Fax from PRIME MINISTER1
11 April 1997 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME M[ INISTER.
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
ADDRESS TO THE NSW DIVISION OF THE LIBERAL PARTY
FIRST ANNIVERSARY DINNER SYDNEY
E& OE
Thank you very much Rod for those very gracious and extremely generous remarks.
To Michael Osborne, the President of the Liberal Party in NSW; to my parliamentary
colleagues Federal and State, and particularly I acknowledge the presence of the
Leader of the NSW Opposition Peter Collins, and could I also acknowledge the
presence of two other people -the recently preselected new Senator from NSW Mahse
Payne who is replacing Bill Heffernan ( sic), and also my predecessor as leader of the
Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party, John Hewson.
It is a great night of celebration, you are absolutely right there were numerous
occasions Rod when I thought I'd never make it. There were numerous occasions
when a lot of people in this room thought I'd never make it, and there were many of
those occasions when they had good reason to believe that I would never make it.
And it is one of those occasions when all of us are entitled to take a deal of quiet
satisfaction in what has been achieved over the last year. To be out of office for 13
years between 1983 and 1996 and given the pace of modem life is the equivalent I
guess of having been out of office between 1949 and 1972. And as the first few years
rolled into five or six years and then ultimately doubled into a decade or more, there
must have been many people in this room who wondered whether they would ever live
to see the election of another federal Liberal Government and I do want to say first and
foremost to all of you and my heartfelt thanks for the tremendous loyalty and support
that you have demonstrated over the years in very difficult and often trying and
challenging and frustrating circumstances to the Liberal Party cause.
I think it is very important on an occasion like this that those of us who are lucky
enough to hold elected office, and I do regard it as a privilege and I do regard it as the
greatest privilege that could come the way of any Australian to be Prime Minister of
this magnificent country. It is an occasion, an occasion like tonight to acknowledge on
behalf of all of my colleagues, the tremendous support that you have given. And I also
want to thank those in the room who have worked so hard over the years to raise
resources for the Liberal Party. I've always been very sensitive to their problem. I
Fawx ~ 13/ 84/ 97 12: 25 Pg: 1
Fax from 13/ 04/ 97 12: 25 Pg: 2
can understand how hard it must have been to raise a dollar for the Liberal Party over
the last few years and there must have been occasions where you wondered whether it
was really worth it. I've always tried to sort of synchronise my own efforts with those,
and although there are limits that one has to draw, I've had on several occasions to tell
Liberal Party f'undraisers, that I can't sell any nights in either the Fraser or Whitlam
bedrooms at the Lodge, but I can nonetheless say that a close conjunction between the
Parliamentary party and the organisation is tremendously important.
But tonight most importantly of all is an occasion to reflect on some of the things that
we have been able to do together over the last year. And I emphasise the word
together because it has been a team effort. I've operated on the principle that a Prime
Mnister is nothing more than a first amongst equals and I want to thank all of my
cabinet and Parliamentary colleagues. There's one person I will single out for special
mention and that is the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the National Party, Tim
Fischer. Tim Fischer is a remarkably loyal and decent deputy. Hie stood up for some
very diflicizlt decisions of the government and I have particularly in mind the decision
we took about uniform gun laws, often in the face of some very difficult circumstances
within his own immediate constituency and I particularly wanted tonight as he wings
his way to Goondiwindi for the National Party conference in QLD, I particularly
wanted to acknowledge the magnificent contribution that Tim has made to the stability
and strength of our government and also the magnificent job that Timi has done as the
Mnister for Trade and Deputy Prime Minister.
