E&OE...............................................................................................................................
Thank you very much. I have had the privilege today of opening
two new facilities which are both very fine facilities for employing
Australians in my electorate. I am especially delighted to be here
at JTEC to acknowledge the enormous contribution that it has made
to high tech in Australia. To particularly acknowledge the heavy
investment of this company in research and development and also,
if I may, ladies and gentlemen, remark upon the fact that I am opening
today a manufacturing facility.
And in the context of a debate that will rage very vigorously over
the weeks and months ahead, there is no section of Australian business
which will benefit more from tax reform than the manufacturing sector.
One of the greatest liabilities of our existing indirect tax system
is that it discriminates against manufacturing. And it is beyond
my belief if I can strike, if you'll forgive me, a slightly
partisan note, it is beyond my belief that the Australian Council
of Trade Unions and the Australian Labor Party who draw very heavily
on the membership of manufacturing unions in Australia, should continue
to oppose taxation reform that will benefit Australian manufacturing.
Because if we can give Australian manufacturing more jobs, a better
tax system then Australian manufacturing, whether it is in this
area, this very high tech area, or it's in other areas, then
there's the prospect of generating more jobs.
Now, I take the opportunity of making it very plain to all of you
this morning and through this gathering to the Australian public,
that my Government, the Government is resolutely committed to reforming
Australia's taxation system. We're resolutely committed
to reforming Australia's tax system because it would be good
for the Australian economy. Now is not the time to turn away from
necessary change and reform. You said quite rightly Mr Chairman
that it's a tough market out there. It is. It is hard to export.
There's a lot of import competition. Therefore, what we should
be doing as a Government is making it easier for you. And one of
the ways we make it easier for exporters, for manufacturers, is
to take the [inaudible] of the wholesales sales tax off their backs
and replace it with something that's a bit fairer and a bit
more even handed a bit more encouraging and a bit more beckoning
to people who are prepared to invest in manufacturing.
For years we have heard quite properly people in manufacturing
industry say why don't governments do more to help Australian
manufacturing. I can't think of anything that governments could
do that would more assist Australian manufacturing than to give
them a decent taxation system. And the big winners out of tax reform
will be manufacturing, and their employees, and the people who oppose
tax reform are opposing manufacturing and opposing manufacturing
employees. And having said that Mr Chairman, can I also say how
delighted I am about the contribution that your company is making
to the amenity of the Bennelong electorate. The people you employ,
the fact that you are at the leading edge. I was taken on a tour
of the facilities and it was explained to me just what this company
does, and the contribution that it makes and the influence that
it exerts over the high-tech industry and the information technology
industry of Australia. And it is very significant. And you can't
really think of the Australia of the future and the reliance of
that future on information technology and high-technology without
factoring in the contribution of JTEC.
I understand, ladies and gentlemen, that the new products produced
in the JTEC technology centre, have in fact produced the best order
intake in the Australian market in any six month period in JTEC's
11 year history. And this milestone, I am also very happy to say,
was achieved just this morning due to an order from the Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade. So I am very happy Sir that that particular
Branch of the Government is living out your request and your injunction
for Government help in terms of being a good customer and a very
ready buyer.
It's become, of course, a cliche and almost given for any
speech that is made about the current state and about the future
of the Australian economy to speak of the way in which in information
technology has changed our lives. Without any argument, information
technology and the changes that it has brought about is exerting
the greatest influence on the economic structure of the world of
any event since the industrial revolution. And the way in which
it has transformed the working lives of people, the way in which
it has opened up opportunities for people is of enormous significance.
And the way in which it has created the opportunity for new jobs
to be created providing we are innovative enough, we provide enough
support for research and development and providing we get those
other fundamentals of the economy that need to be changed, such
as the tax system, right.
So I speak here with an enormous amount of optimism as I did at
the opening of the GEC Marconi plant in North Ryde this morning.
Because in both cases we are talking about leading edge companies
employing highly skilled people. We are also talking about a highly
trained culturally diverse workforce which is making a tremendous
contribution to our country and making a tremendous contribution
to what our companies can offer the rest of the world. The Asian
region is going through a great deal of economic turmoil at the
present time. I dismiss out-of-hand talk of depression. I point
to the strengths of the Australian economy - our low inflation,
our low interest rates, our strong budget surplus and our strong
levels of business investment. We have been able to weather the
meltdown in Asia much better than would have been the case if different
approaches had been adopted.
And I am very pleased that this country has been able to play its
part in helping those in the Asian region that have been knocked
around by the economic meltdown. And what the events of the past
few months have told us is that in the modern world of globalisation
you can never rest. You must always be seeking out those further
changes that are needed to strengthen the country and the economy
further against challenges from abroad. A year ago nobody was predicting
the Asian downturn or if they did they took great care not to tell
anybody or not to record it anywhere. The fact is that it took us
all a little bit by surprise and that's just the point I make
that you must always assume the unexpected and you must always take
care to ensure that the foundations of your economy are as strong
as possible. And we've done that and the next big steps to
make them even stronger is to clean up and reform and change our
taxation system.
This is a globalised world. We are influenced by what happens in
other countries. If we make ourselves strong domestically, if we
encourage efficient industries and highly trained people employed
by them then we can withstand without too much damage to ravages
of economic downturns in other parts of the world. Asia will come
back again, it will back with a vengeance. It still represents a
huge export market for Australia. Of course we must diversify our
exports. We've been doing that, this Government has been doing
that over the last two and a quarter years and will continue to
do it. But nobody should imagine that the Asian market, because
of recent months, is in any way lost in the long-term to Australia
- quite the reverse. There are new opportunities opening up all
the time.
But to you Mr Riedl and to all of your colleagues, and particularly
to your workforce, we make a tremendous contribution in their skilled
way to the success of your company. I thank you for inviting me
and I have very great pleasure in declaring this facility open and
I hope you make lots of money. I hope you employ many more people.
I hope you sell many of your products overseas and you will be greatly
aided in that process by the new taxation system that this Government
is going to give to the Australian people.
Thank you.
[ENDS]