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Thank you very much to my colleague and friend, Ricky Johnston,
to Senator Chris Ellison, the Minister for Schools, Education and
Vocational Training, Mr Mayor, other members of the Armadale City
Council, ladies and gentlemen.
I am delighted to be again in the electorate of Canning. I think
it's the second or third occasion since the last election that
I've been here and I come very willingly and very keenly because
Ricky is an outstandingly energetic representative of the division
of Canning in the Federal Parliament. I can tell all of you that
she does work very hard on behalf of your interests in Canberra.
She's constantly jawboning ministers, collaring them in the
corridor and elsewhere and pushing the case for local business men
and women, for local aged care establishments and generally putting
forward in a very forthright manner the interest and the cause of
small business.
She mentioned a number of the changes that my Government has undertaken
since it came into Government. We are very conscious at the moment
of the economic difficulties of the Asian Pacific region. There
is no doubt in the world that if we had not set about getting the
Budget into surplus, if we had not set about getting control of
the large amount of debt that we were left by the former Labor Government,
if we had not set about making certain that we were living within
our means, the Australian economy now would be in a much sicker
shape than it is. We would have been hurt a lot more because the
lesson that is coming out of recent economic events is that if you
don't have your own economic house in order you are going to
be knocked around and knocked around very badly.
So anybody who says that we've done the wrong thing
over the last two and a quarter years to get the budget into surplus,
to cut unnecessary expenditure, to undertake industrial relations
reforms and, very importantly, in immediate prospect, to undertake
the cause of taxation reform, is taking a very short-sighted view.
Now I know there are some other things that have been done may have
been unpopular with some sections of the community but if we hadn't
of done anything, if we just sat there and allowed Mr Beazley's
$10.5 billion deficit to continue and to grow even bigger then our
economic vulnerability now would have been much greater. And you
can all see that even if you run a good economy there can be difficulties
in the international environment and it is therefore very important
that Australia and the people of Australia hold their resolve to
good policy. And they don't be seduced by snake oil solutions,
they don't get attracted by people coming along offering overnight,
simplistic solutions to problems that are very difficult and require
carefully thought out solutions. And everything that we've
done over the last two and a quarter years has been designed to
strengthen the fundamentals of the Australian economy.
And you know that we have much lower inflation now than we had
a few years ago. Over the last two and a quarter years there have
been significant falls in interest rates both in relation to housing
and in relation to small business. We've undertaken major industrial
relations reforms. We've implemented all of the specific commitments
we made to the small business sector. We've improved the taxation
arrangements regarding provisional tax. We've introduced a
very generous rollover provision in relation to the sales of small
businesses whereby if you sell a small business and invest in any
other kind of business up to a value of $5 million, that reinvestment
is free of Capital Gains tax. And that, in fact, took that commitment
a long way beyond what was said during the election campaign.
I place great importance on the small business sector. I came from
a small business family. As a young boy I was taught the value and
the importance in the Australian economy and in the local community
of small business. It therefore has always occupied a very special
place in my political heart so to speak because it is the engine
room of greatest employment growth and the hope of the side for
future employment growth in this country remains the small business
sector.
Now the next thing that we have got to do to further strengthen
the Australian economy is to change our taxation system to make
it fairer and better for the benefit of Australia. And I don't
intend to walk away from taxation reform because it is good for
Australia. It's very easy when you cop a bit of criticism on
a proposed reform to say oh well it's too hard, I'll
walk away'. But what's the point of having a Government
that says that something is too hard. What's the point of having
a Government that says that well if there's a bit of criticism
of something we'll walk away from it. I know, I guess most
of you know, and I know that Mr Beazley knows in his own heart and
in his private thoughts that we can't go on forever with the
present taxation system. I think most sensible thinking Australians,
forgetting the politics, forgetting the point scoring and the rhetoric
of politics, when you look at it calmly and analytically and in
the interests of Australia, you have to conclude that the present
taxation system is not working as it should. You have to conclude
that it is unfair. You have to conclude that it discriminates against
our exporters. You have to conclude that it's confusing to
many people in small business - the various classifications between
what's exempt from wholesale sales tax and what isn't.
You have to conclude that it provides a rich opportunity for people
using the black economy to evade any of their taxation obligations.
And you really have to conclude that it needs to be fundamentally
changed and we are committed to doing that. There is a lot of talk
about a goods and services tax. Let me make it plain, of course,
that if we were to introduce a broad based indirect tax or a goods
and services tax, whatever you might call it. It would, of course,
be introduced in replacement of existing taxes. And any attempt
by our opponents to suggest that it's going to be put on top
of the existing system is absolutely and totally wrong and completely
dishonest.
