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PRIME MINISTER
ADDRESS BY THE PRINIE MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING, ImP
OPENING OF MICHAEL LAVARCH'S CAMPAIGN OFFICE, STRATHPINE
QUEENSLAND, 7 APRIL 1993
E& OE PROOF COPY
Thank you for that very gcnerous round of applause, and could I thank the Premier,
Wayne Goss, for that generous introduction, and say how pleased I am to be here with
Michael and Linda. My Parliamentary Colleagues, Party President and other members
who are supportive of the Queensland Labor Party, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is always interesting after an election to see what thc-published plls say, because they
are more likely to get it right after the event than before the event' pairticularly with exit
polls and the rest. What the last week or two has shown is that Government support has
risen and Coalition support has fallen remarkcdly. I think we are entitled to say, or to
conclude from that, the public have thought about the election in the three weeks or so
since, and have decided that they have done the right thing. They thought their decision
was right. These were not just confluences of circumstances which lead them to a
particular decision, that upon more mature reflection they might like to reconsider. I think
if the polls give us any indication, they arc only into indications and not levels, the levels
invariably are not that accurate. But as indications, it is an indication that the public had
thought that it was right. What we did was right. And that I think is very good for the
country, very good for the Government, because I think that for that sense of appraisal to
have taken place is important.
And of course they don't go against the background of a Coalition Party which has
literally dropped its bundle. We have seen in the weeks since the election, the Coalition
now without a policy, without any idea of'what basis of appeal they believe they should
have for Australia, let alone for themselves. So they have a candidate fielded in this
election for the electorate of Dickson who is a candidate campaigning on a policy that
doesn't exist, and the only policy tliat exists of course, as Wayne indicated in his speech,
one borrowed from Thatcher in the late 1970s, what was basically an agenda policy of the
Treasuries of the Western World in the 1970s the British Treasury, the Australian
Treasury and which where having the world moved on the Coalition picked it up and
ran mightily with it.
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But again, as Wayne intimated, their policies not only lack breadth and depth, but it
lacked any sense of charity. I[ think the public thought to themselves, there has got to be
more than one's nose to the grindstone, there's got to be more than this concept of no gain
without pain, there had to be something better, something broader, something deeper, a
greater sense of community than that which wc have been offered by the Coalition, and
one which is going to seriously disadvantage many Australians, particularly working
Australians. So it is very, in a sense, interesting that in one of thc fastest Vrowing ports of Australia we
are now going to have another contest, another election. An election for the seat of
Dickson, an election which has arisen in quite extraordinary circumistances and where we
are also proposing another quite novel feature of thc clection, and that is the Labor
Government of the Commonwealth is saying to the people of Dickson should you
consider our candidate, and consider him worthy to be elcted as Member for Dickson, we
will make him a member of the Cabinet of the Commonwealth.
This says a number of things. The first thing it says is that we would not have presumed
to have sworn Michael Lavarch as Attorney General, but rather made clear we would
nominate him upon the people's choiZac'flist poinf7 Second point is that he is coming as a
member of Parliament from the State of Queensland and as a very young man to a senior
ministerial job. The first law officer of the Commonwealth at the age of 31. Those two
points are very important. The third is, that he comes representing a community which is
growing very strongly, where there is a demand for services, whcre hc is perhaps as
representative as anyone might wish to be from one of the growing areas of Australia, and
saying we put a premium on that sort of an area in this country being represented in the
cabinet of the government of Australia. Because our Govenment is about governing
broadly and governiing for people who are not advantaged by wealth, and not advantaged
by great circumnstance and who often live with the vagaries and difficulties of a rapidly
growing suburb or region. Michael talked about the services which this area needs and
those which chc Commonwealth has proposed, and has introduced over time, but whcre in
an area growing twicc as fast as this, in a State which is the fastest growing State of
Australia, Queensland, that so typically chat we have chosen such a person to represent us.
I think on those three counts, I hope thc people of Dickson cake the view that they would
choose wisely in choosing Michael Lavarch, someone who has already served Queensland
in the seat of Fisher, who has served in local Govcrniment who understands the
community, is of the community, is from the community and will represent the
community. I don't think any party can offer much more than that to any constituency, to
any electorate, and I think that we are offering. We are offerig as well the opportunity
for the people of Dickson to bc part of the generational change in the Government of the
Commonwealth. TEL.: Rpr. 93 17: 20 No. 006 P. 02/ 05
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This is an important thing. Governments, particularly governments that have had ten
years In office, need that change, they need that horse power, that charge, the energy
which comes from fresh ideas and fresh faces. Yesterday we had our first Cabinet meeting
of the newly sworn Cabinet and just the change in the composition and the relative age of
the members. I said to Brian Howe who was sitting beside mc, we are now a couple of
oldies in here. It was true I think, and the conversation had some zest. People had read
the brief and they wanted to put their view, and felt all of that electricity and charge that
one felt in the flush of the Government's clcction in 1983 through thc 1980s. Secing it
thcrc again really is very, very encouraging indeed.
That is why I think that Michael Lavarch's elect ion in Dickson can just accelerate that
process by seeing a Queenslander in one of the real jobs, the strong portfolio of the
Commonwealth, the Attorney-Generalship of this country.
We say that we would usc our mandate well, we will use it conscientiously. And
everything we have done since thc election should demonstrate to the public that that is
so. That nothing will be taken for granted, that the public have taken us on trust and it is
trust that we will return to them, and that we will use both the opportunities and the time
to the best of our advantage and theirs.
