OPENING OF TASMANIANT-STATE COUNCIL LIBERAL
PARTY OF AUSTRALIA DEVONPORT 16jLYj 1971
รต p! eScby the Prime Minister, Mr. William McMahon
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Premier, Senator Wright, my Parliamentary Colleagues, Ladies
and Gentlemen: While I am here I want to pass on, if I can, something of the spirit
that is abroad in Australia today on behalf of the Liberal cause.
As our President has said in the last four months I have visited fair of
the six Australian States. Of course I don't count in New South Wales because it's
the State in which I live. But what I can say to you, and I can say it to you with
emphasis, is that I have been heartened by the obvious vitality of our movement, the
enthusiasm of the Party members and the readiness of the organisation and the
political wings to get together and to get things done.
Only a few days ago my Press Off icer and my Department gave me a
record of our achievements of the last four months 430 independent and separate
initiatives taken successfully by the Government. Frankly it gave me a great cause for
pleasure. We've got a good team in Canberra, and I've been conscious of a new
unity among the Branches and the councils of the Party. There is a coming together
and a gathering of the clans, as I see it, in readiness for the next election. I honestly
believe we have the team and the policies to win, and not only to win, but I believe
we will pick up seats. It's the size of the victory I want to be sure about. Now is the
time for all of us to get cracking and to make that victory, and the numbers that we
have in the House, a big one.
I'd like to get Franklin back for a start. As I said a few moments ago,
I believe that our record in the last few months has been pretty good -over 40 initiatives
successfully taken. I've met the Premiers of the States on two occasions in that time,
and I believe each time successfully.
I think I've made it clear that the Commonwealth doesn't want to play the
role of Headmaster. For political and economic and for social reasons I believe in
a Federal system of Government. But what I do want is to work together and to
co-operate closely, as we are meant to do under the Constitution. And that
Constitution belongs to you and shouldn't be altered unless it is with your consent. I
want it to survive until you change it, and I want to be able to play my part in making
it work better. The things we've done so far have included growth taxes for the States.
We gave a special increase to the pensioners, and in many other aspects of our social
welfare we have shown new inititatives. In particular I want to emphasise what has
been done for our aborigines. Because here I believe the story has been imperfectly
told. All the reforms that William Wentworth asked me to carry out as a result of
consultations with the aboriginal councils themselves, were in fact either carried out
or bettered. And our massive programme for aboriginal development in the Northern
Territory is, I think, a very good one. / 2
We've-also been tackling a variety of problems arising from the pressures
of the-economy including a review of the arbitration system to see what can be done
about cost inflation arising largely from excessive wage increases. I'll say more to
you about this subject in a few moments'time.
We are giving very special attention to the crisis in our rural industries,
especially how we'll be able to help them when Britain enters the European Community.
But before I touch on these subjects, let me come back to Labor Party activities.
Because I believe that by their tolerance and tacit encouragement of industrial disputes
they are indifferent to the problems of the economy.
In the time that I have been Prime Minister I have nct heard one Member
of the Opposition other than Alan Fraser of Eden-Monaro, who is a Liberal in mind
and in thought raise his voice in opposition to the activities of the left-wing trade
unions and the activities of the left-wing in his own Party.
There has been an indifferent and a gross affront to law and order in
the community by elements in the trade union movement during the Springboks tour. I
believe most Australians want that tour to be successful. They don't want politics to
get mixed up with a sporting event.
You know too, the waterside workers cut off Tasmania from the Port
of Melbourne as part of an industrial campaign against the Springboks. That was a
blatant political act without any industrial motive whatsoever. And in recent weeks, in
defiance of a promise given to the ACTU and the Australian people, they're again engaged
in these tactics of depriving you people of the ability to carry on your businesses
effectively. Now the Labor Party also wants to write down our rural industries.
