AUSTRALIA DAY LUNCHEON
ROYALE BALLROOM, LELBOURNE 26TH JANXUARY, 1967.
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. HAROLD HOLT
MR. HOLT:
Mr. Chairman Your Excellencies Lady Delacombe Distinguished
guests, and this includes my Parliamentary and Ministerial
Colleagues and Ladies and Gentlemen:
First, Sir Norman I must congratulate you, and I do so
on behalf of the Commonwealth Government, for the work that you
and your colleagues are doing to bring a wider and deeper
observarce of this National Birthday of ours and it must be
very gratifying to you to look around at this room today and
see how the initiatives which you and those with you have set
in motion some years ago are now producing this wider recognition.
In this part of Australia by the stimulus you have given, I
believe, about Australia generally certainly in my own experience
and this is perhaps not merel a product of any particular initiative
of any organisation, but of the degree of progress and development
and maturity that is going on inside Australia itself there is
this deepening awareness of the significance of our National
Birthday and the growing desire to recognise it and participate
in it. The other thing which I feel you must be congratulated
upon is the enterprise you have shown in making each year a
selection of the man or woman who in your judgment is the Australian
of the Year. I make no complaint that Parliamentarians are
disbarred from this very fitting recognition. Ve get our recognition
in other ways usually a three yearly interval, either favourable
or unfavourable, and we get enough of the limelight anyhow, but
it has been truly said that a great nation is a nation which
produces great people. It doesn't have to be a large nation, or
a powerful nation if it produces great people it is a great nation,
and we have confidence and pride in the quality of the Australian
people, and we do well to recognise those Australians who have
shown such distinction in the year under review that they have
earned the accolade of their fellow Austrilians and have been
honoured with this proud title. You have chosen well, you have
spread your choices through various fields of activity of interest
and importance to us and this year's selection is well up to the
high standard of your earlier selection and I offer my personal
congratulations to hr. Brabham as I did when he secured the World
Championship. I want to say thank you on behalf of us ill, that includes
my Government and your organisation and all assembled here, indeed
all to whom his warm thoughtful, generous words will come. Thanks
from us all to Mr. iAelan for th. it remarkably eloquent address to
us. I felt that we could not have expressed for Australia and to
Australia more admirably the thin-s that we are feeling at this
time, and how appropriate it is that these words should come from
the representative in this city of our great Pacific partner nd
ally, the United States of America.
has seen ouIr satyw o tchoatu ntardiveiss edblryo ugbhetc aculsoes etrh e tyoegaert hetrh att hhaans evjeurs t beclfoosreed
in their history. The tangible evidence of this is that at four
separate sets Qf meetings the Heads of Jovernment of our two
countries came together for our common purposes. Never before in
the history of our two countries have the Heads of those Governments / 2
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met so often and for such common purposes as was the object of
our discussions, twice in Washington, at Manila and here in
Australia in the course of the year which has just closed-and
that is significant, I believe, of what is occurring in this
area of the world.
It is of course, no accident or coincidence that these
meetings should have taken place with such frequency because we,
with the United States, have so much in common in this area of
the world and indeed in the world at large; our common principles
of democratic freedom, our adherence to principles of social justice,
of a prospering world at peace, is the goal to which we constantly
aspire, our common determination to play such part as we can in
improving the lot of those people who live with us in the Pacific
and Asian region*
These are things which have held us closer together our
comradeship in the issue of Vietnam, where such a massive effort
has been put forward and so much sacrifice by the people of the
United States in initiative which is vital to us and indeed important
to the free world as a whole.
