0. INAUGURATION OF LONSDALE PLANT OF CHRYSLER.
AUSTRALIA LIMITED
71 % FRCa ? a LONSDALE, SOUThi AUSTRALIA
., 1967oy 3RD NOVEMBER, 1967
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt
Mr and Mrs Brown, Mr and Mrs Boyd, Mr Premier and Mrs Dunstan,
Ministers , Members of Parliament, Leader of the, Qpposition, Mr Mayor,
and the very many other Distinguished Guests around me, and those
associated with the Chrysler Plant, Ladies and Gentlemen ( if I haven ' t
already covered you, and good afternoon to you all:
I don't know that I can classify what I am about to say, in
the terms of Mr Greig, as an inaugural address, but I assure you it does
givye me a very special pleasure to be here and to welcome the formal.
addition tb the armoury of Australian industrial assets, represented by.
these amazingly fine plants that we have visited at the Chrysler Lonsdale
establishment. Before I comment in a little detail on one or two aspects of
today's ceremony, could I just make a few personal references perso~ al
references not of a parliamentary kind, I assure you, but of a friendly:
kind because this must be a very proud day in the life of Mr David Brown.
And we are sharing his sense of pride and pleasure and achievement whtch
must represent for him the result of a great deal of painstaking work, a
great deal of courage and a great deal of applied effort and skill.
We welcome Mr and Mrs Boyd. We were told that this Ip the
first time that a President of Chrysler had visited Australia. Australia s
having an increasing run of visits from Presidents, whether they be hea~ s
of state or heads of great corporations In various parts of the world.
I think this, too, is an indication of the growing significance our country
possesses in the eyes of the rest of the world. So we particularly welcome
the head of this great motor organisation, one of the bigthree of the United
States of America, and now one of the big three in our own country's
automotive industry. I should not pass from personal references without saying
how pleased I have been as I am sure so many of you are in this room
to see with us, rather heavily disguised, our old friend, Fergy. When
I first caught a glimpse of him this afternoon, I thought he was Australia's
answer to the late Ernest Hemingway, but still, one can't mistake him, as
you see those gleaming, sparkling eyes, and those of us who have knowrq
over the years the contribution he has made to the pioneering efforts of
Chrysler Dodge in Australia applaud him and welcome him here on this
occasion. I did learn that the Chrysler Corporation had here with
us a public relations counsel by the name of Ford. Well, now, I don't
know whether that shows how big-hearted or how confident they are perhaps
I should say how valiant they are, but If Mr Ford has any spare time over
the next few weeks, I would be very glad to consult with him. I think I may
need him. I confess I was rather prompted to develop this thought because
as I looked across here, I saw a handsome vehicle which was marked
" VIP Safari". I hasten to assure you it was no addition to the Commonwealth
fleet. / 2
2-
But, ladies and gentlemen, this Is a great moment In the
history of this State, and It is a very welcome occasion in the history of
the economic and Industrial growth of Australia. It Is, I assure you, for
me a stirring experience to go around this country as your Prime Minister
and see In all parts of Australia In one form or another, whether It Is
some vast mineral project, whether It Is a new water project, whether It
Is a great Industrial development, whatever form it takes, this addition to
Australia's developmental strength and our industrial growth. I hope that
we can all take an Australian view of these developments, wherever they
occur, because I emphasise that wherever they occur, they benefit fellow
Australians wherever those fellow Australians may be.
If there is prosperity through Hamersley, or through the
Ord or through the alumina plant at Gladstone, or from whatever other
cause, then tkhis Is a prosperity which will tend to spread through to
organisations such as this. If people have the means, they will be looking
for the amenities, and already in Australia we have shown our appreciation
and the value we place upon our automotive industry by the fact that we
rank now, I am assured by those who study these things closely, second
only to the United States of America in the availability of motor vehicles per
head of the popu lation. And the automotive industry has become the largest
employer of labour In the nation. It particularly typifies the po st-war
industrial growth of Australia because It contains those elements of growth
which are a peculiar feature of the post-war period.
First of all, it is a new Industry for this country. Secondly,
It absorbs a very considerable proportion of the labour of migrants who come
to Australia, more, I think, than any other industry in the Commonwealth.
