P~ ME NIONSTER
FOR PRESS SEPTEM4BER 19, 1976
TEXT OF ADDRESS GIVEN BY THE PRIME MINISTER AT THE LIBERAL
PARTY FEDERAL COUNCIL
This morning's meeting of Federal Council provides me with
the opportunity to express publicly on my own behalf, and
on behalf of the whole Parliamentary Liberal Party my thanks
for your work of the last year.
There has never been a period in the whole history of our
Party so fraught with difficulty or crowned with so magnificent
a victory.
Almost a year ago, on that Sunday morning iin October when
Federal Council last met, I am sure we all felt that the future
of Australia was in the balance.
At that critical time, and in the weeks that followed only one
fact stood betw., een the survival and recovery of our country and
its continued slide into the abyss created by the Labor Party's
ideology and fLolly, breach of law and of-convention.
That fa, c t was the determination, the unity, and the quality of
the Liberal Party in Parliament and in the organisation.
The Party Sir Robert Menzies founded more than three decades
ago rose to its greatest challenge and triumphed.
We all know how very different Australia would be today, and
how very different its future, if there had been no united
Liberal Party, no Party committed to the ideals of Liberalism
in that critical hour. At that epic moment Liberals throughout
Australia stood their ground.
We achieved unity, we earned victory, because we had made
Opposition, in the words of Sir Robert Menzies, " a great
constructive period" for the Party.
We knew that we had a programme which expressed our philosophy
and which met the needs of Australia.
We knew that we had an organization which had never been stronger
and never better prepared to fight an election campaign. / 2
2.
Those are facts which should not be passing phases in the history
of a Party. Developing the Party's programme and securing its
organisational strength must be constant endeavours if we are
to fulfill our responsibilities to the Australian people.
I am pleased to say that since the Federal Election last
December the Party organization has continued its active and
positive role.
Today we have 30,000 more members than a year ago.
The organizational Committees have been strenthened. They are
a valued source of support and advice.
The Secretariat under Tony Eggleton has a vital role in
providing support for the Parliamentary Party and the Party
Organization around Australia.
It services the very valuable backbench committees through its
day to day contacts with the Parliamentary Party the Secretariat
has become a valuable channel for communication between the
Parliamentary Party and the Organization.
I believe that we need to be alert to opportunities for
consultation and co-operation between the organization and the
Parliamentary Party.
I have requested the Joint Standing Committee on Federal
Policy to undertake a programme of meetings in the next few
months with the object of reviewing specific policy areas.
I would now like to look more closely at the significance of
last year's federal election for the future of Australia,
and f: or the futcure course of policy under this Government.
The election last year marked a turning point in Australian
histor1y. The A'ustraLan people chose one approach to building Australia
and rejected another.
In rejecting the Labor Party. Australians rejected Labor's
vision of a society dominated by a powerful few. a society
of high taxes which minimized freedom and maximized direction
over people's lives, a society in which all were to be expected
to confor-nn to the narrow conceptions of the labor leadership,
a society in which the nation's whole educational system was
to be dom,. inated from the centre, where enterprise could move
only with the permi-ssion of the nation's political masters,
where the bureaucracy absorbed more and more of the nation's
workforce as it sought to regulate more and more of the nation's
life, where the government actually sought to persuade people
of the benefits of dependence on government in every aspect of
life, where the poor and disadvantaged were offered words and promis.
great reforms but where the words were empty and the promises
unfulfilled. The Liberal Party's approach on the other hand held out an
exciting prospect of a free and compassionate society growing in
prosperity and able to meet the challenges of social and
technological change. / 3
In this society government would work in partnership with the
whole community.
Our task is to establish the circumstances in which people
can make their own decision in which the main driving force
is the enormous energy of the Australian people.
The Liberal Party's vision is of an Australia where men and
women can dream and work to realise their dreams not a world
where a few with delusions of grandeur impose their private
view on everyone.
Our view is of a boisterous, argumentative, alert and tolerant
society. Of a people experienced in bearing responsibility,
equipped with the skills and the institutions to cope with
technological change, determined to defend their independence
but open and compassionate towards the rest of the world.
