New Capabilities to Allow us to Prosper

The Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 1–5 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8500.2012.00757.x

GARRAN ORATION

New Capabilities to Allow us to Prosper

The Hon Julia Gillard MPPrime Minister of Australia

We gather today to honour the central role ofgood public administration and sound publicpolicy in shaping our nation’s future. Nobodyrepresents those things more completely thanour first great public servant, Robert Garran.

Garran was the ‘trusted confidant and coun-sellor of eleven Attorneys-General and six-teen governments’ and departmental head for31 years, a record unlikely to be broken. Sogreat his influence, that when the Nationalityand Citizenship Act was passed in 1949, BenChifley was the first to receive a citizenshipcertificate and Robert Garran the second.

The stories of Garran are the fireside talesof our public service, told and retold. How fora brief moment he was the Commonwealth’ssole public servant. How all the documents ofthat early Commonwealth fitted into a singleleather satchel.

Garran was not only a brilliant administrator.He was a skilled barrister, a translator and lin-guist, a gifted diplomat, a patron of the arts andof higher education. And, of course, a found-ing father of our Federation. The late Profes-sor Robert Parker, one of the greatest scholarsof public administration in Australia, said ofRobert Garran:

His personality, like his prose, was devoid ofpedantry and pomposity and, though dignified,was laced with a quizzical turn of humour. Hewas capable of strong and decisive administra-tive action when required. What people of allkinds most remembered were charity, modesty,courtesy and charm.

It is hard to imagine a more perfect descriptionof public sector leadership as we wish it alwaysto be.

I am determined that our public adminis-tration will remain as strong in the future as

it has been in the past. The Blueprint for theReform of Australian Government Administra-tion, released earlier this year, contains manysound modernising proposals, designed to pre-serve the best features of our past in the fu-ture we can see. And I know that no one ismore committed to that future than the tens ofthousands of Australians who work in publicservice. Their working lives are dedicated notjust to good public administration and policy inthe abstract, but to a living culture of careersin service to Australia. What began in RobertGarran’s satchel lives today, from the cabinetante-room in Canberra to the Centrelink officein Sorell.

And it is fitting I recognise everyone whoworks in public service in Australia today. Youhave never been more important. Because it isonly through the work of great public servants,in a world class public service, with coura-geous political leadership, sharing a vision forAustralia’s future, that our country can seizethe opportunities of these rich and complex,promising and challenging years. For these areyears, rich in opportunity and complex in detail;promising over the long-term and challengingin the present.

And over the winter of 2011, the economicchallenges of the present have been very ap-parent to all Australians. The debate over Eu-ropean debt and the near-gridlock in the UnitedStates, the wild stock market swings that fol-lowed along with the growing realisation thatfor good or bad a strong dollar is here to stayset the scene through July and August. And thisweek, Australians woke to the news of signifi-cant plant closures and job losses in heartlandregions of working Australia.

Some look at the troubles of the globaleconomy and see Australia as an economic

C© 2012 The AuthorAustralian Journal of Public Administration C© 2012 National Council of the Institute of Public Administration Australia

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sanctuary: not immune from the world, but stillstrong in the world. Certainly, many investorscontinue to see us in this light. But Australiansknow their superannuation savings have shrunkwith the fluctuating stock markets. They re-member the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) andhow much work was required to steer Australiaaway from the economic abyss. And while Aus-tralia has been growing overall, while over thelast two years we have created new jobs andlifted take home pay across the board, manyAustralians have not felt the benefits in theirown lives.

So I understand when people worry abouttheir livelihoods; worry that opportunitiesmight not be there for their children; worrythat it will become harder to make ends meetand make the family budget add up. When theysuspect they are already being left behind, thatsome parts of the country are getting aheadwhile others struggle with rising prices and alack of opportunity. And I respect the cautionand concern Australians feel when they con-sider the uncertain global environment, unevendomestic economy and the pressures our strongdollar creates. But caution and concern must bemeasured against and proportionate to the facts;and to the challenges we confront. This is whatAustralians should know today: our economyis fundamentally strong.

There are some problems in the world; andthere are some challenges at home. We arestrong enough to resist the problems; we aresmart enough to master the challenges. Today,I will say more about where the challenges lie;more about the government’s plan to masterthem. And I will also say more about what thatmeans for all Australians. Because, if we dothese things well over this period of change, Ican see an even stronger economy for us in theyears ahead.

We need to understand, first of all, that thelong-term story of our economy remains a storyof long-term strength. We have strong funda-mentals: like low unemployment, low publicdebt, a deep, stable and liquid financial sec-tor. And an unprecedented investment pipeline,still building, with a staggering $430 billionplanned in resource investment alone. Projectslike Gorgon, Gladstone, Queensland Curtis and

Australia Pacific are happening now. Theseare long-term investments, driven by decisionsover time horizons that extend well beyond theglobal market turbulence. The Australian econ-omy has created jobs, around 750,000 sinceLabor came to office, while other nations werelosing them. In a period where US unemploy-ment almost doubled, we have more people inwork than before the GFC. This is the mostimportant thing we have done together.

