PRIME MINISTER
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING, MP
AUSINDUSTRY NATIONAL LAUNCH INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL,
SYDNEY 28 JUNE 1995
This is a good thing that we do today.
I am very pleased, and very proud, to come together with representatives of
the States, the Territories and the business community, to launch
Ausindustry. I am proud because Auslndustry is another investment by the Government in
Australia, in a stronger nation and a more productive people.
I am proud because Auslndustry is the product of dialogue and cooperation
between Commonwealth, State and Territory governments. It is a strategic
partnership, between the different tiers of government, and between
government and industry, and it shows just how well the Federation can work
when there is good will all around.
I am proud because Auslndustry shows that there is room for innovation and
enterprise within the public sector, and reflects the Government's desire to
achieve world's best practice in the delivery of programs to the community.
Auslndustry was one of the initiatives announced last year in the
Government's White Paper on Employment, Working Nation.
In the White Paper, we asserted that the strongest and fairest kind of nation
is a working nation. We erected practical measures to increase employment,
because that is the most equitable, and the most efficient, thing to do.
Much of Working Nation was devoted to moving the long-term unemployed
and those at risk of becoming long-term unemployed into jobs: the Youth
Training Initiative, the Job Compact, the National Training Wage.
But we also recognised the long-term imperative: that in order to create more
jobs with higher wages, and hence improve the living standards of
Australians, the country has to be more productive and that requires
Australian industry to be extended and strengthened.
For the last twelve years, the Government has been building the kind of
competitive environment in which Australian industry can succeed and
Australian firms can flourish.
We have done it by opening up the economy, and facing it for the first time
towards our own region.
We have done it by floating the dollar, and deregulating the financial sector.
We have done it by dismantling the high tariff walls behind which the
Australian manufacturing sector was crumbling away, and by putting in place
measures to help businesses engage the global market place.
And we are doing it through labour market reforms which increase the
flexibility and productivity of Australian work places without tearing at the
rights and living standards of Australian working people.
Today, the Australian economy is far more competitive, alert and dynamic
than at any time in the past.
Australia's communications network is smarter and livelier, our transport
system smoother and more efficient, and our financial sector infinitely more
sophisticated than a decade ago.
Overall, the economy is almost 40 per cent more competitive than it was in
the early 1980s.
We are finding that in this new competitive environment, new species of
successful Australian firms are springing up.
The McKinsey survey on emerging exporters, and all the studies since, have
remarked on these successes.
The studies have shown that the firms achieving the biggest wins all share a
similar character.
They are ambitious and alert, vigorous and adventurous.
They are exploiting the revolutions in transport and communications to get to
new markets, and they are operating very close to those markets.
They are innovative, and able to manage and respond to a wide range of
emerging conditions.
There are a lot of firms like this it's approaching a critical mass. Their
success depends on knowing what they are good at. And this is where
government has a very significant role to play by helping these firms to
develop their human capital.
Many of the most mobile and energetic Australian businesses are small and
medium enterprises. Unlike their cousins in big business, they cannot afford
to maintain on-line access to the skills, information and resources that are
essential to business development.
By helping Australian firms obtain these services, governments can help them
identify their strengths, isolate their weaknesses, and harness and direct their
energies.
The advice and ideas might deal with skills, education and training, access to
finance, long-term planning, the application of technologies or the
development of trade opportunities.
The aim of industry development of this kind is not to pick winners, but to
keep the winners moving. Experience shows us that gover6nmen and
industry work better when they work in concert.
This kind of advice has always been offered by governments but through a
plurality of sources in a variety of agencies.
Before the Government brought down Working Nation, business people told
us they were confused about the range of services provided by governments
and, in some instances, were not even aware of the existence of key
Commonwealth Government programs.
An independent review of the development and delivery of government
business programs, conducted by Mr Ian Burgess, told us much the same
thing. Auslndustry is the Government's response to these criticisms.
Auslndustry will help our businesses to achieve world's best practices, and to
successfully engage world markets. It will serve as a single entry-point to the
array of government programs already in place to assist firms in developing
their managerial, technological, financial and marketing resources. And it will
help to build better Australian firms by allowing us to deliver an integrated,
cohesive and holistic service to each individual business client.
The most effective enterprise development programs are those which are
informed by the views and driven by the needs of business. To ensure that
Auslndustry maintains a strong client focus, we have appointed a private
sector-led Board, headed up by Dick Warburton.
May I commend the States and Territories for having the wit and vision to
sign on to the Auslndustry partnership. Bringing all our business service
activities under a single umbrella makes good economic and logistic sense,
and will allow us to draw on the resulting synergies.
So, with the launch of Aus Industry, industry development assistance will be
delivered, for the first time, on an all-governments, whole-of-government
basis. Ausindustry will direct businesses to the government service most suitable for
their needs. These services have already achieved many success stories
stories worth telling.
Like the Victorian-based Moss Products, a manufacturer of technical plastic
and metal components, which called on private sector experts subsidised by
Auslndustry to stream-line its product development, renovate its corporate
identity and establish a strategy for the future.
Or the Adelaide construction firm, Glenn Industries, which deals in leading
edge building technology, and specialises in the manufacture of glass fibre
reinforced cement. Parliament Station in Melbourne and the Capita Finance
Building in Sydney are good examples of the work of this firm. Support from
Government industry assistance programs and Austrade helped Glenn
Industries form a joint venture with a Singapore firm, and eventually win $ 13
million worth of contracts, including the Singapore Merlion Tower.
Or the National Recording Studios, a business which has already gone a long
way down the information highway, developing interactive CD-Rom packages
for both the Government and corporate sectors. NRS accessed a
Commonwealth Government program which assists new and existing
exporters to strategically plan for and manage their exporting activities.
Sales into a range of territories, including the USA, Italy, Taiwan, Israel and
South Africa have followed.
In the final analysis, of course, the credit for their successes, and the onus for
achieving them in the future, lies with the businesses themselves. They must
make their own way in a very competitive environment. But as these
examples show, government can support them in their efforts.
Auslndustry will provide that support. It is a timely and intelligent policy
initiative which will help set up Australian industry for the future.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Earlier this month, with the standardisation of the rail line between Melbourne
and Adelaide, the Government completed the construction of a national
standard gauge rail highway from Brisbane to Perth, via Sydney, Melbourne
and Adelaide.
The establishment of Aus Industry is perhaps not of quite the same order, but
the intent is the same. Each will guarantee a more unified system, and
provide a better service to Australians. And each will, I am sure, come to be
seen as a national asset.
I congratulate all those involved with the establishment of Auslndustry, and
wish them the best of luck for the future.
I am confident that Auslndustry will make Australia a much more industrious
nation, and I am happy to declare it open for business.
Ends