FIRST ANNLUAL CONFERENCE OF THE AUSTRALIAN DIVISION
OF THE INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS
SYDNEY N. S. W. 24TH FEBRUARY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME IINISTER TIR. HAROLD HOLT
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Ministerial and Parliamentary Colleagues,
Ladies I understand there are some brave ladios with us here
tonight and Gentlemen;
I don't know what the scene appears to you in the
background there but I can assure you that this is about as
impressive a gathering that any public loader in this country could
ever hope to address and I confess to being singularly impressed
from the outset. I am sure that our two distinguished visitors
from the United Kingdom, Sir Paul Chamnbers and Sir Richard Powell,
both of I hav:: had th-: plcasure of mo ting at gatherings of the
Institute in London, also fool stirred as I am by this spectacle
of what Australia is able to contribute in the way of distinguished
directorial talent. But I gather there are something over 600
directors here tonight and, looking around the room, I think there
must be at least 500 who are personal friends of mine from my many
years in public life at least I like to think they are personal
friends of mino, and certainly they have exhibited the greatest of
goodwill to me this evening, and for the most part, the greatest of
goodwill through the long period of apprenticeship I have served.
After all, it says something for the charactorictic Australian
quality of tolerance and m-toship that after seven years at the
Treasury I can still face you, looking to you as friends and
receiving such a respectful and attentive hearing as I am, at least
up to this point.
Gentlemen, we are getting used gradually to the idea
in Canberra that there has been a change of management. Every now
and then my officers and I refer to my distinguished predecessor
and say, " Well, the BI is doing so-and-so" or " the EI is doing this
or that". I do it. My officers do it. After sixteen years'
association with a great political leader, it is not easy to adjust
one's thinking to the fact that he is not there to carry those great
responsibilities that face us at this time. But in a tremendously
busy month, we have been rapidly accustoming ourselves to the fact
that we have to stand on our own feet now and exhibit to the
Australian people that Australia is able to produce leaders,
and as one great leader moves on, then we hope that the team that I
have assembled around me will enable me to continue to give Australia
the sound, progressive, imaginative government that we have been
favoured to enjoy for so many years under the Prime Ministership of
Sir Robert Menzics.
No Australian Prime Minister could take office at a
more fascinating or interesting time in the history of his country.
I am sure that even those of you in this room who have had to
accustom yourselves to the rapidity of change in the years of
phenomenal growth we've known since the end of the Second World
War will have been struck by the rapidity of these changes
around us, not only in the domestic scene but more particularly in
the international scene in our own immediate neighbourhood over the
period through which we are now passing. To us in Canberra, they
are occurring with almost dizzying rapidity. Where once in my own
political lifetime, Australia was an isolated outpost down under,
now we are invaded in hordes almost with people who have discovered
Australia perhaps for the first time but who are learning that here
is not only a country of tremendous resources -nC creat potential,
but here is one of the significant landmarks in thi2 aerea of the
* world capable of exercising a significant influence upon the destiny
of this area of the world. Nov': that may bc rather a large mouthful
to claim, but even in my own short term as Prime Minister I have
been conscious of the fact that great national leaders in the United
Kingdom and the United States are -2nxious to hear what the Government
of this country feels about the particular developments in
which we have some special knowledge in this area of the world.
And not only anxious to hcar but giving respectful weight to the
views that we put to them, and this, of course, imposes a tremendous
responsibility upon us, not only a responsibility for careful and
considered thought and judgment but the sort of responsibility which
has us vweigh where we come out in all of thse situations. And at
times, although it is rather flattering to be treated on a bcis
of equ. rlity, one ondors whether the larger countries with which
we enter upon discussions still realise that w; e are loss than
12 million people trying to build a grant continent when they,
in their turn, arc countries of great population and with many
decades of national development behind them.
