3 September 1999
E&OE………………………………………………………………………….……….
Well thank you very much Rob, to Tony Bates the Chairman of Australian Business, to Phillip Holt, to Michael Egan the Treasurer of New South Wales, to Kerry Chikarovski the Leader of the New South Wales Opposition, my other State and Federal Parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
Can I start by saying I totally share the sense of enthusiasm and exhilaration that Rob described of this remarkable venue. It is already apparent to the people of Sydney and indeed the people of Australia, that the entire Olympic complex here at Homebush has made, and will continue to make, a lasting contribution to the sporting and other infrastructure of Australia.
Many of you here tonight I guess, were with me just across the road last Saturday night with 107,000 people witnessing a great sporting triumph of the Australian Rugby Team. Might I also say a magnificently stirring rendition of Waltzing Matilda as well. It was a great event, a world record rugby crowd, a great result, but it drove home to all present, and to people all around Australia, what a fantastic facility this is, and it also reminded us yet again of how much our entire country will be on display to the rest of the world [Tape Break] sends of Sydney in the year to 2000 are an event that belongs to the entire Australian nation.
Speaking on behalf of the Commonwealth Government we are working very very closely and very enthusiastically with SOCOG and with the Government of New South Wales to make sure that in every way this is an outstanding event and one that does great credit to all of the Australian people.
Tonight, ladies and gentlemen is, as Rob said, almost a year since I addressed the annual gathering of Australian Business, at the Convention Centre in Darling Point, just after the re-election of the Government in October 1998. As I look back over the last year it is true, to use Robs words again, that a great deal of change has occurred. I have to say to you that looking back on my remarks a year ago, I don’t think I could have foreseen the strength that the Australian economy has exhibited over the last 12 months. I probably would have said to you a year ago that I thought the economy was doing well, that we were probably going to be incumbent somewhat and badly effected by the Asian economic downturn. I probably would have said that some of the reforms that we’d undertaken have made a contribution, faced a challenge in having the taxation reforms that we took to the Australian people fully implemented.
But now a year on I think it is fair to say that the last 12 months has probably been in many respects and according to many measures, one of the most spectacular periods of economic performance that this country has seen for more than 30 years. What has occurred over the last year, not only has an economic dimension, but it also has a dimension in our sense of national achievement. By being able to stare down the worst economic down turn the Asia Pacific region has seen since World War II. In being able to establish ourselves in the eyes, not only of our regional neighbours but of investors around the world as the stand our economy of the region. We have not only provided strong levels of economic growth, something in the order of 400,000 or 500,000 additional jobs over the last 3 ½ years, the lowest rate in unemployment in about a decade, the lowest inflation rate and the lowest interest rates for more than 30 years. But most importantly of all, I think that we have given to the Australian people a sense of national achievement and a sense of national wellbeing in economic affairs, that I don’t believe we have ever had, in the experience of most of the people present.
Because when it comes to trading and performing and competing on the world economic stage, there has always been a large number of Australians, no matter what their self confidence about their economic performance at home, have felt that when it comes to the global competition, Australia somehow or other will end up losing out.
Now that hasn’t proved to be the case. What we have done quite marvelously, particularly over the last year, has been to out compete and out perform all the vagaries of economic downturn and economic adversity has hurled at our path from all around the world.
I want to pay a particular tribute to the exporters of Australia and many of them are here tonight. Because it has been the capacity of exporters from Australia who diversify away from the disappearing market in the Asian Pacific region, to switch their products to North America and to Europe and to other parts of the world. It’s been that capacity which has enabled the Australian economy along with other things to perform even better than the most optimistic of us may have thought a year ago. The contribution of manufacturing exporters to the Australian economic performance over the last year has been particularly impressive.
The past year of course has seen the implementation of the most fundamental changes to Australia’s taxation system, or the legislation of the implementation of the most fundamental changes that the Australian taxation system has ever undergone. I want to say to all of you that it would not have been possible for the Government to have got those reforms through Parliament, it would not have been possible for the Government to have won the support of the Australian community for those reforms without the assistance of both of the organisations that are represented here tonight.
The ACCI was an absolute pioneer in winning and galvanizing business support for the reforms that are embodied in our taxation package. The contribution made by somebody like Mark Paterson for example, who argued very strongly the cause of taxation reform. The contribution that he will make in an ongoing sense as a member of the taxation advisory board, which is overseeing the implementation of taxation changes has been quite incalculable.
I remember particularly that when a certain Senator said, a certain Senator from Tasmania said "I won’t" or no I think in fact he said "I cannot" and he didn’t, I remember that one of the first business leaders in Australia to say "Look that’s a disappointment, but we have got to try and get on and see how much of the reform that we can get through the Senate through negotiation with the Australian Democrats" one of the first business leaders in Australia to say that was Phillip Holt as a result of a survey carried out amongst his members.
