PRIME MINISTER

FOR MEDIA

m  * SUNDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 1980

ELECTORATE TALK

The campaign for the Federal Elections on October 18 begins  in earnest this week,  when I address a public meeting in  Melbourne on Tuesday on behalf of the Liberal/National Country  Party Government.

Later in the week,  the Labor Party Leader will be putting his  case in a pre-packaged,  heavily edited and carefully rehearsed  television programme. This election is about responsibility in  Government, which is the theme of my policy speech.

I will be asking Australians for their support on the basis of  our record overÂ· the last five years and the undertakings we are \  giving now to continue along the same path of good management,  responsibility and confidence in Australia's ability to face

the challenge of the future.

The Government which you choose will be the Government that  leads Australia forward into the 1980s. The world has entered  uncertain times, Soviet aggression, and countries in conflict,  have cast a shadow over world peace.  Countries around the world

face the problems of inflation and what flows from it: loss of  business confidence, declining trade, and unemployment.  Australia's  stability, security and prosperity will depend on the way we tackle  the challenges at home and abroad.

Our achievements over the last five years are considerable.  The  Government.has brought run-a-way public spending under control,  and cut inflation back from 17 per cent to between 10 and 11 . per cent. Australia has become competitive again in world markets.

Investment is once more flowing into Australian industry, our  country is once more developing.  More than 200,000 new jobs have  been created over the past year as a result of our policies.

Australia today is far better placed than many others to weather  the storms and meet the challenges of the 1980s. Over the coming  years,  it is the Government's intention to maintain our strengthÂ­ ening economy, and with it to continue to creation of employment,

stability and prosperity for Australian working men and women.  The Government will continue to restrain its own spending and to  hold down taxes and maintain the fight against the inflation .  " which now besets so many countries.

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Australia has great resources:  coal, minerals,  natural gas and  farmlands; and a people with talent, skill, enthusiasm and  initiative. It deserves a Government which will continue the -   current policies of development, economic responsibility, and  of care and concern for those members of the community who are

in need. It needs and deserves a Government dedicated to  security and stability, to good management and responsibility.

Over the last week, the Labor Party has been engaged in its  typical electioneering programme of inflated promises and unreal  programmes. Let me remind you what happened between 1972 and  1975 when Labor was in Government. Government spending rose to  more than 30 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, so that despite

the huge increase in taxation revenues, the Labor Party found it necessary to increase the Budget deficit enormously and to .   go to the printing presses. .

The promises already made by the Labor Party now show that another  Labor Government would be just as irresponsible in its economic  management. Six promises alone made by Mr. Hayden so far would  cost an extra $2^ billion every year as costed by the functional  departments and the Department of Finance. That is equivalent to .   more than $8 a week for every taxpayer in Australia. .

It should be remembered that if the same rate of tax still applied  as in the Budget which Mr. Hayden brought down in 1975 when he  was Treasurer, then a taxpayer on average weekly earnings with a  dependent spouse and one dependent child would be paying out.

$22.50 a week more in taxation than he pays today. -

We have substantially reformed the tax structure. Those reforms  included a reduction in rates, and a simplified three step scale  which restores incentive and makes overtime and pay increases  worthwhile. For example, under Labor in 1975-76, an income earner  was paying 35 cents in the dollar on an income between $5,000 and

$10,000. He paid 45 cents in the dollar on incomes between $10,000  and $15,000, and 55 cents in the dollar from $15,000 to $20,000.  Under our scales the tax on taxable income is 32 cents in the dollar  up to more than $17,000 - a very substantial difference indeed. The latest tax cut, from July 1 this year, is worth between $4%  and $5 a week to a wage earner on the standard rate with a  dependent spouse.

The tax threshold has been raised to over $4,000, and in the case  of taxpayers with dependent spouses, the first $6,500, or a little  more, is tax free.  As a result of our reforms, over half a million  low income earners no longer have to pay tax.  The spouse allowance

has been doubled and the sole parent rebate has been increased.  Commonwealth estate and gift duties have been abolished.

Labor has indicated that if it ever returned to office, it would  impose a capital gains tax, a wealth tax, a resources tax, and  a punitive tax on higher incomes.  These taxes threaten enterprise,  initiative and economic freedom. The wealth and the resources  of the community would flow away from the community and into the  coffers of the Government. .

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Their expenditure and tax policies would mean a return to  rising inflation; a collapse of economic growth and development;  and a loss of the competitiveness which has been won over the -   past five years.  There would be lower living standards;  reduced  opportunities for individuals and for families; a loss of  confidence in the future; and a decline in jobs for Australian  men and women.

Every time the Labor Leader makes a promise,  it is at the expense  of the Australian taxpayer and of the Australian community.  What  he is promising belongs to you, not to him or to his Party. It .   is to conceal these facts that Labor has launched its campaign on

the basis of misrepresentation and false claims.  The Labor Party  attempts to make people believe that all problems can be solved  by governments with enough power and enough money.

The reality is that to the Labor Party and to the Socialist  Parties everyvzhere, governments are more important than individuals  and families, and re-distributing wealth is more important than  creating it. They attempt to make people believe that the services  provided by Government are free, when in fact they are paid for  by the taxpayer, and that social progress can be achieved without

economic progress.

Perhaps the greatest deception that Labor is attempting to  perpetrate is the nature of the leadership which they are offering.  For the purposes of the campaign, the Labor Party is running an  electoral Troika. They are putting forward a team comprising the  Premier of New South Wales,  the Candidate for Wills, and Mr.-Hayden.

The Labor strategists are trying to give the impression that the  Labor Party has more to offer than Mr. Hayden. Of course, Mr. Wran  remains in the New South Wales Parliament with some responsibilities  to that State, while Mr. Hawke would have to win the vote of, the  Labor Party Caucus if he is even to remain Spokesman on Industrial  Relations.  Mr. Hayden's avalanche of promises could only be

fulfilled by imposing a burden of costs which would hurl the  country into a new round of inflation, destroying the economy and  creating more unemployment on a massive scale, as it did between  1972 and 1975.

My policy speech will demonstrate that our continuing and overÂ­ riding commitment is to sound and responsible Government, a  Government concerned for the future and for the security, in the  broadest sense, of every Australian. .  .

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