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Well Prime Minister. It sounds strange when I say that now. To the Mayor,
to Joanna Gash, to John Anderson the Deputy Prime Minister, my other Cabinet
colleagues, and my other parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
We in the Federal Cabinet do this quite often. We get out of Canberra,
we get out of Sydney, we get out of Melbourne, and we try and hold a spread
of Cabinet meetings in the regional and rural areas of Australia whenever
we can so that we can have an opportunity of meeting a cross-section of
the local community, and can have an opportunity of communicating to you
our concern about all sections of Australian society. Can I say to my
prime ministerial counterpart today that this is a government that endeavours
to listen to the concerns of people in rural and regional Australia. It
is a government that recognises that Australia is made up of many parts.
We have a lot in common as Australians, and the things that bind us together
are a lot more important than the things that might push us apart. And
right at the moment our country at a national level is doing very well
economically. We've rarely done as well. But I recognise that not
everybody is sharing that to the full whether they live in some of the
suburbs or whether they live in some of the regional parts of Australia.
And what we hope to do by these Cabinet meetings is to supplement the
quality of the representation that the regional areas of Australia has
in the federal parliament. And can I say to you very enthusiastically,
and very genuinely that you have an outstanding federal representative
in Joanna Gash the member for Gilmore.
Required reading for me before I came here was a long memorandum that
Jo has delivered to the Lodge. I sat up last night and read through it.
She gave me a list of things that she wanted the government to do, it
was quite long. She reminded me of many of the things that we had already
done. And she also reminded me that this was a community that was bound
together by a common commitment to make Australia a stronger and better
place in which to live. And Jo has certainly been an outstanding representative
of this very diverse electorate since she won it in March of 1996. She's
played a big role in the party room in shaping social policy. She's
always fairly and strongly represented the interests of the electorate
of Gilmore. It was Joanna's persistent lobbying of me and of John
Anderseon that led me to make on behalf of the government a commitment
in 1998 that we would declare Main Road 92 as a road of national importance.
And that meant that the federal government committed itself to funding
of half of the cost of constructing that road. And I know that the Shoalhaven
Shire Council has made an enormous financial commitment and I thank you
for that Mr Mayor. I'm disturbed that so far the New South Wales
government has not matched the commitment of the federal government. And
I think that's a great shame because this is a road that's very
important to this area. And we remain absolutely committed to the financial
provision that I promised before the last federal election. I made that
promise on behalf of the government and I don't intend to walk away
from it. But I've got to get the New South Wales government to do
its bit to carry its share of the responsibility. And as a further step
in putting pressure on the New South Wales government to do its bit and
to pick up 50% which you always do with roads of national importance,
I'll seek urgently in the next few weeks a meeting with the New South
Wales Premier Mr Carr to see if we can't progress the New South Wales
contribution to the construction of this road. And I hope that that will
be effective, and I hope it is not necessary for us to consider alternatives
to that kind of approach.
Ladies and gentlemen, good government for Australia is about attending
to those things that need to be attended to at a national level, and also
responding to the legitimate interests and concerns of people at a local
level. We at the moment are engaged in a very big debate in Australia
about reforming our taxation system. And I'm not going to burden
you with a whole lot of detail about that today, you'll be relieved
to hear. But I can tell you this that we have done a lot of things
to make the Australian economy run better. And the reason we committed
ourselves to taxation reform at the last election, why we laid it all
out before the Australian people, was because we believed that taxation
reform would be good for the Australian people and good for the Australian
economy. And in the end that's what it's all about. It's
not about how it might effect this person or that person, or this group
or that group. It is whether at the end of the day reforming the Australian
taxation system will make Australia economically stronger and more internationally
competitive. And whether it will by giving a secure funding base to the
State guarantee more effectively the delivery of important local services
such as hospitals and schools and roads and police.
And it's because we believe those things that we committed ourselves
to taxation reform. It's not easy. There are unpopular elements in
it, but at the end of the day we'll have taxation cuts worth $47
a week for the average family. We'll have cheaper fuel in the regions
of Australia. We'll have more competitive exports. We'll have
significant reductions in business costs. We'll have in aggregate
a $12 billion cut in personal income tax. And overall it will be of enormous
economic benefit to Australia and it's because of the national economic
benefit that we remain so absolutely committed to the cause of taxation
reform.
Ladies and gentlemen, one of the great resources that this country has,
is of course, the inventive capacity of its people. We are for a nation
of under 20 million people capable of punching well above our weight in
areas of technology and areas of science. We are often at the leading
edge of many activities in this area and you don't only find this
in Melbourne and Sydney and Canberra but you also find it in the regions
of Australia.
And in that context I'm delighted to announce today that the Federal
Government will provide $1 million for the Solar Sailor project which
is based at Ulladulla and this money will support the construction and
demonstration of a catamaran powered by solar and wind energy with compressed
natural gas as a backup.
It will represent leading edge technology, the solar wing uses energy
from the sun or wind separately or in combination. It represents the potential
to travel on our waterways and oceans in a clean environmentally friendly
manner. Australia has a proud record of exporting leading edge marine
technology and Solar Sailor represents an exciting new direction. The
development of this technology is a credit to the people involved and
is the latest evidence of the innovation and potential that does exist
in regional Australia. And, as I say in this instance, the people of Ulladulla
and surrounding regions stand to reap the benefits of this exciting development.
It's always to me a tremendously energising experience to come to
a gathering like this, to know that you are meeting a cross section of
the Australian community. Not all of them are people who will agree with
you on everything or necessarily support everything that you seek to do
on a political level. But it's an authentic representation of the
great volunteer spirit of the Australian people. The catering today provided
by the volunteers of the local fire service. The lovely choir who I heard
earlier is part of the mass choir at the Australia Day celebration in
Sydney not so long ago. And as I look through the list of the guests,
the CWA, the local ministers of religion, the leaders of all the other
local organisations and one of the great traditions of this country is
that we do work together as a people.
We bring out the best in ourselves when we work as a community to tackle
problems. And I find these gatherings, wherever they are in Australia,
always tremendously energising. I find them always different. I find them
a simple way of expressing the essential unity and the essential commitment
to the long term goals of building a better Australia which is inherent
in all of the Australian people.
And may I say to my fellow prime minister today, that that was a very
touching, incisive, effective introduction. I must say that it was a quieter
question time than I'm normally used to. Perhaps we could bring you
down to Canberra and when you stand up you would hush them all into absolute
silence. And I thought you spoke a great deal of wisdom. I thought you
reminded all of us of the way of life that is special about regional Australia.
But there are some aspects of living outside the capital cities of Australia
that are not only different, but they're very special. We can't
all live there. We don't all necessarily wish to. There are great
aspects of living in the big cities. The great thing about Australia is
that we have tremendous diversity. But what your speech reminded me of
and what I think today's gathering reminds me of is that Government's
are elected to govern for all of the Australian people and not just one
section and we seek through meetings such as this to reach out to the
people of the regions of Australia to recognise the need to give help
where it's needed. To also recognise that many parts of the regions
of Australia are doing very well and there are many businesses that are
doing very well.
And I know that there are many parts of the Gilmore electorate where
business is booming and where there's a great deal of prosperity.
I also know there are sections of it where things aren't going so
well and I can assure all of you that that situation is well and truly
and faithfully represented in Canberra on your behalf by Joanna Gash.
May I thank her for inviting us here today. Can I congratulate her again
on the tremendous job that she does as your local representative. And
can I say on behalf of all of my Cabinet colleagues how absolutely delighted
we are to be amongst you today.
Thank you.
[Ends]