Policy Launch by the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke  8 March 1990.  My Friends, Fellow Australians  The message I bring to you today is a message of confidence in the future of Australia, and a renewed commitment to a better, fairer future for all Australians.  It is a message based firmly on realism.  - The realism and substance of our policies for the future.  - The fact that the tough and hard decisions we have had to make for the good of Australia are starting to work.  - The fact that we are building together a nation of opportunity, fairness and security.  - And above all, on the strength of the Australian people.  My Friends,  I know that we have had to take hard and unpopular decisions for difficult times. I know - I understand completely - that those decisions have been tough for many decent, hard working Australians. But I also know that I would not be fit to lead our great country if I had chosen the easy, popular way at the cost of the nation's future. And anyone - however glib or smooth - who tells the people of Australia that the future lies at the end of an easy road is not fit to be your Prime Minister. This is not a time for slogans or hollow rhetoric. It is a time for leadership. It is a time for substance. It is a time for realistic policies. It is a time for real answers. It is a time for vision with realism. And now more than ever, it is a time for stability and unity in government. And by those tests, the people of Australia have never had a clearer choice. And in a very deep sense, the choice lies between two opposing principles - the choice between opportunity and privilege. This, in the final analysis, is the great divide between Labor and the Liberal/National Coalition - a profound difference over goals for the nation, and over a range of specific issues: taxation, education, training, industrial relations, health care, child care, superannuation. On all these vital issues, you have the decisive difference - Labor working to enlarge equality of opportunity for all; a Liberal/National coalition working to deny opportunity and entrench privilege.  My Friends,  Labor presents a comprehensive, realistic, responsible and achievable plan for Australia’s future:  - a plan for continued growth and rising productivity.  - a plan to increase the nation's savings and reduce the nation's debt.  - a strategy to boost exports and replace imports.  - a strategy to free up international trade and to tie Australia into the economic boom in Asia and the Pacific.  - a framework of education and science policies to prepare our young people for the challenges of the 21st century.  - an agenda for a fair society with opportunity open to all Australians wherever they were born, whatever their background.  - a commitment to the right of all Australians to health :are through Medicare.  - a plan to protect Australia's precious environment for all time, for all Australians.  Our plan represents an historic step towards great national goals:  - a modern, growing economy, earning its income, paying its way through exports to the markets of the world, re-equipped and restructured in its attitudes, its institutions and its technology.  - a self confident and vigorous partner in the world economy and in the economy of our region - the region of the future.  Let me emphasise:  The new proposals I present today are achievable, responsible, fully paid for. By contrast, our opponents, at last count, had a credibility gap of $6000 million in unfunded promises. Our new proposals build on our years of hard work together - our work together to create one million six hundred thousand new jobs to take 250000 people off the dole. The task of managing the Australian economy in these times .of strong growth has, of course, called for rigorous `policies - and sometimes tough decisions. And let me say frankly to all my fellow Australians: there was no decision tougher for us than to have interest rates that hurt home buyers and squeezed business. None of us has enjoyed that. But our task was to get the right economic climate, so that the falls, when they came, could be sustained. Because we've followed the right policies, interest rates are going down. And that's the verdict of the banks which set them.  My Friends,  Now is the time for further measures to reform our economy and to improve your living standards. The first element in our plan is the wage/tax and superannuation package we are presenting for your endorsement on 24 March. It is a package which will deliver to the average wage and salary earner the equivalent of an extra $50 a week in wage rises and tax cuts, in four stages over the next 16 months. It is a package which meets fully the tests of economic responsibility, fairness and foresight. It is a package which the country can afford. It is a package which the working men and women of Australia deserve. It is not something which the Government is handing out. It is something which you have earned by your work and restraint. Our package to raise wages and cut taxes – responsibly, fairly, steadily - is central to Labor's plan for Australia's economic strength. By stark contrast, our opponents, with breathtaking irresponsibility, seek to govern without a wages policy. They have no better idea of the outcome of that lack of policy, now, than the Leader of the Opposition had last November when he said: "Who's to know?". But in fact, we do know. We know who would suffer. We know it from their record. The Liberal and National Parties would give us the law of the industrial jungle, where the rich, the powerful, the groups with most industrial muscle, would grab the big but short lived gains. A system that is fair for all would be replaced by a free for all. Theirs is a recipe for a wages explosion - for runaway inflation - for massive unemployment. It is a recipe to feed higher and higher interest rates. It is a recipe to destroy the award restructuring which is doing so much to reform Australian industry. But there is another, immensely serious, consequence of the Liberal/National desire to smash our wage/tax package and the Accord with the trade union movement which underpins it. Australians now have for the first time a national superannuation scheme which all people covered by industrial awards can enjoy; a benefit which helps fight inflation; a benefit which prepares Australia for the ageing of its population; and a benefit which the nation and its businesses, large and small, can afford. Yet the Liberal/National coalition would sabotage this national savings plan, a plan already amassing a huge bank for investment in Australia's export and import replacing industries. Because of our policies, eight out of ten Australian employees already get an average of $15 a week paid into their own personal superannuation scheme by their employer. Over the next three years, under our package, that will double to $30 a week saved for your retirement. And let me add for those who have retired or are planning their retirement that no aged or service pensioner will pay any income tax by 1995.  Every one of the dollars saved through our superannuation plan helps finance Australia's development without foreign debt. It's a national savings scheme - good for you, good for Australia. It's too important to be put at risk.  