LIBERAL PARTY RALLY
BOX HILL, VICTORIA FEBRUARY, 1966
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Holt
( Introduction not recorded)
and in full dignity of robe and office have given
me this warm and cordial welcome to the Municipality of Box Hill.
I don't think that the Mayors of either Malvern or Uaulfield would
have done it with any more grace and dignity than you have done.
( I had tn get in a plug for Higgins. Even Prime Ministers have to
watch their electorates, ladies and gentlemen:)
Mr. Chandler I sat enraptured while I heard you
introduce me to this audience. There is only one problem about
hearing delightful thirs said about yourself and that is that
somehow you are expeoted to live up to them and it is not always
easy to measure up to the specification which one s friends
expound on your behalf. But I do appreciate what you have said
about my long service and apprenticeship in this party service
to this party and apprenticeship to that very great man who in
the judgment of all of us here, has been the outstanding political
figure in the history of our nation. And what a model for any
successor to have before his gaze and in his mind as he goes about
the tasks of government.
Well this particular task this morning is a very pleasant
one. I left Canberra and its rain and cold and here we come into
this beautiful late summer morning in Melbourne amongst friends
and colleagues serving together the principles we hoid in common
as fellow Liberals ann oining for the common purposes of policy
that we have presented io the nation. And so I take advantage
of this opportunity to talk over with you some of the things cf
course not more than a selection of the things which could be
discussed mn an occasion such as this, but some of the things in
which we have a mutual interest.
Now first, the Liberal Party itself. Its strength
vigour and vitality I think, is admirably reflected here. It's
not every party that could hope to secure on a Sunday at 1 p. m.
the sort of attendance that I see stretched out before me in this
hall. It's not only a very acceptable tribute to myself I don't
place that by any means at the top of the list-but it is certainly
a reflection of the strength and of the vitality of the Liberal
Party. And this is as it should be because the Liberal Party
carries tremendous responsibilities for the Australia of today,
ad perhaps even more importantly, for the Australia of the years
Ours is a young party as political parties go. It is
only last year that we were celetrating our 21st birthday, We
came into being in 1944 at a time when the non-Labor par ies had
fallen into a sort of state of decay which we see reflected in
the Labor Party at the present time. Sir Robert Manzies and
others of like mind assembled together and they built what has
become the greatest arrty on our side of politics in the history
of the Federation and a party which is as yet in its infancy in
relation to the contribution it is going to make to the national
development, the national strength. But here in the 21 years, / 2
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we have occupied 16 of those in national leadership and this has
been associated with the grofitest era of development and national
qowth and growth in international influence and prestige that
his country has ever iknoan, and of course the thin s have gone
together. it is the leadership under the distinguished head of
the party, Sir Robert Menzies, that has carried us to this
situation. But Australia has need of the Liberal Party. We had
reached a point in our affairs when we needed a party which
would stand for all sections of the Australian community which
would cast aside once and for all, the old hitter concept of
class warfare tAe stru le between employer and employee; that
would see in the needs of Australia a neea for a party of unity,
a party which could develop a co-operating democracy, with the
national Parliament linked in friendly co-operation with the
Parliaments of the States; not trying to make a Federation work
by imposing authority from the centre or by so construing the
Federal powers that the States were reduced to nothingness, but
a true Federation based upon a spirit of co-operation rather than
on a strict definition of powers. And I believe that we can
claim in Australia today that no country can present a picture to
the world of closer national co-operation at al levels of
government than will be found in the Commonwealth of Australia.
