My Friends, Fellow Australians
The message I bring to you today is a message of confidence
in the future of Australia, and a renewed commitment to a
better, fairer future for all Australians.
It is a message based firmly on realism
the realism and substance of our policies for the
future, the fact that the tough and hard decisions we have
had to make for the good of Australia are starting
to work,
the fact that we are building together a nation of
opportunity, fairness and security,
and above all, on the strength of the Australian
people.
My Friends,
I know that we have had to take hard and unpopular decisions
for difficult times.
I know I understand completely that those decisions have
been tough for many decent, hard working Australia":.
But I also know that I would not be fit to lead our great
country if I had chosen the easy, popular way at the cost of
the nation's future.
And anyone however glib or smooth who tells the people
of Australia that the future lies at the end of an easy road
is not fit to be your Prime Minister.
This is not a time for slogans or hollow rhetoric.
It is a time for leadership. It is a time for substance.
It is a time for realistic policies. It is a time for real
answers. Policy Launch
by the Prime Minister,
Bob Hawke
8 March 1990
2.
It is a time for vision with realism. And now more than
ever, it is a time for stability and unity in government.
And by those tests, the people of Australia have never had a
clearer choice.
And in a very deep sense, the choice lies between two
opposing principles the choice between opportunity and
privilege. This, in the final analysis, is the great divide between
Labor and the Liberal/ National Coalition a profound
difference over goals for the nation, and over a range of
specific issues: taxation, education, training, industrial
relations, health care, child care, superannuation.
ence IOn all these vital issues, you have the decisive difference
a A Labor working to enlarge equality of opportunity for all;
aLiberal/ National coalition working to deny opportunity and
entrench privilege.
My Friends,
the Labor presents a comprehensive, realistic, responsible and
achievable plan for Australia's future:
have A-a plan for continued growth and rising
rtingproductivity; a plan to increase the nation's savings and reduce
on ofthe nation's debt;
ianf..-a strategy to boost exports and replace imports;
k-a strategy to free up international trade and to
4$ tie Australia into the economic boom in Asia and
the Pacific;
sions a framework of education and science policies to
prepare our young people for the challenges of the
have 21st century;
an agenda for a fair society with opportunity open
at to all Australians wherever they were born,
at ofwhatever their background;
a commitment to the right of all Australians to
ple health care through Medicare;
road a plan to protect Australia's precious environment
for all time, for all Australians.
Our plan represents an historic step towards great national
goals:
e. real
: 3.
a modern, growing economy, earning its income,
paying its way through exports to the markets of
the world, re-equipped and restructured in its
attitudes, its institutions and its technology;
a self confident and vigorous partner in the world
economy and in the economy of our region the
region of the future.
Let me emphasise:
The new proposals I present today are achievable,
responsible, fully paid for.
By contrast, our opponents, at last count, had a credibility
gap of $ 6000 million in unfunded promises.
Our new proposals build on our years of hard work together
our work together to create one million six hundred thousand
new jobs, to take 250,000 people off the dole.
The task of managing the Australian economy in these times
of strong growth has, of course, called for rigorous
policies and sometimes tough decisions.
And let me say frankly to all my fellow Australians: there
was no decision tougher for us than to have interest rates
that hurt home buyers and squeezed business.
None of us has enjoyed that.
But our task was to get the right economic climate, so that
the falls, when they came, could be sustained.
Because we've followed the right policies, interest rates
are going down.
And that's the verdict of the banks which set them.
My Friends,
Now is the time for further measures to reform our econoMy
and to improve your living standards.
The first element in-our plan is the wage/ tax and
superannuation package we are presenting for your
endorsement on 24 March.
It is a package which will deliver to the average wage and
salary earner the equivalent of an extra S50 a week in wage
rises and tax cuts, in four stages over the next 16 months.
It is a package which meets fully the tests of economic
responsibility, fairness and foresight.
It is a package which the country can afford. It is a
package which the working men and women of Australia
deserve.
S I
s9o f eIt is siso mneotht insg Wehthicinhg yowuh ichha veth ee aGrnoevde rnbmy eynot uirs whoarkn dainngd out. It
ts restraint. Our package to raise wages and cut taxes responsibly,
world fairly, steadily is central to Labor' s plan for
ae Australia's economic strength.
By stark contrast, our opponents, with breathtaking
irresponsibility, seek to govern without a wages policy.
