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Australian Embassy, Lisbon
Australian Embassy, Lisbon
Press Release - 2 January 2007
Press Release - 2 January 2007
The economy, water, youth and security - key issues for Australia in 2007
The major issues which Australia faced in 2007 included the economy, water resources, youth and security, Australia’s Prime Minister Mr John Howard has said in his New Year’s address.
Mr Howard said that individual Australians all have goals for the New Year.
“As a nation, Australia has some very important goals. “We need, for example, to maintain the wonderful achievement of a 30-year low in unemployment, and this can only happen if our economy continues to grow, strengthened from time to time by necessary economic reform.”
Mr Howard also called for a national approach to solving Australia’s water crisis. “We also need to re-double our efforts to tackle Australia’s chronic water problem. “This will require us more than ever to look at the issue from a national perspective. Australia’s river systems and waterways are national assets, and we can only solve our water problems if we think as Australians and not as New South Welshmen, Queenslanders or Victorians.”
Mr Howard also expressed the need for Australia to understand the great importance for its future of not only strong investments in education, but also very high standards.
“The education of the young of Australia is an investment in every way in the future development and growth of this country,” he said.
“And finally, we should bear in mind the overriding importance of the security of Australia. This means that we must play our part in the worldwide fight against terrorism, and we must continue the build-up of our defence forces that has been underway for some time - to deal not only with potential threats to Australia which fortunately in the near-term appear very unlikely except in the area of terrorism, but also to give us the capacity to act with our coalition partners and also to assist in trouble spots in our own immediate region.
The Prime Minister said that these were some of the goals which Australia must set to achieve in the next 12 months. “We enter 2007 strong, prosperous and stable, but what we have achieved has taken hard work and great commitment as a people.”
“We must be optimistic about the future but not complacent and let’s all of us as Australians make 2007 a great year for our nation and for its people.”