They said as much at their Launceston conference. Mr. Hayden, a not very eminent
member of the Labor Party, and not a man who can be regarded as gifted or knowledgeable
in rural affairs, but he said, speaking as it were for an-industrial metropolitan community,
that our primary industry should be controlled on a self-supporting basis and that
whatever reforms were to be carried out should be carried out in a defined period.
What he meant was that many of our great industries the wheat industry
and the sugar industry, both of which have stabilization schemes, should be deprived
of them, and the wool industry shouldn't be givenpprotection because it has to be
self-supporting. Those industries should be permitted to fight their own battles within
a definable period, and be permitted to fight an international company without the
support of the Government and the Australian people.
Now he, and those who voted it through just didn't know what they were
talking about. Their one so-called expert in primary industries, Dr. Patterson,
virtually disowned it publicly on television on the night the decision was made or if it
wasn't that night it was immediately after the conference. But it is the self-same
Dr. Patterson who is now playing the games of the Communists in China, by being
critical of our attitude to the sale of wiheat to China. We don't want to interfere, because
we know what a magnificent job the Wheat Board is doing, and we're faily certain that
if these attacks had not occurred, then our Wheat Board had reasonable prospects of
commencing negotiations with the China purchasing agency within the course of the
Inn foxiv u-4: 4-o it thair activities have harmed the cause of the Wheat Board, and
having harmed the cause of the Wheat Boardhave. I he-lieve. hni-mod ite anLis MIe'
Australian wheat producers. / 3
Now if I may go further, the Party Leaders have been on parade in Peking,
in a massive propaganda exercise, skilfully contrived by Chou En-Lai, offending as
many of Australia's friends as they could. In fact, Mr. Whitlam and his entourage,
and I ask you to remember who they are, and the type of people they are, are the
advocates for China against the interests of this country. And it must be our task as
Liberals to expose the shallowness of all these activities.
Let me take two of them, and two only because as our President has
said, my time and your time is limited. I'll talk first of all about the industrial
intrusion into non-industrial matters as one subject, and our attitude to Mainland
China as the other. Let's have a look into the industrial fields first. You've heard of
Mr. Hawke I take it he's our new foreign demagogue. But he's doing a cook's tour
of Europe at the moment, after stirring up a hornet's nest here, and finding it pretty
angry one. For some months now, we have seen some elements in the Trade Union
movement, Mr. Hawke as their principal spokesman, butting into all sorts of fields
where they have no right to be, and where no industrial issue was involved, poking
their nose in because they wanted to tell you exactly what they wanted you to do. They
tried to stop the export of merino sheep and they failed. Mr. Hawke busied himself
with some gratuitous advice to a television station on the kind of programme it should
have. If he could do that, couldn't he do it to the media, all the media press,
television, radio and other kind of activities that he thought came within his sights.
He led the way in an attempt to stop the Springboks tour. And what they did was really
an attempt to deny people their freedom of choice within the law, and an attempt, as
a final result, to have a showdown with the Government.
They inspired and provoked demonstrators into actions which became a
challenge to public law and order within the Commonwealth. I believe the Australian
public is fed up with all of this, and I believe a lot of responsible trade unionists the
bulk of whom are good, hard-working Australians are also fed up with it too.
I have said many times that my Government and I find apartheid repugnant
as a political and a social philosophy. But apartheid wasn't really the issue in the challenge
to law and order when the Springboks arrived. It was a pretext and it was an excuse
by Mr. Hawke and some of his colleagues to show their form and to show their capacity
for intimidation. And the professional demonstrators and dissenters and a lot of them
were jumped on the band wagon without wasting a second of time.
Now the Government, our Government in Canberra, had to make its
position clear. And at the time I stated three important principles that were dear to
us, and that we would ensure were followed and observed. I think that they're worthwhile
repeating at the moment. And they are and I repeat what I have said but a
few moments ago that the Australian people, the you and me's of this world, the
people that constitute not only the Liberal and the Labor Parties, the uncommitted,
the young and everyone in the community, have a right of freedom of choice within
the law at all times. Nobody has the right to deprive them of this freedom of choice. e / 4
And the second great principle is that no group or organisation should be
permitted to intimidate the lawful Government of the country whether it happens to
be State, Local Government, or Federal Government as it exists in Canberra. Now
we reject absolutely any attempt by elements in the Trade Union movement to achieve
their objectives, industrial or otherwise, by force and intimidation.
