6 April 1997 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
FEDERAL LEADER'S ADDRESS TO THE
125TH VICTORIAN LIBERAL PARTY STATE COUNCIL
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY
E& OE
Thank you very much, Richard, for your very kind words of introduction. To Joy
Howley, Ted Baillieu, Tony Staley, my Federal and State Parliamentary colleagues and
fellow Liberals.
Your words of introduction about my persistence, Richard, did remind me very much of
an exchange I had with my predecessor as Member for Bennelong, Sir John Cramer. He
was almost as old as I am now when he first entered Federal Parliament in 1949 and he
didn't retire as the Member for Bennelong until he reached the age of 78 in 1974. About
four years ago I went to the launch of his book and I, as a dutiful book launcher, had read
it. Some don't. And there was some very interesting paragraphs in it about the
foundation of the Liberal Party. And I had a bit of a joke with him before the launch of
the book and said, " John, I hadn't realised you were so pivotal, so crucial and so
intimately involved in the formation of the Party", I said, " there are some names I didn't
expect to see and there are a few names missing". And he said, " my boy, I'm 97 there's
nobody left around to contradict me".
But it is a great delight to be back here and can I just start by repeating the tribute that I
paid to Ted Baillieu last night for the tremendous job that he has done as President of the
Victorian Division, over probably five of the most successful years of its existence. And,
also to very warmly congratulate you Joy and to say that as Leader of the Federal
Parliamentary Party I look forward to years of very close co-operation. I know that the
link between the Parliamentary Party and the Organisation is very important to our
political future and our political survival. And when it breaks down and it when becomes
confused, when it comes ambiguous, then that is when difficulties emerge.
I want to say to you before this State Council meeting that, from my part, I value and
respect very much the role of the Party Organisation in the day to day fortunes of the
Liberal Party. And that applies federally as it does at state divisional level. And I know
the massive contribution that the Victorian Division has made over the years to the
success of the Party here in Victoria and also to the success of the Party nationally.
In acknowledging the presence of my Federal and State Parliamentary colleagues can I
personally wish you, Jim Short, many happy years in Europe. I hope that you and Jan
enjoy and derive very great satisfaction from that posting and I am certain that you will do
a marvellous job as the representative of Australia and as a participant in the constituency
in which Australia is involved on the Board of that particular bank.
Ladies and gentlemen, in the weeks and months ahead there are many significant policy
decisions that the Government will need to take. We have now been in office for just over
a year and if you look back and remember the things that we were elected to do, I think it
is fair to say that in all of the major areas we have remained true, we have kept faith with
what we told the Australian people we would do. And in some areas we have, in fact,
delivered more than what we promised and I have in mind the area of small business,
which is so important to the economic future of Australia and has played such a major role
in the development of the economic values and the economic philosophy of the Liberal
Party. We said that we would place an emphasis on small business and we have. We have
changed the industrial relations system. We have throughout Australia made significant
changes through the industrial relations legislation, significant changes to the unfair
dismissal laws to make them more intelligent. And in my small business statement of three
weeks ago I went a step beyond what was in the Industrial Relations Act and I said that
the unfair dismissal law, federally, would not apply to any person who was employed for
less than twelve months by any small business employing fewer than fifteen people.
And I have invited the other State Governments I say the other State Governments
because here in Victoria because of the handing over of the industrial relations
responsibility to the Federal Government the new federal law applies automatically. I've
invited the other State Governments of Australia to duplicate what we are doing at a
federal level. And it would be a very important test of the credentials of all other State
Governments so far as small business concerned as to whether they are prepared to come
on board with this particular proposal.
And I renew today my invitation to the Government's of New South Wales and
Queensland, of South Australia and of Western Australia and Tasmania to enact laws
within their state jurisdictions that will duplicate what we have done federally. And I hope
that they will do so because if we can achieve a uniformity and a comprehensive approach
throughout Australia on this issue then we will deliver another significant benefit to the
small business community.
In the area of capital gains tax it will be the law Australia, after the first of July this year,
that if you sell a small business up to $ 5 million of the proceeds of that sale can be
invested in any business of any kind without incurring any capital gains tax liability. Now
that represents an enormous liberalisation of the capital gains tax law in this country and it
goes far beyond what we promised in the election campaign. And I think it is important
that over the weeks ahead, at a constituency level and at a State division level, we drive
home the value of these benefits. It is very easy for some policy changes and some
reforms to be made and for people to forget about them in short period time. This will
come into operation on the first of July.
