OPENING OF JOHN McEWEN HOUSE
CANBERRA, A. CT.
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr John Gorton 4 NOVEMBER 1968
Mr Chairman, Mr Moss, John McEwen and Ladies and Gentlemen
present: My task this afternoon is, I am told, to open the building
officially, and I was told that I would be presented with a gold key
when I arrived so that I could do it, but Mr Moss being a rather
canny type of man, as I know from old, hasn't yet given it to me.
I am putting him on warning that I will need it I don't mean to
keep; I just mean to open the building.
It is a compliment to me to be asked on this occasion
to open this door, and it is a compliment for two reasons. Firstly,
because this building is named after a man who has given to the
national Parliament thirty-four years of service, a longer time than
any sitting member except one has spent in the Federal Parliament.
During that time, he has filled many important posts,
becoming Deputy Leader of the Country Party in, I think, 1943, and
Leadet in 1958, and who during the time he has filled those posts,
has become known, I believe to all Australians of whatever political
colour they may be, as one of the outstanding negotiators overseas
for Australian products and the sale of Australian products and the
arranging of agreements with other countries, all to the benefit
of the producers of Australia.
He has been Prime Minister. I think perhaps the only
significant post he hasn't filled is that of External Affairs, and I
am not at all sure that at some stage he might not have acted there.
( Mr McEwen " I was Minister") You were Minister. All, right
that's a full hand,
He also has, during that period of time, become known
to those of us closer to him not only as a highly successful farmer
and practical farmer, but as a first-class colleague and a man to be
trusted as a colleague, and as a great Australian.
And so this house is named after him and in his honour.
This is the first reason why I regard it as such a compliment to me
to open it today. But there are other reasons. For some eighteen years
now, the Liberal not Conservative but Liberal and Country Party
coalition has given to Australia, I believe, enlightened government
and government which has enabled progress, such as has not been
seen in this nation before, to take place, a government which has
taken account of the needs and aspirations of the individual citizens
who make up the country.
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Now it is not to be-supposed that-in that-period of eighteen
years or in any other period of years there will not, from time to time,
arise problems on which, in a coalition government, part of the
government may have one view and part of the government may have
another. This may inevitably occur in coalition governments, but given
good will, given a discussion of these matters not on a caucus basis, but
on a basis of individuals sitting around a table and expressing their
judgmnents, th en these difficulties can be overcome.
This. is unusual, I think, and it is a tribute to John McEwen, to
the previous leaders of the Country Party, to the previous leaders of the
Liberal Party that this has operated in this way and that both leaders and
both parties have put what they believed to be the good of their country before
their immediate aims on such occasions as any disagreement might arise.
This is a way a joint government works, must wort-and will continue to
work, given such men as have led our party and as have led the Country
Party. After all, as I have just pointed out, there are a number of
matters we have got in common. Mr Anthony said how the Country Party
was dedicated to fighting for producers, not only producers of butter or
wool or wheat, but also producers of machinery or oil or things from
factories. Well that makes two parties dedicated to those ends, and with
both of us on their side, they ought to get along all right! We have got
that in common.* If the past is a prelude to the future, and I believe it is, then
as a Liberal Prime Minister, it is good for me, and pleasing to me, to
stand here to open this building, symbolising such a long and such a
successful and such a progressive partnership and indicating that for the
future what I believe will happen will happen . that that partnership
will go on in the same way to the benefit of this nation of Australia.
That does not mean that we both won't from time to time be contesting
various seats against each other, but at least we will be contesting them
with the same ultimate objective in mind and seeking to attain ultimately
the same goal. That is the cement that h~ as bound us together and will
continue to bind us together while we have such men as Sir Artrhur Fadden
or John McEwen or Sir Robert Menzies or Mr Holt leading the sections of
this coalition government which, starting as two sections, has become a
whole, and I believe a whole for the good of this nation.