My Friends,  We need more exports. We need more competitive industry. We need manufacturing muscle, built on the backbone of our great mining and agricultural resources. We have begun, strongly begun, that process. Under Labor the proportion of people working is at record levels. They are better educated than ever before, better trained and working with better tools and technology. What better base for productivity growth? And what more complete rebuttal could there be of the Opposition's putting down of Australia's productivity as virtually zero than the official figures released here and overseas just this very week? There's the fact -Australia's productivity is on the rise, and sharply so. Seven years ago, Australia's steel industry was on the verge of shutdown. We have together - government, unions, employers - transformed the steel industry. Today we are exporting steel to the world - $750 million in the last year. The value of these exports will treble to over $2 billion by 1992. Seven years ago, our motor vehicle industry was collapsing under the weight of self-defeating protection and inefficient work practices. Today we are shipping Australian cars and car parts to Japan and the United States. Our ship building industry has been revitalised. Now the Europeans can catch a ferry across the English Channel - made in Tasmania. We are now exporting electronic equipment to Asia, pharmaceuticals to Europe and optical lenses throughout the world. Australia is now one of the world's great tourist destinations, our telecommunications industry is leading the way into export markets, and our exports of education, health and legal services are achieving unprecedented growth.  But we can do more. We must do more. Earlier in this campaign I outlined Labor's integrated strategy to boost Australian exports. And I outlined a ten point plan to lift further the productivity of our industry.  My Friends,  No longer content to be just the lucky country, Australia must become the clever country. To realise that vision, I am announcing new initiatives today to build on our substantial achievements in education and scientific research - to unleash the skills and talents of our people. When, we came to office, thirty six per cent - around one in three children – completed high school education. Today, sixty per cent finish Year 12; that's sixty seven thousand more kids a year with a better chance in life, a new opportunity for the future. To assist parents with the financial burden of keeping their -children at school longer, for their children's good and the country’s good, we will introduce a new Education Completion Allowance. For those students not receiving AUSTUDY, family allowance for students during the last two years at high school will be replaced with a payment of $300 twice a year - a total of $600 and an increase of $115 - paid at the time when the demands on parents for books and equipment are greatest. And we want to encourage that ever-increasing number of young Australians finishing high school to strive for excellence. So today I'm announcing the Australian Students Prize. Five hundred awards of $2000 each will be made to our best young achievers at the end of Year 12. And for all these kids finishing school there is now a greater opportunity than ever before for a job - or, if they choose, a place in universities, TAFE colleges, apprenticeships and job training.  My Friends,  In this national task of mobilising our human resources, our scientists and researchers stand at the forefront. Australia must reduce its reliance on imported technology and borrowed research. We must become a leader in the production and export of ideas. My Government has already dramatically boosted our science and technology potential - with a $1000 million package of initiatives last year. But to stay abreast and move ahead of the world, we need to pool the talents of our university, Commonwealth, State and private sector researchers and link them more effectively to the rest of the economy. The Government has now decided to establish a network of fifty world class Co-operative Research Centres. These research centres will create additional jobs for about 1000 talented Australian scientists. They will be established over the next five years, built around outstanding research leaders and pooling the talent of outstanding research groups not only from the CSIRO, other government research organisations and the universities, but also from private industry. When fully established we will be providing $100 million a year in additional funding to support the new centres. Each research centre will be staffed with a team of highly skilled scientists, using the latest high tech equipment, exchanging information around the world - making scientific breakthroughs in medicine, technology, pollution control, communications. And so, instead of young Australian scientists having to go to Europe, America and Japan to find the leading edge of scientific research, we'll have their scientists coming to us. The new centres will be located wherever possible on or near university campuses, so that research staff can help in the equally vital task of training young researchers. This is the most significant step ever taken by a Federal Government to draw together the strengths of Australian researchers. It will equip Australians with the scientific research capacity to take our modern nation into the 21st century.  My Friends,  At the same time we cannot afford to exclude any group of Australians from making their contribution to the national mobilisation of resources. In particular, a Labor Government will never accept that any fit and able Australian is unemployable. We will never accept the proposition that some Australians are expendable, to be dropped through a trap door and forgotten. We offer instead a safety net of training and re-training for the unemployed. We will abolish the dole and replace it with a Jobsearch allowance for those actively seeking work. For those who cannot find a job after 12 months, there will be a Newstart allowance, conditional on accepting training or retraining for available work. Despite our success in lifting the proportion of children staying on to finish school, we recognise that some schools and some kids are still missing out. Therefor, Labor will provide $37 million over three years to address literacy and learning problems in disadvantaged schools. Further, we will expand Secondary Education Hostels for Aboriginal Children. And we will provide $60 million over the next two years to improve school facilities, equipment and curricula.  My Friends,  There is a new generation of social issues facing those who live in the outer areas of our cities. The voluntary groups and State agencies that have to deal with crisis in peoples' lives, day to day, know that isolation is becoming a major social problem -isolation from employment opportunities, from family support, from education. I now commit my Government to provide, with the States and voluntary groups, a new level of Commonwealth support. We will extend marriage counselling services. We will establish Family Resources Centres. We will support State efforts to care for teenagers after school. And we will help provide improved transport for outer urban areas through the provision of more trains and buses. The total cost of these measures will be $128 million over three years.  