E&OE...................................................................................................
Your Excellency, the Premier of South Australia, John Olsen, to my
ministerial colleagues, Senator Nick Minchin, Sir Arvi Parbo the Chairman
of the Board, Mr Hugh Morgan the Managing Director, the leader of
the South Australian Opposition, Mr Wran, other colleagues, ladies
and gentlemen.
In coming here today to open the Olympic Dam extension I wanted to
demonstrate first and foremost the very strong commitment of the Federal
Government to the mining industry in this country. Providing about
$41 billion of export income the mining sector is still the major
contributor to the export earnings of Australia. The mining industry
at present in Australia operates in quite a challenging environment.
Although the domestic economy is strong inflation is low, interest
rates are the lowest they have been for decades, industrial disputes
are at record low levels and we have been operating for several years
under an exchange rate regime which has been administered in a way
to promote and not retard the international competitiveness of the
Australian economy. It is nonetheless the case that world commodity
prices are very low and as such the export environment because of
that is very challenging. And it is therefore all the more welcome
to me as Prime Minister and to the Federal Government generally that
WMC continues to make such an enormous investment in mineral development
and mineral exploration in this country.
And I want on behalf of the Government to thank that company for the
faith that it's shown in Australia's economic strength and
Australia's economic future. I want to thank it for the contribution
that it's made over the years to the export earnings of our nation.
And I also in issuing those thanks want to particularly thank the
workforce of the company. Mining is not the easiest of vocations.
It has its challenges, it has its depravations, it has its difficulties,
it still, despite the enviable safety record of this company, also
has its dangers. And there are aspects of mining that many other sections
of the Australian community would not readily embrace. And I do want
to record my admiration for the miners of Australia, my admiration
for the employees and the managers of Western Mining for the remarkable
contribution that you have made to the development of the minerals
sector in Australia and the remarkable contribution you have made
to the economic strength of this country.
It is important that we provide uncompromising support to the mining
industry in this country. It is possible to strike a balance between
caring for our environment and sensibly exploiting the mineral deposits
of Australia. We have been given by providence a remarkable store
of mineral deposits. There is no nation on earth that has been as
fortunate as Australia in that respect and we would be very negligent
not only to ourselves but also to future generations if we allowed
obsessions with other things as distinct from the reasonable advocacy
of other things to deny us the rational and sensible and careful exploitation
of the mineral reserves of this nation. A strong mining sector provides
not only tens of thousands of jobs in its own right but through downstream
processing and the contribution it makes to the manufacturing industry
of Australia, it provides hundreds of thousands of jobs. It provides
wealth to its shareholders. And I'm very proud of the fact that
Australia is now second only to the United States as the greatest
share-owning democracy in the world. And it's a very, very proud
thing that you have a nation that has so many shareholders and I want
more shareholders. And if we have our way and we get a few people
crossing the floor in our Upper House we might have a lot more shareholders
in Australia.
But it is a tremendous day. And it's right that Arvi pays tribute
to the customers. No business works without customers. No business
prospers without customers. And looking after your customers and keeping
them satisfied is a tremendously important element of any industry.
So I want to congratulate all of those people who have been associated
with Roxby Downs from its beginning.
I, along with Sir Arvi and John Olsen and others, went down and had
a look at that remarkable engineering feat which is this operation
here. And it's the first time I've had the opportunity of
visiting this particular site, and I really did find it quite a remarkable
engineering feat. And Arvi remarked on a number of occasions how different
it was from when he started in the mining industry in Germany some
50 years ago. And, indeed, mining has changed. It's become more
sophisticated. It's become more productive. But there's
still an ethos in the mining industry that binds the men and women
of that industry together in a particular fashion.
So to all of you who are associated with this opening today, the company,
the employees, the customers, the townspeople of this area, and I
had the opportunity of meeting some of the school children and I was
told by their headmaster that they had all been there for just on
ten years and they've had an association, a living association,
with the mining industry and the development of this great resource.
Before I conclude there is one other thing that I want to say, and
because it is the last public mining occasion of this character that
Arvi Parbo will be present at as he will retiring as Chairman of the
Board of WMC, I want to pay a special tribute as Prime Minister to
Arvi for the enormous contribution that he has made, not only to this
company but he has made to Australian industry and to Australia generally.
I can't think of a single Australian who better epitomises the
post-world war achievement of this country. Our capacity to absorb
in a harmonious and positive way millions of people from all around
the world. Arvi came to Australia via Germany from his native Estonia
almost 50 years ago. He couldn't speak a word of English when
he came to this country. He graduated with first class honours in
engineering from Adelaide University. He went on to become not only
Chairman of Western Mining but also Chairman of the big Australian'.
I have known him for more than 20 years. I have not found a businessman
in Australia who better combines a capacity to run a company efficiently,
to see the importance of productivity and making a profit but also
the social and community responsibilities of corporate Australia to
the rest of the nation. And I do thank the company and I compliment
Arvi Parbo on the announcement that is being made today about the
establishment of the WMC trust. It is the very example of the sort
of corporate philanthropy which I believe we need more of in Australia.
And Western Mining has been one of those companies that has always
been to the fore and has always been demonstrating a lead.
But Arvi you have impressed those that you've met in business
and in life generally greatly with your integrity, with your high
intelligence, your love of Australia, your love of mining, your understanding
of your fellow human beings. You are a marvellous example of what
we have achieved in this country of how with nothing, with not even
a knowledge of the language of our nation, you can go to the very
top. It's a tribute to you but it's also a tribute to the
Australian dream and the Australian ideal of the last 50 years. And
on that note I have very great pleasure in declaring open the Olympic
Dam extension. Thank you.
[ends]