MOORABBIN LIBERAL PARTY BRANCH DINNER
TOWN HALL, MOORABBIN, VIC. V 28 ' FEBRUARY 1969
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr John Gorton
Mr Chairman, Mr Mayor, Mr Chipp, Distinguished Parliamentary
Colleagues, both Federal and State, and Ladies and Gentlemen
That is rather a hard introduction for me to live up to,
though at the beginning of this speech I would like to say that as long as
I am entrusted with the Prime Ministership of this country, I shall try to
live up to it, and I know I will be supported in that by such Members of
the Federal Parliament as your Member from Higinbotham in the past and
from Hotham in the future Don Chipp.
I came along tonight to have the opportunity to meet you.
I came along to have the opportunity to talk to you, most of you being
Liberals; the rest of you, undoubtedly, when you put your minds to it,
are going to become Liberals:'
I am touched and I think my wife is touched that so many
of you have come along tonight to see us, to hear us and to meet us.
Perhaps I should try to put before you some ideas of my own as to what
government is all about.
Every three years, one goes to the polls. Every three years
the television stations have proponents for this side or for that, and the
newspapers have people writing articles for this side or for that. The
public meetings to which nobody goes have people standing on platforms,
speaking for this side or for that, and occasionally when they do go to a
public meeting which is usually when a Prime Minister is there people
are trying to hit him on the head with a banner or to stop somebody hitting
him on the head with a banner.
This is just the outwa-rd show of what it is all about. What
really are the basic reasons for government? What do you really want to
get from the governments that you elect? What kind of advances do you
expect? What kind of Australia do you have in your minds not only for
yourselves, not mainly for yourselves, but for the children you have, and
in some cases, odd as it may seem because everybody here looks so young
the grandchildren you may have'?
I suppose and I do not put these in any order of priority but
just as they come to my mind that you would want to have in the nation of
Australia, a government which would try to see that every employable
person in Australia was employed, that there was no waste manpower,
that there was no person with skills and integrity and capacity who had to
sit at home and who was utnable to support his fa-mily because the economy
could not offer him work to do to further the country in which he li ved.
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I say this-with some feeling because I do remember when
I was young-there was a time when there were many many people in
Australia who were willing to work hard, who had the skills to contribute
to the building of a nation, who had to sit at home because it was said
" There is no chance to employ you because we haven't got enough money
to do it. I think one of the basic things a nation wants is to ensure that
every man who can contribute to the advance of that nation is given the
opportunity to contribute to it, and is paid according to his merits,
according to his capacity and according to his contribution.
I believe you would want to see more than that, more than
the mere chance of employment being offered. I believe that you would
want to see and if you wouldn't, you ought to want to see that not
merely employment but the opportunity for advancement according to
the talents of an individual is provided in a nation such as this. And
I do suggest that this has been done.
I do suggest that in the period of time during which the
Liberal Party has been in office and during which great leaders of the
Liberal Party have led this country, leaders in whose steps I follow but
whose stature I do not yet pretend to attain to during that period of
time, people who are willing to work have had employment opportunities
never offered before. They have had the opportunity to develop their
talents and to move upwards in a way this nation had never offered
previously. And this is one of the things that government is all about.
But there are other new problems crowding in upon us,
because we are in a way an adolescent nation. We are half-way between
the nation that we were in 1939, a junior nation and certainly between
1900 and 1939 a junior nation, a child, as it were, of the Mother
Country and half-way between that and the mighty nation which we
may be, if we properly judge, in fifty or one hundred years' time. In
that sense we are, I say, adolescent between the child stage and
between the world leader stage.
One of the things that is going to decide how in 50,
100 years' tine this turns out, is what we do now concerning the
investment and the ownership and the control of the industries of
Australia and the development of Australia.
It is true that no developing nation such as ours can
possibly attain, in the time in which it ought to attain, greatness unless
there is from outside great capital investment. I look backc to the United
States of America, which grew as quickly as it did only because of a
great flow of investment from outside. I wonder what the situation of
the United States of America would be now if those investments, which
developed so greatly, had not had to be sold off by Great Britain in the
First World War, and in the Second World War, in order to enable her
to play a leading part in protecting the freedom of the world, If this
had not happened, the investments that were made in that country in
the 1880' s and the 1890' s and the 1900' s would have grown to what
proportion now? How much of the proceeds of those investment, if
they had not had to be sold off, would now be flowing to Great Britain?
