0
OPENING OF BUILDING CLENTRE
NEWCASTLE, N. S. d. 1st September, 1967
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. Holt
Mr. Pinfold, President of' the Newcastle Master
Builders' Association,
YMy Lord M1, ayor,
1-r . President of' the Senate,
Parliamentary Colleagues, I see them around me, and
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I feel it a very happy coincidence that my visit
here for the opening of' your Festival should also have
enabled me to join with you in this very significant function
here this afternoon. It is typical of' the enterprise which
has brought Niew. castle to the position of' being sixth largest
urban area in Australia, only surpassed by five of the capital
cities of the Commonwealth, that you've again demonstrated a
sign of your enterprise in this fine building and the admirable
community purpose that it will assist in serving.
Home-building for Australia is, of course, one of'
our most vital activities, not only be:-cause we are a homeloving
people but there is no community in the world which
can point to a higher percentage of home ownership than is
to be found here in Australia. Seventy per cent of the
dwelling units occupied in Australia are occupied by people
who are either owners of them or are in process of acquiring
them as they pay off what is due on them. And that puts us
in the forefront of all the countries of the world in this
connection.
0 of accommodWNae tiaolsno ofe njanoyy tchoeu nthriyg hefsotr wshtiacnhd arrde coorf dsa vacialn abbielity
ascertained and we have a rather higher rate of population
growth than most of the other industrialised communities of
the world. Indeed, if the United Stateu or the United Kingdom
were to be required to build houses on the scale that our
population rate growth makes necessary, it would be found
necessary in the United States to build another half million
homes a year and in the United Kingdom another 180,000 homes
a year. This will be an indication, I am sure, to us all that
we do require a great proportion of our national resources,
our manpower, our skills in order to carry out our home-building
programme required by our growing population.
Currently homes are being built at an annual rate
of 115,000 homes. Jow it is not merely desirable that homes
should be built, it is no less desirable that they should be
built to serve those who occupy them with comfort and
convenience in pleasant surroundings at economic cost and with
good standards of materials and construction. This, of course,
is where your own Home-Building Information Centre can make
such an imp~ rtant contribution.
I am sure that many citizens of this growing city
of Newcastle, one of the most rapidly growing urban communities
of the C." ommonwealth, will take value and assistance from the
service which this Building Centre can provide. I hope that
the achievements of the building industry already well
exemplified in this city will be added to usefully by the
service that this centre can provide. In the knowledge
that it will bring an important amenity, an important
additional information service to the people of this city I
congratulate you, Mr. President, and your colleagues on what
you are doing in the way of a public-spirited contribution
of this kind and I hope that for many years this information
centre on building will serve the citizens of Newcastle, as
indeed it serves the larger interest of the Australian nation.
And so, Sir, it is with pleasure that I have accepted
your invitation to be here formally to declare this building
open and I hope that I shall successfully execute my formal
undertaking of unveiling the plaque and of opening the door
to the building, opening the door to the centre.
I now formally declare the building centre of
Newcastle, New South Wales, officially open and congratulate
the Raster Builders' Association on its construction.