the people of Tasmania are not helped, by those
hysterical distortions. And as I was helped from March ' 83
onwards by Ken Wriedt I believe that in these days immediately
ahead I will again, and the people of Tasmania will again be
helped by the quiet, deliberate and purposeful representations of
Ken Wriedt. And I can assure you here, I can assure the people of
Tasmania that we'll be listening to his representations because I
know that from those representations, as distinct from the
hysteria of the Premier, we will be able to arrive at a position
which ensures that while adjustments that will have to be made
Australia wide the restraint that will have to be exercised
Australia wide while that will be done, it will be able to be
done in a way which does not impose unneccessary hardships upon
the people of Tasmania.
I repeat, I take this opportunity Ken, of thanking you and I
believe the people of Tasmania should thank you because the runs
are on the board here in Tasmania as a result of your
representations and they will continue to be on the board in the
days ahead.
Delegates, I said at the begining of my remarks that I wanted to
put into its proper perspective the political realities of
Australia today. And in the rest of the time that I have
available I would like to speak directly with you and through you
to the people of this State and the people of Australia to,
elaborate those realities in some more detail and in a way which I
believe is relevant to what the people, the ordinary people of
Australia are thinking about, and what they are concerned about.
There have been some attempts to suggest in recent times that your
Government your national Government, has not been concentrating on
the major issues that we may have lost some sense of direction.
Nothing could be further from the truth. of course the real truth
is this that some of the most conservative elements of
Australian society are starting to become worried that in fact
this National Labor Government is so effectively starting to
change the structure and direction of the Australian economy and
the Australian society in a progressive way that if we are allowed
to continue in this way, there will* in fact be achieved the
situation where the people of Australia will fully realise that
Labor is the natural constituency of Government because it will
have produced those things which the people of Australia want.
And so there is an increasingly desperate attempt to suggest that
there are inadequacies or uncertainties about what we're doing.
So let me dismiss that stupid speculation. Let me take you
briefly through what we have done, what we are doing and the
vis * ion and purposes that we have for Australia in the years ahead.
And all those things in connection what we've done, what we're
doing and the vision ahead.
Now what has been the essential basis of what your Government has
been doing. It is this; that when we came to office on
March 1983 we inherited an Australian economy which was in the
worst shape that it had been in for fifty years. It was in the
worst recession since the great depression of the early 1930' s.
And I on behalf of our great party, and what has become our great
Government, said to the Australian people we will restore
economic growth because economic growth is the foundation upon
which can be built the welfare of individuals of those in
employment and upon which can be built the capacity of our great
society to do for those who are in need and who will not be helped
directly through employment, to do for them what a compassionate
society should do, to give them some opportunity in sharing in the
growing wealth of our society. So that was the foundation, the
very basic foundation of our approach, the necessity to restore
economic growth.
And we have succeeded not just beyond the cynicism, the cynical
expectations of our opponents, but we are proud to be able to say
that the rates of growth that we have achieved, have even been
beyond those that we imagine ourselves we may have been able to
achieve. Let me say this, that in our first two years of
Government we achieved record levels of economic growth, that had
us identified and pin pointed in the international forums who were
ajudging what was happening in the developed countries of the
world as the country whose economy was performing better than any
other, but we weren't just achieving economic growth to be able to
put figures up on the board and be at the top of the index. What
it was about was creating jobs. And the creation of jobs has
exceeded the target which I set on behalf of this party and this
Government. We have already created over 300,000 jobs and we will
reach a target of half a million new jobs in the first full three
years of office.
It is important to understand your great party in Government is
able to do these things because we chartered a new course of
relationships between people and groups in our society. We
effectively brought to an end, the divisions, the divisiveness,
the seven years of conservatism. We went beyond the rhetoric of
consensus to establishing a framework in fact, whereby people
could work more effectively together. We started that as you
know, in the summit. We didn't content ourselves with the mere
fact of the summi't. We then established EPAC, the Economic
Planning Advisory Council, and in those consultations we have
together worked out how best we can utilize the resources of this
country. And in that process we never forgot the promise that we
made, that as we grew, as we provided significantly more jobs for
those who had been designated to the unemployment scrap heap. As
we did those things we would also move responsibly to improve the
position of those Australians most in need, and that we have done.
Where we have increased in real terms the payments in the Social
Security area they have, and this of course has been very much to
the credit of Senator Don Grimes, who in the first two years
oversighted our move in that direction. We have helped those most
in need and we will continue to do so.