Vle in Australia have boon jolted by events to adulthood
in circumstances of such complexity as to call for a maturity and
understanding pc-rha-ps has not been ex-ected of us in earlier
periods of our history. So the for. mation of this body of which you
are euicL nd v---ry one of you, is not only i-orta. nt in
the national sense, but in my view could hardly be more timely
because Australia will have to form a judgr'nt, nationally, upon
many matters going well beyond our shores, matters which will involve
us in some exercise of responsibility, some provision of military
assistance, some provision of international aid or guidance,
technical capacity and equipment, a whole host of matters which
would have been foreign to ea rlier governments in Australian
history. It is true we have been doing something along these
lines over recent ycars. It is quite obviously the fact that more
will be demanded of us, expected of us, end indeed needed from us
as the years go on. Nowv it struck me so many times during my own
long period in public life as rather strange that we hadn't
developed amongst the leaders in commerce and trade and industry
a greater willingness on their part or might I say your part
to participate in the national dialogue on these great questions
of policy which arise from time to time. I am not suggesting or
hinting that you should involve yourselves in the day by day material
of party politics; perhaps that can be left to those of us
who are in the political scene as your Parliamentary representative.
But I don't think we can afford to go on indefinitely without views
being put quite vigorously and frankly and clearly, not necessarily
in an organised sense or by the organisation represented here
tonight, but by individual public loaders in their own field, and
by public I mean men who have achieved stature in the eyes of the
public in the fields of industry and trnde and commerce.
There is a great need in Australia, a gap in our
structure from this absence of participation in the national
dialogue. It has been increasing, of course, to some degree
over recent years, but time and time again as we have sat around
the Cabinet table in Canberra and sought to appoint some person
to a particular public post, one which calls for a man with an
industrial or commercial background, but also which calls for
qualities which go beyond the tasks of his own particular organisation
or section of industry. And I assure you, you would
be rather shocked to know how narrow the field of selection proves
to be when we come to this task, and it perhaps explains why you
find familiar figures bobbing up in a number of tasks of government.
We feel almost cmbarr. as.: ed when we go back to the same
familiar figures and ask them to do a job for us, and if we do
that it is not because we want to load unanocessary burdens on their
back but because there hasn't been this general participation in
affairs going beyond the immediateprroccupation of the executive
or the director in particular industries and sections of the
economy which would provide us with the recruits we need for
3.
public service sometimes honorary sometimes of a more
pormrnont character, but contributing to what has been as Sir
Robert Webstor recognised in hi: notable address the other evening,
Sconsiderable and significant increase in the participation by
government in the affair-of industry. Not psrticip. tion, I would
hope, in the sonso that w; e are going to -ntrude irare deeply
thani-s been the case in the past; but participation in the
sense that there is a growing need it has been there for a long
time, and we have done 0rsomething bout it but a growing need
in the times in which we find ourselves for temmwNork between
government and management so essential if the country is to
progress as we would all wish a: a great co-operating democracy.
And so, gentlcmen, here is isk for the Institute
of Director, and it is hc-rtening to us all to feeol the need for
a more co-oerative Australi, an 4u'tral that has devclJped
a close national unity, to sec evidenced by your presence here
tonight the signs thet in the field of top director-ship and exccutive
strength in this country, we will find a greatcr co-ordination
of ideas and activity than ve hrve in the paSct. This will be a
tromondous national a: ss:: t for utra. lic.
No! w w, 0s a Govcr-: mnt, have encounterod, or at leonst
are the inheritor of a combination of important development5 ; hich
era produein5 c1halle:--ing sitnations for us in a nuzabcr of dietions.
I mention first, however, the : noroal picture bcenuse I nt
to como to com of these dovelopOnts in a momnt, but as ono looTe
at the Au: traolian scone g -crwalltyhe, task doesn't look as formidable
in the internal domestic sense, the economic sense, Mr.
President, as perhaps you have pictured it here tonight. That may
be the viewpoint of an optimist but I think it is one in which Lriy
colleagues of tha Cabinet wculd agreo. That doesn't meancn that thr
won't be problems in the futura, of courso. , Anybody living in a
country so Cubject to the ha zo: rd: z of t( he Coson, the fluctuation
in ". utput year by year, a: the result of either drought, flood or
some other advorse fr'ctor, the quite snoartionr. l fluctuations
which occur from time to timo in iwhat we receive overseas for our
products, when you are fr0c!, ith that set of circumstances, noone
can claim that the course aheod is ever likely to be ecsy.
