Labor party policy speech 1977  The following is the ... of the policy speech ... yesterday by the Leader of the  Labor Party, Mr. Whitlam, .... He delivered a shortened version at the Opera House. The task before us is to get Australia back to work, to give our young people, our unemployed, our small business people, our migrants a new hope, hope for decent jobs, hope in their future and the future of their country. The deepening economic crisis, the ... created unemployment call for .... I shall be putting forward proposals to ... through, once said for all, the ... which ... unemployment and inflation. We reject the ... and despair which says to Australia’s young people that their lives ... be ruined if inflation is to be .... Our proposals will call for Australia’s resources of cooperation, good faith, ... and responsibility- cooperation from the States, good faith from business and maturity and ... on the part of the people of Australia. Given those things, we can get Australia working again. The task before us is to restore Parliament as an ... for program and reform. The task before us is to unite Australia and the Australian people. The task before us is to end rule by division, by confrontation; the setting of ... against ..., section against section, region against region; to end the rule of the great divider. He has broken promise after promise to the Australian people. He is breaking up his own party. He must not be allowed to break up our nation. The reason for this ... election is ...: the economic ... even further next year unless policies are changed. And there can be no change of policies unless there is a change of government, a change to a Labor Government. Ask ... this: if they ... anything they ... about Australia’s ..., why are they having an election now? Our first task is to get Australia working again. Under existing policies and because of these policies, half this year’s 200000 school-leavers will not be able to find jobs. Thousands of others are being forces to take jobs below their training and qualifications. This is the best educated generation Australia has produced, the first traits of the transformation of Australian schools after 1972. This generation must not be thrown on the economic and social scrap heap. We pledge ourselves to ... the ... tread to higher unemployment. And we shall end the use of unemployment as a weapon in the war of industrial confrontation. The Fraser Government and the ... government prolonged the Victorian power disputes. The last thing they, the men who promised to turn on the lights, wanted was light to be turned on Australia’s record and deepening unemployment, or light on the Liberals land scandals! Who turned the lights on in Victoria? Not Fraser, not ...; it was Bob Hawke, committed to industrial order and justice by negotiation and arbitration, committed against industrial ... through confrontation. And that is the commitment I make again for the whole Australian Labor movement. Since April 1975, the level of industrial disputes has been falling. It has fallen to its lowest levels for a decade because employers have overwhelmingly ... by the wage indexation guidelines, established by the last Labor Government, undermined by this government- yet another broken promise. Our wage indexation promoted industrial peace. We will restore integrity to the wage indexation guidelines. Equally, the success of wage indexation was the only way the inflationary effects of the disastrous devaluation of November 1976 have been partly contained. Inflation in the year to September was 1 per cent higher than in 1975. Only the legacy of Labor’s wage indexation has stopped the Fraser-style inflation even being higher.  Uranium. Unemployment is being used to divide our country. Industrial laws are being used to divide our country. And so is the great question of the future of Australia’s uranium being used- deliberately, deceitfully, needlessly- to divide our country. The plain fact is there is no need for Australia to take an irrevocable decision in 1977- a decision to lock Australia into the ... economy and the most ... industry in human history. There is just no need to make a final decision before there are safe methods of disposing of nuclear waste which stays ... for a quarter of a million years. There is just no need to make a final decision before there are adequate safeguards against the spread of weapons for nuclear war. And there is just no need for an irrevocable commitment for years to come. There is no moral justification for it. Even on the most cynical level, there is no economic justification for it.  Unemployment. The Fraser/ Lynch policies have ... the Australian economy in to over-deepening depression. Because of these policies, unemployment will reach 7 to 8 per cent of the workforce early next year. Unchecked, it will ... the half-million ...- an ... under any pervious government, Liberal or Labor, since the war. The last Labor government held office during the world’s deepest economic ... since World War II. Yet in those years, Australia was ... to achieve growth even when the rest of our partners experienced falling production. Now, industrial production has been falling every month this year. Economic activity is ... than at any time since 1972. Every important indicator- production, retail ..., the ... of small business, building ..., ... vehicle registrations- point to an economy ... to its ....  Inflation. Yet, despite the ... economic and social cost- jobs lost, careers ..., young people ..., families disrupted, the waste in lost production, small business ruined, the human waste- the fight against inflation has not been won. Let this simple fact be grasped and never forgotten by the people of Australia: in the year to September 1975, Australia’s inflation rate was 12,1 per cent; in the year to September 1977 it was 13,1 per cent. And, unlike Australia’s economic performance two years ago, our position has now ... in comparison with our trading partners, the other developed countries and most ... countries, the ... of the OBCD. That is why Australia, under Fraser and Lynch, ... a balance of payment problem and has a weakened dollar.  Priorities. This ..., the urgent ... is to get Australia back to work again. For the ... every resource of the Labor Government, in resources of ..., its resources of experience and, above all, in resources of ... and concern for plain Australians, will be turned ... towards this first fundamental task. Any policy which places the whole burden of the fight against inflation on the ... and on the youngest in the community is no policy at all. Yet this is what the Fraser/ Lynch policies are all about. There is now a complete difference between Australia’s economic difficulties two years ago and the new economic crisis. It is now a crisis made in Australia, by the present Australia Government. Therefore, its solution calls for Australian solutions, by a new Australian Government, a Labor Government. From the beginning of this campaign, let me be quite precise about our program for recovery. The only additional spending we propose before the 1978 budget is for the direct creation of jobs overwhelmingly in the private sector. And the ... is precise: additional spending of $800 million. The ... cost will be $500 million- as more and more Australians go off the ... and ... the .... It ... a 1,5 per cent ... in Australia’s money supply. Let there be no misrepresentation on this .... Australia’s economic ... depends on the private sector which provides jobs for three-... of the ....  Payroll tax. We will seek to end the tax on jobs- the payroll tax. It discourages employers from engaging more staff. It raises the cost to employers of ... ... by an average of $10 a week. It stops people getting jobs. It increases prices. We therefore propose to ask the ... to agree to force the collection of payroll tax. In return we would give the ... ... general purpose grant equal to the ... they .... We would than, in order to make up the ..., ask thee Australian taxpayers to trade-off the changes in personal taxation proposed in the last Lynch budget in return for this job-creating, inflation-... , .... Our proposal would directly and immediately relieve the private sector of ... of its greatest burden, give a ... to jobs and ... .... The Lynch proposals represent the most ... of wealth, away from lower and middle income earners- the vast majority of Australian taxpayers, who earn less than $...- in favour of the highest income earners, over ... in Australia. They were proposals that would give a person ... income $40 a week, but the average Australian wage earner only $3 a week. We ask the overwhelming majority of Australians to forge nothing. For the ... of our proposal on ... the ... employment and reducing prices, will, in real, direct and lasting ways more than ... for the ... in the last Lynch Budget. What we ask of the Australian taxpayer is not an act of sacrifice but an act of maturity. And, for its full ..., it ... an act of national compensation. Freed of the burden of the payrolls tax, with the added labour costs, employers would have the incentive not only to employ more labour, but to hold prices down.  Unemployment subsidy. We propose a further new initiative to make an immediate impact on unemployment. The next Labor Government will introduce an employment subsidy scheme. Not additions to employment after the ... payday in November will be subsidised at the rate of $... a week. The subsidy will be paid from the beginning of 1978 for six months. It is a proposal to pay employers for providing jobs and to relieve the taxpayers of the burden of paying the jobless. The scheme ... that all enterprises will be encouraged to increase their employment, because ... $50 a week to the cost of engaging additional people will be paid by the Government. The cost to Government ... the taxpayer will be .... Most of those newly recruited to the workforce would otherwise ... .... The scheme is simple. I shall give an example. If an enterprise has 100 employees on the last pay day in November and 110 employees at the end of January, it will be eligible to receive the subsidy for 10 people for the month of gunnery. As long as the employment does not fall during the six months to the end of June, the enterprise will continue to receive the subsidy. If ... employment increasing in February and March its subsidy will increase. Payment of the subsidy will ... at the level at the end of March until June, unless its employment falls.  