Of an Australia in which the disadvantaged have genuine opportunity,
and in which Government assistance recognises the equal right to
choice and opportunity of those in genuine need.
It is a vision of an Australia where Government is democratic,
accessible and responsive and where power is decentralised and
decisions taken as closely as possible to those affected.
An Australian where a vigorous enterprise can express itself and
contribute to the life of everyone.-where people seek to enjoy
and live in harmony with the natural world of which they are
an essential part.
In the last year we have worked to give reality to that vision.
Inevitably we have given first priority to the most disastrous
legacies of Labor inflation and unemployment.
Before the election last year we developed a detailed strategy
to get Australia moving forward again.
That strategy involved: bringing Government spending under
control; providing major assistance to private enterprise to
expand job opportunities; introducing tax reforms and procedures
of consultation to encourage wage restraint; and encouraging
national recognition of the common interests we all have in
controlling inflation.
That strategy was and is the right strategy.
We have adhered to it consistently since the election last year.
The economy is now recovering.
It is going to be a long haul but there is every indication
that the strategy is working.
There have been inevitable costs, but these costs are much
less than those that would have suffered uinder Labor's mad
extravagance. There is still room for a wider appreciation of the fact that
in recent years the Labor Party encouraged expectations to
run beyond resources. / 14
Labor's view that a government can go on spending and spending
is still held by some.
This was reflected in one comment made on the budget that it
was an economic rather than a social document that it was
concerned with figures rather than people.
This is fundamentally wrong. There is, and can be, no divorce
of economic and social objectives.
A desire for social reform without regard to economic reality
led to the tragedy of the Labor years.
The failure of economic policy leads inevitably to the failure
of crucial aspects of social policy.
A better Australia cannot be built on declining production and
failing industry.
Opportunities cannot be expanded when confidence is undermined
and initiative and enterprise are penalised.
The poor and the weaker sections of the community cannot be
protected under economic conditions in which only the well-to-do
and powerful would have any chance of protecting themselves.
The young cannot achieve a better life when economic policies
cripple private enterprise, destroy jobs, and put home ownership
out of reach.
Our great social objectives expansion of opportunities,
assistance to those in need, protection of the environment
cann-t be adecuately achieved when national production is falling
rath~ er tflan rising.
We are-determ-ined to eradicate inflation and restore job
oppo-r ultie
That is the pr incipal purpose of the budget.
That is why the budget is a document of major social importa nce.
Only on the basis of a responsible economic policy do expressions
of concern become more than empty words.
The g~ overnment'is particularly concerned with the level of
unemployment. The strategy we are pursuing aims at a gradual and sound recovery.
It is designed to achieve a reduction in unemployment by mid 1977
and it offers the best hope for a soundly-based longer-term
expansion of job opportunities.
In the immediate future our particular concern will naturally
be with the school leavers.
The vast majority of last year's school leavers have now found
jobs. But at the end of July there were still 12,7000 of last
year's school leavers still unemployed.
One problem here is making sure that job opportunities which
do exist are brought to the attention of those looking for work.
Clearly there have been problems with this cause of unemployment
in the past.
In an effort to minimize this problem we are instituting an
inquiry into the Commonwealth Employment Service to see what
can be done to improve recruitment processes; we have also
introduced a significant relocation scheme.
For the remainder of my time today I would like to discuss some mediun
and longer term problems which face Australia problems to which
the Liberal Party in particular must address itself.
In moving towards the kind of Australia we all want certain
priorities stand out: one is taxation reform.
The drift towards an ever larger role for Government in allocating
resources a drift which was not just a product of the Labor
years has produced a tax system in which levels are too high,
which contains many inequities, and which undermines incentive.
This year we have given unmistakable evidence of our determination
to introduce tax reforms both for individuals and companies.
For companies we have made a start on trading stock valuation
adjustments and have undertaken to allow not less than 50%~ of
the full adjustment as deductions from this year's income.
We have also increased the retention allowance for private
companies.
We have already put an end to the impact of inflation on
personal tax levels, through the introduction of full personal
income tax indexation.
This reform will put a stop to unlegislated increases in the
personal tax b'urden.
It will have a major role in restraining the growth of Government.
