E&OE....................................................
Thank you very much, Mr Chairman. To the Mayor of Hervey Bay, to the
Federal Member for Wide Bay and Minister for Customs, Warren Truss,
to Mrs Lyn Truss, ladies and gentlemen.
I only intend to make a very short speech, because I've really
come to talk to you rather than talk at you. I'll say a few words
and then I'd be very interested in answering your questions,
because in the nature of a short visit to the area, there's only
a limited amount of time in each town, and I don't want to occupy
all of that limited time with a speech.
Last night I addressed a gathering in Wondai, and then I'll be
going on to Maryborough after this gathering. And the purpose of my
being here is to hear what you've got to say, to acknowledge
the need for an even greater level of communication and accountability
between the Government and the people of Australia, and also to acknowledge
the fact and to express my understanding and concern for a number
of the economic and social problems that rural and regional communities
around Australia is suffering. Also to be honest with you in saying
that there are some things that this Government can do and there are
some things that this government, indeed no government, no matter
what political persuasion it might be, can do. It's very important
at this time for people to be direct and candid. You be direct and
candid to me, and I'll be direct and candid in response.
I believe that the process of public meetings such as this is still
the best method of political communication there is. It is less isolated,
it is less antiseptic, it is less unreal than interviews in television
studios. And that is one of the reasons why in all my political career
I've done a great deal of those such meetings. I know that in
communities like Hervey Bay, unemployment is high. I know that some
of your industries that have relied on commodity sales, are suffering
import penetration such as the pork industry. I also know that rural
Australia, and of course rural Queensland depends very heavily on
the jobs generated and the income earned from the exports that we
send to other nations and that in our policies we have to be sensible
to ensure that we don't jeopardise those exports because if we
do that, we jeopardise the jobs the tens of thousands of more Australians.
I also know that sound economic conditions are the important foundation
of a good business climate. That if you don't have low interest
rates and low inflation and that if you don't reduce your spending
as a government, that undermines the strength of the economy. And
I make no apology for the fact that we have put a huge priority on
reducing the budget deficit that we inherited. If we hadn't have
done that, interest rates now would be much higher than what they
are and the economic conditions, which many of you find very unsatisfactory,
would be even worse than what they are now. And I think it is very
important that we do preserve that sense of perspective. I think it
is also important as we acknowledge within our community that there
is economic and social change, that we achieve the right balance between
hanging onto those things from our past that are important and but
also embracing those areas where change is needed.
And there is much about Australia's past that is valuable and
precious and worth preserving. The flag behind me, for example, is
a symbol of the past and the present, and as far as I am concerned
should also symbolise our future because it is an emblem in which
I've always believed. And there are other great Australian values
that we've inherited and that we should hang on to, but like
any society there are areas of our community that need change. I,
for example, have championed the cause of industrial relations reform
and change. I also believe that it would be good for Australia if
we had a fairer taxation system and we'll have a debate about
that in the weeks and months ahead, and the rural community of Australia
will be a beneficiary of a fair and better taxation system, because
apart from anything else, a new taxation system would take the burden
off our exporters that disadvantages them in relation to their competitors
from other countries. These are but some of the issues that I want
to talk not only to this gathering of my fellow Australians but also
to other gatherings of my fellow Australians around our country. But
it is now twelve minutes past nine, and therefore in the interests
of giving you as much opportunity of having your say and asking your
questions, I'll conclude my introductory remarks and I'll
be very very happy to answer your questions, to hear your comments,
your observations, your criticisms, any thing you like. Thank you.
QUESTION:
This is about taxation. There's a lot of people in Australia
who earn 20, 000 a year. This is about $400 a week. I believe that
those people should never fill in a tax return. For example, if they've
got that sort of money, they spend it all locally. When you get over
$20,000, say $25,000 fives, from about two-and-a-half, till you get
to the top figure, the tax department could work out how many in those
categories...(inaudible)... there should be more money in people's
hands instead of being down to Canberra where it goes...(inaudible)..to
help people like us and all the other communities.
PRIME MINISTER:
I won't give a long answer to that. I simply say that we will
take all of those issues into account in the reform process.
QUESTION:
...(inaudible)...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, I understand the point of view. Can I give you my very quick
response. My very quick response is that we believe in as open a trading
system as possible, not because of regional security, because it is
in our own national self-interest.
QUESTION:
That's rubbish.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you may say it's rubbish, but can I say... look this is,
no, I'm sorry, there is absolutely nothing achieved if you imagine
that I am going to sort of stop giving an answer because of an interjection,
then please hear me out, and then you can have your say. That is the
civilised Australian manner. (Applause)
Now I was asked a question, and my answer is that it is in Australia's
interests to have an open trading system because we are a great primary
production nation and if we adopt a more restrictive trading system,
there will be retaliation against our rural exports and I swear to
you, tens of thousands of more Australians in the regional centres
of our nation will lose their jobs, lose their wealth, lose their
livelihood and lose their family security. I mean, if you lose the
beef exports, the sugar exports, if you lose the rice exports, and
all the other exports that go, not only to Asia, but go not only to
Asia but go to other parts of the world, if you lose the wine exports
from South Australia, and lose all of those great primary production
exports, then our rural communities and our regional communities will
be even more impoverished than what they are now. Now, that's
my response Sir.