Job creation and training. Further, Labor will implement the program ... in August, increasing spending on capital works, expanding ... and job training and offering funds for local employment advancement programs. In august, ... the Budget, Bill Hayden and I presented the ALP proposal to get Australia working again. Yet the Budget ... the economy even further along the downward. Our proposal is needed now more than ever. It will cost a ... $500 million. To revive Australia’s construction industries, part of this amount will be directed to urgently needed improvements to increase the safety and efficiency of public transport and the rod system, for urgently needed housing, on ... facilities and ... in underprivileged areas, for the ... and additional water projects ... or ... by the Fraser Government. Labor will immediately increase support for ... and other training and make special provision for increasing ... for ... and authorities. With cooperation and planning between Federal, State and local authorities, high labour ... levels can be achieved on projects of ... benefit to the community without any lost of efficiency. Whit a ... in favour of regions worst hit by employment, local initiative programs will produce both ... and opportunities for longer-term employment. A quarter of the ... spending under our proposal to get Australia working again will be allocated to local employment advancement programs next year.  Economic development. We will establish a Department of Economic Development to develop a over-all economic strategy to achieve Australia’s national economic goals. It will be lead by the architect of the recovery of 1975- the recovery which was underway until it was stopped dead in its tracks in 1976- Bill Hayden.  Exports. The last Labor Government was concerned about the future of manufacturing industry. So I appointed the leading ..., Mr Gordon Jackson, to lead an inquiry. The principal recommendation of that committee was that manufacturing needs to export to grow. In the last full year of office, the Labor Government provided export ... grants and tax ... totaling ... million. The present Government had budget for $32 million for export incentives and grants this financial year. A Labor Government will provide assistance to industry for structural change. We will act on the major recommendations of the Jackson Committee. Labor will adopt an ... strategy for manufacturing industry. Let us get Australian industry working. The next Labor Government will provide additional assistance during the next year to help firms locale markets, 2 distribution and provide incentives for improved export performance.  Migrants. Migrants have been hit worse than any other section of the Australian community by the Fraser Government’s deliberate creation of unemployment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics puts the number of unemployed migrants, last month, at 1000000- a rise of 40 per cent in a single year. The bureau says that for every two Australians who lost their jobs in the past 12 months, three migrants lost theirs. Labor’s job restoration program will immediately benefit most ... industries on which most migrants depend for their jobs. Our retraining programs will give special emphasis to the needs of migrants, particularly of migrant woman, with their added burden of ..., loneliness and isolation. We shall adopt the two ..., which the Fraser Government ... last February and ..., that ... and ... services be made available in government offices, especially the Commonwealth Employment Service. The next Labor Government will: continue the work it begins in 1973 towards eliminating all forms of discrimination against migrants; open migrant education ... in all ... and ... provided .... The last Labor Government ... offices in Adelaide, Sydney, Perth end Brisbane. ... the Education Commissions as a matter of priority, to make positive recommendations on the recognition of overseas post-secondary qualifications and the provision of post-secondary education for migrants. Provide ethnic radio stations and ethnic television channels in the capitals, initially Sydney and Melbourne, to ... existing ethnic and community radio ... by the last Labor Government, and reduce the residential qualification for citizenship from three years to two years. These are an estimated 50000 illegal migrants in Australia. Labor will grant these amnesty and, unlike the Fraser Government, honour it completely.  Children’s service. The nation’s most precious resource is its children. There are hundreds of thousands of Australian children with special problems and needs which ... not being met, adequately ... all, by existing government or volunteer services. Many families, because of inflation, poverty, illness, special handicaps are unable to provide the proper environment for their children. Further, the majority of Australian children are inadequately served by existing TV programs, library services, community facilities and recreation .... We therefore propose to establish a Department of Children’s Services to develop special programs, to encourage the ... and existing resources and to ... community projects designed to improve and enrich the environment for our children.  Education. The last Labor Government transformed the outlook for education in Australia. For the first time, Australia achieved a continuing national commitment to schools, all schools, Government and non-Government alike. All that has now been placed in jeopardy by the prejudices and the ... of the present Prime Minister. More important even than adequate national funding to implement the ... of the Schools Commission is the independence of the commission itself. The Fraser Government is undermining the independence of the commission. It is undermining the needs principle which is the basis of creating equality between the systems and within the systems. It has coerced the Schools Commission into reallocating funds to a handful of the very top private schools at the expense of needy Government and non-Government schools. The next Labor Government will restore the independence of the Schools Commission. We will preserve free tertiary and technical education- a principle bitterly opposed by the present Prime Minister as Minister for Education in the earlier Liberal Government. In the years ahead, it will become increasingly important to ... a balance between the numbers of students in technical ... and the number of trained teachers. A Labor Government will ... recommendations of the ... Committee on Education and Training, due to report ... in 1978, to set clear ... for the future of technical education in Australia.  Social security. The next Parliament must ... planning for this fundamental change in the balance of our society and must begin ... of a national superannuation plan. In the next three Budgets we will maintain the principle established in the last three Labor Budgets- to protect pensions against inflation and to ensure that pensioners share ... national prosperity. We ended the humiliation whereby pensions were varied according to the economic or political pressures existing at each Budget time. By making twice-yearly adjustments, tied to the value of average weekly earnings, we ensured that all pensioners would share in any improvement in the general standard of living. Social security dependants’ allowances will be indexed against inflation. We will end the discrimination against lone fathers and make the lone parent benefit equally accessible to all lone parents.  Australian assistance scheme. We will re-establish the Australian Assistance Plan, the pioneering initiative which enabled local authorities and voluntary agencies to take part in suggesting and administering a wide range of projects based on special community and regional needs.  Medibank. Of all the promises broken by the Fraser Government, none has been so blatant as the present Prime Minister’s pledge to maintain Medibank. The changes to Medibank, introduced in October 1976 have disadvantaged most Australians. In its full year of operation, Medibank cost $50 million to provide full cover for every person living in Australia. It now costs $54 million to provide cover for one-third of Australians. We will not however, merely reverse all these changes since we do not wish to disadvantage the few who benefited or cause renewed confusion by further changes. Our basic aim will continue to be to provide the best possible health care irrespective of people’s ability to pay. We are committed to the restoration of Medibank. It has, however, been so mauled by the men who promised to maintain Medibank that the task of restoration will be long and difficult.  Rehabilitation. The Labor policy accepts the unanimous view expressed by the National Advisory Council for the Handicapped last June that it is imperative for the Federal Government to retain and expand its direct involvement in the provision of services to the handicapped.  U.R.D.. The urban and regional programs of the next Labor Government, again under Tom Urea, will be placed firmly in the context of economic priorities- above all, the priority of job creation. The abandonment of the national sewerage program, with all the jobs and private contracts it provided, is a typical example of the damage done to the quality of Australian life and the health of the private sector itself by the Fraser Government’s doctrinaire hostility to the public sector. We will once more give its proper place in national priorities to the Department of Urban and Regional Development which piloted the creation of the growth centres at Albury-Wodonga- Australia’s first major new inland centre since Canberra- Bathurst Orange and Macarthur. We will honour the growth centre agreements we entered into with the States, agreements dishonoured by the Fraser Government.  Housing. As part of its special $500 million net job program, Labor, will move to reduce the growing backlog of projects awaiting funding under the Aged Persons Hostels Act and the Aged and Disabled Persons Home Act. We will renegotiate the Housing Agreement with the States to provide funds to begin to meet the housing needs of the 100000 families on the waiting lists of the Housing Commissions. We will re-establish the Australian Housing Corporation. As national priorities and economic conditions allow, we shall restore our original scheme for the tax deductibility of mortgage interest, which Mr. Fraser promised two years ago would continue. A Labor Government will make grants to the Land Commissions in each State to buy substantial tracts of land for housing blocks to enable them to be subdivided, services and sold at cost. We shall bring into operation Part IV of the Financial Corporations Act 1974 which was intended to safeguard deposits with permanent building societies and to encourage advances by them.  Local government. The next Labor government will continue to seek reforms in the working of Australia’s Federal system. The first requirement is that the national Government should accept its proper national responsibilities and cease goading and grinding the States into having to impose double income tax. We shall seek an amendment of the Constitution to permit the federal government to take over local government debts 50 years ago. Meanwhile, we shall ensure that local government receives sufficient finance to maintain essential community services and to restrain rate increases. This finance will be provided both on a needs basis and on a basis that takes into account the respective population densities of local government bodies. Not less than 30 per cent of the total amount allocated under the Local Government (Personal Income Tax Sharing) Act will continue to be provided on a per capita basis. In addition, Labor will restore the direct access of local government to the Grants Commission.  