My Friends,  In the task of national mobilisation to build a more productive and competitive economy, the women of Australia have a key role. Today - International Women's Day - I re-affirm our deep commitment to equality of opportunity for the women of Australia. It is a commitment to give women a full say, a real choice and a fair go. We recognise that if women are to have a real choice, they need access to child care. That is why we have established what is already one of the best systems of child care in the world, and why we will make it even better - more places and more affordable access to them. Under our existing child care strategy we will have created 144,000 new child care places by 1992. Of itself that represents a trebling of child care places since we came to office. Today I announce that we will be making available additional funding capable of creating, with the States, another 50000 child care places over the next five years. And, further, we will provide the incentive for employers to extend child care in both the public and the private sectors. We expect an estimated 28000 new places in employer provided and commercial centres. To do this we will greatly increase the fee-relief for low and middle income families. It will mean, for example, that a family with a gross income of $30000 a year, with one child at a child care centre, will receive a fee-relief benefit of $65 a week - over twice the benefit currently paid. And for the first time, we will extend fee-relief to low and middle income families using commercial child care centres. Parents are entitled to be confident they are getting quality attention for their kids, whether they are using Government-funded or commercial centres. So we will work with all the key interests in child care to develop a system of accreditation. In all, we will spend some $400 million in what will constitute the biggest expansion of child care in Australia's history. We estimate there will be a quarter of a million places by mid-1996. Last week in Perth, with Premier Carmen Lawrence, I committed my Government to new policies for women including a national program for the early detection of breast cancer, fully funded at $64 million over three years.  My Friends,  Central to everything I am putting forward today - and central to the decision you will make on 24 March - is the kind of Australia we want for our children. And that's not just a matter of education and jobs and opportunities and economic growth. It is, very importantly, the natural environment they'll inherit. We in this generation have no greater responsibility than to pass on intact to future generations Australia's priceless environment. My Government unequivocally accepts that responsibility. That's why we stopped the damming of the Franklin. And that's why we protected our irreplaceable rainforests, the tall forests of Tasmania, the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu. Nor do we accept that this responsibility ends at Australia's shores. We are leading the fight to prevent mining in Antarctica. We are leading the fight to end the barbaric practice of drift net fishing in the South Pacific. We are making a strong scientific effort to help tackle the greenhouse and ozone problems and are banning virtually all use of CFCs. And our commitment to the environment will not end there. I will be making a separate statement on the environment in the coming weeks.  My Friends,  It has been said that those who do not learn the lessons of the past will be condemned to repeat them. Everything the Coalition has done, and all it still stands for, shows that they have not learned the lessons of their post failures, and that they wish to condemn the nation to a traumatic and socially destructive repetition of them. I said at the outset that the great divide between us lay between opportunity and privilege. There are two key issues in this election which starkly show the difference - capital gains tax and Medicare. The plain fact about the Liberal/National plan for the abolition of the capital gains tax is this: billions of dollars that would have been available for education, health, training, roads would be shovelled into the pockets of less than one in a hundred Australian taxpayers. The capital gains tax is a fair tax. The vast majority of wage and salary earners do not pay capital gains tax and never will. And you find on Medicare that same conflict between privilege and opportunity. For all their confusion, their twisting and turning, the truth is that the Liberals and Nationals would dismantle Medicare - scrap bulk billing - leave two million and more of our fellow Australians without health cover - benefit only the wealthy - and saddle the Australian family once again with all the burden, the anxiety, the cost, the inconvenience and the confusion that existed before we delivered affordable health care to every Australian. I will tell you our policy in two words: Medicare stays.  Fellow Australians,  A party that cannot govern itself cannot govern Australia. And that's why I've said that your choice on 24 March will determine whether our highest aspirations for the future are to be fulfilled. We can attain stronger national prosperity from a world competitive economy - greater financial security for families - a ladder of opportunity for all Australians - unshakeable protection of the natural environment. We can attain these goals - in the 1990s. Under Labor, Australians will attain them. That is Labor's pledge for Australia's future. And it is my pledge as Australia's leader. I don't seek to create false hopes or to raise unrealistic expectations. There is still hard work ahead of us as a nation. None of us should be under any illusion about that. But I make my pledge for the 1990s with confidence because we have already done much of the hard work, laid the enduring foundations, taken many of the tough decisions in the 1980s. Remember: the reason for those tough decisions and the discipline in the 1980s was precisely so that we can, with continued and united effort, create a more secure future, in a stronger Australia. Only Labor can make that continued and united effort – and- only Labor can create that more secure future. Because only Labor has the plans, the vision, the guts and the leadership to assure our country's future - a future rich in hope and promise as we approach the threshold of the 21st century.  MINISTER FOR FINANCE  MARCH 1990 ERC SCORESHEET - LABOR'S FISCAL DISCIPLINE  90/91 91/92 92/93  $m $m $m  SAVINGS IDENTIFIED (347.7) (547.8) (602.9)  IN ECONOMIC STATEMENT  OUTLAYS ANNOUNCED  Labour marker reform 24.9  Tasmanian package 7.0  Non Govt Schools 5.0  Roads/Land Transport 100.0  Export Marketing 10.0  Initiatives for Women 16.0  Veterans 4.8  Childcare 86.8  Education 37.0  Family Services 8.4  Urban Transport 25.0  Research Centres 5.0  OUTLAYS TO BE ANNOUNCED.  INCREASE TO BUDGET SURPLUS.  PETER WALSH  MINISTER FOR FINANCE  8 MARCH 1990.  EDUCATION STATEMENT.  Over the past seven years, the Government has demonstrated its capacity to provide leadership in improving our education and training system. In an historic achievement in April 1989, the Federal Government, in co-operation with the States, issued the Hobart, Declaration on Schooling. This represents the first step towards a truly Australian system of schooling. Australian Ministers of Education have agreed for the first time on what our schools should be doing and agreed to eliminate unnecessary differences between schools in different States and Territories. This is extremely important for the 70000 school students who change schools between States each year.  Education Completion Allowance.  