Subjects: Maurie Finnegan and Maurie Rudd; Hunter
Valley; Newcastle; Asian economic downturn; Australian economy; social
coalition; business philanthropy; pork industry; lamb industry
E&OE..................
Well thank you very much Rob. To Mike Tyler and Kevin Maher, to my
colleague Senator John Tierney, other distinguished guests, ladies
and gentlemen. This dinner has got off to an excellent start - you've
got lamb on the menu. I'll refer to that in the context of Australia's
economic challenges in a few moments.
But can I say that for me tonight is a special honour. I do appreciate
the opportunity of addressing a gathering of people drawn from different
sides of the argument but united in the common cause of an intelligent
and cooperative approach to employers and employees working together
for the benefit of their industries, the benefit of their job security,
and the overall benefit of the country.
And I'm conscious that this annual lecture, this dinner honours two
men, Maurie Finnegan and Maurie Rudd who made a remarkable contribution
to the trade union movement in the Newcastle and Hunter area, and
more generally throughout New South Wales and Australia. Both of them
had their union careers through the old Federated Ironworkers' Association.
It underwent a number of name changes, identity changes, but never
lost a strong sense of passionate commitment to union principles and
the betterment of the interests of union members and their families.
The old Federated Ironworkers' Association of course has a special
place in trade union history in Australia because it was the location
of one of the most famous battlegrounds in the late 1940s and early
1950s when ideological struggles within the trade union movement and
the broader labour movement in Australia had a different dimension
perhaps than they do today, and have a special resonance for those
who follow and understand the history of the trade union movement
in this country.
I didn't have the privilege of meeting Maurie Finnegan, but I did
have the privilege of meeting Maurie Rudd on a number of occasions.
He was a very dedicated union man. He had a passionate commitment
to the city of Newcastle. He fought against a debilitating illness
that finally claimed his life, to secure a fair and decent outcome
for the men and women affected by the industrial and economic changes
that came upon Newcastle two or three years ago.
I shan't forget visiting him in the John Hunter Hospital not long
before he died, and spending about an hour with him and his two very
fine children. He knew of course that he was facing death very soon
and he hadn't long, as I understood it, lost his wife. And the matter
of fact, cheerful, resolute disposition that he displayed, and the
encouragement and inspiration that he demonstrated by that display
to his son and his daughter had quite an impact on me. He was in every
sense of the word a genuine article, somebody who cared about his
fellow men and women, somebody who was true to his union principles,
true to his labour principles, but undoubtedly somebody who was prepared
to work closely with anybody who shared his common commitment to improving
the lot of the people of Newcastle. So I do regard it as an honour
to have been invited to deliver this lecture in honour of those two
men.
I do it ladies and gentlemen, at a time when if you talk about the
generality of the Australian community, if you look at the things
that measure economic and social performance in Australia, it is fair
to say I think without exaggeration, it is fair to say that generally
speaking the Australian economy at the present time is performing
extremely well.
I've just come back from a visit to Japan and the United States, and
I've visited the financial community of New York on a number of occasions
in the time that I've been in politics. As Prime Minister, once in
1997 and on a number of previous occasions as Treasurer, or as Minister
for Business and Consumer Affairs or as Leader of the Opposition.
And I can say without fear of contradiction that in that most, I suppose,
that city of the most savage financial and economic judgements that
you can find anywhere in the world, I found on this occasion a ready
acceptance of the fact that the Australian economy is as a whole performing
very strongly indeed.
Our growth rates, our low interest rates, our low inflation, our [inaudible]
gains as a nation over the last few years have given to the Australian
economy a resilience and a strength. And the fact that we were able
to successfully stare down the dramatic downturn in the Asian economies
in a way that frankly surprised me, I'll be honest. I thought about
18 months ago what was going to happen was that we were going to say
well we were going pretty well until we were mugged by the Asian economic
downturn. And it didn't turn out that way. We have fared rather better.
And I'm pleased for that, and I think we're all pleased for the sake
of Australia that that has occurred.
Now I do speak against that background, but I readily acknowledge
that although that is the general position, there are a number of
areas of Australia including areas of the Hunter that are not sharing
all of that general prosperity. And it would be a mistake for me,
and it's a mistake I don't intend to make, to pretend that because
at a national general level we're doing particularly well that that
is evenly distributed throughout the community because in the nature
of things it's not. And part of my job, and part of the thing that
has brought me on a number of occasions to Newcastle and will continue
to do so, is the sensitivity I have to the particular problems of
different regions of Australia and the particular challenges here
in the Hunter, and I want to say something about those in just a moment.
