E&OE...........
Councillor Ross, Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It goes without contradiction that the nation';s mind is of course very firmly fixed on the terrible events that were just remarked upon in the resolution carried so effectively and so unanimously and as in our experience as Australians we have come to recognise out of disaster and challenge and tragedy and horror so many of the great characteristics of the Australian people emerge, renewed and strengthened and on display not only to our people but to the rest of the world. And in the past three weeks my own emotions have been a mixture of anguish and grief but also immense pride in the way in which the Australian people have together unitedly, without regard for individual position but in a great spirit of teamwork and mateship, responded not only to help those who have been left bereaved and injured but also to communicate to the world in a defiant yet dignified resolute fashion the determination of the Australian people to fight this evil in partnership with others likewise effected by its ravages but also to retain that spirit of openness and friendship towards not only all Australian communities, but also the rest of the world.
And I thank the Local Government Association for that expression of concern and unity because it echoes the mood of our nation, it echoes the determination of our people and it echoes the resolution and dignified defiance of Australians historically exhibited during times of challenge.
Can I congratulate you for choosing Alice Springs as the first non-Canberra location, at least in many years perhaps ever, for this assembly of Local Government Associations from all around Australia.
It does epitomise in so many ways what we want to identify with when we think of the Year of the Outback. As a community in its own right it has some special characteristics unlike any other part of Australia and I think it is a marvellous concept of bringing your convention here.
The other event, and it goes on sadly, that is very much in our minds at present is the terrible drought that is afflicting so many parts of Australia. This is one of the worst droughts we have had in long years. It is crippling to those directly effected by it both psychologically as well as economically and it will increasingly cast a longer economic shadow. Whilst the Australian economy remains by world standards very strong and very robust, while it remains very strong and very robust for all Australians, it is nonetheless the case ladies and gentlemen that the drought will rob us of national income, it will detract from what otherwise would have been a higher level of economic growth. Fortunately there are two factors which mitigate to some extent, and I say to only some extent. One of those is that for those fortunate enough to have escaped the worst ravages of the drought, commodity prices are stronger than they were in earlier droughts and on top of that the farm management deposit scheme, introduced by the Government several years ago, has meant that during one or two quite good rural years when incomes were high many of Australia';s farmers took advantage of those deposits and put away income before tax so that now in more difficult and challenging years withdrawals can be made in a way to tide them over at least for a while, some of the challenges they face at the present time.
But overall the drought is of course very bad news for Australian farmers, it';s very bad news for the Australian economy and the community response in so many ways to the drought is another illustration of the Australian spirit during a time of adversity and the generosity of individual Australians, the majority of whom live in major cities of our country, is a reminder of how all of us have regarded the outback and country Australia as being part and parcel of the Australian identity. And the drought of course is a time for all governments to work together. It is not a time for blame-shifting or point-scoring. The farmers of Australia have no patience with that from any level of government, be it Federal, State or Local. And it';s a time for all levels of government to work together in a very cooperative fashion. Each have roles and each in my view are discharging those roles fully at the present time and I seek no political argument or political divide over this nation';s response to the effects of the drought.
Inevitably the drought raises in our minds the long-term challenge to this country of all issues related to the availability, the distribution and the cost of water. There is no simple easy solution. Tomorrow in Brisbane the Sustainable Environment Committee of the Cabinet will be receiving the first of a series of submissions and presentations on this issue. There are many aspects of it. A lot of people have said that the answer is major additional infrastructure. Others have argued that the answer lies in reform of water markets. Others have argued that the answer in part lies in change and reform in the area of on farm practices as with so many of these issues the true answer is probably a mixture of all of those to some degree.
It is not an issue that any government, State or Federal, can produce an answer to overnight. It is a clich to say that this is a dry and arid continent, of course it is. There is a lot of water wasted in Australia and we have to find ways of reducing that wastage in the future, but it is a very large country and we shouldn';t imagine that there is any simple pie in the sky solution to the challenge of water distribution. But it is an issue that increasingly governments at all levels must address and they must address it in cooperation and as Prime Minister I want to work with the Premiers of the States, the Chief Ministers of the Territories and the Leaders of Local Government in order to achieve an improvement over time in this area. And it is very important that we seek that cooperation.