And the other thing that will come into operation on the first of July are the tax incentives
for private health insurance something that should have been introduced in Australia five,
or six, or ten years ago. In the early 1990' s Grahame Richardson, and God forbid that I
should draw on Grahame Richardson as an authoritative source of political advice. But he
as the Health Minister in the Hawke Government, in the early 1990' s, when something like
thirty-nine per cent of the Australian population was covered by private health insurance,
he then said that something had to be done to stop the drift of people out of private health
insurance. He warned the Hawke Government that if that wasn't done, if steps were not
taken, then we ran the risk of losing the critical mass that was needed to sustain the
private health insurance system. And, of course, nothing was done.
The ideological hostility of the Labor Party to private provision so far as health is
concerned in this country over rode the common sense of that advice and the net result is
that we now have only thirty-four per cent of Australians who are covered by private
health insurance. And that is making a major contribution to the strain on the public
hospital system of Australia. And even the Labor Premier of New South Wales, Bob
Carr, now says, " oh, it's a terrible problem and something has got to be done about it".
It's a great pity that he had not supported his old mate Grahame Richardson in the early
1990' s.
But, I can promise you that the commitment that we made in the election campaign in the
health area will be delivered in full on the first of July this year when those tax incentives
come into operation. It is another case of having delivered in full, on time, and without
qualification on a promise that we made during the election campaign.
From the beginning of this year, once again, on time, without deduction and in full we
delivered the total measure of our family tax initiative. In many other areas, and I see
David Kemp here today. And David is doing an absolutely magnificent job, not only
looking after the training and apprenticeship area, but he's also got responsibility for work
for the dole.
We said that we would give Australian business and Australian young people a modern
training and apprenticeship system and we are well down the path to doing it.
We have announced the introduction of a work-for-the-dole scheme. And a work for the
dole scheme is based on the very simple principle of mutual obligation. In the kind of
society we have it is our moral responsibility to provide a safety net of support for people
who need it. It's always been a core Liberal principle to look after the needy in our
society. And that means that if people genuinely can't get work they are entitled to
financial support and for living support and daily support from the rest of us. But it is also
fair and right in a society such as ours that having provided that support we are entitled to
ask those people who receive it to do something reasonably in return for that support.
Now, there's nothing outrageous about that. It's not anti Democratic. It's not even, I
understand, against any provisions of the International Labor Organisation. Although for
years and years and years we were told by the sceptics and our opponents, " you can't
have work-for-the-dole, the ILO won't like it." Well, amazingly I find that even the iLO
doesn't object to it. But I wonder whether the Labor Party objects to it. I wonder when
that vote finally comes in June of this year whether the Labor Party will put up his hand
for work-for-the-dole or the Labor Party will join the Australian Democrats and vote it
down. It will be a very, very interesting test of where the Labor Party stands.
But there are many other issues that we have before us. We are fast coming to the time
when a decision will need to be taken on one of the most difficult issues that any
Australian government in modern times has had to confront and that is the collection of
problems thrown up by the decision of the High Court of Australia in the Wik case. I have
to say that that was a very disappointing and a very surprising decision. It was a decision
that ran against the conventional wisdom. It was a decision that was against the
representations directly contained in recitals to the Native Title Act. It was a decision
which ran against the public assurances given by the former Prime Minister, Mr Keating.
It was a decision that ran against public statements made by Aboriginal leaders after the
passage of the 1993 Native Title Act. And it was a decision that has created an enormous
amount of uncertainty and unpredictability for the farmers and the miners of Australia and
has opened up a potential area of endless litigation unless appropriate action is taken.
Now I have over past weeks been in consultation will all of the relevant stakeholders and I
have to say that those consultations by and large have been conducted in an atmosphere of
great goodwill. I remain determined, if I can, to achieve an agreed outcome. I don't
pretend that that is easy. But that process of dialogue cannot go on forever, there has to
be an end point. There can only be an agreed outcome if there is an acceptance by the
indigenous people of Australia that an automatic acceptance of the Wik decision will
create intolerable uncertainty for the pastoralists of Australia. And equally there has to be
an acceptance by other interested parties of the sensitivity of the Aboriginal community to
the notion of extinguishment of title. And within those two bands, within those two areas
of understanding perhaps an agreed outcome that delivers respect for native title, but by
the same token guarantees security, predicability and certainty, and an avoidance of
endless block by block litigation over perhaps 40% to 50% of the land mass of Australia
which is one of the nightmare scenarios thrown up by the decision perhaps between
those two extremities there does lie the possibility of an agreed outcome. And if it can be
achieved, well it would be very important for fuiture relations between different sections of
the Australian community. But if that agreement cannot be achieved then it will be my
intention to make certain recommendations to the Government as to a clear and definite
course of action because it is not a matter that can be allowed to be the subject of endless
discussion and endless negotiation.