There was a need when we took office for a party which
would lead the country into a reat era of growth. Here we were
in Australia with something under 8 millions of people with a
land mass approximately the size of the United States of America,
if we leave Alaska out of the picture, and with tremendous tasks
if with this small population, we were to develop the resources
of the continent and to set briskly about the business of
populating a country by immigration as well as our on natural
inorase agan is a storyof etrendou3 succesa, the
way in which dooSTe ail I i cul. a bsTe n
fliictu. tin of Io tune 7hich inevitbly . ffic a7 country which
depenL muchh-on . he fortunes of the sraorn, filict at, hs of
pries os : xr any rone st> eadily ahead v; with o.: r : reyramme
of ana wi: l. i. rluc. turautitonn s
wiith ; i rcee f na;-crai grCw1t h. ind tlid , Dacv ohich was
bcorno g:-ret t phhiil c phy of freedom to enbhrine in
policies incntI% f-or t'e Indlvi. dua, encouragement to enterprise
and a freer way of life for a peopie which had through the years
coaf rrwiaerd etxhco; aonr errtiineee cdy! e aar sr eogo : ; iepvn atLic . Thtehseey dwJii; dedr e nnototht e wwic-esisaha steso wsvee ewere
creeatec> ser b . dn .1 bll-avu f: e tafly, after this
21 y,. irs of lite a Liberal Paty tht cojectives have been
largely realised and the kind of Autralia we set about to create
has been brought into being and suZ-tined.
owi' whether we can SUtin2l iso into the future
depends very largely onr, the co. ntribution, the akill, the judgment,
that you and I as your national leader of the party can comoibne
together to effect. I confidently believe that we of the Liberal
Party are going on to geater strength in the years ahead. Our
best years are ahead of us not behind us, proud though we may be
of the achievement of our hirst twenty-one years.
Now one of the encouragin'. ti ngs for someone in my
situation is to see ho; this Autraian torv of Liberal leadership
is now, reachin: into t he pain. 1cw loeg-er ation of people in
other part of the wld and n in quite receLt \ 7eeks, it
almoot Sems as though tnere has been a fresh discovery of this
country of ours. S* */ 3
I could perhaps illustrate this process for you by my
own experience of the latter part of this week. I spent a great
deal of time at the United States Embassy because it is through there
that these visitors have been passing, but on Thursday night I dined
there with the management group of " Newsweek", the geat weekly
journal in the United States which ranks with the " Time" publication
as one of the mass circulatin weeklies of the world, and " Newsweek"
is following in the wake of " Time" in setting up its own edition
published in Australia for this part of the world. And the next
day at lunch, there was the management group out here, top-ranking
people from " Time", " Life" and Fortune", and they having established
te " Time" edition in Australia are now turning, I understand to the
publication of an Australian edition of " Life" as well. The following
day, there was the visit of Vice-President Humphrey and this is only
the second time in our history that the Vice-President of the United
States has come to this country. The very fact that he chose to do
so, after the most strenuous tour which he had just undertaken, aain
is a mark of the importance which the United States attaches to what
is occurring out here. On Monday I shall be meeting the Chairman
of the largest bank in New York, the First National ity Bank.
Now I mention these things just as topical illustrations
of the sort of process that is goin on week by week in the Australia
of today. The Ambassador of the United States put it to me this way.
e said, " It is as if our people have just discovered the existence
of Australia and all that E can mean in terms of potential".
My Press Secretary tells me that there are fifteen
interviews with the foreign press lined up when I can get round to
carrying them out, so the interest is not confined to the United States
of America. Now contrast the situation of our own party in all its
vigour and vitality with the unhappy and dolorous situation of the
official Opposition. It is not easy at the moment to sort out just
what form the Opposition takes. Is it an Opposition of the Right or
an Opposition of the Left or just a general scramble? I ask this
question because I was interested to notice that when Mr. Whitlam was
so elaborately pointing out the Kind of Labor Party that he would be
leading, he said he wanted to make it clear that he sought to lead a
radical and socialist party. Now he was making a bid for leadership
somewhat to the right of the Left ' ing, the Left Wing having installed
some of its Parliamentary colleagues, not themselves supported by
the Caucus for those positions, into posts which others who had been
supported by the Caucus posts from which others had been displaced
as the result of the action of the Federal Executive of the party.
