LIBERAL PARTY
FUND--RAISING DINER, BARTON ELECTOPATE
SANS SOUCI, NSW. 31 JULY, 1972.
Speech by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. William
McMahon,
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I accepted the invitation to come here without any
hesitation at all. There is a very simple explanation why I
wanted to come.
I want Barton back into the Liberal fold as I want
St. George back, too. I want Vince Bruce to take his place with
with us on the Government benches, and with your help I believe
he is a certainty. He is an excellent candidate. Everyone who
knows him will vouch for that. He will be an excellent member,
because he is young, talented and a good Liberal.
Most of you already know and if you don't I am
telling you now that he will do a first-class job representing
the people of Barton as well as representing the Liberal Party
and I believe when he represents you, you will find that
Australia as a whole is proud of him. The experts say we need
a swing of about 3 to 4 per cent to recapture this electorate.
With the candidate and the organisation we have got, that's easily
attainable, provided we can all get the truth driven home to the
voters in this and in all other electorates.
It is of critical importance that the Government's
achievements should be better known and its programmes better
understood. We have a first class team of Ministers, who are giving
this nation sound and effective administration. But from now on,
as we move into the election period, we will all need to redouble
our efforts to get our message across, and counter the propaganda
of our opponents. In the last eighteen months, I've been to every state in
Australia to some of them several times and recently I've
toured the Northern Territory.
In that time, I've seen the country pause and adopt a " wait and
see, attitude. In recent months, too, I've seen it putting caution
aside and getting into its stride again and the pace is steadily
quickening in response to government measures deliberately taken
during the last eighteen months
to stimulate growth
to create employment
and at the same time to keep the brake on
inflation
Not one single area of government activity has been left out of
our continuing process of reviewing our policies, overhauling them
and developing them in new directions.
Our policy thinking goes on in the knowledge that Australians
are individuals and fiercely individual in the values they hold
dear, and the kind of society in which they want to live.
In today's world, there is an increased awareness of the
individual's responsibilities to his society. The Australian
people have delegated to us, as their Government, some of those
responsibilities, and before long, they must decide at the polls
whether we have kept faith with them.
Therefore it is important that we, as Liberals, should be
articulate in restating for the nation what we, as a Party, see
as our objectives and how we, as a Government, are going about the
business of achieving those objectives.
The Liberal Party shares with other parties of goodwill
the desire to create a society in which the individual can live in
peace and dignity, can enjoy the liberties which our civilisation
prizes and in which his enthusiasm and energy can find full
expression and potential. But unlike others, we are not a Party
representing sectional interests. Our concern is to build
Australia for all Australians.
In doing this, we look primarily to individual initiative and
enterprise as the dynamic force of proarss. Of course, if
experience shows the Government intervention is necessary to
protect the Australian people against exploitation, from whatever
source, then we stand ready to act and will act.
But the progress achieved since crld War 11, in the
development of this country within the private enterprise system,
vindicates our confidence in this approach.
Let us look at how our Party's objectives and its
pragmatic political philosophy relate to the issues of our time.
Take first our foreign relations. Proud as we are to be
Australians, we are also conscious that we are members of a world
community. All Australians want to assist in creating and
preserving for others the same freedoms and prosperity as we seek
for ourselves. / 3
Our concern naturally focussos on the hunger and strifo affecting
the countries of our own region. It is for them alone to decidc
the road they wish to follow in seeking to better their lot. But
we think Australians are anxious to nurture their efforts.
Liberal Governments have assisted with material aid and
training, and by participating in joint economic and defence
endeavours. Following my recent visit to Indonesia, for example,
we are arranging naval exercises between the two countries. We
already play our part in the Five-power Defence Arrangements with
Malaysia and Singapore. During my recent personal discussions
with President Soeharto, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singap~ ore
and Prime Minister Tun Razak of M1alaysia, the single fact that
stood out above all others was the degree of confidence they have
in us: That is the degree of confidence they havo in you the
Australian people.
They know they can trust: us. They know the part we have
played and that we will continue to play in the region and I am
confident they also know that if we were to leave, if we were to
lose our interest in this region, a vacuum would be created, which
might well be filled hy another influence not as friendly, nor
as trustworthy. So that our efforts to contribute to the stability
and pros perity of countries in our region are not only a moral
responsibility. They help to lessen tensions and misunderstanding.
They also represent an important contribution to our defence.
Regrettably, tensions and misunderstandings still persist.
For these reasons, our policy is to continually strengthen the
capability of our defence forces and to effsctively maintain our own
defence alliances, as for example, our alliance under ANZUS and
with the United States and New Zealand. Our policy is also
designed to protect the liberties of others whilst emphosising
the primary effort must be our own dcfence, and then the contribution
we can make to world stability and prosperity.
Another important issue of our time, an& ono that is of
immediate importance to us in the maintennce~ of public law and
order. One of the basic freedoms is the right of the inc'ividual to
build his life within a stable framework of just laws. No
individual c-an rest secure,/ or cnnfidently plan his own and his
family's future outside of such a framework. We in Australia have
been fortunate in the stability of our society, but we would he
unwiso to assume it is an inevitable featurc of Australian life.
Like all worthwhile things: it must be protected and preserved.
Today we see it threatened by a growing di srogard for the
observance of our laws and the processes by which wc arrive at
them, whether in the industrial or the political sphere.