We also have ahead of us, of course, the bringing down of the budget in May of this year.
And we are returning to the pattern of the May budget. And already the ERC, under the
direct guidance of Peter Costello and John Fahey, is hard at work.
The budget task that we inherited a year ago was in the dimension of about a 10 billion
deficit on an underlying basis. And it Is important for the maintenance of strong and stable
business conditions that we continue to drive towards getting a surplus in our budget. It is
not an arcane, academic, arid, economic exercise. If you have a budget surplus that has
beneficial effects on interest rates. It's no accident that interest rates have fallen by about
across the board in the last 12 months. And one of the reasons for that has been the
determination of the Government to reduce the deficit and the knowledge by the Reserve
Bank that we now have in power a group of people who are prepared to try and tackle the
size of our deficit, a group of people who are not reluctant to tackle whatever decisions
are needed to achieve that objective. And the task in May, although not of the same
dimension of last year and not the necessity involving the same sort of decisions that were
taken last year, is nonetheless a very difficult exercise and will require the continued
application of the efforts and the energies of senior ministers and of the whole
Parliamentary Party.
Another matter that I want to touch on very briefly is the debate that surrounds the
position of Senator Colston. Senator Colston, as you know, was a member of the
Australian Labor Party. I watched with fascination the Deputy Leader of the Opposition
this morning on the Sunday programme. And he was talking about the events of 1983.
You know, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. He said, " we were a new government,
Senator Colston was a new member" he'd only been in Canberra for eight years. After
I'd been in Canberra for eight years I felt anything but a new member. And the reality, of
course, is that, as everyone knows, Senator Colston, for a whole combination of reasons,
defected from the Australian Labor Party a few months ago. And the every deed, the
every act, the every motivation of the Australian Labor Party over recent months has, in
the openly confessed words and approach of Senator Ray, been driven by tribal revenge,
nothing else. It's got nothing to do with concern for the taxpayers' money. It's got
nothing to do with proprieties, it's got everything to do with doing in the eye a bloke you
reckon ratted on your party. It's as simple as that. Senator Ray, to his credit, at least has
been honest enough to say so and honest enough to admit that he's not very nice in
pursuing the vendetta.
And then of course that other group that has had a lot to say about Senator Colston is, of
course, the Australian Democrats. Now their motivation, ladies and gentlemen, has been
driven not so much by revenge but by pique the feeling that they're no longer as relevant
as what they were a few months ago and no longer as relevant as what they would like to
be. So in all that is said I think we ought to keep this in mind.
But let me make it very clear to you, as a number of us have made clear in the past, that
my Government will not tolerate any abuse of parliamentary privileges by any Senator or
member no matter what party that person belongs to.
We are following due process with Senator Colston. But as many in this audience will
know, due process is sometimes slow process but that is the nature of our system. And I
repeat the assurances that I've given in the past, that when he has responded as he is
required to do by about the middle of this month to the allegations that have been made
and when all of them are looked at together all of them if the advice we receive from
amongst other sources, the Attorney-General's Department, is that the matter could
involve a breach of the law then we will not hesitate, indeed, I will insist that the matter be
sent to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.
Now that is our position and there can be no ambiguity about that. My attitude all along
has been that we're not going to do any favours for anybody when it comes to the law of
this country. Equally though, we are not going to allow somebody for a combination of
reasons to be denied due process and to be denied the presumption of innocence. That
has never been our way and we won't allow it to happen in relation to Senator Colston.
Ladies and gentlemen there are just two other things that I want to say to you this
morning. The first of those is that, as Richard Alston said in his very kind introductory
remarks, the last year has been a very successful year for the Liberal Party. It's not only
been electorally successfully. You here in Victoria have the enormous pleasure of sharing
our great Federal victory on the 2nd of March last year but you also had the experience of
the exhilarating re-election of the Kennett Government only a few weeks later.
But throughout Australia there has been a change. We have kept faith with the major
commitments that we made to the Australian people. We have dumbfounded our critics
on many fronts. We were told by our critics that we couldn't deal with the nations of the
Asian-Pacific region. Quite the opposite. We have established a new basis of pragmatic
understanding with many of those nations based, as I said in Beijing, on the twin pillars of
mutual benefit and mutual respect. The only way to build a proper relationship between
Australia and another nation is on the basis of mutual respect. I respect the right of other
nations to decide the way in which they govern their affairs but equally I require of them
that they respect the right of the Australian people to run their affairs according to our
assessment of what is in the interests of the Australian people. And I can tell you one
thing, I did many things in Beijing and Shanghai but there's one thing I didn't do in either
of those cities and one thing I will never do when I go abroad as your representative, I
didn't think out aloud about the constitutional future of my country. Nor did I denigrate
the symbols and the emblems of my country. Nor did I yield an inch on important
democratic values such as press freedom.
