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.