QUESTION:
I have an 18 year old pre-lingual deaf boy here. I'd like to
know why your Government policy will pay my 18 year old son an amount
if he gets a girl pregnant and lives with her, to play mummies and
daddies, but your Government will not pay him a disability pension
when he is more than 20% disabled. He doesn't speak, doesn't
hear, and he signs. And I'd like to know why.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I would be very happy if we can get the details of your case.
QUESTION:
I did send you a letter, and yesterday Paul Neville got me to fax
it to Canberra so that you would read it...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'm sorry, but I would be very very happy, and I'll
get a member of my staff to speak to you after the meeting. I don't
know of course all of the details of your particular case. Could I
just say...
QUESTION:
I've been sending you information for two years.
PRIME MINISTER:
Can I just say two things. That we did make a number of changes in
the disability allowance. We did make them a lot more generous in
the last budget. You make the observation about paying somebody a
pension, or paying them support if they get a girl pregnant and play,
as you put it, mummies and daddies'. It is true that there
are benefits for single parents. One of the reasons that those benefits
exist is that no matter what judgement people may make about the sense
of responsibility or irresponsibility of the parents who bring children
into the world, the community does have an obligation to the innocent
children, and the idea that you don't disadvantage babies and
disadvantage young children by cutting off pensions is I think something
that can be challenged. The other thing I would say is that, contrary
to popular belief, more than 80% of people who receive the sole parents
benefit in Australia are deserted mothers.
QUESTION:
It is very hard when that....
PRIME MINISTER:
Ma'am, I do understand....
QUESTION:
.. if this is the way to get a benefit...It's not very moralistic...
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not making a... I don't encourage it. I have a very
sort of traditional view about family life and about marriage. I think
marriage is one of the great social bulwarks of our society and I
believe in policies that always give what I call a margin ...(Applause)...
I believe in giving a margin to marriage. I think it is a great show,
and I would like to investigate your particular circumstances and
obviously I think everybody in the room would identify very strongly
with your particular situation and I'm very glad that you've
raised it.
QUESTION:
...(inaudible)....a man and a woman, nearly always they are classed
as a de facto relationship. In a defacto relationship then they get
less social security than two other people such as two women, two
men, or two any other class, or as a matter of fact, six people living
in a house. The two people who are married are being victimised with
less social security payments. Why, and you say believe in the family
and marriage. You are only encouraging people to break the families
up, for monetary gain and okay...I'll continue.
PRIME MINISTER:
That's up to the Chairman but I think there's a few people.
Two's enough.
QUESTION:
This is just a suggestion.
PRIME MINISTER:
All right, two questions and a suggestion.
QUESTION:
Okay. Small business needs help. There's no doubt about that.
Lower interest rates would be a great help, particularly from banks
etc... which lead to... take a lot of their profits out. However,
your work-for-the-dole scheme. Now, this strikes me funny that you
will... there seems to be work out there for people that are prepared
to work for the dole, and I don't say this is wrong or right.
PRIME MINISTER:
Are you in favour of work-for-the-dole?
QUESTION:
Yes. Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good. Well, we brought it in. The Labor Party would throw it out.
QUESTION:
Fair enough. But the way it is implemented. If there is enough work
out there for them people to do two days work for a week, at the rate
that they are paid, why not pay four people the full wage to do this
work, which then, they would be fully employed, gainfully employed.
They would get a full wage, which at the end of the week, they might
have a little bit of money left to go and support a small business
who in that turn they may be able to employ another person. As it
is, the people who are getting their $170 a week on the dole, don't
have enough to put anything into small business and so it stops, the
money going around stops when they get their $170 a week because there's
nothing left after that to spend anywhere else.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, sir, I'll try and deal with those briefly. Why haven't
we brought in tax reform yet? Well, we'll be unveiling the plan
very soon. You can't bring about a fundamental change to a taxation
system overnight. We have a number of other priorities that we said
we'd attend to when we got into office and I reckon if at the
end of our first term in office we can look back and say we've
got the Budget back into balance after it's been in the black
$10.5 billion. We've had a real go at reforming the industrial
relations system. We've reduced massively that almost $100 billion
Federal Government debt that we inherited and we' ve also presented
a comprehensive plan for taxation reform. Well in the short space
of two-and-a-half or three years that's not a bad record. (Applause)
You asked me about people living together and marriage and so forth.
