THE CHOICE:  March 24 will see the start of a new era for this great country .The direction of the past seven years will be obliterated.  The appalling records of the Hawke/Keating combination will be wound back.  The National Party, in Government with the Liberals, will  begin putting into place policies that will once again make this  country great and give it real hope for prosperity in the future.  The choice is absolutely clear. It can be summed up in 10 words: more of the same or a change for the better.  Australians are literally crying out for a change from Labor's politics of despair. More than that, they are demanding change.  We will give it to them.  THE DIRECTION OFHOPE:  We'll give a direction that will  - increase personal prosperity and incentive to work, to contribute to the country, and save for the future '  - turn around the national economy and rebuild private sector confidence, growth and development - '  - reinvigorate our great export industries and international competitiveness - <5?  - give ail Australians confidence and a feeling of hope and safety for their future -  Mr. Hawke is barnstorming the country on his record.  He's promising more ofthe same. Nothing new; no change oîsos direction. No change ofpoiïcy.  LABOR'S RECORD OFHARDSHIP AND MISERY:  Let's look at bis record.  Tragically, it is not the record that Australians want. Neither is it the record ofwhich any Prime Minister should be proud.  We ail know what it is, because we ail feel the misery of it:  • record interest rates and mortgages scus-  • record taxes Sos  • record debt 3oS  • record poverty Sos  • record trade deficits 3osr  • record bankruptcies 3CLff  • record long-term high inflation 3a>£-  • record family breakdowns sos  • record broken promises 5o5  • record cynicism and political expediency.  The list is endiess and the results are tragic. Bob Hawke and 30 Paul Keating have brought Australia to its knees.  Our foreign debt is on a par with that of Brazil and Mexico; our ses rating as a safe place to invest is ranked with the Sudan, Bolivia 3°s and Peru.  We're at the bottom of the barrel of world esteem.  We've never been there before. It will be to this Government's undying shame that we're there now.  That's not ail. The greatest resource any country has - its people - have also been driven down by this shameless, dis-credited Government.  Hard working Australians and their families today are literally i struggling to exist? Their hard earned money is being ripped away by rising costs and prices, record interest and mortgage rates and a whole raft of new or higher taxes.  Families are collapsing, breaking apart. Divorce rates are at ail time records. The second mortgage has replaced the second child.  Ail of this has happened because of the policies of the Federal Labor Government.  Hawke and Keating have delivered a record which is nothing short of a national scandal.  They must pay the ultimate penalty of these 'crimes of Government.  They will - on March 24, when they're overwhelmingly thrown out of office.  THE NATIONALS' COMMITMENT AND CONTRIBUTION:  In looking towards our new direction, let me say that the Na-505 tional Party, without qualification, is totally committed to y-5\ taking its place as a strong, reliable and influential partner in the Coalition Goveriunent.  The stability of our Government will be beyond question.  We completely support the joint policies that are now before the people - the most comprehensive set of policies everao -presented to the Australian electorate.  Our influence in the development of those policies is undeniably reflected in the emphasis they place on increasing the competitive capacity of our great agricultural and mining industries and on improving the quality of life for people living in country and regional Australia.  The National Party bas always stood for the interests of people who live and work beyond the major capitals.  Today, that emphasis is as strong as ever. That's why Coalition 3o' Governments produce the most balanced policies that are best for ail Austrahans.  That's why there will always be a need for a strong and independent National Party.  REASONS FOROUR ECONOMIC CRISIS:  The fîrst and foremost priority for Australia is a dramatic change in economic strategy.  For the past seven years, Labor bas basically conned the Australian people.A  Keating and Hawke have told us tune and again that their policies will fix the balance ofpayroents deûcit will reduce iv . foreign detipwul ultimately eradicate inflation and will eut interest rateU  That's what they have told the Australian people but they have never, ever, delivered on those commitments.  The Current Account Deficit is increasing by around $1,000' million every month.  Net foreign debt is more than four tunes greater than it was seven years ago. As a percentage of GDP, it bas increased from4 5.7 to over 32 percent.  Inflation bas been consistently and substantially higher than  that of our major trading partners for the past five yearsjp and r-  it is not coming down.  Hawke now says inflation will be 6 percent next financial year. should anyone believe hun? In the 1988 budget he  promised it would be around 3 to 4 percent in 1990. It isn't, be-cause his policies failed then, just as they are failing now.  As for interest rates, what really can be saidJ The promises of cuts have turned into a nightmare of record mcreases that have wrecked the hopes and aspirations ofjust about every Australian.  The prospect of home ownership, once an achievable goal for - most Australians, bas become an increasing impossibiÏity.  Hardty anybody is unaffected by the interest rates crisis that has been deliberately created by the policies of the Hawke/Keating Govenunent.  Nobody should ever forget that - interest rates in this country have hit their record levels because of the Labor Government. '' No-one eise is to blame.  Hawke and Keating have created a tragedy of monumental proportions. have ruined hundreds of thousands of lives. They have stagnated the growth of the private sector and the ¥-potential of our great export industries.  At the same time, they have increased Government interference into people's lives.  There's virtually nothing you do today that doesn't involve the Government somewhere down the track.  Individualism is rapidiy becoming a thing of the past. dividual incentive to succeed and excel is going the same way.  That's the situation we're in today and that's the situation we in the National Party are detennined to break, once and for all.  POLICÏES FOR A SAFE FUTURE  THE ECONOMY:  Our entire policy framework is designed to get the private sec-tor economy rolîing agamJ to boost competitiveness and oppor- tunity, to strip Government interference down to the bare minimum, and to get taxation down to the bare minimum so that 15'1 people once again have incentive to work harder and save for / the future.  We will provide consistency in policy and direction so that industries and people will be able to plan ahead with confidence.  Our policies will guarantee a safe future.  Before I go into some ofthe details, I want to make one point, and make it beyond any doubt.  Every one of the policy commitments and undertakings that I and Andrew Peacock make to the Australian people will be met by the Coalition in Government.  That is a firm, unequivocal guarantee.  So far as the economy is concerned, and bearing in mind what I have just said, I now tell you that under a National/Liberal Government, starting immediately and improving throughout the fïrst term: 3c>5  • inflation wiiï corne down   • interest rates will therefore corne down  • the growth in international debt will be controlled  • export competitiveness, especially for major agricul-tural and mineral conunodities, will increase   • the tax burden for ail Australians, particulariy families with young chiidren will be eut  • the personal tax System will be simplified to a two-rate level and flattenedjOur objective is that the top rate wz will be brought down from 47% to 39% by the end of z our first term  • inflation-related tax increases - so-called 'bracket creep' which this financial year will be worth around $2.5BillionJ- will be returned to taxpayers at the end of each year oz.  • the indirect tax System - that area which Labor con- wz, stantly abuses in its quest for more revenue - will be totally reviewed.  Once our policies take effect, you will never again see the massive monthly current account deficits that you have seen under Labor.  You will never again see the massive increase in foreign debt that you see today.  The 'banana republic' image will be demolished.  Our economic performance will corne into Une with and ul-timately surpass that of major overseas comparisons.  As the worid sees thèse positive developments, we will regain our top-level international credit rating.  We'll be back on the worid stage as a reputable, stable country and as one ofthe worid's greatest trading nations.  CUTTING INTEREST RATES:  Interest rates will corne down because we will  - eut Government spending and waste WS  - provide maximum flexibility in the labour rnarket   - get rid of unwanted regulation and intervention a'  - use revenue raised from the sale of public assets to repay debt  - streamiine the public sector and open it to more competition  - increase efficiencies m areas such as communications, transport and the waterfront, and  - have far less reliance on monetary policy, thereby let-ting the dollar find its troe international value.  If you have thèse policies then interest rates must corne down -as must inflation and debt.  INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND WAGES;  Hand in hand with a massive change in economic direction, we will give far greater opportumty and freedom of choice in the "' labour market and wages System - and reduce Government in-f-o' terference in the private sector.  If they wish to, employers and employees can reach their own - agreements on wages and conditions.  They can implement innovative work structure and training ' package sueh as junior wages, training wages and flexible / ° working weeks, especially in the tourist industry.  Altematively, they can stay with a wages System arbitrated through theïndustrial Relations Commission.  Within that System, the Commission will have to take account of productivitv capacity to pay and the potential impact on Uemployment, inflation and competitiveness in making wage ad-J'ustmentsJ '2  The bottom Une is greater flexibility and freedom of choice.  Labor's mandatory centralised and rigid wage fixing system will be gone forever. It's out of date and out of fashion.  It has done nothing for Australia or Australians/except perpetuate uncompetitively high inflation, which in turn has eaten away at living standards and reduced our competitiveness on world markets.  If ever you wanted proof of how the System has failed, you've omy got to look at the history of the past seven years.  Wage/tax deals have been developed by the unions for theAa5 unions and rubber stamped by Hawke and Keating. They have been drawn up with total disregard of their impact on employers, the economy or competitiveness.  They have not helped workers) because they have stifled potential job growth and increased costs.  They have created a dog chasing its tail situation - wage/tax packages have been developed to allow workers to catch up on the falls in living standards and the increases in costs that were directly created by previous packages.  The latest accord announced last week with ail the fanfare of a budget in the middle of an election campaign is no different.  The ACTU has once again masterfully dominated Government policy with its demands.  The vast bulk of the extra money that will supposedly go to workers will have to be funded by employers. The Government will only be footing an extra $7 a week in tax cuts.  Once again it is the productive sector, the creators of real jobs, who are having to bear an even further cost burden.  Under the Hawke /Keating leadership the Government of Australia is dictated to by big union interests not the national interest.  We in the National Party are not dominated by big unions or big business.  We can therefore develop and deliver policies that people want and that are in the interests of the nation as a whole.  That's why we will abolish compulsory unionism and the closed shop.  We'll support voluntary employment agreements and we won't let agencies, like the Commonwealth Employment Service put bans on employers who practice such agreements.  We'll require secret ballots before strike actions and for union elections.  We'll ensure the availability of common law remedies in civil courts for illegal industrial action.  We'll strengthen, if necessary, the secondary boycott provisions of the Trade Practices Act.  We'll implement Commonwealth legislation to protect essential services against unwarranted industrial action especially in our export industries.  None of these determinations mean that we're anti-union We are What we do expect and demand, however, is that unions, like everyone else in society, be responsible and act I within the Manipulation of the nation's affairs and  manipulation of the views of ordinary workers by big union bosses will not be tolerated.  CUTTING THE TAX BURDEN  The next area of absolute priority is taxation. Labor is the highest taxing Government in Australia's history.  Every Commonweaith tax source has been increased by Hawke and Keating, despite their claims that they have brought taxes down.  Total Commonwealth tax revenue and total individual tax revenue in the last seven years have each increased by nearly 125 percent.  Indirect taxes and particulary the indexation of excise on such things aspetrol, beer and tobacco, has been increased by steath. These are Labor's hidden taxes.  The overall tax burden, coupled with high inflation and record interest rates is causing enorroous personal and family financial problems.  If something isn't done, and done urgently more and more people will sink below the poverty, more and more enterprises will go to the waiï, more and more families will break down and more and more kids will corne from broken homes.  That's an horrendous scenario. Tragically, it's the only scenario people can look forward to under Labor.  We will not tolerate such a situation. Taxes will be brought down, beginning first and foremost with taxes for families with young children.  They will immediately benefit from our increased child tax rebate, new child care rebate and increased threshold for the dependent spouse rebate.  Families are the foundation of our society. Unlike Labor, the National Party will never forget that. We make no apology for such a priority. Furthermore, we'll abolish any Government programmes that undermine that priority.  ADDITIONAL TAX BENEFITS:  Our tax changes will go much further than this and will help not oniy workers and their families, but the whole range of business and industry.  The return to taxpayers of inflation-related revenue in other words 'bracket creep', at the end of each financial year will be a major and ongoing benefit to keep the tax burden down.  The commitment to simplify and flatten the tax System is revolutionary.  The National Party was the first in Australia to promote the flatter tax concept. I am proud to be able to say today that it is no longer just a concept. From March 24, work will begin to bring it into reality within three years.  By the end of that time, there will be a simple two-tier tax system objective is to bring the top rate down from the present 47 percent to 39 percent.  Our total review of the indirect tax System will be aimed at giving even more relief At the very least, as a result of that review, the indirect tax'system will be made fairer than it is today.  The abolition ofLabor's capital gains tax - effectively a de facto death duty - will be a major benefit especially to family farms and small business. It will be replaced by a speculative gains tax, levied at a reducmg rate, on assets heïd for less than five years.  Changes to Labor's assets test will lift a major and unfair burden from many people.  The test will be completely abolished for people retiring or from family farm in certain instances. It will also be abolished, for those who remain on small holding on which they cannot generate income beyond age pension limits and for those who are unable to subdivide and their land due to government restrictions.  All other applications of the test will be thoroughly examined and reasonable cases of hardship will be fully and fairly considered.  The fringe benefits tax will be reviewed, especially in its application to remote area farming and mining.  THE FAMILY;  In his November 1984 election policy speech, the Prime Minister said, without equivocation: "This Government sets the welfare of the Australian family as its top priority.  Given his record, that was an outrageous statement, as was his promise in the last election that by now no Australian child would be living in poverty.  -  The truth is that under Labor, families have come under massive attack and traditional values and standards have been ignored and eroded.  If Mr. Hawke's concern for the family and for poverty is so great, then why is it that an estimated 2.5 million people - one in every eight families - is living in poverty about 440,000 children are in families living in poverty.  the number of marriages ending in divorce between i a. 1981 and 1986 increased from 14 percent to 35 percent.  Mr. Hawke's priority for the welfare of families is a cruel sham, a tragic farce, and a disgraceful deception.  Families can rest assured that the National Party will rigorously protect their interests as a major priority.  In the immediate sense, they know that after March 24, they will have tax benefits and will no longer have to bear the bur-den of Labor's capital gains tax.  They can also be totally assured that under our Government, there will be no reintroduced Commonwealth death or gift duties. There will be no national ID card. There will be no Bill of Rights.  PRIVATISATION:  The sale of appropriate assets to the private sector is a vital area in terms of cutting the size of Government and increasing efficiency.  It is aiso another classic area where the Hawke/Keating Government is under the thumb of the big unions.  In 1987, both Mr. Hawke and Mr. Keating were talking very favourably about a substantial programme of privatisation. They were going to sell international airport terminals and a host of other instrumentalities.  As Paul Keating said, on April 5,1987, the Commonwealth picks up a lot of things over the years and should not necessarily keep them. that is. But what's happened. Under this Government just about everything that has been picked up over the years is still with it.  Privatisation was stopped dead in its tracks after a couple of one-off fire sales in the 1987 budget It was stopped dead in its tracks by the left wing of the Labor Party and the big trade unions.  We will not be hampered in this way. A responsible programme of selling assets, with the revenue raised being used specifically to reduce debt, will be an ongoing part and parcel of our programme.  It will further ensure that the Commonwealth administration is streamlined, modem and efficien3 It will help to keep the cost of Government to a minimum]! It will help to get the Commonwealth out of areas in which it should not be involved.  There is one very important consideration about privatisation, which the National Party will always ensure is taken into total account.  There must be no threat to the quality, or increase in the cost, of services provided especially in country areas Also, transfers. private sector must fully consider job security of workers and be of positive benefit to consumers and/or taxpayers.  Because of that criteria there will be no sale of Telecom or Australia Post. They will continue to provide their core services to ail Australians They will, nonetheless, be open to increased competition in the supply of equipment, technology and innovative service from the private sector.  UNSHACKLING SMALL BUSINESS:  Cutting unnecessary regulation and intervention into the private sector will also be a major priority as will getting rid of unnecessary duplication between Governments and Government bodies.  This will be a particular benefit to the small business sector. ludicrous that small business owners and managers today have to waste so much time in the unproductive task of filling in Government forms.  We want them to devote as much of their time as possible to getting on with their respective enterprises.  As a matter of priority in Government we'll convene a meeting of Federal, State and Local Government representatives to precisely define areas of unwanted duplication. When those areas are identified, they will be removed.  We'll have ongoing monitoring at Parliamentary and departmental level of all business regulations and processes, w •s. One Minister will have a specific responsibility for this area.  Right from day one in Government we'll begin stripping away y the bureaucratic complications and hindrances that complicate y private enterprise.  To further boost small business growth, we'll increase contracting out by the Commonwealth to that we will pay within 30 days of receipt ail undisputed accounts due to small business.  Our labour market reforms and abolition of Labor's capital gains tax, together with our economic policies, will, of course, ail have a major beneficial impact on the capacity of small business and industry to expand.  We will give this vital area of the economy, the direction and confidence it needs for development in the future.  AGRICULTURE:  The right economic settings, the right labour market settings 'i and the right tax settings - our policies - will do more than any-thing else to boost our great export trades and therefore the wealth of the country.  The fact that our export industries have fared reasonably well in recent times is in no way due to the Hawke/Keating Government.  It bas one nothing positive for agriculture and mining.  success that those industries have enjoyed has been totally due • to the tenacity and efficiency of the producers themselves.  Because of Labor's economic policies, banks are foreclosing on an increasing number of farms and total farm debt has risen t "r1 from $7 Billion in 1985 to $9.5 Billion today.  The cost/price squeeze is very real m the bush and is daily threatening the capacity of agriculture to contribute to the national economy.  