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Well thank you very much Mal. To Senator Alan Eggleston, to my State,
ministerial and parliamentary colleagues, to the Mayor John Bombak, and
to all the councillors, and all the other community leaders and guests.
It is a delight to be in what I understand to be one week the fastest
growing area of Australia, the next week just the second fastest growing
area. Competing with I understand the Albert Shire in Queensland for that
honour, and therefore being a part of Australia that has particular challenges,
particular needs, but also a real contribution to make in the tradition
of many of they pioneering elements of Western Australian history.
But before I say something specific about this part of Australia, and
something specific about the electorate of Moore, can I take the opportunity
of addressing a few remarks to the fact that right at the moment Major
General Peter Cosgrove is returning home to Australia from his tour of
duty as the commander of the INTERFET force in East Timor. And I know
that I speak for every Australian in expressing my admiration for the
tremendous job he did, and the tremendous job done by the men and women
of the Australian Defence Force in East Timor. Of all the things that
I have done in the time that I have been Prime Minister none has quite
imbued me with a sense of deep and almost limitless pride in this country
and its people than the experience I had in saying farewell to those men
and women in Townsville and Darwin, and then visiting them in East Timor.
And I want on behalf of every Australian to say thank you for a job well
done, to express our gratitude that we lost no people in battle although
unfortunately one died in hospital of non-combat reasons. But it has been
a remarkable operation and one that has brought tremendous credit to this
country, and particular credit to General Cosgrove. It was an occasion
when Australia stood up for the right thing. We have a long and proud
military tradition but it's not a belligerent or triumphal military
tradition. It's a military tradition through which we are prepared
to defend people who are being oppressed and we're prepared as a
nation to do the right thing. And I think those men and women did us proud
and they will in an appropriate way be openly and publicly welcomed home
at a parade in Sydney and a parade in Townsville to be organised in April.
And there'll also be a special function in Parliament House on the
7th of March.
And can I also say that that expression of gratitude is extended with
equal sincerity to the men and women of the Australian Federal Police.
I had the opportunity of meeting most of the Australian Federal Police
who'd served in East Timor at a reception in Parliament House only
ten days ago. And many of those men and women experienced some of the
most dangerous days of the events that unfolded in East Timor and they
are equally deserving of our gratitude and praise, and they share with
the men and women of our defence force the distinction of having represented
this country so effectively and so well over past months.
Can I say that it's a great delight to be in Mal Washer's electorate
because Mal is a very enthusiastic effective representative of the people
of the division of Moore. He's only been a member since the 1998
election, but in the time that he's been in federal parliament, in
a very quiet but effective way, he's brought a common sense understanding
of the challenges and the experiences of a rapidly growing outer metropolitan
area of Australia. I'm often asked what is the best thing about being
Prime Minister of Australia. And I unhesitatingly say that the best thing
about being Prime Minister of Australia is that one has the opportunity
on an almost daily basis of meeting a new and different group of Australians
as you travel around the country. Yesterday morning as I reminded myself
on the way out I went for an early morning walk in Canberra, we then had
a Cabinet meeting in Nowra on the South Coast of New South Wales, I then
went back to Sydney in the evening for dinner, and I came over to Western
Australia this morning and I'm spending two-and-a-half days here.
And that's an opportunity to meet different groups of people in a
short space of time in different parts of Australia. And there are different
areas that have different challenges. We talk a lot now quite properly
about some of the challenges facing people in remote rural communities
the bush as we lovingly call it. And the bush properly so called
I suppose does encapsulate our idea of people who live in small communities,
many of whom are suffering the ravages of low commodity prices, and drought
and all the difficulty that afflicts those communities.
But the outer metropolitan areas of Australia, although the scale and
the dimension of the challenge is different nonetheless have particular
needs and particular challenges. The need to provide infrastructure services,
the need to provide additional police and hospital services. I was talking
to the, I think the correct expression is district inspector, well that's
what I would have called it when I was at public school in Sydney all
those years ago, and she was describing to me the challenges of some 43
or 44 schools, primary schools in this area which has a young population.
And I know how important the provision of education is for a growing community
and that's one of the reasons why at a federal level we have endeavoured
to provide the optimum level of choice for people in education. Education
is very important to every Australian family. Providing people with the
choice whether they send their children to government schools or non-government
schools, and increasingly to provide people with choice within the government
sector. As I drove past the large number of new housing estates it's
a reminder to me of the importance I suppose of keeping interest rates
at a tolerable level. There'd be a lot of new home buyers in the
electorate of Moore wouldn't there Dr Washer? And I'm constantly
reminded of Mal just how important it is to keep interest rates as low
as possible. And I'm very very pleased to say that one of the things
that we have been able to do, and I don't want to make this a very
political address, but I can't you know, resist one tiny commercial,
one tiny plug. One of the things that we have been able to do very effectively
is to get interest rates down from stratospheric levels that they were
at some 8 or 10 years ago. And that is tremendously important to people
who are paying off a home.
But I think the most important thing about this gathering is that it
reminds me very much of something that I've spoken of a lot since
I've been Prime Minister, and that is the notion of a social coalition.
