THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON HUMAN Z 3 U 16
RELATIONS
Southern Gross Hotel, Melbourne
Opening Address by the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt-
8TH MAY, 1967
The association of human relations and technology is vitally
important. It is a supreme challenge for us, because all the wonders of
science and technology cannot enable us to live by computers alone. A
mechanical heart may keep some of us going in future years, but the
creative ideas, the emotions and the impulses of man cannot be duplicated.
Man remains the master, and it is with his task to see that the application
of technology to the business of living is so ordered that the change Jt
brings makes for peace, for prosperity, for happiness and for security.
The title of my address is Technology in the SerV4 ce of the
Nation, and I want to say something of what we are doing as a government,
and what Australia is doing as a nation. I will select some samples, rather
than attempt to open up the whole emporium of our national effort. The
range of technology In the service of the nation Is wide Indeed, and we have
achieved much by ourselves alone, through universities, and by partnerships
with industry. We live here in Australia in a free society, and my government
believes firmly, as a philosophy, in free enterprise. It is opposed to the
confining and inhibiting limitations of a socialist bureaucracy. The forces
of change operate in many directions and at various levels. Vie are not so
bound by doctrine that we cannot see virtue in government 4nstitutions, in
government activities, but basically ours is a free enterprise philosophy.
And these forces of change must be able to play freely.
VU ith these principles 4n mind, we have been conscious as a
government that, nevertheless, there are heavy responsibilities on us to
ensure that the impact of technological change is made in the right places
with benefit to all, and as far as that is humanly practicable, with hurt to
none. We cannot discipline the fact of these changes in an absolute way,
but we can give some direction to the course they take, and wie can help to
co-crd mnate some of the national responses which have to follow.
The government has done much; it cannot and should not be
expected to do everything. There is a matching responsibility on industry
to make this technological revolution peaceful and productive. The govern ment
can take limited initiatives in education, in research, in the promotion of
essential partnerships with others, in the exchange of knowledge, and in the
marshalling of capital. Beyond that it is essential for industry to play a
full part, and this is one that must enlarge rapidly in the year ahead.
Australia has a small population as great countries go, and we
do not claim yet to be a great country, although in some directions we not
only aspire to greatness, but we feel that we have achieved greatness. We
have a vast continent with this small population, a continent approximately
the size of the United States, if the Alaskans will excuse me once again for
leaving them out of the picture. And Australia should, if we are to take the
long-sighted view, broad and statesmanlike view, we should welcome / 2
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automation with open a rns, because it is through technological ipoeet
through automation, that we can enable this small population to achieve things
which otherwise would only be possible in a country with many times the numbers
that we possess. And we have not waited for others to do this job for us.
We are not a spendthrift nation, we devote nearly 30 per cent
of our gross national product to capital investment. In a guest of honour
broadcast during his visit to Australia, Admiral McDonald, the United States
Chief of Naval Operations, A ustralia, pointed out that our capital investment,
as a proportion of our gross national product, is more than one and a half
times the rate of investment in the United States of A merica, or of Great
Britain. Vle ra. L, I believe, second only to Japan.
We have something of a dilemma here, because wie are at the
same time proceeding with a programme of large scale immigration, and
if immigration is to be successful, then you must have job opportunities quickly
and plentifully available for those whom you attract to the country, But I
think it says something for the skill with which these matters have been
handled and I am not speaking now merely of governments, but of the
community as a whole that thinughout this quite lengthy period, running now
to just on twenty years of large-scale immigration Australia has been able
to maintain a level of sustained high employment which is not surpassed, I
believe, by any other country In the viorld.
. e have achieved this to a degree as a result of the contact and
co-operation which Australian governments have been able to maintain with
industry. We do conduct regular consultations on a basis of consultation
early in the year, and then just before the Budget session, with representative
spokesmen of industry. But these are quite apart from the multitude of ad hoc
consultations that go on through the year. We have regular discussions, in
particular through the Department of Labour and National Service, with the
organised trade union movement.
