CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
ACT ALP FUNDRAISING DINNER
CANBERRA 17 FEBRUARY 1989
Ros Kelly,
Rosemary Follett,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
During the few weeks of this election campaign, we are
participating in an historic event in the political histor~ y
of Australia.
With the elections for the first ACT Legislative Assembly,
we will see the final act in the great drama of Australian
democracy which began with the evolution of the colonies in
the last century.
Canberra will have joined the ranks of the other States and
Territories as truly self-governing entities of the
Commonwealth of Australia.
It will have come of age.
And the residents of Canberra will have joined their fellow
Australians in the States, the Northern Territory and
Norfolk Island as citizens effectively exercising control
over their own political future people with the power and
the institutions to carry on their own shoulders the
responsibility of government.
Nowhere else in Australia indeed, it would be hard to find
anywhere else in the democratic world is there a place
like Canberra, large in population and sophisticated in
social and economic development but denied the basic
political right of self-government.
Now, with these elections, that anomaly is put right.
one could hardly say that this move is premature.
Canberra last year celebrated its 75th birthday.
All the states of Australia achieved responsible government
as colonies in the last century in less than 75 years in
the cases of Victoria and South Australia, in less than one
third that time.
And some of the then colonies achieved responsible
government with populations considerably smaller than
Canberra's current population.
So when the Federal Government decided that the Australian
Capital Territory should achieve self-government, we did so
with a belief that it was now time for Canberra to take its
rightful place in the affairs of the nation.
The Commonwealth has given the ACT a binding commitment to
maintain its budget at the same real level for three years.
Beyond that there will be another two years during which
transitional arrangements will apply while the ACT moves in
line with the normal financial relationship that exists
between the Commonwealth and the States and local
government.
0 At that point in 1993 the ACT will be standing on its
own financial feet.
We are handing on to the new ACT Administration a budget in
very sound shape for the future. With our three-year
guarantee a responsible Administration will have no
difficulty in bringing down a budget at least in balance.
From all this, two obvious but nevertheless overwhelmingly
important implications can be drawn.
First, the decision that Canberra should take charge of its
own affairs is irreversible.
We will not we must not pretend that Canberra can crawl
back into the womb; that it can somehow turn back the clock
by shirking the responsibilities of self-government.
That would make a mockery of Canberra's stature in the
Onation. And turning our back on self-government in the late
twentieth century would in a real sense make a mockery of
Australia's two hundred year history of steady progress
towards independence, self-reliance and democracy.
So whatever the nay-sayers may pretend, whatever those
unrepresentative candidates opposing self-government may
wish, there will be no turning back.
It is high time Canberra stood as a full member of the
Commonwealth. The second important implication of what I have said so far
is this: when Canberra does assume self-government, it will
need a government capable of governing.
Canberra will need an administration capable of the heavy
task of leadership.
It will require a Legislative Assembly and a leadership team
capable of resolving fairly the issues posed by Canberra's
dual role as National Capital and as home for more than a
quarter of a million Australian people.
It will need an experienced, competent, reliable Chief
Minister who will be capable of administering a $ 1.5 billion
budget, and capable too of mixing it with the other State
and Territory leaders at Premiers' Conferences and so
ensuring that Canberra's claims to Federal funding are
presented fully and forcefully.
I have presided over enough Premiers' Conferences to assure
you with complete confidence that neither Paul Keating nor
myself take kindly to States' or Territories' claims that
are presented with less than complete honesty, diligence or
accuracy. So given all this, I can state categorically tonight that
the only group of candidates in the forthcoming elections
capable of meeting these challenges, equipped to take
Canberra into the exciting opportunities of self-government,
is the team of candidates under the banner of the Australian
Labor Party.
The Australian Labor Party team led by Rosemary Follett,
offers the best blend of experience, commonsense and
awareness of community concerns.
They are committed to defending the real interests of
Canberra, as it is now and as it will grow and develop in
the future.
The ALP has prepared the only comprehensive platform of
policies for Government.
It is more complete of course than the rag-tag collection of
ideas and prejudices assembled by the short-sighted
single-issue candidates and groups.
And it is more complete too than the inadequate patchwork of
self-interested policies presented by our major conservative
opponents. Ladies and gentlemen,
It is with pride and certainty that I make this appeal for
the local ALP candidates.
I do this not just on partisan grounds as a Labor leader.
I do it too on national grounds as Prime Minister who must
be concerned about the welfare of all Australians.
I do it because I have seen at the Federal level and at the
State level the affairs of Government being either managed
with confidence and competence by Labor Parties, or
mismanaged by our divided and ineffective conservative
opponents.
Let me describe the decision facing Canberra in this way.
During the last Federal election campaign in 1987, I asked
the people of Australia two questions central to the future
of Australia.
I asked them:
who could provide Australia with the responsible
economic management it needed; and
who could provide Australia with the united and credible
leadership it deserved.
Today, I repeat those questions to the people of Canberra.
Which party can provide Canberra with the responsible
economic leadership it needs as it enters the mainstream of
Federal-State relations?
And which party can provide Canberra with the united and
credible leadership it deserves as it starts out on the
challenges of self-government?
The answer can only be: the Australian Labor Party.
That was the verdict of the Australian people in 1987; it
was the verdict of the Victorian people in 1988, and it was
the verdict of the West Australians in 1989.
It must be the verdict in Canberra on 4 March.
Because as Canberra enters the 1990s, it is central to its
future well-being that it be able to work closely and
constructively with the Federal Labor Government.
And as Canberra continues to grow in complexity as a city
providing an unparalleled quality of life to its residents,
it is vital that its Government be guided by the commitment
to social justice that is the distinguishing hallmark of the
Australian Labor Party.
As a Territory directly administered by the Federal
Government, Canberra has directly shared in the fruits of
Federal Labor's commitment to social justice.
Let me briefly enumerate those Federal achievements.
Australia under Labor has seen the creation of more than one
and a quarter million new jobs about as many new people in
work as would live in five Canberras.
That is a rate of jobs growth twice as fast as the average
in the Western world.
At the same time, the unemployment rate has fallen from
per cent when we came to office to 7 per cent now.
Three times the number of child care places are being
created under Labor than were in existence in 1983.
Well over half of all children are staying on to complete
secondary school, compared to the 36 per cent who were doing
so when we came to office.
Forty thousand more university places are being made
available. Unprecedented assistance is being given to families in need
through the Family Allowance Supplement.
The extent of superannuation cover is being doubled to
encompass 80 per cent of the Australian workforce.
Aged pensions have been increased by 7.7 per cent in real
terms compared to the 2.5 per cent drop under the previous
Federal Government.
Historic tax reforms have been achieved, making a system of
revenue raising that is fairer and more efficient than ever
before.
And on July i, further tax cuts will be made, targeted
primarily at lower and middle income earners.
In all these ways, we have great and undeniable cause to be
proud of our achievements in ensuring that the national
economy is sounder, and that those who are the least
well-off members of our community are adequately protected.
That is a record which, in its new capacity as a
self-governing territory, Canberra will have the capacity to
support and enhance or under a conservative government
to diminish and erode.
Canberra simply cannot afford to jeopardise its future by
experimenting with conservative priorities or by
pretending, as the minor parties do that, the choice can
somehow be shirked.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Canberra is irreversibly a part of Australia.
It cannot stand alone, outside the mainstream.
It must now start to bear its due share of the challenges of
national life.
And it must also be allowed to reap the fruits, as a fully
self-governing member of the Australian Commonwealth, of
what will be the brighter economic future to which we are
working.