There were a number of key things that we talked about in the lead up to the election
campaign and what we've tried to do in the twelve or more months that we have been
in office. I think if you reflect on those weeks and months leading up to the election,
you will remember that we placed a great deal of emphasis on industrial relations
reform. I guess of all things that I've argued for over the last ten or fifteen years, none
has been more prominent than my belief that this country needs a fundamentally
different industrial relations system, and although it is true that because we didn't have
control of the Senate, we weren't able to get through in its entirety all that we would
have wanted in the area of industrial relations and I don't dissemble about that and I
don't pretend. We were able nonetheless to achieve the fundamental changes that we
wanted to make and I believe that over time those changes, particularly in the small
business area, will deliver a different and fundamentally changed industrial relations
system. We've not only got rid of those very silly unfair dismissal laws that were the
bane of the existence of so many men and women in business for so many years under
the former government, but we have finally got rid at a federal level of the last vestiges
of compulsory unionism. We have brought back the rule of law in the area of
secondary boycotts to the ordinary courts of Australia. We have entrenched into the
industrial relations law of Australia the notion that the best arrangement between an
employer and an employee is the arrangement voluntarily forged at the workplace level
based upon their common interest in the enterprise being successful. We have begun
to entrench that in the industrial relations laws of Australia. And as I look back over
the last 13 months I can feel very well satisfied, not complacent, not smug, but satisfied
that we have achieved that essential objective. I talked a lot, also during the election
campaign, about the importance of the family unit in our society, not in any moralising
or sanctimonious sense families come in different forms and different shapes. Not all
fhmilies are happy, not all families are successful, but that doesn't gainsay the fact that
Fax from it remains the most important and the most cohesive institution within our society, and
it remains the role of' governments, not in a hectoring or moralising sense, but in a
positive sense, to implement policies that support families and most particularly
support families in the choices that they make. And I'm very proud of the fact that we
delivered on time to the very last dollar without any qualification the family tax
initiative that I promised during the election campaign.
We also talked a great deal in the election campaign about the role of small business
within our community. Small business has been politic-ally something of an obsession
of mine and as a lot of you know it is because of my own background, because my
father ran a very small business for a long time and worked very hard and as a result of
that he gave to his four children a far more comfortable start in their lives than had
been his situation many many years ago, and that is very much the story of so many
men and women in Australia and we have tried very hard, without seeing the business
arena as a confrontation between big and small businesses, but recognising that if you
can create a climate of risk taking, if you can create an entrepreneurial climate, an
atmosphere for small business, you are far more likely through invigorating them than
any other approach over time to do something about dragging down our
unemployment levels.
We have set about implementing all and indeed in one area more than what we
promised at the time of the last election for small business. We've not only given them
the provisional tax relief, the industrial relations reform, the relief from the unfair
dismissal laws, but in the area of capital gains tax from the first of July this year, it will
be possible for any man or woman operating a small business in Australia, either solely
through a partnership, through a trust, or through shares in a company to sell that
business and invest up to five million dollars of the proceeds of that business in any
other kind of business, it doesn't have to be a like kind of business, without incurring
any liability at all for capital gains tax. And there will be many of you in this room who
will know that over time that particular reform will draw into the small business
community of Australia, the investment and the commitment and the talents of
increasing numbers of people who will see that particular approach to taxation as being
very attractive.
We also, in the lead up to the election campaign, talked a great deal about the
importance of having a balance between development and the environment. As not
only a participant in Australian politics, but I hope something of an amateur political
scientist and something of an observer of the political scene as well as a participant and
you can in a sense be both, one of the big changes that I have seen over the last
years is the way in which concern for the environment has become a mainstream
political issue. 20 years ago concern for the environment was still looked upon rather
suspiciously by many people who supported the Liberal Party. It was regarded as a
trendy issue, perhaps on occasions an issue that had been taken over by the left wing of
politics and really not something that resonated with the business and free enterprise
principles and commitments of the Liberal Party. But over the years that has changed
and I think concern for the environent has become a mainstream issue for all
generations of Australians, and that is why in the lead up to the election we determined
that we would have very strong environmental credentials. We said that we would sell
one third of Telstra and we would use one billion dollars of the proceeds of that sale to
Faro m13/ 04/ 97 12: 25 Pg: 3
Fax from establish the Natural Heritage Trust of Australia and I am very happy to say that we
were able to achieve that.