I want to thank him and want to thank members of Australian business for the contribution they made to the political process. You can’t implement major reforms in this country unless you have, not only the political will at the top, but you also have amongst the business organisations and the community organisations effected by those reforms, you have the will to implement the necessary changes. I take this opportunity as Prime Minister of recording my gratitude to both of the organisations represented here tonight for the great contribution that you have made to the cause of taxation reform.
What is remarkable about that contribution is that the national interest has been given priority to the individual for the sectional interest. Because not everybody here tonight finds every particular of taxation reform to their liking. Not everybody here tonight, when they do their sums, will conclude that in every sense taxation reform is a plus for them. Overwhelmingly for those represented here tonight, taxation reform is an enormous leap forward. And overwhelmingly for the Australian economy, taxation reform is going to make our exports cheaper, our business costs lower, our fuel costs lower and it is overall going to make Australia a more competitive nation. Because it is an outcome in the national interest, members of these two organisations have rallied behind us.
As all of you know ladies and gentlemen, taxation reform so far is one part of the reform process, the next major element is of course changes to the business taxation system. You are all aware that a committee chaired by John Ralph, the former chairman of CRA and a very highly respected and well regarded businessman from Melbourne, assisted by Rick Allert from South Australia and Bob Joss the former managing director of Westpac, have delivered to the Government a very comprehensive blueprint for fundamental reforms to the business taxation systems of this country.
The Cabinet at the present time is engaged in the exercise of getting its collective head around all of the details in that report. I am not giving any secrets away in saying that amongst its recommendations of course is a proposition that we might move to a lower corporate tax rate, paid for in part by removal of some of the taxation concessions that exist in the taxation legislation at present including accelerated depreciation. The report also canvasses major changes to Australia’s capital gains tax system. I have made no secret of the fact that I regard a number of features of Australia’s capital gains tax system at present as being out of kilter with our desire to attract more capital from abroad and to generate more capital within Australia.
When you live in a globalised world economy, and whether we like it or not we do, and we don’t have the option of getting off, we don’t have the option of retreating back to the old days when you could erect high tariff barriers around this country, where you could shut yourself off from the rest of the world. If we are to continue to maintain our current living standards, we have got to continue to be in front of the other competitors in the race. It is not good enough to say that we are more competitive than we were a few years ago. It is not good enough to say that we are doing better than we were ten years ago. What we have to be able to say every day of every year is that we are as good as or better than those who are competing with us in the present day race.
That is why at every turn we have to ask ourselves, is it as attractive to invest in Australia as it is in say the United States or Europe or Japan or some part of the Asian Pacific region. If it is not then we have to ask ourselves what can we do in Australia to make it more attractive. That is one of the reasons why we reformed the taxation system. It is one of the reasons why we are looking at business taxation.
I hope that we will be able to move towards the final stages of the decision making process in relation to business taxation within a few weeks. We do hope in the process of moving towards that to involve ourselves as much as we can, consistent with the market sensitivity of some of the propositions that are involved in the Ralph report, I hope that we will be able to involve ourselves in a proper consultative process with the Australian business community although it is fair to say that there has already been, in the process of the preparation of the Ralph Report, a major degree of consultation carried out by the members of that report committee with representatives of the Australian business community.
The purpose of the whole process of business taxation reform is to provide another building block towards making Australia a more competitive nation as we move into the next century.
We have come a long way in the last 25 years. We have come a very long way in the last decade, and I don’t mind saying that the strength of the Australian economy now, and the prosperity that the Australian people are now enjoying is in no small measure due to reforms that are being carried out by successive governments in this country. I have always acknowledged the contribution made by the former Government, the Hawke Government, in deregulating the Australian financial system. A change built upon a report that I commissioned as Treasurer and changes that we strongly supported as an opposition.
As I look back over the last 10 or 15 years, you can see 4 or 5 major pillars of economic reform, all of which were necessary. Those carried out over the last 3 ½ years have included of course major reforms to Australia’s industrial relations system that have produced I think a far better industrial relations climate in this country.
I am delighted to report to you tonight ladies and gentlemen, that yesterday the Australian Parliament at long last passed legislation that provides a greater measure of long term protection to junior rates of pay within the Australian Industrial Relations system. In the process in protecting youth wages, the Australian Parliament finally, in cooperation with both the Government and the Opposition, the Australian Parliament has given an enormous amount of protection to the jobs of tens of thousands of young Australians, because as employers, all of you know the fundamental reality that if you force a business operator to pay a young inexperienced person an adult wage based upon a proposition that that young person has adult skills, you run the risk of that young person becoming unemployable. That is why we have argued long and hard for the maintenance of youth wages within our system.