Resources. The Commission will consult and co-operate with the State Grants Commissions which have now been established. These measures will ensure that local government’s status as a genuine partner in our federation is restored. Without it, local government will continue to be subject to the dictates and whims of state governments. The restored Australian Assistance Plan will operate through local government. If we are to concentrate upon and maximise our strength, we must plan for a proper balance between the great sectors of the economy- rural, mining, manufacturing and services. Many current problems in primary industry stem from the way in which former coalition governments encouraged Australian farmers to produce goods for which markets were fundamentally insecure, in the belief that Britain could be indefinitely deterred from joining the European Economic Community. This was irresponsible- even cruel. Labor has shown that only a Labor Government can secure harmonious trade relations with Europe, Japan, North America and ASEAN. Labor established, for the first time, the principle of Australian ownership and control of Australia’s resources. The next Labor Government will encourage the growth and expansion of the Australian capital market so that Australian companies can mobilise the capital required to take part in new resources ventures. We shall promptly establish an inquiry to examine the options and make proposals. We shall guarantee an minimum of 50 per cent Australian equity in new resource development projects and 75 per cent Australian equity at the development stage of existing resources discoveries. Mining and petroleum companies with access to Australia’s resources sometimes make enormous profits as a result of rich deposits or high world prices. Since the resources they are extracting belong to the Australian community, such excess profits should be taxed so that the benefit can be shared by everyone. Labor will introduce a secondary profits tax on excess profits. The secondary profits tax will only apply to companies which make excess profits. Normal profits will be untouched. The costly investment allowance has failed as a measure to achieve economic recovery. It will be phased out. Enterprises already eligible for the allowance because of commitments already made will continue to receive the tax deduction to which they are entitled.  Environment. The next Labor Government will insist that all new mining projects satisfy the requirements of the Environment Protection (Impact Of Proposals) Act 1974. We shall proceed with the Environment Protection (Marine) Bill, which was awaiting the High Court judgement on the Seas and Submerged Lands Act- a judgment reserved on April 16, 1975, and delivered on December 17, 1975. The Labor Government will not permit the killing of the whales assigned as Australia’s quota by the International Whaling Commission and we will use all our influence to end the indiscriminate slaughter of whales by Japan and the Soviet Union.  Energy. The next Labor Government will establish a National Energy Conservations Program in co-operation with the States. The National Fuel and Oil Commission will be responsible for the development of the program with emphasis on Australia’s future transport needs, the development of solar heating, the proper use of Australia’s vast coal deposits for both home use and export and their conversion into oil and the future of natural gas. The next Labor Government will give wholehearted support to the development of the North-West Shelt gas field to ensure that adequate supplies will be made available to Australian homes And industry by the end of the next decade. The next Labor Government will act on the reports of the Royal Commission on Petroleum appointed by the last Fraser Government. Petrol prices in the Northern Territory , where Federal laws apply to sale and distribution, are the highest in Australia. We shall pay a subsidy to ensure that nowhere in the Territory is the cost of petrol more than 2 cents a litre above the cost in Darwin, at present 20-and-a- half cents. We shall make a grant of the half cost of setting the same maximum in any State where the State Government co-operates with the Federal Government in ensuring the economic sale and distribution of petrol and in paying the other half of the cost.  Railways. Great economies in operation and great savings to State Budgets would be achieved if the non-metropolitan railways in New-South Wales, Victoria and southern Queensland were part of a single system. The next Labor Government will accept the transfer of those railways as it accepted the transfer of South Australia’s non-metropolitan railways in 1975. The Government will carry out the intention of the Constitution by bringing into operation the Inter-State Commission Act 1975 in order to co-ordinate all forms of inter-state transport by rail, road, air, water and pipelines.  Telephone charges. Telecom, the highly successful Crown corporation established by the last Labor Government, will correct an injustice suffered by telephone subscribers in the western parts of Sydney metropolitan area. People in the Windsor, Perth, Camden and Campbelltown zones are charged at trunk rates for calls to Sydney telephone zone, because the centre of that zone is not situated in the centre of the metropolitan area. By moving the centre of the Sydney zone westwards to the centre of the metropolitan area, all residents in the metropolitan area will be able to make metropolitan calls at the local rate, as is the case in the other State capitals. Those at present charged at the local call rate will retain that right.  Aborigines. The Fraser Government had eroded the new hopes given Australia’s aborigines by the Labor Government that at last they could achieve their full rights as Australians. The Aboriginal Councils and Associations Bill and Aboriginal Land (Nothern Territory) Bill was passed by the House of Representatives in November 1975, but not by the Senate. The Aboriginal Council and Associations Act 1976 has not yet been brought into operation. Mr. Fraser over-ruled his own Minister for Aboriginal Affairs when the Bjelke-Petersen Government objected to the Aboriginal Land Fund Commissions buying land in Queensland. He also agreed with the request of Mr. Bjelke-Petersen himself to stop the trachoma program among Queensland Aborigines. The West Australian Premier Sir Charles Court, attempted to change the law before the by-election ordered by the Court of Disputed Returns, following the harassment of Aborigines, who had enrolled, by Liberal lawyers who deterred them from voting. In the light of the 1967 referendum no Federal government should tolerate these assaults on the rights of Aborigines. The Labor Government won’t tolerate them. In 1961 a House of Representatives Committee was appointed to consider the voting rights of Aborigines. In recommended that, for the time being, the enrolment of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders should be voluntary but that voting should be compulsory for those enrolled. It is now to reconsider what the committee described as the temporary provision for voluntary enrolment. We shall ask the new parliament to appoint a new committee to inquire into and report on extending and guaranteeing Aboriginal voting rights for the Federal, State and Territory Parliaments. ABC. A Labor government will end the unprecedented pressures to which the Fraser Government has subjected the Australian Broadcasting Commission.  Electoral reform. We shall proceed with the Electoral Bill passed by the House of Representatives in February and August 1975, but twice rejected by the Senate, which provided for government subsidies to political parties and candidates in Federal election campaigns and the limitation and disclosure of the amount and nature of assistance by corporations and individuals to these parties and candidates. Australian election campaigns are now probably the most expensive in the world. Government subsidies are paid for campaigns in the United States, Canada, Britain, Austria, West Germany, France, Italy and throughout Scandinavia. In Australia, public assistance is limited to ABC time. Australia is one of the few democracies where party donations are neither disclosed nor restricted. Donations are supervised in the United States, Canada, Britain, India, New Zealand and Japan. We shall ask the House of Representatives and Senate to implement the recommendations of the report which was tabled on September 30, 1975, from the Joint Committee on Pecuniary Interest of Members of Parliament which was chaired by the honourable Joe Riordan. The relevance and necessity of this action are emphasised by the family companies of the deputy leaders of the Liberal and National Country Parties. The pecuniary interests concern not just the Prime Minister but the Australian people. The Prime Minister even refused to say whether he considers it appropriate for his ministers to make investments or hold interests in companies in such a guise that the public cannot discover them. I emphasis that we present a three year program and seek a full three year term in which to carry out that program. It is not we but our opponents who have de-stabilised and disrupted Australia’s political and economic system by putting Australia through the turmoil of elections every 18 months or 2 years. The only spending we will initiate before the next Budget will be on the urgent creation of jobs. Men and women of Australia: our message is one of hope and faith – hope for the young, the anxious, the uncertain, the deprived; and faith in the future of Australia’s parliamentary democracy. Working together, we can get Australia working again, we can get the Australian parliamentary democracy working again. For nearly 11 year now it has been my privilege to lead Australia’s greatest party. There is one great and continuing theme throughout the seven national election campaigns it has been my honour to present – the program of the Australian Labor Party to the people of Australia. That theme is a profound and unshakable belief in the Australian parliamentary democracy as a mighty instrument for progress, reform and national unity. We come before you as a team matured by experience, wiser through adversity, yet reinvigorated by bright new talents in our ranks, touched with the idealism of youth. We present a new team- a new program. In 1972 we responded to your overwhelming demand to clear away the backlog of 23 years. That is what we promised; that is what we performed. And at the same time we had to ... with the world’s worst economic crisis since the war. Now, in 1978, we must seek Australian solutions for the Australian-made crisis of the past year and a half. Despite the savage doctrinaire destruction of so many of our programs, in ... of the ... pledges given to you only two years ago, there are fundamental changes we made which must never be .... The new standing and independence we gave Australia among the nations. National responsibility for schools and the end of ... division about schools. National involvement in the affairs of the places where most of our people live, the capitals and provincial cities and towns. A national commitment to Aborigines, and their right to land. The preservation and enhancement of the national ... and national heritage. The Australian demand for an greater control of our own national resources. The guaranteed protection of pensions. The right of migrants. The rights of women. The enrichment of our arts and culture. And above all, the continuing drive towards more equal opportunities, true equality for all Australians. These must ... endure as part of the Australian way. These are the things we want to secure for Australia. We offer new policies in place of stagnation, in place of division and confrontation. We offer a government which will strive, once again, to unite the Australian people for the great tasks ahead- a true government of the people for all the people.  