Well thank you very much Mr President, my Parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. It is for a number of reasons that I'm delighted to be here tonight, first and foremost is to convey to your industry and those who work with you the very strong support of the Government and the very real appreciation by the Government on behalf of the Australian people of the contribution that your industry is making to the health and the welfare of the Australian community.
I thought as I came here tonight of the best way to articulate and explain the significance of your industry and those associated with you to the welfare of our country and indeed other similar societies. And I recalled some statistics rather hazily, but nonetheless the thrust is correct, which compared medical discoveries and advances in the old days of the command economies of what used to be called the Eastern Bloc, or Iron Curtain countries, where free enterprise in medicine and free enterprise in pharmaceuticals was essentially non-existent and the progress with those discoveries and those advances in other parts of the world. And that was a very powerful reminder to me of the importance to medical science, not only of the scientists and the government support, they are crucial, and we can be forever proud of our medical scientists, they have always punched above their weight and the names of the famous Australian medical scientists are part of the honour roll of great Australians in our history. You need them but you also need the entrepreneurial component of medical science and pharmaceutical advances. And the discoveries that the president spoke of have been driven by a combination of all three, they've been driven by the great scientists, they've been driven by the contribution of academics, they've been driven by the entrepreneurial contribution and also I hope from time to time the support of the Government.
So can I say firstly to all of you how much the Government respects the contribution of your industry. Can I say that we continue to try hard to provide you with a benign, beckoning, I hope, supportive economic climate. You'll forgive me reminding you of course that we had some national accounts figures today that showed that the Australian economy is back at four per cent annual growth and although some of you might quietly say to yourselves well it must be somebody else's company that he's referring to, the profit share of Australian enterprises is now at its highest level in Australia's history, at 25.7 per cent I think the figure is, the profit share has never been higher in Australia's history. And we are in a climate of very solid business investment, a climate of low inflation, of unemployment that's lower than it's been for 20 to 25 years. Low interest rates, a nation that's coming out of drought and seeing a welcome recovery from a very low base in our rural exports. So the message out of all of that is that we are trying as best we can to provide all Australian businesses with a very positive and helpful economic environment.
There has been much debate, both here in this building and more broadly in the community about issues that go directly to your industry. I endorse everything that the president said about the Free Trade Agreement, both your president and President Bush, because both of them were on the money when they said it was in the long term interests of both of our countries. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lock our economy in to the most powerful economy the world has ever seen. In the language of the young it's a no brainer as far as Australia's future is concerned. Your industry factored very prominently in the negotiations, I'm not giving any secrets away, I'm sure to say that there were some changes that the Americans wanted that we resisted because we thought they might in some way undermine the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which is a very important component of the social security safety net in this country. But we are mindful of the desire for more transparency in the review process, and I think that very issue was discussed, with one of the very few elements of the Free Trade Agreement that was actually discussed when President Bush came here to this building in October of last year. I understand the desire for greater transparency, but equally we communicated to our American friends that they needed to understand the absolute commitment of the Australian Government to the maintenance of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. And I think the outcome has been a win-win for both of those propositions. The Scheme remains untouched and unaffected in terms of its operation and the ultimate authority of the Minister and the role of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, but there is quite properly as Mark Vaile has indicated and Tony Abbott has indicated mechanisms for review, subject to obviously to the final say of the Government through the Minister.
But this Free Trade Agreement is an opportunity that must not be lost to this country, it should not be frustrated and delayed anywhere in the political process in this country. This is something that is for our future generations, as the years go by the advantages for our manufacturing industries and our service industries, and you are part of both, will be enormous. And your president has already outlined the great advances that have been made by the industry here in Australia and the opportunities, if we are part of the linkage with the American economy are going to grow and expand as time goes by. So I would only renew a plea that I have made already on numerous occasions and I'll make on many occasions in the future that this Agreement which will deliver so much in so many sectors of the Australian economy is something that ought to be embraced by the Australian community.
Can I also say something else about the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme? It is very important to the health and the wellbeing and the peace of mind of so many Australians. It is right that as new drugs become available that they are available courtesy of the scheme to all Australians. Every Australian is entitled to an opportunity of good health and long life and it should not be something that is determined by a person's income. And that is the philosophy behind the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It's the philosophy behind the new safety net that we are struggling to get through the Senate at the present time, a safety net that will look after people's out of pocket expenses once they go above a certain level. A proposition that I would have thought, once again to use the vernacular of the young, is a no-brainer, particularly for struggling families with a large number of children. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme needs to sustained, but its affordability also needs to be sustained and that is why from time to time adjustments in relation to the co-payment are needed. And I can only again express the Government's dismay that attempts to secure passage in the Senate of modest adjustments in relation to the co-payment, which are going to sustain the viability over the longer term, because if in the end choices have to be made between sustainability and the provision of new drugs, and nobody wants to make that choice, but if that has to occur then the people of Australia are going to suffer. You cannot maintain something such as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme unless it is sustainable economically over the longer term. And with an ageing population, it is inevitable that there is going to be greater strain on it. The Inter-generational Reports that Peter Costello has released shout aloud a simple proposition and that is, in company with all other western societies, our population is ageing but it's ageing in a very healthy way. And we all want it to be so, not only out of personal self interest, but for the sake of the entire community. And that means we need things like the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, but you can only have them if they are affordable, otherwise you're going to place a crushing taxation burden, a rising taxation burden on future generations.
Now I speak with some feeling about this issue because this and related issues are very important to debate about the future of our society and your industry is very much part of that future, just as the last quarter of the 20th century saw incredible advance in information technology and related issues. So many people believe the first quarter of the 21st century are going to see explosions in medical science, biotechnology and advances in that field that will dwarf the advances that have occurred in the same fields during the 20th century.
Now when I talk about the future, particular of how to care for and sustain an ageing population in a healthy lifestyle, I'm talking very much to you ladies and gentlemen as part of that future. Yours is an industry that has, what, 30,000 employees and a turnover of something like $12 billion. You have a very heavy investment in research and development and you have a very healthy export sector of something in the order or component of something in the order of $2.5 billion. Many of you, of course, have links with your parent companies in other parts of the world. But there is a local homegrown distinctive Australian character about pharmaceutical manufacturers. I know because, more than most, because I think the headquarters of so many of them are located in my electorate of Bennelong in North Ryde. I mean, I can sort of do a tour of Medicines Australia by starting early in the morning and finishing by about lunch time and I touch just about all of them. So I've taken a keen interest in you for a very, very long time and I understand the frustrations on occasions you experience with a scheme and set of policies that you regard as ultra regulatory, on the other hand you must understand the centrality and the importance of those schemes to the health and the welfare of the Australian people.
You have played a very, very major part in the growth of an industry which makes a massive contribution to the wellbeing of the Australian community. I welcome the fact that this gathering brings together people with whom you work in partnership - the medical profession and so many others, and particularly of course the associations that you have with the Government.
I conclude by thanking all of you for the contribution that you make. I assure you of the ongoing support as has been evident by individual schemes over the years, which have been renewed by the Government, which have continued to encourage research and development and investment in your industry. If ever there was an industry whose best years were ahead of them, it is yours. Because I can only see as time goes by an even greater reliance on and a greater interest in and a greater desire to benefit from the contributions that can be made in medical science. The developments that are going to occur, as I say, in the next 25 or 50 years will be quite extraordinary and they will dwarf things that we've experienced in our earlier years. You will be part of that and I hope that the partnership between the Government of Australia and your industry will continue to grow closer as those years go by.
Thank you.
[ends]