We have said that we will transform the basic infrastructure of
the Australian economy so that there would be the release of
forces within Australia that would help to guarantee as we went
into the future the maximum opportunity for growth. And so we
have done a number of the things that our conservative
predecessors should have done, but isn't it the great paradox of
politics today that your eager Peacock's and your Howard's and
your Sinclair's say there is no determination about this
government. Look at what they talked about and what they never did. They
talked about floating the dollar, talked and talked and never did
it. They talked about the need to free up the financial system,
talked long on talk, short on action. They left a situation in
this country where we had the most profitable banking system in
any country in the world four banks the great friends of Labor,
who were the most profitable institutions in the banking industry
anywhere in the world. No wonder that they were, because they had
no competition. Your Howard's your Peacock's, and your others
talked about releasing the three forces of the competitive market,
but they didn't have the courage, the consistency, the
determination to do anything about it. We've done it. And in the
event the Australian economy will now have a financial
infrastructure within which the competitive forces of other banks
and other financial institutions will enable innovative Australian
enterprises to develop and to provide jobs, in a way that should
have been done years ago. It only happened because we have done
it. I
So you can go on and look at the great changes that we have made.
Changes in developing more co-operative approaches between the
great elements of our society, fundamental changes that we are
making constructively in the infrastructure, in the Australian
economy. We have not stopped there. We have instituted great
fiscal reform,* great financial reforms, not to help industry just
to say we've helped industry, but the helping of industry is there
so that more jobs will be created. In honesty, it is said at
times that we are a government or have been a government which has
been smiled upon by elements of business. of course we have, and
I'm proud of it. The reason for this has been that we've made
these decisions to ensure that we will have a more efficient,
competitive Australian industry which is going to have a greater
opportunity to provide more jobs for Australians, because it is
the fact that three quarters of all' Australians are employed in
the private sector, so it makes great sense, according to the
philosophy of our party, to see that it is a healthy private
sector able to provide more jobs. Of course, that's where we've
been.
We're recognised in Au~ tralia and internationally as a remarkably
successfuil government because we've got those runs on the board.
But because we know that economic growth is the basis, the
continuing basis of being able to provide jobs, and to help those
in the community most in need, we are pressing on steadfastly withthe
task of reform.
Now the other great area that we are dealing with most
particularly at the moment is the area of tax reform. I can't
obviously spend a great deal of time in going through all the
details of where we are there, but there are certain things that
obviously I should say to you but let me make these points. The
first, most obviously fundamental point that needs to be made and
needs to be understood by the whole Australian community, and I
suggest most particularly by our own party, that the present
taxation system is haemorhaging, decaying. The revenue bases is
disappearing. And in that process, as will always be the case
unless you have a government there concerned with the welfare of
the people as a whole, the people who have suffered much are those
on the lower income, those who depend upon Social Security
payments. Because the rich, the privileged are always , and I say
this without any venum bufit is in the nature of things -those
people are the ones who are always most capable of looking after
themselves. And so a Government which is concerned with trying to
secure equity into our society must ensure that there is a reform
of the tax system which means that all people as far as it's
possible to do, should meet there obligations to contribute to the
common wealth, the common revenue.
And so we, as we promised in the election, have drawn up a white
paper which exposes the increasing inadequacy of the existing
systemn and opens up the avenues for reform, including the putting
of a prefered option. We recognise that in that prefered option
there are problems, potential difficulties, but we believe that
they are capable of being-overcome. We do not go into the tax
summit, beginning of July saying that we are the fount of all
wisdom, we know exactly what is right. We have derived in the
past two years enormous encouragement from and contributions from
the important elements of Australian society and we expect to do
something about it. And so we will expose this white paper in the
first week of June, there will be the best. part of three or four
weeks in which it can be disgested and studied and analysed by the
people who are going in a representative fashion to the tax
summit.
And then as a government, once we've had the opportunity of
listening to the Australian community, we will discuss these
issues further and then seek to bring in a reformed tax system in
which the principles, equity, efficiency and simplicity will be
reflected, so that the great mass of Australian people will
believe that justice is being done. And so that we can really get
to what always in any society is the heart of fiscal reform and it
is this. There are certain things that as individuals we cannot
do out of our own expenditure. And so the society is based upon
the proposition, in a democratic society, it is based upon the
proposition that individuals and corporations will transfer part
of their income to the'government as a whole which will act on
behalf of the community to do those things which individuals are
incapable of doing themselves. As individuals we can't build our
roads. We can't build our schools. We can't provide our defence
forces and so on. So as a community we have those things providedthrough
government. And the government has the where with all to
do Cjose things because as individuals and corporations we pay
ovet' ,; ome of our income. And so the secret of decent and
effective government is that the community be satisfied that they
are paying over as individuals and as corporations, their revenue
in a way that is most effective to give government that level of
revenue which will enable it as a government to do those things
that as communities they want done.
