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.1 AP81AL 1A
PRIME MINISTER
FOR PRESS I AUGUST 1977
ADDRESS AT BARTON BLECTORATE DINNER
It is a great pleasure to be here tonight to speak at a dinner
organised by Jim Bradfield's Electorate Committee. There were
some wonderful results in the last elect'-ion, but there were few
swings larger than the one in Barton.
We all owe a great deal to people like Jim and his Committeeand
to Maurice Neil and Don Dobie who are also here tonight,
for ensuring a Liberal victory at that watershed election 19
months ago.
It was the Liberal Party's unity and commitment to establishing
the conditions in which men and women can create a better life
for themselves that won us the 1975 election so handsomely. It
has been the same unity and commitment that has enabled us to
begin to translate liberal principles into reality.
The Liberal Party's unity and our concern for the individual
makes us different from the ALP. Labor's National Conference
in Perth showed how divided they were, and how strongly they
wanted to centralise power. Some people say that the ALP's
problem is a lack of leadership. In f act, the ALP has too many
leaders we have got Mr. Whitlam, Mr. Hayden, Mr. Ijren and
Mr. Hawke. All competing with one another. Mr. Hawke is not
even an MP but that does not prevent him announcing that he
will only enter Parliament if he is made Party Leader. He had
to admit that no members of the party rushed forward to offer
their support.
At Perth Mr. Whitlam having retained his leadership by two
votes made a speech saying Labor would have to be economically
responsible. This obviously impressed Mr. Hlayden. lie said that
Mr. whitlam's speech must have been written on the road to
Damascus. It also impressed Mr. Ijawke. He conceded Mr. Whitlam
was a greater man than he was ' for the time being'.
The ALP may have a multiplicity of leaders, but they do agree
that there should be; more government expenditure, more government
intrusion into other people's lives, more taxes, more planning,
more bureaucracy. They 6pent hours discussing this in Perth.
They spent a bare 45 minutes on one of the major issues f acing
Australia the mining and export of uranium. / ThiS is
This is a question of fundamental importance, which involves
many issues affecting the nearby Aboriginal comunities, the
environment, the problem of proliferation, waste disposal,
the energy needs of other countries.
Already, Britain, Germany, Japan, the United States and Franceto
name a few produce a significant proportion of their*
electricity from nuclear reactors. Europe's need for uranium
was strongly emphasised t4-o me by the~ ixropean leaders I spoke to
recently, including th e Socialist leaders of Britain . I
and Germany. A curtailmient of uranium supplies will certainly
lead to dearer energy, and it could lead to energy sbortages
and international tensions.
As we hold 20% of the world's uncommitted reserves of uranium,
the world's energy needs must be considered very carefully.
The Government is continuing its detailed consideration of
this issues, and we have made it plain that there will be no
mining and export of uranium unless the aboriginal communities
and the environment at the mine sites are fully protected.
There will be no mining and export unless a stringent set
of safeguards is observed. we will insist that all customer
countries observe the International Atomic Energy Agency's
safeguards, and the further conditions contained in a special
bilateral agreement with Australia. This is the ruost farreaching
safieguards policy adopted by any country. It goes
further than the safeguards suggested by Mr. Wbitlam in the
House earlier tbis year. it ' is a practical, reasonable and
effective package of safeguard measures. We will make a continuing
effort to find ways of strengthening these safeguards.
We wil~ l be participating, for example, in the international
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation Progra.-mme.
Labor tries to represent its policy of an indefinite moratorium
on uranium mining as a moral decision. in fact, it was nothing
less than a cynical mnanoeuvre to paper over the differences
between different ALP factions a manoeuvre from which the
extreme left benefitted most. The PFerth decision required all
kinds of intellectual and moral gymnastics from the ALP. When
the ALP was in governmen, it ardently supported uranium mining.
Then, they were concerned with only one consequence of
uranium export the dollars and cents it would earn.
in October 1974, the Minister for Minerals and Energy said
the ALP would " ensure that: our major trading partners, Japan,
Italy and West Germany obtain an equitable share of the
uranitum we have for export." In October 1975, the Minister
for Aboriginal Affairs stated that " International assurances
have been provided by Ministers that Australia will meet the
uranium requirements of our major trading partners which could
arnoun~ t to about 100,000 tons of uranium." In March 1975 the
then Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Cairns, and the Minister for
Agriculture, Senator Wriedt, issued a joint statement with Iran
that " Iran would be given access to supplies of uranium from
Australia under favourxable conditions." On 2 June 1.975, the
present Shadow Minister for Minerals and Energy, Mr. Keating,
said " Japan is interested in moving into nuclear power and
en-riched fuel. We are prepared to give the Japanese any amount
of fuel that they need..." " The only thing is that we would
like to do the enriching. Instead of sending just yallowcake / at
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at bargain-basement prices, we want to get the profit that
comes f rom enrichmnent.