And thirdly, it has brought us the benefit of capital, of technological skill,
of experience, from those who have developed these things abroad. Mr Boyd
has spoken of the many millions of dollars of Investment from his company
here, but they have also brought skills here and the value to Australia Is.
almost incalculable from what has developed out of the automotive industry
In this country. Now I know there Is always a disposition on the part of some
to cast a critical eye over foreign Investment in Australia. I have never had
that critical view myself because the advantages have always seemed to me
to so vastly outweigh any disadvantages that in a young, developing country
we had to welcome the capital, just as we had to welcome people to develop
our population, and we had to welcome the technical skills which would help
to make this country strong. And even where these enterprises have been
completely owned from overseas, I have recognised an Australian equity
existing In them, because if they are profitable, we take 421 per cent of
profits by way of tax. From what is left, a great deal of it Is ploughed back
Into further development and therefore further Australian emnp loyment, a~ nd
If some sums are remitted overseas, then we take a further tax, usually
of the order of 15 per cent on whatever is remitted overseas. We derive
revenues from the employment that is given, just as Australians derive
welfare from the fact of this employment and the incomes that come Into
Australian households. Then, In addition to this, has anybody ever tired to calculate
the secondary effects generated through the economy by a vast organisation
such as this, the demands upon other suppliers, the sub-contractors, the
orders for steel, for cement, for a whole variety of components that go into
the making first of the factory establishment, and then of the car itself.
And so we have been particularly well served by this particular foarm of
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investment here in Australia. But Chrysler, In the words of Mr Boyd, has gone one
better. It has assured us thait quite apart from any general Australian
equity we may derive from these activities, special arrangements are being
made so that there shall be a direct Australian participation in the shareholding
of the organisation. And we welcome that.
He has also told us two other things which are very
welcome to me. One Is that there is a growing export trade from the
products ot this company, thereby helping to earn valuable foreign exchange
for Australia, I was here, as Mr Brown will recall, when you celebrated
the production of your 50, 000th Valiant and the 5, 000th export at that time.
Now you have swollen the volume of export very considerably and we are
told today of the arrangements which have been made by the American
principals to see that Australia Is to have an export opportunity outside this
country, and through the rest of Oceania, through Asia, through Africa,
and through what Mr Boyd describes as our Far EFast, but which will be known
to m ost of us as our Near North. I am afraid if we were exporting to the
Far East, we would be invading his market In the United States, and that
wouldn't do. But we in Australia have had to come to the realisation over
recent years that what has in the past familiarly been regarded by others,
and even here, as the Far East, is for us our very Near North, and he
opens up for us great opportunities therefore for an expanding export trade.
It Is a matter for pride for all of us that Australian workmanship, that
Australian skills and the finish to the car itself, can obtain for it a place
in markets beyond this country.
Now, Mr Premier, you in this State have a disadvantage
compared with some of the other States of the Commonwealth. The resources
you have been able to turn up of a natural kind tend to be rather more limited
than In some of the more favoured States. But South Australia has done*
well in this important respect. You have attracted Industry here because
of the quality of your work-force, the industrial stability which this workforce
has demonstrated, by the stability generally and good sense which
have been displayed by the people of this State. I know this has made a
particular impression upon Mr Boyd and I have heard other visiting
industrialists comment on it. While South Australia can go on contributing
that special quality to Its attrectiveness, I do not question that Its own
industrial development will grow apace.
In speaking of the work-force, what has struck me,
as a former Minister for Labour several years ago, Is the improvement
made in foundry production compared with the darker and less satisfactory
days of an earlier time. The working conditions here are a matter for
congratulation. They demonstrate that not only have we made technical
progress and achieved greater efficiency, but in that progress we have
greatly improved the working conditions of those wiho take part in the
enterprise. For all these things, Mr Boyd and MW Brown, you are
to be congratulated. In formally declaring this Lonsdale Plant open, I convey
to you on behalf of my colleagues of the Government my own personal good
wishes, every wish that you w1, ill continue to pros per and that you will be a
permanent element in a growing and increasingly prosperous Australian
automotive industry. Good luck to Chrysler. May the Valiants be a symbol
of your courage, your farsightedness and the speed of your progress in the
future.