REMARKS TO PRESS AT LIBERAL PARTY RALLY
MT. BARKER, S. A. MAY 1969
Q. PM. / 2
If you were asked questions about why you haven't
told them about Pine Gap or the F-Ills, why they are crashing, how
will you answer them?
If they ask me why are the F-llls crashing, I will say
all aeroplanes in the course of development have a number of crashes.
The F-ills at this stage of their development have had less crashes
than any other aircraft. As to when we are getting them I can only
answer by saying not until we are thoroughly satisfied that they are
completely safe and will meet the specifications which we expect them
to meet. Why haven't you been told about Pine Gap? Well, I
think I answered that the other day. If yourmilitary advisers and
your scientific advisers say that the giving of any information might
be of assistance to an enemy just as in war you wouldn't give that
information, so in peace you don't give it either.
But there is a lot of unrest and a lot of feeling about
Pine Gap. It is said we could become a prime nuclear target. We
are being kept in the dark. Is this true? Are we being kept in the
dark purposely? No. We are being kept in the dark because of the
advice tendered that to say anything about the station would be of
assistance to a potential enemy. It would help them to know sooner
than they otherwise would. They will probably find out in eighteen
months or a couple of years. But it would help them to know sooner
than they otherwise would just what particular purposes the station
is designed for. In the case of the North-West Cape station, of course,
it was different because everybody knew what it was for anyway. It
had been built in other parts of the world. It was a low frequency
communications station. But these ones, for good and proper military
security reasons, we are advised should not be spoken about.
It seems almost out of place talking about this sort of
thing at an LCL rally, but about this student unrest and the meeting
on Tuesday. Can you predict any likely outcome of this meeting?
What meeting on Tuesday?
There is a meeting in Canberra on Tuesday discussing
the student unrest. We were just wondering whether there were any
possible outcomes regarding heavier penalties against student
demonstrations.
Q. PM.
Q. PM. ( 0/ 063
-2-
PM. Well, I don't know what meeting is being held on
Tuesday. It is not a governmental meeting, so I don't know quite
what meeting you are talking about, but I think our own approach
is the one which the Minister for Science and Education, Mr.
Fraser, had the other day. This is primarily one doesn't
object to dissent as such. This is good. This is questioning. This
is putting forward different ideas. This is fine. But if it erupts into
violence or the organised takeover of buildings in a university or
something of that kind then that is in effect a negation of democracy
because it means that people who can't get majority opinion are
prepared to take action by force. And that, I believe, is quite
wrong. But it is primarily a matter for universities to take action,
and secondarily a matter for State Governments to take action
because the universities are set up under State Government acts.
If something boils over into the street and there is a riot of some
kind or other then that clearly must be prevented and I hope would
be prevented by State legislation.