EMBAL OED UNTIL 7.15 P. M. 10TH NOVEMBER, 1966
NATIONAL BROADCAST NO. 1
BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. HAROLD HOLT
Security is the theme of this broadcast security
not only for the nation, but for the individual.
Nationalsecurity is linked with the adequacy of
our defence forces and the strength of our alliances.
Security for the individual depends on how
successfully the economy is conducted and how justly the
national wealth is distributed.
As to national security. We have a small population
living in a vast continent. We cannot hope to
do by ourselves alone all that is necessary to preserve
that security. This is so even if we tried to turn
Australia into an isolated fortress and abandoned
vigorous development.
' We have fortified ourselves by joining with others
in building a mutual security system through treaties
such as SEATO and ANZUS.
The Labor Party says that Australia should withdraw its
forces from South Vietnam. They condemn the participation
there of national servicemen who are enabling
us to maintain our Regular Army Units in Australia and
overseas at the strengths recommended by our military
advisers. Under the ANZUS Treaty the United States, New
Zealand and ourselves have undertaken to resist aggression
directed against any one of us. You can form your own
judgment as to how much value would remain in this
Treaty if Australia were to walk out on these friends and
allies. They would never have the same confidence in
Australia again. I am sure the effect on America, in
particular would be most destructive. Even if the
Treaty continued in a formal sense, we could never again
place the same reliance on it for our safety.
These matters are sure to be discussed extensively
at my public meetings so I should like to deal now with
some aspects of domestic security which concern every
household. You have a vested interest in the strength
and welfare of Australia. An expanding Australia with
a strong, soundly-based economy, should be capable of
consistently giving full employment to its people. This
contributes greatly to your security.
Regular employment and good w. ages are basic to
the security of the family. Australia has a record in
this respect unsurnassed amonrst the free Deoples of
the world. There has been only one month in the seventeen
years in which we have been in office when
registrations for employment touched three per cent.
-2-
For most of our period of office, the registrations have
hToe vehraeved asbuocucte ssofneu llpye r abcesnotr. b edw iatdhd ijtoio onvsa caton cithees wpolreknftoirfcuel.
from migration and our own natural increase. This has
helped us to become a nation of home ovmers with the
highest percentage of home ownership anywhere recorded.
Only the United States and Canada surpass us in
the percentage of motor vehicles to the population.
There are other important indicators of the solid
base to the security of the individual citizen. Our
people hold more than seven and a half million life
insurance policies, having a total value of more than
fifteen thousand million dollars. At the end of August
they held $ 5 356 million in the Savings Banks and had,
at the end of September, more than 5,000 million on
deposit with the Trading 3anks. These figures spell
continuing prosperity, and in no country is that
prosperity more widely shared.
It would be an act of national folly to hand over
to a socialist party a country so soundly conducted and
which has enjoyed these fruits of a free enterprise
philosophy; and to hand over to a socialist party so
demonstraiy incapable of governing itself that it is
clearly incapable of effectively governing the nation.
( This talk will be broadcast by the A. J. C.
Network at 7.15 Thursday, 10th November.
It is the first of six five minute broadcasts
to be made by ' Mr. Holt during the election
campaign. The broadcasts will be heard in
all States.)