PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP,
THE MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, SPORT AND TERRITORIES,
SEN THE HON JOHN FAULKNER AND MINISTER FOR PRIMARY
INDUSTRIES AND ENERGY, SEN THE HON BOB COLLINS, JOINT
PRESS CONFERENCE, ALBURY, WEDNESDAY, 24 JANUARY 1996
E& OE PROOF COPY
PM: I'll begin by saying that it is a great pleasure to be here in Albury and
to be -here making a major statement with my colleagues on the
envirp6ment and. sustainable land management in Australia and to be
doing it at a place where we have a role and a commitment we
meaning the Commonwealth in a Cooperative Research Centre on
water ecosystems and water management and quality ' ery nicely
dovetails in with the strategy and the philosophy and the policies that
we have articulated today.
There is no doubt that the magnitude of the challenge in dealing with
the environment in Australia is a very great one because, I think, those
with environmental consciousness in Australia realise that to deal with
it we are dealing not only with the big icon areas such as Shoalwater
Bay and Jervis Bay and the Gordon Below Franklin and Kakadu and
the rest or beyond that to the big issue of the forests but that the
environment in Australia also means tackling difficult issues such as
biodiversity and land management, knowing as we all know that the
land has been degraded over the 200 years since European
settlement. Now it is the responsibility of this generation to actually deal with the
problem, not to wait to put it off any longer, but to actually look at it on
an integrated basis as a whole. So questions such as land use
management, dry land salinity, the problems of the rivers, river flows,
endangered species, biodiversity all of these issues are issues which
this government is prepared to tackle and that we believe must be
tackled. So, I think, this is an outstanding package in anyone's language. It is
the biggest environmental policy that any Commonwealth government ' I
has, as an integrated whole, ever introduced, It signals meeting the
environmental challenge, that it must be met and will be met and that
the problems of the environment will remain a central priority of the
Labor government that will be returned after the coming election. It
means that just on half a billion dollars will be spent, I think in a way
which now builds on the existing programs we have had and the
existing successes we have had and they are many, including
involving the community through great movements such as Landcare,
in getting farmers interested in whole of farm property management, in
focusing on these really intractable problems like long term salinity and
rising water tables. These can't be done by governments and by
departments. They can be done only with governments and the
community, drawing the community in. And, of course, going beyond
that to making clear where we stand on one of the big issues and that
is, of course, pulling a more comprehensive reserve system together in
Australia and with the Australian states. This is something we are very
committed to.
I'd like to take this opportunity of complimenting my colleagues. If we
look back at the problems of recent memory, the drought and in
dealing with it, support of the rural economy and rural communities, the
chatldge of the environment, the forests, and bringing all this together
in this statement, I don't think any two ministers have ever done more
together, have been able to present a more comprehensive package, a
more comprehensive approach to the real problems of the Australian
environment, threading them together, weaving them together, making
them work as an -integrated whole. That is what I hope the community
will see from this package today. I want to thank them and compliment
them and I know, on behalf of all those people out there that are
interested in the environment in this country today, a very good thing
has been done.
BC: Can I just say briefly that after the work that was actually put into this
package and because he is here, I must say I was delighted to hear
this morning the comments made, that I know were off-the-cuff, by a
scientist with the research credentials of the Director of this CIRC who
picked up the major policy underpinning this package. And that is, he
is quite right in fact, it is the first time that any government has ever put
together an integrated package that links together the economic
sustainability of rural Australia with environmental sustainability.
The point the Prime Minister made in his speech is very salient one in
that respect. Sixty per cent of our entire land mass in Australia is
managed by farmers. You can't, in the real world, expect farmers with
the best will in the world to introduce what are expensive
environmental programs unless they are economically viable. That is
really the underpinning of this package. It is a $ 176 million boost to
Landcare which, I'm sure everyone that is involved in Landc-re will be
delighted to hear today. It could effectively be called Landcare Mark 1I.
That, in fact, is what everybody has been talking about. We are five
years through the decade. Our original commitment was $ 320 million
for the whole 10 years, this package in fact, increases the total
commitment to over $ 1 billion, but it does one very important thing.
The Landcare response has been overwhelming. We were
anticipating 1000 groups maybe by the year 2000. It is 2500 already.
