PARLIAMENTARY STATEMENT BY THE
PRIME MINISTER, HR BOB HAWKE,
" BUILDING A COMPETITIVE AUSTRALIA"
12 MARCH 1991.
Mr Speaker
Early this year I determined that I should deliver a major
statement about what we must do together to meet the
economic challenges facing this country.
Today I want; to speak with my f ellow Australians, not in the
jargon of economists, but in terms we can all understand. I
do this because, while I will be announcing decisions of
fundamental economic importance for the future of this
country, the securing of that future is in the hands of each
one of us.
Government has the responsibility to lead the community by
getting the right policy framework we will do that. But
it is only -with the understanding, the commitment, of all
Australians as individuals, and through their
representative organisations that our nation will best
meet the challenges ahead.
What are those challenges?
The f irst is for us all to realise that this tough,
increasingly competitive world of f ive and a half billion
people does not owe, and will not give, seventeen million
Australians~ an easy prosperity. The days of our being able
to hitch a free. ride in a world clamouring, and prepared to
pay high prices, f or our rural and mineral products, are
behind us.
From this fact flows everything else.
The Ctall for the foreseeable future, is to produce more
than we spend. The rest of the world will not allow us to
continue indefinitely to live beyond our means by borrowing
from them.
Our rural and mineral products will remain important into
the future. But the nhJ. JRnnDA is to add to them. That is,
we must excport more manufactured goods and services and
substitute more quality Australian production for imports.
The nhllanff is therefore to make the decisions and adopt
the practices and attitudes which will enable this and
succeeding generations to achieve those basic goals.
Those are the challenges. How we are prepared together to
meet them will determine the standards we can enjoy and the
kind of Australia we will pass on to our children.
I will today announce a package of substantial new measures
directed to the fundamental task facing this nation:
improving the productive capacity of an economy that will be
more internaitionally competitive.
Highlights of the package are: tariff cuts, reduced
wholesale sailes taxes for business, substantial business
savings through simpler depreciation, retraining assistance,
new support for apprentices and further initiatives in
education and research to build the ' clever country'.
The Treasurer and the Minister for Industry, Technology and
Commerce will today be making more detailed statements
covering the announcements in their portfolio areas.
All these measures continue and intensify the far-reaching
reforms my Government has initiated over the past eight
years. Ultimately, they sharpen our ability to reduce the
current account deficit and stabilise foreign debt.
I emphasiset that they share one overriding objective:
building a competitive Australia.
In this statement I will reaffirm for the Australian people
the longer.-term economic goals to which we aspire, and
identify the progress we are making towards them.
And I want all my fellow Australians to understand where the
nation is -moving and to understand how all of us workers,
employers and Government have complementary roles to play
in achieving our common goals. I say it again: in the
final analysis the challenges ahead demand the involvement
of all Australians.
Mr Speaker
The Australian economy is currently at or near the bottom of
a downturn that has been sharper, deeper and more prolonged
then we anticipated.
I acknowledge the recession has hurt many people and cost
many jobs, and that is something I regret deeply.
Higher unemployment is likely in coming months. Rural
Australia in particular is experiencing a very tough period.
There are some important global factors at work. But I
don't walk away from my Government's ultimate responsibility
to manage, the national economy.
And we certainly do not resile from having taken the
necessary decision to squeeze demand by high interest rates.
Policy makers and commentators, in Australia and around the
world, underestimated the strength of resurgent demand in
the wake of the 1.987 sharemarket crash.
But with the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that had we
acted sooner to dampen that surge, some of the current
hardship could have been avoided.
The question facing us now is not: wil we emerge from the
recession? For the decisions necessary to end the recession have
already been taken: official interest rates have been
brought down by 6 percentage points over the last fourteen
months; and tax cuts paid on 1 January will also stimulate
demand. Business will begin to rebuild stocks, and international
confidence will be helped by the successful end of the Gulf
war. There are testing months immediately ahead. But the best
estimate is that we will be coming out of the recession in
the second half of this year.
