S EM3ARJOED UNTIL 7,15 P. M. 18TH NOVEMBER, 1966
NATIONAL JROADCAST fO. 4
BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. HAROLD HOLT
Much has been said in this election campaign about
Australia's security. You know there is a wide gulf of
difference uetween the policies of the Government on defence
and those of the Opposition. Mr. Calwell leads a Party which
so reduced Australia's defence expenditure in the post-war
years that its last Budget that of 1949/ 50 provided only
1,116 million for our total defence bill. The vote for defence
had been slashed year by year from 1945/ 46 onwards.
Our Budget provision this year is $ 1,000 million,
six times that of the last year of Labor rule. We don't
regard even this substantial expenditure as making Australia
self-sufficient in defence nor has that been our intention.
We have known we would have little scope for other desirable
objectives if the Defence bill were to go too high. Ve have
wished to maintain a vigorous development policy while, at the
same time, acting to keep the nation secure.
' e have strengthened Australia's security by joining
under the SEATO and ANZUS Treaties with allies who have the
same determination to resist communist aggression as ourselves.
In recent years geography and circumstance have made
Australia part of the Asian scene. Our trade with Asia has
grown rapidly. It now takes more than 30 per cent of our
exports against half that percentage a few years ago. Our
exports to Asia in 1958/ 59 were $ 368 million. In 1965/ 66
they were 8856 million.
Ve signed a trade treaty with Japan in 1957 this
treaty incidentally was strongly opposed by the Labor Party
in the Parliament. In the followin-year we exported $ 204
million worth of goods to that country. This had risen to
471 million in 1965/ 66.
Australia has joined in the group of nine Asian and
South Pacific countries known as ASPIC, formed to further
each other's interests. We rank among the largest contributors
to the capital of the Asian Development Bank.
Recently I led the Australian delegation to the
Conference in anila of the seven nations who have joined
in resisting Communist aggression in South Vietnam. This
historic meeting was not a council of war, it was a council
for peace and freedom. It devoted itself to ways and means
of achieving a just and enduring settlement of the conflict
in embattled Vietnam. 7e adopted Joals of Freedom expressed
in the following terms:-
" WIe the seven nations gathered in Manila,
declare our unity, our resolve and our purpose
in seeking together the goals of freedom in
Vietnam and in the Asian and Pacific areas.
They are:
1. To be free from aggression.
2. To conquer hunger, illiteracy and disease.
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To build a region of security, order
and progress.
4. To seek reconciliation and peace
throughout Asia and the Pacific."
These are our goals. They are the goals of peacemakers,
not warmongers, and those who Yathered in Manila
with us are the allies that the Labor Party proposes we
should walk out on.
I believe Australia has an important contribution
to make to the security and prosperity of the free countries
of Asia. W" e have great benefits to gain from our friendly
trade and association with them.
We would destroy that bright prospect, perhaps beyond
repair if Australia was to follow the course recommended to
us by the Australian Labor Party.
( This talk will be broadcast by the A. B. C. National
Network at 7.15 p. m. Friday, 18th November, 1966)