It is absolutely essential that agriculture - and mining - are given the right conditions to invest, compete, develop and expand with confidence.  Labor has denied them those vital requirements.  Yet it is in the interests of ail Australians - city and country -that thèse industries are as competitive as possible.  Agriculture and mining still account for the vast bulk of our total foreign earnings. Whiïe we should aiways strive for maximum value adding and diversification of export products, the simple truth is that we remain dependent - and at this time more so than ever - on our commodity exports.  Our economic policies have been developed with that very much in mind. They will guarantee increased export competitiveness.  In addition, in our first term we will further assist agricultural industries  • implementing a programme of steady reductions in tariffs, including the abolition of tariffs on imported farm machinery and spare parts U E.  • reinstating a proper Commonwealth involvement in drought aid.  • reducing agricultural export inspection charges to no more than 50 percent of the actual cost of service  • continuing the export market development grants  scheme.  • urgently reforming coastal shipping, the waterfront and transport industries.  • re-establishing rural research as the major part of the CSIRO's effort.  AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION;  There is growing public interest in conservation and animal welfare aspects of agriculture and forestry.  The vast majority of people directly involved in the industries are more than interested - they are vitally concerned, because these issues are central to their existence.  Livestock producers know very well that animals in poor condition do not fetch top prices at the saleyards. They therefore have a vested interest in maximising the condition of their product by treating their stock properly.  It is, however, important that high animal welfare standards are maintained and we will support the establishment of self-regulatory codes of practice.  We will continue and try to rebuild the live sheep export trade with the Middle East — again, ensuring proper standards are maintained.  SOIL AND WATER:  Soil and water conservation are imperative to a continuing strong agricultural sector. Until the Prime Minister's 'worîd's greatest environment statement' last July, Labor's record was pathetic.  Even with the new Land Care Programme, we don't believe it is good enough.  The Programme will be maintained but funding for the soil conservation element will be doubled to $46.4 million in the first year. ensure proper concentration is placed on tackling the major problem of salinity. It will also provide for the expansion of works eligible for deductability under section 75D of the Tax Act to specifically include expenditure on the establishment of trees, shrubs or pasture species designed to combat or repair erosion.  We will maintain the Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Strategy.  We will maintain tax deductability in the year of expenditure for on-farm water and soil conservation and salinity control.  Our commitment to national soil and water conservation puts real meaning into the Decade of Land Care.  FORESTRY AND TIMBER:  , Our forests provide a renewable resource which is vital to so much of our daily lives With proper management programmes, the forest industry can be maintained, as can the responsible aspirations of the majority of Australians with regard to conservation.  The responsibility for commercial forestry will remain with primary industry.  We will work cooperatively with the States to ensure that environmentally-sound rotational logging practices maintain a sustainable timber and pulp industry This will mean, from the Federal point of view, that the industry will have a guaranteed timber supply .  We will also, as a matter of priority, negotiate an expanded forest industry research programme on a dollar for dollar basis with the industry, similar to programmes in place for other primary industries.  We will encourage the maximum development of new plantation forests to reduce our dependence on imported timber. 409 Our trade deficit in timber products is currently running at over $1.5 Billion a year and must be brought down.  QUARANTINE:  It is imperative that we protect Australia's relative disease free status with regard to agriculture, and we will tighten import requirements for food, plants and animals as necessary.  As an example, we will not accept the current protocol for the import of apples from New Zealand because of the serious risk of introducing fireblight disease into Australia.  COMMODITIES:  Ail of our commodity industries ranging from wool, wheat and beef, through to dried fruits, cotton and grapes will always have sympathetic and responsible support from the National Party.  We will ensure ongoing and close consultation with farm organisations and specific industry bodies so that quick consideration can be given to specific problems or initiatives.  Our great wool industry, which bas done more to help our balance of payments and the standard of living of ail Australians than any other single industry, currently faces the difficulty of over supply and low world demand.  We will maintain the present level of the reserve price scheme/ s for the wool industry.  Our great wheat industry was seriously threatened by Labor's initial proposals to change wheat marketing arrangements.  Labor would have thrown the industry to the vagaries of a corrupted worid market by abolishing the sole export power of the Australian Wheat Board. We successfully prevented that from happening.  In Government, we will provide a 95 percent underwriting guarantee of the harvest price. We will never threaten the sole export power of the Board. We will ensure there is a grower chairman of the Board and a majority of grower representation on the Board.  In the domestic industry, if there is a need to change the Trade Practices Act to protect the Board's inter-State operations, those changes will be made.  „ The beef industry is on the threshold of potentially dynamic growth. It has pioneered new and innovative markets, especial-Ïy in the Asian region This will be further encouraged. The value of beef exports could double to $4 Billion by 1995   HELPING FAMILY FARMS:  To further enhance the viability of the family farm, and help to people in remote areas we will  • abolish Labor's capital gains tax and replace it with a speculative gains tax on assets held for less than five "a years  • provide tax write-off in the year of expenditure for mains electricity connections or upgrading to farm businesses  • abotish Labor's assets test for people retiring on or from family farms in certain cases, and review the assets test in general with special consideration for hardship.  • review the application of fringe benefits tax and assets test for remote area farm and mining industries .  • replace the assets test for isolated children's education assistance with an income test .  • ensure the assets test for Austudy properly considers hardship .  • ensure access to untimed local telephone calls for ail  Australians .  • review remote area zone allowances to ensure they are adequate.  Improving the quality of life for those great people who are prepared to work and live in the regional and remote areas of Australia bas always been a fundamental objective of the National Party.  It will always remain so - and the initiatives I have just out-lined demonstrate our success in ensuring that proper policies and proper consideration is given by the Coalition to those needs.  DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT:  The mining and resource industries have been hamstrung by Labor, because of inconsistent policies, especially those regarding the environment.  We will of course be mindful of environmental concerns - as in-deed are the vast majority of industries themselves.  We will, however, not use the environment for politically expedient decisions, as the Labor Party has done time and time again.  The issue is far too important for such a cynical approach.  Our concern for the environment and for conservation is genuine. Labor's is totally shallow.  What we want and what our policies will attract, is the support of those millions of Australians who, like us, share a deep concern to guarantee a responsible balance between conservation and sustained development.  Such a balance can only be struck and maintained with proper consultation and through the consideration of detailed arguments from ail sides concerned.  Therefore, we will ensure that a proper consultative system is established so that Federal Government and relevant State and Local Government, as well as industry, conservation and community views on potential developments are known and fully considered.  All proposed developments will be the subject of combined economic and environmental impact studies — as opposed to two separate studies, which can be unnecessarily costly and which may not be considered jointly, or at the same time.  We will support the inclusion of sites on worid heritage listings - but only if they are also supported by the relevant State Government. will not use of the Commonwealth's external affairs power to override State sovereignty in this, or any other regard.  Apart from knowing precisely where we stand on environmental issues, the mining industry also needs certainty in other areas.  We will give it to them.  abolish Labor's discriminatory three-mine uranium policy .  • allow the Coronation Hill gold project to go ahead .  • support the establishment of a uranium enrichment industry for Australia.  • abolish the coal export levy.  • review Labor's resource rent tax .  • review remote area zone allowances to ensure they are adequate.  INCREASING EXPORTS:  Coupled with increased competitive capacity, our export industries can also look forward to more aggressive international marketing under our Government.  We will ensure maximum concentration of effort on increasing our access in existing markets, on developing new exports for WV existing markets, and on cracking new markets.  Under our Government, the Commonwealth will pursue, at o every opportunity, and in every appropriate forum, a free and4" open international trading System, particularly for agricultural commodities.  Australian agriculture is increasingly having to compete in world markets that are corrupted by both production and export subsidies.  We will not only continue to fight such practices, we will also publish in the countries concerned the cost of them to tax payers and consumers.  We will vehemently pursue Australia's interests with countries and trading blocs that deliberately protect their markets iwf against Australian exports, l+<i -  The National Farmers' Federation will be closely involved our ongoing agricultural and related trade policy development and will be represented agricultural trade negotiations.  ROADS:  The maintenance and continued development of our national ' -infrastructure, especially roads, is vital to our economic development as well as people generally.  Labor's record on road funding is a monumental scandal.  While it bas increased federal fuel excise revenue by almost 500 percent over the last seven years - from $970 million to more than $5,000 million -- it has drastically cut funding for - roads. Over the past five years, funding has been cut in real terms by nearly 30 percent.  The situation is so critical that many local countils are turning bitumen roads back to gravel because they cannot afford any other form of maintenance.  Virtually ail research from every part of the world shows that bad roads are a major cause of accidents and fatality.  3o 5 The National Party has always regarded the national road network as a matter of the highest priority.  , No matter whether they are local roads or national highways, they are the communication lifeblood for the vast majority of people and for the vast majority of freight that is moved around the country and to and from our ports.  Because of the importance of roads, it was our initiative in 1982 that brought about the Bicentennial Roads Development Programme. times during the last Coalition Government, road funding was given its proper and rightful priority.  But ail of that effort, ail of that financial input by Australia's motorists and taxpayers, is amounting to nothing as Labor simply lets roads fall apart.  Mr. Hawke might announce increased funding in his election policy. say to him that it's too late, it won't wash.  Australians know what he has done to their roads over seven years and they won't accept a desperation increase in funding  just because there's an election campaign. They will, with total justification, question why funding was not adequate, consistently, each and every year over the past five years.  After March 24, we will be left with the massive problem of Labor's record of neglect. We will act to rectify the situation as a matter of utmost urgency.  We will immediately begin rebuilding the nation's road net-work.  Our programme will be undertaken without any increase in petrol taxes.  Each State, Territory and Local Government will be guaranteed its fair share of our increased funding programme.  y JI We will place emphasis on road that are vital to our economic growth and development.  We will also make certain that a fair percentage of road funding goes back to country roads — which is totally justifiable, given that country people travel greater distances and there- fore pay more in fuel taxes.  PACIFIC HIGHWAY:  One of our first priorities will be the implementation of a major upgrading programme for the Pacific Highway, to be completed by the year 2000.  By that time, over 50 percent of the highway between Sydney ' and Brisbane will be a four-lane dual carriage way with the remaining half upgraded to a high standard two lane road, with overtaking lanes every five kilometers - in other words, about every four to five minutes of driving time.  All existing road works on the Pacific Highway will be continued.  This particular project will be the first cab off the rank of a major road rebuilding programme which, thanks only to Hawke Labor, will take many years to complete.  want to stress that no other State will have any of its allocations diverted to the Pacific Highway programme.  AVIATION;  Aviation is a vital link for both passengers and freight.  Once again, under Labor, country people have been the most y disadvantaged in terms of passenger services.  The continued deregulation of the aviation industry will open new challenges and we will encourage maximum innovation and participation in the industry, while ensuring Australia's rigid safety record is maintained.  We will immediately begin development of a third runway at Sydney airport, to relieve the present chrome congestion and let planes arrive and depart on time.  The third runway for Sydney is an immediate and essential requirement.  TOURISM:  The Prime Minister's appalling handing of the pilots' dispute -which is still in reality going on - will have immeasurable adverse affects for a long time to come.  We will continue Labor's promotion and assistance package for the tourist industry, as it is clearly needed because of the immediate problems.  We will also closely monitor any further problems flowing on from the pilots' dispute so that quick action can be considered if necessary.  Tourism is an industry with enormous potential for Australia. create thousands of new jobs and become an even more substantial earner of foreign income.  its potential to develop more of Australia's country regional and remote areas is wide open.  What it needs to meet that potential is the right economic policies from Government, coupled with appropriate development programmes and an industrial relations system that al-lows the sort of flexibility required of a seven day a week, 24 hours a day industry.  Our policies will meet those requirements. We will provide an opportunity for the elimination of penalty rates in the tourist in-dustry.  The maintenance of internationally competitive standards and prices is very much a key to the success of future growth in this industry.  RURAL AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT:  Ail of the policy initiatives I have outlined will help to rebuild 8 confidence in the future and regenerate renewed progress and development.  From the National Party's point of view, it is essential that such confidence and growth takes place in rural and regional areas.  Labor bas seriously undermined the viability of these great centres.  Its neglect of roads bas hurt the country most.  Its high inflation bas added more to the freight costs of goods in country areas.  - Increased postal and telephone charges hit country people the hardest.  The viability of country chemists bas been seriously threatened.  Funding for local ownership of aerodromes has been virtually abolished.  Local Government grants have been savagely eut, leaving local authorities with no alternative but to increase rates or eut services.  30 S - Isolated patients' travel and accommodation has been eut, as has funding for isolated children's education.  All of these things have discriminated against country people -'v-ï i the very people who are most closely involved, either directly or indirectly, with the industries that produce the bulk of the nation's wealth.  Not only is such discrimination not fair, it will not be tolerated by the National Party.  We will always ensure that proper consideration is given to the needs, hopes and aspirations of country Australians. We will al-ways fight to make sure that priority consideration is given to equality of opportunity and services provided outside the capital cities, especially in areas such as roads, health, education and communications.  FOREIGN INVESTMENT:  Foreign investment is an issue of considerable concern. The National Party shares this concern.  We will ensure that there is a more effective review and monitoring of foreign investment in Australian enterprises. This will be done through the Federal Treasury rather than by a costly Foreign Investment Review Board.  We will require foreign investment to promote Australian interests by:  - providing for the maximum employment of Australians, use of Australian materials, processing of raw materials within Australia, and use of Australian science and technology in research and development.  - reciprocating investment opportunity in the country wishing to invest in Australia .  - maximising the potential for joint ventures in Australia and the investing country .  - ensuring that overseas investors pay a full and proper Australian tax liability .  - requiring investing countries as far as possible to open their markets to Australian products.  RETIREMENT INCOMES:  Australia's elderly population has been very shabbily treated .  Way back in 1983 they were promised that age pensions would be brought to 25 percent of average weekly earnings.  They will finally get a pension of 25 percent of average weekly earnings in April this year - seven years later.  On top of that insult, they've had to bear the worry of uncertainty and the pain of such impositions as the assets test, applied in a blanket, sweep-all manner.  We in the National Party believe our older citizens deserve better. older people still want to work and contribute to the nation. society should acknowledge their contribution and learn from their experience.  Under our policies, that experience will be tapped.  Compulsory age retirement will be abolished for ail tune.  People wishing to work beyond normal retirement age will be able to defer their pension entitlements and so receive higher pensions when they ultimately do retire.  We will also encourage greater savings for retirement, by providing tax deduction for investment in Retirement Savings Accounts and lifting the tax free threshold for lump sum super-annuation from $60. $125,000.  HEALTH:  Despite what Labor has tried to portray, we have a clear health policy for Australia-.s  Medicare will be retained and improved especially to provide a better service to pensioners and the disadvantaged.  The whole Medicare System will be totally reviewed by a Medicare and Health insurance Advisory Council.  As a result we will dramatically improve health services, reduce costs, cut hospital waiting lists and give people maximum freedom of choice.  Let nobody be under any illusion about Labor's position.  There's no doubt in the world that Labor, if given another term, would increase the Medicare levy, no matter what it tells you today. greater cost to Australians, Labor would let the present Medicare shambles get even worse.  BREAST CANCER SCREENING:  Over and above our Medicare review and the determination to improve the nation's health services, we will act immediately on an area of major concern to women in Australia - breast cancer.  Nearly 2,500 women a year die from breast cancer/and it is estimated that at least one third of these tragedies could have been prevented by early detection.  We will provide the facilities for that detection/Mobile testing a units will visit country centres on a regular basis to give women easy access to checks.  PHARMACIES:  We guarantee the continued viability of the pharmacy profession.  Anybody who's been into their local pharmacy over the past few months would undoubtedly know of the threat to pharmacies of the Labor Governments policies.  Hawke and Keating have shown a shameful disregard for the viability of the pharmacy profession - and, as a result, for the heaith of people.  Pharmacies provide an enormous community and public service that goes way beyond prescriptions and cough medicineT  They are local health counsellors who give an enormous amount of advice free of charge to anyone who asks. Their role is essential everywhere, and imperative in country and remoter areas. We in the National Party totally support the pharmacy profession and will never again allow it to be brought into the parlous situation of uncertainty that it faces today.  We will maintain a viable Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.  We reject the August 1989 determination of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Remuneration Tribunal, to slash dispensing fees by 25 percent.  After discussions with the profession we will establish a new body to determine remuneration issues.  Determinations must take into consideration mark-up, dispensing costs and professional services.  