One of the Government's greatest and most enduring achievements has been to increase dramatically the number of young people who complete their secondary school studies. During their period of office, the Coalition increased retention rates by only two percentage points from 34 per cent to 36 per cent. Since we came to office, the proportion of young people completing year 12 has risen to 60 per cent. If the Year 12 retention rate had remained at its 1982 level, there would have been 67000 fewer students in Year 12 in  1989. Income support has been a major factor in achieving these results. Since 1983 the number of young people receiving AUSTUDY in high school has more than doubled from 53000 to 120000 in 1989. Today, I announce a further initiative aimed at helping more families provide a worthwhile education for their children. A new Education Completion Allowance of two payments of $300 each year will be paid to the parents of full-time secondary students in Years 11-12 and 15-17 year old full-time tertiary students, where Family Allowance is otherwise payable in respect of these students. The new payments will subsume current Family Allowance entitlements for these students, and involve in net terms an additional $115. They will be paid at the time when the demands on parents for books and equipment are greatest, February and July. Parents of senior secondary students aged 18-24 may also receive the payments if they satisfy the Family Allowance income test (as Family Allowance is not currently available in these cases, the initiative provides an additional $600 per annum in support). Eligibility for the payment will be restricted to those full-time students not in receipt of AUSTUDY. The Completion Allowance will benefit an average of 230000 students each year. The Completion Allowance is designed to complement AUSTUDY and assist in the costs associated with continuing full-time education and training, particularly the purchase or hire of textbooks. The payments will be indexed to movements in the Consumer Price Index on an annual basis after 1991. They will be administered through the Department of Social Security's Family Allowance Program. In a full year the cost is estimated to be $34,3 million.  Secondary Support Program.  Increased retention rates have, of course, resulted in extra pressure on our schools. The Commonwealth will provide $20 million to government schools and $10 million to nongovernment schools in each of 1991 and 1992, to help schools meet the challenges of increased retention. These new funds will be used to provide the facilities and equipment needed in schools where the impact of increased retention has been the greatest.  Australian Students Prize.  During our period in office we have been concerned not only to provide opportunities for participation in education and training but also to encourage excellence. We have already announced our support for International Olympiads in maths, chemistry and physics. $1.5 million will be provided over the next five years to support the participation of Australian students in these events. The young people who participate in these events bring credit to themselves and to our nation. In striving to be among the best in the world, in their selected areas, they set an example for all young Australians. Today, I announce a broader initiative to encourage excellence in our school system. Commencing in 1991, the Australian Government will provide 500 awards valued at $2000 each to students who achieve outstanding results in Year 12. These awards will be called the Australian Students Prize in recognition of the contribution these students can be expected to make to the future of our nation.  Disadvantaged Schools Program.  Increased income support has greatly helped students from poorer families make the most of the opportunities our society and education system can provide. Nevertheless, there are some areas requiring further, more specialised, attention. The cornerstone of the Government's commitment to equality of opportunity in education is the $43 million provided annually to assist disadvantaged schools under the Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP). In 1991, we will introduce a new program to improve literacy and learning skills among students attending disadvantaged secondary schools, at a cost of around $5 million a year over three years. We will also expand the coverage of the Disadvantaged Schools Program to a total of 500000 students next year, at an additional cost of around $8 million each year. Currently the DSP assists 422000 students in 1663 schools around Australia.  Special Education.  To help overcome the problems involved in the education of disabled children, the Federal Government will increase, from the beginning of 1991, its per capita grant for students with disabilities in government schools by 20 per cent, and will fund students with disabilities in non-government schools at the highest rate for non-government schools, category 12. These changes recognise the benefits of increased integration. Accordingly, the new per capita grant levels will be portable, so that all children with disabilities can take their grant with them, upon integration into regular schools. This will cost $4.2 million in a full year.  Girls in Schools.  I have previously announced, on 2 March 1990, that we will provide $3 million over three years to make curricula in our schools equally relevant to girls and boys.  National Negotiation on the Quality of Teaching.  The Government recognises that we depend greatly on the morale and skills of teachers if we are to continue to improve opportunity, excellence and equity in our nation's schools. It is not possible to build greater quality into our schools without responding to the issues which determine the quality of the nation's teachers. Accordingly the Government announced on 1 March 1990 that it will co-ordinate a ‘National Negotiation on the Quality of Teaching’ to be held in the months following the election and involve all parties interested in improving the quality of teaching in Australian schools.  Government Schools.  Federal Government funding for government schools will have increased by 50% between 1985 and 1992. All government schools will have reached the community standard by 1992, and the Federal Government will maintain its per capita funding to government schools at the same level in real terms through to the year 2000.  Non-Government Schools - A Funding Commitment For Australia's Future.  Funding stability and security for Australia's non-government schools will be provided under the Government's policies through to the Year 2000. Between 1992 and the Year 2000 the Government will maintain in real terms its general recurrent grants to all non-government schools and increase its recurrent funding to needier non-government schools. The Government's planned program of real increases for those schools most in need will ensure that, if other funding partners match our commitment, all schools will have reached the 'community standard' by the Year 2000. This will be achieved at a cost to the Government of an additional $116 million per annum by the Year 2000. By the Year 2000, non-government schools will have enjoyed an unprecedented 16 years of stability and security of funding.  Learning for our Environment.  In the climate of concern about the future of our planet, governments have a responsibility to encourage children to think creatively and constructively about the environment The Federal Government announced last year $400000 in 1990 for an environmental education strategy to promote learning for the environment in schools.  EDUCATION.  (Announced 8 March 1990).  Education Completion Allowance Government Schools    90/91 91/92 92/93  $m $m $m  16.2 34.3 34.3  10.5 21.1 10.5  1.0 1.0 1.0  7.2 14.8 15.5  2.1 4.2 4.2    37.0 75.4 65.5  Special Education  (Announced 25 February 1990)  Non-Government Schools 5.0 10.0 13.1  MAJOR NEW SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE CO-OPERATIVE RESEARCH CENTRES.  Background Information.  