CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
ALP STATE CONFERENCE
SYDNEY 11 JUNE 1989
Delegates, Before I turn to address my main theme today, I want to say
something about the events of the past week which have so
dramatically captured the world's attention: the tragedy
which has been unfolding in China.
Ever since Gough Whitlam made his dramatic visit to China as
Opposition Leader in 1972, successive Australian Governments
have put enormous effort into developing a genuinely
constructive relationship with China, built on our mutual
interests and respect.
I have personally devoted much time and energy to the
relationship with China, and up until this point it has been
a most valuable and rewarding effort.
We have worked tirelessly with our Chinese friends as they
embarked upon and progressively implemented a far sighted
program of reform which has brought great benefit to the
people of China.
It is my sincere hope that China will get back onto that
course, enabling a continuation of the high level of
cooperation that has been so productive for both our
countries.
But the events that have taken place in China over the past
week cast a dark shadow over that.
It is still too early to make an accurate assessment of
where things might now go and the implications for the
region. But the sheer scale, callousness and barbarity of the
slaughter in Beijing cannot but affect substantially the
international standing of the leaders who ordered and
condoned such action.
They stand condemned by their own people and by all
countries with a concern for the fundamental rights and
dignity of human beings. That concern transcends national
boundaries. The Australian Government has taken firm and decisive steps
to underline to those who perpetrated this massacre that
their action cannot be cost-free and cannot be neatly
compartmentalised. Clearly, the action we and others have
taken will need to be kept under review against developments
in China itself.
However, as I have said, it is my hope that sanity will
prevail and that true leadership will once again emerge in
China. I am confident that all delegates present here today
would join with me in that sentiment.
We extend, too, our sympathy to the Chinese-Australian
community, sharing their profound sense of mourning for
those who have lost their lives, and for those whose ideals
and aspirations for their nation have been so barbarously
crushed. Delegates, Almost 100 years ago, the Australian Labor Party was founded
on a deep and enduring commitment to the creation of a more
just society.
Through the succeeding decades, as our Party was organised
at the State and national levels, that commitment never died
and it never diminished.
But it was when Labor Parties began to receive the electoral
mandate of the people, and were called upon to form
Governments, that Labor's real task started: translating
its commitment into programs and policies for the betterment
of Australian society.
It's one of the healthy features of our Party and it's
certainly a feature that distinguishes us from our
opponents that we tend to spend a lot of time analysing
the rate of our progress towards that goal, and debating the
merits and demerits of particular strategies.
But that only shows how seriously we take our
responsibilities to those who elect us, those who support us
and those who need us.
This state of New South Wales knows better than most the
dynamism of these Labor Governments and the magnitude of
their achievements over the years.
At the Federal level, being in Government is, for us, still
a relatively rare experience. Since Menzies defeated
Chifley in 1949 we have led Australia for less than ten
years.
So we have not acquired the born-to-rule disdain, or
indulged in the profligacy of lost opportunities, that
characterised the decades of conservative rule.
When we do win Government we are determined to stay in
Government not for its own sake but because we have that
special responsibility for reform, a commitment to change,
an obligation to all Australians and we set about our task
with foresight and with energy.
That's what Fisher did in the years after 1910 when, for the
first time, the Australian people gave a Federal Government
a mandate in both Houses of Parliament.
That's what Curtin did when he was thrust into leadership of
a nation already at war, though grievously unprepared for
the challenges ahead of it.
That's what Chifley did in the years after the war, setting
the stage for reconstruction of the economy and its
transition to a peacetime footing.
It's what Whitlam did when he set about his program of
reawakening Australian society after 23 years of
conservative rule.
These were massive achievements true evidence that the
commitment to social justice that motivated the founders of
our Party was alive and well, constantly reinvigorated by
new generations of Labor activists.
But these were not blind dogmatists, afraid to adapt the
Party's strategies to meet the changing needs of the
Australian people. As our Party matured, those planks of
our platform judged to be outmoded have been thrown out.
Curtin changed his mind on conscription for World War Two;
Whitlam repudiated the repugnant but once fundamental plank
of White Australia.
What such changes were about was refining the strategies we
employ to achieve our goals.
The goal itself the original vision, of a more just
Australian society has never changed. Nor will it..
So what does our commitment to social justice mean as we
enter the 1990s and prepare to celebrate the one hundredth
anniversary of our Party?
How do we make a truly just society in the era of the global
economy; the nuclear era; the era when development is needed
as never before to feed the people of the world but
threatens as never before to ravage the planet we live on?
I judge it one of my very great privileges to be in
leadership of a Party and a Government that, I am confident,
are equipped as none others to answer that question.
New South Wales consistently provides Federal Caucus with
men and women of the highest calibre. Across the factions,
they have proven again and again their dedication,
determination and commitment to the great goals of our
Party.
This Party and this Government understand the global
problems, and the problems of the Australian community,
because we are in touch with the people.