But for those of us that h". ve to sit and evolve continuing policies
of a national kind, it doesn't look so formidable as it did in
earlier periods in the last twcnty years because we have had the
good fortune in this c-ountry to come through a long period of stable
political growth and policy formation with no interruption and with
a continuing stability of conditions here. ' Not many countries
around the world could point to that kind of stability whilst they
were forming policies of an enduring kind. ind I believe that
over these years we've established a pattern and a structure for
the Australia of the future which will endure for very many years
to come, a basic pattrn and structure of policy and national
endeavour. Non let ma just illustrate it in a few directions. We
have launched and sustained a vigorous programec of migration
which we have every intcntion of continuing on as larg a scale
as we can contrive. Secondly, for miost of the period I speak of,
Australia has enjoyed Nhat would be described in realistic terms
as a full omployrnnt situation. Noiw although there have booeen here
some minor fluctuations, no-one with any recollection of the
pre-war Australia or of the more dreadful days of the 1930' s could
describe what has he: pcncd over the last twenty years as other than
a full cmploymont situntion for the country and that situation
continues. There will be odd pockets of weakness here snd there
which we shall have to attcnd to, but by and larg the achievoment
has been recorded through ycars of considerable fluctuation, come
of them years of stress, and ne have beern able to sustain, broadly
speaking, a full employmn; ont situation.
Then we have had a high capiitl fornotion in this
country. I wonder if everyone here realises juct how high this
has been. I was interested myself to discover recently that there
is only one country recorded in the official interna! tional statistics
that can point to a higher level of capital formation, or porcentage
of capital formation than Australia, and -that is Japan. Ours
stands at abcut 27% of gross national expenditure. That Compares
with 17% or 18% for the Unitcdl Kingdom and tho United Sta-tes, and
this, too, is not n pssinE pha sc. It is rattributb] c, oif course,
to oIur oral jnterl crqap), acity -c vvcvc, fo high onc. by o
parativo stand zards around the world and also to the strong cpital
inflow v. hich has been sustaincd cven over these recent pcriods when
official , olicies would appear to have produced some reduction of
it. Ard I mcntion another fcctcr rtable govcrnmcnt something
we tend to take for grantod in this country, and . ri are lucky
pcople to be ble to do so. 1Ve havc-had enoDugh recent exa" mples
around the world to ill. uatr: atet for us that thcse things are not
either inevitablo nor favouring the rm'-srta of the or. dIs propulation
at the present time, a2nd only tonirht flash has bon
-eccived to the cfct -tht i: GL:: nr te army hs t-ak-I over the
govornment there a. nd appr -ntly deposed the -dministrc. tion of
Procident Ykrw arux. h. WeVoll, this ha-ppening so recently agninst the
events in figria, which w,. s regrdeda about the r. ost stable of
non-uropean cttes in A'frica, is an-ther illustrL-tion of the
re tless and violent world in ilhich i-e stand as an isand of
stability and security. Anc this, of cours, is the factor wrihich
one finds cropping up renotedly in the tnlk I hve with those , ho
come here looking , ustralii over ana ing away frem thiis country
more convinqced th-r. they h Od over been bef_, ore that thic is a. country
in which they should have some otake for the future, joining w ith us
in the building of a Croat notion, a stabilisin, -trcngthcning and
prospering factor in t-his significaint area of the orld.
But I have -mntioned the elements which are illustrative
of whnt I speak of as the established structure and pattern for the
Aastr: lic. o1f th fte. I don't b-liecve that even if there ;, wore
a chane of goveriment, dspite the fa ct th. At I know there is
and I not : nnting to turn this into a political occasion
despite the fact that there is a pr. ofession of demccratic socialism
on the part of VMr. Calwo ll, a rdicl and socialist party on the pa rt
of Mar. 7Yhitlair; my own belief is that these patterns tha-t I mention
are now co solidly cetablishod in ustrlia that even if a Labor
Govcriin-t catnc int.-office. it wold soon find that the electoraite
would rejcc-t it if it sought in any w! ay to lltcr what h-d becoe
establiched national policies, serving utralia .' ll.
