CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVZRY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
ADELAIDE BY-ELECTION CAMPAIGN LAUNCH
ADELAIDE 18 JANUARY œ 988
Friends, Six months ago, the Australian people made an historic
choice. In the Federal election campign last winter, the Australian
people were asked to determine the direction in which the
Australian nation would travel for the final years of this
century and beyond.
They were presented with a choice between the starkest
possible aternatives.
it was a choice about whether the real issues facing the
country would be addressed or whether they would be ignored.
it was a choice between the continued capacity of a Labor
Government to steer the economy through difficult times, and
the equally obvious but diametrically opposite capacity of
the conservative opposition to Jeopardise our economic
recovery, and to throw away all the hard work and all the
sacrifices that you the community had made to achieve that
recovery. The campaign was a choice between the continued capacity of
the Labor Government to spread the burden of adjustment
fairly and help protect the least well off members of our
community, and the proven unfairness and myopic lack of
compassion of the conservatives.
So when the Australi an people delivered their verdict in the
ballot box on 11 July they delivered it in the most
forthright of terms.
They renounced the Alice in wonderland arithmetic of our
conservative opponents.
They refused the illusory bribe of tax cuts. 003911
They repudiated the politics of division and weakness and
instability which then and now hold sway in today's
conservative parties.
it Is scarcely possible to overestimate the significance of
that decision on 11 July.
For by calling on the Labor Party to continue in office, by
giving us our historic Third Term, the Australian people,
quite simply, rewrote the nation's political and economic
agenda. Never again, I believe, will a poli tical party be able, with
any credible hope of success, to go to the Australian people
with voodoo economic promises that neither add up nor
address the realities of the economic challenges facing our
country. my friends,
I remind you of all this today because we are here to launch
a new campaign a campaign to elect a person who can
continue to give the people of Adelaide a strong voice in
Government in Canberra.
There are many local issues of importance in this campaign
and I know Don Farrell and his team of campaign staff are
dealing with them day by day in their campaign activities.
But the Adelaide by-election is also important from the
national point of view.
For the stark contrast which the Government and Opposition
are presenting to Adelaide voters today is the same stark
contrast confronting the nation last July.
And the questions which the Australian people as a whole
decided so decisively on 11 July are the same questions
facing the voters of Adelaide on 6 February.
Those questions are: which political party is best equipped
to manage the economy fairly and with compassion in these
times of economic difficulty; and which political leadership
can win the necessary cooperation in the community to meet
those challenges?
Those questions were decided decisively in our favour last
July and since then nothing has happened to disprove or
question the accuracy of the verdict the Australian people
made at the ballot box.
indeed, events since the election have only confirmed their
judgement. 0039) 12
91
Since the election the Labor Government has brought down the
balanced Budget.
We have kept our promise to introduce a flew program of
assistance to Australia's low income families.
we argued for a $ 6.50 wage increase at the National Wage
Case a vital step in the maintenance of the Acco rd and a
stark contrast to the miserable performance of the Liberals
who in 19 of the last 21 wage cases have argued for no wage
rise at all for Australian workers.
we have maintained our commitment to the environment. we
have nominated the tropical rainforests of North-East
Queensland for world Heritage Listing. And I was delighted
that late last year the World Heritage Committee accepted
our nominations of uluru and Kakadu stage ii for world
Listing. The Liberals, you remember, were so concerned for the
environment during the election campaign that they wanted to
abolish the commonwealth's departmental responsibilities for
the environment.
As for the economic policies the Liberals advocated in the
election campaign policies which we described at the time
as dangerous and shortsighted they have indeed been
exposed as such by events since 11 July.
Could it be seriously argued that an experiment of the
magnitude the Liberals were proposing an unprecedented
upheaval in fiscal policy and a massive trauma to the social
fabric of the nation could have been conducted in the
uncertain world economic conditions represented by the stock
market crash?
Could John Howard's extraordinary plan to rotate his front
bench with his back bench have provided the stability and
certainty which government must provide?
And could the spectacular collapse of the Federal
pretensions of Joh BJelke-Petersen have added to that
stability? You will not find me quoting Senator John Stone very
frequently at least, not quoting him approvingly but I
can only support his recent verdict that the conservatives
had shown in the July campaign that they were not ready for
government. i would add: they are still not ready for Government.
Let me take you to the clearest recent demonstration of that
a demonstration provided by John Howard himself. 003913
4.
I refer to the speech John Howard delivered earlier this
month to a convention of Young Liberals in Sydney.
it was a speech which bore the portentous title " The Liberal
vision 1988" a title which suggests that the 1988
version of the opposition's polii ves might at least have
been improved in the light of the failures of their 1987
model. But the policies of folly with which the Liberals entered
the campaign the policies which the Australian people,
repudiated on 11 july are still basically on their policy
books. Mr Howard's speech explicitly endorsed those failed policies
of the last campaign.