And I think that assisting all of this is the Australian temperament
and character. ' Vie, as visitors to Australia will find, a friendly people. Vhle
like to get on well with others, we like to get on well with each other. And in
particular, we like to do what we can for those who are finding the going tough,
or who have their problems, in our community This has contributed
enormously to the success of the immigration programme.
Wle have each year a Citizenship Convention to which we invite
representatives from all sections of the community life; not merely trade and
industry, and the trade union movement, but social orginisations, religious
bodies, the whole gamut virtually, of the Australian community existence.
And through the year, quite apart from these regular gatherings, which occur
annually, there is the work of the Good Neighbour movement in each community,
helping us to assimilate the new settlers who come to live with us.
PAIRTNERSHIPS
So far as government is concerned, we try to maintain a threeway
partnership, with management and with those whom they employ. The
relationships I believe are good, and are steadily improving. For particular
problems which arise, we do have certain ad hoc groups, wihich are able to
take charge of the si tuation in respect of some innovation, some technological
innovation, which could otherwise be disruptive, both of good relations and the
employment situation. / 3
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have been able to go through these processes of change
with remarkably little dislocation. In my own time as Minister for Labour,
the considerable mechanisation that went on in t. he coal-mining industry
pnxluced a displacement of labour, but the problems were minimised by
consultation with owners and miners, and the industry has had a better
industrial record since those days, than it had before.
V~ e have other examples which perhaps I could mention; the
extensive use of computers, in particular in the insurance industry,, The
displacement of clerical labour which this has produced in some areas has
gone by with again remarkably little dislocation. Automatic control
mechanisms in important industries, such as the steel Industries, the
petroleum industry; the growing degree of mechanisation and automation in
the automotive industries; the significant part these modern processes are
playing in the development of our oil resources and will be, with our natural
gas; the problem with which we are grappling at the present time of
container is ation on the waterfront; the introduction of mechanical cane cutting,
and in particular of bulk sugar loading in Queensland, which I recall vividly
from my own days as Minister, and which confronted us with problems of the
re-absorption of labour displaced on the waterfront.
All these are examples of technological change, and the way in
which we, with our small population, are trying to make the most in terms
of production of the resources we have.
VWe have shown our concern for human relations in industry in
a considerable variety of ways. W e played a proni not part, for example, in
the establishment of the Duke of Edinburgh Study Conference on industrial
relations, and the next conference s to be held in Australia in 1.968. VWhen
it came to the establishment of Churchill Scholarships, Australia proved to
be the highest contributor per capita of any country invited to join in that
particular scheme. There has always been much emphasis given to industrial
relations In Australia. It has had a political content, of course, because
both sides of politics have given a great deal of their attention to industrial
relations issues, but quite apart from that there has been this feeling that
the worker in his job is entitled from the egalitarian approach that Australians
bring to their community life, a fair deal, a fair go, and he enjoys one of the
highest standards of living in the world as a result.
Our arbitration system involved us in a good deal of pioneering
in this field. It had its critics those who preferred collective bargaining;
those who felt that management could be best left to work out its problems with
its own employees, and while we do not ignore the important place which
management must still play in direct personal industrial relations with those
whom it engages, the Australian arbitration system has brought confidence to
the wage-earner that his conditions would be reasonable, and that there would
be a fair remuneration for the contribution he makes to the industry in which
he is involved. ' Lie have been gratified to find that, increasi ngly over recent
years, there have been studies made from the United Kingdom and the United
States of the way in which we handle these matters. I could speak also of the
concern we have exhibited to ensure that those who have special problems,
the disabled, the returned servicemen, the children of servicemen who are
given such generous and thoughtful treatment by Legacy and the Returned / 4
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Soliers' League all these are illustrations of the emphasis which we place
in Australia upon good human relations, and then in turn relate those to the
problems of our technology.