The group, not described by me but described rather unkindly b
Mr. Whitlam as the " twelve witiess men", yet I understand two of them
support.. him quite strongly. But those who took up or were supported
to these new posts are said to be men of the Left. Now Mr. ' itlam
by deduction would be regarded as a Labor leader of the Right but
even a Labor leader of the Right feels that the offer he should make
to the electorate is that of leadership of a radical and socialist
party. Now does anybody in their senses, looking arnund the
Australia of today, believe that what Australia wants is a radical and
socialist party. If only the Labor Party would proclaim that quite
frankly and firmly and I was indebted to Mr. Whitlam for doing so
because it hasn't been easy to sort out of their own disarray just
what it is that they do stand for at this time. But if the Right
Wing of the Labor Party declares itself to be for a radical an
socialist party for the Australia of these times, then it is as well
that the Australian public should realise this and reject it as
opportunity offers, as I am quite certain they would wish to do / 4
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Well, I don't intend to spend a great deal of time this
morning on the problems of the Labor Party. I don't rejoice in
a weak Opposition but certainly I am very glad to have the current
majority we enjoy in Parliament, and it will be my objective when
we come to election, to increase that majority as handsomely as
I can succeed in doing. But it is for the Labor Party to either
make its own omelette or unscramble the eggs as best it can.
The incident through which we have * ust passed however,
or are passing, is illuminatng in one important respect for us,
and that is the demonstration it has given to where the centre
of authority lies in the Australian Labor Party under its
Constitution. Now when we spoke in the last election about
" 56 faceless men" di6tating to the Parliamentary Caucus as to
what lines of policy they should follow, we were attacked for
misrepresenting the position as the Labor Party saw it; but we
were clearly right because immediately after the election, Mr.
Whitlam got busy himself in trying to effect some improvement
in the oosition. He has returned to it in this last week or so
and has'gone even further in outlining the embarrassing position
in which the Parliamentary party finds itself. And can any
Parliamentary party in the history of this country have ever been
treated so contemptuously or in such humiliating fashion as the
Parliamentary party of Labor in the Federal sphere.
Now I am glad to report you know it I report it
publicly that from the outset inside our own organisa ion we
adopted firmly the principle that it was not for any outside
organisation to dictate to the elected representatives of the
Australian people as to how they should record their vote inside
the Parliament. Policy discussion certainly; and we have inside
the Liberal Party our own important annual Council meetings and
we have the meetings of the Joint Standing Committee on Policy
and from these discussions and from discussions with the State
Council meetings and the Branch meetings there flows up to the
Federal leadership recommendations of policy which the
Parliamentary Leaaer is able to take into his consideration and
bring before Cabinet as in his judgment he deems it desirable to
do. But nobody seeks to dictate to him or to his Parliamentary
colleagues. The proper role of a Parliament in a democracy is
fully recognised inside the Liberal Party and completely safeguarded
by our Constitution.
Now let me turn from the Labor Party to the problem of
development and defence. I put these two together because they
are linked and it is important that we should clearly see the
relationship the one has to the other. This gives me the
opportunity to state the position in my own terms to a great
audience from the Liberal Party itself and I welcome that
opportunity because, perhaps from the distortion which occurs
when statements are abbreviated in the press I have found that
repeatedly over recent times what I have said on this matter
has been interpreted as a statement by me that there can be no
increase in the Defence vote. Well that, of course, is absurd.
We have increasing obligations as our own resources grow, so
our capacity to do more will grow and we are already currently
co ing with a build-up in the Defence vote a doubling of the
budgetary provision over a four-year perioa and a sizable
increase ahead of us in the next financial year. So we are not
talking in terms of no increase in the Defence vote. What I am
trying to ensure is that the process of development, having so
painstakingly been got under way and sustained through all the
difficulties we have encountered, that this process shall go on
strongly and firmly and itself make, over the years, a contribution
to our capacity to do more by way of defence or to do more
by way of international aid and in the kind of world in which
we live, these things are also linked together.