Background.  For Australia to have a technologically sophisticated economy in the future, it is essential to have a world class scientific and technological capability in the universities, CSIRO and other Commonwealth, State and private sector laboratories. It is also essential that these resources be linked as effectively as possible to the various sectors of the economy. Australia's combined scientific and technological resources are substantial but they are dispersed both geographically and institutionally. This makes it difficult to establish the concentrations and networks of researchers - and the expensive facilities and equipment - needed in many research fields to keep pace with the rapid scientific and technological change occurring internationally. Indeed, there is widespread agreement amongst Australian scientists that, even in traditional areas of strength, Australian laboratories are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain world class research. There is also increasing concern that our undergraduate and graduate programs in science and technology are not always of world class - thereby jeopardising the future quality and performance of the public and private institutions in which graduates are employed. These concerns were brought out strongly at the first meeting of the Prime Minister's Science Council, as was the urgent need to take steps to remedy them.  Co-operative Research Centres.  To address these concerns the Government will establish a major new program to enable outstanding research groups to join together to build a series of world class Co-operative Research Centres. The program has been developed by the Chief Scientist, Professor Ralph Slatyer, following an examination of major research programs in other countries and consultations with leading figures from the Australian technology community, including members of the Prime Minister's Science Council. The program will play a vital role in ensuring that Australia will benefit from the combined strength of the nation's science and technology resources. It will help ensure that Australian research and research training will remain at the forefront in those areas of greatest importance to this country. The basic approach will be to relocate and link outstanding university, CSIRO and other research groups, whenever it is possible and appropriate, into Co-operative Research Centres with facilities concentrated at the one location. Each participating group will retain its separate institutional affiliation but the Centres will constitute integrated collaborative research teams. Supplementing this approach will be the development of research consortia and information networks, so that laboratories or researchers not in close physical proximity can also participate in the program. The work of the Centres will be focussed on challenging research fields and areas which underpin existing or emerging industry sectors. In the establishment of each Centre, the management of Universities, CSIRO and other research organizations will be strongly encouraged to seek the involvement of State Government bodies and particularly industrial firms to provide a commercial focus where necessary. Wherever possible the Centres will be located on or adjacent to university campuses. This will enable non-university staff to participate in undergraduate and research training. It will facilitate the establishment of strong graduate schools in the universities and will enable students to benefit from contact with many outstanding researchers who are at present outside the university system. There will also be benefit to these researchers from contact with students. The establishment of the Centres will also foster the development of precincts around the campuses which will become increasingly attractive as locations for research-intensive and knowledge-based firms. The Centres will be important in enabling expensive facilities and equipment to be utilised efficiently and without unnecessary duplication. In a number of cases, it will be possible to house the Centres in common facilities, through the joint occupancy of buildings by university, CSIRO and other research staff. In the longer term the program will provide opportunities for new approaches to the design and siting of buildings so as to maximise the possibilities of colocation and of changing usage patterns as circumstances change in the future.  The scale of the program.  To ensure that the program has maximum impact on Australian research and research training, it will commence immediately and result in fifty Centres being established over the next five years. The first fifteen Centres will be started during, 1990-91 and the remainder in the following years. Each Centre will build up to full strength over a period of about two years. It is expected that the average size of each Centre will be about twenty full-time researchers, although individual Centres will vary above and below this figure, the scale depending on the requirements in particular research fields. The average cost of each Centre, when fully established, will be of the order of $4 million per year. The co-operating institutions will be expected to provide half the resources for each Centre, with the Government providing the other half. The institutions' contribution would normally include the cost of existing staff facilities and research support. When the program is fully established, the Government will therefore be contributing $100 million per year to it. It is intended that this supplementary Government funding will be flexible and will be able to be used for staff, buildings, equipment or other research support.  Other benefits.  It is expected that up to 1000 additional scientists will be employed in the Centres. The program will therefore be a major response to the concerns of talented young Australian researchers now unable to find sufficiently challenging and rewarding jobs in this country. The program will also provide opportunities for both junior and senior Australian researchers now overseas to return to Australia. The Centres will greatly help in strengthening tertiary education in Australia, particularly graduate education. This will contribute directly to the supply of young scientists, engineers and technologists needed for the large number of posts expected to fall vacant through retirement in the late 1990s. The establishment of the program will also benefit researchers who do not participate directly since it will reduce pressure on research grants provided by the Australian Research Council (ARC), the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) and other granting bodies. It is expected that a number of research groups and individual researchers now funded by these bodies will have their funding requirements met through various Co-operative Research Centres.In a similar way the task of re-equipping laboratories throughout the universities and CSIRO will be assisted by the existence of the new program.  Establishment and administration.  The program will be administered for the first few years by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, under the guidance of a committee drawn largely from members of the Prime Minister's Science Council. It is envisaged that the Committee will issue an advertisement as soon as practicable calling for applications for funding and setting out guidelines for prospective applicants. A period of about six months will be allowed for applications to be submitted. This lengthy period will be allowed so that prospective participants will have time to consult in depth with prospective partners and submit well argued cases. Assessment procedures will be along similar lines to those already established by the ARC and NH&MRC, but with modified guidelines which will encourage co-operative research. Funding will be approved for a period of the order of five years in the first instance. Continued funding will be negotiated following review and evaluation. The program itself will be subject to careful scrutiny in its early years to ensure that its objectives are being met. It will be thoroughly reviewed once all the Centres are fully operational.  