I mean, all of us in politics occasionally, so I've observed, get a little irritated at the press
coverage we receive. But let us never forget that the real guarantees of freedom in this
country are not in what is written down or ought to be written down in a constitution or a
Bill of Rights and as [ yve said on other occasions, I am no great believer in a Bill of
Rights, I'm a common law man through and through. What are the really great guarantors
of freedom in this country are a vigorous parliamentary democracy, and we certainly have
that, an incorruptible judiciary, and we certainly have that, and a vigorous, open, sceptical
and free press. And however much it may on occasions aggravate us it still remains a
bedrock of our democratic society. And it's one of the things that distinguishes Australia
from many other societies and it's one of those great western liberal inheritances that we
have in common with other societies around the world.
And I can say to you ladies and gentlemen that our relationship with the most populous
nation on earth, China, is on a sound and sensible footing. I didn't come back wrapped in
euphoria. I didn't start emotionally talking about a new special intimate relationship. I
didn't say that that country had things that could put us to shame any more than I said we
have things that could put it to shame. But I sought when I was there to do one thing and
that was to advance the national interest of Australia, to identify, the things that we had in
common, to recognise that there are enormous economic opportunities because it is the
biggest country in the world and it is experiencing an annual growth rate of the
unbelievable level of between 10% and 15% a year. And the transformation that is
occurring in the major cities of China is on a scale that few people could even comprehend
let alone have experienced. So it is very important that we be part of that. And I took
with me the most senior business delegation, the most senior combination of men and
women in Australian business that have ever travelled abroad with an Australian Prime
Minister. And all the members of that delegation are household names in the world of
business in Australia. And for the first time you saw the Australian Government and the
business community of Australia working together in a cooperative partnership in the
largest nation in the world advancing the interests of Australia and seeking to achieve
business understanding with that vast nation. And in that practical way we have made an
enormous contribution to the economic future and a sound and sensible relationship
between Australia and the Republic of China.
The last thing that I want to say to you ladies and gentlemen is that one of the ingredients
of our success over the last 12 months is that we have sought and I think to a large
measure have achieved our goal of retaining contact with the Australian people. We have
not allowed ourselves to get remote from their concerns. We have retained contact with
the Liberal Party Organisation. We have retained contact with the small business
community. We have retained contact with those tens of thousands of traditional blue
collar Labor voters who deserted the Keating government in March of last year and saw in
us a group of men and women who better represented their aspiration and their hopes and
their values as members of the Australian mainstream than any other political force in
Australia. And I count that as one of the proudest achievements and the greatest
achievements of my Government over the last 12 months that we have kept faith with the
mainstream. We haven't allowed ourselves to become a remote elitist party. I mean, one
of the most constantly battling things to me in the lead up to the last election was the
extent to which many of the commentators and much of the media continued to talk of the
Liberal Party in that rather cliched fashion as being the party of privilege and the party of
elitism. Yet in reality for five or six years before the change of government last March the
new elitists, the new plutocrats of Australian politics, the new people who were remote
from the views of mainstream Australia had in fact become the Australian Labor Party. It
is they who, with their so called big picture, had got remote from the values and the
aspirations of the mainstream of the Australian community. It was our capacity to identify
with those people. It was our capacity to fashion policies that serve the interests and the
values of those people. It was our capacity to understand their basic concern for the
future of their families, their living standards, their basic patriotic decency, their concern
about day-to-day issues, not issues of long term debate and potential divisiveness. It was
all of those things that helped to achieve the result that we achieved on the 2nd of March.
And I think our capacity to do that over the last year has been of enormous benefit.
And in the process of doing that I want to thank all of you for the tremendous support and
loyalty that you have given to me. I want to thank all the members of my Federal
Parliamentary team for their understanding and support and their trust and their
confidence over the past year. In all of my political life I have never taken anything for
granted. I have said before and I'll say it again today that I would never have been leader
of the Parliamentary Liberal Party and certainly not Prime Minister of Australia without
the understanding and support of the Liberal Party Organisation. I am and remain a
creature of the Liberal Party Organisation. I believe in it. I believe in the contribution that
it has made to the building of this country. I believe in the volunteer effort of the men and
women of the Liberal Party who year after year have kept our party together while those
of us who are fortunate enough to have parliamentary office have occasionally enjoyed
some of the limelight of politics. But you are the people, you are the backbone and you
are the stuff of which long term political success has always been made. I remain
conscious of that. I thank you for that and I look forward to a continuation of that
partnership in the years ahead. Thank you very much.