13 -Dec .93
PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J KEATING MP
ADDRESS AT INFORMAL LUNCH FOR THE -WORK FOR AUSTRALIA!
TASK FORCE, THE LODGE, SUNDAY, 12 DECEMBER 1993
E& OE PROOF COPY
Distinguished guests, first of all could I say that Annita and I are delighted to
have you here and thanks very much for coming. We wanted to record two
things; one, the fact that so much effort and so much goodwill was invested in
the jobs program coming through 1992 and 1993 from the jobs summit of last
year and to thank each of every one of you and those not here who were
involved in the success of making so many of these programs work.... and to
focus now on the questions of regional development and the Task Force
report which Bill Keity has chaired and which he will present next Thursday.
In the last year, of course, during 1992 when we held the jobs summit it was
probably at the depths of one's hopes and aspirations for the economy and
for the labour market, and particularly for young people, And, we've sought to
find ways to make that transition from school to work, for young people, via a
program of enhanced training. Not just higher retention rates in schools
and that itself, I think, is very important because it needs to be remembered
that just ten years ago just under three -kids in ten completed secondary
school and that's now just under nine in ten... and that's a revolution in
education. And we've now added the equivalent of about 15 universities to
the system since 1986 and we're streaming those kids 40% of the output of
our secondary education system goes through into the universitites and now,
in 1992 at the time of One Nation, we also focused upon the development of
the thing we've probably lacked most in Australian education and that was an
expanded and revamped technical and further education system; a
comprehensive system of national vocational education for those kids who
are not going to qualify themselves for a tertiary institution but who wish to
get vocational qualifications which stand and will stand them in good stead
and which will be recognised across Australia.
And, so, with those two things the higher participation rate, the streaming
through university and also for those who drop out earlier than the
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completion of secondary school to take them through a school-to-work
training transition. And for that, of course, we've had great support from not
just employers but from the ACTU and the constituent unions in trying to build
the institutional arrangements to let that happen. led like to pay tribute here to
Bill. Kelty for his work, but more than that, his great view of the country and his
commitment to working people and particularly young people, into the
bargain. And also to Lindsay Fox who joined with him in going around talking
to regional Australia and seeing if they could find the jobs which we know,
basically, are there, and where we could exploit the labour market programs
which the Commonwealth had set up in 1988-89 and in 1990 and in the One
Nation statement of 1992.
It's one thing having these programs, it's another thing having them used,
having them taken up so that people understand they're there and that
acutally, particularly for small business, we can do so much with them. It's
been a fact of this period of recession that we've been through a productivity
surge; and that's another way of saying we've got more output from fewer
people. And we've seen very large lay-offs in industrial companies and that
had, of course, a debilitating effect upon the labour market
As we are now starting to see the economy pick up, I think this is something
really to rejoice in because we do have growth now running at about 3.25 per
cent, we are growing as fast as any other OECD economy, we have 100,000
job growth in the last three months and we are starting to see some of the
hints of the kind of recovery we had in 1983-84 in the labour market. That is,
we are starting to see some of that stronger job growth coming through. And
as you know, those of you who have been involved in these programs, it
makes all the world of difference in being able to leaven up the labour market
with some really new employment there and despite the efforts of people like
yourselves who have put young people on and give them training and work
experience to make that transition to permanent work and already you have
told me, so many of you today, that a high proportion of those who have gone
into the programs have actually found permanent work, they have been good
employees. It makes it so much easier with labour markets that much
stronger. And so I think that is happening now and there is no substitute for
growth. In which ever way one looks at employment, there is no substitute for
growth. And the essence of the Accord which Bill Kelly and I had so much to do with
from ten years ago was in fact an implicit deal, wage restraint for employment
and the wage restraint of the ' 80$ was taken up in more employment so that
today even with the unemployment we've had Australia has 26 per cent
growth in the work force over 1983 which is still quite a spectacular figure.
So it means that more people in households are in work than would have
been without Government policy focussing explicitly on growth.
