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PR8SV1E &V313N3SSTER

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FOR MEDIA SUNDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER, 19 80

ELECTORATE TALK

The decision to be made by voting Australians on October 18  will be a decision of great significance for the rural community.   Significant progress has been made in the last five years and  today Australian farmers and pastoralists face the future with

greater optimism than they have for a long time.

Herds are being re-built. The area planted to grain is  increasing rapidly. The cotton and rice industries are expanding.   The fruit and dairy industries have gone through a successful  and difficult period of adjustment, while the sugar cane industry  has decided on a significant production increase.

The recovery has been sustained despite widespread current  drought conditions. Confidence and morale have been restored  amongst the rural community. What a contrast this is to the  picture six years ago when farmers everywhere faced ruin.

The man on the land knows he has to rely on his own enterprise  and initiative for many things. He is accustomed to income  fluctuations as prices rise and fall in a way which no other  section of the Australian community has to face. Bushfires,   droughts and floods and the vicissitudes of the marketplace are

challenges which he expects and accepts. What he does not expect  is Government incompetence.  What he does not accept are  Government policies towards the rural industry which are  unsympathetic or even hostile.

Between 1972 and 1975, a Labor Party Government in Australia  stripped away those measures which previous Governments had  designed to help the farmer.survive bad seasons or falling  markets.  At the same time, because of the incompetence of the  Australian Labor Party Government, farm costs began to rise

rapidly. By 1974-75, these costs were rising at an annual rate  of 30 per cent. The man on the land was caught in a squeeze  between these soaring costs of production and falling prices as  Australia lost important markets overseas without even a protest

from the Labor Government.

His plight was also that of the whole nation. Because of this  squeeze on farmers, great Australian assets were run down.  The  sheep flock and the national cattle herd both fell. Farmers  put off investment decisions. They cut back~*on farm maintenance.   Their properties were run down.

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All this happened during a time of reasonable seasonal  conditions,  because an irresponsible Government had caused  raging inflation and then dumped the farmer when the prices of  his products were turning down on world markets.  The Australian  Labor Party,  with its hostility towards rural Australia,  used

the Coombs Report to take away the network of support which  farmers so much need.

Over the last five years that position has been transformed. The Government gave immediate priority in 1976 to new rural  policies.  These policies \aere aimed at assisting adjustment,   facilitating market access,  increasing the availability of

long-term credit, reducing the level of uncertainty,  and  increasing substantially the profitability of Australian farms.   These policies have been successful.

The Government established a Primary Industry Bank which has  made loans to 3,500 farmers totalling more them $250 million. Rural adjustment schemes were expanded in co-operation with  the States. Last year, because of severe drought, taxation

concessions were introduced to encourage primary producers to  increase farm investment in fodder conservation.  This year, there  were generous - and much needed - concessions for water  conservation and farm based irrigation programmes.

Tax averaging works to assist farmers in contrast to the old  scheme which penalised farmers and pastoralists, when incomes  were falling. Income equalisation deposits, which now carry an  interest of 7 per cent, also help producers smooth out

fluctuations in their income.  The petroleum freight equalisation  scheme was brought back, at a current annual cost of over  $120 million, to help in eliminating the freight differential  between city and country marketing. ‘

Bounties were restored to producers for superphosphate  fertiliser. Marketing arrangements for wheat and for the fruit  industries were improved.  The wool floor price, which Labor  tried to reduce to 200 cents, is now aft a record level of  365 cents. Small country airline operators are being assisted  and the new satellite will greatly assist in rural communications  in many different ways. An inquiry into the adequacy of  tax allowances "for people in remote areas, for zone allowances,   has recently been announced by the Treasurer.

A drive was launched to regain the markets which Labor lost.  Successful negotiations have taken place with Japan and with  the United States, and some concessions have even been won in  the closed markets in Europe.

Above all, keeping inflation down below that of major competitors  arid trading countries overseas, restores the competitive position  of Australian primary producers,  enabling farmers to take full  advantage of reasonable seasons which have lifted rural exports

to record levels.

The gross value of rural production for the average of the three  years ended 1980-81 is expected to be over 'ICO per cent higher  than the average for the three years ended in 1974-75.

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Rural exports have increased substantially over the past  three years rising from $4.3 billion in 1975-76 to $8.6 billion  in 1979-80. *

Wheat became Australia's largest export industry in 1979. In 1979 also, the rural workforce increased by almost 16,000 -  the first increase in more than 30 years. Once more producers  are investing in the future.

The Chairman of the Wheat Bbard recently said that if the current  rate of development in the Australian wheat industry continues,  a doubling of Australia's wheat crop during the next decade  is a likely prospect, and world demand is there for it to be  sold profitably.

There is big investment taking place in cotton in NSW and  Queensland, as well as coarse grains in tropical Western AustraliaÃ¢ÂÂ   The Northern Territory Government is looking at the possibility  of establishing a large agricultural industry, in co-operation  with the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth and Queensland

Governments have decided to fund the massive Burdekin Dam in  northern Queensland.

These are exciting developments. Yet they could be dashed by  wrong and hostile policies, as they were dashed once before

A resurgence of inflation, a knuckling under to short-sighted  trade union demands against the export of sheep, new taxes  on capital gains and on resources, the inevitable re-imposition  of death duties, fuel policies which threaten the security of  oil supplies to Australia, could once more plunge Australia  back into depression and destroy the work of the last five years.

I am confident that Australians will keep to the path of  commonsense, growth, responsibility and prosperity for Australia's  rural communities.

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