This uncertainty must be removed urgently. Our economic decline in the world has been a long term problem. In recent years we have been well and truly passed by Japan and Italy, caught by Hong Kong and almost caught by Singapore. We have run an inward looking economy for many decades supported by the earnings of our miners and farmers, and today we continue to slip down the ladder of international competitiveness and we are now ranked about 16th in the world. We need to provide for our children and our grandchildren the opportunity of enjoying prosperity and economic growth, so that they have options available to them to devote what they wish to leisur e, to the arts and to the environment, to those less well off in the world.
Prosperity delivers options to people.
Fortunately, we have started down the track of reversing the inward looking attitude. Freeing up the exchange rate and the finance markets were the first steps. Since then tariffs have been reduced, and thank goodness there is largely a bipartisan commitment to tariff reduction. At long last Australians are being forced to face up to being more efficient and being internationally competitive. In some industries there have been tremendous changes in productivity since the exchange rate was freed up.