FAMILY SERVICES AND URBAN TRANSPORT.  The Government now intends to provide increased support for the services that are needed by families in the outer areas of our cities. Of most importance, this will assist children to develop to their maximum potential and participate fully in society once they reach adulthood. Labor is committed, in particular, to doing more to address the root causes of disadvantage amongst children. The measures to address education disadvantage (Disadvantaged Schools Program, national literacy initiative) are one element of this (see Education Statement).  MARRIAGE COUNSELLING AND FAMILY MEDIATION.  Disadvantage, however, also often results from family stress and breakdown. Accordingly, the Government will increase, by $15 million over the next 3 years, its support for preventative programs such as marriage counselling and family mediation that support the family and reduce the chances of family breakdowns through factors such as child abuse, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse and the risk of youth homelessness. Currently many provincial towns and rural areas are unserviced, and metropolitan services are attempting to provide coverage for a wide area. Priority will be given to unserviced and underserviced rural and metropolitan areas.  FAMILY RESOURCE CENTRES.  A large number of family and child support services is funded and delivered by all levels of government and community organisations. However, many disadvantaged families do not know of the existence of such services, have difficulty in gaining access to the right service or are sometimes referred to an inappropriate agency. We will work in close co-operation with the States and community organisations to improve the effectiveness of the services that are provided to assist disadvantaged and vulnerable families and children. An important requirement is to improve co-ordination of service provision so that families and children in need of assistance are able to gain quick and easy access to the particular service that they require. To assist this process, the Government will provide $15 million for the establishment of Family Resource Centres. Such centres will work closely with existing community organisations, provide a focal point for existing family support services at neighbourhood and wider regional levels, and assist the planning of future service provision. Over the next 3 years the Government will progressively establish at least 15 Family Resource Centres located in areas of population growth, such as outer metropolitan areas, where the need is greatest.  OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS CARE (OSHC).  The Outside School Hours Care component of the Children Services Program will be extended to provide facilities for adolescents aged 11-16 years in disadvantaged areas.  Current OSHC services are aimed at 5-12 year olds and generally don't provide activities suitable for older children and adolescents. As a result, adolescents aged 13-16 years often have no appropriately supervised activities after school, with the consequent greater risk of drug abuse, petty crime, vandalism and physical abuse. The Government will allocate over $9 million for extension of the OSHC to provide more appropriate activities for older children such as supervised sporting activities, and drop-in centres with facilities for homework and media/art workshops.  HOSTEL ACCOMMODATION FOR DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS.  The Government will also extend hostel accommodation for disadvantaged students from remote locations to enable them to pursue secondary or further education. This will cost $4 million over three years.  URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT.  Increased priority will be given to improving transport systems in the major cities. The continuing growth in traffic is placing increasingly heavy demands on our road systems. The problems of congestion and travel times are most acute in our largest cities. The Government is committed to addressing this problem through our continuing commitment to road infrastructure development, and through increased priority for urban public transport development. Public transport systems have tended to grow from the centre of cities and, therefore, tend not to provide good access to the more distant residential and industrial areas. This contributes to the social and economic isolation of the least-advantaged residents of those areas. In co-operation with the States, the Government will build on its commitment to improving urban transport under the Australian Centennial Roads Development Program (ACRD) by providing an additional $85 million over three years to the States for public transport. In total, well over $200 million will be available under the ACRD to improve urban public transport, particularly in the most disadvantaged metropolitan areas.  EFFECT OF THE GOVERNMENT'S CHILD CARE ANNOUNCEMENTS.  Nearly 280000 families will benefit from new child care arrangements announced today.  The Government's child care policy:  - creates new child care places.  - makes child care affordable.  - is directed to lower and middle income families.  - provides for a minimum level of quality.  - and is relatively easily administered.  CREATING NEW CHILD CARE PLACES.  Today's announcements commit the Government to making available additional funding capable of creating, with the States another 50000 child care places over the next five years. And we will be providing incentives for more commercial child care centres to be built, by extending fee relief to those centres for the first time. Fee relief for employer provided care will be significantly increased. We expect an estimated 28000 new places in employer provided and commercial centres. This total of 78000 places under the new initiatives comprises:  - 10000 centre based places in the community sector.  - 10000 family day care places.  - 30000 outside school hours care places.  - and estimated growth of 28000 employer and commercial places.  INCREASING AFFORDABILITY BY IMPROVING FEE RELIEF.  Many low and middle income families presently have difficulty affording child care because fee relief is insufficient or, in the case of commercial centres, it is not available at all. The measures announced today both increase fee relief and extend fee relief to commercial centres.  The new measures include:  - increasing the maximum fee relief ceiling to $100 a week.  - increasing the income threshold for maximum fee relief from $280 gross weekly income to $370 a week, for a family with one child.  - more generous fee relief withdrawal rates above this income to phase out eligibility for fee relief over a broader income range - so that some fee relief will be available to families with income up to $64000 per annum for one child in care.  - extending fee relief to commercial centres.  Examples of Increased Benefits.  