ADDRESS
THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND LEADER OF THE NATIONAL
COUNTRY PARTY OF AUSTRALIA
THE RT HON. J. D. ANTHONY M. P.
iT'
A MEETING OF
THE FEDERAL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
OF
THE NATIONAL COUNTRY PARTY OF AUSTRALIA
19TH HOLE MOTEL, CANBERRA
SUNDAY_ 2ND. MARCH, 1980
ii
I have no hesitation in saying today that the coming
months of 1980 will be vital ones,' for the Liberal-National
Country Party Government, and for the nation as a whole. We
face an international situation made more unstable by the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and by events in irain. Therc;
ipotential for further instability, and more clouds on -the
international economic horizon not the least of them the
steadily rising price ofooil.
Against that, we need to note the new de'termination of
the West,, led by the United Statep, to stand up to the
Soviet Union's expansionist polio'y, and the important role
in this new climate of opinion played ' by the Prime Minister.
We need also to look at the invaluable economic advantages
Australia has at a time of rapidly rising energy priceswith
its significant if relatively temporary self-sufficiency
in oil and its massive reserves of other energy resources,
such as coal, gas and uranium.
The challenge Australia faces in 1980 and in the years*
to come is to maximise the advantage *' given by our energy
resources to give security to our exsting industries and to
attract new investment, new industry and new jobs. If there
is any downturn or faltering in the world economy, we will
share in the problems there is no doubt of that. But if
we can take full advantage of our energy resources, our
economic and political stability and our comparatively low
inflation rate we can succeed in assisting the continued
growth of the Australian economy and of rising standards of
living for-all Australians.
The challenge to the Government is to decisively confirm
a course for what could well prove to be the most important
decade in Australia's history. In the 1980s the nation will
make decisions with profouhd implications for its future,
for those Australians who are children now, and for those
not yet born. The availability of jobs for coming generations
will depend very much on the decisions we make in the next
few years decisions about how we respond to the technological
changes under way or coming, about the way we educate our
children, about the way we develop our natural resources,
and about the way we trade in the products of our land,
mines and factories.
The policies of the Coalition Government and its achievements
since 1975 have already set Australia on a successful course
for the 1980s. The particular challenge of the coming
months, in this election year, is to ensure that this course
for the decade is recognised, accepted and put into-practice. / 2
The cornerstone of economic success and social stability
for Australia will be and must-remain the control of inflation.
Another major aim in the economic area is the further reduction
o-f taxes on earnings, both of individuals and companies. At
the same time, we face. the competing-and also important
demands of reducing the deficit the amount the Government
borrows in competition with the private sector and maintaining
spending in important areas of Government activity. These
Are economic policies which have been vital for many years
and will remain so. A further demand has been imposed on
the Australian Government and the governments of oil-consuming
nations around the world by the oil supply an' pricing
uncertainties of the last few years.
As a result.-of this situation, the Government introduced
a policy which at first received bipartisan support of
pricing Australian crude oi4L at world parity. Since the
introduction of that policy, there have been substantial
increases in the price of'oil, and thus of the price paid by
Australians for fuel. As Leader of the National Country
Party* I am made aware daily-of the concern of country people
at rising fuel prices. I take this opportunity, however, of
stating that although the Government recognises the concern,
and sympathises with it, it will not 7 it cannot alter the
policy of pricing Australian oil at import parity. I believe
that for the Government to do so would be to abandon its
responsibility to the nation, not just now but in the future,
and in the end would bring about a great deal more harm than
today's fuel prices could ever bring.
However much the rural sector, and other industries
which depend on liquid fuel, dislike current fuel prices,
they need to under tand that they have more to gain from the
success of the policy, and more to lose from any failure to
pursue it, than anyone else. Farmers, in fact, should be
speaking more loudly than anyone else in support and defence
of this policy. They can be". sure that the Government will
stick to the policy. There is no other policy it can realistically
and responsibly follow.
Last week we saw the go-ahead given for the Rundle oil
shale project the first big alternative-energy breakthrough
flowing from import parity pricing. in the years to come,
when Australia's farmers and transport operators are running
their trucks, tractors and harvesters on Rundle fuel, there
will be few complaints about the policy which made Rundle
viable. Without import parity pricing for ' new' oil a
policy introduced by the Whitlam Government after continuing
pressure from the Liberal Party and National Country Party
th-e oil at Rundle would stay in the ground. Import parity.
4 pricing is the key which will unlock this massive reserve of
oil and the otherswhich I am sure will follow. It is*
also the key that will help give us fuel from coal and from
crops. 3
This aspect of energy development the encouragement
of alternatives is one of the important objectives of the
import parity pricing policy. The price arrangements for
' newt oil are boosting exploration, and the arrangements for
told' oil arc fosteriag fuel conservation aud raLiunaii
dIecisions about fuel type,,, cis well as cricouvaging the
recovery from the ground of oil which previously could not
be economically produced. No one is happy about rising fuel
costs, but we all have a stake in seeing that fuel does not
run out. This is especiaelly true of people like farmers and
transport operators, who are 100% dependent on portable
fuels. Availability of fuel, in the end, will be far more
important than price. We must develop other 1-nergy sources,
and they will not be developed unless people are assured of
getting a price that will make de. elopinent economically
viable. Import parity pricing does just that.