But can I say that one of the other general observations I wish to
make apart from the remarks I've made about the Australian economy,
is to say something of the way in which the political and economic
landscape of this country has changed over the last 20 to 30 years.
And in doing so it has mirrored a number of the changes that have
occurred throughout the world during that same period. It's fair to
say that the world, and Australia was no exception, went through a
period in the 1960s and 1970s, which was evident in the United States,
it was evident in Europe and it was evident in Australia, where there
was a belief that if you had a problem then all that had to occur
was that the government, particularly the federal government in a
federation, should throw a large amount of extra money at that problem
and that it would go away.
The Americans during the time of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations
described it as the great society, whereby what you did was that you
pumped large increasing amounts of federal money into particular projects
and that the problems would go away. And I think we saw something
of a retreat from that in the 1980s. We saw a bit of a backlash against
it and we developed a culture in a number of parts of the world and
it was optimised by the memorable but not particularly noble phrase
in the Hollywood movie 'Wall Street', when Gordon Gecko said that
greed was good. And it tended in the eyes of many people who summarised
the attitude of that period when it was thought that rampant and rather
insensitive capitalism was the solution to every problem.
Now I think in the 1990s we have reached something of an new equilibrium.
We're never going back to where we were in the '60s or '70s or '80s.
You never go back. You might have a common thread of attitudes and
values from the past but you always have to adapt to new circumstances.
And one of the things that I've tried to develop in the little more
than three years that the Government has been in office is what I
call a social coalition. The idea of a social coalition is to recognise
one very important fact of life in Australia as we face the next millennium,
and that is that there is no one section of society that can really
on its own solve all of the challenges we have, or achieve all of
the goals we seek.
The government alone cannot solve all of the nation's problems. Governments
working together can't solve all of the government's problems. Governments
are good at some things but they're very bad at other things. Governments
have significant national responsibilities. They have a role in providing
a social security safety net but they're not very good in my view
at running businesses. In fact they're very bad at running businesses
on just about every occasion. On the other hand other sections of
the community are not able to carry all of the burdens and achieve
all of the goals. And what I've sought to do through the notion of
a social coalition is to bring together the government, the business
community, other organisations within the community, be they welfare
organisations, trade unions, and of course the enterprise and commitment
of individual people to tackle problems.
One of the first things I did when I became Prime Minister was to
get together a task force on youth homeless. But instead of the task
force being run by somebody out of a federal government department,
the task force was chaired by Captain David Eldridge, a Salvation
Army officer from Melbourne. And it's produced I think quite a different,
some might say not quite revolutionary, but certainly dramatically
different way of tackling the problem of youth homelessness. Placing
a premium in the first instance on seeing if there could be a reconciliation
achieved between a young person who had left home and that person's
family. And only when those who had cared for the child that had left
home believed that that reconciliation did we then go about seeing
that those people were looked after in the social security system.
What I did on that occasion was to involve at a policy making level,
the welfare organisations of Australia. And I've continued to do that
in relation to such things as the challenge of drug abuse within our
community. And I make no apology for the fact that I draw very heavily
on organisations like the Salvation Army and the society of St Vincent
de Paul, and other organisations of that ilk, in developing policy
for great social challenges and social issues. And I do that because
I believe they have more coalface understanding and experience of
the human misery caused by those social problems than any other group
of people in the Australian community.
In the past the attitude was, well we'll allow them to provide the
care, the Christian charity if you like, but they don't really understand
in their soft-headed way what sought of broad ranging policies are
needed. The reality of course is that people who run welfare organisations
are anything but soft-headed. They know how hard it is to raise money,
and they know the value of the hard-earned dollar, or a difficulty
raised dollar perhaps better than any other group of people in the
community.
But what I seek to achieve in a number of these areas, and it's found
in expression in the call that I've made to the Australian business
community shortly after the last election to be more generous in supporting
noble causes and charitable endeavours. I want to develop a greater
sense of corporate philanthropy within Australia. I'm not saying so
much that business should give more, what I'm saying is that more
businesses should give because there are many individual companies
and many individual business men and women in this country who have
a remarkable record of generosity to less well off and less fortunate
Australians. Our Government has introduced a number of tax incentives
to encourage a greater involvement by the business community in philanthropic
endeavour, and this is another expression of the notion of a social
coalition. Of tapping the capacity of the different strands of society
where they are best able to contribute to make that contribution.