You spoke, Mr. Whelan, of the influence which this small
country, small in terms of population can exert and those were not
fullsome or overly flattering words, because we recognise that this
is a fact of modern history so far as our own country is concerned
in this area of the world and various factors have combined to
produce this. I discovered in my first few days of office that
both President Johnson and Prime Minister Wilson were inviting
me to maintain with them the same close, intimate correspondence
which had been developed between them by my predecessor Sir
Robert Menzies, and this surely was an indication that this small
country has a voice which is valued and respected. Some times,
people say, we are going American in my boyhood I used to hear
people say that we used to cling to the skirts of Downing Street;
we are not going American or for that matter going English we
are going Australian; we are -oing Australian. That is why the
Heads of these great JovernmenIs respect our views they want
independent views and frank views from a friend and from an ally
and that is what they received from us. I can assure you
communication is frequent. It is helpful, informative sincere
between us all and if helps us in the common purposes to which
we aspire. And so, as this becomes more widely known around
Asia and indeed throughout the world Australia s influence and prestige
develops. Then we have had the task in this vast continent not
always favoured by climate nor seasons nor fertility of the soil,
of building one of the affluent societies of the world and you
have referred to our standard of living our high standard of
living. This impresses our neighbours in this area of the world,
who themselves have problems of development. They seek advice
technical assistance and help of various kinds from us. They
don't do so with any feeling that in that way they are demeaning
themselves. We have from their point of view no great power
aspirations. We have no colonial past to embitter the relationship
between us. And we are a frank and friendly people whom generally
speaking, they find they can like. This too, helps to bulld our
influence and the bridges of friendship that we can create in Asia
are bridges which help us all. I could give you one short
illustration. Cambodia is a country which at the present time is
not supporting our policies, indeed it has no diplomatic relations
with the United States of America. And so in Cambodia Australia
represents the United States' interests, and in South Vietnam
Australia represents the interea. ta of Cambodia. Now this is an
example of the kind of thing I have in mind when I say this
country can be of value and is recognised as having that value by
our friends in this region of the world.
It is only in comparatively recent years that we have
built up our capacity for these things. In the foundation of our
Federation in 1901 there was a place for a Department of External
Affairs in the seven States then created. But it seemed to have
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so little to do and there was so little interest in its activities
that it was abolished in 1916 and it wasn't until 1955 that we
re-established a Department of External Affairs. It was in 1946
that we set up our first Mission to the United Nations in New
York. But since that time in the 20 years that have elapsed
there has been a -rowth of the establishment of the Department
from 410 personnel to 1,570 personnel. Where there were then 19
posts abroad representing Australia, that is in 1946, today there
are 54 and the largest number of any section of the world in which
these are found is the area of Asia and South East Asia, where we
have 19 posts, 18 in Europe, 7 in North and South America, 7 in
Africa and 3 in the South Facific. In addition, of course, we have
built up our trade posts, our immigration posts and other means of
carrying Australian interests out into other countries. But you
will gather that this is of comparatively recent origin. My
Parliamentary colleagues will know that it wasn't so very long ago
that a debate on External Affairs in our House would attract very
little interest or attention. Now it is the most eagerly sought
after for participation by Members of the Parliament.
You spoke, Mr. Whelan, of the standards we have built
up and this again illustrates how Australia can have an influence out
of all proportion to its numbers. If you look at the situation in
India-and I don't say this in respect of either of the two
countries I mentioned in any reflection on what they are doing for
themselves, we know quite clearly the problems which exist in these
countries but India is a country with a population 42 times that
of Australia and it has just doubled the value of gross national
products of Australia. Indonesia, which has nine times the population
of Australia, has a value of gross national product one third of
that of Australia; and you will see that the reference made by
Dr. i" helan in carrying on some remarks of mine that we have ranked
among the top ten or twelve tr. iding nations of the world. This has
revealed that our country, small in numbers, nevertheless has an
impact both in influence and in its economic strength, its trading
capacity out of all proportion to the population of our people.
So we can, I believe, on this our National Birthday,
feel that we are favoured people, that we have achievements behind us
to which we can look with pride, yet, as the proposer of the toast
so eloquently stressed, there are brighter horizons ahead for us.
. e share that judgment and confidence, Mr. Whelan, we Australians
believe that our tomorrows will be the greatest days of Australian
history. Jiven a world of peace we cannot only expand our own
country's capacity, build our population, improve our standards
but make a growing contribution to the welfare of those around us.
So, with that bright prospect before our eyes, with a vision
of a greater Australia greater in influence, greater in strength
greater in security and prosperity wve can today in all certainty
say it is a happy birthday for Australia and may there be many
happy returns ahead. Thank you again.