UNDER EM4BARGO: DELIVERY 8.30 p. m. F7/ 2 0 AB / TP
PRIME MINISTER
FOR PRESS 27 OCTOBER 1978
ADDRES S
AT
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN
STATE COUNCIL DINNER
Mr President, I am delighted to have been asked to speak at
this State Council dinner, and to have the opportunity to
congratulate you on your re-election.
This is your third term as State President in South Australia,
and I have very much appreciated your advice and assistance.
over the last two years.
This is also the first opportunity I have had to thank formally
the South Australian Division as a whole for the part they
played in our overwhelming success at the last Federal Election.
Last December every sitting Liberal throughout Australia who
contested the election was returned. The Labor Party's share
of the vote actually fell from 1975, and was the lowest recorded
since 1934. And here in South Australia, as in three other
States, the Government won three of the five Senate seats.
It was a massive endorsement of the Liberal philosophy and
the Government's policies, and a great tribute to all those
in the Party Organisation who campaigned so hard.
On the State scene I know that David Tonkin and his team,
working closely with your re-structured executive, are on
course to win office at the next State elections.
The State Labor government had given you a good omen they
have recently increased their Cabinet to thirteen. But it
won't be bad luck that brings the Labor government down.
It will be its dismal failure to provide the kind of policies
that South Australia needs to gjet this State moving again.
Only a Liberal Government has th e philosophy and the policies
to revitalise this state. For our primary interest * as a
Party is in people: their individual gifts and their right
to have the chance to develop them to the full; their freedom
to participate fully in the political life of this country;
their right to take risks and be rewarded for success; and
/ 2
-2-
their need for compassionate and effective help
when in difficulty, help which is provided
in ways which enhance rather than diminish self-esteem
and dignity.
The Liberal ideal is a stable, humane, and civilised
country, enriched by a diversity of cultures and
life styles and unified by a sense of national purpose
and identity.
The Liberal Party seeks a growing and developing
Australia in which private enterprise is able to thrive
and expand helping to provide satisfying work for
all Australians.
It was no accident that the founder of our Party, Sir Robert
Menzies, chose the name " Liberal", for we are the
successors of a long and great tradition.
The Liberal tradition has inspired social reform in Australia
for a century. It was the LiberalIs who introduced votes
for women, and later, votes for 18 year olds, the secret
ballot, our arbitration system, old age pensions, tariff
protection for local industry,
Commonwealth funding for education and,
more recently, family allowances, the indexation of pensions,
tax indexation and revenue sharing with the States.
The Liberal tradition, with its emphasis on individual
rights and needs, and its suspicion of easy, big spending,
bureaucratic solutions, is just as relevant today as
at any other time in its history.
Just as Liberals centuries ago fought against centralised
power, we are today taking up the challenge of curbing
the power of big government and big bureaucracy. Just
as the great British Liberal, Keynes, helped governments
to overcome the Great Depression so Liberals today have
forged new policies which are meeting today's challenges,
which are overcoming inflation, and returning the
dispirited, shaken economy we inherited to full health.
How then do we see the 1980s? We utterly reject the Labor
Party's hang-dog attitude which can see nothing but problems.
Mr. Hayden keeps calling the 1980s " the decade of despair".
In a way I can understand that. It will be a decade of despair
for the Labor Party. They are haunted by the prospect of
long years and more of opposition.
After the last election, Labor's policies were so utterly
discredited that the A. L. P. established a Committee of
Inq~ uiry to inquire into itself. The Committee's task was
truly herculean.-to get the Labor Party back in touch with
the real needs and aspirations of the Australian people.
Is it any wonder they have-, drifted apart? / 3
-3
There was a time when the Labor Party was represented
in Parliament by men who had been schooled in the
union movement; men who understood the need for a person
to get a job and support his family; men who had struggled
for better conditions for their fellow workers. But nov4
such men are rejected, thrust aside in favour of proponents
of theory and dogma the very sort of theoreticians
dominating the Labor Party's Committee of Self Inquiry.
That Inquiry recently unveiled its schemes for Australia's
economic future a scheme to nationalise major
Australian companies. It seems the only way Labor can keep
in touch with private industry is to nationalise it.
One of the authors of the scheme said it was about time
people woke up to what the Australian Labor Party was all
about. Well, I can tell him the Australian people are
wide awake to the Labor Party. They know Labor has forsaken
the working men and women of Australia. That's why in
the last two Federal elections so many Australians voted
Liberal. That's why so many Australians will vote Liberal
through the 1980s.
The parlous state of the economy which we took over from
our predecessors less than three years ago demanded that we
give a high priority to getting inflation down. Inflation
threatens our living standards, it particularly harms those
on fixed incomes, those least able to defend themselves.
It destroys the initiative to invest and grow. It destroys
jobs. It leads to unemployment. A government that condones
inflation condones unemployment. A government that creates
inflation as Labor did creates unemployment. We as Liberals
should never forget that. Inflation can destroy efforts to
improve the well-being of the disadvantaged.
As a government, we have heeded the Henderson Poverty
Report's warning to governments against the danger and I
use Professor Henderson's words: . of falling into the
inflationary trap of attempting to carry out so many social
reforms or other public expenditures at once, that they
accelerate an inflationary spiral that does more to damage
poor people than the assistance provided by the reform"
Our view that the fight against inflation is crucial is
held by many world governments. The case is so compelling
that it is even recognised by socialist governments.
