22 August 1997 ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MUNISTER
THE HON. JOHN HOWARD MP
' ro THE TASMANIAN LIBERAL PARTY STATE COUNCIL DINNER
COUJNTRY CLUB CASINO, LAUNCESTON
E& OE
Thank you very much Tony, to Bill Gatenby, the President of the Tasmanian Division of the Liberal Party, Tony Staley, the Federal President of the Party, . Jocelyn Newman,
Warwick Smith, my other Parliamentary colleagues, both State and Federal, to Robyn
Gray and Ray Groom, two former Tasmanian Premiers, ladies and gentlemen.
It is again a great pleasure to be back addressing the Tasmanian Division. I was thinking
before I got up to speak that I have spoken at this dinner and to various gatherings like
this in many capacities over the years.
I have spoken to it as Opposition Leader, this is the second time I have addressed this
dinner as Prime Minister, on earlier occasions I spoke to it as Treasurer and I think on
occasions I have been allowed in to speak to it when I have not carried any particular
moniker at all, other than a member of Federal Parliament. And, over the years I have
developed some very close personal associations with many people in the Tasmanian
Division. And, I want to say at the outset tonight, how much I appreciate on a personal level, the
tremendous loyalty, understanding and support that the rank and file members of the
Liberal Party in Tasmania have given me, particularly over the last seventeen months.
It's sometimes not easy to be an open supporter of a political party and I think it does all
of us well on occasions like this to remember that it's you and people like you around
Tasmania and around Australia who have really kept the Liberal Party going. You have
kept the Liberal Party going during its difficult years, as well as being able to share the
relative success and share the delight that we now hold power at both a State and a
Federal level.
And, in terms of the history of Liberal Party right at the moment, enjoying as we do,
power at a national level and power at a State and Territorial level in every part of
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Australia other than NSW, it represents one of the high points in the 52 year existence of
the Liberal Party of Australia.
But, can I say that a man who epitomnises that commitment, that willingness to give his all
to something that he believes in, that we all believe in, is of course your retiring State
President, Bill Gatenby. And can I say to you Bill, that you have given enormous support
and substance, and fibre, and leadership to the Liberal Party, here in Tasmania, over the
last three and a half years.
We would not have done as well as we have done here, Federally, we would not have
retained the authority in difficult circumstances that we have at a State level, without your
leadership. I admire the fact that with quite meagre resources, most of the time, in very
very difficult circumstances, politically, from opposition for a large part of the time at a
Federal level, and in challenging circumstances at a State level, you have kept the Liberal
Party flag flying here.
You have preserved a representative Liberal Party that reflects the grass roots of the
Tasmainian people and one of the great strengths I have always noticed at the Tasmanian
Division of the Liberal Party, is that, it seemed to me to be a more faithful representation
of the people of the State than perhaps some of the other divisions of the Liberal Party
around the country.
So, can I say, can I wish you and Margo every happiness in the future. I am delighted that
you'll continue as Federal Vice-President of the Liberal Party and that I'll continue to have
your advice and your counsel and your support on the National Executive of the Party.
You have been a great and faithful servant of the Liberal Party here in Tasmania and
around Australia and all of us are massively in your debt on that account.
So ladies and gentleman, could I also say how very pleased I am to have had the
opportunity before tonight's dinner to talk at length about issues of fundamental
importance to the future of Tasmania and fundamental to the relationship between the
Federal Government and State Government, with Tony Rundle, your Premier.
Tasmania does face some enormous challenges. The Nixon Report has highlighted some
of the realities facing the state of Tasmania and I want to compliment Tony Rundle on the
courageous leadership that he has displayed in the wake of that Report.
I feel a sense of great understanding and great sympathy with his position. There comes a
time in the life of a politician, the life of a State or the life of a country where it's really a
question of what is the point of continuing to occupy positions unless you are prepared to
take a chance and to take a risk and to strike out a courageous position.
And, one of the things that influenced me in the decision that I took ten days ago to
recommend that my Cabinet ( that we enthusiastically embrace the cause of taxation
reform), was the fundamental belief that the Australian nation needs a new taxation system
to take it into the 21 st Century.
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And in similar vein, your Premier has Said that the people of Tasmania and the State of
Tasmania need new Constitutional and economnic arrangements to take it into the
21st century. And rather than recoil defensively into despair and despondency, what your
Premier has done is to show a lead, to stamnp his authority on the debate about the
direction of your State.
And, I wish him well, I congratulate him in his vigour. I hope the referendum that he
proposes is resoundingly supported and speaking on behalf the Federal government, I will
do everything that I reasonably can to assist in developing, and helping, and promoting
and nurturing the future of Tasmania and the future of the Tasmanian people.
We are, as we have been reminded about half way through our first term in office.