Draft resisters are encouracd by individuals and groups
who themselves aspire to the responsibilities of office , protesters
resort to violence and vandalism in the name of goodwill. Unionists
blackmail the community and threaten the livelihood of their
fellows when arbitral decisions are not to their liking. The whole
basis ef public law and order within our community is threatened
by these actions.
Unfortunately, many of the: people responsible are wellmeaning
individuals who fail to see the grave consequences which
can flow from these actions. Liberal Governments -and you who are
Liberals will know are committed by our Party platform to the
principle of " Parliament controlling the executive and the law
controlling all". My Government has stood firm and we will continue
to stand firm, to ensure respect for all constitutionally valid
laws. I should not let this opportunity pass without referring in
this context to the critical situation that has been reached in
the oil industry strike. On television last night I stated that
we as a GovernTment would not permit any one person or group to
determine who will or who will not receive fuel: We hold to that.
We are also determined that the arbitration system will be upheld.
The alternative, I repeat, is industrial anarchy.
Today's events have shown that the emergency proposals
under which only some of the strikers return to work are not good
enough. And to show clearly how political this is, Mr. Hawke has
now allowed free access to petrol in South Australia because it
happens to be a Labor-dominated State. The men on strike have
already received in an interim decision from the commission, a wage
increase of $ 4.80 per week for tradesmen and $ 3.60 for trades
assistants. Some of the strikers still refuse to accept the
umpire's decision. I ask those still on strike to return to work so that
their outstanding claims can be dealt with by the Arbitration
Commission. There is still time.
We are not seeking confrontation. The confrontation is
in the defiance of an arbitrated decision by a diminishing number
of union meCmers. Turning to the economy, we see an area whcre our philosophy
puts us furthest apart from our political apponents. Our primary
concern is with the creation of wealth in which employer and
employee can share as co-operators not with the re-distribution
of the community's wealth at the risk of economic stagnation.
We see our success not only measured by gross natinal
product, but also in terms cf our objectives of full employment and
improved living standards.
Running a government is just like running a business. In
any financial enterprise, one must expect some setbacks. This also
applies in the national context, where some of the difficulties are
not within our own national control.
Economic problems overseas have reacted to the detrir-ant of
our own economy. There have been seve; re difficulties in the rural
economy which are being steadily overcome, due in part to the
fall in overseas prices.
Our difficulties hia becn compounded by inflationary
pressures, due in part to irrosponsible domnnds for unrealistic
wages and conditions. But I assure you now re~ covery is well under
way. With a continuation of the same prudent management, Australia
in 1973 will see a continuation of the prosperity which has been
a feature of successive Liberal Governments.
Finally, I want to speak about the wonderfully
descriptive, but ill'-defined term, the " quality of life". Our
Party objectives have long recognised that a government's
responsibilities go far beyond simply prctecting the individual's
freedoms and creating conditions of material well-bing.
We view the availability of comprehensive educational opportunities
for all as an essential element in the soci. pty we are working to
create. We do so, because it is essential to provide the skills
and knowledge needed by industry, and because we know education
develops the spirit of true citizenship, and provides a basis for
a fuller and a more meicaningful life. Liberal Federal Governments
have been responsible, together with the states, for the great
expansion of tertiary education ever recent years.
Now we are becoming increasingly involvK-in socondary
education. Policies dosigned to encourage cultur. al activities are
a logical extension of our educational objectives. We look
ultimately to tho time when community interest in the arts is
sufficient to provide the finance nccessary to sustain and encourage
national cultural activities.
Meantime, we are continuing to provide modest support and
broadening the basc of Australian artistic cndeavcurs, by
initiatives like the national film schoci.
We have also been responsive to the recently awakened
national concern for the protection and improvemont of the
environment in which we live. With the States we have established
the Australian Environment Council for consultation and co-ordination
between us in environmental matters. We are concerned to maintain
the fine qualities which have characterised life in our great country.
We take pride in our whole Australian heritage both the country
and its people. Wo will work to protect and nurture buth.
Time alone prevents mae giving further examples of how our
dedication to political liberty and the freedom and dignity of man
guides cur policies. But the matters I have touched on uc. onstrate
the continuing relevance of Liberal Party objectives to our national
destiny. Naither time nor events have outmoded them. Mo~ reover, our
Party has the human resources and the purpose to lead the Australian
nation forward towaras; the goals the people themselves have chosen
I certainly have an abundance of confidence. We are confident that
a majority of the Australian people share our ap~ preciation of the
important issues of our national life and will yet again place their
confidence in our Government when the elections occur towards the
end of the year.
My personal and my wholehearted belief is this. With a
candidate of the kind we have in our prescnce here tonight, with the
support I know we can expect and will in fact get from the people
who are here representing as they do Liberal thought, Liberal
ambitions and Liberal ideals, I feel absolutely certain that you
will put Vince Bruce back thcre and you will make certain of
a magnificent victory in this election.
Give us the opportunity to govern, and I can assure
you that we will cary on the tradition of the last twenty-two
years. But above all, we will do more than carry on in that
tradition. With an economy as soundly-based as ours is, with
increasing diversity and increasing strength, we will be able to
do all the things that you want us to do better health,
better education, better transport, and above all, a feeling
of confidence in the community.