Australia promises to back bush

By Boyd Champness

AUSTRALIA needs to limit the prosperity divide between city and country people otherwise the nations healthy economy could be damaged, Deputy Prime Minister Mr John Anderson told a farming conference last week.

Mr Anderson, speaking at the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics Outlook 2000 conference, said he would make it his mission to bridge the gap between city and country people.

“By the end of decade, I want Australia to have made significant progress in reducing the gap between economic opportunity in the city and country,” said Mr Anderson, who is also Transport and Regional Services Minister.

“If we fail to meet the reasonable expectations of country people, we will see this nation wretched by political undercurrents that threaten to destabilise and undermine the foundations on which our economic prosperity is based,” he said.

But dipping into the countrys Budget surplus to help nourish rural Australia was not an option, he said.

“The [Liberal-National Party] coalition would never be forgiven, at least of all by the bush, if in attempting to meet all the demands on the Budget, it was pushed into deficit causing a run on the Australian dollar and delivering higher interest rates and inflation.”

A week earlier, Mr Ian Donges, president of the National Farmers Federation, warned the Federal Government that it would lose the next election if it didnt follow up on its promises to the bush.

He said recent polling, which indicated that 11 of 21 marginal seats were rural electorates, showed that country voters would decide the next election.

A loss of six seats at the next general election would see Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, lose government to Labor.

“A swing of less than 3% is required in 21 seats for the Government to lose them – and 11 of those seats are rural,” he told the AGCON conference in Perth.