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STATE COUNCIL MEETING OF THE VICTORIAN
DIVISION OF THE LIBERAL PARTY
Melbourne, Vic. JULY 1969
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. John' Gorton
Mr. President, Mr. Premier and Delegates:-
This is, as the President has said, merely a fleeting visit.
I have to be in Queensland by lunchtime, then have a meeting of the
Women's Sections from all over Queensland, and then attend a fund-raising
dinner for one of our candidates. So you can see, it is not an uncrowded
day. But this part of it is one that I would not, for anything, have missed.
I speak to you at a time only some months before there will
be a decision made by the Australian people as to what Government will
carry them on and through those exciting seventies which beckon to us now.
It is my hope, and my belief, that with your help the Australian people will
choose as their pilots through these years ahead a government which
continues those policies and those philosophies which have, over the last
twenty years, transformed this nation; a government which will adopt new
approaches and policies to take full advantage of those great opportunities
which await us. It is a little inhibiting speaking to you on the eve of a Budget,
but perhaps I might remind you of some of the things which have been done
in the space of very little more than a year or eighteen months, things
which already indicate, I think, the courses we will take in the future. I
would remind you that we have adopted an entirely new approach to the
system of building road communications throughout Australia and Victoria,,
and this is an important avenue of approach, not just a gimmick. For the
first time, there has been a cost-benef it analysis of the construction of
roads and where they should be. For the first time there is no longer a
requirement that a fixed amount of the total road money available whether
it Is of cost-benef it or not should be spent in particular areas, and for
the first time there is a requirement that the congestion of the cities should
be relieved by a proper road programme. Accompanying these new
approaches has been the addition of half a billion dollars for the road
programme.
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71 -2
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We have, let me remind you, taken the not inconsiderable
policy decision to enter, or perhaps I should say re-enter, the field of
overseas shipping so that Australia will have ships plying with Australian
produce between this country and Japan, between this country and the
United Kingdom, between this country and the United States. And this will
not only be profitable, it will save invisibles in our import bill. And it
will also enable us to know precisely what the economics of this trade are
and to see that our producers, and to this extent I speak of our primary
producers for they provide the bulk of our exports to see that our
producers are not mulcted by freight charges higher than they should be.
We have accepted a responsibility in the new changed
situation to our north, although let us make it quite plain that we cannot
take over the role of sheriff which Britain had. But we will be clearly
seen to be members of the posse and have there in that region, visible
Ifor all to see, an. Australian presence. And these were not easy decisions
to make, and are but some of those new approaches in this relatively brief
I would add just one more to them before I leave. We have,
I think, already shown our awareness in a practical way of those of whom
I have so often spoken and those whom I believe you think of so often that
is the handicapped amongst us, the ill, the aged. This will continue, and
it will continue in the seventies at an increasing tempo, with more people
coming in ( for our immigration programme is already a record), with
more development taking place, with more overseas capital required to do
it and more Australian ownership being offered in that development and
the key word is " offered". And as those material goals before us are
reached, we will not only seek to look after those ill and aged of whom I
have spoken, but try to see if we cannot improve the quality of life in
-' Australia, as the material resources of Australia grow. And by the
quality of life I mean the opportunity for people to train themselves for
whatever field of endeavour they may wish to enter. If they wish to train
to be a television producer, a film actor, a plumber, a carpenter, a farmer,
in the field of business management, a scientist whatever it is they wish
to be; that opportunity to receive the necessary training is what we would
wish to see provided as part of the quality of life. And to try to see that
our younger people are brought up with the opportunity not only to achieve
that of which I have spoken but to take part in outdoor activities surfing,
skiing, riding, in whatever it may be that Is a healthy outdoor interest
and is as much a part of the quality of life as is intellectural attainment.
These things become easier as material resources grow,
but they are an integral part of a full life in a nation such as Australia,
and will be achieved under the leadership of the Liberal Party, and with
the help and assistance which you of the Branches, however you may
differ on minor matters, are united to give us.
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a-A G*% IJ
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Pill Wh~ at a difference there is between those of you in this hall
who will argue out matters of detail but on matters of ideology the climate
which provides employment and growth are as one. What a difference
between some other meeting, which I seem to have heard is taking place
somewhere or other in Melbourne, where the whole of the time appears to
be devoted to pretending that those deep schisms which exist don't exist
and can be papered over and can be hidden for at least long enough to
pretend to the people there is something difference from what there really
is. We will come before you, as we always have, putting
programmes that can be achieved without inflation and without pretence. We
will make no promises that can't be carried out. But if I may, just before
I close, be a little repetitive, I would like to bring to the attention of those
of you who have not already read it, a little piece of doggerel I wrote at
Question Time one day in the House no-one was asking me questions at
the time, so I thought I would put the time to good use: which seems to
me to put in one nutshell the different approach of our opponents, particularly
their Leader. And the little piece of nonsense runs like this and of
course you will understand it is in the mouth of the Leader of the Opposition
I promise you, I promise you
To do anything at all you want me to
And if I get rather lost
As to how much it will cost
I can always raise taxation
On guess who? You.
Well, you think of it and he'll promise it. But this will not be our approach.
It would not be the approach you wanted. It would not be the approach you
would support. But with that support you give us and I thank you for it
now I am sure that we will see, with the team of candidates we have,
that towards the end of this year there will be opening for Australia three
more years of Increasingly exciting government and increasingly exciting
development for this nation which we all love.