E&OE................................
Thank you very much, Con, I think I must be back in Queensland.
But, ladies and gentlemen, a more important salutation, my fellow Liberals and my fellow Australians. It is a great pleasure to be back at this annual convention of the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party. And when I was making plans a few weeks ago for my visit, brief visit as it was to New York for the meeting of the United Nations, I was determined to allow sufficient time to make certain that I could meet all of my commitments here at this great Convention gathering.
It's almost a year since I last spoke to a very similar gathering in 1999. And as I look back over the last year I think all of us are entitled to look back with immense pride at what we have achieved together over that twelve month period. And I emphasis that we have achieved it together. I'm fortunate enough because I'm the Prime Minister and I'm the leader of the Federal Parliamentary Party to have some of the nice things said when things go okay. There's also another side of it, when things don't go okay, even things I know nothing about - they're all my fault. But, I mean, that naturally goes with the territory. But it really is a team effort and I want to thank all of you for the tremendous loyalty and support that you have given me over the last twelve months. And as with you, I look back over that twelve months, and I list some of things that we have achieved together as a Government. We have continued to preside over probably the strongest growing, if not one of the stroingest growing economies in the entire industrialist world. And I was reminded of that again over the past few days as I met world leaders. And there is really only one other country that has grown at as equal rate, or perhaps a little faster and that is the United States. And the continued strong growth of the Australian economy and the fact that we were able to stare down the worst of the Asian economic downturn, and the fact that that is widely recognised in financial circles, not only in New York but around the world, ought to be source of tremendous pride to all of the Members of the Government and all of the Members of the Federal Parliamentary Party and all of our rank and file supporters throughout Australia.
But of course as I have so often said, good economic figures, strong economic growth, low inflation, lower interest rates, all of those things are not ends in themselves. You don't do those things to pass some economics examination. To get an A+ in economics examination. To get an A+ in economic rationalism. You do those things because they produce good outcomes for the men and women of Australia. Social progress and greater human contentment and greater human fulfillment is the flesh and blood of good economic policy. Because without the goal of making people happier and more secure and more contented, economic policy has no purpose. Good economic policy, good economic management is not an end in itself, it is only a vehicle to deliver a more contented and happier and more secure people. And that is why of all of these statistics I might mention in the context of our economic performance, none is source of greater pride to me than the fact that we have generated 833,000 more jobs since we came to office. We have a lower rate of youth unemployment now than we had. A dramatically lower rate, in March of 1996. We have a far better capacity through the Job Network to find work for the unemployed. The Job Network continues to outperform the old Commonwealth employment service. We continue to generate jobs at a rate far beyond what our political opponents predicted.
And another great achievement over the last twelve months has been the unqualified success of our policies to bring people back into private health insurance. The renaissance of private health insurance as a result of the policies pursued by the Government, the tax rebate, lifetime health cover, all of the other policies that we have followed, in order to encourage people back into private health insurance, that has been one of the great triumphs of our policy work over the last four and half years. When we came to government, private health insurance membership was hemorrhaging. People were deserting the private health funds in their tens of thousands. The product was regarded as unattractive, of lacking incentive. And private health insurance was widely predicted to be doomed in this country. And that was no accident, that was the design of the Labor party. The Labor Party does not believe in private health insurance. Don't believe what they say, remember what they did. When they were in office they allowed private health insurance to run down. They even ignored the warnings of their former Health minister, Graham Richardson, who said that once you fall below forty percent of the population, you start to lose critical mass in private health insurance membership. And Carmen Lawrence when she was Health Minister presided over the steady erosion of public support for private health insurance. Jenny Macklin is ideologically opposed to private health insurance. And as sure as I stand in front of you, if Labor were to win the next election one of the things that would be on the chopping block would the thirty percent private health insurance rebate. Make no doubt about that, be in no doubt, make no mistake about that.
So that has been one of our very important policy achievements to bring the membership back to a level of forty one and a half percent at the end of June with perhaps even stronger news in the pipeline for the September quarter.
But of course the biggest reform of all, the biggest systemic change to the Australian economy has been achieved over the last twelve months when finally with the introduction of the new tax system on the first of July we bought an end to what has really been a twenty five year oddessy. A twenty five year campaign, sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly, but nonetheless, always recognising that eventually this country would need to summon the courage to change its taxation system. And we'd need to find a government that had the courage to lead us towards that change. You all knew the risk we took in October 1998. You all shared with me as the months went by concern of perhaps the difficulties that were arising with the introduction, but you were all steadfast in your belief that eventually, if we stuck to our guns, if we remained determined, if we promoted the public interest in tax reform, if we made sure the changes were fair and were good for Australia, that eventually it would be accepted. And so it was on the first of July when the new system was introduced it was accepted by the Australian people in a way that was immensely satisfying, I know, to the Government, and immensely disappointing to the Australian Labor Party.
