Fed: Don't risk nation's future with "experiment": Howard

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-2007
Fed: Don't risk nation's future with "experiment": Howard

MELBOURNE, Aug 31 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard has warned Australians not to risk
the country's future with "an experiment" or inexperience at the next federal election.

In a veiled reference to polls showing increasing support for the Labor Party, Mr Howard
said Australia's greatest years lay ahead of it - so long as the country remained in safe
and experienced hands.

"I come here with a great sense of optimism and enthusiasm about the future of this
country," he told a community meeting in Ringwood, in Melbourne's east.

"The next weeks and months, which will be filled with political debate, are about our future.

"Valued though our past may be, great though our achievements may be, it is very much
about the future of this country because I am filled with optimism and hope about our
future - provided of course we make the right decisions, we elect the right people and
we make certain that we keep the management of the country in safe and experienced hands.

"If you value your future, you don't risk it with an experiment or with inexperience."

Mr Howard said next week's APEC summit was a reminder that Australia sat in the centre
of the future of the world.

" ... because the economic centre of gravity is moving to our region and if we do the
right things, if we follow the right policies, if we're not so foolish as to abandon hard
won economic reforms, the best years in Australia's life lie ahead of it," he said.

Mr Howard said he did not want Australians to think he regarded the nation's present
situation as sufficient or adequate.

AAP ce/jm/bwl

KEYWORD: HOWARD ELECTION

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