So I say, ladies rnd gentlemcn, that I don't expect an,,
fundamcntl or drastic policy changcs even from our politicl
opponcnts; wh-tevcr their rish-sn i-hbte in this direction, I
-am sure the cight of -lctor7l opinion would be aga-inst it, and I
don't sc the need for them an the pa: rt of our on governiment, in
order to deal ;: tith the domoetic situa7tion as e view it. There will
be some marginal action re * uirecl in perhaps a variety of directions,
but any one in this ream who is trying to pla-. n for the future of
their own organisction in ustra-liai canli, I belicvc, rely upon those
fund. ntls. ill CoI industrial rroith Vill
continue, the full emloeycnt situati-) n w-: ill be a. steoady nd continuous
one in this cou~ ntry, n6 there will be a continuing stability
of political a: ffairs in ustrlia ao a btasis of our owin
national groth. Tow I believe this to be true : and I am , ure this is the
view taken of it by these who come from overseas to observe
our scene and they claim something else which I was going to
mcntion in another connection a little later, but perh-. ps it is
apposite to introduce it here, and this is sonrething we don't talk
about ourselves. A6gain, we tae it for ranted. But they include
in their cntcgory Cf the assts they discover, the character and
qulity of the ., utr-lia n popl. There may be less than 12
million of us but in the eyes of those who come to observe us,
we -re poople of character and. quality. nd how-essential this
is if weo rre less th n 12 million peop--le; ', ith ri contincnt of the
size of the Unitcd Statcs to develop, then e cn't -: afford to have
second-2atQ people or people lacking in chcarnctcr nnd quality.
, The most valuable export that Australia can send abroad is the
Australian who goes as a technician or a professional man into
one of these countries to our North to give guidance and training
a proj-ection of Australia as a helpful kindly country
with people of character and quality who can make a contribution
to security and progress in this part of the world. It will be
one of my own tasks as your Prima Minister to encourage this process.
I can believe that Australia can do a great deal by the positive
constructive type if diplomacy using that word in its widest
sense where Australians go out and make Australia better known
in a constructive and helpful way around the world and in particular
around the world to the North of us.
I Now I have mentioned something about the established
economic situation but let me say a word about the prospects.
I said a word or two in this direction but my friend, Charles Court
ought to be taking over this part of what I have to say because he
is the best national salesman in political circles that I know.
You will be discovering this in more detail, no doubt, tomorrow
but having established the pattern and structure that I have
mentioned, forward prospects continue to read most attractively.
We have oar own good population growth rate and we have a good
growth rate with population and productivity going together.
But our population rate I have bean pointing this out to some of
our distinguished visitors, in particular Denis Healey, the British
Minister for Defence, and Vice-President Humphrey; we have a
population growth rate something of the order of upwards of 2 per
cent, the United Kingdom .8 of 1 per cent and at the last year of
record, the United States 1.3 per cent. Others may choose to
ignore this, but we can't ignore it. It is a fat of life for us.
It imposes considerable burden and stress upon us to provide the
hotsing, the schools, and the hospitals, as I am sure my State
COllo n. s here will beer -i-ness, . ui-te convincingly. And so
here is itself a factor for economic growth in the future.
the
Then we add to thistotory which Charles, I imagine,
will be expanding for you, of the exploration which has produced
the fabulous mineral discoveries in our North and in the W. est and
indeed in various other parts of Australia as well, not to ignore
the natural gas so far discovered which csan make such a contribution
for economic development. But these are things which in the
mineral field alone, could on a not over-optimistic estimate bring
us, within ten years' time, an export income equalling or surpassing
that which we will be receiving or are receiving concurrently
from our wool production. So this means quite a striking and
indeed almost fabulous addition to our resources.
Then there is the element, as yet I believe in its
early stages, of our trade with Asia. Who would have imagined
in his wildest hopes that Australia would have built up in these
last ten years or so the kind of regular trade not flukey trade
but regular and growing trade that we have with Japan. The
figures may interest you. In 1951/ 52, Australia's exports to Japan
were $ 97 million in value. Last year, which was not the highest
on record, they were $ 441 million. In other words, a 350 per cent
increase on the figure of 1951/ 52. This, I repeat, would not
have been dreamed of ten or fifteen years ago, and yet as we see
it, we know it is only the beginning. In respect of Japanese iron
ore contracts alone, and Charles correct me if my total is too low,
we have contracts, I understand, completed for the sale of Australian
iron ore to the tune of $ 2,320 million. So that we can
face, I believe, our future in economic terms confidently.
As Japan develops its own standards and grows with its
own internal demands, it will supply an increasing part of Asian
demand. This will be a demand which, with a more sensitive
world conscience on this issue of rising expectations and the
under-privileged areas of the world, there will be gradual but
increasing as I can tell you from our own provision of international
aid there will be increasing ossistance being given to
other countries which in turn will want their demands satisfied by
foodstuffs, raw materials, industrial equipment, all of which
Australia is well placed in this area of the world, with the
resources we know about, to assist in supplying.
