-FOR PEDIA WEDNESDAY, 10 MARCH 1982
SPEECH AT OPENING OF VICTORIAN ELECTION CA. PAIGN
This is a great night. We all like to be associated with
success, and I can feel success around me tonight. This is
going to be a great Liberal election campaign. A campaign
which will bring victory to the Liberal Party and continued
good government to this great State.
We all know that campaigns can be a mask for the reality which
lies behLind. They can conceal the real political intent
with screen that is all gloss, all facade. How many
campaizns like that have we seen from Labor throughout this
nation and on the occasions when Labor has had the opportunity
to show; its real measure. How the facade has crumbled.
AustraLians have been the losers and we would be far worse losers
under Labor in the world of today. The Liberal campaign which
Lindsay Thompson will launch tonight will be a great one. It
will be built on strong foundations, by good builders, who have
a record of achievement.
It is a campaign built on the foundations of Liberal philosophy.
Victoria is the heartland of Liberalism. And it is the Liberal
Party which allows the initiative of individual men and women
to be the driving force of our society. Liberal Governments
seek to allow full expression of that indi. vidual. initiative.
It is Liberal governments which promote the economic circumstance. z
in which private enterprise can flourish, opportunities can be
taken, and people's standards of living can rise.
Over the last three decades, living standards have virtually doubled
in this country and this State. And it has all been Liberal
achievement.
2.
We believe in freedom, opportunity, and security.. We want a
strong, secure society, firmly based upon the family;
a society in which the family is supported and the needy and
disadvantaged are cared for, according to their needs and
circumstances. These are our values and they are the values
of the vast -majority of Australians. The vast majority of
Victorians. How different are the socialist left values that Labor would
impose on this state. Labor in Victoria today is further away
from the needs and aspirations of the people of this State thain
it has ever been. Liberal governments have built Victoria up.
-Victorians have long been able to take for granted the kind of:
development that is now happening in other States. Arid we must
not let those achievements be thrown away.
For de cades, Victoria has been a great productive centre for the
whole of Australia as a result of the free-enterprise policies
of liberaliSm.
Victorians Enjoy the highest average household income of any
State, and the highest rate of home ownership. This is the rEal
test. How absurd to say Victoria is behind. Where Liberal
governments take Australia ahead we all know the chaos
of Labor in office. In Canberra they failed. In Tasmania the1y have
failed. In S. A. they failed. In N. S. W. they have not met the!
problems of the day.
They cannot manage an economy and they cannot cope with unions; or
strikes. WE! know Mr Wran has been good at public relations but
now t: he tinsel is coming off. And if it wasn't for power coming
out Victoria NSW industry, and homes would already be on short
terms. This; is a vital election for Victoria. The Governent
which holds power in this State has an enormous impact on people's
lives. As Sir Henry Bolte used to say, " You get up in the morning, turn on
switch on the light, send the kids to school, go along the
roads to work... the States are responsible for all this and more".
He was right%.. The powers of the Government in this State are
vastly important for the well-being of Victoria's families.
Wle want Lindsay Thompson to be premier in this-State standing free,
proud and independent. We don't want Cain dominated by the socialist
left as membiaers of his own party have said. We want a man who
can govern in the interests of all Victorians. We want Lindsay
Thompson. Vie want a Liberal government.
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