And the last one a fairly simple one is that frankly we believe there
is an area of politics, we believe there is an area of sport. We believe there are areas
of cultural relations such as musical activities, or the movement of ballet companies,
and we do not think for one moment, that the sporting and other organisations should be
under duress from any source purely for political motives. I also remind you too, if
I can~ of the basis on which we operate.
I believe that the principles that we have held ever since we were first
formed as a Party remain just as valid and absolute today as they did when they were
first announced. So what I want to read to you now is a part of what was said by us
in a little document published by Sir Robert Menzies called " We Believe". It's this:
" The Liberal Party offers the spirit of adventure, the
fire freedoms of thought and speech and choice, the
great human right to choose an avocation and fail,
or to choose an avocation and succeed.
In other words, to put it in my own way, to act as men and women, and to
be able to do what you want to do, providing you do it, as 1 said before, within the law.
I think we should keep on remembering this against the possible background of
increasing industrial outrages in the months to come.
May I now come to the other subject I want to mention and that is China.
And before I come into the body of my speech, may I just mention two facts to you.
The first one relates to the fact that memories are short, and that -there
are some discussions taking place today about the possibilities of another Geneva-type
convention. I well remember, shortly after I became the External Affairs Minister
( now the Foreign Minister) going up to South Vietnam to see our own troops and to see
how Vietnamisation was progressing. And on the way there I met representatives
of various Asian countries. Together we decided that we would have a conference
in Djakarta, dedicated to trying to get peace in Cambodia and to permit this country
to be able to live free, and particularly free from intimidation from the North.
We invited China, we invited the Communist countries, but they
blatantly refused to come. But we did send emissaries around the world trying to
find out whether there was anything that could be done and we even tested the United
Nations without result.
So I want you to understand that we as a Liberal Government have been
seeking for peace. Thinking that the cause of peace was one of the highest ideals
that we asLiberals possess, and a) nsequently I now want to debunk any idea that
somebody has take n the initiative away from us. It is totally false. We want peace,
we know that Vietnamisation is succeeding and we do know it now, we at least want to
preserve the basic cause for which we fought, and that was the right of the South
Vietnamese to be able to determine their own future. 0 0
Now may I come to the second point that I wanted to mention to you, and
that is about recognition of Continental China, the People's Republic of China in the
United Nations, and recognition itself.
Shortly after I became Minister for External Affairs, I called for papers
to be prepared and presented to the Cabinet, as to what our attitude should be at the
United Nations, because as I mentioned a few moments ago, we had then taken up a
precise and definite attitude,
Similarly, too, did I decide, or did I recommend and the Cabinet decided
that we would make the preliminary move, called a dialogue, with the People's Republic
of China to see what their attitude might be, to recognition. Now when I talk about the
People's Republic for brevity's sake I'll say " China", but I want you to understand
that it means Peking China, or Communist China. We have had meetings with their
plenipotentiaries so far unsuccessful. Not because of our attitude -we did make
an attempt to show them what we were prepared to do-but because of the fact that
they were not prepared to listen unless we agreed to all of the terms that they had
proposed. So now may I come back then to the speech that I want to make and speak
to you about China itself.
There has been, as we all know, certainly most Liberals will know, some
evidence that China was getting ready to lift the boom which has kept her isolated from
the Western world for so long. And, as is prudent, we have had our China policy
under review for a considerable time. I repeat this again, because I don't want to let
somebody jump onto the band wagon and say the opposite that recent developments
in our policy have been precipitated by public interest in China's person-to-person
or as somebody calls it the ping-pong diplomacy.
