A Government Of Hope, Not Of Fear: Beazley

This is the text of the final address given by the Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, at the National Press Club.

An election result defines a nation.

A government affects the entire community - for good or bad.

It influences a country's optimism, its self-confidence, its inventiveness, its good heartedness.

On the other hand, a government can leave its people convinced that the only opportunities available are for the few, not the many.

That is the Howard Government's way, but it is not our way.

We have come into this election campaign with a unique status. We are the only Party with a plan for the long-term future for all Australians.

• A complete plan that addresses the needs of all our children through their early years and into their schooling.

• A plan for lifelong education and training, that starts the process of turning us into an innovative and creative nation.

• A plan that will end the brain drain, and that will end the sorry tales of great Australian inventions going offshore.

• A plan to provide good jobs for Australians now and into the future

• A plan for decent hospitals, medical care after hours, and decent care for the elderly.

If elected on Saturday, Labor will carry out these plans.

Labor will be a government that understands there must be changes to the GST, a complex and burdensome tax, making this government the highest-taxing in Australia's history.

We will make the GST fairer for ordinary Australian families and simpler for small business.

In Government we will respond to the concerns of ordinary people, address their reasonable needs, and provide equal opportunity for all.

Today I want to cast forward to give you a view of how Australia will change for the better under a Beazley Labor Government.

If elected to office this Saturday I will begin immediately to carry out my plan to put schools, hospitals and families first.

For too long, under this government, the wealthy have come first, well ahead of the interests of struggling Australian families.

Families carry this country. Families bear the burden of the great costs for future generations.

It is they who put kids through the most expensive years of their life - so it is they who deserve relief from those burdens.

That is why our changes to the goods and services tax are for everybody.

Walk down any street and 90 percent of people will miss out on John Howard's baby bonus tax plan. Ninety-five per cent of taxpayers will receive no benefit whatsoever from his modest superannuation tax cut for high income earners.

But with Labor in office, by the end of our first three years, the GST will be completely removed from a range of items essential to all families.

The GST will be off electricity and gas bills. And what a difference that will make to those under financial pressure.

A ten percent tax off your electricity account may not mean much to John Howard or Peter Costello, but it means a great deal to struggling families, and pensioners and others on a fixed income.

The GST will be off children's nappies - a real benefit to new parents, not a read-the-fine-print promise like John Howard's so-called baby bonus and pensioner bonus.

When a pensioner pre-pays his or her funeral costs, there will be no GST to pay.

We will take it off women's sanitary items, and off caravan park and boarding house rentals.

And when a charity steps in to help people in an emergency, there will no longer be a GST to pay on peoples' bills.

And thanks to our plan to make GST compliance simpler and fairer, most small businesses - like my local pharmacist -- will get their weekends back.

Let's look at what a Labor win will mean for education.

By the end of three years the schools in this country will be funded on the basis of need, not privilege.

New early learning classes will give more 3 and 4 year olds a better start in life, at a time when research tells us stimulation is so crucial.

Up to 10,000 teachers will have been re-trained, and thousands of our brightest young school leavers will have chosen teaching as a career.

There will be almost 2,500 new teachers in our schools to reduce class sizes and improve standards.

Hundreds of our public schools will be repaired and their facilities improved.

Every child, not just the better off in Category One schools, will get a fair go.

Let's look at universities and research - the building blocks of the Knowledge Nation - the places from which new inventions and new jobs will emerge.

Under a Labor Government in three years time the CSIRO and our universities will get the extra funds, and the respect, they deserve.

Businesses that invest in research and development at our universities, the CSIRO, or other public institutions by that time will get a 200 percent tax incentive.

Thousands of Australians of all ages, from the city and country, will be getting a world-class education through the University of Australia Online.

HECS will be easier to repay.

In health care: we will begin restoring public hospitals as the centrepiece of a reinvigorated health system.

Medicare After Hours clinics around Australia will be established, and the new 24-hour medical advice line will be operating nationally.