Its benefits will be very obvious in future years.
But it is only the first step.
In the medium and longer term our objective is a personal tax
system which permits individuals to retain a larger proportion
of their earnings so they can have greater independence in
meeting their own needs according to their own values.
We want a tax system which rewards initiative and contains
incentives to responsible independent action.
A government whose philosophy is based on respect for the
individual, in present circumstances must have tax reform
as an important priority.
Alongside the tax system our philosophy demands that we look
very closely at the scope, structure and efficiency of the
government sector.
The problems here are obvious: a vast expansion in the size of
government . a piecemeal accumulation of functions, a growing
intrusiveness of government into the lives of individuals, a
growing concentration of power in the Federal Government ./ 6
In our conception of Government the public sector ought to be
a lean and efficient instrument of policy, and provide a
responsive administration which as far a3 possible expands the
capacities of other institutions and individuals.
This year we have firmly set the course by: reducing the size
of the federal Public Service,-which will be carried further
through this year, by commencing a major decentralisation of*
government power and function through our federalism reforms.
All the essential principles of the federalism policy have been
agreed upon with the states, and its implementation is now well
under way.
We have also taken a number of significant steps to strengthen
the individual citizen in relation to the bureaucracy.
We have expanded the machinery available to individuals to
assert their rights through an Administrative Appeals Tribunal
and introducing legislation for a Federal Ombudsman.
The Law Reform Commission has been asked to examine and report
on unwarranted invasions of privacy in areas under the control of
the Commonwealth Parliament. For example, invasions arising
from information collected, recorded, or stored by the Commonwealth
Government Departments, authorities and corporations.
We will also be legislating in the area of freedom of information.
Given our general approach, active review of the Government
sector will be a continuing concern of this Government.
Wie have recently received the report of the Royal Commission
on Australian Government Administration. It will receive
very close attention.
The Liberal Party's concern for reform in the Government sector
should not, of course, be confined to the Federal Government.
In recent years a number of the state administrations have grown
just as rapidly as the Commonwealth Public Service and there has
been a major expansion of state spending and state activity.
Alongside taxation policy and review of the Government sector,
there is a third area where the Government's long term objectives
will require further action. That area is the market of free
enterprise sector of Australian society.
If a country is to provide real recogiition of the right of
people to freedom and self-respect, the vast number of goods
and services produced by private enterprise, by individuals,
must be made available as far as possible through voluntary
market processes.
A properly functioning market system does not just happen.
In a modern industrial economy governments have a vital role
in establishing standards of fair and proper conduct.
Properly conceived and functioning laws do not restrict but
expand freedom. They prevent the powerful from trampling on the
weak. They stop exploitation, and facilitate enterprise and effecti
choice,
7.
That is why efficient action against restrictive trade practices
is so important and why we have recently reviewed the operation
of the restrictive practices legislation.
I notice that the report of the Trade Practices Inquiry recommended
that there should be legislation to cover restrictive practices
by trade unions as well as business concerns.
The activities of some trade union leaders can inhibit the
freedom of workers and the chance of workers realising their
interests just as the activities of some large corporations
can inhibit smaller businesses in their legitimate activities.
That is why we have introduced secret ballot legislation.
That is why that legislation is now in operation.
There is continuing azncern by the Government with the whole
network of legal rules governing the functioning of the market
sector.
We want rules that fairly expand the area of freedom, not rules
merely for the sake of rules from which there is no real public
benefit. A properly functioning market system is an unparalleled instrument
for control and influence over the productive process by the people.
It not only produces the most efficient allocation of resources, but
the most rational decisions about the use of resources.
It not only produces the greatest scope for enterprise and
harnesses it -for the benefit of the community.
It exoresses better than any single set of Government decisions
could hope to do the pattern of community preferences.
In such a system it is the people who decide what activities
shall orosper and what enerprises shall profit, through their
choices of products and services.
It provides workers with choice of employer, choice of job, as
well as choice of product and service.
The free enterprise market system described in this way is,
of course, an ideal.
One of the great challenges we face as a Party in giving
reality to our philosophy is constantly to improve the operation
of the market economy, and improve the capacity of all our
citizens to reap its benefits.