They have no better idea of the outcome of that lack of
policy, now, than the Leader of the Opposition had last
,) ilityNovember when he said: " Who's to know?*.
But in fact, we do know. We know who would suf fer. We know
it from their record.
. herthe industrial jungle, where the rich, the powerful, the
groups with most industrial muscle, would grab the big but
s h Livoe l d a ins. Pa t e w u d g ve u he l w o
A system that is fair for all would be replaced by a free
for all.
e h reh r iv d g i s
tea Theirs is a recipe for a wages explosion for runaway
t thereinflation for massive unemployment.
It is a recipe to feed higher and higher interest rates.
that It is a recipe to destroy the award restructuring which is
doing so much to reform Australian industry.
: es But there is another, immensely serious, consequence of the
Liberal/ National desire to smash our wage/ tax package and
the Accord with the trade union movement which underpins it.
Australians now have for the first time a national
superannuation scheme which all1 people covered by industrial
awards can enjoy; a benefit which helps fight inflation; a
omy benefit which prepares Australia for the ageing of I'ts
population; and a benefit which the nation and its
businesses, large and small, can afford.
Yet the Liberal/ National coalition would sabotage this
national savings plan, a plan already amassing a huge bank
f or investment in Australia's export and import replacing
and industries.
I 4age
ths. Because of our policies, eight out of ten Australian
employees already get an average of $ 15 a week paid into
their own personal superannuation scheme by their employer.
Over the next three years, under our package, that will
double to $ 30 a week saved for your retirement. 6; 089
And let me add for those who have retired or are planning
their retirement that no aged or service pensioner will pay
any income tax by 1995.
Every one of the dollars saved through our superannuation
plan helps finance Australia's development without foreign
debt. It's a national savings scheme good for you, good
for Australia.
It's too important to be put at risk.
My Friends,
We need more exports. We need more competitive industry.
We need manufacturing muscle, built on the backbone of our
great mining and agricultural resources.
We have begun, strongly begun, that process.
Under Labor the proportion of people working is at record
levels. They are better educated than ever before, better
trained and working with better tools and technology.
What better base for productivity growth?
And what more complete rebuttal could there be of the
Opposition's putting down of Australia's productivity as
virtually zero than the official figures released here and
overseas just this very week? There's the fact
Australia's productivity is on the rise, and sharply so.
Seven years ago, Australia's steel industry was on the verge
of shutdown.
We have together goverment, unions, employers
transformed the steel industry. Today we are exporting
steel to the world $ 750 million in the last year. The
value of these exports will treble to over $ 2 billion by
1992. Seven years ago, our motor vehicle industry was collapsing
under the weight of self-defeating protection and
inefficient work practices. Today we are shipping
Australian cars and car parts to Japan and the United
States. Our ship building industry has been revitalised. Now the
Europeans can catch a ferry across the English Channel
made in Tasmania.
We are now exporting electronic equipment to Asia,
pharmaceuticals to Europe and optical lenses throughout the
world.
G; 9(
Australia is now one of the world's great tourist
destinations, our telecommunications industry is leading the
way into export markets, and our exports of education,
3 health and legal services are achieving unprecedented
: 1 growth. But we can do more. We must do more.
Earlier in this campaign I outlined Labor's integrated
strategy to boost Australian exports.
And I outlined a ten point plan to lift further the
productivity of our industry.
My Friends,
No longer content to be just the lucky country, Australia
must become the clever country.
To realise that vision I am announcing bold new initiatives
today to build on our substantial achievements in education
and scientific research to unleash the skills and talents
of our people.
When we came to office, thirty six per cent around one in
three children completed high school education. Today,
2 sixty per cent finish Year 12; that's sixty seven thousand
more kids a year with a better chance in life, a new
opportunity for the future.
7ge To assist parents with the financial burden of keeping their
children at school longer, for their children's good and the
country's good, we will introduce a new Education Completion
Allowance. For those students not receiving AUSTUDY, family allowance
for students during the last two years at high school will
be replaced with a payment of $ 300 twice a year a total of
$ 600 and an increase of $ 115 paid at the time when the
demands on parents for books and equipment are greatest.
And we want to encourage that ever-increasing number of
young Australians finishing high school to strive for
excellence. So today I'm announcing the Australian Students Prize.
Five hundred awards of $ 2,000 each will be made to our best
young achievers at the end of Year 12.