The money that we yield in government is not Hawke's money, not
Keating's money, it is not the government's money. It's the
peoples' money. So we want to ensure that the money that people
provide to the government to perform the services they want done
is provided in a way which they as a community regard as the most
equitable. Now we, I guess, could easily be deterred from that
task because of this information campaign which has put around the
attempt to divert from this course. I make no apologies for the
fact that since the election we have been working hard upon this
task because we regard it as our responsibility to ensure that
people do have the best possible opportunity of directing their
minds as to how we best deal with this situation. I can assure
you, we will not be diverted from the task.
When we have completed that, and when we go on with the further
dedication that we have to the processes of ensuring economic
growth we will have produced as we go towards the end of our
second term, a convincing exposition and exposure to the
Australian people of the capacities and the integrity and the
determination of your great Australian Labor Party, to move to
provide more rapidly growing economy and importantly one within
which we will increasingly do those things for the people in
Australia most in need to improve their situation.
En pursuing that course, let me say quite clearly, that there will
be a need for the exercise of restraint by the Australian
community because it is the case that at the moment we are living
beyond our needs, We have to address ourselves to that fact. We
commenced that process with the May statement in this second term
of government., And I believe there has becA a general acceptance
of the equity with which we approached that task. There is going
to be further need for co-operation in this by the great elements
of our community and I pay tribute to the fact that the great
Australian trade union movement accepts that it has a part to
play in this role, and we will co-operately with them, try and
ensure that the exercise of that restraint is done in a way in
which we may quickly guarantee positive economic results.
Before I come to wind up what I hav'e to say, it would be much less
than adequate if I concluded these remarks by simply talking about
things of domestic economic significance, or domestic social
significance. I believe that one of the great injustices of the
later period of our first government, was that there was not a
sufficient recognition of the pioneering works that this
government has done in ' the international area. In co-operation
with Bill Hayden as Foreign Minister and the appointment of the
first Ambassador for Disarmament, the first Hawke Labor Government
did play a pioneering role in a number of international forums, in
advancing the causes of peace and disarmament. A course which wasopenly
and specifically recognised by many nations in what they
have to say about Australia, which I think is overwhelmingly
reflected in the record vote, that we, Australia, got in the
election for the Security Council. It didn't happen by accident.
It happened because the range of the nations saw, distinct from
rhetoric, we in those two years steadfastly and consistently in
all relevant forums pursued realistically the issues of the peace
and disarmament. We will continue to do that.
We have coining up in September of this year, the Non-Proliferation
Treaty review and Australia has already played a foremost role in
the preparation for that review. And I will say that in regard to
the issue of a nuclear free South Pacific the initiative which I
launched in Canberra in July of 1983 at the meeting of the South
Pacific Forum is rapidly moving to fruition. We set up a working
party following the second South Pacific Forum meeting that we
were involved in Tuvalu last year. We set up a working party.
The fourth meeting of that working party has just been going on in
Suva and I believe that when we meet in Raratonga in the Cook
Islands in August of this year, we will have before us, as a
result of the initiative of this Government, a draft Treaty for a
nuclear free zone in the South Pacific.
Now these are the sorts of things not rhetoric but actions, quiet
but effective actions that your government has been and will be
involved in. I give you the assurance that through the life of
this second Hawke Labor Government we will leave no stone unturned
in those international forums to continue those tasks, use our
influence upon not only the superpowers but the other nations with
which we have influence try as rapidly as will be a sigificant
reduction in the level of armaments particularly of nuclear arms.
So that with a greater degree of confidence, the people, and
particularly the young people of this world, who will be able to
look to the future freer of the devastating effects of nuclear
holocaust. And so my friends I go from there to come back in conclusion to
you here in Tasmania. I thank you for what you've done in the
past. I know there have been difficulties.* I ask that you in the
council and that you in the party will in the future do all that
you can to make the contributions that you can to ensuring first
of all the return, as they say, of a Wriedt Labor Government so
that Ken Wriedt will be able from the official position of Premier
to do what he ahs been doing unofficially from the position of
Leader of opposition to see that in a non-hysterical and
affective way the interests of the people of Tasmania are
advanced. And I say in return to you that I give you the
commitment of this Federal Government, not merely in regard..
here in Tasmania, that we will continue to have regard and real
regard to the interest of the people of this State. But that we
will continue to advance the work of economic and social reform so
that we will be able to go into the next election showing the
demonstrably true form of what we have done to make this a better
country so that we will again have a mandate to go further to
producing a more prosperous and more equitable Australia. And I
say at all times we will be undertaking those tasks in the
knowledge that we must continue internationally to work for a
world of peace, a world of disarmament, a world free from the
threat of the nuclear holocaust. These are the things that we
will do and I ask you for your support in those great tasks.
ENDS