We have been too modest for too long about its benefits for all
our people.
It is because of the benefits of this system to individuals that
there is growing interest in extending its role in the area of
social securi ty.
The Liberal Party's belief in freedom is an expression of our
commitment to human dignity and to the value of each person.
That same commitment must also make us initiators in the field
of social security. .1/ 8
Our approach in this area is quite different to that of the
Labor Party.
The Labor Party aims towards a system of universal services
administered by a centralised Government monopoly, and systems
of benefits which can only be funded by ever higher taxation.
It is an approach which in the end makes everybody dependent
on what Government chooses to provide.
The approach underlying the Henderson Report on Poverty was
very similar to ours. The Report stated that: " An adequate
income allows ( a person) freedom of choice and freedom to
participate in activities of his choice. It contributes
greatly to personal freedom and the extent of opportunities
available."
We have now initiated a significant experiment in accordance
with this philosophy in the welfare housing area.
The Treasurer announced in the budget that we had decided to
undertake a housing allowance voucher experiment. " Should
the experiment prove successful, implementation of such a
programme would give low income families the financial
means to select their own rental accommodation on the open
market". Our family allowance scheme, which will give significant help
to 300,000 low income families with 800,000 children, and will
lift many families above the poverty line, underscores our belief
in the contribution an adequate income can make to human dignity
by providing choice and expanding opportunity.
Beyond the area of social welfare it is a basic responsibility
of a Li"-' beral Government to expand the capacity of all Australians
to choose effectively.
We esta-;" blshed a Department of Business and Consumer Affairs
because these issues are so closely linked.
Improv-ing the capacity of consumers to express their wishes
effectively, will be a continuing concern of this Government.
In the area of consumer protection, we are presently considering
recomm-aendat-ions of the Committee of Inquiry into the Trade
Practices Legislation.
Consumer protection is an integral part of a properly functioning
market system.
In reaping the benefits of freedom a great contribution must
be made by our schools, colleges, universities and other
educational institutions.
A society based on freedom is inevitably one of change sometimes
very rapid change. Technology is developing rapidly. Our
freedom enables us to utilise the power of science most effectively.
Concepts of education are changing. There is a vigorous debate
on the purpose of education and its appropriate function in our
society. Our educational system must adapt to the needs of people for job
mobility, for retraining. it must be appropriate to the needs of
n~ nnip in the exhilarating new age we are entering.
As evidence of the importance we place on education, in the
recent budget education was one of the very few areas to
receive a real increase in funds. We also restored triennial
funding. The Government is also, however, acutely aware that there is
a widespread concern about the functioning of our schools and
post-secondary institutions.
We have taken the view that an examination of education is now
required. Accordingly, I announced the decision of the Government last
week to establish the most important inquiry into post-secondary
education since the Martin Inquiry over a decade ago.
Having particular regard to current circumstances this Inquiry
will also examine the broader issue of the relationship between
education and employment.
Education needs to equip a person for a satisfying and rewarding
life. One fact of the greatest importance in achieving this
objective is satisfying and rewarding work.
This Inquiry will provide a perspective on educational planning
up to the year 2000.
The Committee of Inquiry is being directed to have particular
regard for the Government's objectives of: widening educational
opportunity; expanding educational and occupational choice;
developing quality and excellence in all spheres of education,
and encouragirg community participation in education and training
mater7 Educi-ion is not only concerned with imparting technical skills.
It rnees also to impart a quality of judgement. The great
challenge -o educators is to combine the teaching of skills
with inat broader understanding.
The vi-ew that the best education need not be relevant, even on a
broad definition of relevance, condemns us to failure in our
efforts to cope with a fast changing world.
Our enjoyment of freedom will depend greatly on the quality
of our educational system and the values our educators impart.
Unless our schools and universities, alongside the family, teach
tolerance, a sense of personal responsibility, a respect for
others and for their freedoms, and above all a maturity of
judgement and rejection of dogmatism, it is certain that the
great ideal of a society based on freedom and human dignity will
remain finally beyord our reach.
Education, and the appropriate pattern of the educational system,
will, i. hatever our views, be one of the major issues facing the
Australian people for the foreseeable future.