EDUCATION:  Ail Australians should have the right to freedom of choice in education for their children. The National Party totally supports that fundamental priority.  We will ensure in education policies that proper priority is given to the education needs of people outside the capitals, especially those m remote areas.  It is essential that children have assured access to primary and secondary education subjects, no matter where they live.  We are concerned to ensure that tertiary education is equally available to ail Australians.  We will replace the assets test for isolated children's education assistance with a test on income and ensure that the assets test on Austudy bas a realistic asset limit and provision for cases of hardship.  Ail tertiary students will benefit more under our policies.  At least 25 percent will have their tertiary education costs entirely paid by scholarships. Ail other students will pay less than they do at present.  Labor's tertiary tax of $1800 a year, indexed to the CP will be replaced with a flat annual fee of $1200 per student.  Aborigines:  One of the fundamental tenets of the National Party is that all people should be equal under the law and have equal opportunity free from discrimination on any grounds, especially race, colour or sex.  We also firmly believe that in the development of policies, the needs and considerations of ail people should be taken into ac-count.  Nonetheless, there will always be the need for special considerations and policies in certain instances. Aboriginal Affairs is an important example.  We don't believe that Labor's approach to Aboriginal Affairs is the best approach by any means. Labor likes to tell people what's best for them, rather than let people decide for themselves.  It bas imposed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission on to that population, against the will of the majority of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders that I have met and spoken with over recent months.  We will not proceed with this Commission.  Our fundamental objective in Aboriginal Affairs is to provide facilities and services on a cost-efficient basis and according to the priorities that Aborigines themselves see as important.'70 5 Those areas are basically housing, health and education.  That's where Aborigines want to see greater priority.  The majority of Aborigines also do not want any so-called treaty will effectively mean nothing and will do nothing to improve their quality of life or opportunity.  We recognise Aborigines and Islanders as equal Australians and as such they have precisely the same rights and obligations as everyone else. Any sort of treaty would therefore not only be meaningless, but potentially divisive.  We will work closely with Aborigines for Aborigines -just as we will work with all Australians for all Australians.  WELFARE:  Welfare assistance programmes will be fairly and readily avail-able to those in genuine need.  The programmes will be administered efficiently and will al-ways have the objective of helping people get back into a position where they can again reach self-satisfaction and contribute to the country.  At the same time, those who fund welfare programmes - namely taxpayers - have a right to expect that their national Government will protect their interests. Their money must be used wisely.  Under our Government that will be the case.  No one in genuine need has anything to fear from our programme.  However, we will not tolerate blatant fraud and abuse of the system. Quite apart from being unlawful, it's unfair, indecent and immoral.  The Labor Government last week acknowledged in the most blatant manner that its administration of the social welfare System has been a total failure.  Until last week, we were told time and time again that the System was working effîciently and that ail avenues of abuse had been removed.  Then, all of a sudden, Mr. Keating unveils a programme claiming that over $150 million can be saved in the social welfare budget next year. In other words, he has effectively acknowledged that the System is sloppy and wide open to rorts.  Our social welfare programme will tighten the System, stream-line it, make it fairer and more equitable than Labor's belated and hastily conceived concept.  - thoroughly examine ail of Labor's programmes to en-sure their relevance, cost-efficiency, and reduce fraud.  - end unemployment benefits after nine months with a strictiy monitored special benefit after that time available for those truly m need.  - not allow unemployment benefits to be given to those who have not previousiyworked.  - not allow migrants to qualify for unemployment benefit;  until they've been in the country at least 12 months.  - require more frequent medical assessment for sickness -:  benefit recipients.  CRIME:  There is growing concern in the community about increasing  crime, and particularly international drug trafficking and terrorism.  OUR policies will take an appropriately tough stand on these serious issues.  Nobody can have confidence for the future, for his or her safety, if such major crimes continue to grow unchecked.  In cooperation with the States, we will support substantially in-creased jail terms for international drug traffickers and terrorists, as well as for major crimes, such as murder and child molesting. We will also support substantially increased non-parole periods  In our view, the time when dangerous criminals can be out on the streets, sometimes after only a few months, must be ended.  The vast majority of law abiding Australians are entitled to expect safety and security in their society. We will make certain that the law meets that expectation.  CONCLUSION:  The National Party has outlined a totally comprehensive set of policies that are right for ail Australians, and especially those m country and regional centres.  The emphasis they place on bringing interest rates, debt, inflation and taxes down, will benefit ail Australians.  It will particular benefit our great agriculture and mining industries, and through them, the wealth of the nation  The policies demonstrate that the National Party has done its job in ensuring the needs of these great industries, and the needs of people living beyond the major capitals, have been recognised and acted upon.  These policies will see ail of Australia grow and prosper with confidence for the future.  They will see that regional and country areas can look forward to a new era of growth and expansion.  They offer real and positive hope for the future - something that has been lost under Labor.  They offer security for people to plan their lives with confidence.  They offer a safe future. AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY POLICY DOCUMENT  In seventeen days Australians will choose between two very different paths for their country.  Labor believes in advancing together.  We believe in getting unemployment down through growth - not in clubbing the economy with a new 15 per cent tax on nearly everything we buy.  We believe in practical, sensible policies to stimulate private investment and increase employment, while continuing with public investment in railways and roads - not in raising company tax and slashing government spending.  We believe that Australia must continue to increase its exports and that our future lies IN closer links with the fast growing economies of East Asia - not that exports will take care of themselves if we cut tariffs to zero.  We believe in good health care, good education and a good environment for all Australians - not in auctioning these fundamentals to the highest bidder.  We believe that the wealth and success of nations in coming decades will depend more and more on the skills and training of their workforces and the quality of cooperative relations between employees and employers - not on industrial war, individual contracts and low wages.  Labor's overriding priority for the next three years is jobs.  Jobs for the unemployed. Jobs for young people newly entering the workforce. Jobs for people re-entering the workforce.  LABOR'S STRATEGY FOR JOBS GROWTH IN THE 1990S  We recognise the task is not easy.  The Keating Government has put together a strategy for employment that includes public employment, private investment, an industry focus, a regional approach, and substantial public investment in training and retraining to return long-term unemployed people to the workforce.    Public spending can create jobs and, in Qne^atioq and the Budget, Labor made sure that the Government stepped in to stop the fall in employment.  Labor will maintain this spending, but public spending alone can create only a small fraction of the Jobs needed over the next three years to reduce unemployment.  Most jobs over the next three years will have to be created in business - which means business needs the confidence and the incentive to invest in increased production.  For the next three years. Labor will therefore place the emphasis where it ought to be. Not on big new taxes, not on industrial conflict, but on incentives to invest.  Labor has a jobs strategy for the nineties which is designed to assist recovery in business.  Under Labor, business will pay a tax of 33 per cent on its profits - compared with 42 per cent promised by the Opposition.  Under Labor, business will be able to obtain an extra tax credit of up to 20 per cent on all investment in the next two years - an incentive the Opposition refuses to offer.  Under Labor, an encouraging climate for investment has been created. Interest rates and inflation are low, profits are high, the exchange rate is very competitive and workers and employers are supporting change in an atmosphere of cooperation.  Labor has supported specific industries in their endeavours to compete on world markets.  And LABOR will continue to do so.  We will remove constraints on growth industries.  We will put the resources of government to work in expanding markets.  *  We will enhance the training and skills of employees.  We will continue to encourage innovation and enterprise as more and more films expand into export markets.  Labor's support for specific industries has seen a rapid expansion in exports of cars, medical and scientific equipment, ferries and phannaccuticals, telecommunications equipment and services, and processed food.  Labor will complement an industry strategy with a regional strategy.    The spread of growth and employment is dramatically uneven in Australia today. Queensland and Western Australia are moving ahead well while there are some signs that growth is stirring in NSW. But Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are responding much more slowly. Within the states, some regions are doing well, and others have bees hurt by high unemployment and the loss of key industries.  Labor believes that we cannot allow such regions to lag behind. We will create a Commonwealth Department of Regional Development to coordinate national programs to bring vigorous new industries to declining regions, and to equip people in these regions with the skills needed for their new industries.  However much we do to encourage new investment and new industries, and to reverse the decline of some regions. Labor recognises that there will be many thousands of Australians who remain unemployed and have continuing difficulty finding work.  People who have been unemployed a long time suffer the greatest distress from unemployment, and the greatest income loss. They are also in the greatest danger of losing valuable work skills and of being unable to contribute as much as they are able to Australia's prosperity.  Labor is committed to providing programs of training, retraining and subsidised job access to assist the long-term unemployed.  As unemployment diminishes and the proportion of long-term unemployed in the total rises. Labor's effort in jobs programs will not slacken.  Our commitment is this. Each and every Australian who is long-term unemployed and who can benefit from training programs or subsidised jobs access will be entitled to admission to those programs.  Labor's jobs plan embraces direct public spending on jobs, substantial incentives for business to invest, a new industries strategy, regional development measures, and targeted assistance for unemployed people.  It has to have all of these many elements, because the problem of substantial unemployment is the most difficult economic problem a country can race.  The Opposition, by contrast, promises only simplistic and implausible solutions - a new tax, and individual contracts for employees.    LABOR IS COMMITTED TO EXPANDING THE ECONOMY.  According to a consensus of international forecasters polled by The. Economist magazine, Australia will be one of the worid leaders in growth this year, while maintaining tow inflation.  Australia is emerging from recession strengthened by a decade of reform. Despite worid-widc recession we have now had four quarters of slow but continuous economic growth, with signs of acceleration in recent months. Over the last few months employment has begun to increase, particularly full time employment. Interest rates are lower than they have been for decades, and Labor has allowed the Commonwealth budget to swing into deficit to support economic expansion. Our increasing integration into the swiftly growing economics of East Asia is underpinning our trade and raising the ceiling on Australia's growth potential.  The reforms of the last decade have prepared us for sustainable growth in the decade ahead. The economy has increased in size by one thud. Incomes per bead have increased by 12 per cent. The number of jobs has increased by over one and a half million. Australia has now entrenched one of the lowest inflation rates in the world- The level of industrial disputes has fallen to a thirty year low. Our trade competitiveness against other countries has increased by more than one quarter over the decade. Our exports have doubled, while our manufacturing and service exports have both tripled.  The fact that the Australian economy after all this progress suffered a prolonged recession strikes at the very heart of what a Labor Government stands for. But we cannot be overwhelmed by our difficulties. We are emerging from the recession but we must woric tirelessly to create jobs and bring our economy fully back to health. This is not an easy task and it would be unrealistic to think that unemployment will fall quickly.  Over the last year the Keating Government has worked relentlessly to put growth bade into the economy.  In the One Nation statement a year ago, we initiated a large-scale program of spending on roads, railways and airports, designed to create jobs while building for Australia's future. We offered tax incentives for new investment which have resulted in the registration of projects worth $130 billion, many ready to go.  In the National Employment and Trammg Plan for Young Australian^ in July we increased spending on youth training and job schemes, so that 100,000 unemployed young people will benefit over the course of the year.  In the Budget we doubled spending on training, retraining and jobs programs so that at any one time around 90,000 formerly unemployed Australians are being helped into jobs.  And in the Investing in the Nation statement two weeks ago. Labor announced a sensible, practical program of company tax cuts and tax incentives designed TO provide Australian businesses with the wherewithal and the motivation to increase investment spending and employment.  The company tax rate cut from 39 per cent to 33 per cent will make Australia competitive with East Asia in attracting business investment. The investment allowance of up to 20 per cent will stimulate investment over the coming two years.  We have taken steps to encourage banks to develop fuller relationships with their business customers, particularly their smaller customers, so that they are better able to provide the finance that will be necessary as business invests and the economy grows.  In Accord 7, negotiated last week, the Labor Government and the ACTU have made wage increases depend upon progress towards a minimum of 500,000 net additional jobs over three years, and reaffirmed the joint commitment to preserving Australia's low inflation rate.  The achievement of a minimum net addition of 500,000 jobs has to be the main priority over the next three years.  Trade  Labor believes that Australia's strength in future years will depend on its strength in trade - and that strength in trade will depend on our continued success in industrial relations and workforce training.  Because of increased competitiveness and Australia's new openness, we now export nearly a quarter of all we produce. Manufacturing exports have grown to be consistently equal to rural exports, and the most complex manufactures are our most swiftly growing export. Well over half of our exports now go to the rapidly growing economies of East Asia, and the proportion is continuing to rise. A decade ago Labor inherited a large trade deficit. Last year exports exceeded imports, and we had the largest trade surplus for decades.  INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS  m industrial relations, Labor has embarked on a policy of focusing on the workplace, where in future years most wage settlements and most discussions between employers and employees and their representatives will occur. The series of Accords since 1983 has been responsible for the dramatic and sustained fall in Australia's inflation rate, and the solid increase in its international competitiveness, as well as for the unprecedented era of industrial peace.    Science and Technology  la science and technology, we have policies that are increasingly making the most of our excellent research skills, that are helping to develop our research into technologies which will create jobs, improve our health and protect our environment. Over the past decade, our support for science and technology has increased to $2.9 billion per year, a 39 per cent increase in real terms.  We have provided an atmosphere of certainty and stability by introducing the 150 per cent R&D tax concession and making it a pcnnancnt feature of the tax system. Asaresult, Australia has bad the highest growth rate among OECD countries in both business R&D and external patent applications since the early 1980s.  We have created 52 Cooperative Research Centres - a unique partnership between government, industry, the CSIRO and the universities - which will invest over $2 billion in fields as diverse as eye research and technology, premium quality wool and freshwater ecology. In recognition of the importance of this program, an additional 10 Centres will be established - a $162 million vote of confidence in the national research effort.  A FAIRER AUSTRALIA  Labor believes in Australians advancing together - in taking care of the needs of young people, older people, and the sick. It is by advancing together that we build a strong economy and a fair society.  Australia is a very successful multicultural society, one of great richness, variety and remarkable harmony. Labor believes in striving for a peaceful, socially just and culturally rich society for all Australians.  To achieve this, a Labor government sees its role as ensuring that all Australians, irrespective of their income, ethnic background, sex or racial origin, can have productive and fulfilling lives, and are able to exercise their rights and determine what shape their lives take.  Social justice is about the quality of life. It is about choices and opportunities for all. It is about entitlement to education, health care and affordable housing; about the right of families to receive assistance and older people to receive services; about the right of people in crisis or facing difficult periods such as marriage break-up, unemployment or homclcssncss to receive special support; and about the right of Australians from non-English speaking backgrounds to participate and contribute to our society.  Australia is leading the world in many areas of social policy. The Labor Government's reforms have been at the forefront of world thinking in the development of an active social security system which is linked closely to labour market programs to provide opportunities for workforce participation. We have a universal health system under Medicare, the provision of services and support for older people and people with disabilities, and the provision of assistance to families through indexed income support payments, ino^ascsm child care places and an effective child maintcnanoe system for children in sole parent families.  We are committed to multicultural policies which allow ethnic groups to maintain their traditions and culture within an overriding commitment to Australia.  Since coming to office in 1983, much has been achieved. For example:  • Family Allowance Supplement paid to low income working families has increased in real terms by 77 per cent for children under 13 and 150 per cent for children aged 13-15. [t is currently $31 a week for children under 13 and $44 a week for older children;  • the number of government funded child care places has increased from 46,000 to nearly 200,000 and fee relief for child care expenses has been increased and extended;  • today, almost eight out of ten young people stay on at school to Year 12, compared with less than four in ten in 1983;  • the higher education system has greatly expanded from 335,000 to over 530,000 students;  • a major reform of vocational education and training has begun with the setting up of the Australian National Training Authority, with an additional $720 million in 1993-95;  • with the establishment of the Aboriginal and Tones Strait Islander Commission, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now have a real say in matters affecting them;  • a comprehensive response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody to address both the immediate concerns and the underlying causes of Aboriginal disadvantage, with a focus on the key areas of economic development, education, housing, health care, legal services and police relations; and  • a revised aged care program has been implemented with support for nursing homes and hostels and the introduction of the Home and Community Care program to assist older people to remain in their own homes.    Today, Labor reaffirms its commitment to a fairer Australia. In particular, Labor will introduce initiatives to improve assistance to women at home caring for children, access to health care and support for low income older people.  