Let me quote from the British Prime Minister's October
speech to the British Labor Party's Annual Conference:
" The beginning for the Government is how do we keep inflation
down". " It is the Governmeprt's inescapable responsibility
to keep down inflation, not against anybody, but in the
interests of the whole of the people of this country". / 4
-4
In Australia, we have already had great success in
reducing inflation-By maintaining our policies, we
will force inflation down further.
Our fight against inflation has not prevented the
Government from undertaking a wide range of initiatives'
and reforms. The more we reduce inflation, the more we
can push ahead strongly and rapidly in realising our
goals for Australia.
The challenge of the 1980s is not some unrealistic
Utopia some pie-in-the-sky dream utterly divorced
from reality. We have a vision of Australia's future
it is a vision we will achieve.
Our vision is of an Australia which is a country of growth
and development, of prosperity and enlightenment, of
stability and security, of compassion and effective help
for those in need a country in which the quality of
freedom and opportunity for individual Australians has
no equal anywhere.
We ask only one thing of this nation for the mean and
women of Australia to recognise their common interests;
to recognise that by working together with determination
and common purpose there is nothing this nation cannot
achieve.
As Liberals, we believe this vision will be achieved
by Government policy, by the actions of voluntary
organisations, and above all by the conscious commitment
of individual Australians leading us to a more caring,
more responsible, more creative, more tolerant, more
self-reliant nation.
We are already on the way to realising this great ideal.
It is our goal to build a vigorous vital economy, sure of
its own strength developing through the capacity of
its people.
We want a more competitive society, with less government
restrictions, where new businesses are encouraged. We
have moved to lift the heavy hand of bureaucracy.
Our goal is a society in which satisfying and fulfilling work
is available for those who seek it. Our economic policies
are moving Australia in that direction. We are overcoming
the ills and difficulties of Labor's excesses.
Our goal is to provide effective and compassionate
assistance to those in need and our welfare programmes
are doing this. Our introduction of the family allowance
is one of the greatest social welfare innovations
made in Australia in this century.
The new programmes we have introduced for migrant and
ethnic communities are a long-needed breakthrough in
this area.
Our goal is a free and tolerant society which protects
the basic rights of people. A society where privacy
is respected, where the rule of law prevails, where
justice is available to all, where bureaucracies are
responsive to people's needs, and there is redress for
ill-considered decisions by public servants.
our goal is a society where industrial disputes shall be
settled by consultation and reason and if that fails
the rule of law will prevail.
We look to a decade in which employers and employees will
recognise their common interests, and that the greatest
gains for all Australians come from increasing the
nation's wealth.
We have already made great advances in this area by
providing protection for conscientious objectors; by
introducing secret postal ballots for union elections;
by establishing the Industrial Relations Bureau.
Our goal is to respond to the problems created by our
complex industrial society. We are determined that,
together with voluntary welfare associations, we will meet
the problems of drug abuse, of family breakdown, of
frustration and alientation.
Our goal is a healthy Australia with health services equal
to any in the world provided at a reasonable cost.
We have already made substantial reforms to Australia's
health services.
Our goal is an Australia enjoying a high standard of education,
which meets the needs of our multicultural society; an
education system that contributes to a vigorous, vital and
inventive people wanting to work for themselves and their
families.
The Williams Report, examining the problems of education
and training, will assist us to move the education system
further towards this objective. / 6
-6
The realisation of all these goals depends significantly
on the achievement of our economic objectives. Only
a stable, prosperous economy in which inflation has been
overcome and confidence fully restored will provide all
the resources necessary to achieve our ends.
Australians have every reason for great confidence in
the future. The recent favourable trends in the economy
are the result of this Government's policies: inflation
is down; interest rates are moving down; the rural sector
has very good prospects; with a more stable cost base,
we are competitive again and are getting our manufacturers
back into world markets. It gives us a chance to sell at
home and abroad.
Falling interest rates will stimulate activity for businesses
of all sizes. It will make it easier for Australians
to purchase homes. We have made significant progress and
this steady improvement will continue.
Let us not just pay lip-service to the goals and aspirations
we all share, for they are not mere abstract notions
suitable only for reflective speeches by Prime Ministers.
We need all of us to relate these goals to our
everyday lives.
Let me give some examples. We all believe in there being
more jobs available for Australians out of work. It is
time union leaders showed real concern for the unemployed
by moderating wage claims to prevent working men and women
being priced out of the labour market.
We all believe in the handicapped receiving a fair deal.
It is time more employers showed real concern for the
handicapped by offering them work as vacancies become
available.
We all believe in a fair and equitable taxation system.
It is time so many Australians stopped indulging in
blatant and artificial tax avoidance schemes.
We all believe in conservation and the need to protect
our environment. It is time we all made a real effort to
stop littering Australia and polluting our environment.
We all believe in a great country. It is time we stopped
knocking Australia.
Achieving the goals and aspirations we share is not just a
task for Government. It is a task for Government and people;
for the Commonwealth and the States; for the young and
old; for all Australians wherever they may be.
The Australian Government seeks a partnership with the
community; between government, employers and employees;
between Government agencies and voluntary organisations;
between legislators and individual Australians. With such
a partnership, with such a commitment, there is nothing
Australians cannot achieve. 0 00---