o* l
. C. AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY POLICY SPEECH
1993 FEDERAL ELECTION
presented by
PAUL KEATING
PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA
At
Bankstown On
Wednesday 24 February 1993.
ADVANCING AUSTRALIA
Building On Strength
Let there be no mistake. This IS the most important election in memory.
Today we stand against radical right-wing proposals which are hostile to fundamental
Australian beliefs and Australian institutions and all that we have achieved in recent
years. Not new proposals, but old ones.
Proposals which have been tried in other countries and which in every case have failed
at great social and economic cost.
Dr Hewson says these other countries did not try hard enough. He is nothing if not
zealous. In this election there is Dr Hewson Dr Hcwson and Tim Fischer or there is Labor.
I ask every Australian to think about this:
When you wake up on March 14, whoever has won the election, there will still be
unemployment. There will still be problems to solve.
If Labor is re-elected there will also be an Accord between the unions and the
Government, guaranteeing industrial peace, low inflation, and a continuation of that
spirit of cooperation.
There will still be Medicare, guaranteeing quality health care to all Australians
regardless of age or circumstance.
There will still be equity and access in education.
There will still be a social safety net providing care for the aged, the sick, the les
well-off and the unemployed.
There will still be social policies expressly designed to manage the change we are
going through, to alleviate the hardship and minimise the social damage.
And there will be every reason to believe that we will continue to succeed in our
ambition to become a great trading nation, a great Australian social democracy, a
proud and independent country, united and cohesive and able to deliver to all our
people living standards and a way of life unequalled in the world.
And there will be NO GST. No miserable 15 per cent tax on virtually everything you
buy. But if the Coalition is elected, within six months there will be no Accord instead
discord no universal health system, no safety net.
And there WILL BE a GST.
There will be much less equity and access in education.
Workers will lose the protection of awards and be forced to negotiate individual
contracts with their employers or take the sack.
Everyone will be paying A 15 PER CENT TAX on virtually everything they buy.
And you can be absolutely sure, NOT ONE NEW JOB will have been created by these
measures. That is why this is the most important election in memory.
T'here really never has been a clearer choice: between the Australian traditions of
fairness and equity, and the economic and social jungle of Reaganism and Thatcherism
which other countries have just abandoned.
Fairness and equity have served Australia well, and never better than in this difficult
period of change.
We believe in change. To meet the national necessity we instigated it. But we believe
it should be managed: we believe it should be moderated by supportive social
policies. We think it should be calm.
Recognising, that all change should have a social purpose, we take account of the social
consequences. I lived here in Bankstown for forty years.
This suburb of Sydney had all the best qualities of an Australian community. It still
has. It is a microcosm of modern urban, multicultural Australia.
Now, as then, it draws its strength from the people, and the people draw their strength
from Bankstown.
Perhaps because Banlkstown was such a strong community, there was a certain
fearlessness about it, a great sense of security, a sense of self-sufficiency. One of the
home-truths I picked up was that the world owes no one a living.
Today a whole generation of Australians know that the world does not owe us a living.
We arce the first generation of Australians to really understand what it means.
I think I began to understand towards the end of the 70s it was then I began to form
what was for me at least a new idea about Australia.
The thought took hold of me that we could be a creative country, as well as a so-called
lucky country.
I thought that we could become a great manufacturing country, a country which made
things for the world to buy. Things which bore the stamp of Australian work and
genius. I becamne convinced that Australia could be more than a quarry and a farm; that we
could find a place in the front rank of trading nations.
This of course was contrary to the prevailing wisdom.
Yet in the early 1980s it very rapidly became apparent that the idea was not an option,
but an absolute necessity. We no longer had any choice.
The story since then has been a remarkable one. The Australian people are bringing
into being a new Australia.
An Australia which has more than doubled exports in nine years. An Australia which
has tripled exports of manufactures and services.