As a Party which is truly Liberal truly dedicated to fostering the
conditions in which a satisfying life is available to everyone we
must be prepared to work with all our energies to achieve this goal.
It is the Labor Party that needs to be fearful of change, not us.
The spirit of the age is rejecting the conformist, tightlyregulated,
bureaucratically dominated society that is the
inevitable product of Labor's approach. People will less and
less tolerate the coerced subordination of the many to the few
that is inherent in the Labor ethos.
This year we have seized the initiative.
For the first time in many years the full life and meaning of
our approach to Government have found expression in a series
of major reforms which will make Australia a more vital, dynamic,
compassionate and above all freer society.
For too long we have accepted as inevitable the growing dominatio,-
of the few at the centre. We have seen all the western democracic
moving in this direction.
Higher taxes, bigger government, more centralised government,
more and more regulation, a growing dependence of everyone
on the state these seemed the inevitable and universal trend.
They were eroding not merely our freedoms but our sense of
ourselves of what made the democracies distinctive from the
bureaucratic socialist societies of eastern Europe and the
. Soviet Union.
Many were questioning whether the democracies still had anything
distinctive to offer.
In Aus-ralia three years of socialism have brought a fundamental
cha-e to our thinking.
But i all the western democracies people are once more raising
fund-a~ an. l questions about the role of Government-and the direct
of c-ar-e in America, in Europe, in Britain.
Once before Australia led the world in democratic and social
refor.
. We are doing so again.
In Governm-ent we have embarked on an historic devolution of
power to the states and local councils. We have put an end
to the increase'in the burden of personal taxes, resulting.
from inflation. We have strengthened the position of the
individual in relation to the bureaucracy. We have reversed
the trend towards bigger and bigger Government at the federal
level.
11.
yn th: economy we have begun a series of major reforms to
*.: otect companies against inflation. We have restored
incentives for the exploration and development of our vast
mineral resources. We are introducing an income equalisation
m! e for rural industry. We have got the economy moving
ag.. ai. We are introducing a range of measures to alleviate
unemployment in the short term.
In the industrial area we have made secret postal ballots
mandatory in all elections for office bearers.
In social welfare we have introduced the historic family
allowances scheme to lift many families out of poverty.
We have initiated the imaginative housing voucher allowance
scheme. We have argued in the Arbitration Commission to
protect those on lowest income.
For the aged we will be protecting the real value of pensions
by automatic adjustments. We have a substantial programme
to secure homes for the aged.
We have greatly increased assistance for handicapped persons.
We have established a major new home savings grant scheme.
We have increased real spending on education, and we announced
the most far reaching enquiry into education since the mid
sixties.
The Liberal Party of Australia has shown in the last year that
a colta change of direction that new hope is possible
if t-he iI and commitment are there.
There iS -ill a long way to go.
Today -1 ' utlined some of the things we have already done
and some paths for the future.
Many issues and problems remain to be resolved if we are to
move a,-rCs an Australia which is both freer and more humane.
New w~; ys of looking at problems will be needed.
An il-si-tive use of new technology will be required.
F da. en t2 values of decent human relations will have to be
a:.; erta d more strongly than ever before.
We need to assert the values of moderation in political debate
make ambiguous our disgust at tactics of intimidation and
violence. We need to set an example of reason, of rationality in our
approach to issues.
The younger members of our. Party will have a crucial role in
working through the problems and demands of this new age in lending
their energies and their voices to ideals still far from being
fully realised.
The next year, and the one after it, are going to require great
steadiness. / 12
It will be a long haul to repair the ravages of the last
three years of Labor.
Many things we would like to do will not be possible in the
short term.
We will not cease in our determination to give voice and
expression to the hopes of Australians.
SIn future years people will say this was the time when
Australia turned away from centralised, domineering, inefficient
Government towards a better and freer society.
I This was the time when a new perspective on Australia's future
opened up. When new possibilities for change and reform were
I seen. When the Liberal Party re-affirmed the vitality of its
i philosophy and approach to Government.
I. This was the time when our faith in the possibilities of
freedom and democracy began to be renewed.
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