What the demand is from farmers, from environmental groups is to
provide resources for on ground works now that we have got that
network of people out there. That is what this does. It actually
provides enough funding in here.
Our experience has shown us since we started Landcare, that in order
to get a result on the ground you have got to seed about half a million
dollars of Commonwealth money into a particular catchment. This
funding provides enough funding to fund that level of funding for every
major catchment in Australia. One hundred and forty catchments
across Australia will be able to have integrated plans developed with
this package that will actually deliver on ground works. It is a very
substantial advance on Landcare.
The property management planning part of it, I know, is going to be
warmIy welcomed by farmers. This effectively provides, just to give
you one bit of detail about it, up to a 75 per cent subsidy on interest
rates for farmers who want to borrow money to improve the
sustainability of their property. For example, in Shepparton just near
here, last year I went to a dairy were a young farmer who had taken
aver the property from his parents completely reorganised all of the
water effluent from the diary and so on. So it was a completely self
contained diary with nothing going into the streams, everything
contained on the farm. It was an expensive thing to do and this
package will actually encourage a-whole lot more young farmers like
him and give them a real economic incentive to go ahead and do that.
So, it is a very integrated package.
On the Murray-Darling and I'll finish on this point, I know that Don
Blackmore is like a dog with two tails today, that Council over the last
two years, the Murray-Darling, initiative was an initiative of this
Government. The Commission was established by this Government in
1988 and this has been a substantial boost to the work that was done.
This package, in fact, has come out of a water audit in which there was
some publicity earlier this year, you may recall it. The water audit was
commenced two years ago and the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial
Council took the most important decision we have ever taken in July
last year where we stopped all further diversionary flows from the
Murray-Darling system. This package is a direct result of that. It will
enable something like 1600 kilometres of river banks and stream
banks, riparian zones as they are called, to be rehabilitated. It will
enable the complete management catchment plans for every major
catchment in the Murray-Darling Basin to be completed. It will enable
a substantial decrease, we estimate in the vicinity of 40 per cent
reduction, in the amount of nutrients and chemical pollutants that are
going into the river. It is a major advance of the Murray-Darling which
will give us the tools to actually arrest the degradation.
I want to conclude on one final point. Both of these schemes
Landcare and the Murray-Darling are marked by one thing they have
in common. They both leave enormous additional funds from both the
community groups and industry. Landcare does that spectacularly, but
so does the Murray-Darling and, in fact, the Murray-Darling Basin
Commission. has formally advised me since the package was
announced that they estimate that with this level of Commonwealth
government seeding a total package of $ 600 million will, in fact, result
on the experience since 1988 from both State, local governments and
industry.
JF: If I can just say that ther is no doubt about this being a tremendous
boost to biodiversity conservation in this country. The sort of
integration that you have heard about is just a magnificent
achievement in my view for the government. These programs, they
have , vo elements protection and production. That is what Landcare
is all about and with it in relation to the environmental aspects of this
package, we have really been able to deliver on protection of
Australia's biodiversity and we have done that through the most
creative set of measures in relation to the expansion of our national
reserve system as well as dealing with those very important issues in
relation to off reserve conservation.
So, I think, this is a great result for the environment. A terrific result for
the protection of Australia's biodiversity.
PM: Thank you John. I think any one of us are happy to deal with your
questions.
J: Senator Collins, what about the problem of sewerage and I know steps
were taken last year as you said in terms of irrigation, but is there
more to be done there, some have been critical, saying that these are
the sorts of really hard decisions?
BC: Yes, a lot more needs to be done and I might add I guess it is a
degradation of euphemisms, I suppose, I used an even softer
euphemism I called it nutrient and you called it sewerage, you could
call it something else I guess if you wanted to, but when I said that this
package will be able to reduce by a very large percentage the amount
of nutrients into the system we are also talking about the sewerage
outflows. People don't appreciate, and they don't, the extent to which
the Murray-Darling basin is actually managed today. We are pumping
800 tonnes of salt a day out of the Murray-Darling Basin now. The fact
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is, that if we weren't engaged in the massive management practices
we are now that Basin would be unsustainable now. The significance
of that, of course, is that it produces almost half the total agricultural
output of this country and when you have got an audit that took two
years to complete, that says to you in black and white, that if the
existing practices continue then the use of water, and I am almost
quoting, it exactly in that Basin will become unsustainable by the turn
of the century that is five years from now it does attract your
attention. I am very pleased to say that, acting on the advise of the Commission
and that is where this package came from, we can confidently say that
this level of Commonwealth funding will actually result in arresting that
degradation. I might also say on a personal note and I have got to say
this here today sometime, after 18 years in this business I am really
tickled by this constant theme that because you have been in
government for 13 years that somehow or other that means that you
have run out of ideas. Well, for people who actually have that view
chew on this.