The Natural Heritage Trust of Australia will be established this year, the legislation has
gone through and I'll have the opportunity early next month to launch the Natural
Heritage Trust of Australia appropriately enough in the Blue Mountains just west of
Sydney in the electorate of Macquarie, which was one of the electorates won by the
Liberal Party from the Labor Party at the last election. And what we have been able to
do in thi s area I believe, and it is very important to the long term strength and health of
the Liberal Party is that we have been able to disabuse our critics of the notion that we
are disinterested in environmental protection, but we've been able to do it in a way that
resonates with our business and our other obligations and trying to have a balance
between the environment and business concerns is very very important to the future
development of Australia,
Now, ladies and gentlemen, they are just some of the things that I recall that we talked
loudly and strongly about in the lead up to the election campaign. I don't intend to
weary you with a long and detailed list but they are a sample of the things that we
regarded as important and examples of the things that we have remained true to in the
thirteen months that we have been in government. But a government is more than just
a series of promises kept or programmes delivered-A government is very much about
a style and an approach and an attitude and one of the most important things that I
have endeavoured to do, I don't know whether it has been entirely successfiul, I hope it
has, but I'll continue to try and do it, and that is to try and restore a greater sense of
civility in political life in Australia. I think for a long time we were going down the
path of losing all civility in public life and in politics in Australia and I do have to say
that nothing disillusions the young in our community more than a sense that public life
lacks any sense of civility and any sense of if' you like, call it in old-fashioned words,
good manners and a proper respect for the other pers on's point of view. And the
remark that I am about to make I hope nobody thinks for a moment that after being
Prime Minister for 13 months that I've gone soft or in any way lost my commitment to
the cause of the Liberal Party, but one of the things that I feel pleased about that I have
been able to do over the last 13 months is to preserve a capacity when it is ini the
national interest to do so to have a rational discussion with the Leader of the
Opposition. I think it is important.... ( applause)... and one example that I can recall
recently, we found ourselves sitting at the same table at a dinner in Melbourne to mark
the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Care Australia, and it was a the height of
the difficulties in Papua New Guinea and we were able to for a period of time to have a
serious discussion about the problems that that particular crisis presented for Australia.
Now, as I say that is not an indication that the rules of politics have changed, it is not
an indication that I regarded the advice that I received as being superior from the views
that I had formed, but I hope it is the role always of a Prime Minister in a country such
as Australia to recognise that however emphatic a victory may have been it remains the
case that something between 40 45% of the Australian community voted for the
alternative. And I2th ink Prime Ministers and leaders who lose sight of that lose touch
with the reality of life in Australian politics. They deserve the description of arrogant,
they deserve the description of being out of touch, they deserve the description of
Fa rom13/ 04/ 97 12: 25 Pg: 4
Fax from~ 13/ 64/ 97 12: 25 Pg:
elitism which is on past occasions in relation to others and I hope not about in the
future myself; or any members of the Liberal Party, those allegations that will be made.
When I reflect on the events of the past year, I reflect as I said earlier with enormous
pride in the great degree of loyalty and the great degree of strength and support that I
have received from my colleagues from the business community and from the Party
organisation. Tonight does comprise quite understandably a very large number of men
and women from the business community here in Sydney. I value the links that I have
with the business community of Sydney. I value the links that I have with the business
community all around Auistralia. We are not, as the Liberal Party, we are not unlike
our opponents, we are not beholden to any one section of the Australian community.
We are not owned by the trade union movement, we are not owned by the business
community either large or small, we are not owned by individual pressure groups, but
we do have a broad coincidence of views with the business community. The values
and the priorities of the business community are similar to the values and the priorities
of the Liberal Party. We won't always agree. Over the past year, some of you have
had occasion to criticise us on some issues and that is how it should occur in a
democracy, and it is foolish even at a gathering like this where everybody thinks in
such positive terms and reflects with such gratitude on the past year, it is natural that
people should be like that, nonetheless I acknowledge that there are things that over
the last year we have done that you would have wished we hadn't done.