So the real question, and the real challenge, facing us is:
how can we ensure that when we emerge from the recession, we
will be best: equipped to take up the opportunities for
sustained growth?
In particular we have the opportunity to secure econoinic
recovery: with low inflation
a nd hence lower interest rates
in an increasingly competitive and productive
eiconomy.
And this Government is determined to seize that opportunity.
That is what this Statement is really about today. It is
not about short term palliatives, but longer term structural
change to imake us a more competitive nation.
That was whiat my Government set out, eight years ago, to
achieve through fundamental reform of long established
economic institutions and of deeply entrenched attitudes.
We still have a long way to go but today we can certainly
say that, together, we have made substantial progress: we
are more copen to the world and we are more ef ficient at
home. We are becoming more competitive.
1. TM9J! f-nA A= Qtre-14n'q I-rejeinc future
Mr Speaker, the most powerful spur to greater
competitiveness is further tariff reduction.
Tariffs have been one of the abiding features of the
Australian economy since Federation. Tariffs protected
Australian industry by making foreign goods more expensive
here; and the supposed virtues of this protection became
deeply embedded in the psyche of the nation.
But what in fact was the resul. t?
inefficient industries that could not comp ete overseas;
and higher prices for consumers and higher costs for our
efficiant primary producers.
worse still, tariffs are a regressive burden that is, the
poorest Australians are hurt more than the richest. The
Industry Commission estimates that the burden tariffs impose
on lowest income Australians is three times heavier than
that imposed on those with the highest incomes.
Right from th * e start, this Government deliberately and
determinedly set about pulling down the tariff walls. By
1992 our existing programs will have slashed the nominal
rate of assistance to the manufacturing sector by over
one-third, from 13 to 8 per cent, and the effective rate
from 22 to 12 per cent.
The results, the benefits, have been dramatic.
Since 1985, manufacturing output, employment and exports
have all expanded at rates faster than the OECD average.
For the Australian consumer and business, prices for many
goods are lower than they would otherwise have been.
Tariff cut~ s presented Australian manufacturers with a major
challenge. To their credit, many of them are meeting that
challenge. Their endeavours are too rarely appreciated and
their success too often underestimated.
Mr Speaker, this Government will continue to open up the
manufacturing sector and Australian industry generally
through lower protection. I now announce:
the general level of assistance will be reduced from
and 15%. in 1992 to a general rate of by 1996;
tariffs on passenger motor vehicles will be phased down
from 35% in 1992 in annual steps of 2.5 per cent to
in 2000;
This change can be expected to result in an average real
reduction of $ 2,000 to $ 3,000 in the price of a $ 20,000 car,
in today's dollars, over the next decade.
1. also announce:
tariff reductions on textile, clothing and footwear
will be accelerated so that the maximum tariff will be
by the year 2000 and the termination of quotas will
be brought forward two years to 1 March 1993; and
general agricultural assistance will be reduced in line
with the pace of tariff reform in manufacturing.
The dimension of what we have achieved is demonstrated by
the fact that these changes will bring the average nominal
rate of assiñ stance down to 3 per cent, and the average
effective rate down to 5 per cent, by the end of the decadea.
All these changes will help keep inflation, and therefore
interest rates, down.
They will also make our exporters and our import competing
sector more competitive by lowering the cost of their
inputs. The overall impact of the reforms will be a net gain in
employment, although-jobs will be lost in declining
industriesl.
Throughout: my public life it has been my firm conviction
that if the community believes that change is necessary in
the interests of the community as a whole, then that belief
carries with it a necessary corollary that the community
must not leave those individuals or groups who are adversely
affected to bear the whole burden of change. It must itself
be prepared to share that burden of change, as well as
reaping the benefits of change.
Accordingly, we will establish labour adjustment programs to
assist displaced workers in our car and textiles, clothing
and footwear industries with relocation, training, and wages
subsidies for redeployment to other jobs. This will cost at
least $ 90 million over the life of the programs.