Neither do I think China's new interest in the outside world reflects a
change of heart. I don't. It would be more accurate to describe her recent initiatives
as a new tactical approach to old goals. Not new, but with skill, and with diplomatic
common sense, they have used the Labor mission for the benefit of the Chinese themselves.
Now the goals, and I want to emphasise this of the Chinese people, are
these. You know that up on the Ussuri and other parts of the North, they have the problems
with the Soviet, and consequently one of their biggest and most immediate problems is
that of border security. They want a reduction in the influence of the United States and
of the Soviet. They want a check on Japan and they want the spread of Maoist revolutionary
theories by securing better relationships with smaller powers. And, of course,
they do want the recovery of Taiwan, that is the Republic of China.
Nevertheless whatever our dislike of her political philosophy, we
regard China as a fact of life in the region. And, indeed, as a fact of life in the wider
world, and we must look forward in the long run to normal relations with them.
But I want to emphasise, we will have a dialogue not on their terms,
but on terms that we regard as satisfactory to us as Australians and to the people
of this country. / 6
The position now is that fifty-four countries have diplomatic relations
with China and sixty-three with Taiwan. Since last October nine countries have
announced they will establish diplomatic relations, but none of them was in our region
None were immediately to the North of us, none were countries with which we have
regional associations and relationships, and whose security we regard as important
to our own. Not only as a result of my mission to the United Nations, but in what
I have been able to learn since, I have formed the opinion that it is probably that
either this year or next, Peking will become a member of the General Assembly of the
United INations and will I think have a seat on the Security Council. We will not oppose
membership I have said this over and over again. It niusn't be forgotten. Some
people will attempt to jump on the band wagon and try and prove to the c ontrary.
But what we will do is this, we will do all in our power to ensure that
Taiwan, that has 14 million people, that is a member of the United Nations now,
and is recognised by us and is a very good trading partner of ours -Taiwan is a
better trading partner than China itself, that is Continental China -that Taiwan's
posritio2 is recogniscd and its position in the United Nations sustained.
When we are taking this action, of course, we consult with our friends,
part icularly the United States, Japan arid New Zealand. They, toohave already had
some contact with China through diplomatic sources. Or perhaps I should take that
back and I should localise it to ourselves. I don't want to speak for them. I repeat
again that we have had contact with the Chinese Government through other national
sources, We have set out directly to Peking what is our long-term goal and our
desire to take progressive steps towards this. It would be very optimistic to expect
any quick returns. We must move cautiously, with our own national self-interest
uppermost in our minds at all times. And I want to repeat that because I want you to
understand the contrast. VWe will move slowly and cautiously, beca4,% eit is our vital
interest that must be uppermost in our minds. And the contrast is the mission
of the Labor Party recently in Mainland China was moving ilot in our interests, but
dangerously close to the interests of Mainland China-, and dangerously opposed to
the interests of many of our great friends.
N-ow the question of recognition will arise in due course, but as I saidit
may be a long way off. And we don't intend to rush it. Let me give you a few more
facts about the relationships we already have with the People's Republic. This is
important, because some would create the impression that they are completely isolated.
There has been a two-way trade between us both for a good many years,
and recently, and the businessmen here should be told this, we recently liberalised
the list of strategic exports so that the range of trade could be widely extended. And
I ask all businessmen to have a look at this restricted list because they will see, that
that range of opportunities is great, and has been expanded by the Liberal-Country
Party Government in recent months.
There is no discrimination against China in our tariff and import policies.
Although China is not a member of GATT', we have applied GATT rules against
nondiscrimination to China and we will continue to do so. We give her, like other
countries, most favoured nation treatment. / 7
Furthermore, we have no barriers to visitors from the People's
Republic. They want to come here, and unless there are defence or PtL: dLC%' 1A4 rpnwe
permit them to come, and to come freely. They can come as it were, like any
other visitors, subject only to procedures of a normal kind which I've just mentioned.
But on its part, China exercises the strictest control over visitors. Here there is no
reciprocity and this must be understood by all of us.