It has been said that we are missing the bus in the technological
sense, that we are depending too much on imported knowledge. This simply
is not true. My government has cast a very wide net indeed here and in all1
the significant centres of technological activity abroad, to ensure that we are
up to date in our knowledge. It is right to say, of course, that we have
imported know-how from other countries. But i s this wrong? Does it not make
good sense, while going on as best we can within the limits of our own
resources with research and development activity, that we should turn to the
very much more extensive research of which countries with very much larger
populations, the United States, with 193 millions, the United Kingdom, with
more than 510 millions, Japan getting up to the 90 million mark, or thereabouts,
that they are able to make in their own industries?
Australia has benefited from this activity, which others have
carried out. It makes sense for us to learn all we can from others, and to
use the superior skills that are thus produced, where they can be made available
for us. Wle are acquiring new skills all the time, and building up a formidable
sum of experience. The benefit of this experience can be rated in terms of the
per capita production measured by our gross national product. For example,
India, with ' 2times our population, can point to only twice the size of our
gross national product; Indonesia, with nine times our population, has only
a third of Australia's gross national product, and this, of course, is one of
the principal factors why Australia counts as a trad ing nation, and a factor in
the world, despite the comparative smallness of our population.
We have tariffs to protect Australian industry, but we do not
propose to impose tariffs on ideas. L. nation which is wrapped up in itself
makes a very small parcel indeed. That is why, as I said earlier, we welcome
the results, fruits of research and better techniques which come to us from
other countries. Vie are, in relation to our population and resources, doing
well, and man for man, project for project, we believe we are measuring
up in skills and knowledge to the efforts of other countries of greater size and
greater wealth. This does not mean that we cannot do more, and I do not wish to
introduce any note of complacency. -% We must do more; the pace quickens, and
the demands on us as one of the affluent societies must inc~~ ase as we live
more intimately with our Asian and our Pacific environment.
THE NATIONAL RECORD
Lot us look briefly at what we are doing. Take education.
The roots of our technological activity are, of course, in our educational
system. The States are primarily responsible for education, but the Commonwealth
Government is taking an incteasing interest and giving greater financial
help in areas which are complementary to their systems.
VWe have recognised the significance of education in the
technological age, by appointing a Minister for Education and Science. He is
a member of the Cabinet, and he directs a newly-created department but,
of course, our efforts began long before that.
We have, over a period of years, encouraged and aided the
States to build new universities, some like Monash in this city with a bias
towards technology. If I could give you just a few examples. Eleven colleges
of advanced education received interim capital grants up to December 31st,
1966. In the 196T-6 triennium, 3.0 colleges of advanced education are to.
receive capital and recurrent grants, and in addition, 12 are to receive
recurrent grants only. Altogether 163 technical colleges have received grants
under the Federal Government scheme.
Practically every State secondary school in Australia in which
science is taught has received some science teaching apparatus under the
Federal Government scheme. At 28.5 State schools throughout Australia science
laboratories are either completed or under construction. So far, 400 independent
schools have benefited from the scheme, the degree of benefit varying from the
building of multi laboratory science blocks, to the provision of apparatus for one
laboratory. We have made possible the introduction of a new area of
tertiary education, complementary to our universities, and are helping the
States to develop this system so that there is a general extension of standards
and greater opportunities for young people to have higher education. W~ e have
given Federal aid to science blocks in denominational schools, and inct'eased
the number of scholarships for secondary students, with special provision for
technological students. Vil'e have increased taxation concessions in the education
field. These have a significant bearing on the end product of technological
development, and are vital to the further research which has to be undertaken.
In the field of research, through the Ministry of Supply, the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and other
agencies are active in many fields, and getting sound results. 1 do not think
the average Australian realises how much we have done. In recent months, we
have taken a fresh look at the needs of industry, to see where we could help, and
the government recently announced an incentive scheme for financial help in
research by companies in the manufacturing and mining industries. This, we
felt, is the best way to give top management the encouragement to test new
ideas, and to give full rein to the enquiring minds of our young technologists
in industry. Recently I opened a new tracking station at Honeysuckle
Creek, not far from Canberra. This station is one of the latest examples of
the application of our technological skills, in the assembly of a highly complicated
apparatus needed for tracking satellites Mn outer space. It was specially
established for the United States, and in co-operation with them, as part of
the facilities required to service the planned attempt to land men on the moon
in the 1970' s. It may interest you to know that on the Apollo project, there
are three stations which will be assisting in this tracking; one in the United
States, one in Spain and the third here in Australia. Al1together this is the
sixth tracking station here in Australia, and It is just ten years since we
established the first of them, during the 1957 international geophysical year.
