ABORIGINAL POLICY
In-May, 1967, as a result of the Referendum, the Commonwealth
received a new responsibility for Aborigines. During the lifetime of the
last Parliament we have fashioned a policy to meet that responsibility. In
the next Parliament we intend to develop it still further.
My predecessor, the late Harold Holt, first set up the Council
for Aboriginal Affairs, and I took the next step by appointing a Minister-in-
Charge within my own Department.
Our basic aim is to give our Aboriginals the opportunity to be
self-supporting, and to end the " mentality of the hand-out". We want them
to choose for themselves their own future, and to regain their initiative and
independence. Not all will make the same choice, since their various
circumstances are so very different.
The constitutional powers of the Commonwealth in this field are
not exclusive, but we share with the States. It is not our intention to usurp
State functions, particularly because we believe that decentralisation and
regional administration will be in the interests of the Aborigines themselves.
Our grants to the States last year for A boriginal advancement were
5 million: this year they will be 4 million. These grants are used for
the purposes of housing, education, health and employment.
We have sponsored training schemes, education schemes and
schemes of regional development. Through our Aboriginal Enterprises
Capital Fund, we are making it possible for Aboriginals to own their own
businesses, whether on an individual or a group basis.
We believe that Aboriginals should be able to retain features of
their own culture where they so choose. The work of the A ustralian Institute
of Aboriginal Studies, which was set up by us, will help here. We are
encouraging Aboriginal handicrafts and arts. We aim to create a higher
degre., of mutual respect between Aboriginal Australians and other
Australians. We gratefully acknowledge that, towards these ends, there is a
great deal of work being done by non-Governmental organisations, including
both Church bodies and lay bodies. We aim to utilise the great reservoir
of goodwill towards the A botiginals which exists throughout the community.
ABORIGINAL POLICY Page 2
Our plans for the next phase are as follows:
1 Regional schemes such as we have worked out in
collaboration with the A boriginals themselves for
Prnhem Land will be followed both in the Northern
Territory and in conjunction with State administrations.
2. Increased allocations will be made for Aboriginal
housing in both the States and the Northern Territory:
in addition we shall be encouraging Aborigines to make
use of our Aged Persons Homes programme and of finance
through co-operative building societies.
3. Where a State has land for Aboriginals, we will provide
through our Capital Fund the resources to develop it for
Aboriginal advancement and under Aboriginal ownership.
4. We intend to involve Aboriginal communities in their own
local government and in the maintenance of law and order
among themselves to the greatest possible extent.
We shall continue and expand our programmes for
Aboriginal health and education, with the aim of ensuring
to them, in practice as well as in theory, all the
advantages enjoyed by other Australians.
6. In recent years, most discriminatory legislation against
Aboriginals has been abolished. We intend to see that this
process is completed in the life of the next Parliament upon
both State and Federal levels.
7. Our policies of research into all aspects of Aboriginal
welfare will be continued. We shall continue to fost. r
Aboriginal culture and to give them a chance to participate
in sport. We shall press on with our programme of
helping other Australians to appreciate both the value
of their culture and the problems which face them.
We do not intend to take the easy way of deciding everything for
the aboriginals, and telling them what they are to do and what they are to be.
Instead, we will take the slower and better way of consulting them, and
working out plans in accordance with their real wishes.
PRIMARY INDUSTRY
Following its established and proven policy of consultation and
negotiation with the primary industries, the Government has continued and
will continue to introduce measures designed to stabilise and strengthen
these important industries and thereby to strengthen the economies of the
countries, towns and cities which depend on them.
The Government is well aware of the cost pressures which national
policies of rapid growth and development have brought to bear on the primary
industries and has constantly sought to devis e new measures to offset these
pressures. Coupled with low and in some cases, declining prices on overseas
markets, these pressures have caused considerable difficulty for many
primary industries. In addition to the many established methods of offsetting these
special difficulties such as production subsidies, stabilisation schemes,
bounties on fertilizers, equalisation of petrol prices, tax concessions,
building of beef roads and establishment of water conservation projects, the
Government has recently introduced significant new measur-s designed to
further lighten the cost burden falling on primary producers.
One of the most important of these is in the area of estate duty
where for the first time the Commonw calth has moved to give special
concessions on the estates of primary producers by raising the existing
statutory exemption by 20% and in addition reducing the amount of estate
duty payable in proportion to that part of the duty attributable to the value of
real assets such as land, livestock, plant and machinery.
Further measures introduced in the recent Budget included
increases in both the superphosphate and nitrogenous fertilizer bounties
bringing the cost of these bounties up to $ 65 million a year. Tax concessions
for primary producers have been extended to allow the cost of all structural
improvements for conserving water or fodder to be deductible in full for tax
purposes in the year in which the expenditure is incurred. This measure is
seen as a very strong incentive to farmers to conserve more water and fodder
on their own properties so they can better cope with the droughts which are
a feature of Australia's weather pattern. For direct relief of drought effects
the Commonwealth over the last four years has provided by way of grants
and loans a total of $ 119 million.
Australia's biggest foreign exchange earner, the wool industry,
is on the threshold of big and important development. The Government,
again to help wool growers to meet their cost problems, has offered to almost
double its contribution towards research and promotion while halving the cost
to growers. This would mean that the Government, if this offer is accepted
by the industry, would provide up to $ 27 million a year for research and
promotion.
