Subjects: Australia terror target, NSW Liberal team, Iraq, Water reform, Lynton Crosby
E&OE
Thank you, John and my parliamentary colleagues and fellow Liberals for that very warm and encouraging welcome. A lot has changed for all of us since I last address this State Council some eight or nine months ago. Terrorism has come much closer to all of us. We have been permanently affected and changed by those awful events in Bali on the 12th of October. But there are some things that haven't changed and one of the things that hasn't changed and mustn't change is the character of Australia as a free and open and tolerant and decent nation. That must never change. And when I am asked what do the terrorists hate about Australia my answer is: they hate us for the virtues we represent as a free and open and decent and tolerant nation.
They are the things that mark Australia out from so many other nations. And they, in the end, are the things that those evil people despise in us. And it is very important in the weeks that go by, and as a nation we try and come to terms with the awful reality that some 80 to 90, largely young lives, were brutally claimed in an act of bilious, despicable violence unjustified by anything that this country has ever done, either alone or in concert with other nations. It's very important that we retain our sense of justified self-belief in the national virtues and values of Australia. We must not, in any sense, blame ourselves or the values or the practices of Australia for what occurred. What occurred was an act of violence directed against those largely young people because they were westerners and nothing can change that. We are part of western civilisation. We're a nation that believes in an open, democratic way of life. We are a nation that believes in the freedom of expression of the individual. We're a nation that believes in the equality of men and women.
We are a nation that believes in welcoming to our shores, provided they accept the modalities of Australian life, people from the four corners of the earth, of different nationalities, of different religions, of different ethnicities and of different faiths. That is the modern Australia. We can't change that, we won't change that because we shouldn't change that because that is what makes this a very special country. So there are many things that have changed and there are many things, though, that have not changed since we last met. I will never forget what those evil people did to our citizens and I don't believe the Australian people will ever forget it either. We are living in a different world. We're living in a world that is more challenging.
We're living in a world where the possibility of a terrorist attack on our own soil is more likely than it would have been a year ago or even six months ago. It's important that we understand that but it's also important that we keep a sense of proportion. It's important that we continue to live our daily lives. It's important that we don't allow the new and less certain environment in which we live to prevent us behaving to each other as we have in the past. And it's important that in the process that instead of pointing a finger at somebody or some group, we should perhaps extend an arm of friendship and welcome to them. Deep down the Australian people I know will respond to this new changed environment with that remarkable mixture of strength and commonsense and good humour and mateship that has always characterised our people. There is no nation on earth that can better respond to a national challenge or crisis than Australia because we are a classless country and that means that when s confronts all of us, we come together.
We forget our different backgrounds, our different attitudes, our different stations in life, and this was driven home to me when I visited the Richmond RAAF base several weeks ago to thank the young men and women who participated in bringing the 67 injured out of Bali on the morning of the 13th and 14th of October. And, still obviously affected by the trauma and the tension and the difficulty of the harrowing experience, this young airforce person - a young woman - said to me, you know we just all got in and did it, I worked beside the group captain, our ranks didn't matter, we had a job to do to get those people and we all just got on together and did it. That is just so typical of the character of this country. And it is a very special precious thing that we have and we must hang on to it because it gives us a strength and a capacity to work through these difficulties and these challenges. We all have a responsibility, I have a responsibility as a prime minister to level with the Australian people, that is why Senator Ellison made the statement he did on our behalf a few days ago.
We were criticised by some people, they said it wasn't specific enough. Of course it wasn't specific enough, because the intelligence didn't indicate a level of specificity, but if we had not made that known to the public and subsequently it had emerged that we'd received a warning of that kind in one stroke trust between the government and the people so essential at a time like this would have been destroyed. I think it is also important that the media preserve a sense of proportion in relation to the reporting of intelligence issues. And this morning there's a story on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age indicating that Australia is now on level pegging with the United States and Israel as a primary terrorist target.
Can I say, without downplaying the new and more dangerous environment in which we now exist, that is not a justifiable assessment, it is not based on any information that has come to the possession of our intelligence agencies and it represents an unnecessary racheting up of concern within the Australian community. So, we all have a responsibility. These are different times. They are not times where we should lose our sense of proportion. They are not times in which we should lose our sense of fair play and decency towards each other and towards other nations. It is inevitable that in these months and perhaps years ahead, defence and national security issues will continuously bulk larger in the concerns of the Australian government than other issues.
But that is not to say that we will neglect the domestic political and economic issues. The foundation of strong defence forces is a strong economy. If you don't have a strong economy, you don't have the resources to adequately arm yourselves and to adequately fund the intelligence services. And it continues to be the case that Australia has the strongest performing economy of most of the developed world and although the drought and the hesitancy in the American economy will take a little bit of growth off the Australian economy this year we are still going to perform very well, we are still going to maintain strong employment growth, we are still going to maintain low inflation and low interest rates and we still have the capacity to implement a very aggressive agenda of domestic economic change and reform, many of the details of which I was able to spell out in a major speech a few days ago here in Sydney. But the emphasis must be necessarily on defence and national security issues.