And we have, as part of this story, the determination
of President Johnson and his Administration, reflecting, I believe,
the views of the Amorican people generally, that thoir great
concept of he gr~~ at society ic not to bc limited to the United
States alone. He has already indicated that he is willing to
provide a billion dollar fund for Asian TDvelopment. inerica
has come handsomely into the Provision of capital for the Asian
Development Bank with $ 200M. We, recognising the importance
for the whole area of such a bank, have accepted a much higher
than our proportionote share of contribution by a comrmitment of
( American). Now as those institutions, these Funds, get under
way and make their worth felt, we, in turn, must derive some commercial
benefit from this; whether it is in the area of foodstuffs,
minerals, raw materials or a graowing volume of manufactured exports,
this is something which Australia will be able to do.
So let us turn now for a moment or two to the challenges
which show up clearly in the international fields and the most
urgent , and the most worrying of these, of course, is in South Viet
Nam. We, as an Australian Government, have been firm in our own
views and conclusions about this situation from the outset. We
have seen this, as we have seen o many othor of those critical
challenges of the post-war years, as further evidence of the
communist determination to spread its philosophy, its doctrine
through the world so far as this proves possible for it, probing
here and there, finding a weak spot, trying to build up the
pressures. We see it currently at its most manifest-. in South Viet
Nam, but I have boon talking yesterday and today with the rc-prooontatives
of Thailand end they would be telling you of the pres ures
to which they are being subject on their North, on their East, on
their ' ost from the Communist influence, and we have seen this,
as I am glad to say the President of the United States and his
Administration have seen it, as another challenge to free peoples
throughout the world.
Now gentlemen, if this is your view, and I think it would
be, because I know that in our own Parliament in the two Government
Parties, there is not one member elected to represent the people in
those two Government Parties who does not subscribe wholehoertedly
to the Government's policy of support in South Viet Nam and a
backing for the nmerican policies there. But I don't want you
to feel that you can just leave it to your Parliamentarians, if
on a great national question such as this, touching the very
security of the nation, touching the security of free peoples
everywhere, we can afford to allow the politician only to persuade,
to convince, to argue on this issue in our national community.
Here, if you believe these things is scope for you individually
in the positions of leadership that you occupy, and we can't
afford to allow a situation to develop in which the only voices
heard are the voices of dissent. You and I might believe, and
indeed know, that this represents only a handful in the population,
that its influence is not groat, but if you allow it to go, of
course, uncorrected, or unchallenged, a small influence can become
a larger:., cnc. This is what the President is finding. This is
what we, for our part, are finding. And if there is any doubter
in this room of the essential character of the challenge, the
critical nature of it, in South Viet Nam, I wish he would write
to me and toll me. I shall send him by the return of post, the
copy of the speech which Vice-President Humphrey made on this
matter, one of the most compelling and moving public speeches I
have ever heard. And if anybody remains unconvinced after the
evidence that be brings forward, then he lacks the capacity for
conviction. And we've seen, gentlemen, this challenge; how many
times does it have to be levelled before we recognise it in
whatever particular form it emerges. We saw it in Berlin. We
saw it in the so-called Greek civil vmr. As Vice-President
Humphrey pointed out, what a remarkable thing that when
' Yugoslavia fell out with the Soviet and cut off that supply line
from the Soviet to Greece, the civil war disappeared. An in other
situations, whether it is in Cuba, whether it is in Berlin or in
Greece, or in Korea, or now in South Viet Nam, or in the probes that
are going on in Laos, Thailand gnd other countries in South-East
Asia, this threat to free peoples has to be met. And what an
extraordinary thing it is, illustrating the confusion of mind
on this matter, that you will get a groat paper like the " Now
York Times" which will urge the Administration to defend Berlin
to the last American soldier that can be sent there and yet next
day will write a powerful editorial and go on doing so, urging
them to pull our of the issue in Scuth Viet Nam.
We are told sometimes that we oversimplify the problem.
I am afraid there arc far too many people around the world who overcomplicate
it. And of course you can point to very sincere people
amongst the Viet Cong. No man offers his life unless he believes
quite strongly in what is happening around him, but there have been
people before that the communists have steered for their own
purposes. They have got on the popular band-waggon and nll the
evidence that comes to us is overwhelmingly convincing that here
is a challenge which is guided from Hanoi and which in turn is
masterminded from Poking. Well, there in brief is a reference to
Viet Nam, but we mustn't brush it out of consciousness as something
that isn't vital to Austrnlin's own security. If we can't hold the
line in South Viet Nam with all the weight of imerican strength, if
we can't hold it there, who can tell me where it con be held nywhere
in South-East Asia.