I've stated my views on that. I'm the Prime Minister. I
don't run around making snap moral judgments on the behaviour
of individuals in Australia but I do express my very strong preference
for the stability that marriage brings to family life and the stability
that marriage brings to the raising of children. Successful united
families in marriage is still the greatest personal security that
any young person can have and those that have had it are greatly advantaged
as compared with those who haven't. But we do have obligations
to those in our community who have not been as fortunate to grow up
with, in a situation where they've had a very loving and supportive
environment. For time immemorial we've sort of recognised that
if people are living together, historically almost always in marriage,
these days not as often as in the past, that it is obviously less
expensive for two people to live together than for two to live separately
and of course that is the reason why historically you've had
a marriage rate which has not been exactly double the single rate
of a person. Now over the years of course, I think the point you're
making is that more and more people are living together who aren't
married and that that is representing a discrimination against the
married people. I understand the point you make and it does raise
a significant number of difficult social judgments that a Government
has got to make and I don't have an easy answer to that. I understand
why a lot of married people feel that they may be discriminated against,
but of course people get married for a combination of reasons and
most people I know don't get married primarily for economic reasons
although perhaps there are some in the audience who might be cynical
enough to imagine that that does occur on occasions. I'm still
old-fashioned enough to believe that people get married for other
reasons and they get married because they want to spend the rest of
their life with somebody and that remains the principal reason why
people do it. I don't think you can put an economic value judgement
on that but I've been accused of a lot of things in my political
career. I'm not often accused of somebody who's trying to
break up marriages.
MC:
Could I just make a comment please. We will have to shorten the time
that people are spending on asking questions. If you've got a
list of questions, I suggest you look at the most important one on
your list and ask that one. We will limit it to one question per person
and make it very brief otherwise we'll never get through.
QUESTION:
I welcome you here today, Mr Prime Minister. Thank you for giving
me the chance to speak to you. I've come here to make a request
of you to match the grant that our State government gave the City
Council here to refurbish or rebuild our historic pier we have here
as most people know. We want you to match Rob Borbidge's $500
000 grant. Thank you very much. Tell you what, make your way up here
some time, and I'll supply you a rod, and I take you out on the
jetty and I'll guarantee you'll catch a fish. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
I'll add that to the list and consider what you've said.
All right, I'll think about it.
QUESTION:
What I'd like to draw to your attention is the matter of apprenticeships.
I don't think we have enough apprenticeships in this country.
I read a letterbox drop the other day where you didn't dictate
having more apprenticeships.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we've created 200,000 since we've been in office.
QUESTION:
200, 000.
PRIME MINISTER:
I mean, yes, I noticed that somebody was running around in the Queensland
election campaign talking about creating 1000 apprenticeships. Under
our Government we have created 200,000 traineeships and apprenticeships
since we came to power. That is a fact and I mean I'm sorry that
that is not as widely known as it should be.
QUESTION:
Well, you have now made it know and that's very highly commended.
However, how much longer do we have to wait to get these young people
who are forced to stay at school for an extra two years, then may
not have any academic inclinations. It's a concern to the parents,
it's a cost to the parents. When are you going to, or any Government
that we have in power, when are they going to give small business
and industry the money to create these apprenticeships so we have
future employment and, therefore, at the end of the day, bigger exports?
Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we have, as I say, in the two-and-a-quarter years, under our
new training and apprenticeship system, created 200,000 in that period.
Now, of course, we can always create more. Under our youth allowance
system, which comes into operation on the 1st of July, we are going
to alter the incentives for people, for young people. We're going
to, instead of encouraging people as the present system does, to leave
school without a job, we're going to encourage people, because
of the way the allowance will operate, to choose a traineeship or
staying at school in preference to going on the dole. And one of the
other advantages of the new system....
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, may I interject there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Sure.
QUESTION:
Are you saying that these children you are going to leave at school
rather than put them in an apprenticeship?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I'm not saying that, no, no. If they've got an apprenticeship
to go to that's fine. But what I do want to stop is this situation
where people leave school with no prospect of a job and go straight
on to the dole. I think that is the worst, most soul-destroying, most
socially...
QUESTION:
How are you going stop that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, one of the ways to stop it is to take the incentive out the
present system which encourages young people to choose the dole over
staying at school, doing a traineeship, or some other apprenticeship
or some other kind of training or study. At the moment there is an
incentive in the system because of the levels of payment for many
people to leave school without the prospect of a job. And I want to
change that. That's the first step.
QUESTION:
That's true. But this is what we need to get rid of, that
incentive for children to leave school ...[inaudible] ...
PRIME MINISTER:
Without a job.
QUESTION:
We need those apprenticeships. We need children to be assured that
when they leave school they are going to in to...
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I agree with that and that is what our policy is designed to
do. And the new youth allowance [applause]...
QUESTION:
Mr Howard, Mr Prime Minister, the question I want to ask you is how
are you going to cope with the pensioners when you bring in GST?
PRIME MINISTER:
They will be fully compensated, you watch. They will, they will. And
I tell you what, the other thing... I'm, sorry. You've pushed
a button. I sort of...
QUESTION:
On your show the other day you said that New Zealand, take New Zealand.
They give them $50 and the $50 was put away and put away until they
start to drag into the pensioners. Is the Australian Government going
to do that to us too?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I didn't mention anything about $50 in New Zealand. I may
have mentioned New Zealand in the general sense of the system that
was introduced. But sir, can I say to you very directly that when
we bring down the new taxation policy, one of the things that we will
do comprehensively is to fully c