EMBARGO NOT FOR RELEASIEPBEFORE 7.15 PNJ0-"
Senate Election 1967
FINAL MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER
( MR HAROLD HOLT)
22ND NOVEMIBER, 1967
( This final message will be broadcast and telecast nationally this evening.
The ABC will broadcast the talk at 7.15 pm ( EST) and the telecast will be
at 8.30 pm local time))
This is my last opportunity to speak directly to you all before
you vote on Sattirday. So I would like to sum up this Senate campaign as
I see it. You will all know by now that this is not an election to choose a
government. YVou exercised that choice a year ago and your answer was
decisively In my Government's favour. On Saturday, your responsibility
is to elect thirty Senators five from each State and therefore I ask you
by your vote to give us the majority we need In the Senate. You can do this
by electing a majority of Government Senators In each of the six States.
The tirst and most obvious reason for doing this is that we cannot
have the most effective administration If a Government with a big majority
In the House of Representatives the popular House-lacks a majority in
the Senate. If you ask why, the answer may be stated quite simply.
Although the Senate Is intended to function as a House safeguarding State
interests and as a House of Review, It acts so far as the ALP is concerned
as a party House with a regimented vote.
I should also point out that the Senate is always fairly close to
being evenly divided because it is elected by the proportional system of
voting. That Is an additional reason why I ask for a solid Government vote
in all States. Effective government Is, of course, obviously necessary, but let
me put to you an even more important reason why I ask for your Senate
votes. I am not simply asking you to reaffirm what you said a year ago.
I put the matter with more urgency than that. All of us in the Government
would welcome from you today a repudiation of what the policy-makers of
the Labor Party decided in-Adlaide in July. The Federal Parliamentary
Labor Party Is under direction from the Federal Conference of the ALP to
advocate withdrawal of our armed forces from Viet Nam If the United States
does not bow to the Labor Party's demands.
This is serious enough, but more serious, I suggest, Is the
attitude now taken up by the Leader of the Opposition. His interpretation
of his Federal Conference's binding decision must alarm all thoughtful
Australians. We can only read Into his devious explanations his demand
for cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam and for converting the
conflict into a ' holding operation' that the communists of North Viet Nam
should have unopposed access to the South with no restraint on their
capacity to carry the war to our own troops and those of our allies, and
that our Australian troops and the Americans should merely sit down and try to
defend themselves. We are then told that If these courses are not followed,
a Labor Government would pull out our troops. e e. e / 2
-2
The Leader of the Opposition puts forward neither a military nor
a political solution. He talks about my Government encouraging escalation
of the war, yet a plain man's view must be that he is encouraging defeat.
Let us not make any mistake about the significance of Labor's
policy on Viet Nam. This policy, and all it implies, should be understood
by e very Australian as It will be understood by our friends and allies. The
Federal Conference of the Labor Party has refused to accept the nation's
verdict on Viet Nam and external security. It has contemptuously rejected
the electorate's decision a decision reached only seven months before the
Conference met and has threatened to break with the United States on
South-East Asian policy. Anyone would be blind who cannot see this.
The Leader of the Opposition suggests that Issues that seemed
clear a year ago are not so clear now. They were never clear to the Labor
Party. As far as we are concerned, these things are very clear
That South Viet Nam has a right to choose its own way of life;
That a communist takeover in South-East Asia would be contrary
to the vital interests of Australia;
That our alliance with the United States must be preserved! and
That we want peace as much as the Labor Party says it wants
peace but we want peace on decent terms a just and
enduring peace.
The Leader of the Opposition has a taste for challenges these days.
Well, let him stand up in public and read in a loud, clear voice and without
running away from it, the actual resolution carried by the Federal ALP
Conference in Adelaide. It has been hailed by Mr Arthur Galwell, and other
leading Labor spokesmen. So why should Mr Whitlam be so elusive about
his party line? It is understandable, of course, that the Labor Party should, in
this campaign, be eager to talk about anything except the country's external
policy. But even when our opponents talk about the Australian scene it is all
sour grapes. You may recall that a few weeks ago the Opposition was very
peevish when we announced substantial financial help for the Ord River
project in Western Australia and the Nogoa Dam project In Queensland.
They were critical when we gave effect to our promises to provide an
additional $ 50 million for beef roads. They were peevish, incensed and
un happy because these decisions were welcomed by people directly affected
all over Australia. If you think our opponents' reluctance to be pleased by thes e
things Is rather childish, what about the story they have been telling you
about the state of the nation? When the Leader of the Opposition opened
his campaign on the night of November 13, you would have thought this
country was on its Last legs. He was brimming over with synthetic gloom.
He saw A ustralia as a backward, poverty-stricken, rejected country
and we the Government were cast in the role of the villains. That kind
of political childishness only highlights the truths about the P: ustralian scene
today. s.
3-
We are in an almost fantastic growth period and our economic
progress is remarkable by any standards. I would not be so fond or
foolish as to say that our governments since 1949 have been the magicians
who made all this possible. But I can fairly say that sound and stable
government has created the climate In which our national prosperity has
flourished. We enjoy one of the highest standards of living In the world
and there Is no limit to our potential if we go about this in the right way.
I say " in the right way" because the most sensible and practical
domestic programme designed to promote national growth and individual
welfare has little reality unless it Is set In the framework of a foreign
policy cementing our security. You can find plenty of shifting sand in
Labor's policy, but not much cement.
I said at the outset that we cannot have effective administration
unless the Government of the day In command of the popular House also has
a majority voice In rhe Senate.
That is a business-like reason for voting for the Government's
candidates on November
1 also put It to you that It would be bad for Australia to
record a vote which could be Interpreted at home and abroad as support
for the dangerous policy decisions taken by the Federal ALP Conference In
Adelaide. I end this message with the words I used In opening the
campaign what we plan for the well-being and security of Australia and
the development of our country must not be put at risk.