PRIM MIPISTE
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KEATING, MP
IDGELL BIRDS EYE POTATO PROCESSING PLANT
ULVERSTONE, 23 AUGUST 1993
I'm very pleased to be here in Ulverstone.
Some mainland Australians are inclined to think of
Tasmania as coming along behind the rest of the countryas
a beautiful billabong cut off from the mainstream of
the rest of Australia.
But in fact as we learned on the evening of March 13-
in many ways Tasmania leads the way.
For some time now Tasmania has had some of the model
export industries of Australia innovative, premium
quality industries of the kind which Australia can and
must have to succeed in the modern world.
There are tremendous prospects for Australian industry in
the nineties and beyond, and no sector of industry has
greater prospects than the food industry.
Today I am here to congratulate the people at this plant
for their initiative.
I am also here to urge everyone in the-food industry to
get behind the program being developed h_ j my colleagues,
Simon Crean and Alan Griffiths, and the 1Agri-Food Council
to treble the level of food exports-.-high quality clean
food exports by the ye~ i -2000.
McKinsey and Company have estimated that by the end of
the decade the food market in East and South East Asia
will be worth in excess of $ 200 billion per annum.
we in Australia are very well placed to take advantage of
this growth: for the first time in our history we have
the advantage of proximity to our major markets;. we have
a highly efficient agricultural sector; we have enormous
agricultural capacity; we have a much better
understanding of what is needed to succeed in Asia
better marketing, better delivery, better product.
And, crucially, we also have the elements which make this
plant such an exciting reality we have innovative food
processors and a union movement which is behind
Australian industry, including the food industry.
It is a measure of the collective spirit driving the
initiative an6 a clear indication of its potential
strength thatiwe have on the Agri-Food Council, along
with the leading manufacturers, Martin Ferguson from the
ACTU, the CSIRO and the National Farmers Federation.
Above all, it demonstrates a mutual understanding of the
economic imperatives facing Australia the economic and
social imperatives: our national wealth depends on our
ability to export, and on this also depends our ability
to create jobs. Exports and jobs go hand in hand.
we're inclined to talk ourselves down in Australia
we're inclined to underestimate both our chances and our
ability to grasp them.
I don't underestimate them. I think the best chance
Australia has ever had awaits us in the Asia-Pacific
and, indeed, in the rest of the world.
And I think we have changed so dramatically in the last
decade there can be no question of our ability to
succeed. I could read you out a lot of figures which prove beyond
doubt that we are much more competitive than we were a
decade or even five years ago.
I could statistically demonstrate how the economy is
changing in size and shape, and changing as we need it to
change. I could provide all the evidence needed to convince a
reasonable person that, despite our problems and -despite
the legions of naysayers in the press and among some
elements of the business community, we Australians have
good reason to be very confident about the future and
equally good reason to be proud of how far in recent
years we have come.
Yet I think the best evidence I can produce today is this
project itself. 1199
3
For it is in many ways a model of the change which is
occurring around Australia now and which will secure our
future. It is a model for its vision and for its execution. The
vision is of Australian food exports to Asia. The
execution is through cooperation and World Best Practice.
The redevelopment of the Ulverstone Factory has been
assisted by both the Commonwealth and the State
government. The Commonwealth provided $ 620,000 to assist training and
re-training of employees and a best practice program.
State Government support has included assistance with
acquiring the site and a workplace reform program.
This was useful strategic help, but the driving force, of
course, has come from a company with sufficient faith and
vision not to say resources to invest $ 30 million in
making the plant the most modern and efficient in the
world. The project has required a shared vision a shared
belief. It has required the company and the unions to come to
fundamental agreement.
The Company signed the Agri-Food Council Memorandum of
Understanding on workplace reform and introduced
innovative workplace agreements which among other
things allow the plant to stay open 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, processing 220,000 tonnes of potatoes
a year.
I understand the next step along the road to securing
significant export market in Asia is to increase the
supply of potatoes at a competitive price.
When Simon Crean and I were in Mackay in March this year
launching Labor's rural policy statement, we said that we
would be introducing a world best practi. ce scheme for
farmers.
With the allocation of $ 11.2 million in the Budget we
have now delivered on that election commitment.
The world best practice program will1 help get the
linkages between production and processing working more
efficiently. Because we do not expect growers to carry the burden of
this alone, we will be making grants available to_
industries seeking to improve these linkages acrcss the
whole of the rural sector.
Today I am pleased to announce that the first proj~ ct to
be supported under that program will be a farm best
practice program for vegetable growers in Tasmania.
As I said, Tasmania is very often in the lead.
Due to the initiative of the Agri-Food Council and, in
particular, the Minister, Simon Crean, Tasmanian potato
growers and processors are going to work together in a
three year program of farm best practice with the aim of
lowering production costs and increasing yields by at
least 20 per cent.
The program wili involve a joint investment of about
$ 800,000 over the next three years, with contributions
from both the Conunonwealth and State governments and from
processors. It is a very practical operation: by working in small
discussion groups, farmers will identify the obstacles to
higher yields on a paddock by paddock basis.
This is a good program for the industry and for Tasmania.
It is a good project for Tasmanian farmers.
But more than that it is a good model for the way we in
Australia can and must work to guarantee the nation's
economic future to create jobs and to realise our
potential as never before.
It is a model because it is inclusive, cooperative,
clever it speaks of the recognition that in the markets
of Asia lies so much of our future prosperity and so many
of our jobs.
But the people I want to congratulate today are the
people who made this plant possible and who are
continuing to work towards its success.
The management, the staff and the growers whose vision,
belief and energy are giving Ulverstone a great new
future and playing their part in doing the same for their
country. 1201