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AQ AL
PRIME MINISTER]
EMBARGO AGAINST DELIVERY
ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P , J KEATING, MP
1991 NATIONAL LANDCARE AWARDS, GREAT HALL, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
CANBERRA MARCH 1992
Thank you very much. It gives me great pleasure to be here.
This Landoere program is the product of the irresistible
force of common sense.
It is an example of what can happen when groups when
partnerships are forged in the national interest.
The average Australian would probably tell you that the ACF
and the national Farmers Federation were sworn enemies.
Not so. They have come together in the interests of the
country, formned a partnership of real strength.
That's why I say it gives mes great pleasure to be here tt
a ceremony where people who have made the national interest
theLir conumon interest, receive acknowledgement.
At another function recently I spoke about the way in which
the first,-Europeans to paint Australia painted it in the
image of the~ ir own countries.
It took a century of experience for the vision of the
Heidelberg school to emerge end with it, in the paintings of
Roberts and Streeton and others, en image of Australia which
could only he Australia.
The significant point is that the scenes they painted were
those of Eurpgean occtipation they were populated with
Europeans, their animals, their work, their architecture,
their values.
They were scenes of European Australians making this country
in their own image exploiting its resources and altering
the landscape to suit their needs and fancies.
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This produced wealth and comfort and gave us an enviable
standard of living. It also produced terrible damage to the
original environment and gave us problems which threaten
to umdo-rminn those achievements.
Before the New Right cry foul and call me an enemy of
progress and a defiler of the memory of the pioneers, let me
say that we are not about saying mea culpa we are about
rectifying the mistakes and finding new and better ways to
go forward.
We know better these days and we've got to build on that
knowledge. Like the painters of the 1890s we now have a clearer vision.
We know we cannot literally do what we like with the land.
We can't make it alien to the prevailing environmental and
climatic conditions.
We can't put it outside the boundaries of ecological and
economic sustainability.
We must set about restoring the land, rebuilding its
productive capacity, and its sustainability, and returning
it to a state of ecological resilience.
I have never been one who subscribes to the theory that
economics and environmental protection don't mix; the theory
that it is matter of jobs versus the environment, green
growth versus economic growth.
We do not need to lower our environmental standards to gost
greater production and greater economic growth.
It is not a case of us being unable to afford to protect the
environment. In truth, we can't afford to degrade it.
This is crystal clear in the case of land degradation:
0soil erosion,
6salinisation as a result of tree clearing, irrigation
and unsustainably heavy grazing,
so8i1 acidification,
* and changes in vegetation species in rangelands
these have all cost us dearly, and continue to do so.
Land degradation has Cost Australia billions of dollars in
lost production, and ruined millions of acres of land.
The environmental losses have been economic losses. The
environmental costs have been environmental costs. And for
some time now, the environmental imperatives have become
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So allow me to say with pride that the nine-year strong
Labor Government has been the first to develop a
comprehensive policy to tackle this problem, and it is doing
so with significant success.
Landcare has been a central part of this success. It is
exciting, not merely because of its style, its broad base
and its concept, but because of its results.
And it is not a static program.
It had a suitably co-operative, partnership-oriented
beginning. It began with a joint approach to the Federal
Government by the National Farmers' Federation and the
Australian Conservation Foundation.
The National Decade of Landcare Plan has been developed to
provide a framework for action to achieve sustainable land
use and rehabilitate degraded lands.
Concern has been expressed that there were problems for
Landcare groups in getting access to Landcare grants
programs. So my Ministers Simon Crean and Ros Kelly worked in
partnership to introduce simplified grants program
arrangements. And instead of having to approach a large range of
Commonwealth agencies handling such programs as the National
Soil Conservation Program, Save the Bush and One Billion
Trees, groups can now get advice from a single location and
fill in one form for one, community-based assessment
process. In the early 1980s, there were no Landcare groups. Now,
there are more than 900. By 1995, there is likely to be
another 300.
They are getting involved in a range of activities, and now
recognising that they need to think beyond simple issues,
and consider overall land use in an integrated way.
This trend to integrated management of our vital natural
resources is recognised in the growth of catchment groups.
In the Landcare scheme we have something very Australian
partnership, protecting something very Australian our land
something economically and ecologically vital, something
centred on Government engagement and community spirit.
That all appeals to me greatly, and we all owe those
involved a hearty thanks.
To the members of the Landeare groups throughout Australia,
I say that you are all winners. You can't lose doing what
you are doing.
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In a sense, the winners of the 1991 National Landcare
Australia Awards are representing all the other winners
throughout the rural communities of Australia.
I hope the award winners here tonight, and other Landcarers,
get great encouragement and incentive from these awards, and
I congratulate them all for their achievements. Australia is
the richer for them.
Thank you.