We will have implemented Australia's first National Cancer Plan and upgraded our stock of radiotherapy machines so that treatment is available for all who need it.

We will have addressed problems with nurse education and made substantial progress on fixing local nurse shortages.

The National Dental Health Scheme for pensioners and low-income earners will be back in place.

And we will have made substantial progress towards reducing waiting times for surgery and emergency treatment, and achieving national benchmarks for the quality of service

Let's look at jobs.

By the end of three years we will have moved to help more Australians obtain and retain good jobs. Unemployed Australians will know they have a government on their side.

We will have funded more than 23,000 Knowledge Nation apprenticeships, on our way to our target of 35,000, to give young Australians a chance of a professional career.

We will be helping nearly 140,000 students move from school into the workforce by funding expert job advice under the Jobs Pathways Program.

We will provide employer incentives for up to 32,000 people to graduate from Work for the Dole with a real apprenticeship.

We will have assisted more than 5,000 long-term unemployed Australians into work by allowing them to use their unemployment benefits as a wage subsidy.

And very importantly, every Australian worker will know that their entitlements are 100 percent protected by our national insurance scheme.

Then there's aged care - care for elderly Australians who certainly deserve better than Bronwyn Bishop. Kerosene baths in our nursing homes will be a horror movie from the past. As I said at our campaign launch: money in, Bronwyn out.

Our interest-free loans will put beds in areas where there are shortages, and will ensure our frail aged can get a bed in their local community when they need one.

We will improve the wages and conditions of aged care staff, and provide post-graduate scholarships for aged care nurses.

We will implement a national standard of care to improve the care of every older Australian in every nursing home

At the other end of the age scale, young mothers will receive extra payments under their Family Account, and there will be extra payments for larger families. Working parents will have better childcare as a result of 30,500 extra Out of School Hours places.

With Labor in office our great national institutions will be protected and nurtured.

And I can promise you this: Telstra will remain in the hands of its majority shareholder - the Australian people.

Within our first term, ABC funding will have been restored to 1995-96 levels in real terms, and we will have helped rebuild the community's confidence in the independence of the ABC.

And there'll be no deregulation of Australia Post. We will improve the access of those outside the cities to a wider variety of Government and financial on-line services, including banking.

And with our Social Charter in place, the banks will be working for their customers, instead of the other way round.

We will invest $140 million in building better broadband networks in rural and regional Australia.

There will be national leadership on the environment, with new plans to deal with salinity, climate change, and the quality of our soil and water.

So these are the priorities of a Beazley Labor Government. Schools, hospitals and families first.

What the Australian people will get if they elect me is a leader with 21 years experience in the Federal Parliament.

I was a Minister for 13 years, including 5 years as Defence Minister, during which I helped restructure the Australian/US alliance.

And now that experience will be directed towards trying to restore Australia's role in our region, and our enthusiastic engagement with the world.

I can describe the problem no more clearly than did foreign affairs experts Garnaut, Drysdale and Harris in today's Australian. Let me quote them:

Australia's official relations with the Asia-Pacific region are more fragile and less productive than at any time for several decades. This has jeopardised Australia's national security. It also threatens the prosperity that has accompanied productive relations with countries in our neighbourhood over the past decade.

The fact is, under the Coalition, our diplomatic relationships have languished. They must be renewed.

As I've said before, I'm the only candidate for Prime Minister who plans to be around for the long haul, to be here to implement my policies over the next three years to the next election and beyond.

The view three years ahead and beyond is not a perspective available to my opponent. I notice today the Liberal Party has already begun squabbling over Mr Howard's succession in his seat of Bennelong, with that perennial contender Malcolm Turnbull waiting in the wings.

The fact is, we know what a Howard Government would be three years from now. It would be a Peter Costello Government.

Under a Costello government, in three years' time there will still be a GST on electricity and gas: we know that.

And the rate would be higher than 10 percent.

And the GST would be imposed on all food-we've heard Peter Costello say that's what he'd like to do if he 'had his way'. Well, if John Howard is allowed to hand him the Prime Ministership, Peter Costello will have his way.