And of course here in the Hunter the taskforce that carries my name
is a good example of the social coalition at work because you have
every conceivable element of that coalition represented on the taskforce.
You have the trade union movement represented, there's a co-chairmanship
of somebody from the trade union movement, somebody from the business
community, you have community leaders, you have representatives of
the churches. In other words you have the very best expression of
a community organisation. And at a micro-Hunter level so to speak,
it is an example of the social coalition at work.
Now I am very aware of the psychological impact on this city of some
of the decisions that were announced several years ago. I'm also aware
of course that the future of this city is increasingly diverse. As
I look around this room and I had a look at the guest list before
I came, it reminded me that old notions of Newcastle are no longer
relevant. It reminded me of the way in which the industrial and service
base of this city has already diversified, of the enormous change
in the hunter region, of the growth of many service industries, not
only in tourism but also in education. And the enormous potential
in relation to defence industries that exist in respect of the various
operations in the Williamtown area.
Now tonight is not an occasion for the listing of banners and the
tabulation and the enumeration of.we've made a decision on this and
that, and don't you remember that we decided to allocate a few million
dollars here and there. But it is an opportunity for me to say that
we do remain very strongly committed to the future of this city. We
won't satisfy you on everything. We expect to continue to be criticised.
That is part of the process and it's part of the ongoing exchange
that occurs between a government and a community. But we have brought
good faith and also some dollars, and I hope in the incentives that
we have provided in a number of areas to which I will refer. We have
also I think made a material contribution to strengthening the job
and economic and industrial opportunities of this city for years into
the future.
I think you're aware of the $10 million structural adjustment package
that we announced in 1997, and we've approved a number of proposals
out of that. And I'm pleased to announce tonight that we have agreed
in principle to provide a $2.5 million sum of money in assistance
on a dollar-for-dollar basis for Impulse Airlines to establish a call
centre to service their current operations and the funding is subject
to meeting certain Commonwealth requirements that we understand from
discussion with the airline that they're optimistic that those conditions
can be met. And that this project will generate some 70 direct jobs
and of course many more indirect jobs and is a good illustration of
the continuing diversification of the Hunter region's employment base.
I mentioned the defence industry and Rob reminded me of my visit to
Newcastle a couple of years ago, and after being in Newcastle I went
out to Williamtown. And of course on my last trip to Newcastle a few
months ago I opened the British Aerospace lead-in fighter support
facility which will inject $60 million into the area and employ 250
people directly. I also announced that five of the new airborne early
warning and control aircraft will be based at Williamtown and involves
an extra 200 RAAF personnel and approximately 80 contractors. Yesterday
my Defence Minister John Moore announced that Boeing is the preferred
tenderer for these aircraft and the project involves new infrastructure
valued at around $50 million.
I understand that the Redbank Power Station is now set to proceed
which involved Commonwealth assistance through the infrastructure
borrowing scheme which will generate investment spending of $600 million,
1200 construction jobs over 2 years, and 250 direct jobs when the
power station is in operation.
Some of you may remember the industry policy statement I made in December
of 1997 and in that policy statement I announced the development of
the manufacturing in bonds approach which was designed specifically
to provide incentives for new investment in areas such as the Hunter,
and specifically in Newcastle. So ladies and gentlemen I mention these
things not to say well aren't we grand blokes and haven't we done
all these wonderful things, but to exemplify and to demonstrate that
our commitment is not just rhetorical. I do understand that the process
of adjustment and change in the community that has had a particular
cast and a particular mold for a long period of time is not easy.
But I detect from the many contacts I have with people in the Hunter
Valley and in Newcastle, I detect that there is a strong sense of
optimism, there's a strong sense of accepting that change is necessary,
that this area has very special qualities, it has a great beauty,
it has the capacity to attract and develop new industries and it's
in the process of doing that. And it has one other priceless asset
and that is that it has a great community sprit, it has a great sense
of identification with Hunter Valley's symbols. I meant he first thing
that Kevin said to me tonight was to start talking about the match
on the weekend between St George and Newcastle, and he informed me
of course that he was going to...no the upcoming match between St
George and Newcastle, and he informed that on Saturday he was going
to be barracking for St George in its match against the Broncos. So
that very very strong identification with symbols is very apparent
and a community which is based on a tradition attached to a particular
city, even though that tradition undergoes change, it leaves a very
strong deposit of a very strong community spirit.