Promise means an effective tax increase, Willis says.  The Leader of the NSW Opposition, Sir Erie Willis, laid yesterday Mr. Whitlam would have to he the first man in history who hoped to win Government by promising to increase personal taxes. By seeking to put of an expected cut in income tax he is effectively promising an increase that’s keeping with his track record because income tax collections trebled in his abort term of office, Sir Erie said. The proposal shows that Labor hasn’t learned a thing in the wilderness about how people are touchy on taxes. It’s clear how Labor would finance its extravagant programs from the pay packets of Australian workers. His proposal doesn’t appear workable without a massive tax hike.  Court Warns of recession.  PERTH. - The West Australian Premier Sir Charles Court, said yesterday the Labor proposal to pass over the proposal the tax cuts was the clearest sign yet that the ALP was determined to plunge Australia back into economic recession. They simply have not learnt their lesson, he said. The major income tail reforms introduced by the Fraser Government have been desperately needed. In fact, we need more of them."  Policy would hit taxes, recovery: PM.  MELBOURNE. - The Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, said the consequences of Labor's policy statement would be to endanger economic recovery and increase taxation substantially. He said that on a quick estimate the cost of abolishing payroll tax would be $1.700 million; re-introducing free Medibank $760 million: a national sewage program $120 million; and national superannuation about $2000 million. Promises over the past two or 3 months would cost an additional $3000 million. A detailed breakdown of the costs would be made today. On payroll tax. Mr. Fraser said that with concessions and exemptions, most small companies had substantial relief from such payment, anyway. By abolishing the proposed income tax changes next February, Labor would be taking from a person with it weekly income of about $6. It was rather odd, therefore, that the Labor Party was now proposing increased personal taxation, so that payroll tax could be forgone by big companies. On Labor, commitment to full wage indexation, Mr. Fraser said that even Mr. Whitlam had admitted that when wages rose too quickly, it took jobs away from other people. That is just what he is proposing once again, he said. It means a policy of very high expenditure. It would not add to the number of jobs around Australia because of the increasing inflation. Interest rates would again move to higher levels and employment in the private sector would fall. Mr. Fraser said the policies sounded like a re-run of the years 1972-75, when Government expenditure increased by 46 per cent and unemployment rose by 190000 persons. Mr. Fraser said the proposed $49,30 subsidy to employers was part of a policy of mirage and myth that held out false hopes to people. The cost of employing a person was about $240 each and it was not to be expected that by reducing the figure to about $190 employers would alter their staffing decisions. Mr Fraser recalled a speech by Mr. Whitlam in July in which he had stated that Australian industry vas excessively protected by tariffs. Mr. Whitlam is opting for less industry operating in Australia and greater imports, he said. The effect would be a wholesale exporting of Australian jobs such as occurred following the 25 per cent tariff cut across the board in 1973. Replace communist officials with unionists chosen. The DLP policy in detail.  The Democratic Labor Party policy speech was delivered last night by Senate candidate Mr. Jim Brosnan. These are edited highlights in the speech: Industrial unrest. The industrial unrest that has plagued Australia for the past five years, will never be reduced except through the application of the following programme by active trade unionists, supported by the Government of the day. Replacement of communist of officials’ unionists by genuine unionists acting through court-control ballots. Encouragement for them to do so through changes to union rules by government legislation. Enforcement of THC and ACTU rules to ensure that all disputes come under proper control.  Productivity wage. Wages must be related to economic capacity of the country and the logical course is to establish a scientific measurement of productivity as the basis of wage fixation. This would ensure, for skilled and unskilled workers, their due share of increasing real wealth. The objective of a Federal wage policy should be the preservation and growth of the real wage, in accordance with productivity increases. A productivity wage would sever the present link between price rises and wage rises and establish a direct link between the money wage and productivity changes. The effects of the productivity wage will be: wages will be linked with productivity directly through adjustments according to a productivity index. Wage adjustments may be made more frequently than the periodical hearings of the Arbitration Courts. The excessive cost of Arbitration Court proceedings will be reduced. Court hearings will be necessarily only to consider alterations to the principles of wage fixing or anomalies or changed circumstances of work.  Work-leisure. The D.L.P wants a policy which would allow additional pay for annual leave, substantially increased long service leave and increased leisure for workers in the latter part of their working life. It would be financed out of levy on industry and include the option of an early retirement without economic loss.  Job participation. Boards of directors of large private and public companies normally elected by and from a company's shareholders, should be expanded to include elected representatives from the company's employees, preferably through the medium of works councils. Further, when companies engage in the production of goods affecting public safety, health and welfare, its board of directors should be again expanded to include a representative of the appropriate consumer organisation. All factories and places of employment employing more than 20 employees should be encouraged to set up works councils.  Technology. Employers ought to he required by State and Commonwealth legislation to give notice of proposals to introduce technological changes. Such legislation should provide that no substantial changes affecting the economy of any geographical area and number of workers can be introduced without government approval.  Retrenchment. The D.L.P calls on each state to establish a retrenchment redundancy fund. The fund would be administered by a board of trustees, composed of equal representation from employer groups, trade unions/ associations and State Parliament. The trustees would be elected from each group under a system of proportional representation for a term of five years. Companies would contribute annually by instalment, an amount determined by the board for each employee on their payroll. Payments to retrenched would be based on a formula decided upon by the trustees but would not be less than two weeks’ pay equivalent to the average award earnings for the previous quarter, for each year of service.  Uranium. The D.L.P supports the decision by the Fraser Government on uranium, for reasons outlined in our many published statements.  Solar energy. Full-scale research and development of solar power should be undertaken as this energy source is abundant in Australia and provides clean energy. The DLP would substantially increase the funds in this area with the aim of making solar power our major energy source- initially for low-grade heat and transportation and in the long term for the production of electricity.  Defence. Although it is not possible to fix a precise percentage of GNP for defence spending which must be adhered to for all time, the extent of Australia’s lag is such that we should aim to quickly move to at least five per cent of GNP and maintain that level until the backlog of neglect is eliminated.  Pacific alliance. The DLP strongly advocates a regional alliance of non-communist nations known as the Pacific Confederation. A Pacific Confederation is the political entity through which social, economic and military aid to the nations of the area can be challenged.  Refugees. The DLP is concerned that the Government has failed to honor its expressed intention to establish an ongoing refugee resettlement programme. We call on the Federal Government to take immediate steps to implement such a programme.  Inflation. Prices rises will be controlled by outlawing price increases which flow from consent agreements entered into by employers, establishing a fair prices commission and reviewing tariff assistance to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of economy through sensible tariff levels.  Education. The DLP calls for a Royal Commission, into all aspects of education in Australia, with a view of the establishment of a national standard of teaching instruction and training that will enable our children throughout the nation to emerge from our schools ready for life as well as for livelihood.  Environment. The DLP calls on the Federal Government Commission to appoint an Australian Environment Commission to oversee and co-ordinate research and action of the preservation of resources and the protection of the environment.  Media. The DLP aims to introduce cable TV for everyone via the Telecommunications Statutory Corporation. It would not be restricted to conventional TV programmes. However, decentralised areas and areas marked for accelerated growth will receive priority. Vigorous action should be taken to raise the standards of children television.  Aborigines. The DLP supports the integration of the Aboriginal people into the total community and the improvement of their social and economic conditions. Suitable programmes of Aboriginal advancement, including the appropriate form of land tenure, will be stepped up in co-operation with the States.  