Mr Speaker, with these tariff cuts, we demonstrate once
again our commitment to liberalising international trade.
The Gove: xnment has been fortified in this approach by a
number ofC recent reports, not least Dr. Ross Garnaut's
report & 1At~ ra1ñ a mnd thp Npnrtha~ s ARIAn Agqcenny.
We have rejected the views of the so-called " now
protectionists" because they are simply proposing, in
effect, the same discredited policies that had isolated our
national economy from the rest of the world and caused the
great damage we are all working to repair.
However much our competitors might bend or break the
principl. es of fair trade, our own self-interest is served by
a steadfast refusal to return to the days of protectionism.
But I don'It for a minute seek to excuse those nations who do
flout the rules of international trade, especially those who
have caused so much damage to our farm trade.
The problem lies in the inadequacy of the rules on
agriculture under the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade. GAT]' has been an outstanding success in
substantially reducing manufacturing protection around the
world. As a result, world trade in manufactures has boomed.
BUt at the same time, agricultural trade has been absolutely
corrupted particularly by the European Community and to a
lesser extent by the United States and Japan.
Recently, their combined farm subsidies have averaged more
than $ 300 billion a year! And this for a sector which
produces only about 3 per cent of their GDP.
This has imposed a heavy burden on our farmers: despite
consistent large productivity gains, they exported the same
volume of groods in 1989-90 as they did ten years earlier.
While world trade thrived, agriculture, one of our most
competitive and significant sectors, has marked time.
So what furcther steps can we take to improve our trading
position? First, we will maintain our vigorous international campaigrn
to achieve equal treatment for agriculture under the GATT
umbrella. The Europeans already accept, due in no small way
to the efforts of the Cairns Group, led by Australia, that
there can be no result in the Uruguay Round negotiations
without substantial reform of agricultural trade. We will
keep pushing them hard.
Members of' both sides of this Parliament have recently
visited Washington, and will travel to Europe in coming
months, to urge both sides to avoid the chaos and insanity
of a trade war.
This international campaign by Australia depends for its
credibility and impact on one thing: on our general
willingness to practice at home what we preach abroad.
Second, the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy will
announce a rural adjustment package in April to ensure that
those farmers most in need during the current rural crisis
receive appropriate assistance.
Third, we: will help our farmers and manufacturers take
effective action against foreign producers who seek to dump
their products on the Australian market at unfair prices.
We will strengthen anti-dumping procedures, including by
cutting 40 days off the time taken to process complaints.
Fourth, the preferential tariff arrangements for Singapore,
Taiwan, Hong ' Kong and the Republic of Korea will be phased
out from I July 1992.
Fifth, we will provide $ 2 million to continue the Australian
Made Campaign, since reducing our reliance on imports is
totally complementary, in economic terms, to expanding our
performance in exports.
Sixth, we will upgrade the services available to Australian
exporters. In particular:
We will boost the capital base and range of services
provided by the Export Finance Insurance Corporation by
making available a $ 200 million callable capital base
to supplement EFIC's existing reserves.
A new $ 50 million facility will be made available by
EFIC, to enable Australian exporters to meet demands
for performance bonds without using their own reserves.
we will create a new program of fellowships so that
Australian business men and women, and recent
graduates, can get direct working experience in the
Asia-Pdxcif ic region.
We will implement the McKinsey report recommendations
including refocusing Austrade's efforts on the
Asia-Pacific region.
we will transfer responsibility f or AUSTRADE to the
Minister for Trade and Overseas Development from
I September.
2. GrZmt-Pffinigmrny andi Camptitn withlin A I rralia
Mr Speaker, with further tariff cuts, we are dismantling the
barriers to competitiveness and efficiency that stand at the
borders of Australia.
This Government is also set on dismantling the barriers that
exist witñ hin Australia.
We have pioneered the concept, and the delivery, of
microeconcomic reform seen by industry, rightly, as an
essential means towards higher productivity and efficiency.
We are freeing up our transport systems; we have
revolutionised our taxation system; we are creating more
efficient workplaces; we are injecting competition where for
too long Australian firms and public sector enterprises have
been content with the quiet life.