Let me quote him. He said " The theme of providing greater
incentives through the tax system, through the industrial
relations system and in other areas was the dominant theme
of the Liberal Party's ca mpaign in the July election. I do
not resile from it. Ido not apologise for it."
in other words he does not resile from the illusory tax
bribe which he offerd in July with all its faulty
arithmetic. Nor does he resile from the necessarycimplications of the
tax bribe the devastation of the socia programs which he
would have slashed to finance the tax cuts.
As usual he has not specified what programs he would cut or
what recipients of Government assistance would be
Ifict iml s ed.
But it has become clear since 11 July that the Liberals
would seek to cut Government spending by a massive total of
some $ 11 billion.
To cap off his speech Mr Howard said the Liberals would not
release their new policies until they have concluded their
policy review process in August.
which means in the meantime they want Adelaide voters to
take them on trust to forget the $ 11 billion in proposed
cuts to ignore the voodoo element of his economic
policies. All Mr Howard offered are what he called * the four great
Liberal values:" freedom, fairness, incentive and
excellence. Those are the values by which he said he will judge new
policies.
Where-does that leave the voters of Adelaide? 003914
It leaves them with -a rhetorical reiteration of Vague
goals". And that is not my conclusion but a comment from the
Financial Review's editorial on the speech.
The editorial continued that the speech was " a rerun of the
p Iast two election campaigns during which the difficulty of a
timely translation of grand phrases intotpractical policies
roved to be beyond the capabilities of te Liberal
ea ership."
The simple tact is that Mr Howard still has no new policy to
flesh out those bare bones of meaningless rhetoric.
At heart john Howard still has no answer to the real issue
of the economic challenge confronting Australia.
This Government has told the truth about our economic
difficulties. We have not sought to hide the scale of the
sacrifices which were and are needed to solve those
difficulties. We said that no society could sustain the assault on its
national income that Australia has suffered through the
collapse in the terms of trade without making real and
difficult domestic adjustments.
What the Labor Government has done is take the right
decisions which equip Australia to cope with the
international trading problems and take advantage of what
new opportunities will arise.
And we have done that with the cooperation and understanding
of the whole community and not least with the men and
women who make up Australia's trade union movement.
But Mr Howard resorted to bluster. and deception when he
describes Australia's economic situation.
He suggested every Ir ed blooded Australian nationalist
should seethe with rage" at what he claims is Australia's
" financial enslavement to the rest of the world" as
though he, or anyone else, could ensure Australian economic
prosperity in isolation from the opportunities and
challenges presented by the world's markets.
Nowhere in Mr Howard's speech was there any acknowledgement
of Labor's achievements in winding back the Budget deficit
from the scandalous $ 10 billion which was in prospect when
the Liberals left office in 1983.
We have progressively and responsibly cut back that deficit
to the point where, in the September Budget, Paul Keatin?
was able to announce the Budget had been restored virtua ly
to balance. And it is already clear that we will exceed
this the current Budget will be in surplus. 003915
interest rates are falling. Bank mortgage rates have now
fallen to around 14 per cent.
But mr Howard did not acknowledge that nor did he mention
that industrial disputation has been more than halved In our
time in office.
Nowhere in Mr Howard's speech was there any acknowledgement
of Labor's job creation achievement which has created
900,000 new jobs since 1983.
Nowhere did he recognise that under Labor, Australia is at
last facing up to the massive task of economic
reconstruction which was evaded and neglected for so many
years by Liberal Governments.
As I said during the election campaign, the task of
structural adjustment is one of our highest priorities for
our Third Term, bringing reforms to our domestic
infrastructure and putting strate ies in place for the
export-earning industries of the future.
when Labor came to office our schools were retaining to
Year 12 just over a third of the nation's school children.
As a result of our policies, children are staying longer at
school, acquiring the skills and abilities which will fit
them better to find satisfying and constructive employment
In adult life.
More than half our children are now staying on to Year 12
and by the early 1990s we aim to have that proportion up to
two thirds.
This is a major social reform but it had no place in
Mr Howard's Liberal " Vision" of 1988.
And nowhere in that " Vision" is there a recognition of the
steadily improving position of elderly pensioners.
When Labor came to office, the pension was 22.7 per cent of
Average weekly Earnings now it is 24.8 per cent.
The standard rate of pension has increased by 8.2 per cent
in real terms under Labor compared with a fall of 2.5 per
cent over the 7 years of the previous Government.
I put the question to the Liberals campaigning in Adelaidehow
does your leader's empty talk about freedom and fairness
compare with that tangible, delivered, paid for proof of my
Government's concern for the elderly members of our
community? My friends,
Perhaps the most glaring omission of all in his speech,
devoted as it was in part to the theme of fairness, was
Mr Howard's failure to mention the great revolution which is
taking place in Government assistance to families. 003916
i promised during the election campaign that my Government
would implement a family Assistance prog ram which would mean
that by 1990 no Australian child need lie in poverty.