The Government's firm stand on this policy has been
recognised and shown to be vital. Our firm stand on the
major global issue of the day the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan is equally vital.
The ALP has mounted a campaign of slogans and empty
gestures to attempt to hide its unwillingness or inabilityto
reach any consensus at all on eff~ ctive action against
the Soviet Union. It's a campaign which will not succeed.
It's a campaign which depends on hysteria and ignorance.
Australians have seen through it as yet another knee-jerk
reaction from a Labor Party so conditioned to internal
dissension that it is only able to unite in opposition to
the Government. Labor parliamentarians seem to think that they can best
serve the interests of sportsmen and women, and presumably
what they see as -the national interest, by yelling abuse at
the Government. It's no coincidence that -three of those the
Labor Party sees as its top,. men I refer to Mr. Hayden, Mr.
Keating and Mr. Young are among the most adept in the
party at just that tactic.
The low point in this mindless, demeaning exercise came
in Parliament last week. We heard then some of the most
vituperative, bitter and personal attacks it has ever been
my misfortune to witness. The principal target of all this
foul language was the Prime Minister, who is of course, the
man who has done most in Australia to respond effectively to
the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and whose political
courage and leadership have been responsible for Australia's
part in moves for an effective international drive to bring
home to the Russians-the revulsion of the free world at
their actions. / 14
~ 7
That s eems to be why they hate him most. He has acted
and led while they have fumbled and squabbled. You only
have to look at some of the language used in Parliament last
week to see the depth of the Opposition's bitterness on this
issue. On 28th February, Mr. Keating, for example, in one
speech called the Pririe Minister a " Imako shark", a " Judas",
" a phoney", " a humbug", and so on. A whole catalogue of
spleen. This behaviour was rightly condemned as deplorable
by the community. For the Labor Party, these violent outbursts
against the nation's leader were the explosion of the frustration
and division which had been building up since the Russian
troops went into Afghanistan. The Prime MiRister said,
quite rightly on February 26th, and it is worth quoting:
" There has been a thread througWV the Australian Labor Party
which, quite plainly, has wanted to find excuses for the
Soviet Union's actions. If it has not been a question of
finding excuses for the Soviet Union's actions, it has been
a question of finding reasons why we should do nothing".
Those two sentences summarise exactly what is going on
in the Labor Party over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
It is very easy to find the thread in the Labor Party trying
to make excuses for the invasion. The great majority of
Labor Party members, however, are as strongly opposed to
what the Soviets did, what they are doing in the world, as
any of us. The Labor Party and the Government may be in
dispute about some of the ramifications of the Afghanistan
situation, and the Government sees a graver threat to world
peace arising from the i nvasion than the Labor Party does,
but essentially, our positions are litLtle different.
Where we do differ is in our response to the Soviet
invasion. The Government has condemned thu invasion, has
considered a response, announced it arid acted on it. The
Labor Party has condemned the invasion it is unable to
respond. As I have said and as the Prime Minister has said;
the Labor Party says it wants to act to protest to the
Soviets, but cannot agree to support action which would have
impact. All it can agree to do is criticise, misrepresent
and try to distort everything the Govern-m-rrt -do-es. Inst-ead
of constructive proposals it offers abuse, meaningless
slogans and catchcries, empty gestures.
The Labor Party has comriitted itself to opposing Australia's
part in what we believe will be an effective boycott by much
of the free world of the Moscow Olympics. It has not done
this because it believes a boycott would not be effective.
Mly Hayden and many ofr his colleagues have said it would be
effective, again and a gai n. it has opposed Australian
participation in such a boycott because it cannot unite sufficiently
to support any action at all, apart from blindl1y opposing
the Government, and because it believes its ernpLy response
and its empty slogans might win a few votes.
On the other hand,,-the Labor Party has called for
unsupported Australian boycotts of trade to the Soviets.
Again, it has not done this because it believes that such
boycotts are effective. Again, Mr. Hayden and his colleagues
have said they would not work, over* and over.
The Labor Party believes an effective Olympic boycott
would work but it opposes Australian participation in efforts
to achieve that boycott. Yet in the clearest demonstration
of the effects of its own ideological split personality, it
believes Australia should impose'unsupported boycotts on
trade while saying they would be: . useless, and in fact harmful
to Australia. No-one denies that our athletes will be hard-hit by a
boycott of the Olympics.. It is a tragedy that world events
have made it necessary tp propose such an action. But I
stress that such a boycott will be the single most telling
blow the countries of the free world can~ strike at the
. Soviets. Russia could shrug off even a total embargo of its
imports from Australia with no more effort than a cat shaking
water off its foot. It could conceal from its people the
fact that such a boycott had ever occurred.