And we aria reforming the processes of Governmnent itself
through the Special Premiers Conferences.
in all this, perhaps no issue has achieved the prominence of
the waterfront essential to our export performance.
It Is particularly satisfying to be able to report to the
House on the achievement, just last week, of a new agreement
that will deliver breakthroughs in waterfront productivity.
The agreement between the Waterside Workers' Federation and
Conaust Ltd,, following an earlier agreement with National
Terminals ( Australia) Ltd, now means waterfront employees
and the two largest waterfront employers are committed to a
total restructuring of their industry.
In describiLng the significance of this latest agreement,
Mr Speaker,, I can do no better than to quote the words of
Mr Richard Setchell, the Chairman of Conaust, who said it
was " a win f or the economy and the international
competitiveness of Australia".
By year's end, the national waterfront labour force will
have been cut by over 1500 in anyone's language, a major
gain in efficiency.
in all, th~ e agreements provide for productivity gains Of Up
to 60 per cent; in smaller ports and in grain handling,
per cent.
What appeared an ambitious program when we commenced these
reforms, is now proceeding on schedule, and without major
industrial disputes.
In shipping, we are ahead of schedule in delivering smaller,
more efficient crews on existing vessels and the
introduction of new ships crewed at manning levels equal to
or better than those of our major trading partners.
In telecommunications, in aviation, in road and rail
transport, in removing through national uniform regulations
the requirement for business to meet six or seven different
standards, we are achieving fundamental gains in efficiency.
Mr Speaker, this activity amounts to the most ambitious
plan, the most rapid pace, and the most comprehensive sweep
of micro-. economic reform this country has ever seen.
Productivity is increasing, and new investment is taking
place till without industrial disruption.
And here we are witness to a paradox. Those who for more
than a generation in office entrenched the inadequacies of
the past and themselves effected no change whatsoever, now
with an hypocrisy that is truly breathtaking, clamour for
even faster change.
They bear an anus, which they simply cannot discharge, of
showing how in a practical way this could be achieved
without poisoning the better industrial relations and
investment environment we have created without, in short,
bringing the whole reform process to a grinding halt.
It is a matter of our results versus their rhetoric.
i i, i r -i-i i iqi z i L r, u t-r iL-r -9.
We will press ahead with further reform, to increase
competition and efficiency within Australia.
For the consumer, competition means lower prices and a
broader range of better quality goods and services; for
producers it; provides the spur to better performance at
home and abroad.
We want to s~ es the whole domestic economy opened up to this
kind of positive structural change.
lAnd we have established a sub-committee of Cabinet's
Structural Adjustment Committee to examine systematically
the whole economy for opportunities to promote this process.
The Trade Practices Act is our principal legislative weapon
to. ensure consumers get the best deal from competition.
But there are many areas of the Australian economy today
that are immune from that Act: some Commonwealth
enterprises, State public sector businesses, and significant
areas of the private sector, including the professions.
This patchwork coverage reflects historical and
constitutional factors, not economic efficiencies; it is
another important instance of the way we operate as six
economies, rather than one.
The benefit"-s for the consumer of expanding the scope of the
Trade Practices Act could be immense: potentially lower
professional fees, cheaper road and rail fares, cheaper
electricity. This has tro be done and I have initiated the process, by
today writing to the Premiers urging a positive examination
of all we can do, at the May Special Premiers Conference, to
widen the ambit of the Trade Practices PAct to bring such
excluded areas within the scope of a national framework of
competition policy and law.
3. Tna ltnt for thA 199_ Oa
Mr Speaker, to secure sustainable economic growth and the
living standards to which we aspire, we need to ensure that
there is Et fertile environment for investment.
Our efforts to repair the macroeconomic fundamentals
underpinned rapid investment growth in the late 1980sa
through the Accord, through floating the dollar, and through
cutting Government spending.
There is, however, one other fundamental which is crucial to
investment: inflation.