The talks we have had in recent times have been
extremely helpful to us in helping to form our own ideas as to what
we should be doing. First there was our discussion with the
Minister for Defence in the United Kingdom, Denis Healey, and there
had been rumours that you would have read about in the Press; there
had even been a statement somewhat along these lines from the
shadow Minister for Defence in the Conservative Party to the effect
that the British were withdrawing their forces East of Suez. We
were not prepared to take final decisions about our own defence
planning until we had a clearer view of the British intention and
also a clearer view of the future as seen by the United States in
respect of Viet Nam. But the talks of the last few weeks have
cleared our minds on both these matters and now enable us to go
forward firmly with our own planning. And the discussions that
have taken place over recent weeks in relation to the contribution
we can make in one theatre or another these will be pursued now
quite speedily to a conclusion and I hope then to be able to make
some early announcement about them.
But we were able, as a result of these discussions
with Mr. Healey, I think, to have some substantial influence upon
the British thinking. We were able, as I know the United States
felt it desirable to do also, to emphasise the importance we
attach to a British presence in that area of the world, not
merely for purposes of military security or making a military
contribution against such a matter a, Indonesian confrontation,
but for the moderating influence which the British presence has
there in a restless undecided and uncertain area of the world,
and for the strengthening of morale which results from all this
throughout the South-East Asian area generally. If there were to
be a British withdrawal in this area, I am sure it would have a
quite seriously damaging effect upon morale and, indeed upon the
general security of the area as a whole. Well, fortunately, that
view has been accepted by the United Kingdom. We have been assured
that they will remain in Singapore for as long as they find it
practicable to do so. But it flows from this that with the kind
of contingencies that have to be guarded against it is a sensible
thing to be planning against the possibility that other arrangements
may have to be made at some future point of time. So our
Service people are exploring these possibilities and will be
canvassing them in due course with the representatives of the
United Kingdom. Now in the case of the United States, the value of
Mr. Humphrey's visit could hardly be exaggerated. I don't know
whether any of you had an opportunity to hear him speak yesterday
but his was one of the most powerful and moving public statements
that I think I have heard in a political lifetime. For any
waverers as to the need for us to be in Viet Nam or any who
retain some naive notion that what is going on tAere is some sort
of a civil war which we should be keeping out of and minding our
own business, then the powerful statement of the Vice-President,
has set the record straight. He clearly brought home the
circumstances under which Peking direction, Hanoi direction, are
influencing the course of events in Viet Nam the supplies, the
infiltration, the troops that are moving from The North into that
area the discovery of the underground trenches, cells fully
stocked and equipped with weapons of communist origin and obviously
requiring some years of construction in the thoroughness with which
they have been prepared these things mark the purposefulness, the
determination to expand communist influence throughout that area
of the world. And we believe that not merely is the security of
South Viet Nam involved in this issue but the security of the
whole of the South-East Asian area anA, indeed, properly understood,
this forms part of the challenge, the world challenge which in one
form or another free people have had to meet repeatedly over the
years since the end of the Second World War. To meet in Berlin,
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ti meet in areas of Greece when the civil war, so-called, was
being waged there. As the Vice-President ointed out, it was a
remarkable thing that when Yugoslavia cease to be an area through
which supplies could move to Greece, the civil war collapsed.
Here was a war which in substance was a reflection of the communist
programme of infiltration and subversion which so skilfully has
een carried out in so many parts of the world.
And so we have a clear recognition, in the minds of
the Governments, anyhow, of the United SYates and of this country,
that in Viet Nam is being fought one of the criitical battles for
free peoples throughout he world everywhere. I would hope that as
this real isation spreads amongst those countries, they would find
themselves able to do more than they are doing now if not in the
military field, then in making a contribution to tAe second phase
of the programme there, that of building up in a positive and
constructive way, the community so that there can be a peaceful,
stable and prospering South Viet Nam in the years ahead of us.