The Australian Labor Party hoped, and politically prayed, that tax reform would be a total disaster. They invested all of their electoral hopes on tax reform being a failure. They didn't want any other policy. As a member of caucus famously said, Kim Beazley address in December of last year, and he said, comrades, we are going to surf to victory on public hostility towards the GST. They were his words in December of last year. And it showed a man bereft of any alternative policy for the future of this country and merely wanting to trade in cheap political fashion on the inevitable short term difficulty that any government has in introducing a much needed reform. I mean, it's easy to feed off public concern about major change. It's a lot harder to propose a major long term change for the benefit for the community as an alternative government. And the Labor Party deserves all of the odium that has been heaped on them. They deserve all of the political embarrassment of the frank exposition of views by John Della Bosca over that famous lunch. Because he did speak the truth. And he lost his head as a result. Others in the Labor Party who haven't spoken the truth have preserved their jobs. But the reality is that Kim Beazley knows that tax reform was needed. Anybody holding any position of any responsibility in either of the major political parties in Australia over the last twenty five years has known that some day, some time, some government would have to summon the courage to fix up our decaying taxation system. And this government has done it.
And whatever happens in the future, nobody can ever take away from all of us that magnificent achievement. Because we have done something that will endure for the benefit of the Australian economy many years into the future. It will make us stronger. It will continue to reinforce our very impressive economic credentials around the world.
But ladies and gentlemen, we haven't confined ourselves to some of these broader and fundamental economic changes. We've also recognised over the last year when it's necessary for the government to step in and give a helping hand to an industry that's been struggling through no fault of it's own. It's been willing to do so. And I refer in particular to the action taken by the government to help the sugar industry of Australia and particularly the sugar industry here in Queensland. I want to tell you what a magnificent campaign your Liberal representatives waged on behalf of the sugar industry. It was a great team effort once again. They came to me ad said there was legitimate problem. And when I addressed the industry people in Cairns a few months ago and I gave them an undertaking that we would listen to their proposals and that if we thought we could help we would help. And that is exactly what we have done. And it's the greatest injection of sensible government assistance the sugar industry of Australia has ever had. It's assistance that will help them help themselves. It's assistance that will enable them to weather the adversity that has been inflicted on them through no fault of their own. And there is never a doctrine of economic management that says that a government should be insensitive to adversity over which those suffering the adversity have absolutely no control. And I'm very proud of the role that has played by the Queensland Liberal Members in advocating change and assistance in that area.
So, my friends, as I look back over the last year, as together we look back over the last year, we can look back with immense pride at what we have achieved together. We have kept this country growing. We have generated jobs. We have reformed the new taxation system. We have revived private health insurance. We have given the jobless of this country a far better method, via the Job Network of finding new jobs. We've continued to try and reform the industrial relations system and all the while we have looked across the divide in Federal Parliament at an opposition which has sought on every occasion on every turn to win political advantage by negative attack and hoping that something would fail rather than to propound an alternative policy.
And as I look at the Labor Party, and we are entitled increasingly as Australians to look at the alternative government in Australia, they are the alternative government, we are all political realists, elections are held every three years, and they are contests between the incumbent government and the alternative government. And we're entitled to have a look at the alternative and we're entitled to assess the threat that Labor poses. The first threat of course is that Labor will roll back the taxation reform plans. I know that is a word that is, you know, you dare not utter now, if you are a member of the front bench of the Labor Party, but it's still there, it's still the policy. And whenever they are asked, they say, yes we will have a rollback. But what does rollback mean? What rollback means, ladies and gentlemen, is almost inevitably if it's done in serious measure, it means higher personal income tax. Because Simon Crean has said that he is going to have a bigger surplus than we have got. To use the AFL exhortation, I'd like to see that. He also says, of course, that if they rollback the GST they are not going to take any of it from the States. I mean, they made him sign that in blood, Beattie and Bracks and Bacon got Beazley to sign it in blood at Burnie in Tasmania. But if you rollback and you don't take it away from the States and you are going to spend more money on health and education, that's right, remember that? And you're going to have a bigger surplus than we've got, now don't tell me you can do that without jacking up income tax, you can't. And that in reality what rollback means. And that is why I am so passionate in my belief that one of the first things to go will be the non means tested private health insurance rebate and that is why neither Jenny Macklin or Kim Beazley will give an unconditional guarantee that that is going to be retained.
But it's not only rollback in the area of taxation. But you are already starting to see it at a state level and you will see it again at a federal level if Labor wins, you are going to see a rollback of industrial relations reforms. One of the reasons that we are doing so well and one of the reasons why I can look every working man and woman in Australia in they face and say you are better off under us than you were under Labor is that not only are their interest rates lower, but their real incomes are higher. Labor boasted about cutting the real wages of workers. I boast about the fact that we have seen an increase in the real wages of workers. But it's been an non inflationary increase and it's been a non inflationary increase because our productivity is now higher. And one of the reasons why the United States and Australia are in a sense stand out performers amongst the world economies now is that we have seen significant gains in productivity and that means you can lift somebody's wages without it feeding in to inflation because it's based on productivity improvement. And one of the reasons we've got greater productivity now is that we've got a better industrial relations system.