PRIMARY INDUSTRY Page 2
The wool industry also is now examining the Government's
offer of finance for the industry's new marketing proposals. These
proposals came forward from the Australian Wool Industry Conference and
the Government, after careful examination made certain changes in the
proposals and offered up to $ 7.3 million a year to assist in their
implementation $ 1.2 million more than the assessed cost of the original
proposals. The Government's offer has been formally conveyed to
representatives of the A. W. I. C. for consideration and the conference will
have the assistance of the cost/ benefit analysis now being revised by the
Australian Wool Board in coming to a decision. The Government believes
its offer, if accepted by the industry, will be a means of helping the
industry to take a vital first step in the modernisation of the wool industry,
without interfering with its traditional and well proved method of selling
through the auction system.
With the wheat industry facing serious difficulties because of
very hard production and diminishing world markets, the Government has
responded to the industry's request for help in introducing a delivery quotas
scheme to bring production and markets more into balance. The Government
agreed to the industry's request to guarantee finance totalling $ 440 million
to allow a first advance of 10 to be paid on all quota wheat this season.
Recently, the Government arranged with the A ustralian Wheat
Board for an additional 60 million bushel of storage space to be provided
so that all wheat produced this season can be taken into storage by the
middle of next year. Last year the industry's stabilisation plan was
renewed for a further five years. Under the plan, the protective cover over
the industry has been increased by extending the guaranteed export price to
200 million bushel'-of wheat, compared with the 150 million bushel,
previously. The plan also fixes prices for wheat consumed in Australia and
these are subject to annual variation as a result of movements in certain costs.
The Government has entered into strenuous negotiation to ensure
that Australia's access to the United States Meat Market is maintained and
if possible increased. These negotiations led to a worthwhile increase in
the quantity of meat entering that market from Australia although Australia's
share of the total market declined. The Government has provided at a cost
of more than $ 5 million a year an export inspection service to ensure that all
meat leaving A ustralia meets the highest standard of quality demanded by
overseas consumers. This service has helped Australia keep markets it
could otherwise have lost. Support to the Dairy Industry has continued, this
year including substantial compensation for losses resulting from Britain's
devaluation of her currency two years ago. Total devaluation compensation
paid or committed to all Australian primary export industries has now
reached approximately $ 86 million.
PRIMARY INDUSTRY Page 3
The Government has actively assisted the sugar industry
by taking a leading part in the negotiation which produced the new
International Sugar greement and by entering into a new domestic
agreement with the Queensland Government on the domestic pricing
arrangements for sugar. In addition the Government has made loans
totalling about $ 24 million to the industry to assist it in recent periods of
difficulty. These are examples of the many ways in which the Government
is continually working to ensure the stability of Australia's primary
industries. One which has attracted a great deal of attention is the rapidly
developing fishing industry in which the Government has taken a number of
steps such as the claiming of an exclusive 12 miles fishing zone for
Australian fishermen; the establishment of Navy and Air Force patrols to
police the zone; the enactment of laws . o give Australia control of the
living marine resources of the Great Barrier Reef; the conclusion of an
agreement with Japan, providing for the phasing out of all Japanese
fishing operations within the 12-mile zone and the closing of Australian
ports to foreign fishing vessels. The Government has acted to assist a
number of other primary industries in a variety of ways and is currently
examining the problems of others in an effort to find ways cf helping the
industries concerned to overcome these problems.
PRIME MINISTER'S POLICY SPEECH 1969
Supplementary Statement on Health
Commonwealth medical benefits and fund benefits will be
increased so that the difference between the benefit entitlements and fees
most commonly charged by doctors will not exceed $ 5 even for the most
complicated and costly surgical procedures. For simpler procedures,
which are less expensive, the difference between the benefits and doctors'
common fees will be very much less.
At the same time, we firmly believe that the patient should
carry a personal responsibility for a portion of the cost of medical services
he receives. Significant reductions in the proportion of the medical
charge that will be met by the patient will be achieved by making substantial
increases in both Commonwealth medical benefits and fund benefits. For
our part we are proposing an overall increase of 30 per cent in
Commonwealth medical benefits at a cost of $ 16 million a year.
The health insurance funds will also increase their fund
benefits and to do so small increases in the rates of contributions will be
necessary. In most States these increases will not exceed 5 cents a week
for a single person and 10 cents a week for a family contributor to the
highest table available. In N. S. W. where doctors' charges are higher
than in other States, an increase of 7 cents per single contributor and
cents a week respectively for family contributors will be necessary. In
order to simplify the scheme and to ensure an adequate coverage for
contributors only one medical table will be available in each State when
the new arrangement commences.
The increased benefits will be applied selectively so that
the biggest increases will be made for the high cost services where the
need is greatest. We are confident that contributors will willingly accept
the small increase in contribution rates in the knowledge that it will bring
them a far better medical benefits coverage than they have ever had before.
We are aiming at the following margin between total benefit
entitlements and doctors' common fees:-
General Practitioner Services
Surgery consultations 80 cents
Home visits
Other services graduated up to
For the more costly services the margin of $ 5 to be met by
the patient will be as low as 2 per cent or 3 per cent of the cost of the service.