Rural policy. The Australian Meat Board should be restructured as a Federal Meat Marketing Authority and smash any collusion that exists between stock agents, processors and unions. Wool growers should be protected from currency fluctuations by the Wool Board adjusting the returns of the growers to a maximum average rate. Fraser: reject Labor’s recipe for disaster.  This is the full transcript of the policy speech delivered by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, at Midtown Town Hall, last night. Our nation is on the move. We are ready to ... into a new area of prosperity and development. We have broken through in the fight against inflation. Under Labor, inflation reached 19 per cent. We have halved that, inflation in 9 per cent and falling. We have reduced ..., revived incentive and ... fair ... for achievement. Under Labor, taxes doubled. We have ended the big tax rip-off. Now Mr Whitlam wants to start it again. Business is being revitalised, profits are up, interest rates have begun to fall- and they will keep on falling. We’ve been ... the job we were elected to do. We have been able to reduce inflation, reform the tax system, revive business and ... start ... because we have brought government spending under control, because we have halved Labor’s four and a half million dollar deficit. We have given Australia ... and responsible ... government- all ... to Philip Lynch ... has uphold the highest traditions of the Westminster system. Our policies have given people the confidence and incentive to invest in Australia’s future. Australia is ready to go with $6000 million of development in ..., ... ... petroleum and nickel. And in the coming three years we can look to other vast developments.  - The three billion dollar North-West ... project, bigger than the Snowy Mountains Scheme.  - The development of our oil and gas reserves.  - And using our immense uranium deposits for peaceful purposes under the world’s ... safeguards.  All these massive projects will create jobs, stimulate growth, employment and prosperity. They will bring wealth and work to our country. We all know what the real answer to employment is: it’s generating growth and development. It’s industry providing new jobs. It’s ... people to fill new jobs, and keep them. We have ... of thousands of Australian jobs because we gave Australian industry the production we .... Unlike Mr Whitlam, we have not exported thousands of jobs through across-the-board tariff .... Because of our policies, new jobs are being created. Our training and job assistance scheme are getting the ... into real jobs, productive jobs, jobs that they can keep. We are spreading more than $100 million on training and job assistance schemes which especially help young people learn new skills. Already well over 120000 people have been, or are being helped, by our schemes, and we are constantly improving them. We are determined that our children will have job skills, skills that the education system often fails to teach. We will expand the education program for unemployed youth, which gives young people the chance to acquire the basic skills and motivation they need to ... a job. We will spend a further $50 million over the above existing commitments on replacing the ... technical schools in our inner city areas and country .... In the past two years, the Commonwealth Employment Service has placed 900000 people in jobs. We are upgrading the ... of the ... to help more people ... more jobs more quickly. Because of our job assistance strategy, because of the growth and development our policies have made possible, unemployment will fall from February and keep falling. Ladies and gentlemen, above all ... this election will decide whether we will build on the achievements of the last two years, or whether we will let Labor throw it all away. Labor is committed to reserving the policies that have given Australians confidence. Labor is the party of extravagance of inflation, of high ... of industrial .... It is Labor that is the party of unemployment. Labor today are still peddling the same policies which is one year increased unemployment by 157 per cent. That’s 192000 more Australians out of work. Why doesn’t Mr Whitlam tell us how many grand final crowds that would make. When they were in government, they stopped growth and development. The only thing that went ahead were inflation and unemployment, Mr Whitlam now wants to do it all over again. There has rarely been an election giving the Australian people a cleaner choice. The choice is between this government, which has restored sanity to government spending, giving the Australian people the greatest tax reforms in our history, and the Labor Opposition, which would ... government spending and immediately impose higher taxes. Labor has itself admitted that it would increase spending by an extra $300 million and this is only a small part of their plans. Just six of their other promises would cost more than $3000 million per year. And on top of al this, they would spend a further $ 1700 million to abolish payroll tax. To pay for this Labor would pass a law taking $6 a week out of the average wage earner’s pocket. At one blow, Labor would increase Australia’s personal tax burden by $1700 million. Labor would ... the reward for initiative and achievement which is the basis for economic recovery, the basis for creating new jobs. I have no doubt at all that the working men and women of Australia will reject this recipe for disaster. Mr ... has said he wanted tax cuts. Mr Dunstan has said he wanted tax cuts. Mr Hawke has said he wanted tax cuts. These men must now deplore Mr Whitlam’s policy of taking money away from Australia’s workers and putting it in the pockets of large companies. We would all pay higher taxes for Labor’s extravagance- and we would pay in higher interest rates, higher inflation, higher unemployment. Labor’s policies would stop investment in Australia and stop growth. They would ... Australians the right to work. They would dishonour contracts. In 1975, Mr Whitlam signed this document- this memorandum of understanding- to develop Australia’s uranium. Now he says he never signed anything, now they say uranium should be left in the ground. The Labor Party is trying to obstruct Australia’s development. They are partners in obstruction with extremist union leaders. The extremist-led unions are all affiliated with the Labor Party, they all pay money to the Labor Party. They all help decide official Labor policy. And this is policy that binds Mr Whitlam, Mr Hayden and Mr Hawke. That’s why it is Labor’s official policy to put unions above the law. That’s why Labor endorsed the Victorian power strike. They endorsed a strike which threw 36000 people completely out of a job. We have shown that the public can be protected. That a fair and resolute stand can work. It worked in the air controllers’ strike. In the postal workers dispute, it worked against the ACTU’s uranium moratorium- they backed down. And in the Victorian power dispute, it was our move to ... the unions involved that led to the strikers returning to work. We have been the first government to pass laws protecting individual unionists and give responsible rank and file unionists the chance to maker their voices heard. Secret postal ballots for union elections are now compulsory. We have ... up the Industrial Relations Bureau to protect the public interest and also to act as an industrial ombudsman. Unions are now required to tell their members how union dues are spent. We are protecting individuals against being forced to join unions against their will. Responsible unionists have welcomed these laws. Only the extremists and the Labor Party have fought against them. These laws will not change things overnight. Bot over time they will have a major impact. At last, responsible unionists have a change. Labor would take it from them. Labor would back down on all these laws. We won’t back down on any of our responsibilities. Let’s look at some of the reforms we have brought in since coming to office, and how we will be building on these reforms in the years ahead. We will be further developing our existing programs which are working ... and in some cases initiating new programs. The total cost of these new programs is an additional $20 million this financial year- no more- and $250 million in 1978-79.  Taxation reform. This government has brought in the largest and fairest reforms ever made to Australia’s tax system. Tax indexation saves every Australian taxpayer more money each year. From February 1, further tax cuts will come in for every Australian wage and salary earner. This year alone, the person on average earnings will be saving $ 6 a week from these two reforms. From February 1, more than 225000 low income earners will cease to pay any tax at all. And because we have reduced the marginal rate of tax, it’s now worth working overtime again. We have provided business with essential tax incentives to invest, explore and develop. Quite apart from our tax concessions to business in two years our personal tax reforms have already saved taxpayers $3300 million. The Australian people will not accept a return to high taxes. The government will bring taxes down further- not increase them. Estate duty has caused distress and hardship to thousands of Australian families, to small business to farmers. Thus, all deceased estates and gifts passing between husband and wife, parent and child, will be exempt from Federal estate and gift duty from this day. Over the life of the next parliament, estate and gift duty will both be entirely abolished. We have cut down increases in your rates by giving local government a fixed share of all personal income-tax receipts. This year it was 1,52 per cent, over the next three years, we will increase that share to 2 per cent.  Business. Private enterprise is the source of most Australia’s jobs. We will take further steps to ... business so that new jobs can be created. Times have been difficult for Australia’s thousands of small businessmen. We have helped small business with our tax concessions on trading stock, with the investment allowance and our personal tax cuts, and we will make more finance available to small business through the Commonwealth Development Bank and the AIDC. Unlike Labor, this government has bought Australian wherever possible and we will continue to buy Australian. We will introduce a new ... of export incentives ... apply to increases in ... this year and will ... from July 1, 1978. We will act to increase the processing in Australia of our raw materials.  Rural it is of fundamental importance to Australia that our rural community is strong. We have ended Labor’s savage bias against the rural community. Our many programs are helping the rural community through the present difficult period. We will do more. The Australia Rural Bank will open in 1978. Petrol prices in country areas will be reduced to within a cent per litre of the normal city retail price, without any increase in city prices as a result. Over the next three years, we will reduce the price margin to less than half a cent per litre. We will, in consultation with the industries concerned, act to improve beef and wool marketing arrangements. There are other measures supporting rural industry set out in the supplementary statements issues tonight and the Deputy Prime Minister will elaborate on these tomorrow evening.  