I'd be deluding myself for example if I didn't acknowledge there'd be one or two
people in this room who disagreed with our decision, for example, to impose that
superannuation Surcharge. I'm not wrong I understand that, and I think it is
important that I acknowledge that, I think it is important that I know by the reaction
that you really expected me to acknowledge it, and also for me to say that I know that
decisions like that displease people. I hope you understand that in putting together last
year's budget we felt that one of the measures which would give to it within the
broader Australian community a feeling that the pain had been shared around equally
within the community, was that particular measure. I know it is not popular, I
acknowledge that, but I ask you to accept and to understand that within the broader
context that I have just described that that particular decision was needed in order to
convey that overall sense of fairness and that overall sense of balance.
I've spoken, ladiet and gentlemen, very much of what has happened over the last year.
We have before us at the present time, several issues of a degree of complexity and an
order of difficulty that few governments in Australia have faced for a long time. I can't
think of an issue which any government in Australia in recent years has faced which is
a complicated as the difficulties thrown up by the decision of the Nigh Court of
Australia in the Wik case. If I can just say for a moment that this particular issue
confronts the government and the Australian community with a need to take a choice
that will respect two apparently conflicting objectives. One of those is to respect
profoundly the desire I think of most Australians to see justice done to the original
inhabitants of this country. I have little doubt that most Australians believe as is the
cowe that as a group the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia
remain the most underprivileged section of the Australian community as a group. I
equally have little doubt that many Australians are angry and frustrated that the very
large amounts of money which have been committed towards relieving that
Fax from disadvantage appear to have achieved so little, and they have questioned the priorities
and approaches which have been involved in the provision of that money. And they
ask questions about whether the methodology which has been employed in the past is
really the appropriate methodology to be employed in the future. And the negative
symbolism of such issues as that disgraceful saga over the Hindrnarsh Bridge in South
Australia, where believe it or not because of a vote in the Senate only a few weeks
ago, we faced the real possibility of yet another inquiry because of the requirements of
the law passed by the former government. I can't estimate and I don't think any of the
observers of this scene can estimate the damage that has been done within the attitude
of the general Australian community to the cause of the genuine relief of the
disadvantage of Australian Aborigines as such things as the Hindiuarsh B~ ridge. It
represents a disgraceful symbol of political correctness doing its worst in the area of
indigenous affairs in Australia. But on the other hand, the Wik decision has presented
or the pastoralists and the miners of Australia an intolerable and unacceptable level of
instability and uncertainty. The notion that the occupation and ownership of land
which has often been in a family for several generations, might with the stroke a pen,
even of such as imminent body as the Hi1gh Court of Australia be rendered uncertain
and under a cloud is something that quite understandably has produced a wave of
instability, concern and even anger throughout the rural community of Australia and it
is the responsibility of my government and the responsibility of my Cabinet and the
Parliament within the very near future to produce a response to that particular decision
that respects the desire of the Australian community to do justice by the Aboriginal
people of this country, but also gives to our pastoralists, to the mining industry and to
other people affected, a proper measure of security and predictability, because I can
think of few scenarios involving a greater nightmare than the possibility that virtually
block by block over years to come, litigation will be waged over ownership of
something over 50% of the land mass of Australia and that according to some views of
the implications of the Wik decision is the kind of difficulty that we face. That
particular decision will challenge all of the sense of justce and the sense of
commitment to fair outcomes that we can as a government and as a Party muster.
Ladies and gentlemen on a personal note, of course tonight is a night of personal
celebration and personal satisfaction but it is a night that does very much belong to
people other than to me. I would never have been leader of the Liberal Party and I
certainly would never have been Prime Minister of Australia had it not been for the
Liberal Party organisation. It is common when you get elected to a position like Prime
Minister of Australia for people to say nice things about you and you appreciate them,
for them to compliment you on what you've done. It's common for people to speak of
the qualities that you may or may not have. But as somebody who has committed all
of his adult life to the Liberal Party cause through thick and thin, somebody who has
spent many years in the Liberal Party organisation, I do owe an enormous debt of
gratitude to a very large number of people who are in this room. People who in a
sense they represent who helped me on earlier occasions, And the sense of
comradeship and the sense of teamwork that I have always found in the Liberal Party,
even in its more diffcult times and even when there have been occasions when perhaps
I thought it hasn't made the right decisions in relation to both policy and personnel, has
been one of the sustaining things of my adult life. Fa om13/ 04/ 97 12: 25 Pg: 6
Fax from It has been an enormous privilege to lead the Liberal Party and even more so over the
last thirteen months to be the Prime Minister of Australia. There are many happy
recollections I have of the last 13 months, but I think probably the one that I have
found the most enduring is the fact that when Janette and I and our family again
journeyed to Hawks Nest at the beginning of this year, determined to repeat an annual
pattern of the last fifteen or sixteen years, and I went walking along the beach early in
the morning and I seem to see the same faces and I seem to receive most of the same
greetings that I had received on earlier occasions and they were very friendly
greetings, most of them. But I am pleased to report that one or two of them were
most unfriendly and it was that sort of sense of reality and a reminder that there's
something about this country which enables that sort of interrelation between people
and Prime Minister that you simply wouldn't receive in any other society.