Assistance for Caring for Children  Labor has already announced a major reform of child care policy to address toe three key concerns of working parents: the availability, cost and quality of child care. Labor is committed to increase places to meet the demand for work-related child care and will introduce a 30 per cent cash rebate for the cost of care.  This will ensure that Labor has in place a soundly based child care system able to provide the right kind of assistance to women who will continue to enter the workforce in growing numbers in the l°90s.  But child care assistance is not just about providing necessary support for mothers in the paid workforce or who undergo training or education. Recognition should also be given for the important role and contribution of women caring for children at home. These women also need support as they deal with the additional expense of children, often in a situation where the family has only one income earner.  Accordingly, a Keating Government will increase the dependent spouse rebate and pay it directly to the spouse at home caring for children. The new Home Child Care Allowance will be $30 a week and will provide some source of independent income for women at home caring full time for children. Fee relief will also be increased for occasional child care.  DENTAL AND HEALTH CARE  There is dear evidence that people with low incomes suffer from poor dental care and are twice as likely to have their teeth extracted. Labor will implement a Commonwealth Dental Health Program to improve access to emergency and basic dental care for low income families and individuals. With a new dental program alongside Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Labor will provide a total health package for people on low incomes.  For hospital care, the way forward is to better integrate the services offered by the public and private hospital systems, by looking for opportunities for the most effective use of resources. Labor recognises the strengths of both the public and the private systems and seeks to use health resources in the best interests of patients.    To encourage better utilisation of health facilities. Labor will fund the treatment of public patients in private hospitals. The focus will be on people needing elective surgery to reduce waiting times. This will be a voluntary scheme in which all private hospitals can participate. The scheme will not interfere with the right of each private hospital to chose whom ft admits. For example, the Australian Catholic Health Care Association has hdkatcd that they would be interested in treating pensioners waiting for elective surgery on this basis.  Labor will also increase funding for post-acute and palliative care and encourage private hospitals to participate. This will mean that public patients in need of this special care may be treated in public or private hospitals as appropriate.  RETIREMENT INCOMES  The cornerstone of Labor's retirement incomes policy is an adequate age pension for those most in need. Under Labor, the pension has increased in real terms by 15.4 per cent and is now equal to 26 per cent of average weekly earnings compared with 22.7 per cent when Labor came to office. Labor has also extended fringe benefits to all pensioners.  Labor now undertakes to improve the position of low income non-pensioner retirees. The assets test will be eased in recognition of the impact of the fall in interest rates on retirees' incomes. Also, Labor will introduce a Seniors Health Card for all older people with incomes below the pension cut out point. The Health Card will entitle low income non-pensioners to concessional phannaceuticals and hearing aids.  The Environment  The environment is another area where a Keating Labor Government makes a strong stand. Labor's record on the environment is mdeed an exceptional one.  Without a Labor Government, the Tasmanian Worid Heritage Area would not have been doubled; Kakadu would not have been tripled in size; Coronation Hill would have been mined; Frascr Island, Shark Bay, the Great Barrier Reef, the rainforests of the wet tropics and the Tasmanian tall forests would not have been protected.  Labor has also introduced new programs to combat pollution and the threat of global warming and was the first government to identify and tackle land degradation as a major national issue.    Notwithstanding this impressive record. Labor clearly recognises the magnitude of environmental challenges ahead as was outlined in the Prime Minister's Environment Statement in December last year. The Prime Minister announced wide ranging new initiatives and a significant increase in spending on the environment, including a $100 million boost to programs to dean up our major waterways, with emphasis ON the Murray-Dariing Basin.  Other highlights include $13.9 million to maintain and expand protected areas and encourage the preservation of wild and pristine rivers, protection of old growth and wilderness forests, a boost to coastal and marine protection programs and endangered species programs, $15 million extra spending on the control of feral animals and plants, and $85 million extra for programs aimed at improving air quality.  It is a comprehensive program and shows that Labor's commitment to the environment has not diminished. Indeed, we take this agenda further today by providing funds to underwrite the installation of domestic solar hot water heaters. Alan Griffiths will announce details shortly in a statement on renewable energy.  The Coalition's environment policies would put all the recent progress into reverse. They would lift the limits on wood chipping, mining and exploration in National Parks and World Heritage Areas, expand uranium mining, develop a uranium enrichment industry and give the green light to domestic nuclear power stations. The Coalition would also strike down proper environmental assessment processes approving all developments after twelve months even if the delay is caused by the proponent.  ARTS  Labor has provided strong support for the arts so that today we have a very diverse and vibrant industry, one that enriches while providing over 200,000 jobs. In 1988, the Government established the Australian Film Finance Corporation to invest in Australian films. The resurgence of Australian films shows how successful Labor's strategy has been. Labor has supported excellence in the arts through the Australian Artists Creative Fellowship Scheme and has facilitated 19 exhibitions for major works of art over the past 5 years. We have strongly supported the National Performing Arts Touring Program thereby enhancing access to the arts for all Australians.  Labor recognises that Aboriginal arts and crafts enrich the culture of all Australians. Without an appreciation of Aboriginal art and culture we have a very incomplete knowledge of our culture and of the cultural changes occurring in Australian society.    Labor has therefore fostered the preservation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural traditions and artistic techniques of the past, such as protection of sacred sites, the returning of cultural property to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people and die identification and preservation of rock ait. We have also promoted the development of contemporary Aboriginal cultural expression.  Sport  Labor recognises the importance of greater participation in sport for a healthier and fitter community. It is why we have increased spending on sport six fold since 1982-83. FT IS why in the last Budget the Government introduced a new program, "Maintaining the Momentum", which will encourage even broader participation through programs ranging from helping our elite athletes, to encouraging community sport and enhancing physical education in our schools.  As part of this program, 200 Sports Traineeships will be established. The trabeeship will offer young people accredited training and a start in an exciting career as well as, in the long run, improve the management and administration of Australian sport.  Summary of New Measures  Today, Labor underlines its commitment to jobs and a fairer Australia by announcing additional measures. These measures build on the initiatives introduced in recent announcements, especially in Investing in the Nation. They are modest in size, adding stimulus of less than 0.1 per cent of GDP. They are, however, very important in setting the direction of policy for the next Heating Government, in expanding job opportunities and providing support for all Australians.  The new measures are:  lobs  • to extend the very successful development allowance into industries that were previously ineligible for the allowance;  • to strengthen recovery in regions lagging behind the rest of the Australian economy, Labor will create a Minister for Regional Development and a Department for Regional Development. The portfolio will be charged with responsibility for advising on me coordination of all Commonwealth programs which impact on lagging regions, sad with harmonising state and federal government programs to gain vwammn impact;  • to accelerate the creation of high-skill high-wage employment Labor will encourage and support specific growth industries of the next decade;    • to support a number of industries facing increased competition as they undergo structural adjustment, developing country tariff preferences will be eliminated on certain products;  • to support both regional Australia and a rapidly expanding export industry, a package for regional tourism will be introduced;  Asia  • to help Australian companies take full advantage of market opportunities in Asia, Labor will establish an Asia Economic Centre to provide high quality, business-oriented analysis of the Asian economies;  • we will also introduce a related package of measures to expand Australian business networks with Asia, refine the way we project Australia's image in Asia, and increase the number of Australians with Asian language skills and familiarity with Asian societies and economies;  Education and Training  • to further strengthen the high quality of our university research effort, we will provide an annual injection of $52 million for university infrastructure;  • to expand the number of student places. Labor will fund any spare capacity in universities;  • to improve the flexibility and responsiveness of training programs to the needs of small and medium business. Labor will develop group training companies on an industry basis and extend their role beyond training to employment;  •, TO expand career opportunities for young people and to improve the management OF Australian sport. Labor will establish a Sports Traineeship with specialist training and work experience in national sporting organisations;  Transport and Communications  • to create a truly integrated and world class transport system. Labor will appoint an expert panel to advise on Australia's transport needs into the 21st century;  • to further Labor's commitment to public broadcasting, services to regional and rural Australia and services to youth, we will extend the ABCs TOple J Youth Network through out Australia;    Assistance far Caring for Children  • to recognise the contribution to Australia made by spouses at home taking care of children full time. Labor will increase the dependent spouse tax rebate and pay it as cash directly to the spouse caring for the children. The new Home Child Care Allowance will be $30 a week. Fee relief will also be increased for occasional child care;  Dental Care and Health  • to improve access to dental care for low income families and individuals. Labor will establish a new Commonwealth Dental Health Program for emergency and basic dental care;  • to tackle the problem of waiting lists for elective surgery. Labor will fund the treatment of public patients in private hospitals;  • Labor will expand post-acute and palliative care for public patients and encourage private hospitals to participate;  Retirement Incomes Policy  • to assist low income non-pensioner retirees. Labor will ease the assets test and introduce a Seniors Health Card for concessional pharmaceuticals and hearing aids;  • recognising that income and housing are equally required for a secure and comfortable retirement. Labor will permit part of the deposit on owner occupied dwellings to be funded from the home buyer's superannuation account;  CitefL  • to support Australian culture and to extend access throughout the community, a major package will be introduced in the cultural area;  Renewable Energy  • to build on major initiatives recently introduced in the environment statement, funding will be provided to encourage increased use of solar power in homes.    THE OPPOSITION'S AGENDA  By contrast with Labor, the policies of the Opposition threaten everything that Australians have won by their sacrifices.  The Opposition's 15 per cent tax on most things we buy will more than double our inflation rate, and hit spending at the very time we need to encourage growth and demand.  The GST is a Ufestylc changing tax which can only advantage higher income earners:  Our historic achievement of the lowest inflation rate for thirty years will be lost. The strengthening recovery will be set bade as spending is cut back.  The Opposition's policy of cancelling all industrial awards will force nearly 6 million Australian employees to choose between taking the boss's contract, or taking the sack.  Our historic achievement of the lowest rate of industrial disputes for thirty years will vanish in industrial turmoil.  The Opposition's policy of abolishing access to bulkbilling for 13 million people, forcing most people out OF Medicare and into private insurance will touch off a rapid rise in medical and insurance costs while diminishing the quality of and access to medical and hospital CARE FOR all but the wealthy.  The Opposition's policies would attack the quality of life of the most disadvantagcd Australians. THE Opposition would cut nearly $10 billion from government programs, including a large reduction in government funds for public housing.  Support for unemployed people would also be cut. The Opposition would make unemployed people retrenched from their jobs wait much longer for financial assistance and cut spending on labour market programs by a quarter. Unemployed people would also be required to accept below award wages for up to 18 months under the Opposition's AUSTRAIN proposal.  The Opposition would undermine public education by introducing fees for university courses. The Opposition has made it clear that fees would apply to "all courses and all students". Full cost fees would be between $25,000 and $130,000. The Opposition would introduce a voucher scheme but have provided no details of how it would work. Voucher would destabilise higher education, particularly threatening system diversity and regional provision. Ability to pay for an education will increasingly replace merit as the criterion for entry to universities.    The Opposition's proposals for schools provide windfall gains of over 50 per cent to the wealthiest private schools. The poorest noo-govcmmcnt schools receive very limited additional benefit. State school funding will fall as a result of the Coalition's 5 per cent cut in Federal grants to the States.  DrHcwson will also withdraw Commonwealth funding from the national vocational educational system to set up a training voucher* scheme. These vouchers will only be available for young people prepared to accept Dr Hcwson's youth wage of $3 or $350 an hour and for older people prepared to work for less than award wages under the Coalition's AUSTRAIN scheme. People on award wages will not be eligible.  16 DESCRIPTION OF MEASURES  Development Allowance Industry Policy Science and Technology Economic Engagement with Asia Regional Headquarters Developing Countly Tariff Preferences Rural and Provincial Australia Regional Development Education and Training Assistance for Caring for Children Health  Retirement Incomes Policy Superannuation and Homes Culture Transportation    DEVELOPMENT ALLOWANCE  To bring on private investment is central to create long-term jobs. The development allowance introduced in Qne Nation is doing fust that We will extend this allowance to a range of industries that were originally ineligible to apply.  Some $130 billion worth of projects had been registered for the Qnc Nation development allowance by December last. This represents enormous confidence in the Australian economy and augurs well for growth and jobs for the remainder of the decade.  The development allowance is available only for projects meeting a number of specific criteria. The projects must involve a total capital cost of over $50 million, be in industries not subject to significant protection and involve a commitment to achieving world best practice.  These criteria are important in enhancing our ability to compete in worid markets. The success of the development allowance, however, has also highlighted the fact that other industries would benefit from the allowance and help them become productive on an international scale.  Accordingly, a Labor Government will extend the development to a range of other industries originally excluded from applying. These will include the motor vehicle industry, where investments to expand our export base are being planned, and the communications industry.  In addition, we recognise that a number of proposals which did not meet the test of having a value of at least $50 million for a single, discrete project are worthy of further consideration. We will refer proposals which involve a number of associated discrete projects with an aggregate value in excess of $50 million and which would otherwise meet the eligibility criteria that applied to the development allowance to the new National Investment Council for consideration and recommendation to Government as possible recipients of the development allowance for the aggregate proposal.  IN1WSTOY fOUCY  We will continue to encourage and support our industries as they compete increasingly successfully in world markets. New measures to faster the telecommunications, shipbuilding and pharmaceutical industries will be introduced,  Australian industry today is especially well placed to take advantage of investment opportunities which will create jobs in exciting new areas.    The environment for investment has never been better. We have low inflation, low interest rates, a very competitive exchange rate and a cooperative industrial relations framework where all parties are actively exploring ways of doing things better.  We have a truly competitive tax regime with accelerated depreciation and the special development allowance introduced in One Nation. These are now further enhanced by a corporate tax rate of 33 cents in the dollar and the additional investment allowance. We have the opportunity to build on the innovative skills of Australians, skills that arise from an increasingly educated workforce and government support for research and development.  A whole range of small to medium sized companies, described in a recent McKinscy report, have recently emerged as exporters of high valued added products. Government assistance has been important to the success of many of these firms.  We have this sound base. And we have the opportunity to create and grow in the most rapidly expanding region in the world, the Asia - Pacific region.  To build on our competitive base we can and we must do more than just create a positive environment for job creation. We must also understand the particular needs for each industry and seek to ensure that those needs are met.  It is only Labor that understands how government can BE constructive without putting up protective barriers and turning Australian industry inward as Coalition governments have done in the past.  It is only Labor that has understood the importance of diversifying our export base with high quality manufactured exports and building new industries which will secure long-term jobs.  It is Labor that understands how industry policies can be designed to make the industry in question better able to compete in worid markets.  Programs such as the Heavy Engineering Adjustment and Development Program (which cost $60 million) and the Metal based Engineering Program (which cost $15 million) have helped boost engineering exports by 62 per cent in three years to over $4 billion.  The car plan has internationalised the industry. An inward looking industry producing poor quality cars for the domestic market has been transformed. Quality has been improved 40 per cent and exports have already been tripled with more growth to come as investment plans are realised. For example, Toyota is building a $420 million plant at Altona to produce 100,000 cars per year with 30 per cent for export. Mitsubishi Australia has been designated as sole world supplier of the Magna Wagon, shipments to the US have started and approximately 15,000 vehicles valued at $200 million will be exported annually.    In fact Mitsubishi is one of the great success stories of Australian manufacturing carving out for itself a secure role in the Australian car industry by integrating itself more and more with its parent's world wide production arrangements.  Mitsubishi has plans TO further this integration with new investments to expand engine production and to secure for its Adelaide plant a greater proportion of MitsubishTswodd wide production OF SIX cylinder CARS.  With the extension of the development allowance to the car industry and with the new generalised investment allowance, the Government expects this new phase of Mitsubishi's expansion in Australia to take place. In any case a Kcating Government would work closely with Mitsubishi to bring this about.  An efficient car industry, integrated with the worid industry, is an important device helping to develop sophisticated manufacturing in Australia. Labor is committed to an expanding car industry in this country. The Coalition's zero tariff policy can only serve to weaken the car industry.  Government support through research and development, NIES and export marketing grants have helped our medical and scientific industry export over $500 million a year.  