Social security and health. Our social reforms have helped families and individuals and widened freedom of choice. Our family allowance is the most important innovation in welfare for decades. The Medibank reforms give Australians choice in health insurance. The old harsh means test has been placed by a simple income test. We have taken policies out of pension increases by linking them automatically with the Consumer Price Index. We have brought in a pension for all sole parents- another major reform. Now, so that more homes and centres for the aged and handicapped can be built, we will extend the present three-year funding program for a further year. We will provide larger grants to homes for the aged in remote areas, and subsidies the added costs people in remote areas must pay to obtain specialist medical treatment. We will encourage families to care for their sick and aged by increasing and expanding the domiciliary nursing care benefit ... on needs, are designed to provide equality of opportunity for all Australians. We have given the handicapped a new deal and we will maintain our expanded child care program.  Education. The government has given education high priority. We have established the new tertiary education commission and appointed the Williams Committee of inquiry into education and training. Government schools in all States have substantially exceeded school’s commission targets. We are conscious of the disadvantage of many non-government schools and our policies which place .... A major initiative will be undertaken to end a long-standing social injustice. For far too long governments have accepted the responsibility to provide free education for normal children, but made parents of handicapped children pay hundreds of dollars more for their child’s education and sport. This injustice will cease. Under this government they will no longer have to do so. We are going to give these children an equal chance.  Housing. Our home savings grant scheme has helped, and is helping, ... of thousands of people to buy their first homes. We will co-operate with the States and financial institutions to set up an insurance scheme, protecting savings deposited with building societies.  Capital works and government services. In 1978/79 we will expand existing programs to provide a total of $60 million annually for the next five years to improve urban public transport. We will also undertake a five-year program to upgrade critical sections of the national railway network. We will make a start in giving Brisbane the international airport it deserves. We will improve city and country water supplies with a five-year $200 million national water resources program. We have maintained and improved post and telephone services without any increase in basic rates for the last two years. Now we will move to cut off-peak telephone charges to about 40 per cent of the normal rate.  Energy. Under our comprehensive national energy policy we will step up research and development of new energy resources, especially coal and solar energy.  Aborigines. We are acting to end the offensive paternalism of past policies towards Aborigines. We will continue to encourage self-management of Aboriginal programs and make them masters of their own affairs. In addition to the many programs we now have, we will start new programs designed to improve facilities and services for young Aborigines, provide training and management and other skills, and let Aborigines participate more fully in preventive health care projects.  Ethnic affairs. Australia is a multi-national society. The government is concerned for our ethnic communities. In the next three years we shall concentrate on overcoming the language barriers in our society. Our measures will include:  - the teaching of English to migrants and in co-operation with the States expand the teaching of ethnic languages and culture in our schools.  - The provision of ethnic liaison officers in government departments.  - More interpreters, translators and migrant welfare officers.  - More migrant resource centres.  For the first time, the age service pension will be paid to non-British former members of the allied forces. We have put ethnic broadcasting on a permanent basis, and we will establish ethnic television.  Individual rights. We have protected individual rights and reformed outdated laws. The Ombudsman and Administrative Appals Tribunal protect basic civil liberties. We will establish a human rights commission to extend that protection further and we will bring in freedom of information laws. We will establish a permanent women’s body to advise government on women affairs. We have provided increased financial assistance and tax incentives to the arts, reformed the Australia Council, and now we will help our film industry by allowing film production costs to be written off over years instead of 25. We have vigilantly protected the environment. We are establishing Kakadu, the world’s largest national park, and an independent inquiry to examine the most effective ways of conserving and protecting all species of whales. We are helping the World Wildlife Fund to set up a branch in Australia.  Security and foreign policy. Australia’s security and foreign policy is always a high priority for a Liberal-National Country Party Government. The Royal Commission on Security and Intelligence concluded that we face serious threats of espionage and subversion, and we are implementing the Royal Commission’s recommendation. We are strengthening all areas of the defence forces. For example, this program includes the construction of 14 fast patrol boats built by a great North Queensland shipbuilder at Cairns, the construction at Newcastle of a cargo ship for the defence forces and the ordering of a third guided missile frigate. We have restored close relations with our friends and allies and extended the vital Fine Gap agreement with the United States, for a further 10 years. We have improved our relations with all our nearest neighbours. Ladies and gentlemen, the new initiatives I have outlined tonight, and further policies which are set out in the supplementary statements, are a creative, responsible and balances program. Since coming to office, we have faced the difficult choices. The tough decisions have been made. We’ve been doing the job we were elected to do. Now the great issue before every one of us is whether we will build on these hard-won foundations, whether we will grasp the opportunity to make Australia the great country we all know it can be:  - An Australia where people have the freedom to achieve to build the kind of life they want- where there are rewards for initiative and incentives for enterprise.  - An Australia which is strong and secure, which cares for those in need, where all people can live and work together in self respect.  There are still problems to be faced, there is still hard work to be done. But Australia is ready to make the breakthrough into a new period of real prosperity. A vote for the Liberal Party is a vote an exciting and rewarding future for Australia. With your support this government is determined to build on what we have already achieved- to make Australia a society which can set a standard for the world.  The following are extracts from supplementary statements issued to be read in conjunction with the policy speech.  Employment and Industrial Relations. The Government is introducing new measures and improving those already in operation with unemployment and create job opportunities, particularly for young people. The basic program is: national Employment and Training Scheme (NEAT). The existing scheme is for on-the-job training in which the government subsidies employers and pays allowances to persons under training, subject to a means test applied to family income. It is estimated that more than 80,000 persons will be trained this financial year. The cost is estimated to be $50 million. The government will continue the scheme and will:  - pay revised subsidies to employers for new trainees taken on after January 1, 1978, equal to 37,5 per cent of the scale average adult award rate for trainees on adult rates of pay and 27,5 per cent for trainees on junior rates of pay. At current rates these would be $54 a week for adults and $39,5 a week for juniors.  - Adjust the means test to allow more scope for trainees to supplement their allowance by their own and spouse’s part-time earnings.  The government will also apply NEAT funds to support the development of special manpower training courses by compensating the training organisation for the cost per trainee of each course. Supporting NEAT, there are now six other programs. Special Youth Employment and Training Program (SYETP). This program is a new initiative as part of NEAT and subsidies employers who give young unemployed a job requiring a skill. Already 22000 young unemployed have been assisted and 68 per cent have remained in full-time employment. The Government will now seek the co-operation of the states in providing training in technical schools and colleges for young people seeking on-the-job training for whom no vacancies are available. Education Program for Unemployed Youth (EPUY): This programs begun as a pilot scheme for one year for unemployed youth under 21. Its object was to increase their changes of getting a job by improving their basic education. Some 800 were enrolled on 57 courses in 30 schools. The program has been significantly enlarged to provide courses for all young people under 21 seeking enrolment, and eligibility will be extended to include unemployed youth in the 21 to 24 age group. Those who complete courses under these schemes will also be eligible for specialists training in technical schools and colleges when vacancies for on-the-job training in specific skills are not available. (Estimated cost 1977-78 $500000, 1978-79 $2,5 million).  Special youth employment task forces. The Government is setting up special task forces in all States to encourage employers to provide more jobs for young people from the beginning of 1978. The State directors of the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations will lead the task forces which will be made up of representatives of State Governments, employers and trade unions. A special Youth Employment Bureau will be set up in each regional office of the department to back-up the campaign and to make a detailed study of the short and long term problems of youth employment.  Commonwealth Rebate for Apprenticeship Full-time Training (CRAFT): under this scheme employers are reimbursed for allowing apprentices to take full-time training courses. This will continue.  Community Youth Support scheme (CYSS): government funds are provided in this scheme to help community based groups which exist to give counsel and assistance to young people to find work.  