It's appropriate, therefore, to take stock of what has happened and also to try and project
forwar-d a little to what is going to happen over the next eighteen months. And over the
last seventeen months we have very much been in the process of repairing the foundations
of attending to those things that have been left neglected for a long period of
time. it's worth reminding the Australian people that we inherited an unemployment rate
of It's worth reminding the Australian people that for 13 years the Labor Party ran
this country, for 13 years they had the opportunity to fix the tax system, for 13 years they
had the opportunity to reduce unemployment, for 13 years they had the opportunity to
give this country a viable industry policy, for 13 years they had the opportunity to put this
country into the black, but when we came into office in March of last year, none of those
things had been attended to.
If ever there were a group of people who are utterly disqualified from commenting
critically on the level of unemployment in Australia, it is the members of the Labor Party
front bench in Canberra, at the present tine.
Over the last 17 months we have repaired the foundations, we have addressed the things
that needed to be addressed. We inherited an underlying budget deficit of $ 10.5 billion
and by the end of our first term we will have converted that to a surplus of $ 1.6 billion.
In 1995 the national debt of this country was about 20% of our annual wealth generation
By the year 2000 we will have cut that in half According to the OECD, we will
have a growth rate in 1997 and 1998 which is faster than the average of the G7, that is the
major 7 industrialised countries.
We inherited levels of interest rates which over the last 17 months have been reduced by
percentage points. We have in Peter Costello's phrase, the lowest housing interest
rates since man first walked on the moon in 1969. We have delivered all of the
fundamental promises we made in the area of industrial relations, in the area of small
business, in the area of the environment, despite the best efforts of the Labor Party and the
Australian Democrats and the Australian Greens to frustrate our environmental
programme. We are now in the process of generating, through the National Heritage
Trust of Australia, the largest ever capital expenditure on environmental re-generation in
the history of post World War 11 Australia-
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We have achieved the one third sale of Telstra. which is the largest privatisation so far in
Australia's history. We have delivered on our ommiitment to self funded retirees. From
the 1 st of July this year, we have delivered on our commitment in relation to private health
insurance rebates. In other words, if you look back over the last 17 months, and it's very
important that all of us as Liberals remember this, because sometimes we are our own
worst enemies in selling and proclaiming our own achievements.
Sometimes we are to reluctant to talk about what we have achieved. Sometimes, we too
readily succumb to the criticism of our opponents and the propaganda of our media critics
and sometimes we lose sight of what has been achieved over that last 17 months.
And there's an old adage in life tbat if you don't tell the world what you have done,
nobody else is going to do so.
It's tremendously important that all members of the Liberal Party understand the extent to
which we have kept faith with the commitments that we have made to the Australian
people. How we have delivered our industrial relations programme; how we have put the
country back in the black; how we have reduced interest rates We have retired debt
this year alone we'll repay five and a half billion dollars of Mr Keating's debts. And to
take a deficit of $ 10.5 billion and turn it into a surplus of $ 1.6 billion, in the space of
3 years, is a remarkable achievement. And as I had the great pleasure of saying to both
British and American audiences a couple of months ago when I was in those two
countries, that if you applied the criteria of the Mastricht Treaty for membership of the
European Monetary Union, Luxembourg and Australia are the only two countries at
present that would qualify' to join that august assembly. And I was very quick to point
out, of course, that Australia has absolutely no desire whatever to be associated with the
European Monetary Union.
I mean, I have spent a large part of my political life denigrating, quite rightly and with
some passion, the rotten anti-Australian policies of the European Economic Union, that
have done immense damage to the agricultural industries of Australia, and represent one of
the high watermarks of world trading hypocrisy. If ever a group of nations has preached
the theory of free trade but practiced protection to demented lengths, it's the European
Union. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the past 17 months and it has been a period of rebuilding the
foundations. It has been a period of attending to those things that have been left
unattended. It's involved some unpopular decisions, it's attracted its share of criticism.
But we are now entering phase two. Phase two is very much about realising the potential
of this nation as we move into the 2 1st century. Phase two is very much about building
structures that will take this country into the 21 st century. Phase two is very much about
conquering the most challenging art of modern government and that is, to choose between
preserving those things about your society, about your institutions and about your way of
life that ought to be preserved because they are good, they are better than the alternatives
and they enshrine the values that you believe in. Preserving them in one hand, and yet
with the other hand throwing out those structures and those institutions and those
practices that are no longer serving the best interests of your society and the best interests
of yoar nation.