You saw John Howard yesterday imploring people to believe he had no intention of lifting the GST rate. But I also noticed he couldn't bring himself to use the words he devalued so deeply - never, ever.

Howard and Costello intend to raise the GST rate and extend it to cover food. Don't believe them when they say they couldn't do it without the support of the States - the NSW Crown Solicitor's advice today confirms the Coalition could lift the rate, and extend the tax to food simply with a vote in Federal Parliament.

Only this morning Peter Costello was on Radio 3AW saying that all of us were better off as a result of the GST. He said that when he looked at all the income groups in Australia, he had found "all of those groups are ahead".

How out of touch can he be! If he thinks everyone is better off now, there'll be nothing to stop him making this GST even bigger and broader.

Labor has another plan, and that is to go in entirely the opposite direction to relieve the burden of the GST on families.

My opponents response to the crises in health and education and aged care is to tell people they'd better get used to it. If re-elected, they won't put a penny extra where it's needed to deal with these problems.

But those whose kids go to a Category One school will be benefiting to the tune of an extra playing field, or a couple of new swimming pools.

Under Howard and Costello, there'll be nothing to improve our universities. The CSIRO, the ABC, Australia Post - all these would continue to run down because Peter Costello does not approve of what they stand for.

In the event of a Coalition victory, Mr Howard won't or can't say who would be minister for defence or the minister for health.

I guess Bronwyn can't do both.

But there is every indication that David Kemp would remain Minister for Education and proceed to implement his plan for $100,000 university degrees.

On the 7.30 Report this week, Dr Kemp pointedly refused to rule out deregulated university fees and replacing HECS with real interest rate student loans.

When Dr Kemp says he wants to give young Australians the "opportunity" to invest in their education, he means only one thing: he wants to force students to pay higher fees.

His plan is in his bottom drawer: deregulate student fees, scrap HECS and introduce real interest rate loans.

And another thing we know for sure, a re-elected Coalition government will sell Telstra.

We know that because Peter Costello has named the price, and named the date.

It was his best contribution to this campaign - his fateful Friday press release that let the cat out of the bag.

I'm sure that one day Peter Costello will be asked by his grandchildren: "Grandad, what did you do in the 2001 election campaign?"

And his answer will be: "I confirmed the Liberal and National Parties' plan to sell all of Telstra. Date, Time, Place and Price!"

On the day the election was called I said the election was all about security at home and security abroad.

You know our position on events abroad. I have been at one with Tony Blair and George Bush on Australia's need to be part of the international coalition against terrorism. Those young Australians serving in the conflict in Afghanistan have my total support and admiration.

Let me briefly remind you of something that I have said a number of times - I want to assure you that under a Labor Government there will be no conscription for the current deployment of Australians to the war in Afghanistan.

We have a very well-trained, well-equipped professional force, and as a former Defence Minister I can tell you it is highly capable of doing the job required of it.

Labor has a systematic strategy for making Australia more secure.

We also have a realistic appreciation of how to handle the penetration of our borders by those coming here illegally.

We've supported the Government's legislation. We support the legislation, and we will be retaining it in its current form.

We know more has to be done.

The long-term solution to this lies in a diplomatic agreement in the neighbourhood and only the Labor Party can offer that outcome with credibility.

But we also need to introduce Labor's plan for a Coast Guard, to be on the beat for better border protection every day of the year - not just before an election.

The Coast Guard will allow the Navy to go back to its primary task -- training for military defence.

If re-elected on Saturday John Howard will stick around for a short time, leading a stale, tired government, out of puff, out of ideas, out of leadership.

I guess every campaign has an episode that sums up the whole nature of the government seeking re-election.

In this campaign, it's the family debt scandal that has caught up 200,000 families in a debt trap they weren't going to be told about until after the election.

Nothing illustrates the cynicism and arrogance of this government more than this affair.

When he introduced the GST, John Howard also changed the system for family payments and called it GST compensation.

John Howard's so-called GST compensation now has families racking up large debts to the Government.