I announced a few days ago that because of the magnificent way in which in cooperation with our allies, the Australian special forces have performed in Afghanistan we would begin at the end of this month withdrawing that detachment so that they could all be home for Christmas. And I want, I know on behalf of everybody, not only Liberals, but people of all political persuasions, I want on behalf of the Australian people to record our admiration and gratitude for those men for what they have done in our name, in the name of Australia, of all Australians in the war against terror. They have won the admiration of our allies, they have won the admiration of our nation and they have done their job extremely well. It is not possible, ladies and gentlemen, to talk about international issues without addressing, head on, the issue of Iraq. At present the weapons inspectors have entered Iraq. I hope, the Government hopes, the world hopes, that this issue can be resolved without military action.
I don't want to see anybody involved in a further military conflict but we can't walk away from the challenge that Iraq faces. Iraq does possess weapons of mass destruction. People say to me, well, why do you pick on Iraq, North Korea has weapons of mass destruction, why the difference? Well, let me tell you the reason why there's a difference. Iraq has form, Iraq has used weapons of mass destruction against her neighbours. She invaded Kuwait. She used weapons against Israel, against Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. She used poison gas in the Iraq-Iranian war. There is a long history of Iraq assisting terrorist groups. Iraq gives support to the suicide bombers who cause such death and destruction in Israel. And there is a pattern of behaviour and it can't be ignored. And I think the ultimate nightmare would be if weapons of mass destruction ever got into the hands of terrorists because, make no mistake, they would use them. They would use them without regard to life or limb.
When you have fanatics blowing themselves up in order to destroy the lives of others you are dealing with a new dimension of evil and you are dealing with a group of people who don't respond to the normal modalities of reason. They don';t have an instinct for survival, they have an instinct for destruction and terror. That is their purpose and that is their motivation. None of this is to in any way understate my own personal desire to see this issue resolved through the councils of the Security Council. But let us not lose sight of reality. The United Nations was re-energised into doing something about Iraq because of the leadership of the United States. There are no shortage of critics of the United States around the world but the United Nations involvement in relation to Iraq through the Security Council would not have occurred if President Bush had not gone to the United Nations General Assembly on the 12th of September and laid out a case for the United Nations responding to its world responsibilities, and that is what he did.
And he showed great strength and he showed great leadership. And I have little doubt that the 15-0 vote in the Security Council of the United Nations was ultimately a consequence of skilful diplomacy and strength exercised by the United States. It's easy for countries and other critics to criticise the Americans. When you are the most powerful country in the world people somehow or other feel a license to criticise you and to find fault. But in the end if you look at the scoresheet of history the United States has made a remarkable and constant contribution to the preservation of freedom around the world. And those who understand and remember the history of this country will know the debt of gratitude we owe to the United States and the people of that great country. Ladies and gentlemen, if I can just touch on one or two more domestic but, nonetheless, extremely important issues. I know that everybody is metaphorically and perhaps literally in many cases united in prayer for rain around Australia at the present time.
This country is suffering a crippling drought. Seventy-five percent of Australia is either deprived or seriously deprived of water and unless there is a sustained break in the weather pattern soon we could have a drought as bad as the one that afflicted us in the early 1980s and perhaps worse. There are some things that are helpful on this occasion. One of the things that is helping is the fact that several years ago we brought in a Farm Management Deposit Scheme. Forty-three thousand of Australia's farmers have deposited $2 billion in that fund and the tax concessions this year are worth about $500 million. And the great virtue of that scheme is that it allows people, in a tax effective way - and we all like things that are tax effective - in a tax effective way to deposit money in a good year and to pull it out in a bad year. Well, there were a few good years a couple of years ago but this one's a very bad year and that scheme is working to cushion the impact of the drought. And we also have a very effective Exceptional Circumstances scheme.
And it's been estimated that we'll be providing this and next year, on a conservative basis, about $365 million through the Exceptional Circumstances scheme to assist Australia's farmers. But the severity of the drought raises the whole issue of water availability and water conservation in this country. And it's an issue that does have to be tackled nationally because the great river systems of Australia and the great Artesian basin don't recognise State borders and we have to deal with this thing on a national basis with the States and the Commonwealth playing their part. And it will be a major issue at the COAG meeting or Premiers' Conference to be held on the 6th of December.
And I'll be seeking the cooperation of the States and I'll be arguing, as I indicated a few days ago, that now that we have made a great deal of progress in relation to competition policy around this country, of the competition payments that were established in 1995 should increasingly be made available to compensate farmers who have their water rights either removed or diminished. Because it's a cardinal principle of fair dealing between governments and individuals in Australia that if a government acquires or cuts back your property rights it has an obligation to compensate you for the loss. And many farmers, particularly in New South Wales, are facing drastic reductions in their entitlements. And it was always envisaged that some of the competition payments would be available to assist in relation to that competition and I'll be arguing, amongst other things, that that increasingly be the case as we address this issue. And what we need to do is establish in Australia a common water property right or a common property right system throughout the country. And if you will, this is a 21st Century version of the old rail gauge problem and you won't solve it until you adopt a similar approach and we have a different system. The States are different.