Only days before going out of office, Mr. Whitlam signed a
Memorandum of Understantding f or developing the Ranger Uranium
deposit. He applauded the development as a " major export
earner". At the 1975 Terrigal Labor Conference he helped to
defeat a motion for a 12 months moratoriu-m on uraniumi mining.
Now he says he opposes uranium mining. The lights on the road
to Damascus must have been so dlazzling that Mr. Whitlam can
reverse his stand on any issue without blinking.
Daring the 45 minute debate, Mr. Whitlam and Mx. Hayden sat
mute. Mr. Hawke who had said his heart said no, but his
head said yes to the mining and export of uranium, also sat
silent. What with his head and heart giving conflicting
instructions, he must have lost his voice. But he did speak
up outside the Conference. lie said that there should be more
debate on the issue, and that as a matter of intellectual
integrity, he was not convinced by the arguments for leaving
uranium in the ground.
Mr. Hawke will not be allowed to say th-is sort of thing in the
future. Some unions complained about his statements. And the
Administrative Committee of the ALP in Victoria rules that
every ALP member had to comply with the Perth decision
" including the National President". Mr. Hawke is now protesting
that his statements did accord with that policy. Poor Mr. H-awke.
He should know by now that " matters of intellectual integrity"
do not count for much with the left.
The mining and exporting of uranium does raise moral issues of
fundamental importance. Labor has always evaded them. My
Goverrnent's steadfast posit-ion has been that decisions on
uranium will not be based on the commercial considerations
that were so transparently at the heart of Labor's approach.
our decision will forma a proper and considered response to all
the complex moral and technical issues which the uranium question
involves. The care witi3 which this Government is dealing with the issue of
uranium mining and export, characterises our approach to all
issues of national importance the economy, to the problem
of inequality and disadvantage, to issues of freedom and civil
liberties, to the problems faced by small business. The
Government has taken a number of important initiatives in all
these areas, and I would like to mention just some of the
actions we have taken to assist the small businessman.
The Government is well aware of the importance of the small
business sector. It is a major employer, and constitutes more
than 90% of all business enterprises in this country. The
health of this sector vitally affects the health of the whole
community. In recent years, small business has been under
considerable pressure. Its most serious difficulty has been
ina finding adequate capital to finance its growth and
development. The small businessman does not have access to
/ the
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the stock market for funds, and other traditional sources of
finance, such as bank~ s, are not always able to lend f inance
when required. one reason that the small businessman has had
such a pressing need to find capital is that he has found it
increasingly difficult to finance his growth out of retained
profits and cash flow, In recognition of this, the Governent
haa introduced a series of taxation concessions designed to
remedy this position.
We have introduced a generous investment allowance, which
provides a special tax deduction of 40% of the capital cost
of eligible plant and improvements. We have introduced a
special deduction, called the Trading Stock Valuation Adjustment,
which discounts the value of stock for t1-ax. purposes to take into
account the effects of inflation. With the needs of small
business particularly in mind, we have increased the retention
allowance that is, the proportion of business income that a
private company may retain free of the special tax on undisturbed
income from 50% to 60%. And for those small businessmen who
are primary producers, the system of income Equalisation Deposits
has been introduced. This helps to overcome the dramatic
fluctuations in income which primary producers receive from
year to year.
In addition, like all taxpayers, small businessmen have benefitted
from the historic reform of tax indexation. All these measures,
together with the success of our anti-inflationary policies, have
caused a dramatic turnaround in company profits. The latest
available figures show that company profits in the March quarter
of this year were running 27% ahead of the comparable position
last year. We are also examining the possibility of increasing
the availability of loan capital to small businessmen. A report
issued last year by the Government concluded that there was a
gap in the supply of medium term and long term finance to an
important number of Australian enterprises. We have set up a
task force to examine this matter further and I hope to receive
their report shortly.
The Commonwealth and th1e States have, in the spirit of the new
federalism policies which my Government is pursuing, agreed on
a co-ordinated approach in assisting small businessmen.