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Tony Rundle and Hill Gatenby were quite Correct tonight to talk about the fact that we are
challenged by change. The world is changing very rapidly. The information technology
revolution is the greatest transformation that the world has seen since the industrial
revolution. It is sweeping through the world in a way and at a pace that few in this room
would have thought possible even a few years ago. I mean this afternoon I received a
minute from the head of my department saying that they are for the first time examining
proposals for the use of the electronic information systems of the Commonwealth for the
distribution of Cabinet documents and Cabinet minutes and over the next few months that
will become common place practice. It's just a contemporary example that landed, not on
my desk but on my hotel bed as I unlocked the weekend bag, of the sort of changes that
are being bought about by the information technology revolution. So anybody who says
that we can resist change and anybody who thinks we can hop off the global economy and
somehow or other repair to a quiet patch undisturbed by what is happening now and what
has happened over the last 10 or 20 years is absolutely deluding themselves.
Of course we must change. And the great challenge is to change those things that must be
changed because of those forces that I've just mentioned. But at the same time, hanging
on to those fundamental Australian values, hanging on to that great egalitarism of the
Australian community, hanging on to our tolerance, remembering the great capacity of this
country particularly after World War 11 to absorb millions of people from around the
world and to build this great harmonious, tolerant Australian nation, is one of the great
achievements of the Australian story. The way in which we were able to absorb people
from all around the world and to build a nation of tolerance and harmony and also to
preserve the Federal system This is a big country You can't run it other than through a
decentralised Federal system of government and the idea that all wisdom resides in one
particular part of Australia of course, as your State President said, is absolute nonsense.
I am, as I often say, a passionate nationalist. I am not a centralist, but I am a nationalist.
A nationalist is somebody who believes that decisions should always be taken with a view
to the national benefit. A centralist is somebody who always believes the national benefit
is to be found in the decision being taken in the centre of the nation. I think there's a very,
very imnportant difference and I think true Federalism and a true co-operative struicture
between the Federal government and the State governments of Australia is to be found in
a system of government whereby we always take decisions which best express the national
interest. And in many cases they can only be taken in a spirit of co-operation and harmony and
partnershp between the Federal government and the State Government. At the moment,
the Premier and I, and our respective Ministers, are engaged in debate and discussion
about the regional forest arrangements, to be concluded between the Federal government
and th~ e State government.
And, the purpose of those arrangements is to build a stable, predictable agreement
between the two governments, involving the industry and other community groups, that
will give certainty, and security and jobs again, over the next 20 years.
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Achieving that is not easy, but there is great goodwill on the part of both governments,
and I know the importance of the forest industry to the people of Tasmania. And I know
the history of the debate between the forest industry and others in Tasmania over the last
few years and it is my determination and the determination of the Tasmanian government
to see that an intelligent, and lasting, and far sighted agreement between the two
governments is reached. And one that above everything else, will give security and
predictability to the people who are employed in the industry and invest in the industry,
and will also recognise the special and unique national conservation values of the State of
Tasmania. But, ladies and gentlemen, I mentioned a moment ago that ten days ago we embarked at a
Federal level, upon a great debate, I called it, and some of my media critics derided the
reference, I called a great adventure and this is the adventure of fuhndamiental taxation
reform.
We have reformed and changed, and made more modern, the industrial relations system of
Australia. We've got the budget in order; we've reduced our debt, we're embarked upon
a vigorous program of privatisation; we have a strong and positive competition policy
throughout Australia. But the one great, neglected, unrepaired, ramshackle of the
Australian economy, is our taxation system.
And, there is not a man or woman in this audience who doesn't know that we need
fundamental reform to Aujstralia's taxation system. And if I were addressing a Labor
Party dinner, I would be able to make the same claim, without any fear of contradiction.
And the people who have performed the most pathetically of all in this debate about
taxation reform, have been Kim Beazley and Gareth Evans,
Kim Beazley started off by saying, well I'm interested in taxation reform but you can't talk
about having a broad-based indirect tax as part of it. Rather like saying, I want to have a
game of football as long as there is no opposing side.
Gareth Evans said you don't need to reform the Australian taxation system, he said all you
have got to do is have a bit more growth. Well can I say Gareth, where was your growth
over the last 13 years? And, fie said, al you have got to do is have a little bit of growth
and you do a little bit of fiddlig at the margin.
And now the latest contribution from Mr Beazley is, he says I'm in favour of taxation
reform, as long as it involves soaking the rich whatever that may mean, or whoever
they may comprise.
Can I say that by contrast, we have committed ourselves to a program of taxation reform
that will deliver a fairer taxation system, a modern taxation system, that will take this
country into the 21st Century, A taxation system that will reform the indirect tax base.
One that will involve reductions in personal income tax. One that does not involve an
increase in the overall taxation burden. And one that will include the difficulties of
Commonwealth/ State financial relations.
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Now 1. think the most important area of unfinished economic business in this country is the
challenge of taxation reform. It is not something that stands alone, it's not an academic
exercise that is irrelevant to the general health of the economy. A better taxation system
means stronger economic growth and stronger economic growth means lower
unemployment. The idea that you can look at the challenge of unemployment without looking at such a
fuindamental artery of the Australian economy as the taxation system, is quite unrealistic.
