E&OE.............................................................................................
Well thank you very much Mr Peter Fogarty to my colleague, Eoin
Cameron the Member for Stirling, ladies and gentleman.
I'm quite excited about this company because it's a wonderful
demonstration of a number of very positive things about modern Australia.
The first and most exciting thing about this company is its multi-racial
workforce. As I moved around I met people from so many different
countries particularly but not only from the countries of Asia.
And I take this opportunity in the presence of such a multi-racial
workforce which is doing such a tremendous job to say to those people
who've come from other countries, particularly but not only
from Asia, how very welcome you are here and how much I as Prime
Minister regard you all as part and parcel of the Australian community.
This country is as much your country as it is mine and that you
are making a magnificent contribution to Australia. You are bringing
skills and you are bringing a diversity and a richness to modern
Australian life that all of your fellow Australians appreciate very
very warmly.
So the first thing that does really strike me is the great diversity.
And you should feel so welcome and feel that your contribution to
this company, but more importantly, your contribution to our Australia
is very very warmly appreciated and very widely respected.
This company has been a tremendous modern success. It's demonstrated
that Australian ingenuity, Australian inventive capacity and Australian
research energy is the equal if not the better than any in the rest
of the world. Given the size of this company, what it has achieved
has been quite remarkable and the fact that you are able, Mr Fogarty,
to properly boast that so many of those transactions on your material
at any given time of the day or any given day of the year is a remarkable
tribute to the way in which from here in Australia the quality and
the skill of Australian achievement has spread all around the world.
Now that has happened because the company is run on modern lines.
It's a very modern, clean welcoming work environment and that's
very important. There is an obvious rapport between the management
and the staff. You are all part of one team, there's not them
and us, it's just all of us together trying to achieve a goal
for the company and trying to achieve a goal for Australia. And
I'm glad that some of the Government policies already in place
have played a part in the success that has been achieved by this
company, the export orders it has won for Australia and the penetration
to the four corners of the earth of Australian technology and Australian
achievement and the fruits of Australian research and development.
But I've got even better news for you ladies and gentleman
and that is that the tax reform plan of the Government is going
to make companies like this even more successful because the greatest
beneficiary of our tax reform plan on the business front are companies
that export. And one of the great things about our plan is that
it's going to take about $4.5 billion off the cost of exporting
goods and services around the world. And when I say that the plan
is good for Australia I mean by that that it will make Australia
more competitive because it will reduce the cost of doing business
in Australia. And I'm quite certain that your accountants and
your financial controllers are already calculating the advantages
of being able to recover all of the taxes paid on their business
inputs in preparing for export out of Australia the goods and services
that this company produces. Because under our plan exports will
not carry any goods and services tax at all. And that will give
us a competitive advantage in winning markets around the world that
we don't have at the present time. And people sometimes say
to me can we have an export market development grant for this or
that activity. This plan is a $4.5 billion export market development
grant every year of every year for every company in Australia that
exports.
Now we all know that the future of Australia lies in exports. We
are a small country, we're happy country, we're a stable
country. It's the best place in the world to live. But we are
still by world standards quite small and we've got to always
be competitive. And that means that we've got to make sure
our domestic costs are as low as possible, consistent with maintaining
the good standard of living that Australian workers are entitled
to. So that means we've always got to sell well abroad and
anything you can do to reduce the costs of exports is good for Australia.
So our proposals are a long-term plan for the future of Australia.
We all have to worry about the medium to longer term. We can dwell
on the past, if we want to we can derive some nostalgia and warmth
from the past. We of course live with the present but we've
always got to plan for the future. And this country's economic
future lies in maximising the assets it has and this wonderfully
diverse skilled workforce that works together so well is a great
resource. The technology you have in this company is a great resource.
The management cooperation between the management and the workforce
is a great resource. The assistance you now get from government
is a great resource. But there can be more assistance and a pro-export,
pro-lower business cost taxation plan will also be an enormous resource.
When I go around the country saying this plan is good for Australia,
it's good for Australia because it's going to make all
our companies and our industries more competitive because it's
going to reduce their business costs and make it cheaper for them
to export and that means more jobs. More gatherings like this, larger
gatherings such as this and a greater share of the export markets
of the world.
And last and most important thing I want to say is that it is always
uplifting and inspiring to visit a workplace, to see success, to
see people of different ethnic backgrounds working harmoniously
together as Australians - as Australians - and to see the cooperation
and the camaraderie between the management of the company and the
people who work in the company. It is the most exhilarating experience
about being Prime Minister of Australia to have these opportunities.
They are endless cameos of the success of modern Australia and they
are a great experience and a source of great encouragement and joy
to me and I thank the management for inviting me and I thank all
of you for having me here. I thank you for the contribution that
you make to our country. I wish the company and I wish all who work
here and their families the very best of good fortune and health
and happiness in the years ahead.
Thank you.