SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
DINNER FOR KEIDANREN MISSION
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA,
WEDNESDAY, 9 DECEMBER 1992
Mr Itoh, Ambassador Hasegawa, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen.
I am delighted to welcome Keidanren's Economic Exchange
Promotion Mission to Australia.
The Australian Government and business sector value
highly the close relations we have enjoyed with Keidanren
over many years.
We recognise Keidanren's pre-eminent position among
Japan's national business organisations.
We admire the broad and long-term view your organisation
takes of your country' s economic circumstances.
Both with regard to an unending process of economic
restructuring within Japan, and the evolving challenges
you face in the international economic environment.
During my visit to Japan last September, I had an
opportunity for private discussions with your Honorary
Chairman, M4r Eishiro Saitoh, and other senior business
leaders.
Mr Saitoh's personal experience of the Australia-Japan
economic relationship spans more than four decades, and
he brings a great deal of understanding and authority to
our joint interests.
He spoke warmly about the contribution that Australia's
reliable supply of raw materials and energy has made to
industrialisation in Japan.
For our side too, trade with Japan has been a crucial
component in Australia's economic advancement.
Our two countries enjoy a truly mature and diversified
economic partnership.
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The bilateral trade relationship, now worth almost
billion US dollars a year, is one of the principal
sinews of economic interdependence in the Western
Pacific. But there can be no room for complacency about past
achievements at a time when the Australian and Japanese
economies face severe challenges both at home and abroad.
Your mission to Australia is well timed.
You have the opportunity to observe the effects of
historic changes in both the economic performance and
attitudes of Australians.
During the 1980s, we embarked on an irreversible process
to open our markets to the world, and to make our economy
more internationally competitive.
We now export approximately 23 per cent of total output
compared with 14 per cent in 1983.
Our rate of taxation to GDP is now one of the lowest
among OECD countries, virtually the same as Japan's.
We have transformed ourselves from a high inflation
nation to a very low inflation nation.
We have increased our competitiveness by well over one
tenth.
We have replaced industrial disputation with a
cooperative system which has delivered the lowest level
of strikes for 30 years.
We are moving away from the centralised fixing of wages.
We have decided to make most wage settlements by
negotiation, and at the enter~ rise level.
We expect more than half the workforce to be covered by
enterprise bargains by the middle of next year.
During your visit, you have no doubt seen something of
the current political controversy about labour relations
in the State of Victoria.
The difference between the Australian Government and our
political opponents is that our side puts emphasis on
encouraging change and improved productivity through
consultation and respect for basic labour conditions
rather than by adopting a confrontationist approach.
Recession and restructuring have caused unacceptably high
levels of unemployment. 4 7773
This year, we have invested a great deal in measures to
alleviate the social and human consequences of
unemployment. The Australian economy is now growing at an annual rate
of about two per ceint in real terms.
This is among the fastest rates in the OECD but not yet
sufficient to bring unemployment down.
Those of you who knew Australia before will have seen
that attitudes have also changed markedly.
Despite setbacks and hardship, there is awareness in
Australia as never before that our standard of living
depends totally on how well we make our own way in the
world. As you have learned in Japan, change induces more change.
Australians now have a new sense of national identity.
The challenges which face us are inspiring a new sense of
national purpose.
The recession has set us back, but the Australian people,
I believe, recognise the worth of what they achieved in
the past few years, and are not willing to give these
things up. I
We have laid the basis for economic transformation.
We know the direction we have to go and I am confident
that the Australian people are determined on going that
way. We have a more confident view of our role in the
Asia-Pacific region.
We have a sharper awareness of the opportunities for us
to engage more closely with economic dynamism in East
Asia. Australians are now committing much greater resources to
education and training.
This is so we can better meet the demands of a modern,
internationally oriented economy.
We reco~ gnise that Australia's human capital provides a
comparative advantage in economic relations with the
rapidly developing economies to our North.
Earlier this week the State Premiers and I agreed to
develop a comprehensive strategy to promote the study of
Asian languages and cultures in Australian schools.
Already around 100,000 young Australians study Japanese.
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AS Australia fully comes to terms with the potential of
our economic relations with the wider East Asian region,
the importance of relations with Japan is unlikely to
diminish. Japan still accounts for 28 per cent of Australian
exports, compared with 57 per cent for all East Asia.
Mr Itoh and colleagues, I trust that your mission will
return to Japan impressed with the vitality of the
bilateral relationship with Australia and the scope for
two-way expansion of trade and investment.
From the Australian Government's perspective, the
relationship with Japan is a corner-stone in the
development of our broader policy towards the Asia-
Pacific region.
Both our countries have a fundamental interest in the
maintenance of an open, non-discrimatory, multilateral
trading system and in the promotion of open regionalism
in the Asia-Pacific area.
A recent article by a senior Japanese official in a
journal published by the Japanese Foreign Ministry
attracted close attention here.
The author identified Australia as having the attributes
to be a key partner of Japan in promoting a desirable
form of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region.
I should say for Australia's part that we are always
ready to work closely with the Japanese Government and
private sector to strengthen cooperation at both the
bilateral and regional levels.
Senior officials of the two Governments will be
discussing just these sorts of issues early in the new
year as a follow-up to my visit to Tokyo.
In responding to an increasingly fluid world trade
system, Australia has a core interest in maintaining the
most favourable possible environment for our bilateral
trade relationships with Japan and the other economies of
East Asia.
As I said in Japan in September, Australia will not be a
party to any trade arrangement which is directed against
Japan. But in all of this our aim should be to avoid an inwardlooking
relationship and work together to encourage the
most open possible processes of economic integration in
the Asia-Pacific region. 4755
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC process is
a particularly valuable mechanism in this regard, because
it embraces the key economic linkages between the
countries of the Western Pacific and North America.
The interests of both Australia and Japan are best served
by ensuring that the Western Pacific and North America
remain part of the same thriving trading community.
Mr Itoh and colleagues, let me again welcome you to
Australia. And let me say on behalf of all the Australians here this
evening that we hope that your visit to Australia is both
professionally satisfying and personally enjoyable.
Thank you.
4756