Now, the United States has undertaken tremendous
responsibilities in this area. It has felt at times the loneliness
of leadership and I know that it has valued the Australian presence,
the moral support which Australia has brought to it, the comfort
and assurance that Australia sees this issue in the same fashion
and with the same clarity that the President of the United States
has seen it. We are all indebted to him, or should be, for his
resolution, his firmness of purpose his determination to see this
thing through, when in his own country, as in ours, and indeed in
any iemocracy the voice of dissent can be raised. There have been
the critics who have sought to undermine his position because he has
made his own clear decision as to what has to be done in relation
to this threat. Now let me just mention in passing that this small
country of ours we are small in terms of population; sometimes
this tends to be overlooked by nur friends an allies outside. The
Americans tend to see what we are doing in Viet Nam but not pay
very much heed tc what is being done in relation to confrontation
in Malaysia. The British are conscious of the effort we are making
in collaboration with them in respect of Malaysia, but know comparatively
little about what we also in one form or another, are
contributing in Viet Nam. NeitAer of them seem to be very well
aware of what it means to a country that has to develop its own
resources, what it means in terms of national effort to house and
give the amenities of a modern community to the larger population
growth rate that Australia possesses. Uur population is growing
at an increase of 2 per cent. a year. The United Kingdom .8 of
1 per cent. The United States 1.3 er cent and I have been pointing
out to our friends from the United States that if our rate of
population growth were occurring in their country at this time,
hey would Fave tn add to the number of houses built year by year
mnre than 500,000 additional houses. In the United Kingdom, they
would have to add 170,000 additional houses. So that these are
facts of life for us. We can't afford to overlook that growth;
population growth and development create domestic problems for us
ana make heavy demands upon our resources.
Now why we believe that we must go firmly ahead with
this development, this process of population must be regarded as
fundamental to the policies of the nation, is because Australia
has not always enjoyed these opportunities for growth. We sustained
nearly half a million casualties in two world wars. ie encountered
the disastrous depression of the thirties and it is only over the
last twenty years that we have in recent history been able to
embark on a period of sustained growth which must continue if
S. / 7
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Australia is to build its own strength and from that strength,
make an increasing contribution to the security and well-being of
others. And we want to have this clearly understood by those
with whom we are associated in friendly alliance in our treaties
and in great tasks together of a humanitarian kind in the various
directions in which we undertake them. Australia has not looked
to a relativity between its contribution and those of its allies
when it comes to international aid. We are a capital-importing
country. Despite this, we rank about fourth amongst all the
countries of the world in the per capita provision we make for
international aid.
Recently there was established an Asian Development Bank
and capital sought was $ 1,000M. to get this institution going so
that finance could be available for projects of a helpful kind
in the countries of Asia. The United States was to contribute
200M.; Japan $ 200M, and Australia is contributing $ 85M., a quite
disproportionate commitment on our part, measured in terms of
population or resources. I mention these facts because we need
not feel when one looks at the record that Australia is failing
to respond in the variety of directions in which around the world
today, people expect to see us making a contribution.
Now when we were established as a nation in 1788, the
United States was then twelve years after the Declaration of
Independence. At the Declaration of Independence, there were
less than 4 million people in the United States of America so
that just 12 years before Australian establishment occurred, there
were less than 4 million people in that mighty country. Today,
while we have been growing, struggling along to get to our 12
millions of people the United States has grown to 190-odd
millions, constituting the most powerful and prosperous nation
on earth. And they have done it by taking in people, taking in
capital down through the years until they are now at such a
position of strength that they in turn have been sending capital
out for investment around the other areas of the world.
We have had a lot of argument in one form or another in
Australia about overseas investment and I hope that at least in
the Liberal Party, we have a clear mind on this matter. I believe
we do from the discussions at the Council Meeting in Canberra
I think it was in the course of last year. We recognise that there
are problems that come when you bring in capital from overseas,
but there are great gains for this country in the diversification
of industry it brings us, the additional techniques which come in
aid of our industrial rowth in the capital equipment which comes
in as part of the capital inflow, and finally, if the enterprise
is successful, and quite apart from the addition to job opportunities
which are created in this way, finally if the enterprise is
profitable and successful there is an Australian dividend from
he taxation of the profits thus earned.