And for all these kids finishing school there is now a
greater opportunity than ever before for a job or, if they
choose, a place in universities, TAFE colleges,
apprenticeships and job training.
iiMIsync ietF nhritisei nsdtnssa, tiaonnda lr esteaaskr choefr sm obsitlainds inagt tohuer hfuomraenf rornets. ources, our 0191
Australia must reduce ita reliance on imported technology
and borrowed research.
We must become a leader in the production and export of
ideas. My Government has already dramatically boosted our science
and technology potential with a $ 1,000 million package of
initiatives last year.
But to stay abreast and move ahead of the world, we need to
pool the talents of our university, Commonwealth, State and
private sector researchers and link them more effectively to
the rest of the economy.
The Government has now decided to establish a network of
fifty world class Cooperative Research Centres.
These research centres will create additional jobs for about
1,000 talented Australian scientists.
They will be established over the next five years, built
around outstanding research leaders and pooling the talent
of outstanding research groups not only from the CSIRO,
other government research organisations and the
universities, but also from private industry.
When fully established we will be providing $ 100 million a
year in additional funding to support the new centres. Each 2A
research centre will be staffed with a team of highly
skilled scientists, using the latest high tech equipment,
exchanging information around the world making scientific
breakthroughs in medicine, technology, pollution control,
communications. And so, instead of young Australian scientists having to go
to Europe, America and Japan to find the leading edge of
scientific research, we'll have their scientists coning to
Us.
The new centres will be located wherever possible on. or near. i
university campuses, so that research staff can help in the
equally vital task of training young researchers.
This is the most significant step ever taken by a Federal
Government to draw together the strengths of Australian
researchers. It will equip Australians with the scientific
research capacity to take our modern nation into the 21st
century. My Friends,
At the same time we cannot afford to exclude any group of
Australians from making their contribution to the national
mobilisation of resources.
technology
xport of
our science
n package of
we need to
h, State and
ffectively to
' 3twork of
3ba for about
rs, built
the talent
3 CSIRO,
Imillion a
-ntres. Each
iighly tquipment, scientific control,
aving to go
edge of
coming to
3 on or near
telp in the
* Federal
ralian scientific the 21st
group of
national 0.1U In particular, a Labor Government will never accept that any
fit and able Australian is unemployable.
We will never accept the proposition that some Australians
are expendable, to be dropped through a trap door and
forgotten. We of fer instead a safety net of training and
re-training for the unemployed.
We will abolish the dole and replace it with a Jobsearch
allowance for those actively seeking work.
For those who cannot find a job after 12 months, there will
be a Newstart allowance, conditional on accepting training
or retraining for available work.
Despite our success In lifting the proportion of children
staying on to finish school, we recognise that some schools
and some kids are still missing out.
Therefore, Labor will provide $ 37 million over three years
to address literacy and learning problems in disadvantaged
schools. Further, we will expand Secondary Education Hostels for
Aboriginal Children.
And we will provide $ 60 million over the next two years to
improve school facilities, equipment and curricula.
My Friends,
There is a new generation of social issues facing those who
live in the outer areas of our cities.
The voluntary groups and State agencies that have to deal
with crisis in peoples' lives, day to day, know that
isolation is becoming a major social problem -isolation from
employment opportunities, from family support, from
education. I now commit my Government to provide, with the States and
voluntary groups, a new level of Commonwealth support. We
will extend marriage counselling services. We will
establish Family Resources Contres. We will support State
efforts to care for teenagers after school. And we will
help provide improved transport for outer urban areas
through the provision of more trains and buses. The total
cost of these measures will be $ 128 million over three
years. My Friends,
In the task of national mobilisation to build a more
productive and competitive economy, the women of Australia
have a key role. Today International Women's Day I
re-affirm our deep commitment to equality of opportunity f or
the women of Australia. It is a commitment to give women a
full say, a real choice and a fair go. I;() 93
We recognise that if women are to have a real choice, they
need access to child care.
That is why we have established what is already one of the
best systems of child care in the world, and why we will
make it even better more places and more affordable access
to them.
Under our existing child care strategy we will have created
144,000 new child care places by 1992. Of itself that
represents a trebling of child care places since we came to
office. Today I announce that we will be making available additional
funding capable of creating, with the States, another 50,000
child care places over the next five years.
And, further, we will provide the incentive for employers to
extend child care in both the public and private sectors.
We expect an estimated 28,000 new places in employer
provided and commercial centres.