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I do not want to see indeed I will not see I do not want
to think of seeing in 50 or 60 or 100 years' time too much of the
proceeds of Australian raw materials, of Australian capacity, of
Australian initiative, flowing out of this country instead of remaining
in it. And yet, feeling that as deeply as I do, and kcnowing its
importance as I do, I also know that if we are to grow as quickly as
the world situation may require, if we are to bring into this country
the flow of migrants, the record flow of migrants this year, in order to
build our population as quickly as our future safety may require, then we
must have from overseas this capital investment.
So there is a balance, a steering of a course between
Scylla and Charybdis on one side, an absolute necessity, if we are to
grow as we must, for overseas capital investment on the other Bide
a requirement to see to the utmost of our capacity that such overseas
investment is married to an opportunity for Australian equity so that
our children shall participate in the growth that overseas investment
brings. This is another thing that government is all about. This is
another thing that people like Don Chipp and myself and the others that
you have elected are working at,. And before long, perhaps six weeks,
perhaps eight weeks, perhaps ten weeks, but before long, I believe that
we will have the chance to put before you a programme, a proposition
which will steer this course between these two in a sense, opposed,
desires. This is of the utmost importance for the future of this nation.
What else is government about? Well one thing, of course,
and this is, I think, the keystone and always has been of the Liberal
Party, is that we should seek to see that those who are old or ill or
aged or in some other way disadvantaged, or the victims of the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune, should be helped by those who are
more affluent. I do not mean that those who are not prepared to work
should be supported by those who are. I do not mean that there should
not be a requirement for people to make effort in order to get some
achievement or in order to be able to live and support their families.
But I do mean that when there is some great misfortune that falls upon
the people in our community, then the rest of the community should
see that that misfortune is overcome, and that that man on whom
misfortune falls, and his family, should be succoured by the rest of
the community. I think that during the period we have been in government
during the last twelve or fourteen months some considerable steps
have been taken in this direction. And I am certain that in the months
to come before the endi of the year, even greater steps will be made in
this direction. I believe that in a year we will be able to make the steps
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which will show that-Poverty-which-is not poverty because of the fault of
an individual, will be-able to be banished from our midst. Also that
the fear of long illness, which-has already been removed by what we
have done and therefore is no longer a significant. subject, but that the
fear of the difficulty of family illness will be able to be removed from the
Consciousness of Australians.
These, with many other matters of this kind which I can't
go into but education is one are what government is all about. But,
basically, if these things are to develop in a nation, there is one other
item which ought not to be a transcendant matter but which, in a way,
I think is, to which government must direct its attention. That is
defending the capacity to do those things of which I have in shorthand
been speaking to you. Because it is of little use to have a policy on
investment, and it is of little use to have a policy on trying to overcome
illness and poverty, and it is of little use to have a policy to advance
education or to make better roads unless one can be sure that in the
years ahead the people of Australia will themselves be able to develop
that policy freely and without some invading power telling them how to do
it. And so, although it should not be significant, and so
although it takes so much of ow production, yet if we are to be able,
as independent people, to decide what we want to do in these other
matters, then the capacity to defend our right to be able to do it without
coercion is perhaps transcendant.
He re we are a little isolated, because here, as I said the
other night in the House, an era has ended. Great Britain has gone from
our part of the world. The United States may not and I say no more
than may not be as interested as she was. So we, and the closest
countries to us in the region of Asia in which we live, must co-operate
and we, as the greatest technological power in the region, as the most
advanced industrial power in the region, must try to help the region
economically. We must try to help it in the way of trade, and must be
prepared to put into defence hardware, and into the manpower for
defence services, more than any of us would want to put, were it not
that we have to do it in order to retain the right of free choice as to
how we are to run our country.