The potential for Australia's agri-food industries is enormous. The Government's July 1992 Agri-Food Industries statement aims to meet the growing opportunities of the Asian market by changing the inward focus of the industry and significantly lifting its productivity, investment, innovation and export performance. The major initiatives are directed to improving market access, promoting Australia as a source of dean and wholesome food, improving the industrial relations and training environment in the industry, encouraging networking and collaboration and lifting investment IN food processing,  The TCF industries have had to undergo major adjustments, but with the assistance of the TCP Development Authority, a good number of firms are now well placed to compete withthebcst. The wool tops industiy is expanding rapidly laying a base for the development of a stronger textiles industry.  All in all. Labor has a proud record of encouraging and supporting industry in its endeavour to compete. The next Kcating Government will take this further.  The Asia-Pacific telecommunications market is the fastest growing market in the wodd and is expected to grow at the rate of 30 percent per year to an estimated $100 billion by 1996. Australian industry is well placed to become a major supplier to the region through continued inteniationalisation ofAOTC, international companies using Australia as a base for their regional activities, and the emergence of innovative local companies.    We will establish an expert group which will include representatives from AOTC, OPTUS. industry and unions to develop a technical and commercial blueprint for extending the optical fibre network to the majority of houses, businesses and schools in Australia. Already AOTC has laid over 1 million kilometres of optical fibre cables. Australia is in the forefront of this technology. Extending the optical fibre network to the majority of businesses and residences capitalises on the significant investment we have already made. It will create a platform for the delivery of a large range of service and the development of new industries. Extending the network to our schools and other education institutions will further our efforts to raise standards.  An innovative and vibrant telecommunications industry will be of pivotal importance to the Australian economy in the decades ahead. It will provide jobs directly in the major operators of telecommunications services and in many supporting industries.  But it requires a leadership that supports Australian manufacturing. It requires AOTC to remain in public ownership. Without public ownership, services to consumers will be threatened. And without public ownership the jobs of all those in supporting manufacturing firms will be threatened. This would especially be the case if AOTC were to come under foreign control which would be the inevitable result of the Opposition's desire to sell AOTC quickly.  The shipbuilding industry has been transformed, with help from the government's shipbuilding bounty and export financing and insurance corporation, from an inefficient dinosaur to one producing fast catamaran ferries and luxury motor yachts for the worid market. Australia has over 10 per cent of the worid market in these two sectors with exports approaching $300 million. New firms using smart marine engineering and innovative materials technology have created jobs in Tasmania, Western Australia and Queensland to produce boats for Europe, China and elsewhere. Currently the bounty is due to end by June 1995. As a new measure, a Labor Government will extend (he bounty in line with general manufacturing tariffs so that it is progressively reduced from the current 10 per cent to 5 per cent by June 1996. This will cost some (57 million over four years.  The Pharmaceutical Industry Development Program is an innovative plan to ensure that Australia captures the full commercial benefits from our worid class medical research and hospital system. The program provides an incentive for Australian and international firms to base their Asian operations in Australia. A Labor Government will provide 15 year effective life patent protection for phannaceuticals in line with US and European standards. This wiUfuithcT improve the cnviromnent for the industry to research and develop new drugs in Australia and thereby help boost exports from their current level of $450 million to over $2 billion by the year 2000.    SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY  The Labor Government will build on ifs commitment to a strong research baseand encouragement of innovation and development. We wUl add to Cooperative Research Centres and provide continuing support for higher education research infrastructure,  Science, technology and engineering ale fundamental to a competitive business sector, a world class health system and a dean environment. Combined with a skilled wockfence, they provide the basis for Australian industry to innovate and succeed in new mariceto.  Research, though, IS A long-tenn investment. Outstanding discoveries can BEST BE encouraged in an atmosphere of certainty and stability. A Labor Government will continue to provide that.  OVER the past decade, government support for science and technology has increased TO $2.9 billion per year, a 39 per cent increase in real terms.  The 150 per cent research and development tax concession has been instrumental in lifting business sector research in Australia. Since the beginning of the 1980s, business spending on research and development has more than doubted, both in real dollar terms and as a percentage of GDP. Among OECD countries, Australia has had the leading growth rate both in business R&D and in external patent applications. Labor has made this incentive for R&D a permanent part of our tax system.  The Cooperative Research Centres - a unique partnership between government, industry, the CSIRO and the universities - will invest over $2 billion in research in fields AS diverse as eye research and technology, premium quality wool, freshwater ecology and materials welding and joining. In recognition of the importance of this program, as mentioned in Investing in the Nation, an additional 10 Cooperative Research Centres will he established, costing $162 million over the life of the centres.  Since 1982-83, Government funding for higher education research has increased by 46 per cent in real terms. Nevertheless, the rapid expansion of the higher education sector has put some strain on university-based research. In response, the Government recently announced that:  • the number of Australian Postgraduate Research Awards awarded annually was increased from 1300 to 1500;  • research grant funding will be increased by $12 million in 1994; and  • a review of the fundmg of research in&astnicturc in higher education institiitioas by the National Board of Employment, Education and Training (NBEET) is being undertaken;    The 1989 statement, Science and Technology for Australia, provided $175 million over 5 years to 1994 for higher education research infrastructure. In order to maintain the high quality established through that funding, the Government will provide an annual Injection of $52 million for university infrastructure from 1995. This will help revitalise and re-equip university science laboratories and engineering schools. Additional in&astiucture needs will be examined as part of the Government's response to the NBEET review, which is to be finalised shortly.  ECONOMIC ENGAGEMENT WITH ASIA  To assist Australian business to seize export and investment opportunities in the rapidty growing Asian economies, Labor will establish an Asian Economic Centre to improve the availability of high quality, business-oriented economic analysis of Asian countries.  ASIA ECONOMIC CENTRE  Late last year the Government commissioned from the consultancy firm. World Competitive Practices, a report into the availability to Australian companies of business-oriented economic analysis of the rapidly growing Asian economics. The report identified a number of areas where unproved information could significantly benefit Australian business and recommended that a new body, funded by the government with substantial business involvement, be established to meet the gaps identified.  Labor has decided to establish an Asia Economic Centre and to meet the bulk of its funding requirement over the next four years. The Centre will be distinguished by its clear business orientation and the high quality of its analysis.  The work of the Centre will focus on areas identified in the report as being of highest value to business, but where there are presently shortfalls in Australian analytical capability, namely:  *•  • stnictural analysis of national ccoiiomies-including macro-economic trends and forecasts, industry composition, trade dependence, demographics, incomes and consumption patterns;  • analysis of business systems and sectors - including intra-iodustry structure and characteristics, financial systems, distribution systems, and business-government relations; and  • development of business information sources - including country - specific databases and library, and links to Asian research centres.  The Centre will establish strong linkages with similar institutes in the Asian region.    While the Government will initially fund the bulk; of the Centre's operating costs, the objective will be for it to become primarily self-funding through fcc-for-service and subscription income. The Government will also seek private sector equity to maintain the Centre's business focus.  The cost of establishing the Centre and funding its work program over the period 1993-94 to 1996-97 will be $16 million.  OTHER INITIATIVES ON ASIA  Labor wiU announce later in the campaign a further package of initiatives to increase the quality, depth and effectiveness of our economic engagement with Asia. They will cover these areas:  • expanding Australian business networks in Asia;  • refining the way we project Australia's image in Asia;  • increasing the number of Australians with Asian language skills and familiarity WITH Asian societies and economies.  The total cost of these further initiatives will be $44 million over four years.  REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS  As part of our developing closer links with the region, we will encourage major companies to establish their regional headquarters in Australia.  East Asian economies are growing at a far more rapid rate than those of Europe or North America. US and European multinationals are increasing their focus on the region and those not established here are looking fora presence.  Traditionally, Hong Kong and Singapore have been seen as the principal destination OF such regional headquarters (RHQs) but Hong Kong has now encountered some leakage'.  Decisions on location are driven by a range of factors; Australia is a dear leader in many. These include skilled workers at competitive costs, a favourable industrial relations climate, a sophisticated telecommunications structure and a sound financial sector along with an attractive climate and tifestyle.  The Government welcomes the establishment of RHQs in Australia.  The Prime Minister's statement of 16 February, hivesting in the Nation announced the establishment of a National Investment Council (NIC).    The Council will:  • advise the Government on strategies - both general and specific - to attract foreign investment; and  • facilitate such investment by acting as a point of contact in meeting Commonwealth and State regulatory requirements including approvals.  An important element of the Council's WORK will be to facilitate the establishment OF RHQs in Australia,  The Government is also prepared on a case-by-case basis to examine particular constraints on their establishment. For example, we have been prepared to give a sales tax exemption to Cathay Pacific to locate its worid wide data base in this country. The up-front value of that arrangement to Australia is an investment of $200 million. Without the exemption, Cathay would probably not have come here.  The Government, however, will always be mindful to maintain the integrity of the tax system.  The flow-on effects of Australia becoming a significant centre of RHQs are potentially large. Estimates suggest up to 6000 jobs may follow; there would be a large boost to the telecommunications, aviation, a range of professional services and other related industries.  DEVELOPING COUNTRY TARIFF PREFERENCES  A re -elected Labor Government will modify the developing country tariff preferences far all but the least developed countries and South Pacific Island Territories by eliminating preference margins for certain industries.  The industries for which preferences will be eliminated are the textiles, clothing and footwear industries, chemicals, sugar, canned food, fruit juice and dried fruit.  These industries are facing substantially improved competitiveness of developing countries at the same time as they are undergoing structural adjustments under tariff reduction and other programs. Tariff preferences are no longer required for developing countries to compete in the Australian market in these industries.  Tariff preferences were introduced in 1965 to assist developing countries compete in (be then highly protected Australian market. Developing countries now benefit from much lower protection in Australia.    The elimination of developing country preferences for these industries will BE implemented by freezing tariffs for specified goods from developing countries until die general tariff rate falls to the developing country preference rate. Thereafter the general tariff rate will apply. No tariffs will be raised.  RURAL AND PROVINCIAL AUSTRALIA  Labor has a proud tradition of bringing Australians together. An important element of this is the recognition of the sigmficani role played by rural Au^alia and owprcwncial towns and cities. Packages for rural Australia and regional tourism will be Introduced while Triple J radio will be extended to all parts of Australia with populations over 20.000.  RURAL AUSTRALIA  Historically, rural Australians have made a great economic and cultural contribution to this country.  The Labor Government is building on this contribution through the implementation of policies to enhance the productivity and profitability of farm enterprises, to diversify rural economies and better integrate them into the broader national economy, to improve natural resource management and to promote the well-being of rural communities.  Accordingly, the Government will introduce a number of new measures during the next term of office in pursuit of these objectives. These include:  • A SUGAR PACKAGE TO ENCOURAGE STNMAURALRCFONN AND GROWTH IN THE SUGAR INDUSTRY;  • the climiaation of developing country preferences for canned food, &uit juice and dried fruit; and ^  • a 10 per cent investment allowance for plant and equipment, which will assist in reversing the run-down in farm capital.  We will shortly be announciflg details of a package for mral Australia. Thiswilldraw together specific rural measures costing $45 million, other initiatives relevant to rural industries and communities, and future rural policy directions.    REGIONAL TOURISM  The tourism industry is of central importance to the Australian economy. It accounts for almost 500,000 jobs, about 6 per cent of total production and 11 per cent of our export earnings. International tourist arrivals have increased by 150 per cent in the past eight years.  The Labor Government has supported growth in tourism through unproved tax arrangements, funding for promotion by the Australian Tourism Commission and structural reforms including the deregulation of domestic and international aviation.  However, more can be done. Australia is a country rich in its diversity. We have much to offer as a tourist destination throughout the country. YET only one in three of our foreign visitors spends any nights outside a capital city or major international gateway. And Australians can be encouraged to explore new destinations in their own country.  Accordingly, we will set aside $42 million over the next four years to promote and assist tourism IN regional Australia. Details OF this package will be announced shortly in a statement on tourism.  TRIPLE J YOUTH NETWORK  The ABCs Triple J Youth Network is the fastest growing radio service in Australia, but it is currently available only in capital cities and Newcastle. It has proved to be highly successful in providing information and entertainment principally to Australians in the 15 to 25 years age group. Triple J has a very strong commitment to Australian artists and the local industry.  Over the next four years, $19.8 million will be spent to extend the Triple J network to an estimated 42 areas covering approximately 3.7 million additional people. This will further Labor's commitment to public broadcasting, services to regional and rural Australia and services to youth.  REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT  To strengthen recovery in regions lagging behind the rest of the Australian economy, Labor will create a Minister for Regional Development and a Department for Regional Development.  Substantial structural adjustment has been necessary to transform the Australian economy from its previous inward-looking focus to one which is able to compete effectively in the global economy. This has necessarily meant that some industries grow more slowly than others, and some sectors may even decline over time.    There is also a regional dimension to this problem, however, with some of the slower growing industries being concentrated in the southern States of South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. Within individual states, some regions are doing well while others have fallen further behind.  The Government has recognised these disparities, and the need to act on them, far some time. We took action in the Budget through the new Local Capital Works Program which is providing targeted funding of $345 million over a two year period. Combined with local sources OF funds, this has started to provide some stimulus to these local communities.  More recently in his Investing in the Nation statement, the Prime Minister asked the Hon Laurie Brereton, MP, to head a Task Force to address this issue, with its membership mainly drawn from business and the trade union movement. The Task Force has been asked to:  • examine the nature and extent of the regional adjustment problem, and identify the regions which are most disadvantaged;  • identify the impediments to adjustment in these regions;  • examine how existing Commonwealth programs may be mobilised more effectively in pursuit of the regional development objective, and how the Commonwealth might enhance the effectiveness of State government programs, and  • examine whether any new Commonwealth programs are appropriate and, if so, make recommendations on the nature of such programs.  The Task Force's work will thereby provide an important input into Government policy. However, a more constant focus on regional development is also needed. To that end, we will establish a Department of Regional Development with its own Minister.  The Department will be charged with the responsibility for advising on the coordinating all Commonwealth programs which impact on lagging regions, and with harmonising state and federal government programs to gain maximum impact.  THE Task Force will be asked TO provide advice on the precise role and structure for the Department.    EDUCATION AND TRAINING  Labor will continue to support an expanded higher education sector and reform vocational education and training through policies ensuring fair access to education and improvements to the effectiveness of training.  Increase In places for students  To continue Labor's strong support for fair access to higher education. Labor will ensure that any spare capacity in institutions is used to expand the number of student placet. Labor will establish a fund, initially set at $5 million a year, to help institutions use any spare capacity to increase the number of opportunities available to Australian students.  Group Employment and Training Schemes  Australia currently has an effective network of over 100 Group Training Companies with between 12000 and 14000 apprentices in training. Group Training Companies operate by recruiting apprentices and trainees, receiving a subsidy payment for each one, then placing those apprentices and trainees with host employers until their training is complete, They are especially effective in tapping the training capacity of small business. Labor recognises the value and success of these companies and pledges to maintain funding FOR the program.  Labor is keen to respond to the needs of industry, especially small to medium business, by improving the flexibility of training and labour market programs. We will build on the group training concept to develop new group companies principally on an industry basis and to extend the role of the companies beyond training to employment.  Labor will provide start-up funds, expertise and an administrative subsidy to assist existing group training companies and industry associations develop group employment and training companies.  For example, a particular industry association would establish a company - as some have already done - to act as a group training company for the industry. People wishing to train in the industry would be employed by the company and placed with host employers in the industry. The company would receive any relevant government subsidies in respect of the apprentice or trainee and would retain some of that subsidy as an operating margin.  In a similar way, the company would employ, for a guaranteed minimum period, people wishing to work in the industry who had been out of work and who are eligible for a Jobstait or similar subsidy. These people would be also placed with host employers on whatever basis the group company sets.    Once established, group employment and training companies could also take oo broader fcc-for-scrvicc employment brokerage for the industry. Employers in the industry seeking temporary or permanent labour could recruit through the company. Anyone wishing to work in the iadustry could register with the company.  This arrangement will capitalise on the employer networks of industry associations, enable employers to deal with an industry company for recruitment of trainees and employees and allow for much more flexible placement and subsidy arrangements worked out between the group company and individual enterprises.  Labor's gc^ is to establish as many group employment and training companies in as many industries as possible. Additional funding OF $10 million a year WILL be provided.  