They are all operating now. They are to be found at
Garnarvon, in Western Australia, Cooby Creek in Queensland, Y! oomera in
South Australia, and at Tidbinbilla, Ororral Valley, and Honeysucle Greek
in the Australian Capital Territory. These stations make up the largest
complex outside the United States to be directly involved 4n that country's space
programme. / 6
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And quite apart from the practical function they perform in
space flights, they represent a place for us in modern technology in an
advanced form. Weget a rub-off, as so many of you around this room will
know, in specialist technical fields. They reflect our capacity to hold our
own in skills and knowledge with nations greater in wealth and size.
More and more men and women are being trained Australia
to handle complicated equipment associated with space technology, and their
experience is spreading through the services of the Government, as w'ell
as through industry. W, e have already had, for example, the first telecast between
Britain and Australia by way of satellites in outer space, and by the same
process, will see the events of Australia's special day at Canada's Centenary
Celebrations in Montreal next month. In Australia today, 95 per cent of the
nation's population is within reach of telecasting.
W. ke have our scientists and explorers in the Antarctic and they
have kept us well in the van of research and development in that area. We
have established a place in the front rank of world astronomy, and we are
adding to the facilities we already have at Mount Stromlo and at the Radio
Telescope Centre at Parkes by deciding in partnership with Britain to set up
a new 15C inch optical telescope at Siding Springs in New South '!' ales. This
w Ml be the largest in the southern hemisphere and the second largest in the
world. WThen I run through lists of these achievements and these are
just a few examples one can talk of what we are doing at 1' oomera with the
development of the special weapons there, like Ikara and Malkara and others
of that sort I do not find myself counting any years that the locust has eaten.
But there is more to be done.
If we leave space for a moment, and the other examples I have
given, and go to the other extine, that is to the wealth of our natural
resources in the hard earth of this ancient continent, we find that here too the
technologists have blazed new trails in the past decade. This -is where we
have had some of our most spectacular successas in national development,
and inevitably the demand for skilled manpower has increased heavily.
You all know of the discoveries that have been made in the iron
ore country in the west and north west of the continent, and of the millions
of tons which lie there to be exploited to enrich the nation, and of the bauxite
and manganese that is now being taken from the gulf country. In these
remote areas, all the skills of the scientists and technologists are required,
because the areas are thirsty lands, uninhabited for the most part, and
lacking ports and sources of fuel and power.
Yet the challenge has been taken up, settlements are developing,
and now ports are being established on barren coasts. The petroleum search
in this country vmhich began in earnest twenty years ago, i5s havi~ ng its
first successes. VWe now have commercial oilfields in Queensland and
Western Australia, and while they provide only a fraction of our needs, they
may well be seen as signposts to further discoveries.
In recent years too, there have been some important inland
gas strikes in C%; ueensland, South Australia, Wlestern Australia and Northern
Territory. Last year we had the drambitic discovery of substantial gas / 7
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flows from the three offshore wells on the Gippsland shelf in Victoria.
This has opened up a new phase in petroleum exploration, and has provided
a new challenge to the technologists to handle the complicated task of
extracting gas from below the seas and bringing it to your home and mine,
and to the industries of this country.
The more I look at these events, and over the wi'de sweep of
national development, the more I realise that the needs for the future are
not only in skilled manpower and in sane co-operative huiman industrial
relations, but capital requirements, in new techniques and at all levels
of management, if we are to secure maximum results.
The extent to which overseas capital is being applied to our
affairs is a subject of regular and continuing controversy. It is only fair
to say, though, that the initial impetus to the development of some of our
new -found mineral resources would not have come, had A ustralian industry
not had access to substantial quantities of overseas capital. just on
per cent, certainly 85 to 90 per cent of our investment in Australia, comes
from our own sources, and that extra 1C to 15 per cent has had a great
value for us. Ike have got off to a good start, but it is important to spell out
once again some principles which the government regards Is of first
importance. I could summarise them best this way.