Under the new co-operative scheme, the states are providing
counselling services, management courses, and in some cases,
guarantees for -bank loans. The Government is providing research
and information, and co-ordinating the whole scheme to avoid
duplication and maximise the efficient use of available resources.
The Government is determined to encourage the growth of small
business. Such growth is a vital part of our strategy for the
recovery of the Australian economy.
Another sector which is of vital importance to ouir economy is
our export industries. They too have been under pressure,
particularly from the affects of inflation which has pushed
up their costs, in many cases faster than theprices they have
received in foreign markets. Moreover, this pressure has been
greatly increased for exports of agricultural products by the
problem of obtaining access to major markets in Europe. / For some
For some years t the European Economic community has excluded
virtually all Australian agricultural products other than wool,
and, what is worse, European domestic surpluses have been
exported to third countries under exorbitant subsidies thereby
undercutting us in markets right around the world.
More recently these policies of exclusion have been extended
to Japanese manufactured goods, and steel from Japan and
South Africa.
On my visit to Europe in June, I was informed that, the EEC
wished to make Australia reduce our exports of steel to the
Community by 25%, on the grounds that Australia was allegedly
an unf air trader. I would not voluntarily contemplate such
cuts and the request was subsequently withdrawn. I pointed
out the inequity of the current position under which European
exporters have consistently obtained access to our markets
evert in times of economic difficulty whereas many of * our
exports have been utterly excluded from Europe.
Such exiclusion hurts us because the EE~ C, with 260 million
pe. o ple, is the world's largest trader, accounting for
of the world's trade.
As a result of these deliberations, the European Commission
agreed to hold major bilateral discussions later this year.
it was clearly vital that we be represented at these discumions
at the highest level, and accordingly I have appointed a
M4inister, John Howard, to lead the negotiations.
As the Constitution requires, he will be supported by a
new Department, but it will consist of only some 20-30
people. Its function will be to act as a Secretariat
to the negotiating team.
We do not expect the basic principles of the Community' s
Common Agricultural Policy to be altered. But there is
room within that policy to accoimmodate fairly the mutual
interests of the Community and ourselves. Questions of
trade will also be discussed at my meeting with the five
ASEAN Heads of Government in a f ew days time.
My Government has always attached very great importance to
ASEA. The AS13AN countries are a populous, resource-rich
and economically dynamic group of neighbours. Many of our
vital communications links pass through this area, and we have
important and longstanding security agreements with individual
ASEAN members. The region forms our fairth largest export market
and Australia's imports from the five countries have continued
to grow at a substantial rate each year. Between 1970-71
the 1975-76, ASEAN's exports to Australia increased from
$ 87 million to $ 317 million, a growth rate twice as fast
as that of total Australian imports. Since 1971-72, our
imports * of textiles, clothing and footwear from ASEA~ N countries
have increased four and a half times, and the rapid expansion
of imports of ASEAN textiles and clothing has continued, even
though some general import restraints were introduced on these
items in 1974-75. / The
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The Pustralian consumption of ASEAN goods on a per capita
basis is appreciably higher than in other developed countries.
Australian per capita imports of manufactured products from
ASEAN in 1975 was $ 6.50, compared with $ 4.10 for the USA,
$ 2.80 for Japan, $ 2.40 for the BBC and $ 2 for Canada.
The value of our imports of textiles, apparel and footwear
per head was over $ 2 compared with less than $ 1 for each
of the countries 1 have mentioned.
I am confident that as economic conditions in Australia
improve, we will be able to strengthen further our economic
relationship with ASEAN. We have already laid the groundwork
in formulating the Australian Government's long-term policy
towards manufacturing industry. But many parts of the
manufacturing sector have been subjected to exceedingly
rapid rates of change and it is not . reasonable given the
level of unemployment in Australia to subject them to aIc
greater rate of change.
The Government recognises the need for special policies of
protection for-particularly vulnerable industries. I believe
the ASEA~ N Governments themselves recognise Australia's
situation. My discussions later this week will help us to plan for the
future, to investigate together with' the ASEAN countries those
areas in which we can strengthen our economic relations to theI
greatest benefit.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to speak here tonight.
Jim Bradfield is a most effective representative for thi3
electorate, and a constructive and energetic member of the
Government team, particularly through his contributions on
the Government Parties Treasu. ry Committee of which he is
Deputy Chairman. I feel sure, judging from the numbers
here tonight, that you are giving Jim your wholehearted support,
and that he will remain the Member for Barton for many years to
come.