What I find one of the most stimulating and rewarding
elements of my job is getting out of Canberra, meeting
people in the cities and towns and country areas of
Australia and hearing for myself their views and concerns.
Being in touch means travelling, meeting ordinary
Australians, and listening and talking with them being in
touch means being confronted every day with evidence,
through the media and directly, that one's plans are or are
not being fulfilled being in touch means discussing with
industry groups and trade unionists and interest groups,
their views about the direction of Government policy. I do
all that and that's what keeps me informed and in touch
with the needs and aspirations of Australian people.
It's especially rewarding when this involves seeing the
decisions we have made in the Cabinet room in Canberra
transformed into bricks and mortar, into real measures to
protect our environment, and into new opportunities for the
less privileged in our society.
We often talk in Canberra, for example, about the retention
rate of our schools which is the technical term referring
to the proportion of school kids who stay on at school to
finish Year 12 rather than leaving early.
You have probably heard me say many times that this
Government has massively increased the retention rate of
Australia's schools.
There can hardly be a better proof of our commitment to
egalitarianism, and of our capacity to put in place the
essential preconditions of a more just society, than this.
The year before we came to office, in 1982, the retention
rate had crept up by just one percentage point over the last
five years of the Fraser-Howard-Peacock government and stood
at 36 per cent one of the lowest rates of the Western
world. Only one in three school students was finishing Year
12. After six years of this Government that rate now stands
at 58 per cent and by the early years of the next decade it
will be 65 per cent getting on for double what it was in
1982. You get a vivid picture of what these statistics mean when
you actually visit a school and talk to the students and
teachers and parents.
Back in March, as part of a visit I made to the Hunter
region, I visited the High School in Singleton and I spoke
to an extraordinary crowd: 1200 primary and secondary
school students and teachers drawn from ten schools in the
district. On just about every visit I make to an electorate in New
South Wales and interstate I make similar school visits.
The official part of the visit is brief handing over a
flag or planting a tree.
The really important part is simply listening to the kids.
We talk about the importance of staying on at school to
acquire the skills to contribute to society in a meaningful
way and to have a rewarding life.
And so when I hear Andrew Peacock claim that he could create
a more egalitarian society he actually made that claim in
Parliament recently! I know that is a nonsense.
You know it too. And most importantly, the people know it.
They know that in the schools the kids are finishing their
studies they're not dropping out like they used to when
Peacock and his colleagues were last in office.
That is egalitarianism. That is social justice. That is
Labor in action, building a better society for Australians.
Let me give you another example: youth unemployment.
By themselves, the statistics tell a straightforward story.
When we came to office, unemployment among young Australians
aged 15 to 19 was nearly 30 per cent 28.8 per cent, to be
exact. Now after six years, we have virtually halved it.
Nationally, it's 14.8 per cent and in NSW 14 per cent.
But that is a dry way of presenting an achievement that, for
those individuals who have found work as a result of my
Government's policies, is of massive dimensions.
Throughout Australia, in shopfronts and community centres,
there is springing up a new and very special kind of
organisation called SkillShare.
SkillShare is a unique joint venture between the Federal
Government and community groups designed to provide job
training to people who have been unemployed for long
periods, or who face special disadvantages in getting back
to work.
Courses are offered in, for example, computing or office
skills or hospitality skills or metal work and instead of
this being just textbook training, it is practical training
relevant to the needs of the community.
So not only does the individual gain in acquiring better job
skills but the community benefits in harnessing that
person's talents for the duration of the course and then,
ultimately, as a permanent member of the workforce.
I have visited SkillShare projects all over Australia
including, recently, at the Randwick Employment Access
Centre in Jeanette McHugh's electorate. I presented
certificates to a recent group of graduates from the
SkillShare courses.
In the Cabinet room we design programs and we allocate funds
in a way which we hope will deliver real benefits to people,
and solve real problems.
So when I come to see such a centre in action, and meet the
students and the staff there, I get the satisfaction of
knowing that our endeavour has succeeded. I put faces to
the statistics about declining youth unemployment, and I see
the proof that young unemployed people are getting the edge
they need for a decent start in life.
And it's the same throughout New South Wales, across the
whole spectrum of government policy embracing every section
of the community.
In March, I visited a nursing home in Strathfield and saw
at first hand the care and respect being shown our elderly
citizens thanks to the commitment of dedicated staff backed
by Government funds.
In April, I launched our Womens' Health Policy at Westmead
Hospital in Parramatta a policy based on a massive process
of consultation with women around the nation about their
most fundamental needs and concerns.
At ethnic clubs and balls throughout Australia such as the
Cypriot Club in Stanmore that I visited in March and at
citizenship ceremonies like one in Tamworth on Australia
Day, I heard the concerns of ethnic Australia and witnessed
the decision of hundreds of people born overseas to declare
their commitment to their new homeland.