J: Prime ' Minister, true is it not that there is on these subjects a certain
degrei of bipartisanship. The Coalition has also said that they think
that land care is important, they have announced funding for
revegetation. Why is your plan so much better?
PM: Because it is the plan of the conceivers and authors of the policy that
is why. The flippant press statements published by the Opposition,
John Howard's appalling statement which he made and I have it, Bob
responded to it, in October 1995, there is a South Australian
Employers Chamber of Commerce mentioning the Murray-Darling,
talking about catch up politics. It was a plight on Australian journalism
that that media release was ever reported. The Government
established the Murray-Darling Commission in 1988. We have spent
$ 400 million so far on it. I have committed myself as Prime Minister
very much to the problems of land management in Australia. I had the
pleasure of visiting the Sunraysia district to look at drip irrigation some
time ago, a couple of years ago now I think, and also on the very point
that Senator Collins mentioned about salt in the river, of pressing the
button on one of the pumping stations just up river from Mildura, taking
one of the underground aquifers and pumping it into a salt pan. A part
of that 800 tonnes a day which is changing the nature and quality of
the river.
It has only been the Labor Party that has made these commitments to
the environment. You have got John Howard and his party now saying
the external affairs power shouldn't be used, the world heritage powers
which have flowed from that constitutional authority have, of course,
been an important part of the development of an integrated
environment policy. They have no policy on forests, none, and we
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have introduced with that target of 15 per cent of the reserve system
that reflected what obtained before European settlement. I mean the
Labor Party will be the only party going into this election with an
environment policy total environment policy and this goes, also, for
the Greens and for others.
It is only a party of government that can make environmental policy
stick. This is not something that individuals can do individual people
in the Senate, or the House of Representatives, or minor parties.
This is a business for the parties of government and the only party of
government interested in the environment in this comprehensive,
whole way is the Labor Party. It only ever has been the Labor Party.
And if we are living now with the problems of massive land clearance,
and what have you, it is because of the view taken over many years.
In fact, the first thing I did as Treasurer, the very first thing I did, was to
remove deductions for land clearing in the year of expenditure,
the very first thing I did 13 years ago.
J: But, Prime Minister, a few months ago John Howard made a speech
about Asia and he talked about Australia becoming a supermarket into
Asia:. " Now, today, you are talking about something called the Asia
Food 2000 Strategy. He is going to say you pinched his idea.
PM: Oh, cut it out, cut it out.
BC: Fair go.
PM: Now I don't mind being questioned. But I do object to being offended
with silly questions. It is an impertinence for this reason: that the
Agri-Food Council was established by the government for this very
purpose. I mean you might recall me attending a meeting with it in Orange last
year about these very subjects. You might recall that I have
established an inquiry with Bob Collins and Laurie Brereton about how
we get time-sensitive exports air freighted out of Australia, what the air
freight impediments might be, how we can actually bring whole land in
production and not see it lost to salinity or water table problems.
I mean dealing with the problems of the Sunraysia, or the water table
problems of the Goulbumrn Valley our success there in managing
water table issues in the dairy production areas of the
Goulbum Valley.
Cheap press statements by oppositions who have no thought for these
issues at all. Bear in mind there were 23 years of Coalition
government where the National Party had a major influence and did
they do anything about dry land salinity, water tables, land clearance,
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you know? Has John Howard got any record on these issues ever?
None. No where.
J: Is the Federal Government committed to funding the Research Centre
here?
PM: Well the whole Cooperative Research Centre programs are funded by
the Commonwealth, they are our programs.
BC: Wouldn't have got off the ground without us.
PM: Wouldn't be here without us. The whole CRC movement is ours.