We still export the raw materials and much more effectively than before. But we
also export high technology medical equipment and high-speed ferries, processed
food, cars, computers, electronic and chemical products information, education,
television programs, tourism.
And increasingly those exports go to the fastest growing economies of the world
those in our own region, Asia.
These things have happened with remarkable speed.
And so have these things: we have the lowest inflation in thirty years. The highest
productivity in thirty years. The lowest number of industrial disputes in thirty years.
We are far more competitive than we have ever been.
What is more, we have a population with a proven capacity for change, and a proven
willingness to meet the challenges Australia faces.
But in the face of this success, our opponents talk incessantly of failure. Where there
is hope they counsel despair. To sell their plan, they think it is necessary to talk
Australia down to extinguish people's faith.
My counsel is hope. These days it is more than hope it is belief.
Belief in what the 90s hold for us all.
rye always said that I wanted to be around for the 90s to see it all come true, to be
part of the transformation.
Our opponents say they have a plan. The word plan is forever on their lips. Their
pollsters demand it. But they have the wrong plan.
Labor has more than a plan we have a whole national change a sea-change, born
of national necessity, happening now. A change sustained by faith in Australians.
A change not shaped by a computer model or a textbook, but bedded in reality and
commonsense. A change that does not break the mould of Australian society, but reshapes it by
drawing on its strengths.
One that does not look back to the values of Thatcher's Britain or Reagan's America,
but forward to the next century.
I see Australia growing on the dual foundations of energy and care.
Our energy flows from the genius and ambition of our people which the combination
of liberal democracy and free markets alone can deliver.
Our care flows from a spirit we have in common as Australians.
You can see the energy emerging now in those remarkable figures I have quoted.
You can see it in 700 dynamic small to medium sized Australian businesses, born of
this era, dedicated to innovation, earning last year $ 8.6 billion in export revenue, and
expected to double in five years.
The same energy is apparent in the $ 130 billion worth of applications received by the
Government for project development.
It exists in the new, much more clever business culture in Australia a culture we
ourselves have developed.
The " Australian company" is today a much more innovative, dynamic, export-oriented
entity than it has ever been.
It will be the engine of growth and the pacemaker of employment.
That is why two weeks ago we gave a further break to capital and innovation. We
lowered the company tax rate from 39 per cent to 33, providing Australian industry
with a business tax system competitive with any in the world.
This is where the energy will come from. And we will do everything we can to
stimulate it and, where necessary, provide strategic support.
We will make sure that Australia keeps its car industry.
Toyota has already committed itself to a new state-of-the-art plant at Altona in
Melbourne. Mtsubishi is poised to make major investments at its plant in Adelaide. The
Government I lead will work closely with Mitsubishi to bring this about.
But no government incentive can match the opportunity offered to Australian
companies by the emerging markets of Asia and the Pacific.
Never in our history have we bad such an opportunity.
I have no doubt that if we are wise I mean governments, business and the people of
Australia we will see in the nineties manufacturing and trade on a scale
unprecedented in our history.
But it will not happen of its own accord.
As much as it will need leadership, it will need nurturing and encouragement.
We will need to grow companies committed to Australia, with workers committed to
Australia. Our success as a nation will depend upon our companies, but equally it depends upon
the degree to which we care about Australia and Australians.
In an era of change the watchwords of good government should be care, support,
cooperation. We must take the people with us. That is a Labor article of faith.
We also recognise that on the way to our great social goals there have been problems
as well as successes, and we recognise our responsibility for them. As Prime Minister,
I recognise My responsibility for them.
Governments in Australia in the eighties were not always as prudent or wise as they
should have been.
Nor were all companies: in the newly deregulated economy, a lot of their behaviour
was not in the best interests of Australia.
The excesses of the 80s must not reappear in the 90s. The last thing we need now is a
return to the 80s philosophy of " greed is good" and that the only useful interest is selfinterest.
As in other countries, in Australia a lot was wasted in the boom. And as in other
countries, the recession nearly stopped us in our tracks.