When Labor first exposed the problem prior to the Aston by-election, Mr Howard cobbled together a short-term political fix to waive the first $1,000 of each family's debt. But he did not fix the problem for the long term.

The debts have continued to mount ever since.

Centrelink has been instructed by the Government to hide the extent of the problem until after the election.

Because of the flaws in John Howard's system, almost 200,000 families are still likely to be hit with debts - even after the $1,000 waiver is applied.

These debts average about $850 each per family.

One of those affected by this cover-up phoned John Laws on Monday.

A former Ansett employee in Victoria, he had gone to a Centrelink office to see about receiving unemployment benefits only to be told he had racked up $1700 in family debt, of which he would be required to repay $700 starting at Christmastime.

According to this worker, a Centrelink officer confided in him that he wasn't supposed to be told of this debt until after the election.

Families should also know that the $1,000 waiver applies for one year only - and that many thousands of them are racking up new debts for the future.

If the picture is the same as last year, four months into this financial year there are about 750,000 families accumulating debt!

Labor will fix this ongoing problem by introducing a flexible scheme in which changes in income to do not lead to ongoing family debt.

What a contrast with us: a mean and tricky Liberal Government that wants to sweep its contempt for families under the carpet until after polling day.

And on the other hand Labor's plan to help struggling families.

Well, we in the Labor Party have already announced an affordable range of carefully crafted, carefully costed policies designed to help Australians deal with the problems they face.

All our plans were examined carefully by a reputable firm of independent financial experts, Access Economics, a firm used by both sides of politics and the media.

Everything has been costed down to the last dollar. Don't take any notice of the antics of the Coalition in its desperate attempt to find problems with our costings.

They simply aren't there.

I notice today that Chris Murphy, of Econtech - lately used by the Government to attack us - has acknowledged that even on his reckoning Labor's plans keep the Budget in surplus.

And I was pleased to see today also that Laura Tingle has put the lie to the Coalition fiction that our plans will cost more than $10 billion. If the Liberals had any integrity at all, they would pull their TV advertisement voluntarily.

Our policies are affordable, and they are deliverable.

We believe in retaining surpluses, and we are not raising taxes. We believe that good economic management delivers the growth that leads to more jobs, and more Australians playing their part in the knowledge economy.

If we don't invest in a fair and knowledgeable society we face a very uncertain future.

And if we do not invest in a fair and knowledgeable society, we cannot guarantee Australia's security at home and security abroad.

When the Government changes, the nation changes.

A change to Labor will be a change to a government on the side of Australian families.

Labor's proposals are an agenda for putting schools, hospitals and families first. We are committed to improving services-not just for the privileged few - but for everyone in Australia.

I tell you how I see that Australia:

A country with good schools for all our kids.

A country with public hospitals that can treat family members promptly and safely.

A country with decent and dignified aged care.

A country where jobs are more secure, and workplaces fair.

And a place where people turn to each other, not against each other, in difficult times.

This is the vision Labor has laid out in this campaign.

I invite this nation, this coming Saturday to tell John Howard a few things.

Tell him it is not OK to slug families with crippling debts, and to try to hide the evidence.

Tell John Howard it is not right to put schools, hospitals and families last.

Tell John Howard it is not OK to campaign on leadership, and then refuse to stay on as leader to be accountable to the people.

Australia doesn't need a part-term Prime Minister.

And tell John Howard it is certainly not OK for Australia to be left in the hands of Peter Costello.

As I said at the start, an election result defines a nation.

If Labor is elected in three days time, you'll have a secure and certain nation.

What I offer is a government of hope, not fear.

A government that embraces the future, rather than seeking refuge in the past.

A confident engagement with our region and the world, not a fearful turning away from limitless opportunity.

A country of hope, of tolerance, of reconciliation - with a belief that everybody counts; that nobody is dispensable.

A country with a government on the side of its people, with a plan for decent aged care, quality schools and hospitals, and a fair share for families.

That's what I offer for the future.

That's what I stand for.

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