We have put now I think, from memory, about $ 800 million and we now
have about $ 1600 million, from memory, of private funding which has
joined us. So we have got a very large amount of money now going
into Cooperative Research Centres. I mean this one here, which I was
very pleased to be involved today in the laboratory, on water
eco-systems. You know you can find other ones on hard wood
technology, or remote sensing, or whatever it might be.
BC: I mi~ 1t just add too in respect of those previous questions.
Commbnwealth ' Ministers have chaired the Murray-Darling Ministerial
Council ever since it was set up. It was a Commonwealth initiative.
I have chaired it for the last two years and you know the reality of
John Howard's contribution to this debate. He told somebody in his
office to draft a press statement. That is it. You find anything else.
In fact, I took the trouble to have a look at the Parliamentary Database,
I pushed the button on it and I typed in Murray-Darling and
John Howard and it came up with a blank screen. And you do the
same. John Howard, in fact, has said nothing about the
Murray-Darling Basin since he has been in Parliament. Now I only
went back to 1981, you can go back beyond that if you like.
J: Prime Minister, there is an election coming up. $ 463 million worth of
funding. What would you say to voters who would simply dismiss this
as an election ploy?
PM: Simply that it builds on existing programs. I mean Landcare was
developed by this government.
BC: It has been two years in the making.
PM: It has brought people to it. We have brought this policy together from
the policy structures we have built and the success of them. So there
is the continuity here and this is announced by a government and
things we announce, of this kind, wAil of course be as would announce
things in a Budget, or if we were to announce things in any other
context.
But, I think, the success of it is we know that no matter how committed
a government is to these issues, you need the community to do it.
You need it in land management, you need it in whole farm
management and planning, you need it with the States in respect of
Reserves Systems, etc. And the real world nature of this statement is
not only the funding commitments, but the fact that we are building on
that community support we have already garnered and which is now
growing at a pace.
J: Prime Minister, the government has had a few spats with the
environment movement. You have underlined the size and scope of
this policy, particularly the innovation work. Do you expect this policy
to overcome the individual differences you may have had with green
groups over forests or other isolated issues and win unambiguous
support from the environment movement in the coming election?
PM: Well, I think, if the ACF's release today is an indication of that, the
answer will be yes. But, of course, you won't win everyone in the
environment movement. There are the people with an environment
consciousness in the environment movement, and there are political
people looking for seats in Parliament who are calling themselves
green' They are not the environment movement. They are a political
party trying to draw down the public support of environment movement
policies, or the imperatives of the environment movement.
So for those who are conscientiously committed, who know that only a
government can do these things, who know that to deal with the
forests, or to deal with the landscape, or to deal with biodiversity, or
the reefs, or any of it, can only be done by a government. It is to those
people, those conscientious Australians, interested appropriately
interested in the environment that, I think, this package has the
integrity and the appeal. The truth, the belief about it that is not going
to be there with someone trying to find a seat in the Senate or in a
minor party.
J: But, surely, Prime Minister you can't say that Bob Brown after his
record on the Franklin hasn't got a conscientious record on the
environment?
PM: He has got now a much more conscientious interest in getting into
Parliament and that is the problem. If Bob Brown was really committed
to the environment, he would be seeking the further development of
policy such as this, rather than compromising any standing he has had
to his own place in the Senate. I mean he is the one who has put his
environmental credentials asunder by seeking political office, rather
than being part of a broad movement which is looking for broad
solutions such as this.
J: Are you going to be relying on the preferences from the Australian
Greens in a lot of Lower House seats and in terms of Senate
negotiations if that is the case?
PM: Well I don't know how strong the Greens will be. But, again, what is
their option: to give it to a party, the Coalition that has no belief in
these policies at all.
J: It worked in the Queensland State election.
PM: Well that was for a number of reasons. This has not happened
federally.
JF: There have been a number of examples and perhaps the most recent
and best example from a federal perspective, the by-election in
Canberra where, in fact, there has been a recommendation from
environment groups for a preference vote against Labor. And Labor
still, of course, won the vast majority of Green preferences in that seat.
From our perspective, look, we are very confident that those voters
who will go to the polls later this year with the environment as a very
high'. piority, or their highest priority, are going to look at the record of
the parties, they will certainly compare the policies of the major parties,
they are going to compare the records of the major parties on the
environment and, I think, this government has an extraordinarily strong
record and we are very confident that those voters with an
environmental commitment are going to strongly support the return of
this government.
