SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING, MP
ENVIRONMENT STATEMENT LAUNCH ADELAIDE, 21 DECEMBER 1992
Ladies and gentlemen
It's a pleasure to be in Adelaide. It always is.
As I have said before, it has always seemed to me to be a
brave city built in an environment which is beautiful and
benign, but very often not easy, and not infrequently
harsh. A city poised between the desert and the deep blue
sea. In Adelaide, one is always aware of both the natural
environment and the built one the natural and the human
heritage. It is the ideal place to launch this statement.
Ten months ago, in a completely different environment to
this one, with the birdcalls coming only from the
Opposition, I announced a package of Government initiatives
under the name " One Nation".
The principle of One Nation was strength through
partnerships. Partnerships of all kinds: between
governments local, State and Commonwealth between
business and government, between employees and employers,
between community and nation.
The idea of One Nation was to lay the basis of a stronger
Australia by calling on all our resources, human and
material, our social and economic strengths, our
intellectual strengths.
To include all Australians in the process of nation
building: and, immediately, in the great effort to bring
on economic recovery and the jobs that will go with it.
Today the effects of One Nation continue to be felt as the
projects we announced get underway.
Just as importantly, I believe, the idea of one Nation has
had some influence on the way we Australians think about
the future.
I think One Nation went some way to extending the idea of
cooperation which in the 1980s had developed so effectively
in important areas of the nation's life.
PRIME MINISTER
I think it had some influence on the way we confront
Australia's problems and work towards our national goals.
I say these things today because I think this Statement is
concerned with one of our great national goals the
protection and rehabilitation of our environment.
I say it because in many important regards the Statement
embodies the idea and the aims of One Nation.
And I say it because the spirit which One Nation invoked is
already there in the national environment effort.
Today's launch is in part a celebration of the work already
being done right across Australia, by local government,
community organisations and individuals.
And I take this my opportunity to salute their work.
Nothing better illustrates the interdependence of
Australians and their communities than the environment.
Nothing more emphatically makes the point that all our
state borders and provincial differences still leave one
fact unassailable that this in one continent and one
nation. And, for good or bad, what we do in one part of it very
often effects another.
What one Australian does to the environment effects another
Australian. It makes the point very clearly what we do against each
other weakens Australia.
What we do in partnership strengthens us all.
If there is a dominant theme in this Environment Statement
it is Australia's soil_ and water.
Soil and water are basics of life. If we cannot guarantee
their ' integrity-we breach a fundamental trust to this and
future generations, and to the land we call our own.
In doing so, of course, we also deny ourselves the product
of the land. The degeneration of our soil and water has
already cost us millions of dollars.
Whether it is in the colour and taste of Adelaide's water,
or the blue/ green algae on the Darling, the consequences of
abuse and neglect also come at an incalculable cost to our
confidence and self-regard.
In truth, I don't think we can spoil the essentials of life
and degrade the land without depressing our spirit.
By now everybody is aware that the main focus of the
Environment Statement is the Murray-Darling our greatest
river system, a huge national resource, and a part of
Australia indelibly inscribed in our history and culture.
Nothing better illustrates the network of environmental
interdependence than the Murray-Darling a national artery
which begins life in Queensland and sustains life in South
Australia. At present the Murray Darling is being seriously degraded.
No one should underestimate the environmental and economic
costs of this degradation.
As the statement says: " This has already cost hundreds of
millions of dollars, poisoned a wellspring of our heritage,
and destroyed huge areas of formerly productive land."
At present, ten towns along the Darling are responsible for
ninety per cent of sewage phosphate entering the river.
This will end.
With Australian technology we will eliminate these sources
of pollution and so improve water quality and reduce the
potential for blue/ green algae.
While the repair and protection of the Murray Darling Basin
is a centrepiece of the initiatives announced today, the
Government's Statement reflects the fact that the
community's concern and the environment's needs are broad,
and getting broader. The Statement announces:
Our intention to create a national system of marine
and land reserves.
A comprehensive study of the environmental and
economic values of the. Shoalwatez-Bay area.
The nomination of the Riversleigh fossil site and the
Naracoorte Caves for World Heritage listing.
More research into alternative energy sources, such as
ethanol and solar energy.
Four more Cooperative Research Centres with an
environmental focus.
An additional eight million dollars for the control of
weeds and feral animals, with another five million
specifically for the control of mimosa pigra which is
threatening to invade Kakadu.
Finance for the purchase of Calperum pasto-ral lease
near Renmark to ensure its protection and
sustainability.
State of the environment reportinct and other
educatio-nal ti6oolsni-essary for Governments and the
community to make informed decisions.
And of course a great deal more.
Not all of these are high profile or controversial matters,
but they are all initiatives of substance, all initiatives
which build on what we have been doing, all links in the
environmental protection chain.
Of course there is more to be done than any Government
could do in a Statement such as this.
But you can be assured that we will keep working away at
the list.
For too long the myth that. jobs-and environmental
protection are incompatible has tended to govern our
thinking. In truth, while some conflicts will inevitably remain for
Governments and communities to resolve, it is increasingly
evident that the economic sustainability of Australia is
dependent on the environmental sustainability of Australia.
Whether you're talking about tourism or our rural
industries, or vital water supplies, we are all now
conscious of the need to maintain our natural resource base
to sustain them.
In other cases, like waste management and re-cycling, the
protection of the environment itself constitutes a booming
industry.
The point is made in the statement: " the drive for
environmentally friendly industries and the protection of
our environment is part of the economic drive part of the
international competitive drive in which Australia is
t engaged." So we will continue to look at ways to achieve the dual
objectives of _ environmental protection and job creation.
I was very pleased to receive recently a proposal for a
" green jobs" strategy jointly developed by the ACTU and the
Australian Co6nservatidon Foundation.
You can be sure that the Government is well-disposed to
this sort of initiative and we will be giving the proposal
our urgent consideration and expect to be able to help
bring the ideas to fruition.
Now no doubt there will those who say that an ACTU/ ACF
_. 1iaison__ 1s an unholy alliance.
But I would argue that in fact it is one of the natural
partnerships on which we can build a national response.
0 Really, it is no longer acceptable, or even possible, to
retreat to ideology or prejudice or slogans as far as the
environment is concerned.
The environment is a central, main game issue in which all
Australians are involved.
Living in the built environment might lead most of us away
from this conclusion but in fact, as the people of
Adelaide would know very well, we who live in the towns and
cities do not escape our relationship with the natural
environment. We depend on it for our resources.
And for the national wealth in which all of us share.
For our recreational pleasure and spiritual inspiration.
For our soil, air and water.
The environment provides us with the basics of life.
This Statement is informed by that simple fact.
All our lives will be better and Australia will be stronger
for the things that it will do.
Thank you for having me today.