The last thing I want to say to you ladies and gentlemen is this, that I have spent a few minutes talking about economics, and I guess that a great amount of the ACCI conference today has properly centered on industrial issues, on business issues and on economics. No Government worth its salt, preoccupies itself entirely with economic issues.
The Government I am proud to lead has a very strong and important social agenda. Over the last 3 ½ years we have been able to change a number of attitudes within the Australian community on important social issues. I believe that we are seeing at the present time the beginning of one of the most important debates about the social welfare system in Australia that we have had for many decades. We are getting contributions from all sides of Australian politics about the need to change, and in some areas, break the old welfare mentality in this country. It is not a debate that has as its goal the Government withdrawing from the provisions of necessary support mechanisms for those in the community who are in deserving need of help and assistance, not that at all. No Government I lead will abandon the needy in the Australian community and there will always be a role for Government to look after those who can’t look after themselves.
We are beginning to see a recognition that if the Government provides assistance to people, it is not unreasonable, in accordance with the principle of mutual obligation, that if those people receiving the assistance are able to do so, they should put something back into the community by way of return.
We have seen a changed attitude within the community since the Government introduced its Work for the Dole proposals a couple of years ago. We are seeing significant leaders of the Aboriginal community like Noel Pearson and Aden Ridgeway, talking about the debilitating effect of the current welfare system on the sense of self-esteem and the sense of self worth within the indigenous communities of Australia. These are fascinating, they are encouraging, and they are important developments because they speak of a country and they indicate a country that is willing in a sensitive intelligent way, to grapple with the basis on which we provide assistance to the more needy in our community and the way in which we arrange our welfare system and I think over the months ahead we are going to see a very significant debate in this country. I hope all sides of politics, the business community, the trade union movement and the great welfare sector in this country, all of them make a contribution to that very important debate.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude by again thanking all of you for the contribution that you have made to the cause of economic reform over the last year. I have always believed that you can sell fundamental reform to the Australian community if you can do two things, if you can meet two criteria. If you can persuade the Australian community that the reform is in the best interest of Australia, in other words, it is in the national interest and secondly if you can persuade the Australian community that the reforms that you are undertaking are fundamentally fair. We won the support of the Australian community in the election a year ago because we were able to persuade enough Australian people to support both of those propositions in relation to taxation reform. Australian business and ACCI have played a major part in the process of education, the process of persuasion, and for that I thank both of those organisations and I thank the members of those two organisations gathered in such large numbers in this very impressive centre here tonight, for that crucial support.
Other Speaker:
Thank you Prime Minister. Ladies and gentlemen, before the Prime Minister leaves the stage tonight, I have the privilege of inviting him to officially launch the new Australian Made Campaign. I am delighted sir that you have agreed to give your endorsement to the Australian Made Campaign. The members of the campaign, the Chairman John Holt, the board and I are very proud of Australian Made and support it very strongly. In fact many of our members large and small have made a special effort here tonight to come and be present.
In appreciation sir, I would like to present to you a unique Australian made gold pin. This one was especially forged, struck in solid gold sir. You see a big one, you can see it sir.
Australians will be our number one ticket holder for the Australia Made and something special, I would like you to wear this with a lot of pride for the sake of Australian made goods.
I thank you very much for your endorsement.
Prime Minister:
Well thank you very much Rob for that lovely gesture and can I say that the new country of origin labeling provisions under the Trade Practices Act came into operation on the 13th of August. They lay the foundations for a clearer, better and more open understanding of the notions of the country of origin so far as Australian Made and Australian products are concerned.
I want to thank those companies and indeed it is the whole campaign, Australian Made Campaign is funded by the private sector, and the contribution that so many companies have made is something that the Government appreciates enormously. It is very important that the role of the private sector in promoting support for and the acquisition by Australians of Australian made products and Australian made goods and the contribution of Australian companies and Australian enterprises be acknowledged by the Government.
We of course as a nation must trade to survive, we must trade to compete and we must trade to prosper and grow stronger. As I said in my speech the strength of the Australian economy over the last 12 months has been in no small measure due to the fact that we have been able to diversify our exports away from declining markets, or weakening markets in Asia towards new markets in North America and Europe.
In launching the Australian Made logo in endorsing the project and acknowledging and saluting the contribution of Australian companies, I want to emphasise the pride that I feel in anything that is Australian made or produced in Australia. I want to touch the natural desire of so many individual Australian consumers to buy Australian, and there are many of them in this audience tonight and there are many millions around our country, who given the right opportunity, the right encouragement, the right product and the right circumstances, will always buy an Australian product in preference to another. It is an important part of the export armoury of Australia, it is an important part of the business and economic future of this country.
I congratulate the Chamber, I congratulate all of those associated with it. I wish them well and all of us as Australians, will feel a great deal of pride in buying Australian, and great deal of pride in supporting Australian companies and Australian products. Thank you.
[ends]