Now gentlemen, you will have been reading about this and I've spoken
about it a few moments ago and that is the Labor Party' s mission to China in the last
week. I have already exposed the shams and the absurdities of it all. But I want to go
over some of the points again because they are of considerable importance to you and
they are of overwhelming importance to the security of this country.
They went to China to play politics with w~ heat. I emphasise they went
to play politics. Mr. Anthony said yesterday, that we warnt to leave it to the
established organisations to carry out our trading relations, particularly if they have
been as extraordinarily successful as the Wheat Board. Mr. Anthony said only
py eusrctehradsa4y n gt haagt etnhcei eWs. h eaTt hBe oBaroda rdit sfeellft , htIt'J e had sntrcoonsagt chnotcp es that the iWhthhea t BhouarVd would
sooni have received an invitation to go to Hong Kong to negotiate further contracts.
But because of the attitude, and the activities of the Labor Partythose
hopes were dashed. Instead of going, they have had to be suspended for some time.
I want you to understand that politics and trade relations don't mix. If
you do play politics you can do great harm and damage to Australia's rural industries.
In this case I believe they have done damage to the cause of wheat.
In a series of public statements, Mr. V. 7hitlam committed himself and
his Party to a policy, which I think is an affront to most of Australia's friends and
allies in South-East Asia and the Pacific. And here again I want to interpolate that
Dr. Patterson apparently says that I have been attacking China. Far from the truth.
I've been attacking not China but Mr. Whitlam's intrusion into Foreign Affairs, and his
insulting references to our friends. I can understand Dr. Patterson's confusion of
mind. Whitlam has become the advocate for China. He is not the advocate
for this country. This I have said can be dangerous for us.
The Chinese Premier, Mr. Chou En-Lai cannot be blamed for taking
up the opportunity for some telling propaganda when Mr. Whitlam went to see him.
What is dangerous, and what is damaging, is the extent to which Mr. Whitlam picked
up and made his own the points China has been trying to impose on the world for
years. He said he would recognise China immediately if he were to win the
next elections. He went further. He would sever diplomatic relationships with Taiwan
and further still, he would declare Peking the " sole Government to China".
In other wordshe would abandon Taiwan, that has been very close to us,
and friendly with us, and as I said a few moments ago, has been a good trading partner,
and one that has assumed its proper role in the diplomatic and international world
and does play its part as a responsible member of that world. These are perhaps
the most startling by a political leader without power or authority in many, many
years. I wonder if this could have happened if it had been the late Mr. Chiefly
or the late Mr. Curtin. Could they ever have conceived of operating in a way that could
be inimical to the interests of this country and dangerous to them.
He made matters worse by gratuitously insulting countries like
Thailand and the Philippines, who are friendly, and a country like the Soviet Union
with whom we are trying and have, in fact, developed a better understanding.
There was no dialogue about his meeting with the Chinese. He took the
bait and he swallowed it whole. He came away without any assurances from Premier
Chou at all. He made all the concessions in a field which was not in his area to operate
anyway. This is an area for Government, and not an area for an itinerant politician
moving into China, and now trying to move into other parts of South-East Asia.
In addition he allowed himself to be used as a spokesman for the North
Vietnamese and Chinese propositions at the Paris peace talks.
Altogether it was an extraordinary performance. For us it is a warning
and a sample of what Mr. Whitlam and the Labor Party would do if they ever come to
power. We as Liberals, every single one of you, from the Premier. to myself,
you joining with us, must make certain this does not happen.
I come back to where I started, that the Liberal Party commands the
loyalty of the great mass of Australians. Everywhere I've been in the last four
months, I've become more and more convinced of the certainty of that statement.
I believe we Liberals have a record behind us to justify that confidence, and that
we have progressive policies to keep that confidence alive. I am sure we will win
the next elections, but with your help, with the help of Angus Bethune, with
the help of the other Liberal Premiers, let's make it a good one. Let's make it a
handsome victory and give us the opportunity to carry on our policies, for at least
another three years.