I know that people say that all governments are in favour of growth, well yes
they are, but they don't set up the policies for growth. Most of the European
economies have not been in favour of growth, they have been in favour of
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firstly of low inflation and growth has been secondary and employment has
come way behind and they have now got 17 million unemployed people in
Europe. Now, we never took this policy in Australia. We actually went for
growth until we couldn't procure it particularly with the recession and the
International recession which was built around it.
But, always we have been about growing the economy faster and we are now
starting to see the economy accelerate and as it accelerates the link between
growth and jobs which has always been there is reappearing again. But, that
Is not to say that that will deal with those who are lo ng-term unemployed,
those who have fallen to the bottom of the labour market or who have been
unemployed for twelve months or more, that have lost their self esteem, that
have lost their skills, they have lost their place and they are the people we
said in the election campaign we wouldn't forget and a day before Bill
presents his report we'll have the Employment Task Force report, the first
such major inquiry since the Second World War into the labour market which
we hope will focus some new directions on how we can bring the long-term
unemployed back up and back into the mainstream of Australian society.
Because we want to avoid things that happened In Europe and in countries
like Britain where there is 10 or 11 per cent unemployment, but wage rates
continue to rocket and you say; well, how can wage rates rocket when you
have got a pool of unemployment and the answer is because they are
sidelined they are out never to come back and the labour markets
requirements are then met with new entrants to the work force, from schools,
new people joining the labour market.
So, we don't want that to happen and we do want to focus on those long-term
unemployed and to bring them back into the main culture of Australian
society, the economy and the labour market and that Is why the jobs
programs are important, that's why the labour market programs are important,
they are not in themselves job creation programs as much as they are things
that find people who have been disadvantaged In the labour market or longterm
unemployed and give them a chance to get work experience, self
esteem and a permanent job.
Now, In the ones which Bill . and Lindsay ( Fox) and you are focussed on are
mainly for those who are young people those in that sort of 16 to 20 area
who have never had the joy of being in employment and having that kind of
independence. So, it was a problem of particular size and dimension and we
have attacked that and Bill gave you the figures a moment ago that there are
50,000 jobs there committed and 31,000 in place and that is a tremendous
effort and I think that we should, while there is a lot of corporate effort here in
the doing of that, just record the fact that Bill Kelty and Lindsay Fox were the
prime movers in this coming from that jobs summit last year and they are to
be congratulated for the hope and the joy they have given so many young
people. The future now is how do we get the labour market moving again? How do
we bring those who have been disadvantaged back into it? How do we build
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on the skills that we have? Because don't doubt for a moment that Australia
has been through an absolute revolution in the way this economy is set up in
the last ten years. We are more now outward looking, we are more confident,
we now recognise what our strengths are more than we have ever done and
as a consequence we are now building on those skills and those advantages
and whien often the advantages are right under our nose we can't see them.
But I think Australians now appreciate the particular advantages which we
have and that we are out there to build upon them and to make them work
and that is why we can see, I think, a greater future for regional areas in this
country and regional Australia is so well represented here today and it has to
be I think, to build on our comparative advantage; first of all to recognise it, to
understand it, to build on it and to see where the regions of this country can
find themselves in the national and international economy of the Asia-Pacific
In particular. This we are doing and we are doing it not as successfully as we
would like, but we have started I think, to understand that there are many
diverse advantages and skills in regional Australia and that that is something
to build upon.
I look forward to the receipt of Bill's report next week to give us a chance to
even up employment and business opportunities across Australia and to let
the regions of Australia know that they are also part of the great economic
change of the last ten years and the benefits will not simply be the preserve
of the cities, but also of the regional areas.