It is also true to say that even some of the gains we made had their social cost those
productivity gains of the last few years are now adding to the level of unemployment.
Industry is getting more product from fewer people.
Unemployment is the greatest problem we face. It is the problem of the era. It is,
overwhelmingly, the principal concern of the Government.
We have managed to achieve more economic growth than most other comparable
countries. We have had four consecutive quarters of growth. But it has not yet begun
to create enough jobs.
And we're not helped by a sluggish international economy.
What then is the answer? What is Labor's jobs strategy for the 1990s?
Over the next three years Labor will place the emphasis where it has to be.
On business and on incentives to invest.
Labor's jobs strategy is ' designed to assist recovery in business. Under Labor, business
will pay a tax of 33 per cent on profits compared with 42 per cent promised by the
Opposition.
Under Labor, business will be able to obtain an investment allowance of up to 20 per
cent on all investment in the next two yea's.
An incentive the Opposition will not be providing.
And with Labor there will be no GST to weigh down business and depress spending.
No big new taxes, no industrial conflict just sensible practical things to help business
investment. But there is no doubting the magnitude of the unemployment problem.
It will not be easy to reduce and no one should expect speedy results.
But in the search for solutions, there could be no greater Moy than to proclaim the task
an eay one, as Dr Hewson did last week when he promised getting " jobs rolling from
day one".
And no greater shame than to throw away the progress we have already made.
It would be a tragedy if we let the recession crush our faith or ruin our work to date.
There is the other lesson I learned growing up in Bankstown. In hard times you stick
together. When you're confronted with a challenge, unity is strength.
Every time Australians cooperate, every time they form a partnership, every time they
agree on a common goal, every time they combine their ideas and their energy, they
make Australia stronger.
If one word describes Labor's policy for Australia, it is " cooperation'.
Our policy must never be to undo the ties that bind us but rather to strengthen them as
we did with the Accord between Government and the unions last week.
A new Accord committed to jobs, but built on the same fundamental principle of
cooperation. Under the new Accord, wage increases will depend on progress towards creating jobs
and reducing unemployment.
This is what the Accord has given us. Our opponents in their anger will strike it down.
And as it goes, the century long protection of awards will go with it.
It is incomprehensible to me why anyone should wish to destroy it.
But ladies and gentlemen
Labor's quest for social equity goes on.
Our recently announced child care policy recognises that the future growth of the
Australian economy and the living standards of Australians need women's
participation in the workforce.
We recognise that child care is essential if women are to take a job, undertake training
or study or look for work.
Our commitment to meet total demand for work-related child care by 2001 will aid
women's participation in the economy, as our 30 per cent cash rebate on fees will make
child care more affordable especially for middle income earners.
It is not good enough to say that a woman is either in the paid workforce or in the
home. Chances are these days, in the course of their lifetimes, most women will spend
periods of time doing both.
The needs of mothers caring for children at home are often overlooked in the child care
debate. But we have not forgotten them.
I recognise and appreciate the important role played by women who choose to stay at
home while their children are growing up.
We propose to introduce a new cash payment of $ 60 each fortnight to be called the
Home Child Care Allowance.
This allowance is more generous than the Dependent Spouse Rebate it will replace,
and has the added advantage of being paid directly to the mother at home. This will
provide a source of independent income for women while they are out of the paid
workforce caring for children.
In a further measure to meet the needs of women at home caring for children, we will
extend fee relief to occasional care. This is in addition to my earlier announcement
that we will double the funding for playgroups.
Labor's child care policies recognise the reality that different families choose to deal
with the responsibilities of work and family in different ways.
Medicare is another concrete expression of the quality of our society and of Labor's
commitment to it. Medicare is a statement as much as it is a system. It's a measure of
our social progress. A measure of our care for one another.
It is not yet the perfect health system, but it is without doubt among the very best in the
world. The Coalition will pull it down. They say they won't. But, as everyone here knows,
they will.