All of that augurs well for Australia, and I might it augurs well for Queensland. Because
always I get a charge from the throb of Queensland, you get that throb about the place
because it is growing, it is expanding, it is moving, there is optimism here. I just spent a
week in North Queensland, and I was making the point to the Premier on the way across
that coming through this electorate, the growing area, it's got all the buzz of a place on the
move as one gets right throughout Queensland. We do have great opportunities in
Australia and one of the places of opportunities is the State of Queensland, and it is
governed by a governmcnt which is going to be doing the same things and thinking the
samec way as the Commonwcalth Government so that we advance together, we use the
huge power of the Commonwealth with the co-operation of Wayne and his Government
in ways that I think Premicis like Joh Bjclkc-Pctcrscn and others just let opportunities slip
by, by naked, narrow, politicising of State and Commonwealth dichotomics, having
attacks upon the Commonwealth government, who ever it might be, which was not really
productive for the people of Queensland.
That has all changed. Wc have got a very co-opcrative relationship and one where the
Commonwealth today is doing things which formerly was the preserve of the States and
where the States were doing things for the Commnonwealth in areas which were only done
by us. I think the changes we made at thc Commonwealth Council of Australian
Governments, where we can sit down and discuss non-financial matters in things like
education, in railwvays, in coutis, in the micro-economy), in packaging, in standards and all
these other things, are things where co-operativc Fceralisni does mean something in the
hands of good pcoplc and pcopic who want to do things.
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So I am very encouraged, naturally I suppose, by the events of the last month, but I'm
particularly encouraged by the circumstances we find ourselves in with thc Government
here In Queensland and in Australia generally.
Let me say a few special words for our friends in the Opposition. don't want to leave
them out. TeNtoaPnyof course, laid a dead hand on Australia for most of the
post-War years. If there is one reason why Australia has got structural problems today it
is because of the hayseeds of thc National Party. Even those rare well springs of
inspiration that might have comne from Libcral Party ministers in Coalition governments
were extinguished by the dead hand of the National Party. Whose view has always been,
and it has been particularly true in education. Michael, Wayne, Linda and I were just at a
Statc Highi School and wvc were talking about the opportunities for kids and the
importance of higher education, tertiary and vocational educat ion. The National Party
were not big on education, they wanted people educated no further than primary school
and then happily voting for the National Party. That was thcir model, the model they
work In. Holding up a TAFE or a univcrsity to the National Party is like some institution
they moved back from. They just don't like what it stands for.
Thc National Party have bccn a force in Queensland. They filled a void, a political void
not a community void, and now their National Party in coalition with the Liberal Party
just don't know what they stand for. They have got no idca what they stand for, they have
not developed any model of Australian society, they don't know where thcy want to see
the place, they don't know how they want to sce it, they are still fighting reas guard actions
on cverything that you Imagine and adopting the most right wing ideology where ever it is
possible. John Hcwson said that if lie was forced to dump the GS1he would resign. Well he was
forced to dump the GST by his party and he is still there. So that means he never meant it
or the GST was just a device. Whatever it means, it means the L. iberal Party is in a state of
ideological and policy chaos.
And we say to the public of Qucensland in the electorate of Dickson don't elect a party
that docsn't know what it wants to do for you. Don't elect a party that not only doesn't
know what it wants to do for you, but of course is not going to be in office.
So this is a time when the conservative forces in this country have got to re-think a
position for Australia beyond thc morbid ideological positions thcy have thought in the
past. Let's hope that they understand that Australia is a country with great opportunities,
that it is a country that will always be best when people are looking up, ilot looking down,
that we can havc progress without pain, we can if we give people the opportunity and put
faith in them, thcy can do good things, and close as we are in the Asia-Pacific where such
opportunities abound and where we have already made inexplicable links, that our future
is as a country which is very proud of its identity and understands what it is and goes to
the world making that clear.
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I don't know whether you noticed two days ago in the international press one central
newspaper in China making this very point about Australia saying they are shaking off the
colonial yoke, in all ways Australia is now ready to join the region, we welcome them.
IThis is the point they don't understand. And there they all were the Nats, over at the
school waving their banners half an hour ago, and most of the slogans are all the remnant
issues that thcy will fight to the death as the country moves on.
I say this to the people of Dickson, let's move on.
Leave them behind, they have nothing to offer. Maybe at some point in the future they
will, it is going to be a long way off. The public have made a wise decision in re-electing
the Government, and as a result the Government has taken their mandatc conscientiously
and given them a young, vibrant Cabinct in return and comnmitment to the policies we
espouse and the philosophy of Australian life we espoused in the election campaign.
So I[ can only enjoin them to re-elect Michael LUvarch to the House of Representatives,
and on so doing it would be my great pleasure then to recommend him to the Governor
General as Attorney-General to the Commonwealth so that one of the fastest developing
areas of Brisbane, of Queensland will be represented right in the key forum of the National
Government the Cabinet -and where the State of Qucensland in gencral will find his
representation being enhanced by that very high office.
So to all of you who havc fought the last election and found that you were was scratched
just before the racc, my commiserations, but let's say it was the preparation for a bigger
event, another clection, pcrhaps a more meaningful endorsement of the Labor Party and its
young, talented candidate in the electorate of Dickson.
Thank you.