It is vital that Australians understand the debilitating
nature of the inflation disease.
I C-L No C. L flu. t'j. Q~ r~,-uu~ j I
High inflation has brought high interest rates and a higher
cost of capital than in our trading partners. This, in
turn, undermined investment and made it harder for
Australian firms to compete overseas.
It has also discouraged productive investment in areas that
would generate jobs arnd exports in favour of speculation in
real estate.
But today we have the opportunity, as I have said, of
putting Australia on a low inflation path.
Australia's inflation is now below the OECD average: ours is
6.9 per cent and just 5.4 per cent in underlying terms and
theirs is 7.2 per cent.
A continued lowering of inflation is, without doubt, the
major contribution this Government can make to the climate
f or investment in the 1.990s.
of course new investment, combined with lower tariffs, has
meant, and will mean for a time, higher imports and a higher
current account deficit.
This becomes even more obvious at times when commodity
prices are falling, as they are now due to the slowdown in
world economic growth.
But this is a short-term cost we must bear if we are to wind
back the current account deficit in a sustainable way and
thereby reduce our foreign indebtedness permanently. We are
taking the essential steps to build an economy that is
stronger in the long term.
' And there are other important areas where we can take action
to foster productive investment.
The Government is very concerned at the difficulty which
small and medium-sized Australian companies face in raising
long term funds.
We are pursuing discussions with major financial
institutions aimed at overcoming this difficulty by ensuring
a readier flow of such funds.
The development of new industry and the rejuvenation of the
old depends on ready access to appropriately skilled labour
access which is increasingly difficult in our sprawling
cities, with their often inefficient transport systems.
These factors also reduce the quality of life for the
residents affected. We are cooperating with State and local
government: to develop effective approaches to these issues.
Mr Speaker, this Government has done more than any other to
reform the taxation system so that, as far as possible, tax
considerations do not distort investment decisions.
Today I announce:
11
a substantial widening of exemptions from sales tax f or
business inputs used by manufacturers, primary
producers and miners. The cost to revenue of this
measure will amount in 1992-93 to $ 375 million. But
the cost benefits to producers, allowing for the
effects of mark-ups as goods pass along the production
chain, will in that year total around $ 700 million.
we have radically overhauled depreciation provisions to
bring -them more in line with business realities. The
reforms provide, for the first time, a definition in
the Act of effective life. And it will allow
self-assessment by the taxpayer. This will result in
savings to business of the order of $ 100 million in
1992-93.
expenditure on environmental impact statements will be
fully tax deductible over ten years.
An industry which will benefit from these new tax provisions
is tourism, which has generated over 100,000 new jobs during
the 1980s and has the potential for substantial further
expansion. One sector of the Australian economy is unique in terms of
the investment environment in which it operates the forest
industries. This Government's consistent commitment is to the proper
protection~ of our precious native forests. This has been,
and remains, fundamental to our approach to Government.
But we recognise that in part due to this commitment
there has been a contraction of the forest resource
allocated to existing operations in the industry. Concern
about future access to the resource has made new investment
uncertain. Accordingly, the Government has decided to provide resource
security for major new wood processing projects
-where the project involves a capital-intensive
value-adding investment of $ 100 million or more and is
directed to export or to import replacement;
where the proponent of the project makes a commitment
to adhere to environment, heritage and Aboriginal
policy requirements; and
where the State Government agrees to enact parallel
resource security legislation.
I I -DI C. 7 Qz Ur r 11-r I LL NU. Z ' iu L
12.
Resource secur~ ity will involve undertakings, backed by
legislation, guaranteeing an agreed volume of timber supply
from an identified catchment area. There will also be
provision in the legislation to establish plantations to
provide for long-term timber supply. The objective is to
phase out woodchip exports by the year 2000 or soon after,
and replace them with value-added products. This new
emphasis on plantations will also, over time, take pressure
off our native forests.