There is a new co-operative ethic In Australia, a productive and co-operative
ethic which has come out of this, There is a sea change in business, I mean
ten years ago what business wanted was more tariff protection, but when you
look at the business environment today it something that hardly anybody in
business ten years ago would have imagined. That was, we are 30 per cent
more competitive than ten years ago; we have got an inflation rate of 2 per
cent instead of 10 per cent; we have got a competitive exchange rate
mechanism in place; we have got a 33 per cent corporate tax rate instead of
46 per cent; we have got removal of the double tax on dividends so dividends
are taxed only once, where in the ' 70s and early ' 80s we had debt taxed once
and equity taxed twice now we have got debt taxed once and equity taxed
once so we are really set up a good depreciation schedule and a very high
profit share in the economy.
So, all these things are there basically now to power investment along in a
sustainable way and particularly now with the banking sector somewhat more
experienced and more mature coming from the early days of financial market
deregulation. We are going to see scarce national assets put in the right
places this time rather than simply chasing inflation in property and other
things and so when you look at the whole of that together, that tremendous
mix and the fact that we are also not just set up for growth and investment
and employment, but we are sitting in the area of the world that is growing
most rapidly in the Asia-Pacific. And in that the Government in the last ten
years has pursued the GATT Round which is now coming to a successful
conclusion; where there will be about a $ 2.5 billion advantage for Australian
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producers in world markets as a consequence of the GATT and then in the
things the GA77 can't do In our immediate area we are setting up APEC
Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation into an economic community-which will
see Australia integrated for the first time in its commercial history truly
integrated outside of empire preference which was a thing that powered us
along in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century will be set up in the
Asia-Pacific as an integral part, as a country integrated into it as never
before. So, you took at the big market of the Asia-Pacific, our integration with it a
really good fine texture in the GATT rules for agriculture, intellectual property,
services and goods that gives us a good set of rules and dispute settling
mechanisms to really power trade along and then look at our own economy
per cent more competitive, low inflation, the lowest interest rates for
years, a good fiscal scene; all of these things I think mean that Australia
really can participate and the Australian economy can continue to change as
it has been changing.
This must spread through to the regions of this country and that this is an
Inclusive change which involves the whole of the community and that means
that nobody gets left out and that means particularly the young people, those
who are young and unemployed, the long-term mature aged unemployed and
the regions of Australia which have felt the pinch of the recession and
unemployment even more cruelly than other parts of the country.
So, we wanted to just record with you today, firstly our thanks for what you
have done in dedicating yourselves to the work and happiness of so many
young people who might not have otherwise found themselves in employment
and the esteem which comes with it, for focussing on the problems of regional
Australia and co-operating with Bill and Lindsay Fox in trying to articulate
what they are, in articulating to the task force the problems and being able to
communicate those to us so that as we focus on this coming Budget we can
look at the reception of the Employment Task Force and the Regional
Development Task Force reports, consider them in policy as a whole, as a
totality at a time when the economy has got some natural lift in it and where
the labour market is responding.
So these are, I think, cause for hope that we can really do much better across
the country, but particularly in regional terms next year and in the next couple
of years as the economy really gets a spurt on.
So could I again just thank you for coming. Annita and I are pleased to see
you here at The Lodge to share this day with us and as I say to record our
thanks for your commitment to young people, for the effort you made and to
awaken employers who didn't know about the labour market programs, that
they do exist and there Is real complement to them in terms of labour that Is
available under these Commonwealth labour market programs. And, can I
say again finally to Bill Kelty thank you Bill for your very unselfish efforts
over the last 18 months on the road so many days in each week and so many .001 P. 10/ 11
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nights into regional Australia and with Lindsay who is not here at the moment,
but may arrive later there are some great people on Australian business and
they have stuck their neck out and they have made a great effort and I want
to thank them too. But to those of you who are representing regional
councils, regional institutions, companies, the CES, radio, television and
other important areas of the regional economy, thank you ever so much for
coming, we hope you enjoy the day and you will give me an enhanced
opportunity to talk to you because while I get around the regions quite a bit,
you can never get so many regions crowded into one place at one time as
today and that is something I am looking forward to.
Thank you. We will now complete our official speeches and we can go and
have a lunch and have a pleasant talk together, thank you one and all.