W7-e will continue to need overseas capital, and we will need to
have it in a regular and substant-al way. just on 90 per cent of it has come
to us from the United Kingdom and the United States, and both tbose countries
at the present time have found it necessary to impose some restraints on
their capital inflow. We have seen this reflected in a good trading year in
the drop in our overseas reserves, because the capital inflow has fallen
sharply below that of the year before.
We have an obligation as a government, and you have an
obligation as leaders in industry, to ensure that where practicable an
Australian equity is established. And I am glad to say that this attitude of
ours is becoming increasingly appreciated by those who bring their capital,
their skills, and accept ti-e hazards of investment here in Australia.
In the last few weeks the government has announced a plan,
drawn up in association with the private banks, to help industry finance
major capital works. Most of the capital will be generated within Australia.
Overseas capital will also have its own useful place. Thi s is one of the
measures which the government has been considering for a long time, to
ensure that we have sufficient funds to develop our resources and to have an
Australian participation in their ownership.
The government certainly does not want to discourage overseas
capital, but it is deeply conscious of the anxieties that hate been expressed
in the past, and my Government will do what needs to be done to ensure that
there is no wastage of an Australian entitlement to our vast natural resources.
THREE POINTS TO NOTE
There are some points I would like to make by wvay of
conclusion, which I feel are important, as you discuss the application of
technological changes to our society.
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The first is the need to know. By this I mean that a government's
readiness to help in the technological fedand to assist in the translation of
new methods into our society, can be effective only if governments and
industry are clear about what they want to do and where they are going.
It is, for instance, no good giving lip service to our drive for
new markets, unless exporters are ready to try their products in these
markets, instead of waiting . unil the other fellow has opened the door. The
same applies in the technological field.
The second point is readiness to venture It is not in anybody's
interest to hold back until a government umbreba7 is spread over a new
enterprise to protect it from all risk. By the same token, I think that the
Australian entrepreneur can take some stimulus and encouragement from the
way in which others with capital to invest from oversea-s have taken on
difficult projects, even with hazardous or dubious prospects, and shown that
there are opportunities here and Jif we show the enterprise to take advantage
of them. I do not say that the Government never opens an umbrella over
industry. It has very special respons Jbili11ties. For example, in the
preservation of an effective tariff system. It also has responsibilities for
subsidies in specific areas, and for wide-ranging incentives, not only by
direct grants, but by taxation concessions and other methods. But there
remains always a large area of self help, and this is not only an industry
responsibility, but an individual responsibility.
The third point is the level and competence of top management
and this goes for governments, mine included, as well as frindustry. There
are unexploited opportunities here and I am glad that this is implied in your
selection of subjects for discussion. There is a growing sophistication in
our industry; this is amply demonstrated in so many ways and Jit is important
that top management should have the appropriate qualifications to deal with
it. I feel our universities and our industrialists can, together, do a
great deal to secure this objective. It would be fatal to all we seek to do if
there were a " brain drain" from this country at a time when we need the skills
of the technologists and the competence of management most. Fortunately,
at the present time Australia is attracting more scientists than she is losing.
There is one final word. I have recently been int.,. sia for the
third time as Frime Minister. This is our region of special interest and for
more than a quarter of a century we have been giving technical aid both in
manpower and materials to the underdeveloped countries. Under the Golombo
Plan we have given, in technical assistance ( as distinct from economic
assistance), something like $ 0million to African and Asian countries.
Through SEATO we have given over $ 14 million, mainly in the technical
field, and through a number of other agencies, bilateral and multilateral, we
have contributed sevec-al more millions.
This may not be large when matched against the total need but
this direct help is continuing and J ncteasing and stands as a constant reminder
that our technological assets are suff iciently high for us to be able to export
them to needy countries. Is there any better bridge between humanity and
technology, than this? Is there any better service to the nation?