They will abolish the foundation upon which Medicare rests. They will abolish bulkbilling
for everyone but pensioners. 13 million Australians will have to pay their bills
up-front. $ 32 a visit.
The Coalition is determined to take our health system towards the American model
the model that costs far more than ours, delivers infinitely less, and which the
Americans are determined to replace.
The Coalition would cut $ 1.3 billion a year from public hospitals while they cry
crocodile teams over waiting lists. And they want to give $ 1 billion to the AMA
specialists. Three dollars an hour for Australia's youth, three dollars a minute for
doctors that is their policy.
We will never abandon Medicare we will go on improving it.
Today I announce an important improvement for Medicare. We will open Medicare
up to the private hospital system, so that it can purchase an estimated 10,000 private
hospital beds per year for people on waiting lists.
We will also fund post-acute and palliative care patients in private hospitals a step
which will at once increase options for palliative care and free up public beds.
In addition, a new Commonwealth dental health program will be established for
emergency and basic dental care for health card holders.
In education, we will continue to pursue the goals of access and equity which in the
last decade saw th e number of young Australians completing secondary school rise
from three in ten to nearly eight in ten; the creation of an additional 120,000 university
places; and, last year the establishment of an Australian National Training Authority to
provide vocational training of the highest standard for all Australians.
In doing this we met the challenge of the new economic order. Education is our great
comparative advantage. We must keep it and build on it.
Thbese broad egalitarian goals create not only opportunities for all, they also create the
lift that Australia must have.
Not only are we raising standards, but the guarantee of fair access to education is a
principle from which we will never resile.
Under Labor, wealth will never determine one's chance to get a decent education.
We want our universities and TAFE to remain educational institutions not private
business organisations.
We will not introduce a voucher system for our universities. We will not put a tax on
books. We will not put a tax on knowledge.
We will not cheapen the values of education, or enlightened social democracy, by
making it subject to the principles of the market place.
In Australia we have built one of the best and fairest social welfare systems in the
world. in the next term, we will introduce new measures for unemployed people, including
older men, and today I can announce further initiatives to assist other older
Australians, including a more generous pensions assets test and a new seniors health
card. Looking after people in need has always been Labor's strength, and it is a proud record.
But we should never forget the people in the middle. Those Australians on average
incomes struggling to bring up their families, pay their bills and keep their heads above
water. I am referring to families whose total income is between $ 30,000 and $ 60,000 who
will miss out under Dr Hewson.
Who will miss out on the health care rebate, who will lose their Family Allowance,
who will have their Dependent Spouse Rebate income-tested, who won't get the
Coalition's child care rebate.
I fail to understand why the Coalition is so down on these Australians. Dr Hewson
cuts them out of his compensation package, yet they are the ones who will be most
affected. Labor stands in direct contrast to the Coalition when it comes to meeting the financial
needs of these people. Medicare, the award system, our child care rebate, our
education system and our 1994 and 1996 tax cuts. Our policies provide for the people
in the middle.
A tax rate of 30 per cent, not 38 per cent as now and all without a GST.
For all pensioners, Labor will also introduce fringe benefits from April, giving 380,000
older Australians valuable discounts on everyday services.
There is one simple fact which all Australians should not forget: Dr HCwsoD intends
to cut $ 9.4 billion from government spending.
Almost half of this will come from social security, health, housing and labour market
programs. This was the level of Dr Hewson's cuts before he delivered his revised package in
December the package he funded with a proposed sale of Telecom for $ 20 billion.
Yesterday it was revealed that Telecom is worth $ 8 billion less than that, which simply
means Dr Hewson's plan is unaffordable.
1-us principal pledge to abolish state payroll tax cannot be achieved.
Business it seems is to get the booby prize. A 15 per cent GST, a 42 per cent company'
tax and no payroll tax relief. And timed local phone calls into the bargain.