Well, we in the Government have indicated how we pr~ opose
to do this. We have indicated the means of co-operation with our
neighbours. We have indicated that Australians, should there be
difficulty in the regions to our North, should there be an incursion of
communism there which may eventually threaten us, we have indicated
that in that case Australians will be there. This is one of the things
that government is all about.
I grew up in a time, you know, when Hitler was rising to
power in Europe, and in a time when there were many voices raised
saying " Do not oppose this man. His ideas may be wrong. His racial
desire to exterminate all Jews may be wrong. He may say he is going to
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conquer other countries, but that is just rodomontade for internal
consumpt:. n. Do not let us worry about this. And so country after
country fell under the control of a ruthless and authoritative power.
This made, perhaps, some impression on me. Not the imminent, but
the possible future threat, is in our part of the world. And as long as
we are in government, we are going to do our best to see that this threat
wil~ l be able to be resisted by Australians should it become imminent.
These are some of the matters with which you are concerned
and with which I am concerned. Others are to ensure that there is a
chance for personal choice, that there is no direction as to what a man
should or should not do or where he should or should not work or where
he should or should not invest his savings.
Last week: in the Parliament, quite clearly, there came out
some basic significant difference between the Government, which I lead,
and the Opposition which seeks to become the Government. Because
there is black and white was spelt out what in 1949 so many of us came in
to fight against. There it was stated by the Opposition should we
become a government, we will tell insurance companies, which are the
depositaries of the savings of the people; we will tell banks which are
the depositaries of the savings of the people, where they must and where
they must not invest those savings. And if they wish to invest them
in some development which will bring them in 6 per cent, and we, a
Labor Government, think they should invest them in somL-thing else which
will bring them in 2 per cent, then we will make them invest where
we want them to invest.
We do not say that. We say there must be a personal
choice by a man as to the job he will take, and a personal choice by the
man as to the investments he will make, and a personal choice by
companies as to where they will invest for the benefit of the shareholders
in those companies. This perhaps has more significance for the
development of a country than may at first appear.
I suppose in a way it is unusual it must be unusual that
one party which has been in government in this country for the last
twenty years, which is about a third of the time that Australia has been
a nation. It started in 1901. It is now 1969 all right 70 years. For
the last 20 years out of 70, one government has been running this
country. I doubt if this could be matched in any other country in the
world. One would have thought that in this period of time, tiredness
would have crept in, that there would have been a clinging to shibboleths
of the past, that something new would not have been developed by a
party which had been so long in power. This isn't so.
We are looking now to examine and we have been
publicly examining the sacred cows which since 1901 have for so
long been unquestioned. Dare I mention things like Commonwealth/ 6
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State relations, for-example,-and a number of other less controversial
subject$, all of which need to be looked at, and about none of which I
propose to enter into controversial discussion tonight.
This is not an indication of decadence; surely this is an
indication of a new approach. And may I suggest to you that it being
true that for 20 out of 70 years there has been this kind of government
in Australia, that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Look at
what has happened in those 20 years. Look at the development that has
taken place. Look at the increase in population that has taken place.
Look at the increase in employment that has taken place. Look at the
future that has opened up for this nation in that period of time, If the
proof of the pudding is in the eating, then the pudding that has been baked
in the last 20 years is good for the nation, and if it is good for this nation,
it is good for the world.
Sir, I have only one other thing to say, because I have been
speaking to a great degree, of the past. We really haven't started yet.
We are 12 million people now. We will be 28 million people by the turn
of the century, some 31 years, and that in the life of a nation is just the
blinki~ ng of an eye. ( Tape changeover brief section missing)
These are the goals which are attainable before us. On
the progress which has been made towards them, on your judgment of
the progress which has been made, I believe that the philosophy which
has made possible that progress is the philosophy which will make possible
the attainment of those goals. That will be done, but it will only be done
if the people of Australia, of whom you are a cross section, agree with
us that the ways in which we seek to attain these goals are the right ways,
and believe that we are genuine in seeking to attain them. If you did not
believe both these things, I do not think that you would be here tonight.
The fact that you are here tonight is of immense encouragement to me,
to Don Chipp and to those who stand with me.
I thank you for coming. We draw encouragement from your
coming, and I believe that the work which so many of you do will be to
the great benefit of this rising nation of the world.