Subjects: Australian manufacturing, industry and trade; tax reform; growth and development
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………..
Thank you Ross. To the Premier of Western Australia Richard Court, Mr Theo Kailis, Mr David Clapin, my parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. For a whole number of reasons I am delighted to be here today and to have the opportunity of officially opening this magnificent facility. This facility and the wonderful story of this company and what it’s achieved domestically and what it’s continuing to achieve on the export front really conjures up a number of areas of tremendous success and achievement. As I was taken through the facility and saw the production stage of the product that is to go into the Japanese market I was reminded of the capacity of Australians to be thoroughly modern manufacturers. I was also reminded of course that this facility gives the lie to the false dichotomy that so many people endeavour to create today between the old and the new economy because this facility and this business is a combination of the best of the old and the best of the new.
From the old it has the tradition of family based companies with the loyalties and personal commitment, and the strong links with a dedicated workforce that make those companies successful. It also builds on the product of the earth and the sea of Australia, and it also builds on old traditional methods of manufacturing. But equally it is very modern. It has a high tech production line, it relies very heavily on information technology to make certain that the product is ideally attuned to the export market. And it also builds very particularly on the very important trading relationship that Australia has with Japan.
And I’m very pleased to join Mr Kailis in welcoming so many of our Japanese friends here today. There is no trading alliance between two countries which is more important to Australia than the trading alliance with Japan. That is not to say others are unimportant, but it is simply to underline the point that in so many fields Australia and Japan have a great deal in common. And Japan has consistently been Australia’s best export destinations for several decades.
This company was established 25 years ago and David Clapin has given you a marvelous sketch of what has been achieved, of how the company has adapted to changes in circumstances. And the success of this company and particularly its export success is a reminder to all of us of the opportunities of globalisation. We hear too much of the downside of globalisation. We hear the negative stories of how globalisation has a deleterious impact on some parts of the Australian community and the Australian economy. Too infrequently do we hear stories such as we’ve heard today of the opportunities that globalisation presents.
And I note with great approval Theo Kailis’s remarks about the need for flexible industrial relations. There has been much said recently about the Government’s achievements in relation to taxation reform. And I’m always happy to hear people say good things about the Government’s achievements in the area of taxation reform. But I wouldn’t want anybody to lose sight of the fact that there side by side with taxation reform is the achievement of the Government and indeed the achievement of the Western Australian Government in creating a far more flexible industrial relations environment. And the reality is that if Australia turns backwards towards a more regulated industrial relations system, if we go back to the era of the dominance of union written collective agreements, we will lose the market opportunities that the new flexible industrial relations era has given us. And this company and this company’s achievement is testimony to the need in the modern world for an industrial relations era and climate and ambience whereby you encourage the making of agreements between employers and employees at the individual workplace level each recognising the dignity and the role of the other. And the success of this company has been very much built on the way it’s treated its workforce. It’s treated its workforce with care and respect and dignity, it’s paid them well, it gives them a clean, decent safe working environment. And they are the obligations of every employer in Australia and if you can create around Australia the kind of atmosphere that exists in a business such as this and the incentives it provides to individual workers to perform and to be part of the corporate and group success, then the economic future of this country is assured.
The processed food and beverage industry is one of Australia’s largest manufacturing industries. It comprises around 4,000 firms, it employs over 170,000 people, and it has an annual turnover in excess of $46 billion. And we recognised not long after our election the importance that growth,the potential for growth of food exports in the Asia-Pacific region. And in 1997 Australia supplied 5 billion of Japan’s total 70 billion food import requirement. And the two previous speakers were kind enough to mention the Government’s Supermarket to Asia Council which I chair and regularly attend the meetings of. And all of that is designed to optimise the very opportunities which Kailis and France have grabbed hold of and have optimised. You are a shining exemplar of what that Supermarket to Asia concept is all about. You have grabbed hold of the market, you’ve met the demands of the market, you’ve listened to your customers, and you’ve made the product according to your customers taste, not according to your preconceived notions and not surprising you have been remarkably successful.
Ladies and gentlemen, for all of those reasons I’m delighted to be here today. But I have one other comment to make and that is that businesses thrive for a number of reasons. They thrive if they have good managers, if they have a clear headed vision, if they have a well cared for and remunerated workforce. They also thrive if they have a benign and encouraging economic environment. And we have endeavoured in government to create that. We’ve endeavoured to give to Australia lower inflation, lower interest rates, a better taxation system. One that reduces some of the burdens on Australian exporters, one that reduces our company tax rate, our capital gains tax rate, and one that sweeps away a discredited indirect tax system and replaces it with a far more modern one, and one incidentally that provides the largest reduction in personal income tax in a single stroke that any government has delivered.
I applaud the success of Kailis and France. I say to them and to all of you and to the management and employees alike of the company, the Government will continue to do all it can to maintain and build on the very encouraging economic environment that Australia now enjoys. But it’s never something that we can take for granted. The process of reform of an economy never ends. There is never a point in the management of an economy when you say we have done enough and we don’t need to do anymore. And all of you in business who are here today know that that is not only true of our experience but it’s also true of yours. The company that goes forward is the company that never believes it can mark time. And just as companies can’t mark time, so governments in the modern world economic environment cannot mark time either.
This is a wonderful day for the founders of the company, it’s a wonderful day for those who work in it. This is a great Western Australian company, but even more than that it’s a great Australian company which is making an enormous contribution to our export potential, providing satisfaction to customers and building in a thoroughly modern fashion the world reputation of Australians as great manufacturers.
So ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure in declaring open this new factory, this wonderful new facility of the Kailis and France company. Long may the company be successful, long may it continue to satisfy its customers and to win more export dollars for Australia. Thank you.
[Ends]