But we are not taking that for granted. We are going to continue
throughout this period to point out very strongly the very clear
differences that exist between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party on
the environment issue and they are very stark.
J: Prime Minister, you quoted before the Australian Conservation
Foundation. In their release today they site a list of things yo& u get to
do, they say energy in greenhouse, forest World Heritage for key sites,
legislative reform, clean industry initiatives, and a framework for
ecologically sustainable development. Are they too greedy?
JF: Let me make this point in relation to the release from the Australian
Conservation Foundation. What you have is a very strong
endorsement of this biodiversity conservation package which has been
announced today. The ACF makes the point that there are a range of
other environmental issues. No one can deny that.
In the last Budget, you saw this government for the first time take the
responsibility to really do something about protecting Australia's
coasts. Late last year, you saw this government deliver the best ever
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package to protect Australia's forests. Now, you have seen this
government produce a package that undoubtedly is the best ever in
terms of protection of Australia's biodiversity. I don't think anyone can
argue that and I don't think anyone will argue that.
There are other environment issues. They will all be important and we
will be, of course, pointing out the strong differences that exist
between the government and the Opposition on those issues as well.
And issues like World Heritage, a commitment to protect World
Heritage Areas and exercise our World Heritage obligations there is
an enormous difference between ourselves and the party that
John Howard leads. And we are going to demonstrate and show and
expose those differences as the election campaign develops.
J: Mr Keating, just from a local media's point of view is there anything
more that you can tell us about the Asia Food Strategy and what it
might mean for farmers and country towns?
PM: Well on Friday we will be saying more about it. I think Senator Collins
could probably tell you now.
J: Is thef6 anything more that you can tell us though as far as like will
you be talking about [ inaudible] for exports for farmers, can they
expect more market technology?
BC: Yes, we are. But those detailed proposals are going to be announced
in a far more detailed way on Friday. And, in fact, I was very pleased
to see that very senior members of the Australian business community,
Reg Clews is here for example, as well as John Claringbolt, members
of the Agri-Business Council are actually here today.
J: Is there any possibility of the inland air freight terminal at say Parkes,
or the Narrandera region?
BC: There is nothing of that kind of detail in it. These are broad initiatives
to assist the Council in substantially increasing the global amount of
exports into Asia. You should never, ever, overlook the fact that we
are extremely successful in that market and this is building on the
success. It is not as if we haven't already succeeded, we have.
There has been an enormous boost in exports into that region. And as
the Prime Minister mentioned today in his speech, we know from what
has been achieved already that that original target of $ 7 billion can be
exceeded and this package is designed to achieve that.
J: [ inaudible] air freight terminal. Would that have the
government's support?
PM: Well one of the studies which Bob Collins and Laurie Brereton are
looking at now is what are the air freight needs, how do we handle
perishable commodities, time-sensitive perishable commodities, how
do we get the linkages working better, what is the capacity like, where
should it be? These are the issues we are currently studying.
J: Prime Minister, how is it going to be paid for, the $ 460 million?
PM: Well we will be making announcements as we do in the course of any
budgetary year, in the course of certainly the forthcoming election
campaign commitments we make, how they will be funded will be made
very clear to you, clear to the media, clear to everybody and they will
be, of course.
And need I say, you know, we are sitting in the position with a Budget
in surplus, we have got today confirmation of the underlying inflation
rate, again, at the bottom end of market expectations, making it very
clear that the target for inflation of 2 to 3 per cent over the cycle is well
within our grasp, the government is sitting with a relatively strong low
inflation economy and a Budget surplus. So it is a pretty good position
to be in.
And I *' mightju st say, I don't know whether someone has doled out
some ( ruth serum to John Howard or not but today he made a very
revealing commitment uncharacteristically revealing he said " I mean
nobody can guarantee that somebody, for example, won't lose their job
somewhere in the economy over a three year period and have to
accept another job at a lower rate of pay." What he has done is
confirm exactly what the government has been saying, and that is that
the 1.7 million people who change jobs in a three year period under
the policies of the Coalition will lose their award protections and would
have to take jobs at lower rates of pay. And that is why 63 per cent of
Australians said they didn't believe. John Howard when he made claims
of the contrary. Now he has corrected his own claims.
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