We have an industrial relations system where deals are negotiated at a work place level. I opened a food export capacity in Perth a few weeks ago. A wonderful Greek Australian family, the Calus family [inaudible] that has been incredibly successful in exporting out of this country and Michael or Tom stood up, the chairman and he said, 'this has been made possible Prime Minister by many things, but he said most of all it's been made possible by the fact that every one of the 450 people in this organisation is on an individual contract. And because we have a better industrial relations climate, we have now won a marvelous export market for TV dinners in to Japan. And he said that we've won that because of your industrial relations system and he said if Labor gets in and changes that we will no longer be able to sustain that performance. Now that is the sort of difference that a Coalition committed to higher productivity through better industrial relations represents to this country. And that is on the things that will be under threat if Labor were to be elected.
So my friends I would increasingly exhort you. Over the time between the now and the next election, the next 13 or 14 months or whatever. I mean the last time I said that, that was a dramatic story. I mean the last election remember was in October in 1998 and three years on top of that is October of 2001 and that is the normal cycle and I think, I am enjoying being in government. [Inaudible] I mean I didn't agree with Paul Keating on many things. But there was one thing he did say that I agreed with and he said you work very hard to win an election in this country, there's got to be a very good reason why you want to go before your time, for the election that is. So over the next 14 months, we've got a lot of work to do. We can't afford to be in any way complacent. I've said before and I will say it again, it's going to be hard. Winning the third time around is always difficult. There is always a tendency if the economy is going is going well for people to say, 'well we can risk a bit of change, we can fiddle around at the edges, you know they will have learnt, they won't be so bad and you know they tend to forget, their memories become a bit faded. It's our job to make sure that people's memories don't fade, that they are reminded of the threat that Labor represents to all of what we have achieved over the last four and a half years.
The other thing we have to do over the period between now and the election is to keep the reform process going. The last thing you do in politics these days is having achieved a few things to think that you can rest on your lorels and that there is an automatic electoral reward in having had the courage to reform some things in the first few years that you've been in government. So the reform process must go on that we'll face over the coming months a number of important decisions that will be of long term importance to Australia.
I've said before this country need to spend and will have to spend more resources and more money on the defence of this country in the years ahead. And we're in the middle of a white paper process and that white paper when released and I expect it to be toward the end of this year. That white paper will project forward for many years to come. A defence outline and a defence plan for this country.
And we have been reminded in recent days that the region in which we live is a lot less stable, a lot less secure and therefore deserving of ever greater vigilance from this country, even in the cases being in the past. And it's a reminder to all of us of the emphasis that we will need to devote to defence issues in the months and the years ahead.
So my friends as I look back over the last 12 months and as I look forward to the next 12 months, I do so, I hope with legitimate pride about what has been achieved. I do so with genuine gratitude for the help and loyalty that you've given and I also look forward with a measured pragmatic view of the challenge that lies ahead.
Elections are always hard to win. In these days of perhaps a less tribal commitment by the Australian population. The less sharp division in some areas than used to be the case, it is doubly difficult. But I am encouraged as I go around the various divisions of the level of commitment and the level of preparation.
And I want to thank you Con for the leader you have given to the Queensland division. I want to thank David, Watson, the Leader of the Parliamentary Party in Queensland for the partnership between us and the way in which we have worked together. And I know that you have one or two juicy morsels in front of you at the present time. The electoral politics of the Queensland Labor Party never ceases to fascinate me. I mean when Graham Richardson's famous for a phrase whatever it takes but I always thought that he belonged to the Mounterey branch of the Labor Party, not the Mundingburra one.
But ladies and gentlemen, the next 14 months will be tough. We'll all have to work together, we'll need to replicate an even greater measure the strong partnership that we've had over the last four and a half years.
It's been am immense privilege to lead my Liberal and National Party colleagues and I want to thank all of the Liberal members and senators from Queensland. You have a magnificent contingent in Canberra. They fight for the Liberal Party, they work for the interests of Australia, but they always but in a good word for Queensland. And that is how Queensland Liberals should always behave. They are Australians first, but they never let you know .. how attached the are to the maroon and all that goes with it.
But ladies and gentlemen, it's been a great four and a half years. It's been a great source of pride to me to be the leader of a government that has dedicated itself to making a difference.
You only get one chance in political life really. When you're actually there in the top stop, you only get one change to make a difference. What really matters is what you do while you are there, not what you say before hand, or what you say afterwards but what you actually do while you are there and that's what matters. I believe that we have made a difference. We have our critics, we've made our mistakes, we've probably made undeservedly some enemies. But at every stage over the last four and a half years, we've worked damn hard to make a difference for the benefit of the benefit of this country and it has been a team effort and I thank all my colleagues for the tremendous loyalty and support they've given me and lets redouble our efforts to win again in 2001.
Thank you.
[ends]