Mr Speaker, the Government decided on resource security
legislation only after receiving unqualified legal advice
that it was the sole way the Commonwealth could provide a
binding undertaking of the kind necessary to get major
projects started which will provide new exports and new
jobs. Government has a duty to listen to and understand all
legitimate community interests. It has a responsibility
then to seek as far as possible to balance those interests
where they compete. It should, where appropriate, establish
processes aimed to achieve that purpose. In the end,
Government must do what it was elected to do and make the
necessary decisions. This will mean facing up to tough
issues and i~ t will rarely entail universal approbation.
So it is in this case where, I believe, my Government has
struck the correct balance between environmental concerns
to which our commitment remains vital and unambiguous and
the interests of one of Australia's largest industries.
4. n~ nmn a Moer Country
Mr Speaker, I said at the outset that securing the future of
the country is in the hands of each one of us. To achieve
change, we must mobilise our most valuable resource: the
talents of the Australian people.
This does not necessarily mean working harder; in Germany
and Japan, both highly successful competitive countries,
working hours are actually falling.
But it does mean working smarter working more effectively,
using new materials, new production technologies and new
management methods. It means being, like Germany and Japan,
a clever country.
During the last election campaign I said Australia needed to
become a clever country. The centrepiece of my commitment
to that goal was the creation of a network of Cooperative
Research Cantres. I said that these Centres would draw
together outstanding research groups to provide new drive to
our national research effort.
Today I announce that the Government has selected the first
fifteen Cooperative Research Centres. These Centres will
focus their research effort on projects in the following key
areas:
resource based industries;
manufacturing and information industries;
the environment; and
ime diLcal research.
My colleague -the Minister for Science and Technology will
provide details of successful projects this week.
The Government has also decided to continue i. ndefinitely the
tax deduction for spending on research and development at
125 per caent.
Cooperation writh our talented neighbours in the region is
important if we are to remain at the frontiers of
technology. The Multifunction Polis provides an opportunity
to do this. Next month the Government will receive the
report of the MFP-Adelaide Management Group which was set up
to assess thea economic and social viability of the MFP.
Cleverness is not confined to our universities and ' hi-tech'
firms. Cleverness is something that should permeate the
entire society and especially our workplaces. And the
foundation of a clever country is its education system.
I have repeatedly stated my pride in our achievements in
virtually doubling the school retention rate, and expanding
the number of tertiary places.
Quite simply-, unless we give our young people the motivation
and the opportunity to bring out the best in themselves
through education, we shall never be able to bring out the
best in ouEevsas ek nation.
Today I announce
an increase in the number and average value of
Austra: lian Postgraduate Research Awards;
extra funding of $ 15 million over three years f or the
Countr y Areas Program to focus on greater rural school
retention; and
SI81 million over three years in a community project to
identify the key elements of good schooling.
Ours is a dynamic region, in a world of ceaseless
technological innovation and burgeoning knowledge-based
industries. In a clever country, all of us, as workers and
managers, need to upgrade our job skills regularly.
A recession can savagely damage the job skills of a nation.
Apprentices have been hit particularly hard in the past
young Austr: alians seeking to acquire and improve their job
skills have been laid off with their training incomplete.
.14.
Accordingly, I announce a new program of assistance so that
employers can retain and Improve the skills of apprentices
and other workers who would otherwise be working reduced
hours or have been retrenched.
We will also spend $ 74 million over two years to provide
work experience opportunities for people unemployed for more
than six months.
And we will commit $ 50 million over the next fifteen months
to provide additional pre-vocational training places, and we
will seek State cooperation in this.
We will provide $ 6 million over three years to strengthen
management skills.
Education it; clearly a vital preparation for the workforce
in a clever country, but It is in the workplace itself that
the skills must be developed if they are to yield the
productivity dividend we so desperately need in our
enterprises. Our trade union movement has made an enormous contribution
to the creation of a more efficient Australia.
Union amalgamations involving workers in metals, the publIc
service, health, textiles, timber products and
telecommunications have already been concluded. There are
some fifty other amalgamations currently underway. The
Government will commit a further $ 1.45 million to assist
this process in 1991-92.
