PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KEATING MP
ADDRESS TO THE COMMUNITY OF SUNRAYSIA, MILDURA SHIRE
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, FRIDAY, 6 MAY 1994
E& OE PROOF COPY
Shire President, Councillors Elizabeth Maffei and distinguished members of
the Shire Council, could I also acknowledge the Mayor and distinguished
members of the City Council, distinguished Parliamentary colleagues and
guests, ladies and gentlemen, one and all. It is a great pleasure to be here
and Mr Fitzpatrick, before I go on, as President of the Murray-Darling
Commission. It is a very great pleasure for me to be in his company here
today too.
I have had a most enjoyable morning and one knows about areas like the
Sunraysia, you learn about them at school, I did where I went to school and
the great irrigation areas of Australia because they are and were so much
part of the ethos of rural Australia, particularly in the post-war years and in
the case of Mildura, Mildura was even moving as an irrigation area before the
nation federated.
There is a great sense of tradition as Mr Fitzpatrick said, of heritage about
much of the area of the Murray-Darling catchment and for these particular
irrigation areas. I think that one of the things that we are finding with the
changed Australia, the new Australia, the open externally orientated Australia
is that the things which we did in the past for our domestic consumption
where we set up farm models and scales on European models for domestic
demand, these things are changing and the regions of Australia have an
opportunity now to participate in the new Austraifii economy, the more
competitive, faster growing externally oriented one which opens up the
prospects for a greater involvement by the people of regions and a greater
sharing in the prosperity of the nation than that which they formerly would
have been able to enjoy.
Part of the ' Working Nation' statement of a day ago was about giving regions
a greater role in Australia, in the nation, in the governments of Australia and
we've, in the reports which we did commission, principally that by Bill Kelty
and his task force, the very extensive McKinsey research study and the
Industry Commission Report all reveal one thing and that is that regions that
know what they are doing, that have a sense of strategy about them, that
have a sense of cohesion between municipal government, between
employers, employees, trade unions, and other community bodies; generally
have a higher economic performance than those areas that don't have that
sort of coalescence of view or sense of leadership.
We thought one of the sensible things to do is to give regions a chance to be
able to resource some of the things that they might do in mapping their own
strategies. Give them a chance to see what they can do for themselves
because whenever regions are given a chance to do something for
themselves they always do better than something which drifts in from outside.
That's not to say that outside, that is the footloose industries from time to time
don't or wont' change an area, it happens, but by and large most of the
change comes internally. We want to see that those things could work.
So, in here we have got support for regional economic development
organisations. We've got funding there to resource them, to see if they can
refine th eir strategies and plans; we've got to change the tax treatment of
some instruments such as infrastructure bonds, which could be important in
some vital, if you look at an irrigation area a vital piece of public community
infrastructure, which can be provided privately if the tax system is set up
properly; in pool development funds where one, for instance, might see the
joint ownership of particular resources or even farms or production facilities
and where those people, groups, companies or bodies need more capital
through pool development funds they might have a chance now of raising it
with a much more advantageous tax treatment.
There are a couple of important instruments, we think, there. Like all of these
things one has to refine them. We've had a couple of goes at infrastructure
bonds, but now we have got a 33 per cent tax rebate in there which will affect
beneficially, say, super funds which are very low taxed and therefore a tax
deduction doesn't mean anything to them, but a re-batie does. So, some of
these things are a case of seeing what the market will'do with them, but
anyway the chances are'there and we're listening to see what the reactions
will be. We do think they will help in regions.
The other thing is we've got a capital works program there for particular
public works, community works which can be of special value to regions and
it is from that pool that we will be funding some of these salinity control works
which I have the pleasure of being involved with later on this afternoon, but
more particularly, that being part of the general salinity control problem. In
this case, in the Murray-Darling catchment system.
There are two approaches there is the generic approach to regions and
there is a specific approach to particular works. Where we think a region has
in a mature way or matured their plans so that some Commonwealth and in
this case, State funding can go together to do something sensible because
you know it is going to be money well spent.
One of the most impressive things we have seen in the last six or seven
years is the collaborative work between the Commonwealth and the States in
the Murray-Darling area and let me pay a tribute to the people in the
Commission who have worked these plans up and produced a sense of cooperation
and collaboration so that we are now making substantial strides in
dealing with salinity problems and looking at the future of the Murray-Darling
in the long term Australia's greatest river system and it's one which we must
nurture. We have a much greater appreciation of the environment. We would now
shake our heads in horror at the clear felling of trees which has gone on this
country really since European settlement and which has had now such a
deleterious impact upon the landscape and upon, particularly, things like
erosion and salinity et cetera. And approaching it in a co-operative,
collaborative way is the only way because this system covers the various
states Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and you
need therefore a council, you need to think in national terms and you need to
work with communities co-operatively and bring them along and let them see
the point and purpose of it all.
This is, in fact, what has happened and a lot of progress has been made;
much is yet to be done, but one thing is very clear: once people get to know
about things they make the changes very quickly and at Mr Well's farm this
morning I was just interested to learn some of the finer points about drip
irrigation versus the sprays and that versus the gravitational irrigation and the
quality it brings to the grapes and the diminished demands for water and the
improved therefore salinity problem. All these things, no one group or
individual can change these problems, it has to be a community thing. This is
why, I think, with the Commonwealth involved with the States in the larger
scheme of things like rural adjustment, the case of Victoria Farm-smart, all of
these programs, Landcare, all these things help to make Australia better and
more productive.
With all these export markets opening up to us with tremendous demands for
horticultural products in this part of Australia and the tremendous demand in
Europe and in Asia for the products of this country particularly in agriculture
which we produce we have, I think, a great opportunity. So, sustainable
development is a very important phrase for our country from here on in. I was
very impressed with the advocacy of this in the Sunraysia by Mr Hewitt
amongst others, over a long period of time and we've picked those themes up
in the various task force reports and I'm very impressed indeed, with the
general sense of community and notion of common problems that I'm seeing.
Thank you very much for doing me the honour of meeting me here today. I
thank the Shire President for hosting this lunch and for the opportunity to look
around the region and see what is capable of being done. I hope that with
the ' Working Nation' statement the more generic things on regional
development and the specific thing here in the Sunraysia on this scheme of
works for salinity control, we can just move the agenda of that commercial,
community and environmental agenda just on that much further so that
Australia is going to be a stronger and better place and the regions of
Australia will have a greater role.
Let me conclude on this point. Unemployment is a big problem here, it is in
many regional areas. It will be a test of a country's capacity to do things
innovatively and maturely to see how they can work. We will be intensively
case managing every young person under 18 years of age who is
unemployed from here on. That is, anyone who has left school, is
unemployed, they will have someone who is personally dealing with them and
managing them, understanding them, their aspirations, their educational
attainments, their aptitudes and trying to find things to do. Where work is
limited in regional areas we have got a thing called the New Opportunities
Programs where we are seeking community type works which we may be
able to fund through the labour market programs and it will be, I think, a
challenge for local government and other community bodies to come up with
some of those things. Beyond that, in the greater scheme of things, the
notion is going to be on education and training regarding the years 15 to 19
as a period of vocational preparation. We don't want kids dropping out of
school only then to be picked up and then brought back in someway into
TAFE and other things, but to keep them there and then, of course,
intensively case managing those people who have been unemployed for
twelve months or more.
There is a great challenge there in that agenda, but at least a day ago we
started moving on it decisively and, I think, we are doing things which
Australia may again be doing some novel things that other comparable
economies and societies are not doing in respect of employment.
Let me conclude again by thanking you for coming for the very warm
welcome and I look forward to meeting you all. Thank you.
ends