Families using community centres and family day care already get some fee relief, depending on their incomes. The new measures mean that fee relief will be higher for families using these centres and more families will get it. The table below shows these increases. And since fee relief to date has not been available for commercial centres, the table shows the fee relief families using those centres will now get for the first time.  Child Care Benefits.  (Family with one child using 50 hours of care) INCREASE    ANNUAL NEW -------------------------------  GROSS FAMILY WEEKLY FEE Community  INCOME RELIEF(a) Centre  $10,000 $86 $ 8  $20,000 $85 $24  $30,000 $65 $37  $40,000 $46 $46  $50,000 $27 $27  $60,000 $ 8 S 8    GUARANTEEING QUALITY.  To be eligible for fee relief, employer provided and commercial centres will be required to meet State/Territory licensing requirements and other conditions such as minimum hours of operation. The Government will bring together the key interests in the child care industry to develop a system of accreditation for child care services, to ensure children and their parents have access to quality care. For the first time, employer and commercial provided centres will have access to training and management support activities which will help achieve quality across services.  OTHER MEASURES.  These include:  - Introduction of fee relief for families with school-aged children using outside school hours care.  - Improved fee relief for families using occasional care.  - Extra funds for special child care services to meet the needs of Aboriginal, migrant, disabled, and isolated children.  - and $100000 for the Playgroup Associations of Australia to upgrade and purchase equipment.  CONCLUSION.  The Government estimates that by mid-1996 there will be an extra 108000 child care places (30000 already committed and 78000 as a result of today's announcement). This would bring the total number of child care places in Australia to a quarter of a million. By directing fee relief to those who need it, the Government s maximising the effectiveness of scarce budgetary resources in providing affordable child care. The Coalition's child care policy of itself creates no new places. The child care tax rebate is only $20 for a first child under five years old and $10 for any other children. Yet it applies to all families no matter how high their incomes - except poorer families whose second income earner pays insufficient tax and therefore receives nothing. And for those families on less than $50000 the Coalition's policy does little to make child care affordable. Moreover, the Coalition's policy does nothing about ensuring minimum standards of quality. It would be difficult to administer - and therefore is wide open to rorting. In all, the Government will spend $400 million in what will constitute the biggest expansion of child care in Australia's history - properly targeted assistance for quality care, paid in cash, easily administered and of very great value to the hundreds of thousands of families who will get it.  CHILD CARE - BACKGROUND BRIEF.  INTRODUCTION.  One of the Hawke Labor Government's greatest achievements has been in child care. Over the last seven years, in a climate of economic restraint, the Government has provided tens of thousands of Australian families with access to child care services and helped them to meet the cost of care. We have introduced:  - an income tested fee relief system to assist low to middle income earners to afford child care.  - a major expansion of child care places from 1983 to 1988, involving an increase in the numbers of centres, family day care schemes and outside school hours care services.  - guidelines to ensure that working families are given priority of access to services.  - a needs based planning system to ensure that new services are located in areas of high need.  - an expansion of services for children in special need (children from non-English speaking backgrounds, Aboriginal children, children with disabilities and those in remote and isolated areas).  - new services providing occasional care for women at home.  More recently, the Government has introduced the Industry Initiative, a scheme designed to encourage private sector employers to provide child care services on a non profit basis for their employees.  In summary, the Government's policy objectives for child care have been to:  - increase the supply of formal child care places.  - ensure that care for low to moderate income earners is affordable.  - target places to those most in need of work related care.  - promote choice by supporting a range of service types.  - and promote quality of care.  Support has been made available for the following types of services:  - community centres which are open for sufficient hours and weeks in the year to meet the needs of working parents.  - family day care in the homes of carers which is the preferred choice of many working parents with very young children.  - care for children of school age before and after school and during vacations while their parents work.  - occasional care for parents not in the workforce who need to leave their children in the care of others for short periods.  - services designed for the needs of children with disabilities or the cultural needs of Aboriginal children or those from non-English speaking backgrounds.  - child care facilities designed for rural and isolated communities.  - activities to support the training and management needs of workers in the child care industry and the community groups which operate child care services.  These efforts have led to:  - an increase in spending on children's services from $65 million in 1982-83 to an estimated $232 million in 1989-90.  - more than double the number of subsidised child places since 1983, from 46000 to 114000.  - cost sharing agreements with States and Territories both capital and recurrent costs.  - improved consultation including a National Advisory Committee and Planning Committees in each State and Territory to advise on the development of new services.  - more than 132000 families using services funded under the Children's Services Program at any one time and around 14000 workers employed in subsidised child care services together with an estimated 14000 home based carers in family day care schemes.  THE CHALLENGE FOR THE 1990s.  There are two main factors which influence access to child care - supply and affordability. The Government's new proposals tackle both. The number of child care places will almost double which involves the largest expansion ever undertaken of community child care. And child care is made more affordable for low and middle income earners through sweeping improvements in the fee relief system.  INCREASING SUPPLY.  The Government has made a commitment to provide 30000 new places under the National Child Care Strategy by 1992-93. We will now extend this commitment by a further 78000 places to provide a total of 108000 places between now and 1995-96. More than 123000 families will benefit from this expansion. All sectors of the child care industry - community, commercial and employer provided - will be encouraged to participate in providing these new places.  The new places comprise:  - 10000 new centre-based places in the community sector.  - 10000 family day care places.  - And 30000 outside school hours care places including vacation care.  - an estimated 28000 new places in commercial and both public and private employer provided child care centres.  