We have a lot of debate in our society about who does what best. There
are some people who believe that everything should be done by the government,
and there are some people who believe that nothing should be done by the
government. Some people think that once the government starts to do something,
whether it's the federal government, the State government or the
local government, then problems start. Now of course neither of those
propositions is correct. It is ludicrous to think that the government
can do everything because governments are not built and made, and of their
character they're not very good at for example running businesses.
They're not very good at doing things that you need an entrepreneurial
or business spirit to succeed at. But on the other hand governments have
very important functions. Unless you have government support for basic
services such as health and education and police, and defence, then of
course you can't have a civil and you can't have a humane, and
you can't have a society that we want to live. And what I have tried
to do in so many areas of my responsibilities as Prime Minister is to
promote the idea of a social coalition. And that very simply says that
when we have a problem in our community we should try and tackle that
problem by bringing together the resources of the government, the resources
of the business community, the energy and commitment of individuals, and
also the resources and commitment of our great welfare organisations and
volunteer groups within our society. And those groups all coalescing and
each contributing what they do best you can hope to solve our problems.
And it's not a question of saying well we'll leave all of that
to the government, or all of that to the business community, or all of
that to a local welfare group. And I've tried in a number of areas
to enlist not only the compassion and the coal face experience of welfare
organisations, but also their contribution to the development of policy.
I reminded myself when I came here this afternoon that the chairman of
two organisations that are making a major input to social policy under
my government are Salvation Army officers. One of them Major Brian Watters
is the chairman of my national council on drug issues, and the other is
Captain David Eldridge of Victoria who is the chairman of the Youth Homelessness
Task Force that I established within four weeks of becoming Prime Minister
in 1996.
I not only seek the human contribution of those great organisations who
do so much in our society, but I also seek their policy contribution because
the coal face experience they have of dealing with human sadness, of human
challenge and of human despair is not only relevant in terms of responding
to the needs of individuals, but it's also very relevant in helping
to develop government policy. We went through a period of time some years
ago when everybody thought you could solve every problem by turning to
the government. Then we had a bit of a reaction to that and people thought
you could solve every problem by the government getting out of everything.
But I think we've now sort of got a happy medium where people see
that there is a limited but strategic role for governments within our
community. And I see it represented here today. I see all the elements
of that social coalition.
Our country at the present time is experiencing at a national level a
great deal of prosperity. We are very strong economically, we have lower
inflation, lower interest rates, stronger budget positions, a stronger
international economic presence than we've had in many decades. But
that doesn't mean to say there aren't people in our community
that still need help. There are a lot. And there are people who aren't
sharing in the same way as others in that national prosperity. And it's
the obligation of a civilised decent society to see that that prosperity
is spread around as far as possible. And it's also the obligation
of a government at a national level and at a State level and at a local
level to press ahead with much needed reforms, sometimes to do it in the
face of fierce opposition and criticism. We at the moment are very strongly
committed to taxation reform, and we're not going to go back on that.
We're not going to weaken or tire in our commitment to that because
we think it is good in the end for the whole Australian community. We
may differ and argue as a community about this or that aspect. But at
the end of the day if you believe that a reform is going to make your
country stronger and better you'll persevere with that reform. And
that applies whether you're the Prime Minister, you're the premier,
or whether you're the mayor of the local municipality or city. And
that is very much how I see my responsibilities as Prime Minister. Australia
is a federation. We work best with a large geographical area having a
federal government, a State government and a local government. And each
of us has got to be accountable. We can't have a society where whenever
one area of government gets into trouble it tries to blame the other.
We've each got to be accountable. If we make a mess of something
at a federal level you're entitled to blame us. If you're State
government doesn't do something right at a State level you should
blame them, and the same thing applies at a local level. We each have
important responsibilities. And it's the best way of running a country
as geographically large as Australia. You can't make all the decisions
in Canberra. All the wisdom doesn't reside there any more than all
the wisdom in Western Australia resides in Perth, or all the wisdom in
New South Wales resides in Sydney. The founding fathers of this country
weren't wrong when they devised a federal system of government and
decided to keep the States and to keep the structure of a decentralised
nation when we federated in 1901. And that is why part of, I believe a
very important part, of my responsibilities as Prime Minister is to visit
the centres of municipal and local government, and to have an opportunity
like this to greet the leaders of the local community and through that
to get a better understanding of some of the challenges and some of the
problems of this community.
Can I simply conclude by saying it's great to be with Mal in his
electorate. I wish him well. I commend him very warmly to you as a very
very energetic and effective representative in the national parliament.
Can I thank all of you for the contribution that you are making towards
a better Australia. Each in your own way whether you're the mayor
of a city, whether you run the local Lions Club, the local State Emergency
Service, a local sporting organisation, a local church, or any other local
group, each of you in your own way is making a contribution to a more
civilised and more decent and happy, and more harmonious Australian community,
And that is what in the end of the day you want in this country. We want
a harmonious cohesive civilised society, and each of you are playing a
very major role here in Joondalup in building that goal and achieving
that end. Thank you.
[Ends]