I also pay tribute to those employers who, in partnership
with the tzcade unions, have secured major gains through
award restructuring and workplace reform.
My Government has provided financial assistance to this
process and we will virtually double our financial support
over the next few years.
The Business Council of Australia has proposed a major
research project on international performance benchmarks of
business Input services.
We have directed the Bureau of Industry Economics, with the
cooperation of the BCA, to undertake this project at a cost
of $ 1.8 miLllion over four years.
The Pappas Carter Report commissioned by the Australian
Manufacturing Council, and recent publications by EPAC, have
placed particular emphasis on the importance of changing the
workplace culture. In cooperation with the AMC, we will
develop a program to raise the efficiency of Australian
enterprises to world standards. we will draw on the
experience of our own world class companies together with
the best practice that can be found anywhere in the world in
thin endeiavour.
In am particularly pleased to announce that John Prescott,
managing director of BliP and chairman of the AMC, has agreed
to chair the board that will oversee the new program.
We have earmarked $ 25 million over two years for the
program. Mr Speaker, the measures I have announced today are
absolutely vital for the continued transformation of the
Australian economy. At the same time, they compromise
neither our demonstrated commitment to fiscal restraint nor
our medium -term objective to maintain the structural
integrity of the Budget. Their total costs in outlays and
foregone revenue are $ 33 million in 1990-91, $ 446 million in
1991-92 and $ 854 million in 1992-93.
Mr Speaker, this Government has never been in doubt about
the kind at' Australia we wish to build a modern, growing,
prosperous and competitive economy, within a tolerant and
fair society; a nation where quality of life counts for as
much as quaintity of output; an outward-looking community,
enmeshed w: Lth the dynamism of the Asia Pacific region, and
capable of taking on the best the world has to offer and
winning. These are not short-term goals; they are not transitory
values. They are deeply embedded in the character of this Government
and of the Party I have the honour of leading.
This process of modernisation, of adaptation to the changing
world ecortomy, is not something that has some future cut-off
point. 11t must be a continuing process.
There is no point at which we can say, reform is finishedbecause
there is no point at which the world will stop
changing.
And this is the essential point, Mr Speaker. We live in a
world of -unprecedented, indeed breathtaking, change. Our
own region is a crucible for change.
We can no longer afford the'easy simplicities, the costly
complacencies of the fifties and sixties and seventies.
I say " costly" because we are now paying the price for the
neglect of those decades.
Our task now is to make sure that future generations are not
called upon to pay a similar price for any neglect or
complacency on our part, in this make-or-break decade.
We need the hmb.ñ z of adaptation because the lesson of
international competitiveness must be constantly learned and
re-learned.
16.
if we get the basics right in these critical years we need
not set limit; on our prospects.
I do not avoid the f act that I hold these prospects out to
you at 8 time of recession. But we should understand that
Australia comes to this task with two great advantages
enduring advantages that transcend the temporary, but real,
difficulties of the recession.
First, we bring to the task our great natural and acquired
endowments as a nation our vast material resources, our
vibrant multicultural community, our strengths as a free and
prosperous people, our proximity to the f astest growing
regional economy in the world.
Second, in meeting these tremendous challenges that lie
ahead, we are, not, in 1991, starting out f rom scratch. We
are not, in this decade, coming to the task cold.
We have already taken many of the essential decisions, we
have already learned many of the vital lessons, we are
already enmeshing ourselves with our region, we have already
mastered many of the skills that we will need, to enter the
next century with well-founded confidence that we will reach
our goals.
But we must face the fact unflinchingly that we need as a
nation to equip ourselves, further, to meet the challenges
of exposure to international competition.
That has been central to the endeavour of this Government.
It Is central1 to the themel of this statement. It is the
central purpose of the measures I have announced today. It
must remain the central challenge of this great nation for
decades to come.
I restate my belief with which I began: the involvement,
the commitment of all Australians is the vital ingredient to
success in -the challenge ahead. it is a challenge that,
together, we can face and meet with confidence.