At the BHP Rod Mill in Newcastle, I heard managers and
workers tell me about the revival of the steel industry an
industry critical to Australia's future but which, in the
early 1980s, looked like being shut down. Had that been
allowed to happen, steel cities like Newcastle and
Wollongong-would have lost their lifeblood. So under the
Government's Steel Plan, agreed to with employers and
unions, we have seen a massive $ 1.8 billion investment that
will provide jobs and exports for years to come.
And next Wednesday I'll be opening a new child care centre
in Marrickville. Throughout Australia, a steadily
increasing number of child care places is being funded by
the Commonwealth, providing working parents with the
confidence that their children can be safely cared for while
they work.
Child care is a vital test of a Government's commitment to
the living standards and the quality of life of working
Australian families. And our record is proud: by 1992,
this Government will have created 98,000 new child care
places a trebling of places since we took office.
So take it all together and see what Labor in action means:
It means real Australian people, breadwinners in real
Australian families, finding real work in real jobs
nearly 1.5 million of them in jobs we have created since
we came to office.
It means real dollars being spent to help real
Australian families in genuine need including the
unprecedented assistance provided by the Family
Allowance Supplement, and other payments to low income
families, which is lifting 500,000 Australian families
out of poverty. This Government is each year spending
nearly $ 9 billion more in real terms on social justice
programs than was being spent under the conservatives.
And Labor in action means not just directly helping
those members of our community who are particularly
disadvantaged, but also, and even more fundamentally,
restructuring the entire economy, so as to remedy the
conditions that determine the prosperity of the
community as a whole.
Under Labor, we are achieving the most far reaching changes
ever seen in the Australian workplace, through the historic
process of award restructuring. This will lead to more
productivity, better career paths and not least, better
remuneration to Australian workers.
Under Labor, we have, through hard work and tough decisions,
created a budget surplus for two successive years the
first in 35 years, and a surplus that has funded real,
permanent, tax cuts of unparalleled magnitude.
I stress the word ' permanent'. I know interest rates are
hurting some people paying off their homes. But it is
necessary to keep them high for as long as it takes to slow
down the economy because otherwise we would face an
economic disaster in which the dollar would fall and
interest rates would skyrocket. So interest rates are lower
now than they could otherwise be.
Unlike high interest rates, the tax cuts as well as the
increased family payments are permanent and will mean
enduring increases in the disposable income of families long
after high interest rates have become a bad memory.
Delegates, Forty one years ago almost to the day, Ben Chifley delivered
to this Conference one of the great political testaments of
our Party.
on 12 June 1948, in a speech called ' These Things Are Really
Worth Fighting For', Prime Minister Ben Chifley defined for
this Conference and for history what he felt the Labor
Movement was on about.
It couldn't have been more simple.
" The problem ( the Labor movement) has set out to right," he
said, " is in seeing that all the community are in a position
to have a decent standard of living. That is the ultimate
goal of the Labor movement whatever the reversals in that
long long road."
He went on: " I think it is tragic, in the world in which
there has been so much scientific development, that men and
women in a community cannot individually be assured of a
reasonable standard of living when unemployment, due to
uncontrollable causes, or sickness, or needs, or attention
to their family, overtakes them, and that they cannot be
assured of security for their own future when they grow old
and security for their children."
" These things," he declared, " are really worth fighting
for."
Today, what are the things we think are worth fighting for?
Is it not the same goal, so simply expressed here 41 years
ago the goal of seeing that all members of the community
have a decent standard of living?
That is the goal we are working towards. It's a goal that
is considerably closer to attainment for the nearly
million more Australians in jobs for the parents using
child care services for the kids completing their studies
for the families receiving the benefits of tax cuts and
higher family payments announced in the April Statement
for the two million Australians sheltering under the
umbrella of Medicare who would otherwise not have the
security of health insurance.
That is what we are fighting for. And they are the people
for whom we fight.
Could these Australians have any confidence, under a Liberal
Government, that their interests were being safeguarded or
their standards of living protected?
Of course not. Andrew Peacock had his chance to stand up
for these people and he failed them. He was a member of a
failed Government, and then he was the failed Leader of a
failed opposition.
So he has already run his race.
It's Up to Labor to govern.
Delegates,
When the founders of our great Party envisaged a more just
society, they, rightly, saw Government as the proper
instrument to achieve that goal.
Today the public sector the Federal Commonwealth plays
as compassionate, as creative, as catalytic a role in the
achievement of social justice as any of our founders could
realistically have wished.
And through the Accord with the trade union movement we have
created as effective a partnership between the political and
industrial wings of our movement as has ever existed a
partnership yielding real and lasting benefits to all
Australians. Of course we haven't created the perfect society.
Of course hardships and needs persist.
As Chifley predicted, there are reversals as we travel the
' long long road'.
But that only makes it more important, for the good of all
Australians, that Labor travel that road and attain its
goal. It is the goal that Labor must attain.
Because only Labor can attain it.
With your help, we will attain it.