PRIME MINISTER
* PLEASE CUCK AGAINST DELIVZRY
SPEECH By THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON P J KEATING MP
THU 1993 EXPORT AWARDS, PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
NOVEMBER 1993
The growth in Australian exports constitutes one of the
more remarkable chapters in our history.
Laconic, sceptical self-effacing nation that we are, we
tend to play it all down as it it is something that is
happening to us, rather than something we are making
happen. in due course, no doubt Australians will recognise that
this was a remarkable generation a generation of
exporters who might reasonably be numbered among the
pioneers of modern Australia.
But Irn inclined not to wait that long.
I think that our efforts will be helped by building a
contentpor-ary understanding of the importance of what we
are doing the need for it, and the success we are
having. That is why these awards are so important, and why the
organisers deserve great credit for staging them.
These awards acknowledge some of the outstanding
achievers in Australia's export drive and this is only
proper because their efforts are a major contribution to
the nation.
It's particularly significant to me that the cultural
industry features prominently at these awards tonight.
I've alway* strongly held the view that our commercial
development has to go hand in hand with our cultural
d6eve1opniiut that a society which values creativity and
innovation, a society which is confident in its cultural
identity is a society which produces better quality
products for its markets.
In this sense having an interest in art and design is not
an elitist abstraction it is fundamental to our broader
trade push.
The 30 finalists here tonight have contributed no less
than $ 1.6 billion to the nation's economy, and in doing
that they have contributed jobs opportunities for other
industries, improved living standards, a more prominent
and creative role for Australia in the world, a more
active place in the Asia -' Pacific region, a more secure
future for generations of Australians to come.
This is not to overclaim.
These are basic facts about contemporary Australia as
basic as the figures which describe Australia's export
achievements in the past few years.
In the last decade, exports have doubled.
They have grown from 13 per cent of GDP to 20 per cent.
Exports of manufactures have trebled and now exceed those
for rural products and minerals and fuels.
In the past six years exports of EThs have grown at an
average rate of 19 per cent per annum and nearly trebled
in value.
Exports of services have grown at 7 per cent a year and
now account for 20 per cent of total exports.
And the proportion of exports going to North and South-'*-
East Asia continues to rise and now accounts for 60 per
cent of all Australian exports.
You see why I say this is a generation pioneering the new
Australia. It is not something that is being done to us it is
something we are doing for ourselves.
As a government we began a decade ago to create the
conditions in which Australia could become a modern
manufacturing nation able to compete with the best in the
world. we did it because we felt that to fail would cost nothing
less than Australia's future to fail would mean
Australia joining the ranks of those benighted conmmoditydependent
countries.
I won't take you through the steps, but what we did and
what we continue to do has helped create the environment
in which businesses of all sizes are now manufacturing
and exporting, and in which each year more companies are
born Qniy to manufacture and export or provide services
for export.
This is not to claim all the credit for the government.
I must say that it gives me some satisfaction to see how
the challenge has been taken up, and how now we are
seeing the rewards for these decisions in the changing
shape of the Australian economy.
And I also must say that absolute necessity for the
changes we have made has never been so clear we need
only look at the trade figures and ask ourselves, with
commodity prices as they are, where would we now be
without the shift to manufactured and service exports?
Where would be had we not recognised the chance in Asia,
that thai was where our future lay?
Where would be had we not decided that Australia could
reinvent itself that Australians had enough genius and
enough faith in themselves to change?
In the end that is where the credit properly goes to
the people of Australia who were prepared to take on the
change and wear the hardships which change often
involves. It goes to the business people and trade unionists who
found cooperative ways of working.
It goes to the farmers and manufacturers and scientists
who found new products and new ways of producing them.
In the end the credit goes to those who saw in the
imperative to export a great challenge and a great
opportunity. The Australian Export Awards honour all these peopl * e who
did not wait for something to happen 12 them but went out
and made something happen = Q them.
That is why we can talk of a generation of exporters
they have it as their ambition and they are translating
that ambition into success, not only for themselves but
for their country.
of course, we all hope that these awards also encourage
others to enter the new world of exporting.
During the 1980s, 30 new companies a year joined the
ranks of emerging exporters.
it doesnt take much imagination to get an idea of the
benefits that would flow if this number were doubled.
Now I have no need to tell this audience what it takes to
be a succesuful exporter.
Let me instead quote one example to illustrate that once
we know what is reqjuired and have no fear of the global
market place, there is really no limit to the potential.