I would like to just mention a word or two to you
about our talks with Mr. Healey because these were fundamental, and
indeed quite historic, because uhat was involved here wvs a dialogue
about the British role in the world. You hove noticed even since
the publication of the White Poper one of the Ministers has resigned,
giving as his main rocson for the resignation that he disogrecs with
the strategic concept, that in his view Britain should withdraw,
should not have forces enst of Suez, and this view was advanced by
the shadow Defence Minister on the Conservative side, Enoch Powell
some time ago. I have reason to believe thnt it is not a universally
held view in the Conservative P: nrty or even in the Shvdow
Cabinet of the Conservative Party, but it nas put forward publicif:.
by their Shadow Minister, and so this is more than just editorial
stuff or liternry criticism or debating society material. These
issues are urgent topical, vital issues for the security of this
country. Mr. Hoaloy, quite obviously from the recent actions of
his colleagues, has been under much pressure to adopt the line of
withdrawal East of Suez and when he reached us, I think he felt
there would be a very limited life to their occupancy of the
base in Singapore. Well, at least one value which came from those discussions,
and there were several important conclusions which
we were able to reach together, but one at least was to impress
on him our view of the importance of the British presence in this
area of the world, the importance of the retention of the base
in Singapore for as long as this was humanly possible, an assurance
that in our view, a British presence there far from being resented
by the peoples of Asia, would be accepted by them as a moderating
and stabilizing influence, contributing to their security rather
than a source of disturbance and restlessness and turbulence amongst
their people... I am glad to say this view was endorsed when he reached
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and it was a view which was endorsed
by the representatives of the Thai Government with which
we have been holding discussions in thcse last two days. And so
has emerged this quite notable decision of the British Government
to remain in effect a world influence, not to withdraw and adopt a
quite narrow view of their international responsibilities, but to
maintain a global role, to maintain substantial forces in this area
of the world and to remain on in Singapore for as long as that
proves humanly practicable.
8.
! hat did flow from it also was acceptance by us of the
vicvw that althouh they might docide and h! ve now decided to remain
thcre, it rny prove, as a recult 1of ovelomonts which no-one can at
this time foreseeo, that a base in Singapore cannot be suctaincd.
Well it put in that blu. rt and frioadly fa. shio2 that r. Healey
has that if Britain couldn't stay there, it had nowhere :. lso to
go and had to go homo unless it could come to Australia. So we
shall, in our planning of our own brze facilitics for the future,
and indeed taking into account this contingency, be bringing our
attention to the possibilities which could develop here, and conducting
discussions at the Service lovel with reprosentativos
of the British Government.
iNow, remember, he was talking about problems which might
r. ric in the 1970S, cvven the 1990' s. Our on situation is not
going to be tr'nsfonncd overnight, but what we will be doing in
the yeors rhead will be planning, rill be acting in such a way
that wc guard against the sort of dangCer which your own judgoments
will conjure up for you.
7hat flows from all of this, from the talks with the
United States which has become so hcavily committed in terms
of manowcr and military equipmcnt and unLdrtrkings to conduct
a constructive, positive programme of peaceful economic development
in thrat are of the world, was that it obviously involves for
Australia a growing commitment over the years. The lesson is
there, or the writing is there for us, that we must become more
self-reliant to meet the varo. cty of dangers which can threaten
us in the future. I spoke a little oerlior of our trcdo with Jrpan.
We h: ave irmmodi-tely to the North of us 100 million people in Vwhat
has become a virtually bonkrupt and disorgniscd economy, with
turbulence of a political kind, the outcome of which no-one at
this point can foresee. Austr,. lian trade with Indonesia in the
same ycar that I mentioned with Japan ( 1951-52) was $ 8M. Last
year it was $ 7M agmainst 4; 44.11 for Japan. Eighty million of people
well organised with a strong, buoyant oconomy, industrialised with
rising standards in one direction; 100 million people subjected
to this turbulence, this economic failure which one sees immediately
to our North, and here is a country with which we have a
common boundary in New Guincea.
So Austra. ia., l'dica and gentlemen, has been jolted
ot merely into adulthood but into r maturity of attitudes and
approach; a requirement of maturity of decision which we have
not known in the degree we have to confront it today at any earlier
point in our history.
