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PRIME MINISTER
EM1BAR~ GOED UNTIL DELIVERY CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
ELECTION CAM2PAIGN POLICY LAUNCH
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE 23 JUNE 1987
Fellow Auo3tralians,
Never in peaice-time has Australia's future depended so much
on a Singh~ decision your decision on the 11th of July.
Never have you, the Australian people, been called upon to
make a iuogao fundaumental decision for yourselves, your
families your children about the way you want your
country to go about what kind of a country you want
Australia to be.
It is a decision about what kind of a people wie are.
it is a decision about what hind of a nation we are going to
be. Are we to continue to unite together in the great task of
national 8: caewal, reconstruction and revitalisation, for
which we have been working so hard together, and on which
the succesG ok our country depends?
Are we to go forward with strength and stability stability
in governmzont, otability in our society?
Or are we to take the other course, the path of our
opponent-,-inflicting upon the nation itself all their own
divisions, all their own disunity, all their own
instability?
on behalf of the Australian Labor Party I ask for a
resounding decision, a decision that will show the world
just what kind of a people we are
a strong, united, stable, confident, forward-looking
people responding to the leadership of a strong, united,
stable, confident, forward-looking government.
We come before you as one, united team.
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we come before you with one pledge that as one, united
team, we will continue and intensify our undivided efforts
in the task of national renewal and revitalisation of our
economy, our industry, our society.
Follow Auctralians,
This eloction is about our faith in Australia's future. it
is about our faith in ourselves.
And it is about our belief and faith my faith, our
government's faith in the character and calibre of the
Australian people. And it is a belief and faith based firmly
upon experience.
Four and a half years ago I pledged a Labor-government to
seek national reconciliation instead of confrontation and
division -to create 500,000 new jobG In three years.
our opponents said it couldn't be done. That was their
judgement about the Australian people.
But together we did much better. we easily exceeded our
target. In four ycars, we have created 800,000 new jobs and in the
past six Lnonthe alone 100,000 new jobs.
Two and z half years ago we called for a continuation of the
economic restraint so necessary for the reconstruction of
our econoniy and industry, which is the key to our future.
Our opponents mocked the concept of co-operation and
restraint. They wanted as they still want a return to
confrontation in industry. That was their judgement on the
working men and women of Australia and the business
community of Australia.
But, building on the basis of restraint and responsibility,
we have saved the steel industry, transformed the motor
vehicle industry, set about the reconstruction of
Australia's entire manufacturing and services base.
Exactly one year ago I put to the people of Australia the
greateat challenge of all,
I told you of the disastrous drop in the prices of our
exports a collapse in world trade that has now cost every
Australian family $ 2,000.
I said then that this meant a year of the toughest decisions
imposed in peace-time.
our opponents said that the Australian people would never
cop it.
They said the Australian people would never understand why
the loss of $ 9 billion in our national incomle meant that we
all had to adjust that it was not just for the farmers and
the other es~ porters to carry the loss -we all had to
shoulder the burden.
We said we w~ ould not shirk the hard decisions needed to
ensure a brcight future for us in this generation and for our
children in theiro.
I told you I would rather risk electoral defeat than tako
the soft options that would mean we mortgage our great
future.
And it is because wa backed our judgement of the Australian
people tooc the tough decisions, made the hard choices.-
that we can now stand before you, confident and proud of
what we have achieved together, but more important,
confident and proud of the great things we can achieve
together, for our families, our children, for our country,
in the yearre ahead.
Yet our opponents, who are incapable of governing
themselves, now seek to govern Australia on a grab-bag of.
contradictoryj proposals drummed up on the run proposals
which could only have one result: They would wreck utterly
the efforto we, the Australian people, have made together
over the last four years and in particular over the past
year. They have not only got their sums wrong.
They have got Australians wrong.
Friends, The real danger from our political opponents is this:
All that has been achieved by your restraint and
responsibility would be wasted. The benefits you have
foregone and the sacrifices you have been called upon to
make would have boen in vain.
It is only because we have made the tough decisions, and put
them in place in the last Budget, the May Statement, and two
successive Premiers, Conferences, that we can now give these
undertakings: Interest rates are again falling and under Labor will
continue to gall.
Inflation is again falling and under Labor will continue to
fall. Employment iG growing at twice the rate of the rest of the
western world under a government which has created 800,000
new jobs in four years; and under Labor, employment will
continue to grow.
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In the comp. leted Buge inSpebrteewl enbe
taaxne notaxincreases.
Buet sallnever jeopardise Australia's future by
irreponsblepromises. Il
We akeour future undertakings on the firm basis of the
achievable, the credible, the responsible.
And let me emphasise:
Everything in our program is affordable, achievable and
economically responsible.
This Labor Government has achieved the most significant
reform of the taxation system since Federation.
And the fundamental reason why our our opponents could never
achieve any tax reform in all their years in office is that
they never had the courage to act against tax avoidance.
And they let it become Australia's biggest growth industryand
that's the description given by their own Royal
Commissioner.
We have smashed the tax avoidance industry.
We have cut out wasteful privileges and windfalls for the
few. That is why we are able further to reduce income tax.
Following the first round of tax cuts in December, new tax
scales will operate from 1 July, 1987. They will bring the
top marginal rate down from the Liberal legacy of 60 per
cent to 49 aer cent.
And the rate for taxpayers on average earnings will have
been brought down from 46 per cent to 40 per cent.
And it is because of our tax reforms that we are able to
undertake that the September Budget will continue the full
indexation of pensions.
This is what a Labor Government means for the next three
years: genuine reductions in taxation, lower inflation,
lower interest rates, higher pensions, more jobs.
Yet our opponents invite you to throw all this away, for a
tax bribe nobody believes in least of all, its discredited
authors and something which, if ever seriously attempted,
would destroy the economy and rip apart the social fabric
the basis of the Australian ideal of a fair go for all.
They invite you to turn your backs on the meaning of
everything we have been able to achieve together over the
past four years.
They invite you to turn your backs on the real meaning of
Australia's future
a t a future founded on the great ideals of fairness and
justice in our society a fair go for all.
Indeed, my friends, it is almost impossible to judge which
is the more dangerous
their economic vandalism,
or the tyholesale vandalism they propose against tho
social framework of this nation.
They have long been the parties of social division.
Now they stand as the parties of social devastation.
The whole basis of our call to the Australian people at the
election in 1983 and again in 1984 was an appeal to this
great truth about the Australian community the truth that
the legitinate aspirations of the diverse groups and
interests which go to make up the nation can best be
achieved, not by fighting each other, not by setting group
against group, Australians against Australians, but by
working together, recognising and respecting each other's
rights, fa. r expectations and fair hopes and aspirations.
That was the basic on which we sought a mandate and that was
the basis on which the mandate has been twice given.
And it io on that basis the people's response the
recognition of this great truth about Australia that we
have been able to fight back together against the huge
difficulties imposed upon us by events abroad.
The toughness with fairness we have applied to the affairs
of this nation and the response of the Australian people now
enable us to sot ne goals realistic, responsible
achievable goals for Australia's future.
We seek to create an Australia where there are no second
class citizens.
And we will achieve that only by refusing to accept as a
Government, cs a society, as a people second rate
policies. In this highly competitive world we cannot settle for the
second rate in industry, in technology, in education.
We must continue now as a matter of urgency the work of
modernising and revitalising our economy and industry, so
that we can competo with the world on the world's terms.
That is the only way we can restore and improve living
standards for all.