We have sought it in relation to the national action plan against salinity. Some two or three years ago we identified the need at a Federal level to put additional resources into tackling the problem of salinity and on a dollar for dollar basis with the States we have established initially a fund of $1.4 billion to tackle some of the biggest salinity problems in Australia over a period of years. I want to thank Local Government for the role that it is playing in that very important undertaking.
Salinity has been with us and has been a growing problem, degrading not only rural areas but also encroaching into metropolitan areas over a very long period of time and the response that is now coming is an overdue response but it is certainly a very important response. And in a way it';s of a piece with our Natural Heritage Trust where we have committed additional resources over a period of time to numerous natural heritage projects around Australia.
I agree with Councillor Ross that local government in Australia is alive and well. If I can be permitted a personal reflection on this, I find as I go around Australia that when it comes to government, the sentiment of the community is increasing a sentiment that has two components to it. We think increasingly in national Australia-wide terms. We think of the Australian need and the Australian interest increasingly with a focus and a passion that may not have been present ten or twenty years ago. But we also think there is no contradiction in these two. We also think increasingly of the amenity of our local community who I see the two dominant government sentiments, if I can put it that way, as being both nationalistic and also a spirit of local identity and localism, and in those circumstances the role for local government is enduring.
There will always be, in a democracy, there will be competitive tension between the different levels of government. If you were starting Australia all over again you wouldn';t have the structure of government that we have now, but we are not starting Australia all over again, so that is an empty theoretical exercise. We have a structure, it';s a federal structure, we have a sense of identity as Australians, we are a remarkably homogenous country when it comes to national sentiment despite our size. But we are also a people who believe in a certain distribution of power and in a big country you have to have strong local government units. If you don';t have strong local government units then it is not going to be a sufficiently responsive government structure.
Local Government of course owes its legal force and authority to State Governments and that';s unlikely to change in the near or even the more distant future. Local Government of course is the first port of call for many communities particularly in rural areas and we are very conscious that one of the by-products of rural economic decline and drought of course is the rate revenues of many rural local government units have been depleted and it';s one of the reasons why at the end of the year 2000 we decided to increase by 75%, through the Roads to Recovery Program, the amount of money that the Federal Government provides to Local Government for local roads. We are very conscious that not only has there been a decline in financial capacity because of the impact of economic change and economic decline, but also through decisions taken by State Governments in other contexts the amount of money available for local roads from State Government sources has been less than in earlier years.
The Roads to Recovery Program represented the determination of the Government, at the time that program was announced to make available to Local Government the additional resources to renew the basic road infrastructure, particularly but no only of so many rural communities.
During the current financial year local councils will receive around $1.5 billion in financial assistance grants from the Commonwealth. Of this just over $1 billion is for general purpose assistance and $445 million is for untied local road funding.
The Commonwealth Grants Commission recently carried out a review into local government financial assistance grants and found that from the introduction of untied financial assistance which first occurred from the Federal Government that is in 1974 until 1998 Commonwealth assistance to local government had remained relatively constant from 10.5% to 12% of local government revenue. But during that same period the level of assistance from the States had declined from 15% to 7% of the total level of local government revenue.
You will be aware that in the last election campaign we committed ourselves in the context of local government to an inquiry into the issue of cost-shifting and we are holding that through a Parliamentary Committee and we have received over 320 submissions and 200 of these have come from local councils and that will play a very important role in formulating our response and guiding the conclusions of that committee.