I don't mention those things to you in any pessimistic
spirit because I bclieve that this country has a destiny in
Asia which should excite us all. Indeed, one of the heartening
things is to discover amongst the lenders of the countries
of AsiC how much Australi, is respected as friend nd d lly, as
donor of international aid, and it is not the big costly
things that matter so terribly much in their eyes.
One of the most significant elements of aid that the
Prime Minister of Thailand was mentioning to me was a military
training school we have in his country for technical training
of people who go into the services. Those now going to the
school are being approached by private omployers before they
are through their training, wanting to get them for the
industry of Thailand. Well, at least there is a gain in
an industrial sense. And hero, by this kind of provision, he
pointed to come road construction that we were carrying out.
I am sure Pat orton could suggest a few place-around his own
State where roads could bc built.
But this sort of thing, not hundreds of millions of
dollars of aid but friendly, technical advice with the man
on the spot, whom they can see, whom they can talk to and
regard as a friend. In these ways, I believe, we are helping
to strengthen our neighbours to o nr North. In these ways,
eventually, I believe, we will find the means of knitting more
closely together the countries interested in this area.
Now my concluding point on all this is that we
see in what faces us in the future not just Australia, but all
those of like-minded ideas in relation to the future we see
a tremendous need for the United Kingdom, the United States,
Australia and Now Zoaland to got together, to co-crdinate what
they are doing, work out together what our objectives should
be, what cur goals are, how we see the future, what we feel we
can do together. Our resources arc not so vast that we can
afford to squander them and we feel that it will be by our
joint efforts, facing common tasks, that we shall achieve most
effectively what lies within each of us to do.
Finally, here we have in this country of ours another
great asset in the co-operating democracy that we have established.
You can go to Darwin, or Perth or Brisbane; people
will be listening to the national news at about the same time,
making due allowances for the time changes in West and South
Australia, but here we have a remarkably homogeneous people of
very much more similar outlook than you will find even in the
British Isles or any other country that you could name. This,
itself, is a tremendous national asset, and at the various levels
of Government Commonwealth, State, Municipal I believe we have
a closer teamwork today and a battor-willcd one, more cordial and
co-operative teoomwork than I have known at any earlier point of
the Australian Federation. And when we look out from government
to industry, I know that next week we shall be conferring ag: in
with many of you, some of you anyhow, who are in this room tonight,
some of the leaders in the field of manufacturing, export advice,
and the leaders of industry, who will see us as a particular group
in the course of the afternoon.
Now this has become a regular exercise twice a year,
trying to get into the minds of industry, talking to those who come
to us freshly from the market place, trying to get the best
picture we can before we launch into major economic decisions by
the Government. So I mention these things. They are taken by so
many for granted, Here we are at this point of time having
established as very few countries in the world can claim to have
established, a co-operating deoocracy in which the rights of
minorities are safeguarded, as they must be in any true
democracy, and in which the national effort is channelled the more
successfully because of the teamwork we have produced.
Now, of course, we haven't reached perfection, and
we never will, but your organisation will be a step along the
road to a better result than we have achieved in the past,
and I would hope that in the course of your own discussions you
would spare a thought for the Parliament as an institution.
In this country, the Parliament doesn't enjoy the
respect it does in many other democracies, although I believe
the quality of service is just as high and the quality of
representation and membership is as high. One doesn't develop
any inferiority complex after participating in Parliamentary
Conferences with others around the world. Your toughset
competition is right back home, in my experience, it is
in so many other directions. But gentlemen and I exclude
the ladies on this because I am sure they give the Parliament
the respect it deserves anyhow but,, gentlemen, a community
which can't respect its Parliament really can't respect itself
because we are drawn from the community, we are there to serve
the comunity, and if you don't like us, please replace us by
something better. At the moment it doesn't seem to be on the
horizon but one can never be sure!
Well, gentlemen, one could, of course, go on at much
greater length but I am appalled at my own affrontery when I
recall that in the course of this day you have been addressed
with such skill at such length bythe distinguished spokesmen
of whom we heard a little earlier. But 6an I say in my last
sentence to you that to an Australian leader it is a tremendously
heartening thing, not only to feel the good will which has been
radiating to me from all gathered here tonight, but to feel
that from people of the quality that I see represented here
will be moulded the Australia of the future, and in that I have
every confidence and great pride.