It could not conceal the absence of many ( of the world's
leading sporting nations from the Moscow Olympics. The
Government knows this and the Opposition knows it.
The six points for a bi-partisan policy, announced last
week by Mr. Hayden, cannot get the Labor Party off the hook
it has hung itself on. The Government would welcome a bipartisan
policy. Nothing could be better for the national
interest and for Australia's significant part in the international
effort to protest to the Soviets. But Mr. Hayden's proposals
are phoney. Mr. Hayden talks about linking an Olympic boycott
with a trade boycott. That's just an excuse for doing
nothing. Mr. Hayden does not believe in unsupported trade
boycotts himself. -He knows the harm that would -do to Australia,
and has said so, repeatedly. But he tries to stop an Olympic
boycott, which he knows would work.
Mr. Hayden must call a halt to all the talk, rein in
his colleagues and show some real leadership. He has to end
the empty gestures and the raftting and vicious abuse. There
is far too much at stake, for Australia and the free world.
If Mr. Hayden cannot bring himself and his party's warring
factions together to accept the basis for a genuine bipartisan
policy, he should stand down and let someone replace
him who is willing to try.
Earlier, I spoke of some of the policies we will need
to carry Australia successfully into the 1980s. It is also
worth looking at how we as a nation are shaping up and I
do not think the picture could be much more encouraging.
Almost wherever you look in the economy today, there are
clear signs of a return to prosperity after the three hard
years of Labor misrule.
The outlook for Au-stralia's farmers is better than it
has been for many, many years. * Their improved circumstances
are again helping the economic fortunes of the rest of the
nation, with much of the recovery in the economy the result
of higher rural incomes, and this higher rural spending.
Market conditions for sugar, wo ' l6, wheat and beef are very
bright. All these things have not occurred by accident, as
I am sure you realise.
They are the result'-of a number of things, including
the way in which the Government, and the members of this
Party, have worked to improve the basis of those industries.
For example, I have devoted'a great deal of time and effort,
along with the Prime Minister and other Ministers, to negotiating
a better deal for Australia's farmer s in the Multilateral
Trade negotiations and elsewhere. We have achieved significantly
greater access to world markets for Australian primary
products. For the minerals and energy sectors-of the Australian
economy, the opportunities offered by the 1980s are unparalleled.
New resources projects or expansionls to existing projects,
either under way or planned in Australia now, arc valued at
total of $ 20 milo. In 1979, overall mining export
prices were up about 20 per cent on 1978, and volumes were
up 4I. 5 per cent. Re-emerging confidence is demonstrated by
a marked increase in mining investment, which has risen from
$ 500 million in 1976-77 to $ 800 million in 1977-78 and
$ 1,150 million in 1978-7a. ' A recent survey by the Australian
Mining Industry Council forecasts a -further 22 per cent rise
in capital expenditure in the industry this financial year.
Estimates suggest that our net energy exports, now running
at about 22 million tonnes of oil equivalent a year, will
increase to about 300 million tonnes a year by 1990. On
these figures, we will be one of the world's major energy
suppliers. In the field of increased processing, the major developments
have been in alumina/ aluminium, with a number of forecasts
suggesting that aluminium will be onie of the fastest-growing
mineral-based industries in the next 20 years. Our aluminium
smelting capacity is expected to increase from about 250,000
tonnes a year to about 1.2 million tonnes a year b~ y 1985,
making us one of the world's major producers. Capital
spending in aluminium projects in the 1980s could reach
$ 3,500 million, with total spending in the baixite/ alumina/ aluminium
areas going over $ 5,000 million. / 17
In other areas, too, the outlook is brighter than it
has been for a long time.
I know there is coflcuvii i1ou-: UciQ. 0 L L
concern fully shared by the Government, andl by myscif Personialy.
But it is worthwhile pointing out that there are now more
people with jobs in Australia than ever before. The number
of civilian employees ir-6 Australia went over five million
for the first time in October 1979. The seasonal peak in
unemployment in January was down on the peak reached the
previous January, and did not disguise the uqpderlying improvement
in the job situation.
I welcome the upward direction to the economy as a
response to the Government's economic management. The great
majority of Australians have the commonsense and foresight
to demand firm and resporfsible decisions from their pblitical
leaders and that is what they are getting. Our success in
controlling inflation through firm restraint has put Australian
industry in the box seat in a tough, highly-competitive
world. It would be a tragedy if that advantage and the
progress we have made were thrown away by politicians who
lacked the resolve to stick to neces'sary policies. We need
a Government that puts the nation's interests ahead of all
else not one which puts outdated slogans and philosophies
at the top of its priorities.