As our success depends on the bonds between us, it depends on the strength of our
culture. Labor guarantees support for those great Australian institutions which preserve the
nation's heritage, encourage ideas, disseminate information and strengthen national
cohesion. I mean such organisations as the ABC, the CS[ RO, the Australia Council and the
Special Broadcasting Service. All on Dr Hewson's hit list. Labor will also extend the
services of Radio JJJ to Australian regional areas.
Our cultural life and our quality of life in Australia is uniquely determined by our
environment. Whatever separates us, we have this continent in common. We share
responsibility for it.
tn December, Labor delivered its Environment Statement, the centrepiece of which
was a major program to renew and revive our greatest river system, the
Murray-Darling Basin.
In Labor's next term, improving the quality of the urban environment will be a major
priority of the Government. as will identifying areas of habitat important to the
national estate.
Labor will not be joining the liberals in their rush to uranium enrichment and
engaging the nuclear fuel cycle.
This Government has long spoken of the need to address the historic and continuing
injustice done to Australia's indigenous people.
Over the years a great deal of money has been spent and a great deal of good will
expended, but the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to suffer the
consequences of two centuries of injustice, prejudice and neglect.
Any Government that I lead will be determined to complete the process of
reconciliation Labor has begun, and at last return to the indigenous people of Australia
the dignity, social justice, health, opportunity and living standards to which all
Australians are entitled.
To fail in this is to betray not just the Aboriginal people, but ourselves, all that we
profess to believe, everything Australia stands for.
We are determined not to fail this time.
It has been Labor's consistent theme that our success as a nation depends on our ability
to harness all our resources, human as well material.
It depends on having faith in our institutions and confidence in ourselves and in each
other.
As I have said, we need only look to the last few years to find the reasons why we
should have faith in ourselves. We need only look to the next few new years and the
opportunities ahead to see why we should be confident.
It is perhaps in part because Australians are growing in confidence that more and more
of them are questioning whether it is appropriate for Australia to have as its head of
state the monarch of another country.
Many Australians some surveys suggest a majority believe that we will be better
able to succeed in the world with the unique and unambiguous identity which an
Australian head of state, chosen by the Australian people, could provide.
While it is far from the most pressing matter facing the nation, it is nevertheless
important that we do not let this decade leading to the centenary of the Federation pass
without advancing the debate.
To do this we will set up a broadly based committee of eminent Australians, including
representatives of the States, to develop a discussion paper which considers the options
for a Federal Republic of Australia.
Any options developed by the committee would not seek to change our way of
goverrnent; only to have an Australian, chosen by Australians, as Australia's head of
state. I would like to extend an invitation to the Opposition to participate in the workings of
this committee.
It would be the intention that as a result of this committee's deliberations and the
public discussion that would follow, the Australian people would be in a position to
decide by referendum later in the decade whether Australia should become a Republic
by the year 2001.
Early in the speech I said that this community was remarkable for being so strong and
so cohesive.
it has changed dramnatically in recent years, and no change has been more dramatic
than the arrival in Banlcstown of people whose culture and experience is so very
different. Bankstown has accommodated the change.
And just like every other community in Australia, Bankstown is accommodating the
economic change the nation is going through.
Bankstown has drawn on its people, it has drawn on its community spirit, it has drawn
on its sense of justice and fairness on those traditions common to all Australians to
make the transformation from one world to another.
We will only be strong, we will only be able to make the necessary change, and the
change will only be worth making, if we keep the bonds between us strong.
In the end, this is the only way we will get where we want to go. It is the only way we
will solve our problems. It is the only way to avoid creating new ones.
To my mind, it is because Australians know these things and for so long now have
practised them that Australia is a great country, and a country with great prospects.
It is because we have the wisdom both to succeed in the world and to live together in
Australia. And in the end I think that is at the heart of our pride, and why we love
Australia. And why we must make sure that the ties that bind us are never broken.