SPORTS TRALD<ESHIPS  The Australian Traineeship Scheme offers young people accredited training and work experience in a range of industries and jobs. It is a highly successful way for young people to begin their careers. Last year, the Government substantially increased incentives for employers to take on trainees. As a result, trainee conunencements are over 120 per cent higher in January this year than last year.  To expand the opportunities for young people. Labor will establish 200 Sports Traineeships in 1993. The trainees will be employed by national sporting organisations and receive specialist training through the Australian College of Sports Education as well as broader cducatioD through the Technical and Further Education Colleges. The traineeships will offer young people a start in an exciting career as well as in the long run improve the management and administration of Australian sport.  National sporting organisations will be offered the existing $2000 - $3000 subsidy for each trainee under the Australian Tramceship System, and an additional $3000 in the fono of a supplementary grant to encourage their participation-  The Sports Traineeships will be funded out of existing programs.    ASSISTANCE FOR CARING FOR CHILDREN  Our child care policy recognises that the future growth of the Australian economy and the living standards of Australians will benefit from women's participation in the workforce. Equally, we recognise and appreciate the important role played by women who choose lo stay at home while their children are growing up. To that end, we will introduce a new Home Child Care Allowance that will be more generous than the Dependent Spouse Rebate it will replace. S will be payed directly to the spouse at home. We will also increase fee relief to occasional child care.  The Labor Party's child care policy announced on 9 February moved child care into the economic mainstream. The policy addressed the three big issues of concern to working parents: the availability, cost and quality of child care. Labor is committed to meeting projected demand for work-related child care by the year 2001, with an interim goal of meeting 84 per cent of this demand by 1997. We will introduce a new 30 per cent cash rebate in recognition that the cost of child care is a substantial outlay for parents in earning an income. And we will ensure quality child care which is safe and secure.  Labor's policies recognise the reality of many parents' lives and the difficulties they face in meeting their work and family responsibilities. The policies also respond to the great change in the working pattens of Australian women: over the past decade, women's participation in the labour force has increased by 40 per cent.  We need to recognise that women's child care needs are neither uniform or identical. There are new choices and patterns in women's lives today. Many women are choosing to stay home while their children are young, although most will return to the paid workforce at some time in the future. Policy needs to recognise and respond to these patterns.  It is no longer good enough, if it ever was, to characterise women as either in the paid workforce or in the home. Chances are these days, any given woman over the course of her lifetime will spend periods of time doing both.  Women at home caring for children are entitled TO proper acknowledgment and respect, and some practical assistance.  An issue raised by women caring for children full time is that they do not receive any direct financial recognition of this important role from the Government. Currently, the Government pays the Dependent Spouse Rebate to the spouse who is in employment. The tax rebate is worth $1412 a year.  The disadvantage of the Dependent Spouse Rebate is that it is only indirect recognition of the contribution of the parent at home looking after children as the money is not paid to them. Labor believes it is time to redirect this assistance and convert the tax rebate to a cash benefit paid directly to the spouse at home caring for children.    The new cash payment will be called Home Child Care Allowance. Labor will also increase the payment by $150 a year. Women at home caring full time for children will receive a direct cash payment each fortnight of $60. This will be in addition to any Family Allowances or Family Allowance Supplement which are also paid directly TO the parent with most day to day responsibility for caring for die children, usually (be mother. This wiUpiovide some independent source of income fior women while they are outt of the paid workforce caring for children.  In addition. Labor will respond to the practical needs of women at home caring for . children. Occasional care is an essential senw for these women caring for children. It gives women 'time out" from their work at home to go shopping, attend appointments, or simply take a break.  Labor will ensure that occasional care is affordable by increasing fee assistance for occasional child care to match the fee relief in long day care. This will mean, for example, that a woman with a family income of $31,000 and using an average of two hours of occasional care a week will be $225 a year better off.  Also, as has already been announced. Labor will double the funding for playgroups, giving 50,000 more families access to this service. Playgroups offer parents support in their sometimes stressful job of caring for children and give children the experience of learning with other children.  Labor's child care initiatives recognise that different families choose to deal with the responsibilities of work and family in different ways. Labor will give financial assistance to all families with young children either through a cash rebate for child care costs or a Home Child Care Allowance to women at home caring for children.  In contrast, the Opposition has restricted its support for families. The Opposition will apply a new income test to the Dependent Spouse Rebate. Also, under the Opposition's chUd care rebate, a thud of families where both parents work would receive no assistance and another 19 per cent would not be eligible for the full rebate.  Labor believes in supporting families in the choices they make about the best way of dealing with these challenges of reconciling work and family. And, unlike the Opposition. Labor has allocated sufficient funds to expand child care places so that all work related demand can be folly met by the year 2001.  The cost of the Home Child Care Allowance and fee relief for occasional care will be $326.2 million over four years.    HEALIH  Zofcor startsfrom a position of strength in formulating its health policy. Under Medicare, Labor guarantees free treatment in public hospitals, free access to doctors through bulkbilling and affordable pharmaceuticals under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. We will build on these strengths to improve access to hospital and dental health care/or Australians.  Tackling waiting lists through access to private hospitals  For hospital care, the way forward is to better integrate the services offered by the public and private hospital systems, by looking for opportunities for the most effective use of resources. This approach is in sharp contrast to the Opposition's health policy which would run down the public hospital system by removing $13 billion in funding and shifting resources to the private system. Labor's approach is to recognise the strengths of both systems.  Good health policy should seek to use the resources of all our hospitals - both public and private hospitals - as efficiently as possible.  Appropriate and responsive patient care demands this. And this is what Labor's health policy achieves.  Labor will allocate $25 million a year to contract the treatment of public patients in private hospitals. The focus will be on those people needing elective surgery. This is in addition to the $70 million program to address waiting lists in public hospitals.  All private hospitals can participate. The scheme will not, however, interfere with the right of each private hospital to choose whom it admits and what services it provides. For example, the Australian Catholic Health Care Association, which represents Catholic hospitals, has indicated that they would be interested in treating pensioners who are waiting for elective surgery on this basis.  This initiative will mean there will be opportunities for better utilisation of private hospitals' facilities.  It will mean that waiting times for elective surgery will fall. It will mean that the right of Australians to health care will be upheld.  Better integration of public and private resources requires better planning and better coordination of the development of services and facilities.    Labor has allocated more than $115 million over the next five yeais to assist States and Territories to develop statewide hospital capital plans to ensue hospital services can meet changing community needs.  Importantly, private hospital facilities will be part of the planniag process, Thismeans that decisions oo bow public funds should be spent and where public facilities should be placed will be influenced by the availability of private health resources.  Expanding patients' access to palliative care  Many patients in hospitals are recovering from an illness or have a terminal illness. Their needs are different firom those of patients in hospital for emcigency treatment or short stays.  It is essential that the best care and the right care is provided for this group of patients. An acute hospital bed in often not the best place to care for people who are dying. It is often better that services are available in a non-hospital environment such as a hospice.  The Medicare Incentives Package seeks to ensure this.  Under Labor, this program has provided substantial funding to the States and Territories to improve access to post-acute and palliative care.  Many private hospitals provide palliative care to patients with terminal illnesses. Hospitals run by religious groups in particular have a well deserved reputation for excellent and dignified care.  Labor will increase funding for palliative care to expand the availability of these services. FundmgwiU be extended to palliative care services in private hospitals to majdmise the use of Australia's hospital resources.  Labor will provide an additional $55 Bullion over the next four years to expand post-acute and palliative care and to encourage private hospitals to participate in this expansion. This will mean that public patients in need of this special care may be treated in public or private hospitals as appropriate.  Commonwealth Dental Health Program  There is clear evidence that low income families and individuals do not have equal access to basic dental care. The result of this is that these groups are twice as likely to have then-teeth extracted than the rest of me community.  Labor will implement a Commonwealth Dental Health Program to improve ACCESS to emergency and basic dental care for low-income families and individuals at a cost of $278 million over four years.    All Health Card holders will be eligible. This includes pensioners, unemployed people and low income working families. About two million people will be eligible.  The program will include prcvcntativc treatment, fillings, root canal work, x-rays, extractions and abscess draining. The services will be provided by community dental dinics and participating private dentists.  With a new dental program alongside Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Labor will provide a total health package for low income families and individuals.  WOMEN'S HEALTH  Labor will continue its strong support for measures to improve women's health. The National Women's Health Program is currently being reviewed to ensure that it is responsive to the health needs of women. The program will be funded for a further 12 months at a cost of $6.4 million, pending the outcome of the review.  Labor will extend also Medicare to cover bone densitometry tests for women at risk of osteoporosis.  BEST PRACTICE PROGRAM FOR WORKFORCE CHANGE IN HOSPITALS  Labor will provide $4 million over two years to fund projects which contribute to best practice in health workplaces. The projects will focus on sharing information about improved work methods. It will provide valuable information about how productivity benefits are best achieved and shared between employers and employees. Our aim is to help workplaces provide the best possible health services to the community.  In total, we will commit a further $499.4 million to these health programs over the next four years. These costs will be offset in large part by further measures to limit over-servicing of medical services.    RETIREMENT INCOMES POLICY  The cornerstone of Labor's retirement incomes poUcy is an adequate age pension for those most in need. Labor has also extended fringe benefits to aU age pensioners and intro<htced the Superannuation Guarantee Chary to improve access to higher pr^^ income in retirement Labor now undertakes to imprc^liu position of kw^^ pensioners with an easing of'ffie assets fesfandtne extension ofconcession^ pfwmaceuticals.  ASSETS TEST REVIEW  The recent decline in interest rates has meant that some retirees have suffered from a rcduaionm their nominal ilKomc but they stiU do IK^ gel any pension b<>2ausc of their relatively high LEVEL of assets.  Labor has heard the concerns of retirees who have suffered dramatic falls in interest rates recently.  From September 1993, the pension assets test withdrawal rate will be cased from $104 per year for each $1000 of assets above the threshold to $78 per year. This means that many retirees with assets above the assets threshold will either get more pension or qualify for the pension for the first time.  This initiative will help over 40,000 non-pensioner and part-pensioner retirees at an annual cost OF $44 million.  SENIORS HEALTH CARDS FOR NON-PENSIONER RETIREES  Current eligibility for concessional pharmaccuticals and bearing aids IS limited TO pensioners. Pensioners are able to purchase drugs covered under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for $2.60 per item and receive the offsetting Pharmaceutical Allowance of $2.60 a week. Prescription items are free for pensioners above a safety net OF $135.20.  Labor will introduce a new Seniors Health Card from April 1994 for all older people OF age pension qualifying age whose taxable incomes are below the pension cut-out point. This new Seniors Health Card will entitle LOW income non-pensioners to:  • phannaceuticals at the same price paid by pensioners, that is $2,60 per item. The same safety net provisions will also apply. This will mean a saving for low income older people OF over $200 per year, and  • concessional hearing aids. This will give non-pensioner retirees access to bearing aids and batteries through hearing centres of Australian Hearing Services FOR A small annual fee of $25 to cover maintenance and repairs.    Nearly 200,000 older Australian will benefit from the Seniors Health Card at a total of yearly cost of $61 million.  Provisional age pension for long-term unemployed aged 60 years and over  As part of the seventh Accord between the Government and the ACTU, Labor decided that unemployed people aged 60 and over and who have been unemployed for 12 months or more will not have to continue to meet (be work test.  These people, now about 20,000, will have the option of continuing to seek work and receive unemployment payments or to transfer to a Provisional Age Pension. If they chose the pension option, many of them will also benefit from the more generous pension income and assets tests.  Labor will review the appropriatcness of the program in the light of developments in the economy. This initiative will cost $6.6 million in a full year.  Labor's latest move to respond to the special needs of disadvantage^ older Australians stands in stark contrast to the policy of the Coalition which would make women wait until 65 years of age for the age pension instead of their current entitlement at 60 years.  SUPERANNUATION AND HOMES  Recognising that income and housing are equally required/or a secure and comfortable retirement. Labor will permit part of the deposit on owner occupied dwellings to be funded from the home buyers superannuation account,  Labor's Superannuation Guarantee provides steadily growing employer funded superannuation to enhance the comfort and security of retirement for Australians. Already Australians have over $150 billion in their superannuation retirement accounts. By the end of the decade this fond will have increased to well over $400 billion as the Guarantee rises towards 12 per cent of employment incomes.  For most people, however, a debt free home is as important a part of retirement security as superannuation income.  Labor will therefore permit all Australians to draw whichever is the greater of $10,000 (indexed) or 75 per cent of the vested benefit from their superannuation savings as a deposit on the purchase of their home.  The withdrawal can only be made for the purchase of one property and only at the time of purchase, must be towards a deposit on a home to be purchased for occupation by the holder of the superannuation account, and would be subject to the consent of their superannuation fond.    The indexed value of the withdrawal would BE deductible from the home buyers Reasonable Benefit Limit.  The withdrawal must comprise less than 50 PER cent of the deposit on the home.  S3S3S3S& Vai,  -j'/  A culture which is alive and critical sustains and Iwiefits all Australians, TkeLabor 4 Government recognises its responsibility to create an enwonment in ¥^uch the va^ creativity and innowtion prosper, cmd to ensure that no section of the community are \ deprived of access to the fullest possible cultural life. . f  Last year the Government committed more than $260 million to the cultural sector in direct funding. ID addition it provided assistance through tax incentives, national programs and industry development. Particular measures included the national • performing arts touring scheme, Playing Australia, increased funding for dance through the Australia Council and provision for substantially more recipients under the Australian Artists Creative Fellowships Scheme for senior Artists.  The Government also announced that it would provide more than $250 million for film production through the Australian Film Finance Corporation and the Australian Him Commission over the next four years, thus enabling the industry to plan future activity in an atmosphere of stability.  The next Labor Government will continue this process of expanding the dimensions of Australia's cultural life. It will continue to protect and conserve the nation's heritage, to integrate the nation's diversity with the cultural process, to inspire the highest possible standards of achievement and excellence in all fields of cultural endeavour and to promote Australian culture internationally.  It will also continue to promote the importance of the cultural industry in the Australian and international economy.  During the life of the Labor Government, there have been dramatic changes in the cultural industry. It now employs many more people and produces higher quality and more varied product. Its Links with other se<tois such as education and tourism are increasingly important. We now have an industry which generates $14 billion per annum and employs 200,000 people.  The Government is committed to ensuring that the industry continues this growth, whue at the same time reflecting Australia's identity and remaining responsive to audience demands. '  We will shortly announce details of new measures in the cultural area. The cost to the Budget will be an additional $75 million over four years.    TRANSPORTATION  To develop a truly nationally integrated transport system we will immediately establish a National Transport Planning Task Force, We are also introducing the next stage of the shippmg reforms which wUl see Australian shipping be among the most efficient and safe in the world.  All transpoit modes now have new nationally based structures in (dace which are increasingly responsive to competitive pressures and to customer demand.  WE are building a major national rail highway through the National Rail Corporation- WE have upgraded the national road highway and have developed a highly competitive aviation industry. Our waterfronts are much more productive while WE have an increasingly efficient coastal shipping industry.  The record is a proud one. For example, domestic air fares have fallen by about 20 per cent since the end of 1990, productivity has more than doubled on the waterfront and significant productivity improvements will occur in rail as a result of the substantial investment that is occurring and the new enterprise agreement. But more needs to be done both to further improve the efficiency of each link in the transport chain and particularly to integrate the whole transpoit system more fully.  Programs which have been introduced to effect reform on a sector by sector basis are now sufficiently advanced to provide a foundation for the development of a more folly integrated national transport system.  Such a system will deliver the Australian economy even greater transport efficiencies and benefits.  The achievement of this objective is the foundation of the Government's fifth term transpoit strategy.  The Government's plan is to have a nationally coordinated and highly efficient transpoit system TO serve us well into the twenty first century.  To this end, we will immediately establish a National Transport Planning Task Force (NTPT)  The NTPT will be required to investigate specifically:  • the adequacy of Australia's national transport infrastructure and institutional  arrangements to meet the needs of Australia's freight/passenger demands into the 21st century; and    • priorities for national transport infrastructure investment into the longer term. In investigating these issues the task force will have regard TO:  • current and forecast demand for freight and passenger services;  • adequacy/efficiency of intennodal links in the national transport system; -|  • roles. rcsponsibiUtics and nccessaiy collaborative arrangements bctwcca the three levels of government;  • the social and environmental impact of the transport system; and  • maintenance and enhancement OF safety standards.  The NTPTS investigation will run parallel with continuing reform programs in aviation, rail, road, THE waterfront, and shipping.  