We don't need uniformity for the sake of uniformity but we want a system which neutrally recognises and is, therefore, nationally facilitatory in relation to this issue, just as we have arrangements that give full faith and credit to criminal apprehension laws, so we should have a system that allows water rights to be recognised on a national basis. The other issue, ladies and gentlemen, that I hope will be able to bring some finality and sharpness to at the Premiers' Conference meeting on the 6th of December is that of handgun control. I hold a very strong view that the overwhelming majority of Australians do not want this country to go down the American path when it comes to guns. They do not want that. There is much that I admire about America and there is one thing that I do not admire and that is their extraordinary attitude towards the possession of weapons. And there is no doubt at all of the direct correlation between the availability of firearms and the very high murder rate in that country.
There is already evidence that the ban on longarms implemented in 1996 has begun to reduce the murder rate related to guns, or based on guns, in this country. And there's every reason to believe that if we can go much further in relation to handguns then we can lay the basis of a set of nationally consistent laws that will provide a safer Australian domestic environment. And this can be done, I can assure you, without interfering in any way with the legitimate rights and aspirations of genuine, and I stress genuine, sporting shooters within the Australian community. Ladies and gentlemen, let me finish on a more personal note. This could well be, in fact, it will always certainly be the last state council meeting that Lynton Crosby is at in sort of his capacity as the outgoing Federal Director. I mean, he's sometimes…and he's announced he's going, he's still going, his successor has not yet been put in place so, in a sense, he's still the Director, although he's not, if you can understand what I mean.
But can I just take the opportunity of saying what a tremendous mainstay and right hand and captain of the organisational ship Lynton has been for me and for the party. Under his direction the Liberal Party federally has enjoyed some of its greatest years of success since it was founded in 1944. It really has. And here in New South Wales the last election, as I think I may have said before from this platform, the last election gave us, in many respects, our greatest federal harvest in New South Wales since the party was formed. And Lynton has played a crucial role in bringing that about. So let me thank you, Lynton, again in front of your fellow Liberals here in New South Wales for what you have done. I acknowledge the debt I personally owe to you. I wish you well in your future career. I know that the Liberal Party, both here in New South Wales and all around Australia, will be ever willing to see you again to get your views and to listen to your advice. Well, finally my friends we face a very important State election on the 22nd of March in the year 2003. And I thought one of the best pieces of television imagery I'd seen in a few weeks of State politics was that carpark encounter. I mean my mate of boxing blue fame, Tony Abbott, may well be called to give some seconds advice.
Can I say, what it demonstrated to me was that you have a State leader with a backbone, a State leader with the strength of his own convictions and somebody who can spontaneously and, therefore, eloquently express a proper sense of outrage against a frightening attack. It won't be easy. It will be very hard because the Government is not shy of exploiting incumbency. There are an enormous number of seats to be won but what I have seen over the past few months is a determination and a resilience and a level of activity from any candidates which is very encouraging. Only yesterday John and I were in that great electorate of Bennelong and in the right part of Bennelong, with Paul Nicolau, an outstanding candidate, in a seat that we need to win in order to win government in New South Wales.
And I saw a large gathering of people from the community interested to hear and meet our candidate and interested to hear and meet the State Liberal Party Leader, John Brogden. It will be a very tough fight. John, you have the support, you have the enthusiasm, you have the commitment of your federal colleagues. To all of your colleagues, work hard, you have no right to have any Christmas holidays, you must all work very hard over Christmas. You must try in the period between now and the election, of course, now that Parliament has risen, to get as much publicity for your policies and for your candidates as you can. I think the New South Wales people are looking for an alternative. They want a choice.
This government has been in power for a long time. It's getting tired, it's getting complacent. There are issues about it that wreak of complacency and contempt for normal process and I think if you work hard you can bridge that gap but it won't be easy and along that journey you'll have our very strong support. So, ladies and gentlemen, can I again say thank you for the great support you've given me. Thank you for the great members of Parliament that you've given me from New South Wales and the wonderful Ministers, all of whom have made a great contribution. John recently was kind enough to say some things about me. We have been successful because we're a great team.
Politics is about teamship, politics is about loyalty flowing in both directions and the ingredients of our politic success are to be found in those political realities. We do live in a more stressful, difficult time and I have no doubt that if we display, as a nation, the unity and the sense of humanity and openness that has always characterised the Australian people we can handle these issues and handle them well. Out of great sadness and tragedy and adversity often comes something that is reassuring and inspiring.
And what has been reassuring and inspiring about the last six weeks has been the remarkable spirit, that remarkable sense of openness and mateship which we deep down know makes this country distinctive and different and gives this country a special character and a special identity that the rest of the world knows, the rest of the world recognises and the rest of the world admires. And it's something that we should hold on to, we should protect and we should allow to guide us through the more difficult weeks and months and, perhaps, years ahead.
Thank you. [ends]