Relocation Assistance Scheme: the existing scheme which provides financial aid to unemployed workers registered with the Commonwealth Employment Service, and their families, to move to other locations to get work, applies to those who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. It was introduced on a trial basis for one year in 1976 and covers help with fares, removal expenses, re-establishment allowance, legal and agents’ fees or rental allowance. This scheme will be continued and the amount of assistance and eligibility will be widened as follows:  - The maximum reimbursement of removal costs will increase from $500 to $750.  - The maximum reimbursement of legal and agents’ fees will increase from $500 to $1000.  - Workers who give up their jobs voluntarily for reasons acceptable to the Commonwealth Employment Service will now be admitted immediately.  - Workers who give up their jobs voluntarily for reasons not acceptable to the CES will be eligible three months after registering with the CES.  Estate and gift duties: the government will abolish forth with estate and gift duties on possessions passing between spouses and between parents and their children at a cost of $2,4 million, revenue foregone in 1977/78 and $33 million in 1978/79. This will be the first step in a program for the abolition of all estate and gift duties within the life of the next parliament. (Estimated full year cost of total abolition, in revenue forgone, would be $98 million).  Local government: A further increase in united grants to local councils is planned for the benefit of local ratepayers. The government’s objective is to move towards an allocation of up to 2 per cent of personal income tax collections for local government over a 3-year period. (Estimated full year cost around $50 million).  Trade and Industry. Expert Incentives: the government will reintroduce, as part of its continuing aim to expand all exports, a two-pronged type of export incentive to encourage manufacturers to promote and sell their goods overseas. Minerals and certain bulk primary products will be excluded. At present incentives, as reduced by the Whitlam government, are confined to grants made according to the amount spent on market development overseas. (Export Market Development Grants Act 1974). This scheme will be retained with minor amendments, and extended for a further period. To it will be added a new incentive scheme for improved export performance. This new incentive will provide taxable cash grants based on a formula which provides bigger incentives (15 cents in the $) at the initial stages of increased exports and falling (to 2,5 cents in the $) for increased exports in excess of $1 million a year. Both schemes will be current for 5 years from July 1, 1977, and the first grants payment will be made in 1978-79. (Estimated cost 1978-79 will be $30 million). A new corporation- the Australian Overseas Projects Corporation- will also be established to help firms compete for large-scale development projects overseas and to encourage export initiatives. It will begin in 1978. (Estimated cost 1978/79 $2 million).  Processing of Raw Materialists: the government will take attention to encourage more processing in Australia of basic raw materials where this is economically feasible and consistent with sound industrial development.  Small Business Support: the government will now take steps to make access to finance easier for small business by:  - An extension of the charter of the Commonwealth Development Bank to enable it to lend to all kinds of business, including equity finance for small business.  - An extension of the Australian Industries Corporation’s activities in small business, including possibly joint ventures with States and private sector institutions, in the provision of finance.  ... Services: the government will also, in co-operation with the States establish a national management consulting service of retired executives and professional consultants to assist managers and owners of small business. (Estimated cost 1978/79, $500000).  Rural. New measures and an extension of existing programs in rural areas, with particular application to those suffering special hardship, will be given a high priority.  Petrol prices: the government will take action to equalise the price of petroleum products between city and country by subsidising freight cost outside the metropolitan area on motor spirit, aviation fuel, automotive distillate and power kerosene. The scheme will bring country prices down initially to less than half a cent per litre (2 cents per gallon) in the life of the new parliament. (Estimated cost 1977/78 around $10 million, 1978/79 $31 million and in the three years around $50 million).  Rural bank: the new Australian Rural Bank for which legislation was passed in the last parliament will be established without delay.  - The principal function will be to refinance loans made by banks (including the Commonwealth Development Bank) other financial institutions and other lenders to rural producers and fishermen.  - It will provide, in conjunction with the banks and other lenders, long-term credit to viable borrowers for up to 30 years at concessional rates of interest. The board of the bank will include two rural representatives.  Beef and wool: the government will seek the agreement of the States for:  - An extension to three years of carry-on assistance to beef producers.  - An increase in loans from $30000 to $45000 in the pastoral zone and from $20000 to $30000 elsewhere.  - The administering authorities to have discretion in the amount to be lent in any one year, but not in excess of the three-year maximum limit.  - State reconstruction authorities to have discretion to extend the term of individual loans beyond the existing maximum repayment term of seven years.  - An extension of the repayment holiday for carry-on loans to three years.  - An increase in the lump-sum payment for household support from $3000 to $5000.  - An extension to one year of the period in which household support assistance is normally converted to a grant, with state authorities having discretion to extend support for two more years.  The Government will also add $600000 to the 1977/78 Budget allocation for beef carryon loans in the Northern Territory. (Estimated cost 1977/78, $600000 1978179. $1 million). The Government has already suspended the beef export charge and made substantial grants for disease control and eradication. It is also providing funds towards the capital cost of carcass classification in the beef meat industry. It now proposes to hold early discussions with the industry and the states to improve greatly the marketing of meat. For the woolgrowers, the government will not only maintain the wool price Reserve Support Scheme, giving assurances for two years ahead, but will co-operate with the Australian Wool Corporation and the Australian Wool Industry Conference in giving special attention to the quality to the Australian clip and the preservation of the intergity of the Reserve Price system.  Television for Rural Areas: a comprehensive program to bring television to remote rural areas in Australia over teh next three years will be introduced. Work will begin immediately on specifications and land and equipemnt purchases. Thirty-six new repeater stations and 20 translators stations will be erected in the three years beginning 1978/79 at a cost of $8,8 million. Another 20 translator stations will be built in the fourth year. (Estimated cost $1978/79, $1,4 million). Other measures to assist people in remote areas will include:  - a scheme to assist patients in remote areas to meet the high cost of tarvel and accomodation when referred for specialist treatment at distant locations.  - Extension of the limit for the provision of free telephone line plant from 12 kilometres to 16 kilometres.  Community Development. The government has completed plans to assist the States in major areas vital to the community. These include improvements to various community services and help for the Arts and the environment. They include: Transport: Interstate railways. A contribution of about $70 million over five years, beginning 1978/79, will be made to a joint Commonwealth-state Program for upgrading State railways which are part of the national mainline system. This will double the fast goods capicity between Sydney and Melbourne and almost treble the capacity between Melbourne and Adelaide.  Urban transport: a non-repayable grant of $60 million a year over the next five years will be made to the states for a new program to begin in 1978/79.  The arts. Despite the economic restraints, the government increased grants for the arts by 10 per cent and established a Community Arts board to encourage arts activities throughout the wider community and in remote areas. Two new initiativea are to be taken. They are:  - A tax reform to encourage greater community investment in the film industry by by reducing the period to for depreciation allowance from 25 years to 23 years. This will tie depreciation realistically to the life of a film.  - Consultation with the States: an art bank is to be developed to bring Australian art out of the galeries into the community.  Off-peak Telephone Charges: A substantial reduction in off-peak telephone charges is planned. The objective will be to achieve in ... course a 60 per cent reduction to apply during off-peak periods.  Nursing: the age limit for domiciliary nursing care will be reduced from 65 years to 16 years and the daily rate of benefit increased.  Handicapped children: we will provide additional funds to ensure yaht teh cost of parents of educating handicapped children should be no greater than the cost of parents whose children are educated in the normal government school system. The program will include increased assistance for capital projects and the co-operation of State authorities will be sought for them to assume responsibility for non-government schools for the handicapped which wish to participate. (Estimated cost 1977/78 $800000, 1978/79 $5 million).  ... children under the scheme of assistance for isolated children where there are ... school ... in a family, the rate at which the level of allowance ... will be half what it is under the present ... and even more ... for larger families. We will also introduce a supplemenatry grant for 1978 of $100 without ... for each children boarding ... from house ... and similarly where the family maintain a second home. Benefits received under the scheme will not be counted as income when determining amounts of ... for zone A and B allowances. In the Northern Territory, we will pay a supplemntary allowance of up to $150 a year for children eligible for the basic boarding allowance for ... children and a supplement of $50 for those Territory children who qualify for the basic correspondance allowance. In addition, the number of ... air forces avaiable each year for egigible Northern Territory children who attend school in other parts of Australia will be increased from two to three. (Estimated cost 1977/78 $260000, 1978/79 $... million).  