I want also to acknowledge the very important role of Local Government in relation to broader greenhouse gas and environmental issues. Local Government not only plays an important role in relation to issues such as salinity and other matters concerning the environment but as its delegation of two included in the group that went with David Kemp to the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development indicated, the Federal Government values Local Government';s role in the broader environmental challenge and the commitment that we are making as a nation to the challenge of controlling greenhouse gas emissions. And we can argue the toss about different aspects of the Government';s response to the Kyoto Protocol but in the end the measure of any nation';s bona fides in the area is our commitment to the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, and this country has for some years now had a very active program and the present indications are that we are on track despite the fact that for good national interests reasons we haven';t signed the Kyoto Protocol, we are on track to meet the emission targets designated under that protocol for Australia without assuming some of the burdens which in the Government';s view is not in Australia';s interests by adhering to the protocol as it is presently phrased.
Ladies and Gentlemen can I say just one or two other things before concluding and one of those relates to the contribution that your President, Councillor Ross, has made not only as the Leader of Local Government in Australia, but also as a member of the Council of Australian Governments and also as an interlocutor on behalf of Local Government with the Federal Government.
I am aware that the inter-relationships between Local Government, State Government and Federal Government inevitably involves, as I mentioned earlier, some degree of competitive tension, that is as it will always be in a democracy and if it were otherwise you';d scratch yourself and wonder if you were still living in Australia. But it doesn';t alter the fact that in the end the measure of cooperation that exists between different levels of government often rests upon the sense of trust and goodwill that exists between the leaders of different levels of government and can I say that your President for the past three years has been a strong contributor to COAG meetings. He';s been a person who has always faithfully represented Local Government';s view at those meetings and I want to record to you Councillor Ross my respect and my thanks for the role that you have played as the Leader of Local Government in Australia over the past three years.
The final thing that I want to say to you is really to return to a theme that I mentioned earlier and that is the mood of the nation and the response of the nation to some challenges we have at present.
When we last met, when I last addressed this gathering, it was in December 2000. We hadn';t had the horrors of the 11th of September 2001, we weren';t facing and enduring a terrible drought and we hadn';t experienced the horrors of the 12th of October 2002.
Life of course must and should go on and a measure of our capacity to overcome adversity is the extent to which we can continue on a path which is not distracted by tragic interventions but nonetheless incorporates a sympathetic and effective response to those tragic interventions. Both events have cast a long human shadow and both events have economic consequences as well. It is inevitable as I have said on several occasions that the Government will need to look again at its level of financial commitment to both defence and security issues. It doesn';t automatically flow from that that massive additional expenditures will be required but it is incumbent upon us as our first responsibility as a national government to assess the adequacy of not only the level but the appropriateness of the distribution of the expenditure which is now undertaken under the heading of defence and security.
It is also important to acknowledge that the drought will have, as well as a human cost, it will also have a significant economic cost. But against that background can I strike a brighter and optimistic note and that is that for all of those challenges the Australian economy is strong and resilient. We do have a very low level of debt, we do have low interest rates, we do have low inflation, we still have quite good business investment prospects, we still have quite a strong labour market, we could do with a few additional areas of liberalisation and deregulation in that area but the detailed discussion of that belongs to another place and to another day.
So against the background of those challenges that I mentioned we are as a nation not only of good spirit and strong resolve but as a nation we are economically very resilient and because of the reforms that have been undertaken over a number of years we are in a stronger position to stare down some of the economic challenges we now confront. Just as we were able to stare down the Asian economic downturn of 1997 and the immediate effects of the terrorist attack on the United States on the world economy particularly America';s last year. So I believe that we are well prepared to give a good response to our contemporary challenges.
In that we need the cooperation and the understanding of Local Government. We will continue to provide as fair a provision for Local Government as we can consistent with our other responsibilities. I can';t and I won';t say more than that but in saying that I mean it and I am very conscious of the responsibilities that Local Government has.
I want again to congratulate you for going out of Canberra. We all do it when Parliament doesn';t sit and I think coming to Alice Springs is a wonderful idea, it';s a great part of Australia, it is a very special part of Australia and I therefore have very great pleasure in declaring this Congress open.
Thank you.
[ends]