Official 2013 Coalition Campaign Launch, QPAC, Brisbane
25th August, 2013
Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.It has been a long six years, but the end is at last within sight and a new beginning beckons.
From the smallest towns to the biggest cities, Australians want real change.
Trapped in a fog created by a government focussed on narrow self-interest over the national interest they are ready to cast judgement on where we've been and where we want to go.
Continue along an all too familiar dead-end of debt, dysfunction and division, or take the path to progress and prosperity.
Kevin Rudd is right about one thing, Australia does need a new way. And that's not the same old Labor.
The Labor-Greens-Independent experiment has failed.
Labor's legacy of lies and backroom deals in the name of self-preservation has left a stain on our democracy.
Labor's waste and mismanagement has left an economic and social mess like nothing this country has seen.
A true new way can only come, by changing the government.
That change is about Australia being unshackled to achieve its full potential and providing Australians with better opportunities and higher living standards.
It's about more jobs, better jobs, greater job security and the ability to create
new and lasting careers.
It's about bequeathing to the next generation a better Australia than the one we inherited.
Real change starts with us...and it starts today!
As the Leader of The Nationals, may I say our Coalition is strong because we are focussed on a better future for all Australians, borne of the opportunities people make for themselves.
I fervently believe that an Australia freed from the constraints of bad government,
over-regulation and confidence-sapping taxes can achieve anything.
That's a far cry from where we are today.
Labor's last Budget was supposed to be about jobs and growth.
But Labor now admits that unemployment will go up and economic growth will fall.
The carbon tax continues to take its toll, as it will tomorrow, next year and into
the future, unless we act to stop it.
A carbon tax by another name is still a body blow to families, businesses and our national competitiveness.
More than 143,000 manufacturing jobs have already been lost under Labor.
At last count, on Mr Rudd's watch, a manufacturing job has been lost every
11 minutes.
Meanwhile, our farmers and other small businesses battle higher costs, more red tape and lost markets.
And, in another sneaky slug, Labor's carbon tax will apply to road transport from mid next year.
They haven't finished yet, the further you have to truck anything, the more you have to pay for everything.
By Labor's own modelling, the carbon price will be $38 by 2020.
This means a 10 cents per litre diesel tax that every household will pay through
higher charges... and regional Australians will pay a lot more.
Only the Liberals and Nationals guarantee that the carbon tax, the mining tax and
Mr Rudd's Emissions Trading Scheme get the axe... immediately.
Since May, Labor's Budget deficit has blown out by $10 billion a month. ...And gross government debt is forecast to reach $300 billion early next year.
And Labor doesn't think it even matters!
Next year the interest bill on Labor's debt will be about $12 billion. That's real money.
If we did not have to spend the money on interest, we could finish the Pacific Highway - twice... build a dozen new hospitals, construct the Melbourne to Brisbane rail line in one year and have enough money to go on to Cairns!
Remember only six years ago Australia was earning interest and had money
in the bank.
How could our country have gotten itself into this mess?
The answer is simple... Labor.
If we could put aside $1 per second, how long do you think it would take to pay back Labor's $300 billion debt? 9,513 years ... and it will cost $283 a second, just for interest.
It doesn't have to be this way.
We have an economic plan to drive growth, prosperity and pay-off Labor's debt.
A plan to create two million new jobs and cut red and green tape by $1 billion every year.
A plan to back our miners, farmers, manufacturers, tourism operators, service providers, electricity generators and small businesses.
We've had Kevin and Julia and, now, the new Kevin.
For regional Australia it is just more of the same.
We have been ignored by all three of them.
Julia's idea of an expedition to the regions was to spend a few days in Western Sydney.
As for Kevin, he prefers to see country Australia from 30,000 feet on his way to another country.
What regional people are telling us is they need a stable government with a clear direction for this nation's future - and we will not let them down.
We have a positive plan for a fair share for regional Australia to build stronger regions to create a stronger nation.
It means bringing the infrastructure of the 21st century to the regions - building the roads, he dams and providing the services.
It means better roads to service both cities and country including major plans to work with the States to finally finish the Pacific Highway through New South Wales and fix the Bruce in Queensland.
We will continue the Roads to Recovery program we started under the Howard/Anderson Government which has done so much to improve local streets and roads.
Today I announce that there will also be $300 million for a new Bridges Renewal program - so the next Liberal and Nationals government can do for local bridges what Roads to Recovery has achieved for roads and streets.
The regions will be particular winners from our broadband plan, guaranteed to deliver faster broadband cheaper and sooner than Labor's NBN extravagance.
We'll have a better public education system because we will focus on delivering the essential skills that each child needs.
We'll have better health services under a Coalition government because we will support general practice in country areas and empower locals to have more control over hospital management to meet local needs.
We have a clear vision for a north that can launch us into the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
We welcome foreign investment in this country, but insist that Australia has the right to ensure investment proposals are not contrary to our national interests.
That's why we will create foreign-owned farmland and agribusiness registers, lower the threshold for Foreign Investment Review Board scrutiny of proposals and broaden the membership of the FIRB - which, so far, has never said no to a foreign farmland or agribusiness purchase.
Today, my 15 colleagues and I who were ministers in the Howard Government
face a familiar task.
We know the discipline needed for the job ahead.
In 1996 we inherited $96 billion of net government debt and a $10 billion budget black hole. By 2007 we had $50 billion in the bank.
In just six years, Labor has managed to turn a $20 billion Budget surplus into the five biggest deficits in our history.
It's a record not lost on any of us. ...And I suspect it's a modern record not lost on younger Australians either.
Before 2007, many assumed Australian governments were always stable and responsible delivering prosperity and opportunity for all - that saw hard work rewarded and families and businesses able to realise their dreams.
This election those same people, still young but now so much wiser, have a more informed choice to make.
They have done six years of hard Labor - Chaotic government that has seen jobs junked and dreams dashed.
This election is about the opportunity to vote for proven competence over proven incompetence.
Strong economic management versus reckless spending and waste.
Consistency and credibility over spin, pandemonium and a string of broken promises.
It's about who you trust to run this country.
Who do you trust to get it back on track, and make it stronger to give all Australians
the secure future they deserve for themselves and expect for their children.
Labor's rot must stop here... it must stop now!
When I look at Labor's chronic mismanagement and the ideological dogma inflicted on Australians by The Greens and the Independents, I put it to you that a government with a genuine vision, the discipline to live within its means and grow the economy can do great things.
Shortly you will hear from the man who will lead that change for a better future,
my Coalition partner and the next Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott.
He will bring to reality the observations he made in his 1994 maiden speech to Parliament, 'there is no limit to what Australia can achieve'.
But first, may I welcome Frances and Bridget Abbott to introduce their father.
