4,, AUST A A Lg
PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA SUNDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 1980
ELECTORATE TALK
The campaign for the Federal. Elections on October 18 begins
in earnest this week, when I address a public meeting in
Melbourne on Tuesday on behalf of the Liberal/ National Country
Party Government.
Later in the week, the Labor Party Leader will be putting his
case in a pre-packaged, heavily edited and carefully rehearsed
television programme. This election is about responsibility in
Government, which is the theme of my policy speech.
I will be asking Australians for their support on the basis of
our record over the last five years and the undertakings we are
giving now to continue along the same path of good management,
responsibility and confidence in Australia's ability to face
the challenge of the future.
The Government which you choose will be the Government that
leads Australia forward into the 1980s. The world has entered
uncertain times, Soviet aggression, and countries in conflict,
have cast a shadow over world peace. Countries around the world
face the problems of inflation and what flows from it: loss of
business confidence, declining trade, and unemployment. Australia's
stability, security and prosperity will depend on the way we tackle
the challenges at home and abroad.
our achievements over the last five years are considerable. The
Government has brought run-a-way public spending under control,
and cut inflation back from 17 per cent to between 10 and 11
per cent. Australia has become competitive again in world markets.
Investment is once more flowing into Australian industry, our
country is once more developing. More than 200,000 new jobs have
been created over the past year as a result of our policies.
Australia today is far better placed than many others to weather
the storms and meet the challenges of the 1980s. Over the coming
years, it is the Government's intention to maintain our strengthening
economy, and with it to continue to creation of employment,
stability and prosperity for Australian working men and women.
The Government will continue to restrain its own spending and to
hold down taxes and maintain the fight against the inflation
which now besets so many countries. L1QAAQJ PiLe
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Australia has great resources: coal, minerals, natural gas and
farmlands; and a people with talent, skill, enthusiasm and
initiative. It deserves a Government which will continue thecurrent
policies of development, economic responsibility, and
of care and concern for those members of the community who are
in need. It needs and deserves a Government dedicated to
security and stability, to good management and responsibility.
Over the last week, the Labor Party has been engaged in its
typical electioneering programme of inflated promises and unreal'
programmes. Let me remind you what happened between 1972 and
1975 when Labor was in Government. Government spending rose to
more than 30 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, s6 that despite
the huge increase in taxation revenues, the Labor Party found
it necessary to increase the Budget deficit enormously and to
go to the printing presses.
The promises already made by the Labor Party now show that another
Labor Government would be just as irresponsible in its economic
management. Six promises alone made by Mr. Hayden so far would
cost an extra $ 2 billion every year as costed by the functional.
departments and tC-he Department of Finance. That is equivalent to
more than $ 8 a week for every taxpayer in Australia.
It should be remembered that if the same rate of tax still applied
as in the Budget which Mr. Hayden brought down in 1975 when he
was Treasurer, then a taxpayer on average weekly earnings with a
dependent spouse and one dependent child would be paying out
$ 22.50 a week more in taxation than he pays today.
Ile have substantially reformed the tax structure. Those reforms
included a reduction in rates, and a simplified three step scale
which restores incentive and makes overtime and pay increases
worthwhile. For example, under Labor in 1975-76, an income earner
was paying 35 cents in the dollar on an income between $ 5,000 and
$ 10,000. Hie paid 45 cents in the dollar on incomes between $ 10,000
and $ 15,000, and 55 cents in the dollar from $ 15,000 to $ 20,000.
Under our scales the tax on taxable income is 32 cents in the dollar
uup to more than $ 17,000 -a very substantial difference indeed.
The latest tax cut, from July 1 this year, is worth between $ 4
and $ 5 a week to a wage earner on the standard rate with a
dependent spouse.
The tax threshold has been raised to over $ 4,000, and in the case
of taxpayers with dependent spouses, the first $ 6,500, or a little
more, is tax free. As a result of our reforms, over half a million
low income earners no longer have to pay tax. The spouse allowance
has been doubled and the sole parent rebate has been increased.
Commonwealth estate and gift duties have,-been abolished.
Labor has indicated that if it ever returned to office, it would
impose a capital gains tax, a wealth tax, a resources tax, and
a punitive tax on higher incomes. These taxes threaten enterprise,
initiative and economic freedom. The wealth and the resources
of the coimmrunity would flow away from the commnunity and into the
coffers of the Governmn-t.
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Their expenditure and tax policies would mean a return to
rising inflation; a collapse of economic growth and development;
and a loss of the competitiveness which has been won over the.
past five years. There would be lower living standards; reduced
opportunities for individuals and for families; a loss of
confidence in the future; and a decline in jobs for Australian
men and women.
Every time the Labor Leader makes a promise, it is at the expense
of the Australian taxpayer And of the Australian community. What
he is promising belongs to you, not to him or to his Party. It
is to conceal these facts that Labor has launched-its campaign on
the basis of misrepresentation and false claims. The Labor Party
attempts to make people believe that all problems can be solved
by governments with enough power and enough money.
The reality is that to the Labor Party and to the Socialist
Parties everywhere, governments are more important than individuals
and families, and re-distributing wealth is more important than
creating it. They attempt to make people believe that the services
provided by Government are free, when in fact they are paid for
by the taxpayer, arid that social progress can be achieved without
economic progress.
Perhaps the greatest deception that Labor is attempting to
perpetrate is the nature of the leadership which they are offering.
For the purposes of the campaign, the Labor Party is running an
electoral Troika. They are putting forward a team comprising the
Premier of New South Wales, the Candidate for Wills, and Mr. Hayden.
The Labor strategists are trying to give the impression that the
Labor Party has more to offer than Mr. Hayden. Of course, Mr. Wran
remains in the New South Wales Parliament with some responsibilities
to that State, while Mr. Hawke would. have to win the vote of the
Labor Party Caucus if he is even to remain Spokesman on Industrial
Relations. Mr. Hayden's avalanche of promises could only be
fulfilled by imposing a burden of costs which would hurl the
country into a new round of inflation, destroying the economy and
creating more unemployment on a massive scale, as it did between
1972 and 1975.
My policy speech will demonstrate that our continuing and overriding
commitment is to sound and responsible Government, a
Government concerned for the future and for the security, in the
broadest sense, of every Australian. 000---