Since our re-election we have acted speedily to implement
that promise.
Low income Australian families are now eligible for up to
$ 22 per child per week and more in the case of younger
teenage rs.
This Family Package is doing more to help make Australia a
fairer society and a more compassionate society than any
amount of rhetoric from Mlr Howard about the Liberals,
" Vision" for the future.
it is direct assistance, clearly targeted, and it io already*
paid for within the disciplines of Labor's balanced Budget.
Not as many families in Adelaide have yet applied for the
new Family Assistance as we believe are entitled to.
So let me take this opportunity to encourage those of you
who may be eligible for this assistance to apply for it
and to pass the word on to friends or work colleagues who
may be eligible.
The new family program is an achievement of which I am proud
indeed it is an achievement of which all Labor supporters
can be proud.
Because it has been put in place in fulfilment of our
Party's deepest aspirations to help those members of the
community who are in need.
Those aspirations have guided our work since 1983.
They will continue to guide our work throughout our Third
Term. They will continue to be our guiding 1ñ ghta through the
diflicult task of managing the economy in the years ahead.
wie should not delude ourselves that Australia's economic
Eproblems are all solved or that all the tough decisions are
behind us.
But that is why we should demand that whoever represents us
in Parliament formulates and is prepared to implement
policies to solve those problems.
And that is why I want Don Farrell to be the new member for
Adelaide. 0 0 39) 17
It's not just that he has a capacity for hard work. It's
not just that he has a close knowledge of living and working
in Adelaide to take up where Chris Hucford left off in
ensuring that Adelaide's interests are fully represented in
caucus and in the Federal Parliament.
it is fundamentally that as a member of the Labor team in
Government Donl Farrell will be able to contribute to the
great * task of ensuring that Australia equips itself for the
challenges and opportunities of the future.
My friends,
Last month, the President of the United States,
Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Leader, M'ikhail Gorbachev,
signed an historic treaty in Washington.
it was a treaty to eliminate the entire class of
intermediate nuclear weapons based in Europe and Asia the
first time in the history of nuclear arms control that a
treaty had been signed which mentioned the word
" elimination" in its title.
The conclusion of this treaty in a spirit of constructive
frankness between the superpowers is a good omen for the
whole world.
Considerable further work is being done as the basis for
future agreements on further cuts in the arsenals, bringing
the world closer to the goal of the abolition of nuclear
weapons. You will all know the recognised role which Australia has
played in urging the superpowers to reach this agreement and
in creating a climate conducive to arms control.
we are only a medium sized nation but we have used all the
forums available to us to advance this goal.
I refer with pride to the comment of the Secretary-General
of the UN Committee on Disarmament, Mr Komatina, who praised
Australia's work and said that the goal of nuclear
disarmament would be further advanced if more countries had
tollowed Australia's lead.
what role would John Howard have been able to play if he had
been Prime Minister during this period?
John Howard is an uncritical supporter of the US Star War$
program. He has Jingoistically refused to see anything but
danger in the changes currently underway in the Soviet
Union. He has made it clear he prefers to operate in the
black and white colors of the Cold war rather than the more
subtle tones of this new era of superpower cooperation.
Like Liberals of the past, John Howard sees foreign policy
purely as a screen for the projection of his conservative
domestic political concerns. 003918
Australia cannot afford such an attitude.
Friends, Some commentators say that this is only a by-election and
that therefore it provides an opportunity to cast a
" protest" vote.
They are right this by-election does give the voters of
Adelaide the opportunity toiprotest to protest against the
continuing fai lure of the Li berals to fulfill their
democratic role of providing a viable alternative
government. it gives them the chance to protest at the continuing
f ~ l r of. tho Libergilc -to -n pla wt to . atr1 . rbea
facing this country. W
it gives them a chance to compare those opposition failures
with the continuing progress of steady reform, which we
promised during the July campaign and which we have pursued
since our re-el ecti on.
A majority of Liberal voters doesn't support John Howard.
His Federal President, john Elliott, doesn't support him.
His economic spokesman, Andrew Peacock, doesn't support him.
Now can the voters of Adelaide support him?
So the election of Von Farrell as the Member for Adelaide
will not only inject new talent into the Labor ranks.
It will also remind the Liberals that they will never make
political headway in this nation while they operate in a
policy vacuum without specifying what they would do if they
were elected to office.
It will remind them they will never win the trust of the
Australian people while they offer only weakness and
instability at the leadership level.
And it will remind them that they can never convince the
Australian people that talking about fairness is a
substitute for doing something about it.
Meanwhile, my friends, we in the Labor Government will
continue to provide the united, strong, stable and
far-sighted 1leadership of this great country which the
Australian people expect of us and which they fully deserve
from us. 003919