All of us know, if we are honest with ourselves, that we have addressed this issue in the
past. Some of you may say, why are you raising it now? Some of you may say why are
you raising it now, some of you may say, you can't go to an election proposing taxation
reform. Does anybody seriously imagine that I could have gone to the next election as Prime
Mnister of this country and said no, we're not going to do anything about taxation
reform?
There comes a point in public life and politics, if you are really serious about doing
something good for the nation, and doing something good for your country, you have to
deya bit of conventional political wisdom. You have to ignore what some of the advisers
tell you. You have to say to people, the future of this country is worth taking a few
personal risks for and that is in reality what is involved.
I don't underestimate the challenges. I know that the Labor Party will run the most
negative, the most misrepresenting, the most dishonest, the most scurrilous fear campaign
in relation to taxation reform that anybody could imagine.
But you all know, that if we are to be faithful to the huge mandate that we were given at
the last election, you all know that one of our great responsibilities is to tackle areas of
fundamental economic reform. And we can't seriously be on the playing field, we can't
seriously be part of the team and we certainly can't be a world class team unless we are
willing to address the weaknesses in the Australian taxation system. There are many, and
you'll be hearing more of them from me and from Peter Costello and our colleagues, over
the next few months but just let me tell you one, or two of them.
In 1955, which admittedly is a long time ago, if you paid the top marginal rate of income
tax you had to be earning seventeen times average weekly earnings. By 1979 that had
fallen to something like seven times average weekly earnings it has now fallen to one and
a half times average weekly earnings. And it gives you an idea of the way in which the
progressive taxation system has become such a clog, not on very wealthy people, but has
become a clog on the aspirations of average, middle class Australians.
All of you will be aware, and you will certainly become more aware over the next few
months, of the extent to which the current indirect taxation system affects the purchase
price that you pay for so many basic daily goods that you purchase for your every day
needs.
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When you bear the fear campaign about an extra cent or a Y per cent broad-based indirect
tax, just remember the 22 per cent that you are paying on toothpaste, just remember what
you are paying on orange concentrate and remember that you can buy caviar without any
wholesale sales tax. And you think of some of those anomalies and some of those
contradictions, then you have an idea of why this system is so far out of date and why this
system is in need of fundamental repair.
Ladiesl and gentlemen, can I say to all of you that being in government is good. Doing
good things in government is even better. Being in opposition is absolutely awful and
never to be lightly embraced or contemplated. At the end of the day though what we exist
for as a political movement, what we exist to do is to implement the values of our party
which are an expression of the hopes and the aspirations of the Australian people.
One of the great strengths of the Liberal Party of Australia is that it isn't owned by
anybody, it isn't owned by any one section of the Australian community. And one of the
greatest feelings that I had on the evening of the 2nd March last year was to know that the
only obligation I carried into office as Prime Minister of Australa was an obligation to do
my level best to improve the lot of the great mass of the Australian people. I didn't go
into office feeling that I had to deliver a particular promise to a particular person, or to a
particular group of people. I went into office knowing that in my heart that if I did the
right thing by the great majority of the Australian people, then I would have fulfilled the
mandate that they so generously gave to me and my colleagues.
We have tried hard over the last 17 months to do that. We have another 18 odd months
before the next election. We are moving to that second stage which is to realise the
potential of this country as it moves into the 2 1st century.
We've copped our share of criticism that's politics, it's all part of the process. It was
never a particularly generous or a particularly giving activity, as many in this room know
just as well as I do. But if we are serious about building a better Australia, if we are
serious about making certain that his country prospers, survives and thrives into the 2 1st
century, we must continue to have the courage to take risks. We must continue to have
the courage to strike out for reform, we must have the foresight and the wisdom to hang
on to those things that are worth preserving while throwing out those things that are no
longer serving the national interest.
But it is a great enterprise, a great partnership and can I simply conclude by saying that
everything that I have achieved in public life I owe to the great party to which we all
belong. I would never have been a member of Parliament if I hadn't been the endorsed
Liberal candidate for Bennelong, I would never have been leader of the Liberal Party of
Australia if I hadn't been a member of Parliament of the Liberal Party of Australia and I
would never have achieved the tremendous honour of being Prime Minister of Australia
had it not been for the Liberal Party of Australia. So gathering here tonight, I feel very
much one of you. That all of us together over the years have shared a great journey and a
great experience and a great opportunity to work together for a cause to make our
country, to make our State and to make our world a better place in which to live.
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We ought to preserve that sense of idealism and commitment that Liberals over the years
have always had. It is a great Party, it's got great values, it's got great resilience, it's got
great decency and we should never lose sight of that fact and we should never be reluctant
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