The States will be asked to share capital and recurrent costs for the additional centre-based places planned in the community sector and for additional outside school hours care. It is estimated that around 28000 new places will be created over the next five years in the commercial/employer sector as a result of extending fee relief to low and middle income families using these services. The Industry Initiative, currently available to private sector employers only, will be extended to public sector employers including Commonwealth and State Government departments, statutory authorities and Government Business Enterprises. All employers must meet the capital costs of establishing services. Commonwealth Government employers will charge fees to cover all costs: the only assistance given to employees will be means tested fee relief. It is estimated that more than half of these additional 28000 places will be provided by employers in the workplace. Child care tax rebates, as proposed by the Opposition, would not guarantee any increase in the supply of child care places. Tax rebates would provide the same assistance to all families, rich or poor, except for those where the secondary income is below the tax threshold: these families would receive nothing. The level of tax rebate proposed by the Opposition will have only a marginal effect on affordability and hence is unlikely to encourage any significant increase in child care places. In contrast, the Government's new levels of fee relief targeted to low and middle income earners will make a crucial difference to their ability to afford child care. In this way, effective demand (ie a desire for a service backed up by the ability to pay for it) will increase. The key elements of the fee relief system will be indexed annually to maintain the value of the benefit. There is no such commitment from the Opposition to index their rebate.  FRINGE BENEFITS TAX.  Section 47(8) of the Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act enables employers to secure priority of access in centres under the Children's Services Program and have these payments exempt from the FBT. Similar payments by an employer to a commercial centre are presently not exempt. To encourage the expansion of employer sponsored child care the Government will now enable employer payments to secure priority of access in private child care centres to be exempt from FBT.  IMPROVING AFFORDABILITY.  About 156000 families will benefit from significant improvements to the fee relief system. To help low and middle income earners meet the cost of their child care fees, the Government will:  - increase the fee relief ceiling to $100 per 50 hour week for all long day care services, including family day care.  - increase the fee relief income threshold for maximum benefit from $280 to $370 gross per week.  - reduce the fee relief withdrawal rates to 10 cents in the dollar for one child and 20 cents for two or more children.  This improved system will be extended to commercial centres from 1 January 1991.  From 1 October the fee relief ceilings for long day care will be increased as follows:  - community centres - $92.50 to $100 per week.  - Family Day Care - $68 (for 40 hours of care) to $100 per week (for 50 hours of care).  - About 94000 families using existing Government funded long day care services will receive extra help with their fees.  Tables 2 and 3 show the estimated levels of benefit for families by income and service type, for one child or two children. The family income eligible for maximum fee relief benefit will be linked to the cut-off point for Family Allowance Supplement for non-renting families with one child (currently $370 gross per week) effective from 1 October 1990. This is an increase from $280 per week. Above this income, fee relief will be withdrawn at a lower rate of 10 cents in the dollar for one child and 20 cents in the dollar for two or more children in care, effective from 1 October 1990 (compared with current withdrawal rates of 17 cents and 23 cents respectively). This means that some help with fees will be available to families with incomes up to $64000 per annum for one child in care. The improved fee relief system will be extended to !commercial child care centres from 1 January 1991. About 32000 families currently using these centres will receive help with their fees for the first time. Commercial centres will be required to meet certain conditions relating to matters such as State/Territory licensing requirements and minimum hours of operation. These currently apply to community services and are designed to ensure that the Government's objectives for work related care are met. For the first time, commercial and employer provided centres will have access to training and management support -activities which will help achieve consistent quality across services. The Government will also bring together the key interests in the child care industry - State and Territory Governments which are responsible for licensing and other regulations, Local Government, representatives from the community and commercial sector and the union movements- to develop a system of accreditation for child care services. Our aim is to ensure that children and their parents have access to quality care. It is expected that the process of developing an accreditation system will take some time. For this reason, all State/Territory licensed long day care services, community, commercial and employer provided, will be deemed to be accredited on an interim basis from 1 January 1991. Fee relief will also be extended to existing non profit child care centres currently not funded under the Children's Services Program: an estimated 4000 places by 1 January 1991. Many of these are located in TAFEs and on university campuses and others are parent run co-operatives in the community. Fee relief will assist about 6000 low to middle income working families and people training for employment to use these services. The Government will also introduce a uniform system of fee relief for parents using before and after school care services. About 8000 families will receive help with their fees of up to $9 a week for each child. Eligibility for fee relief in Commonwealth funded occasional care centres will be extended to families who are in receipt of Family Allowance Supplement and do not hold Health Care Cards. Where there are two or more children in care, families in receipt of Family Allowance will become eligible. This will be effective from 1 October 1990 and will help another 16000 families on low and middle incomes with a maximum benefit of $10.80 per session. Additional funds will be made available for special children's services. These funds will assist children in rural and remote communities, provide special programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and extend activities to improve access to standard services for children with disabilities and from non-English speaking backgrounds. The Playgroup Associations of Australia, which reach many families with young children cared for at home, will receive a one-off grant of $100000 in 1990 to upgrade and purchase much needed equipment.  CONCLUSION.  This commitment represents the biggest expansion of child care services in Australia's history. By 1995-96 the Government estimates there will be an extra 108000 child care places, bringing the total number in Australia to over a quarter of a million. It builds upon a solid record of achievement and will support many tens of thousands of Australian families, especially those on low and middle incomes, to meet the challenges of life in the 1990s. As demand for child care services will continue to grow, at the end of this planned and targeted expansion, the Government will consider commitments to the further expansion of the community sector for the second half of the decade.