We have always been considered uncompetitive in the area
of textiles, clothing and footwear, yet last year exports
in this area rose by $ 534 million, a 21 per cent increase
on the previous year and tonight we have among the
finalists a representative of the i1CF industry.
This is not an occasion for me to tell you all. the
reasons why the climate is right for building on these
successes. Let me say only that we have never been so
internationally competitive as we are now and we will be
more competitive in the future.
I think you know that the Government remains determined
to do all it can to make the local environment favourable
and open to suggestions about how to make it more so.
What I want to say in the remainder of the time at my
disposal concerns the internatipnal environment.
I imagine there is nobody here who fails to recognise the
absolute importance of a successful conclusion to the
Uruguay Round of the GATT.
But sometimes it helps to repeat yourself.
And sometimes it helps to spell it out in figures; a
successful outcome in a fortnight's time is likely to
boost Australian exports by $ 2.5 billion per annum by the
year 2002.
A successful conclusion will enable Australia to maximise
its commercial advantage and secure new trading
opportunities for Australian exporters.
Australia has done all it can to see that such a
conclusion is reached.
it now remains to hope that common sense and fairness and
vision prevail, and that the interests of a few are not
put before the interests of the world.
But there is no guarantee, and that is why the continued
development of APEC and the recent remarkable meeting of
APEC leaders in Seattle are so important for Australia.
In Seattle, I visited Boeing which is, of course, the
world's largest Aerospace company.
But I went to demonstrate my support for an Austraian
company Aerospace Technologies of Australia which had
just been awarded Boeing's ' Major Outside Production
Supplier of the Year" award.
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You will also be aware that before going to Seattle I set
up an APEC Business Consultative Panel to inform me of
what business thinks APEC can do for business.
In Seattle, I am pleased to say, we agreed to set up an
APEC Business Forum to identify issues APEC should
address to facilitate regional trade and investment and
encourage the further development of business networks
throughout the region.
Australia will be represented in that forum.
APEC is not an abstraction.
Real outcomes from the Seattle meeting include work by
APEC on deepening and broadening the outcome of the
Uruguay Round, strengthening trade and investment
liberalisation in the region, and facilitating regional
cooperation in areas such as standards.
We also agreed to draw up a common non-binding set of
investment principles that might lead to a formal
regional investment agreement.
All these steps will deliver, in time, real benefits to
Australian businesses.
All of them will make it that much easier for them to tap
into the potential of the Asia-Pacific and find their
niche in what is set to be the aPacific Centurym.
Ladies and gentlemen
Someone said this morning as if we did not know itthat
we are not Asian.
of course, we are not Asian.
But we share a future with the countries of our region.
And APEC is, to my way of thinking, the best the most
creative expression of that future.
As I said earlier, 60 per cent of our exports now go to
the Asian region.
And as I said at that very impressive National Trade and
Investment conference in Melbourne last week, over the
next two years exports to APEC countries will account for
about one third of the total increase in our production.
In two years' time Australian exports to APEC countries
will account fb5r around 15 per cent of all we do, all we
make and all we sell. T3E0L: . Nov. 93 18: 00 No. 008 P. 05/ 06
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And over the next two years, increased exports to APEC
mem~ bers will create more than 70,000 new jobs for
Australians good jobs, well paid jobs, jobs with a
future. Perhaps this is the most important thing to say about the
new export culture in Australia.
I said Australia's exporters were pioneers they are,
they are pioneering not just a new more dynamic shape to
the Australian economy, and not just a new prosperity for
Australia. They are guaranteeing that Australians of this, but more
particularly of fltZurp generations, will have a place in
the front rank of societies that they will have access
to the jobs and opportunities on the leading edge of
economic development.
That is the most rewarding place to be.
It is the Qnlg place to be if Australia is to remain one
of the really great places to live in the world, and one
of the great social democracies.
It remains for me to congratulate all the finalists here
tonight and the people who have put on these awards.
It is always a great occasion because it honours great
Australian imagination and enterprise.
And finally let me congratulate Austrade for its
achievements last year. I noticed a newspaper report
today which indicated that Austrade contributed to new
exports last financial year valued at $ 4.25 billion.
This is a fitting tribute to Bill Ferris, the outgoing
Chair of Austrade, and it set-s A high standard for Bob
Johnston -to emulate when he comes on board to replace
him. As the Financial Review said today, however, Bob brings a
lifetime's experience of trading in Japanese and Asian
markets to his new job, and so he will be well placed to
build on Austrade's already formidable record.
I look forward to presenting the winner's prize later in
the evening. T3EL0:. Nov. 93 18: 00 No. 008 P. 06/ 06