I can illustrate it for you by pointing to the fact that,
say, $ 1M. of profit would carry taxation at the ordinary company
rate of the order of $ 425,000. Of what remains, if the normal
practice were followed and this is how it averages out over the
field of companies about half the remainder would be ploughed
back into that business, providing additional job opportunities
for other Australians or for the migrants who come here seeking
jobs in their turn. And of the balance that might be remitted
overseas then except in the case of the United Kingdom there is
a withholding tax to be paid which on the most favourable basis
would be 15 per cent., and for many companies is of the order of
per cent. And so you can say that out of this $ 1M. of profit,
we the Australian people, have our dividend of just on half a
million dollars, which goes to the purposes of government defence / 8
8-
social welfare, education any one of the many tasks which
governments have to undertake, and as tomost of the rest, it is
tloughed back into Australian industr~ widenfing our industrial
aeas the process goes on. iihen I Low of the pains that other
countries go to in their endeavours to attract capital investment
into their economies, I marvel that our own Australian people
aren't the more appreciative of the benefits which this process is
conferring upon us.
We shall be a stronger nation, a better-equipped nation
as a result of these processes than if we had to rely entirely upon
our own savings. We go save and save well, Ninety per cent. of
all the investment in Australia is of our own internal generation,
but the remaining ten per cent. i~ s a very welcome addition and
provides some of the key industries some of the major projects of
a mineral kind. Take th field of the search for oil here it is
the oversea investment; when Australians would be reluctant to
lay nut funds in any dimension in such chancy propositions, it is
this oversea investment which is helping to resolve whether
Australia has the fuel oil resources to sustain itself over the
years ahead. Now I hope when the arguments develop, as they do fiom
time to time, these facts can be kept in mind by our own supporters
in the Liberal Party. It would be very pleasant if we could do
all these things for ourselves but if we try to rely solely on
what we can do for ourselves, t~ hen we must be prepared to accept
a much slower rate of growth and defer for greater peripds of
time, the widening and strengthening of the industrial base of
the nation. Now the final thing I wish to say, Mr. Chairman, is
that just as I mentioned earlier, there seems to be a new disco ery
of Australia taking place around the rest of the world, so also
I believe that par of the reason for this is recognition that we
are on the threshliold of a new chapter of our national history.
WNe have seen the beginnings of it in the dramatic growth of our
trade with Japar and in the view being taken by so ma-ny overseas
industrialists tAat Australia is to be looked to not just as a
domestic market for the suipply of the goods of their manufacture
but as a launching place in order to penetrate the markets and
the customer capacities to be found in the countries of Asia.
That is why many of these overseas concerns are establishing
themselves here. A market of a prospering 12 millions and upwards
is a comparatively small thing against the potential as Asia
industrialises, as the standards rise, as consumption capacity
increases; then here in Australia is a stable base which can be
looked to as a launching point for the markets of this excitin new
area of the world. There is a focus on Asia today such as has
never existed before and in that spotlight Australia is showing
up the more clearly the significant role it has to play.
It is certainly flattering in our ejes, but it is a
reflection of the judgment they make that the Heads of Government
such as the United Kingdom and the Uhited States maintain the
closest contact with us. They honour the Head of an Australian
Government not only with warm friendship but with the closest of
communication and we are in reyular and continuous communication
with the Governments, both of Ce United Kingdom and the United
States. I stress them in particular because quite clearly those
are the countries of the geatest significance for us, and we can
all take some comfort in the strength of our friendship and in
the effectiveness of our co-operation; but for Australia this
opens up a new era of opportunity, a new era of responsibility.
With growing nationhood, we have growing obligations
( Next portion lost while tapes were being changed) / 9
9
the more determined we must be that the job of
national leadership will be performed effectively and as the
nation would have it performed.
Now here, you, and those of us in the Parliamentary
party come together for the formation of policies for the
development of a national teamwork which will enable this great
country of ours to take full advantage of the exciting vista that
opens up ahead of us. I for my part feel completely confident
that the Liberal Party will eamsure up in full degree to the
responsibility that falls to it and look forward proudly to
carrying the banner of Liberalism as your leader for many
successful years ahead.