What we are in the business of doing is not increasing the tax
burden, rather we are in the business of where possible reducing
it but very importantly improving its fairness and improving it
in a way that makes the Australian economy more competitive. It
is an essential message from the rest of the world that every country
if it is to survive and if it is to grow and to provide more jobs,
it must be as competitive as possible. And to be competitive we
have to have a better taxation system. We have to have one that
takes the load that the present one imposes on the backs of Australian
exporters off those exporters. So we are very strongly committed
to a fair, decent change to the Australian taxation system and the
details of that will be made known and available to the Australian
public before the next election. And they can have a look at it,
they can make a judgement and they can decide whether they want
a Government that is prepared to tackle problems to make Australia
stronger and better or whether they want a Government that will
just stick its head in the sand and against its own internal beliefs
and its own best instincts will say, we are not going to change
that because it's all too hard and it's more politically
expedient to try and score points off a Government that is trying
to do the right thing.
It is easy in public life to be negative, it is easy in public
life when you don't have any responsibility to say that if
only I had the responsibility I could fix this problem overnight.
It's only when you have the responsibility of actually delivering
that you have to live up to your rhetoric and you have to persuade
the public that your simplistic, one line solution can, in fact,
be made to work. We live in a nation which has enormous opportunity,
it has a very rich history and of all the nations on earth, it has
the best prospects if we take the right decisions for the 21st Century.
We are a harmonious country. We've brought millions of people
from different parts of the world and I am very proud of the fact
that my own party has within its ranks people who are born in many
parts of the world and they have come to Australia to make this
their home.
We've welcomed people from Europe, we've welcomed people
from the Middle East, we've welcomed people from Asia and all
of them have become fine Australians and all of them are making
a magnificent contribution to a cohesive and harmonious society.
And instead of us every being apologetic about what this country
has done we ought to be immensely proud that we have built the civil,
harmonious society which is without parallel anywhere in the world.
And I think sometimes we don't feel enough pride about what
we have achieved on that score but we are inclined to be intimidated
by those who would preach that we have a rather intolerant and insensitive
past. Of course like any nation we have blemishes in our past, that
can't be denied, but we have been remarkably successful in
blending into one united nation people from the four corners of
the earth and it has been a very important part of the psychology
of the modern Australia.
So, ladies and gentlemen, can I thank the city of Armadale for
according me the civic and civil welcome that it has, can I thank
you for coming along. Can I say what a very important role local
government plays in our community, but most importantly what a very
important role the various organisations that are represented here
today play in keeping our society together. I'm a great believer
in tackling problems on the basis that we need a shared endeavour
between individuals, governments, and community organisations.
Individuals can't do it on their own although they're
very important and self reliance and individual initiative is a
very significant element of our society. Governments can't
do it on their own. Governments are good at some things but they're
very bad at other things. They're very bad at running businesses,
I think they ought to get out of businesses that should be left
to the private sector to run. And I think that underlies the philosophy
in relation to our approach to privatisation and many other things.
But community organisations are the third arm of that shared endeavour
and many of them are represented here today. And I thank them for
the contribution that they make to Australian society. I had the
opportunity earlier this week in Sydney to release the interim report
of my taskforce on youth homelessness and I released it at an outreach
project jointly operated by the Salvation Army and the Sydney City
Mission, and it's designed to reach out to homeless children
in Sydney and to try and, importantly, reunite them with their parents,
and if that fails, well to provide them with a decent future. And
I want more emphasis placed in relation to homelessness for young
people on efforts being made to reconcile them and reunite them
with their parents. Too often in the past perhaps parents have been
shut out of that equation and have been ignore, but I think more
effort ought to be made, if it's possible, to bring about a
reconciliation, because a united, stable family environment still
provides above and beyond anything else, the best security and the
best hope for children as they grow up.
So ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for coming this morning.
I've enjoyed the opportunity of sharing some thoughts with
you. I've appreciated the welcome with its various forms it
has taken as I've come here and again can I commend you on
the wisdom of the choice you made on the 2 March 1996 in sending
Ricky to Canberra as the Federal Member for the division of Canning.
And I hope very earnestly that you hold to that wisdom, maintain
that skilful resolve and make certain that she's sent back
whenever the next election is held. Thank you very much.