Creating jobs is not just a sign of a goodeconomy; creating jobs is the whole point of agood economy. Life is given direction and pur-pose by work. Without work there is corrosiveaimlessness. With the loss of work comes a lossof dignity. Believing in the importance of jobsfor all who seek them (of work in every house-hold), is deep in our own national culture anddeep in my government’s beliefs. Only Laborgovernments will always put jobs first.

Sixty years ago, Ben Chifley’s Light on theHill speech took a straightforward view ofLabor’s task. It was not about:

. . . putting an extra sixpence into somebody’spocket . . . [but to] . . . give to some father ormother a greater feeling of security for their chil-dren . . . a feeling that if a depression comes therewill be work.

Two years ago, the Global Financial Crisiscame, and with it came bad news for jobs. AndLabor in office had one priority – we put thejobs of Australian families first. We restoredconfidence in our banks; we provided stimu-lus payments to families; tax breaks for smallbusiness; and delivered investment that ensuredjobs for tradespeople; and built new road, railand port infrastructure across the nation. It wasnot what everyone wanted to hear. But it waswhat we knew was right to preserve jobs. Andit did the job. We saved 200,000 jobs.

Now, in the last two weeks we have seen somebad news for jobs again. Nothing can diminishthe bad news for families in Wollongong andWestern Port. To those workers and families thegovernment has not just extended sympathy. Wehave extended a helping hand, providing imme-diate and practical support. But I also know thenews in the Illawarra and on the MorningtonPeninsula was not just heard by those directly


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affected. Many people saw the fear of theseAustralians and thought: ‘that could be me’.

Now, we do have a dynamic economy.Around 300,000 businesses start up and closedown in a typical year. Half a million workerschange industries. And every day, Australiansnavigate economic change in their own lives.How? They get a full understanding of theirown situation, they think through their goals,and they do what is required to make it so;perhaps changing jobs, retraining, moving in-dustries, sometimes even cities, all to build abetter future for themselves and their families.

The task for the nation is the same. We mustunderstand the whole economy’s story; under-stand the whole nation’s goals; make the deci-sions; deliver the policies; all of which will getus there together.

So first, we must understand that what wehave seen this week at BlueScope Steel is onlypart of the story of the future of the economy.The global demand for our resources is chang-ing the structure of our economy. That doesmean some jobs are no longer there – but atthe same time it lifts our national income andcreates many new jobs as well.

What is happening in the Australian econ-omy right now reflects long-term global forceswhich have powerful effects at home. Bigchanges in global growth patterns are simulta-neously creating new wealth and new opportu-nities while putting added pressure on some in-dustries and parts of the country. Global growthhas long been shifting from West to East – andthis is accelerating again.

A decade ago, Australia’s national incomesurged off the back of increasing demand forAustralian commodities – especially coal andiron ore – as the Chinese and Indian economiesawakened from a generational slumber. Whilethe GFC punctuated this boom, it did not endit. Indeed, the changes which fuelled the boomof the 2000s have continued and in this sec-ond mining investment boom have proven evenmore resilient. And in the post-GFC world, theappetite of the North Asian giants for our re-sources is stronger and more assured than everbefore.

Developing countries in our region likeChina and India emerged stronger from the cri-

sis. They are generating growth still at historichighs – and that growth is not just driven bytheir own manufacturing exports, but is increas-ingly driven by their own internal demand. De-mand emerging from a rapid urbanisation andgrowing domestic middle class, hungry for thegoods and services that mark a better qualityof life. So growth in our Asian export marketskeeps parts of our economy surging. On top ofthis, current weakness in Europe and the USmakes us more attractive for investment.

And both these developments drive ourdollar to its greatest strengths: a climb ofunprecedented duration and speed. Drivenby the resources boom, the exchange ratehas moved some 45 percent in the space oftwo years. This has been good for businesseswhich rely on imports. And good for manyAustralians: it is not just cutting the price ofoverseas travel or luxury imports; it helps withhousehold necessities like washing machinesand clothes dryers. However, many businessesare finding the higher exchange rate extremelydifficult to handle. In effect, many exportershave had to put up their prices by nearly halfin just two years. This is amplifying pressuresthat already existed, where long-establishedbusiness models were feeling the pressure ofinnovation and competition.

Asian growth, European and US weakness, aboom in mining investment, are all driving ourdollar higher. That puts many sectors of oureconomy, like education, tourism, some partsof retail, and especially manufacturing, underpressure.

The changes that can release that pressureare driven by decisions we can make. We havelong known that Australian prosperity dependsnot just on raw materials but on our abilityto improve productivity through knowledge,skills, competition and innovation. So at theheart of my approach to economic manage-ment is a long-term approach to creating, andsustaining balanced growth for the whole ofour nation; a long-term plan to keep the wholeeconomy strong.