Its findings will assist governments and industry to develop investment strategies and to make well informed decisions on appropriate means of meeting the future transport task.  It is critical that investment be coordinated with a national focus in mind. Shipping Reform  The efficiency of Australian shipping is to be further improved under a new reform package aimed at substantial cost savings through streamlining of crcwing arrangements, while maintaining the industry's high level of ship standards and safety. ':  The industry wiU meet the bulk of labour adjustment costs, with the Government assisting early flow-on of reform gains by contributing up to $253 million towards voluntary retirement packages and training.  The Prices Surveillance Authority will be asked to extend monitoring of coastal freight rates untfl mid 1996 to ensure benefits continue to flow to users. Existing fiscal incentives for investment in technologically advanced ships will continue to be available until 1997.  Toe planned review of legislation regulating international shipping services in Part X of the Trade Practices Act will be advaiKed to commence mAprU 1993 with the prime aim of ensuring that it is effectively meeting the interest of Australian shippeis and the nation.  The cost of the shipping reforms will be $26.7 million over the four years to 1995-96. I'll just give everybody a chance to find their seats.  Thank you very much, thank you very much for that very warm welcome. I sincerely appreciate the tremendous support that is evident in this room for me today.  But I have to say that this election is not about John Hewson and it's not about Paul Keating. We are the servants of the people of Australia. This election is about the people of Australia and their problems.  It's about people like Jennifer and Sam and Beverly and John and Michelle and millions who are like them all over Australia that have been totally unnecessary victims of a totally unnecessary recession.  This election is not only about today's people, like Jennifer and Sam and Beverly, John and Michelle, but also tomorrow's people. Our children and our grandchildren, as has been encapsulated in the poster you see around the room with the picture of Samantha. This election is much for Samantha as it is for any of us that are here today.  I'd like to say a very special thanks to Jennifer and Sam and Beverly and John and Michelle. It takes real guts and real courage to come up here and share a deeply Personal experience. They did not make a political statement. They wanted to share with you a personal experience and I applaud them, sincerely applaud them, for having the courage to have done so.  These are the real people that are behind the horrific economic data that we hear almost now on a daily basis. We hear about the debt rising to $200 billion, increasing by about $50 million a day or $2 million an hour. We hear about the fact that there are 1,017,600 Australians who can't find work and nearly as many others who can't find as much work as they want. We hear about the 700,000 children who live in homes where neither their mum nor their dad bas a job, and after a while the statistics start to blur.  But these are the real people, the real Australian people, with the real problems behind those statistics.  Against that background, this election is certainly not about trying to buy the vote of Jennifer or Sam or Beverly or of John or Michelle, or any of the others that are disadvantaged in Australia. It is a very simple test of leadership in this election campaign. And it is whether we can look them in the eye, whether we can go down there and look Jennifer and Sam and Beverly and John and Michelle in the eye and tell them quite honestly that we can solve their problems. And that is what this election campaign is about. And that is challenge that's there to both the Prime Minister and myself in the course of the last two weeks.  We also want to be able to go to Samantha, the girl in the poster, and look her in the eye and tell her quite honestly that she won't have to face the same type of problems within her lifetime.  Life would, of course, be a lot easier for myself and for my colleagues if we hadn't talked about the need for reform. If we hadn't gone out there to set the agenda on matters like industrial relations reform, and tax reform, and a host of other issues that we've sought to raise over the course of the last three years.  Life would be a lot easier, of course, if I was standing here today promising to spend a whole lot of money, even if it's money that we don't have, like the other side. But it's not our way. It has not been our way for three years, simply because we know in our hearts that it is wrong. It is absolutely wrong to duck the tough issues, to fail to provide the leadership that this country needs and to spend money that you don't have. Because, after all, the money we spend is your money.  We took the view three years ago that this country needed a change. It needed a dramatic change. Therefore we had to be prepared to go out and raise the tough issues and argue the case for reform. We want to be able to look these people and all those other victims of this recession in the eye in the run up to this election.  I was impressed by the comments that each of them made in a host of different ways. There was an eerie question in the back of all those comments, the same question I've heard thousands of times around Australia in the course of the last few years, and that is a feeling, very much, as to why did it happen in Australia. Surely it does not need to be so. In a country as wealthy as Australia, in a country that has the natural resources, the farms, the mines, the manufacturing industry, the service industries of Australia, a country where the people are talented, and basically industrious and hard working. Where we have unique opportunities because of our location, close to the fastest growing region of the world. And the answer is, of course, it doesn't need to be that way at all.  These opportunities that are there have been squandered by governments that have been unwilling or unable to face up to the reality of our circumstances and to provide the leadership that is necessary to solve our economic problems. There is absolutely no excuse for what has happened. There is no excuse that anyone can refer to for this recession. You can't say that the rest of the world is in recession because we led them in by twelve or eighteen months at the very least. It's a home-grown product that was inflicted on the people of Australia.  The second thing that struck me about their comments this morning, which Carolyn has already picked up, is that none of them have given up hope. None of them have given up on Australia, or given up on the future, and all of them were absolutely dedicated to trying again, having another go, making things better than they were. And I must say that one of the things that disturbs me, as I've gone around Australia, is the extent to which people are now starting to, in some cases, get a bit of a defeatist mentality about issues like unemployment. How often do you hear the other side, in particular, seem to imply that, well, they did the best they could, they did ail they could, the rest of the world had moved into recession, what else could they have done.  I absolutely reject that. I find it totally unacceptable and totally intolerable that in any way people in Australia could start to rationalize the existence of ten or eleven per cent unemployment. And I personally refuse to accept that unemployment must stay high. I personally refuse to accept anything less than full employment.  And I personally refuse to accept what must be one of the most intolerable features of Australian society today, and that is that as a generation of Australians we are about to leave a lower standard of living to our children than we enjoyed ourselves, with fewer opportunities. That is totally intolerable and we refuse to accept that as a reality in Australia today.  Looking at the Asia Pacific region, and our proximity to it, the opportunities are endless. All we need is to put our house in order. All we need is the leadership that is required when working with the people of Australia to solve our problems and to solve them fairly, so that this country does reach it's full potential. So that we can aim legitimately for full employment, so that we can aim legitimately to ensure that our children and our grandchildren have a better standard of living, and a greater range of opportunities than we in fact have enjoyed ourselves.  The solutions are there, the policies are there, it's simply a matter of taking decisions and providing the leadership. Our problems can basically be solved by working at two levels.  One, of course, setting out to make sure that this country does boost it's productivity capacity. I hear a lot these days about how we want more money for the arts, or a better environment, or more jobs, or a better lifestyle, or a better education system, or a better health System. Well, there's one simple answer to ail of those, and that is to make sure this country reaches it's full productive potential. We can have whatever we want in Australia, provided we're prepared to produce enough to pay for it.  And then as you produce more, you have a much greater capacity to do the second thing, which is to distribute it and distribute it more fairly, right across Australian society. And the Labor Party have never really understood that. For the best part of the last twenty years that they've been in government, they have focussed on distributing what has become an ever shrinking national cake. They don't understand that you can't do what Mr. Keating did yesterday, without somewhere setting aside the money to pay for it. We all want to give $75 million to the arts, I'd like to give $150 million to the arts and I'd like to put a lot more money into the environment, and a lot more money into training and education and so on, but we have to raise our productive capacity to do it. And that is the challenge that is there for us today.  So I say, Labor has never understood that. After ten years in government, after ten years of having their way, after ten years of the current Prime Minister claiming that he had the Treasury in this pocket and the Reserve Bank in that pocket, and he pulled all the levers, after ten years there's one conclusion, one conclusion only we can draw. He's lost the plot, he's got no plan, he's got no answers. All he's got left is a negative campaign, a scare campaign. Well, let me tell you there is nothing more frightening, there is nothing more scary, than another three years of a Labor government.  'Cause they'll not only go on spending money they don't have, and spending all the money you've given them, they will actually start to mortgage the future of your children to ensure that they stay in power. If you don't believe me, in the course of the last eighteen months they've run up commitments totaling something like $60 billion, that is a big number, write it out $60 billion of unfounded spending commitments. Totally unfounded spending commitments. They've not only spent everything they've taken off you, but they've mortgaged the future of your children and your grandchildren. Think how long it's going to take them to pay back $200 billion in debt, going up at $2 million an hour.  The other thing I noticed yesterday in the Prime Minister's speech to the arts community, which I think emphasizes most effectively the point I want to make, is something he said, and I'd like to quote it to you because I think it summarizes effectively a Labor government today. He said, whatever we do, we'll never get pride from a truckload of coal, we might get dollars, but we will never get pride. That is an absolute insult to the people that dig out that coal, an absolute insult. Isn't that an absolutely amazing thing for a Labor leader to say? I challenge him to go up to the coal fields, Queensland, New South Wales or Victoria and tell them. Those people have real pride in their work and so should he.  They are the backbone of this country, the farmers, the miners the manufacturers, the hotel owners, the tourist operators. They are the people that generate the wealth, they are the people that make all the sacrifices and he stands up and makes a great man of himself by distributing their money.  They don't feel they're getting value for money let me tell you. They're absolutely committed to it.  As I say, as I say. We all want more money for the arts, or for the environment, or for a better lifestyle for a host of genuinely disabled and disadvantaged people, but as a nation we must produce to pay for it and we must be proud of those who do the work and produce it.  We are the servants of the people not the masters, and he should never forget it.  And that is the fundamental difference between us and the Labor Party.  We believe in people and they believe in Government. And they've pulled some of the worst hoaxes on the people of Australia in the course of their time over the last 20 years.  Concepts like "free education" and "free health". You know what they mean, they mean longer queues at universities; they mean longer queues at hospitals; they mean longer dole queues. That is the outcome of trying to run a society when we don't produce what we require, when we provide the services that are required.  It is a major, fundamental difference between ourselves and the government and so we stand here today with a very clear choice, between a leader and a Party that's trying to cling desperately to power through a dishonest campaign compared with a leader and a Party that bas a plan. We have a plan to get Australia off its knees to rebuild business and to create jobs.  We will never, however, achieve what we are capable of achieving as a nation if we let ourselves be scared by a negative, defeatist, spoiling campaign. Remember the game in the end is not going to be won by the spoiler. It is won by the player who goes forward with the bail with a clear cut goal, takes the hard choices, provides the leadership and gets on and does the job. And that is what Fight back and our plan for Australia is all about.  This is, of course, an important opportunity for me to run through some of the key elements for our plan for Australia. Not only how to reach our productive potential and to create jobs, but also to demonstrate that we can distribute that production more equitably and fairly than has, in fact, been the case under a Labor Government.  And I must say that every time I hear this word social justice uttered from the other side I start to choke. Because I can't find anything fair or just in a million unemployed. I can't find anything fair or just in those 700,000 kids who are living in families with neither parent in a job. I can't find anything fair or just in the stories that 1 heard this morning from the five people who stood up here. There is nothing fair or just about that.  The basic thrust of our policy package to boost the productivity capacity of Australia is to pick up Sam's comment and that is basically to take the taxes and charges off business, to eliminate the cost disadvantages under which business operates in Australia, and there are a number of key elements to our plan that deal directly with that.  The first is, of course, and the one that the Government tries to focus on the most, tax reform. Tax reform is fundamentally important to what we've got to do in Australia. It's fundamentally important to developing the productive culture that we need in Australia.  It's fundamentally important, not only to get people to work harder, to work overtime, to save, to build a business - tax reform is absolutely fundamental.  And we're not going to shy away from the GST in that context. The GST is fundamental to that tax reform package as well.  If we are going to make change in Australia, real tax reform in Australia, we do have to move those fax disadvantages, remove those tax disadvantages from business. And you don't need me to stand here and give you the detail of that example.  In the course of the last week in our newspapers, there've been two clear cut examples of how it bas worked in practice. I don't know whether you saw the story a bit over a week ago about the Australian company that was tendering for the escalator contract, the Travelator I think they call them at our Expo pavilion in Korea. It's our Expo pavilion and one of our companies was tendering for that contract and they lost the contract. And do you know who they lost it to? They lost it to the New Zealanders. And when they were asked why, do you know what they said - because we don't have a GST and we pay a lot of taxes on our inputs which made us internationally (un)competitive when it came to tendering for that contract. There's where the jobs went, to New Zealand, not here in Australia.  Do you want a good argument for GST? GST equals jobs because it makes our businesses internationally competitive. And it doesn't matter whether you're Sam the farmer, or the Travelator producer or a manufacturer or whatever. It is fundamental to Australian business becoming internationally competitive.  The other example of just few days ago was the decision by Rexona to close a plant in Australia, a loss, I'm told of about 200 jobs. Where are they going to centralize their operation, so that, as they say, they can become internationally competitive? They're going to New Zealand too.  Two examples in the last week of where we have lost jobs, we have exported jobs because of a failure of government economic management here in Australia.  When we abolish payroll tax and sales tax and petrol excise and the training guarantee levy and freeze the superannuation guarantee levy and so on, we cut the cost base of business in Australia. We tilt the playing field in favor of doing business in Australia. And we make sure that those jobs stay here in Australia, that they are not exported off shore. And you know one of the best authorities for that argument, PJ Keating. He ran it in 1985 and we should never let him forget the fact that he had at that time the courage to argue for what was right. And amazing when he started to worry about his political stocks, how he forgot about what was right, at least right for Australia and tried to do what he thought was right for him. That is what-'s wrong with this country, the failure of leadership.  If s a simple message. And it's again what Sam said. We can take taxes off our exports, so that they are internationally competitive and it is also the only legal way in which under the GATT we can tax our imports. And I noticed a sign on a car the other day which said, this ALP campaign. Jobs not GST. And I thought that was a very interesting comment. Jobs not GST. Seemed to have it fundamentally round the wrong way. This person was obviously mixed up because that sticker was not on a Commodore, or a Camry or a Falcon or any of the other Australian made cars, it was on a Saab.  Where do you think the jobs went? And what's GST do? It keeps those jobs in Australia because it cuts the cost of making a car in Australia and yet the tax will go fully on the imported car. It gives our industry an advantage. And from the personal point of view, you're in front as well. You know as a PAYEE taxpayer, you know what that means? Pay As You Earn, that means that their hand is in your pocket before you get your packet. They take the money out of your pay packet in terms of the income tax that you pay and you're left to struggle with what's left. The other side of that with the GST as we actually cut your personal tax by about 25% so you keep the money in your pocket, not their hand. You keep the money and you decide when you pay tax and how much you pay tax by what you buy. Not pay as you earn, pay as you spend.  And the way we structure it we don't only give you back enough to pay for the GST, we make sure that in a combination of tax cuts and other benefits, average Australians are in front.  In fact, the average Australian family will be $56 per week in front as a result of that tax reform package and they'll have an Internationally competitive tax System which gives them lower tax rates and people often say to me, why don't we have a Hong Kong style tax System, well, we're about to give you one. Because somebody on average income under that two tax System will only pay 14 cents in the $1.00 tax. Somebody on twice average income will only pay 22 cents in the $1.00 tax. We can have an internationally competitive business and Personal tax system, that seems a reasonable price to pay, doesn't it, for the option of the GST.  Not everyone gains, tax cheats lose for example and foreign tourists will pay a fair share while they consume here in Australia, but it works to solve our problems. It works to boost our exports, to cut back on our imports, to boost our savings and most importantly, to boost our productive capacity, so that we can actually go out there and generate a bigger cake, not a shrinking cake, have more for ail of us and more to distribute to those in need.  It is fundamental to what's got to be done In Australia. The other area of some debate in this election campaign is, of course, the area of industrial relations. Industrial relations reform is fundamentally important to getting productive workplaces around Australia. And you can't seriously tell me that the Accord and the cent raised System has worked well for the Australian worker. Just look around. A million of them have lost their jobs. That was really good representation by the union movement. How union leaders lost their jobs in the course of the last few years?  A million workers paid the price. They paid their dues so they could be unemployed. I never forget a woman in Perth telling my about her unemployed husband and the union coming round saying you know, we want your dues. She said, hang on, we want your dues for your husband. And apparently they gave her a bit of physical trouble as well. She said why should my husband pay his dues, you've cost him his job. And I think that's the question that's being asked around the workplaces all over Australia at the present time. And it's absolutely inane to figure that you can give a wage increase in one part of Australia and that it should apply uniformly right across Australia. It doesn't matter whether you're out in Albany or up in Darwin or across in Cairns or down in Hobart. You're supposed to ail be able to carry the same wage increase, even if it sends you broke or even if you could pay more given the circumstances of your business in the workplace that's there.  