Education. The goevrnment will add to the total Technical and Further Education Program (TAFE) an extra 50 million over and above the present level of funding for capital facilities in the states in the three years 1979 to 1981. The schools commission will continueto have full freedom to investigate and to report without restrictions and to respond to specific requests from the minister. The government will encourage the widening of curriculs to teach appriopate language and cultures. Special education facilities will be expanded for both child and adult migrants.  Aborigines. The government will:  - help Aborigines participate more fully in preventive health projects specially designed to most their needs.  - Improve recreation facilities and family support service for young Aborigines.  - Allocate more resources to helping Aborigines in the prevention and control of alcoholic abuse.  Initiate a program to provide training in management and other skills to equip them to manage their own affairs. (Estimated cost 1977/78 around $750000 (mostly on alcohol problems), 1978/79 $7 million).  Foreign affairs. The government has decided to establish a high level task force to conduct a comprehensive examination of Australia’s future relations with Third World countries.  Defence. A further five-year defence program has been approved by the government. This program will give priority to new equipment purchases. New .... A third modern guided missile frigate (FFG) has been ordered in the United States. Tenders have also been let for 15 new patrol boats. The first will be built in the United Kingdom and 14 in australia. They will give the navy a greater capability for coastal surveilance. The local government is being awarded to North Queensland Engineers and Agents Pty Ltd, it will provide employment for an additional, mostly trademen. A 600 tonne amphibious heavy lift ship for the Army and the Navy will also be built in Australia. The contract has been let to the New South Wales shipbuilding firm, Carrington Shipways Pty Ltd of Newcastle. It will be able to move land tanks and heavy plant and will have a helicopter platform, a landing craft base and other facilities including water .... It will have the heaviest lift capability of any Australian-owned ship.  Veterans: a vocational training scheme will be introduced for regular servicemen who have been honourably discharged after 15 years service or who have been invalided out. These ex-servicemen can retain under this scheme or the National Employmenty and Training scheme (NEAT) but not both. Entitlements are, for 15 to 20 years service, 2 year full-time or 4 years part-time, more than 20 years service, 3 years full-time or 4 years part-time. Allowances are subject to means test. The estimated cost of new proposals in these statements, including those items for which no specific amounts are given is around $20 million for the current financial year and $250 million for 1978/79.  People tired of being promised the world.  Canberra. The Australian public was tired of politians at election time promising the world, the new Treasurer, Mr Howard last last night.  He was debating the Prime Minister’s policy speech with the ... leader of the Opposition, Mr Uren, on the program monday conference immediately after Mr Fraser delivered his speech. Responding to a suggestion that the speech was low-key, he said it did not matter whether a policy speech was high or low-keyed, what mattered was the content. No political party could deliver the world to the electorate. One of the many things that the Fraser government has done since it gained power, is to get out of policies to a very large extent the idea that you can bribe people with extravagant promises at election time, he said. Mr Howard was asked whether, since the Labor party proposed to abolish pay roll tax, the government supported its retention. Mr Howard: I am in favour of taxation reform which is designed to give the greatest possible incentive to the greatest number of people. Mr Uren was esked whether the abolition of the tax could be guaranteed since the proposal appeared to be contrary to the Labor’s party self-proclaimed socialism. Mr Uren: yes, although it is a socialist party, and I am proud of that situation, we also represent the small business people and the small farmer. We will always look after the little people. On the pecuniary interests of parliamentarians, Mr Howard was asked whether he would push in future for the full adoption of a 1975 parliamentary report which held that all politicians be compelled to disclose publicy their financial interests. Mr Howard said the matters related to ministerial respondsability and as mich were for the Prime Minister to decide. However, he understood that the matter was under consideration by an interdepartmental committee and he would make no further comment. Both speakers were asked what effect Mr Lynch’s resignation would have on the election campaign. Mr Howard said: I believe that the Australian people will see the matter in its proper prosepective. They will recognise the decency and the intergrity of Mr Lynch action. He was maintained the Westminster tradition, he was deffered his own personal interests to what he sees to be as the broader interests of his own party and the government he served so well in the past two years. Mr Uren said he thought Mr Lynch’s role in land speculation was despicable. A Treasurer is supposed to be responsible for inflation and there has been no greater component of inflation than urban land. The other deplorable thing is that the Treasurer of this nation uses a family trust or a nominee company to evade taxation. I think that agian is deplorable. He said it placed the whole government in question. Now that the new Treasurer has made the statement the throws the onus on the whole cabinet again. Therefore as far as I am concerned, I don’t only hold Mr Lynch guilty but I hold the Fraser Cabinet guilty of such form.  Labor tax plans assailed.  Canberra. Labor’s taxation proposals would hit the poorest taxpayers the hardest, the Minister for the Capital Territory, Mr Staley said yesterday. The Liberal Government’s tax changes mean that a quarter of a million people now paying tax will not be paying any tax after Febraury 1, 1978, he said. As aanounced in the last Federal Budget, the tax-treshold will be raised from $3154 to $3751 from next year and no one with an income below $3751 will pay tax. Speaking in his Victorian electorate, Mr Staley said it was extraordinary that Labor’s taxation proposals indicated taht the party has abandoned the idea of assisting the poorest tax payers with tax reform.  Whitlam gets more Mileage with laughs.  Brisbane. - The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Whitlam, in a buoyant mood over the Lynch affair, has found an effective way of getting more mileage out of it - humour. In a rally here yesterday he siad the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser had been forced to re-write large parts of his policy speech- al those references to what a wonderful Treasurer Mr Lynch was, how he trusted him and how the people of Australia could trust him. And so tonight, we are going to here the new version, the sanitised version of the Fraser policy speech: deleted, deloused and de-Lynched. The phrase brough an uprorsious response from the audience. With the help of speech writer Graham Freudenberg. Mr Whitlam used a string of quips to ridicule the government. It is a pattern he has been following eversinceMr Lynch resignation on Friday andf has met with a good response. Mr Whitlam told the rally yesterday that Mr Lynch was a friend of two land developers who were prominent witnesses before the Royal Commission: Mr Leake- a good Treasury name- and Mr Cooke- and good name for accountants and their books. Of Mr Eric Robinson, the minister assisting the Treasurer, whom Mr Fraser overlooked when choosing Mr Lynch succesor, Mr Whitlam said: he has the best possible adress for a Liberal Treasurer. He lives right on the ... of Capri on the Gold Coast. Eric and Phil are virtually neighbours. What’s more, Eric Robinson is ... Mr McMahon’s bosom buddy. Bill McMahon, as everyone remembers, has been Australia’s greatest Treasurer; he constanly sais so himself. Alas poor Eric, I knew him well. And of the man who did get the job, Mr Whitlam said: what a decline in two years, from Hayden to Howard, an unknown Sydney sollicitor with absolutely unknwon economic qualifications.  Faltered. This style of campaiging is well suited to mr Whitlam’s theatrical talents. He has been less at home when discussing economic policy. In Cairns over the weekend, he faltered over the details of Labor’s already annouced policy to support full tax indexation. He initially said that the tax changes the government intended to introduce next february would be postponed by a Labor administration. Later, he explained to journalists that he had meant to say that the tax indexation would be postponed. Embarrased Labor officials then had to correct this comment, saying that the party would stick by its policy of full income tax indexation.  Early postal votes advised.  Electors who want to vote by post in the Federal elections should do so early, because of the busy state of mails near Christmas, the chief general manager of Australia Post, Mr D. McQuitty, said yesterday. He siad electors wanting a postal vote should post their applications early enough to ensure they received their voting papers before polling day. Ballot papers had to be back with divisional returning officer by December, 20, when Australia Post would already ne handling a huge daily inflow of mail.  Democrats fail to nominate in 3 seats.  Brisbane. The Amtralian Democrats have blamed the party's infancy and its lack of electoral knowledge for its failure to nominate candidates for the FederaL seats of Ryan, Darling Downs and Dawson. The party’s Queensland campaign director, Mr Graham Maskiell, said yesterday that human error was responsible for the failure to nominate for the three seats. We are so young, so few and our money is so short we had our backs to the wall, he said. It is most unfortunate and we are very disappoited at missing the three seats, but it will be part of our growth. We will learn from it. The biggest lost to the Democrats will be in Ryan, the home of Brisbane’s trendies. In the November 12 State election the party polled 19 per cent of the vote in the Liveral seat of Toowong, and the whole of Toowong is within the boundaries of Ryan. Mr Maskiell said the State campainging committee had been exhausted after fighting for Toowong. The committee had to change overnight, to a Federal campaign committee and in the rush the nomibation of Mrs Gillruth Rees was overlooked. Mr Maskiell said the party had only three branch members in Dawson, who had contested the State seat of Whitsunday and decided to stand because there was no one. He nominating arrived too late and we missed there too, Mr Maskiell said. In Darling Downs are candidate, Mr Gordon Brown, thought he had to nominate in Brisbane and when he got to the city and found out he had made a mistake it was too late for him to return to Warwick.