To do this we will greatly increase the fee-relief for low
and middle income families. It will mean, for example, that
a family with a gross income of $ 30,000 a year, with one
child at a child care centre, will receive a fee-relief
benefit of $ 65 a week over twice the benefit currently
paid. And for the first time, we will extend fee-relief to low and
middle income families using commercial child care centres.
Parents are entitled to be confident they are getting
quality attention for their kids, whether they are using
Government -funded or commercial centres. So we will work
with all the key interests in child care to develop a system
of accreditation.
In all, we will spend some $ 400 million in what will
constitute the biggest expansion of child care in I
Australia's history. We estimate there will be a quarter of
a million places by mid-1996.
Last week in Perth, with Premier Carmen Lawrence, I
committed my Government to new policies for womenincluding
a national program for the early detection of
breast cancer, fully funded at $ 64 million over three years.
My Friends,
Central to everything I am putting forward today -and
central to the decision you will make on 24 March -is the
kind of Australia we want for our children.
And that's not just a matter of education and jobs and
opportunities and economic growth. It is, very importantly,
the natural environment they'll inherit.
-he We in this generation have no greater responsibility then t&
pass on intact to future generations Australia's price1. ft
environment.
; ces My Government unequivocally accepts that responsibility,
-tted That I's why we stopped the damming of the Franklin.
3to And that's why we protected our irreplaceable rainforest.,
the tall forests of Tasmania, the Great Barrier Reef and
. onalKakadu.
), 000 Nor do we accept that this responsibility ends at
Australia's shores.
58 to We are leading the f ight to prevent mining in Antarctica.,
We are leading the f ight to end the barbaric practice of
drift net fishing in the South Pacific. We are making
strong scientific effort to help tackle the greenhouse Or
low ozone problems and are banning virtually all use of CFUs.
a thatAnd our commitment to the environment will not end there,
B will be making a separate statement on the environment 1Ce
y the coming weeks.
My Friends,
wl and It has been said that those who do not learn the lesson$ Si
res. the past will be condemned to repeat them.
Everything the Coalition has done, and all it still starU
rk for, shows that they have not learned the lessons of th* U~
rk ~ past failures, and that they wish to condemn the nation V
ystem traumatic and socially destructive repetition of them.
I said at the outset that the great divide between usla
between opportunity and privilege.
: ir of There are two key issues in this election which starkl'.
the difference capital gains tax and Medicare. y
The plain fact about the Liberal/ National plan for the
abolition of the capital gains tax is this:
ears. billions of dollars that would have been availablo t-,
education, health, training, roads would be shovel,,
into the pockets of less than one in a hundred
Australian taxpayers.
: he The capital gains tax is a fair tax. The vast majority-.,
wage and salary earners do not pay capital gains tax aze,
never will.
Itly, jAnd you find on Medicare that same conflict between
privilege and opportunity.
For all their confusion, their twisting and turning, the
truth is that the Liberals and Nationals would dismantle
Medicare scrap bulk billing leave two million and more
of our fellow Australians without health cover benefit
only the wealthy and saddle the Australian family once
again with all the burden, the anxiety, the cost, the
inconvenience and the confusion that existed before we
delivered affordable health care to every Australian. 0
I will tell you Q= z policy in two words: Medicare stays.
Fellow Australians,
A party that cannot govern itself cannot govern Australia.
And that's why I've said that your choice on 24 March will
determine whether our highest aspirations for the future are..
to be fulfilled.
We c= n attain stronger national prosperity from a world S
competitive economy greater financial security for
families a ladder of opportunity for all Australiansunshakeable
protection of the natural environment. 0
We can attain these goals in the 1990s.
Under Labor, Australians will attain them.
That is Labor's pledge for Australia's future.
And it is my pledge as Australia's leader.
I don't seek to create false hopes or to raise unrealistic
expectations. There is still hard work ahead of us as a
nation. None of us should be under any illusion about that.
But I make my pledge for the 1990s with confidence because
we have already done much of the hard work, laid the. i
enduring foundations, taken many of the tough decisions in
the 1980s.
Remember: the reascn for those tough decisions and the
discipline in the 1980s was precisely so that we can, with
continued and united effort, create a more secure future, in
a stronger Australia. I
Only Labor can make that continued and united effort-and
only Labor can create that more secure future.
Because only Labor has the plans, the vision, the guts and
the leadership to assure our country's future a future
rich in hope and promise as we approach the threshold of the
21st century.