And of course, the Accord has done a lot of other things against Australia. It's made us internationally (un)competitive in terms of wage costs and perhaps most alarmingly, it's put Bill Kelty and Martin Ferguson as de facto Cabinet Ministers in Canberra. Think about it.  You want to know why there's no reform on the waterfront or in the transport System or tax. Remember when they blocked the tax reform package In '85. It's because the union leaders blocked that reform. Very big price is being paid on behalf of the worker, by the worker and by Australia for the type of centralized wage determination system that we've had in this county. And yet there is a simple direct alternative that is not only in the interest of workers, but also in the interests of employers and in the interests of Australia as a whole. And that is to go to the workplace agreements that are the centerpiece of our industrial relations policy.  There should be no concern that workers will be worse off. They can't be worse off. They have a choice and that is the centerpiece of our system to give them choice and to give them opportunity. They want to stay in the centralized system, that's fine. But if they want to go outside the centralized system, they can go with what they've got so the terms and conditions of their award they keep but they can do better as they negotiate a workplace agreement that is better to their interests, a higher hourly rate of pay, a greater certainty and security of employment, greater flexibility in employment and that is where you're going to get productive workplaces around Australia.  Of course, you have to do a few things to make that happen. You have to outlaw compulsory unionism and why shouldn't you?  And why shouldn't you? I have a simple view about these things. They're basically a club and their membership, their continuity ought to depend on their capacity to satisfy their members. And if union members don't want to be union members, they'd prefer to go it alone, they should be given that choice.  You'll find a significant shift in the attitude of the union leaders when they look around and there's nobody behind them. And that's the sort of change you can make.  We're not anti-union, we just want unions to do the job they should do which is represent the interests of workers if that's what the workers want.  And people cannot be exploited because if you have any problem with an employer you can go round the corner, whether a union member of not, to the Office of the Employee Advocate and get legal advice or legal assistance to make sure you can't be exploited.  But I don't think most of employers, in fact most employers in Australia are keen to develop an effective team at their workplace. They're sick of a them and us approach. They want to work together with their workers to the benefit of not only the workers but of course themselves as employers and ultimately to the country as those workplaces become more internationally competitive and productive.  They're two key elements of getting, of rebuilding the Australian business community. Absolutely essential elements. There's a host of others. Our infrastructure fund to pick up some of the gaps in infrastructure today that are constraining our reaching international competitiveness.  Three billion dollars is being committed through the Rebuild Australia Fund for that specific purpose. And, of course, we have a host of other proposals in terms of accelerated depreciation, ail of them designed to kick-start the business community, kick-start the business community, in effect from the early days of a Hewson Government. We can start in fact putting in place policies from day I that will start to boost our productive capacity and start to create jobs as we take pressure off the labor market in Australia. And that is a fundamental feature of Australia reaching its full potential and giving us the lifestyle that, of course, we want.  The second level of our policy package is not just boosting our productive capacity through those and other measures, but importantly the issue of ensuring that there is an equitable or fair distribution of the national cake among ail Australians.  I think it's important in that sense that a government provide the lead so one of the first administrative acts that I will perform as Prime Minister will be to cut the taxpayers money that is spent on paying politicians to live in a manner to which they have become accustomed. I'm pleased to see my parliamentary colleagues are cheering the loudest. But it's the very least we can do to set an example to the rest of Australia. With one million Australians unemployed and nearly as many again who can't find work, we should share in the distribution of the burden that's been there, of this recession. And in particular, I'm going to cut ministerial salaries by 10 per cent as my first administrative act. And they will stay frozen at that level for the entire first term until the productive capacity of our economy picks up so we can afford to pay them more.  I'll also advise the Remuneration Tribunal that there ought to be a 10 per cent cut in the cost of maintaining Members of Parliament. We're going to put their things together, their travel costs, their postage, other entitlements, into one global budget and we're going to cut that by 10 per cent too. Again, in the sense of setting an example and the fair sharing a burden.  Money can be significantly saved in this area, and as you know in the last several months I've traveled around Australia, mostly by cab, which is a very, very important and rewarding experience. Not only did I personally save the government a fortune, but they took every conceivable opportunity to bend my ear, which they did, and I'm much better informed about what happens in Australia today as a result of that experience.  The second point that I'd like to make about equity and fairness is what we do for families. Families are the centerpiece of what we are on about in Australia. They are the basic structural unit in our society. They are fundamentally important and you heard today some of the spin-off effects of this recession in terms of pressure on Australian families, pressure on marriages, pressure on children and we've seen on many other occasions now, a whole host of social pressures spinning from that in terms of homelessness, homeless youth in particular, drugs, suicide, violence, domestic violence, and health, ail of them significant and unsavory consequences of a totally unnecessary recession.  So we set out in the context of this package to make sure that families got a better go in Australia, irrespective of the structure or size or type of those families, we set out to make sure that they got a better go. And some of the specific changes we made are fundamentally important for families.  For example, the decision to exclude food, basic good from the GST. You remember when we first brought down our package we thought that it was fair to include food and compensate people. And one of the things that stung me most was how many church and community leaders came out and said you are wrong. It is unfair. And it's no use us thinking we're fair if we're not perceived to be fair and so that decision is fundamentally important, not only to the equity of our total package, but giving a particular break to families, and within that a particular break to low to middle income families. The price of food will actually fall and will actually fall significantly under a Hewson government as a result of that decision.  Because as we abolish payroll fax and sales fax and petrol fax and so on the cost of food go down and those benefits will be passed on to Australian families.  Now I don't want to take too long of this point, but somehow we're going to make this point cut through in this election campaign, and that is that people already pay a lot of tax on things they don't know they pay.  GST really ought to be goodbye secret taxes, because that's what we're doing. We're scrapping taxes like sales tax and petrol excise and payroll tax, that people aren't always aware they pay. In tact, we did an exercise the other day where we took a standard tub of butter, and we added up the number of times indirect taxes like those impacted on the cost of that tub of butter, 220 times, indirect tax is counted in the final price of that tub of butter. When you eliminate that tax on tax on tax, the cost goes down and it will go down dramatically. People aren't aware of that they just think it's a tub of butter, but there are 220 separate incidences of indirect tax in that tub of butter.  And I guess a lot of people don't also know that when they get up in the morning and they start their day the bed they sleep in is taxed, the mattress is taxed, the pillows are taxed and the sheets are taxed. The wakeup alarm dock is actually taxed at 30 per cent, the blinds they get up and open when they want to see the daylight are also taxed. The orange juice they have the first thing in the morning is taxed, the bathmat is taxed, the bathroom fittings are taxed, the shower screen is taxed, the toilet pan and seat is taxed, the hot water System is taxed, the septic tank is taxed, the perfumes are taxed, the razors and blades are taxed, the shaving cream and brushes are taxed, the electric razors are taxed, the cotton buds and tips are taxed, the tissues are taxed, the toilet paper is taxed, the soap is taxed, the toothpaste is taxed, the talcum powder is taxed, the toilet case is taxed, the hair combs are taxed, the hair accessories, the hairspray, the deodorant. We haven't even got out of the bathroom yet and you're being taxed out of existence.  And all those taxes I cited were just sales tax, I didn't count the petrol excise that's built in, or the payroll tax that's built in. Needless to say, they don't tell you about those, do they?  You see Mr. Keating in this election campaign saying " I'm guilty, I've been putting tax on you slugging you to death since 1983"? Those sales taxes have gone up 200 per cent since 1983 and you've never been compensated a bean. Not one cent in your pocket back for those significant increases in tax. Petrol tax has gone from 6 to 26 cents a liter. Not a penny back in your pocket.  GST. Goodbye secret taxes. Ail those taxes will be scrapped and the prices of a lot of those things will actually fall. And that is fundamental to the Australian family.  And there is also no GST on education, so the price will fall. No GST on health. so the price will fall. No GST on council rates, the price should fall. No GST on rent, on charities, on gambling, a whole host of areas that they've been running amuck on trying to scare people. Significant drops in cost items, major cost items to the average Australian family.  But over and above that. we then target assistance directly to families. We double the family allowance for families with incomes up to $30,000. We offer tax rebates to low to middle income families for health insurance and, of course, as I mentioned before we give very, very significant tax cuts which are a major part of our reform agenda. Not only to compensate for the impact of a goods and services fax, but over and above that to put money in the pockets of people. We increase ail those benefits and cut Personal tax, the average Australian family is going to be $56 a week better off.  I could not contemplate in my lifetime I would see, not only mass unemployment, but an impossibility for our young people to get an education. So we set out to put $3 billion into education over the rest of this decade to solve those particular problems. 220,000, there'll be 220,000 more TAFE apprenticeships and university places, so that no qualified Australian student should miss out on a place. And when we don't apply the GST to education, the cost of education, as I said before, will fall.  And finally, of course, there are a host of other very important items in our package that relate to literacy and language training and teacher education, fundamentally important. And if you step back and look from outside at our education system you'd have to be appalled. Not only are there those long queues, but a recent government study showed that 25 per cent of our young people, leaving primary school, are functionally illiterate. They can't effectively read and write as they leave primary school.  How could we tolerate that? We ought to have the best education System in the world. We need it to get our productive capacity anyway. Just like we should have the best health system, and the best water front and the best transportation system. And they are the fundamental motivations of this approach of ours that focuses on genuine equity. Equality of opportunity. Not equality of outcome. Their concept of equity is equality of outcome. You'll end up on a queue because there won't be any money left, going in to any of these things like education, or health.  Fundamentally important elements of our package in terms of the issue of equity.  Old people as well have been significantly disadvantaged in Australia, significantly disadvantaged. I see my father down here in the front row. I'll probably cop it sweet for this, but he's one of my most influential advisers when it comes to aged care. Because he told me as a kid that you could always look forward, he thought he'd always look forward, to a secure financial future. When he went off to the war they told him you'11 be cared for. It's not what he gets these days with all the forms and restrictions and phone calls from the Department asking for this and for that and change this and deem that and report this. And it's not exactly what he had in mind in the early 1940s when he went off to war.  And equally they don't get enough, do they, pensioners, to survive. And that's why we're giving them an 8 per cent increase in their pension. $24 a fortnight. And trying to simplify the procedure as significantly as we can.  Older Australians deserve better and that 8% increase is four times impact of the GST on older Australians. They will be significantly in front and we'll make sure that some of them the self funded retirees lose the discrimination that is there as well, under the present System. Let me give you one example. The self funded retiree today can only earn $5,400 before they start paying tax. Whereas a pensioner can actually earn over $10,000 and as a family nearly $17,000 before they pay tax. Where's the equity in that?  I mean these self funded retirees are what the name says. They've prepared for their own retirement. So why does the System discriminate against them? And we will eliminate that so that they get the same tax breaks, they'11 get the same pharmaceutical benefits card and they get substantial tax cuts to boot. It's about time.  Finally, of course, we need to look at the issues of our young people and women. Those two areas in relation to equity and fairness. Our young people, of course, are finding it harder than we did to get a job or to get an education or to buy a home or to settle down and raise a family or even to prepare for their retirement. Already they are disadvantaged and we are facing the prospect, as I said, of even more restricted range of opportunities and an even lower standard of living under the sort of policies we've seen in recent years.  So we do a lot for young people. I said quite seriously at the start, a lot of this election campaign is about Samantha and her future. We want to make sure she doesn't face the problems that we've faced and that our children, in particular, our children are facing today. The example given by Michelle for instance this morning.  So, we do a lot of things for young people. We make sure they can get into a job with a youth training wage and a trading voucher to get then a start in life. Because the first job is the most important job you ever get.  Once you've cracked your first job, you can go on and look for your second and your third because you can prove that you've had on the job training and probably off the job experience as well.  The TAFE College places that I mentioned a 6% increase in AUSTUDY and most importantly we're going to let them have the opportunity to buy a home that isn't there today. A $2.000 cash payment to first homebuyers and young Australians up the age of 35 will be able to borrow against their superannuation to buy their first home. Significant. Significant opportunities.  Jobs, jobs, education, jobs, education and purchase of the home and preparation for superannuation.  Finally, Michelle mentioned most disturbingly the continuation of discrimination in her own particular experience.  We have to surely commit, as an absolute commitment to eradicate all prejudice and discrimination against women. And it doesn't matter whether it's in the home or outside the home. Similarly we must commit to eradicate, at ail costs, domestic violence against women.  But also our plan has a lot of specific benefits recognizing the multiple roles that women play today in Australian society not just as mother, or wife, but also in the paid workforce and quite often in community service as well.  And special needs and special circumstances are associated with those roles.  So, child care is a fundamentally important part of what we have targeted as assistance to women.  A $25 per child per week cash rebate for child care. We didn't try and match the other side, because we can afford $25 a week. We're spending money we've already got. They are spending money they don't have and they're not targeting it either. They're making sure that it's child caring for millionaires. We don't believe that millionaires ought to get child care. Far from it. And we've targeted those benefits to the low to middle income group in particular.  The flexibility of our industrial relations System, the changes that are there for women in terms of workplace negotiations to get the time flexibility or the earning flexibility they want, fundamental features of our industrial relations policy.  We also give them the opportunity to continue their superannuation even though they may move in and out of the workforce. And finally, of course, there's extra funding for a host of specific circumstances in relation to women. Most importantly the funding for the mobile mammography units which are a very important concern to many women today.  So, in simple terms, we can solve the problems. In simple terms we can solve the problems and we can solve them in the fairest possible way. That is what our plan does for the people of Australia not only creating jobs and opportunities but actually improving, visibly improving the equity and fairness of economic and social System today.  One of the great dangers of course, in our system of government is that political leaders get isolated. They're concentrated in Canberra, get fed bureaucratic advice find it increasingly difficult to get out and about in Australia and I think that is fundamentally wrong.  I think it is one of the things we have to set out to avoid at all costs. There are a number of features in our package which are directed to ensuring that some of those bureaucrats are moved out of Canberra so that the advice comes from other parts of the country and I will maintain a Personal commitment to get out and about as much as I have tried to do in the course of the last three years because in the end, as 1 say, we work for the people of Australia, we should get out and listen to them and respond to them.  But importantly, importantly, I'm going to announce one other major initiative today and that is that I'm pleased to announce that I've had six distinguished Australians who have agreed in the event of an election of a Coalition government to act in an honorary capacity as special advisers to the Prime Minister on a range of issues of fundamentally importance to the Australian community. Now these people are not making a politically partisan statement. They are people who are known for their strong and independent will and for the commitment that they've made to Australia, and in many cases they've served governments of all persuasions. But I am delighted that they have committed to be special advisers to the Prime Minister.  These people include: Miss Ita Buttrose, who will advise on issues affecting women, the family and community health. Sir Arvi Parbo, who will advise on Australian industry and it's international competitiveness.  Professor David Permington, who will advise on education and training.  Mr. Charles Perkins, who will advise on Aboriginal issues. Professor Judith Sloan, who will advise on unemployment. And, Mr. Dick Smith who will advise on issues affecting the environment and development in Australia.  In the course of the next few weeks, I'll also announce other special advisers in areas of science and health, youth affairs and small business and other policy areas as the need arises.  But I am delighted that those people have been prepared to accept those positions and I'm sure the Hewson Government will be significantly better for it.  What I've done today is to draw a strong parallel between the current government, who is a government of the past, who is running on it's record and the Coalition as an alternative government that is a government of the future. The Liberal Party in particular is a Party of the future yet we are a Party that  is very, very proud. Very proud of our past.  Today, we are fortunate to have with us, as you saw, in the early stages of our proceedings. Dame Pattie Menzies.  Dame Pattie is here, I believe Dame Patty's presence is a convenient way as acting for us, as an important reminder of what we have achieved in the past and what in particular Sir Robert Menzies stood for. Sir Robert Menzies ensured I think, that our Party was characterized by one thing. That we represented the forgotten people of Australia.  And as I said this election campaign is not about John Hewson or Paul Keating it's about the people of Australia themselves and their problems. It's people like Jennifer and Sam and Beverly and John and Michelle.  They are today's forgotten people. Them and millions of others that are unnecessary victims, as I say, of this unnecessary recession. That is what this election is about. It is in the spirit of the Liberal Party about those forgotten people.  And as I look down and see those that spoke this morning, Jennifer. Sam, Beverly, John and Michelle, I look you in the eye and I say, we can solve your problems. We will do it together.  Thank you.