I said when 1 was interviewed for an ABC programme before the election when I was
asked the question " How did I want Australia to be in the Year 2000?" and I coined a
phrase which like other politicians has hung around my neck. Ben Chifley had ' the
light on the hill'; Howard McMillan had ' the winds of change', and ' you have never
had it so good'; Malcolm Fraser had ' life was not meant to be easy'; and I coined the
expression that I wanted Australians to feel ' relaxed and comfortable' about
themselves. I really did mean it, and what I meant by that was very much that I think
this is a country that ought to be relaxed and comfortable in the sense that what it has
achieved since its existence began has been immense by comparison with other nations.
The degree of social justice in this country. The degree of egalitarianism still, although
it is not as great sadly as it once used to be, and the respect in which the country is
held in other parts of the world and that was driven home to me very strongly during
my recent visit to China, when I realised what immense advantages Australia brought
in a relationship with a country of that size. We bring with us the gifts of being part of
western civilisation which we clearly are, but we don't bring as others might, some of
the disadvantages of a previous history which has not been as positive in our relations
with China as other countries and that experience of only a week or ten days ago, was
a reminder again of the tremendous potential and the tremendous opportunities that
this country has.
So when I talk about being relaxed and comfortable, I talk about a country that can
feel proud of what it has achieved although recognising that there were and remain
blemishes, A country which is confident of its current identity, and a country which is
also positive that whatever formal shape that identity may take in the future and that in
our appropriate style we can debate those issues as we will increasingly as we draw
towards the constitutional convention and we'll debate them in a tolerant harmonious
respectfuli fashion. We'll recognise that there are many amongst us who believe that
the current constitutional arrangements remain very effective and very relevant. There
will also be many amongst us who have another view and one of the great strengths of
the Liberal Party over the last year in government is that it has been able to manage
some of these issues and encompass within our ranks people who have different views
on issues of that kind without those differences becoming matters of public discord and
matters of public division.
So they were the sort of things that I had in mind when I spoke 14 months ago of
Australians feeling relaxed and comfortable. It wasn't the clarion call of a complacent
Fa om13/ 84/ 97 12: 25 Pg: 7
Fax from person. It was rather som~ ebody who was endeavouring to describe in his own
language what he sees as some of the enduring and distinctive characteristics of being
and Australian.
Ladies and gentlemen, can I again thank all of you for tonight. Can I thank all of you
for the tremendous financial and other support that you have given to our Party over a
long period of time. Can I especially thank my wife Janette who is with me tonight and
all of the other people who have played such a very important and close personal role
in my life over the last year. It has been a year of tremendous achievement, a year of
great satisfaction but most importantly and I am grateftul for Rod having said it, most
impor-tantly we have endeavoured to conduct it in a way that we have laid a solid
foundation for I hope to be many years into the future. We waited long years in
opposition, they were very frustrating, they were very demanding, they were very
debilitating and it made the achievement of office all the greater and all the better and
all the more to be savoured and all the more to be used for the greater betterment and
for the good of all of the Australian people. I thank all of you very much for your
support, your loyalty, your understanding and you commitment to. our common future.
Thank you. Fafrrt13/ 04/ 97 12: 25 Pg: 8