So my message to you tonight ladies and gentlemen as Prime Minister
is that the nation as a whole, and generally speaking the nation is
in very good shape economically. I don't expect everybody in the room
to agree with every single thing that I've said. I would be perfectly
astonished if I found any audience in Australia that I addressed that
would do that. But I do think that over the last year as a result
of what has happened with our economy, as a result of us being able
to stare down that Asian economic downturn, Australians have acquired
a sense of national pride, a sense of confidence, of self belief,
the like of which we haven't had before or certainly for a long period
of time.
In the past [inaudible] have a lot of economic things. We've always
been externally and outwardly a very confident, optimistic people.
But deep down I think there's been a feeling that when it came to
world competition we were going to get cast aside and trampled on
and find it very difficult. And the great value of what has happened
in now being able to stare down the Asian downturn is that I think
we have overcome that. And there is about Australia at the present
time a sense of the can do and the sense that we can take on the world
in certain areas and beat them, and that Australians are as good if
not better in so many areas. Now that has always been true but perhaps
as a community we needed a demonstration. And the fact to our surprise
perhaps that it is certainly a reality that we've been able to work
and live through the Asian economic downturn, to diversify our exports
to North America and Europe, that all of those things have given to
us a sense of confidence and a self belief.
But amidst that I recognise that the general can't be applied to every
particular part of the national being. There are areas of Australia
that continue to deserve particular understanding and special sensitivity,
not only the Hunter Valley but a number of the regional and rural
areas of Australia, that find the impact of economic globalisation
very difficult to assimilate and very difficult to handle. And all
governments have to be sensitive towards that. But so indeed do the
affected communities.
I was relating a moment ago to those on my table the experience that
we've had in recent months with the pork industry. You may remember
around the time of the last election there were quite a number of
people involved in the pork industry that were demonstrating very
strongly, not only against us. They were demonstrating against everybody
because they felt very understandably that they were being poorly
treated, they were losing markets. That wasn't as a result of any
particular decision that the government had taken, but simply as a
result of changed market circumstances. In the face of a lot of criticism
and opposition from the industry the Government withstood requests
for handouts and subsidies, but rather fought to provide financial
assistance so that the industry could get into export and incredibly
enough that has worked. You now have a situation where sections of
the pork industry cannot fill the orders which are coming from countries,
particularly in the Asian-Pacific region.
Now that's not true of every pork producer, it's not true of every
industry facing that kind of challenge. But it's an example of the
sort of thing that can be achieved if there's and acceptance by both
the government and by people in the community or people in the industry,
that constructive cooperative change is unavoidable, and that if governments
are prepared to work together with industries in a constructive way,
recognising that you can't go back when market circumstances have
changed.
I mentioned lamb and I'll finish on lamb. We announced today, Mark
Vaile the new Trade Minister announced today that we'll be providing
some financial assistance to the lamb industry and assistance to encourage
and help the industry increase not only its domestic market but also
its export market. The Americans have taken a very selfish and a very
unfair decision. Australian lamb producers get no subsidies from the
government. The American lamb industry is extremely inefficient and
not only has the American government imposed a 30% tariff which effectively
freezes the existing market at 78,000 pounds, but it's also imposed
a 9% in quota tariff which is the unkindest cut of all. We're providing
some assistance which will offset the cost of that so that with luck
we may be able to help the Australian lamb exporters preserve their
existing market in the United States, although their prospects of
increasing it which would otherwise have occurred because of the superior
quality of the product, their prospects of increasing it are virtually
zero. But we are going to provide the industry with some advice and
some assistance to diversify, to improve the promotion of the product
not only here but also in other parts of the world.
But ladies and gentlemen, another example of recognising the need
to change, that on some occasions you can't go back. But if there's
a right revel of cooperation between the government and an industry
and the community you can effectively move forward.
May I conclude ladies and gentlemen by saying again to the Industrial
Relations Society that I am very honoured to be here. I do have something
of an affection for Newcastle. My wife's family come from this district.
As you know we've holidayed in this general area over a long period
of time and we do have a very special affection. It's a city with
a tremendous sprit. I don't always agree with the way it votes but
that's life. It takes all kinds, and I respect it in the great tradition
of the robust Australian democracy. And one of the things that has
happened to Australian politics I think over the last few years that
it has become less tribal. We still have our differences and that's
good because it would be terribly dreary if we all agreed on everything,
and vigorous debate is the stuff of which good policy is made. And
that applies no matter who's in power and it applies no matter what
the country is.
But I think we have become a little less tribal. We are seeing more
of the national interest on some issues. I think there's a greater
recognition that something I've always held very dear about public
life in this country and that is that