As Deputy Prime Minister, two great projectsdrove me that form part of this long-term plan.The first was to lift the nation’s human cap-ital; to give our people more knowledge and


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skills and get more out of that knowledgeand skills as well. In universities, fundamen-tal reform occurred with demand-driven fund-ing, investment in much-needed capital, andnew support for research. In schools, we in-vested in teacher quality, developing a nationalcurriculum, and new transparency through theMySchool website. In early education we im-proved the quality of childcare, making it moreaffordable, and expanding access to preschooleducation.

The second was to reform the nation’s work-places, aiming to use flexible enterprise bar-gaining to lift productivity across our nationaleconomy. We set up Fair Work Australia, cre-ating national employment standards, and har-monising occupational health and safety. So Igot rid of WorkChoices and its plan to competewith the world on wages and conditions. I gotrid of WorkChoices and its plan to end job se-curity. And I put in place a plan to competewith the world on knowledge and skills. I putin place reforms to unlock the real drivers offuture productivity.

As Prime Minister, I am still pursuing re-forms to unlock productivity and to drive bal-anced growth across the whole of our economy:

• clean energy;• new jobs in new industries (a price sig-

nal leveraging billions of dollars in newinvestment);

• high speed broadband linking every partof Australia to every part of the world;

• a tax on mineral resource rents (taking thevalue we all own in the strongest sector inour economy to cut company tax for everyAustralian firm);

• adding to the national pool of savingsthrough higher superannuation and tobuild regional infrastructure;

• skills and participation, lifting the capacityof all Australians to get good work andsupport a growing economy;

• personal tax reform to reward participationin work; and

• supporting every Australian region withnew infrastructure, investment and part-nerships – indeed we are making new an-nouncements in Tasmania today.

And this is a long-term plan for balancedgrowth which did not begin this week. Thisgovernment has long been on the reform road,has worked methodically over our term in of-fice to keep the whole economy strong. Whenwe came to office, we invested in human capitaland reforming workplace relations. During theGFC we saved 200,000 jobs and steered us awayfrom recession. Today, we are meeting the prob-lems in the world and the challenges at home,making the decisions and delivering the poli-cies which will grow Australian jobs. Today,we are building a clean energy future, a hightechnology future. The clean energy revolutionis poised in the way the information technol-ogy revolution was poised a few decades ago.And the brutal truth is if you did not get inon the ground floor then you got left behind. Iwill not allow us to get left behind and lose thejobs and prosperity a clean energy future willbring.

Managing our economy today and buildingfor our future cannot be done if we try to live inthe past. While the pressures faced by some ofsectors of the economy are real, and painful, wemust stand firm against calls for protectionism.We know they do not work. There can be no re-turn to protectionist policies of the past. TheAustralian economy has been the great benefi-ciary of open trade in the world; our economyhas changed; our firms have adapted; our peo-ple have prospered.

Instead we will use our effort, our influence,our reputation, to advocate international actionfor global stability and balanced growth. Andour challenge, as exposure to the global marketgrows, is to build new capability which allowsus to prosper.

None of that means ‘leaving manufacturingbehind’. The investments and reforms we aremaking create great new opportunities for man-ufacturing. More productive enterprises andmore skilled workers will make manufactur-ing stronger than almost anything we can do.A clean energy economy with economic incen-tives for new clean jobs will see new goodsmanufactured for new markets. And a hightechnology economy with high speed broad-band around the country see manufacturingperformed in much more sophisticated ways.


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And these benefits hold true, not only formanufacturing, but for retail and tourism andeducation, for every part of our broad and di-verse economy. We are not hiding away fromthe world, but becoming ever stronger in theworld.

We know that doing the right thing for thelong-term is not easy, and it is not automatic.I am proud to live in a nation with a vibrantpolitical culture that enables us to let off steamand express our egalitarian spirit. Governmentsshould listen, but in the end, they need to lead.Australians do not respect governments that tellthem only what they want to hear. And govern-ments that tell people only what they want tohear cannot build the future that people wantto live in. So, we will stay on the reform road.If Robert Garran could build a nation’s institu-tions from a satchel, we can find a way to be astrong economy with a strong dollar.

And, we can do the right things together forthe country we share as well. We must chart a

course which does not rely on wistful reflec-tions of the past but does not abandon or forgetthe achievements of our economic history. Ouragenda is modernising reform to strengthen oureconomy and create jobs. We have a proudLabor tradition, taking on the hard economicdecisions, and taking them on in ways whichmean that all of Australia benefits and no onegets left behind. We will continue that commit-ment as we work towards strong, balanced eco-nomic growth and jobs for our great country.We can be a strong economy, modernised forthe future; with a balanced budget; high speedbroadband; clean energy; skilled workers; pro-ductive workplaces; and competitive firms –always directed toward the great purpose of agreat nation’s economy: jobs for all who seekthem.

[Delivered to the Institute of Public Adminis-tration Australia National Conference, Hobart,Tasmania, 26th August 2011].


Documents

New Capabilities to Allow us to Prosper