EMBARGO: 4. OOPM FRIDAY 23 MARCH 1973 6 1./
4 > A U S RL A&
PRIME MINISTER
THE PROGRESS OF QUEENSLAND
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. E. G. WHITLAM, M. P.,
AT THE OPENING OF THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT CENTRE,
ANN STREET, BRISBANE, FRIDAY 23 MARCH 1973
This is my first visit to Queensland since
my Government took office. It is a happy occasion for me.
It has also provided me with my first opportunity as
Prime Minister to talk to the Queensland Premier and his
Ministers. This, too, has been personally gratifying.
Our talks have been no less cordial for being overdue, and
I thank Mr. Bjelke-Petersen for his invitation to meet him.
I trust that no one will detect any sinister symbolism in the
fact that my first official duty here is to open new offices
for the national Government. This splendid building should
be regarded in no sense as a foreign mission. Contrary to what
some people are saying, Queensland is still part of Australia.
My Government's interests and Australia's interests are one and
indissoluble, and for my part we are determined to work together
to advance them. My Government's commitment to the welfare and
progress of Queensland is both general and specific. It is
based on two great themes. There is first our general commitment
to the cities. In Queensland 60 per cent of the people live in
Brisbane and its suburbs. It is in these areas that my
Government's attack on the problems of land and housing costs,
schools opportunities, hospitals, public transport, unemployment,
migrant welfare and access to community resources for recreation,
sport and culture are principally directed. We have already
established a Department of Urban and Regional Development to
co-ordinate our work of rebuilding and regenerating our cities.
Queensland will share in that process. The related task of
bringing new standards of social welfare to the people a
fundamental theme of all Labor governments has been entrusted
to our new Department of Social Security. I remind you that
this Department is headed by a Queenslander, my colleague
Bill Hayden. / 2
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The second part of my Government's commitment to
Queensland is a specific one. It is in our policies for
northern development. That Department is also headed by a
Queensland Minister, Dr. Rex Patterson. It is our aim, in
co-operation with the Government of Queensland, to develop
the vast and valuable resources of northern Australia for
the benefit of the Australian people. It is in the north
that the great sugar and cattle industries and much of our
mineral industries have been established. It is in the north
that Australians face their greatest challenge in retaining
the ownership of the nation's resources and developing new
industries under Australian control.
My Government has made one other specific pledge
to the Queensland people. We have undertaken that one of our
two main initiatives in regional development will be concentrated
in Townsville. I said last year in my policy speech that the
national Government was already responsible for decisions which
have determined the growth and the burdens of Townsville
more than any other Australian city except Canberra itself.
What is being done for Albury-Wodonga in the southern States
can be done for Townsville and other centres in Queensland.
Albury-Wodonga is one of the best examples to
date of what fruitful collaboration between the States and the
new national Government can achieve. It is the sort of
co-operation we must foster and preserve. My meeting with
Mr. Hamer and Sir Robert Askin on 25 January was the first time
the Governments of the two oldest States had come together-with
the Commonwealth to plan the development of a new city.
I trust that with similar co-operation in Queensland the
prospects for the future growth and prosperity of Townsville
will be as bright as those for Albury-Wodonga.
As one instance of my Government's determination
to give greater importance and prestige to Townsville, we have
undertaken that Townsville will be made an international airport.
Townsville, the gateway to the Barrier Reef, is vital to our
developing tourist industry. It is vital to Australia as a whole.
There has been one other notable example since my
Government took office of what co-operation between the States
and the national Government can achieve in the interests of all.
Early this month, I met the Premiers of New South Wales, South
Australia and Victoria to discuss the future use of the waters
of the River Murray. This meeting was called on the initiative of
one of the States South Australia. Its results will be
largely to the benefit of that State. I believe the measures
which will flow from that meeting will improve the quantity and
quality ' of the waters of the Murray available to South Australia.
I am proud that my Government, through its participation in that
meeting, will help bring these benefits to that State, and I hope
that through similar co-operative ventures we will bring similar
benefits to the people of Queensland. / 3
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Since My Government took office I have made
numerous offers to the State Governments, including Queensland,
to assist them with local and regional problems common to all
of us. One of these was an attempt to control the soaring prices
of land and housing, which are denying a decent home to thousands
of Australian families. My Government proposes to set up Land
Development Commissions to acquire and make available residential
land on reasonable terms. I have Vritten . to all the Premiers
proposifigi action on these lines.
I have also written to the Premiers offering-special
grants to overcome the backlog in sewerage services in the principal
cities. I have written to them outlining the terms of my Government's
offer to take over the uneconomic State railway services which im~ pose
crippling financial burdens on all State Governments. My Government
has offered the States additional funds totalling $ 52 million for
unemployment relief works of which Queensland's share was
$ 5.6 million. We have approved for Queensland an extra $ 5,124,000
from the $ 27.5 million increase in the borrowing program for the
States' local and semi-governmental authorities.
Our most recent action was my Cabinet's decision this
week to amend the Commonwealth Grants Commission Act to allow us to
make special grants to the States for local government. This is
in line with our policy of allowing local Government full participation
in, and access to, the fund-raising processes of this country.
I am confident that in all these initiatives we will
receive the ready co-operation of the States. I am confident that
the people will not be side-tracked and hood-winked by specious
slogans about centralism and States rights. What our opponents
like to call centralism is the overdue recognition by the national
Government of-its responsibilities in areas which that Government
alone can discharge. our responsibility is t6 ensure Viable
and efficient local government. Local government in this city
happens to be the most efficient and progressive system of local
government in Australia.
I It is efficient and progressive because it is
organised on broad regional lines. It is, if you like, the most
distinctive example of centralism in Australia. Similarly, when
we talk of States rights, let us remember that the rights of people
are more important that tne rights of Governments. My Government
emphasises people's rights their rights to a decent home, to a
modern transport service, to a full education, to a pleasing and
unpolluted neighbourhood, to an equal share in life's opportunities
for recreation, leisure and cultural fulfilment. These are the
rights we hold paramount.
I pay tribute to all those who planned and built
this new Government centre. It will provide a link between
Governments and people. I hope it will be seen as a symbol of the
co-operative spirit that must prevail between Queensland and the
Australian Government. The true progress of our people depends on this
co-operation. There is much that our Governments can do alone; there
is much more they can do together. The greatest enemy of progress,
development and efficiency in our country has been the old-fashioned,
discredited rivalry that has prevailed between States and between
centres within the States. Queensland in many ways is the State
which has best managed to suppress these rivalries. It is in many
ways the proudest and most individualistic of States. Despite its
enormous size it has a unique cohesion and corporate pride.
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It is of all States the least urbanised, the
most decentralised, the most diverse in its climatic conditions
and natural resources. I make this earnest appeal to you all:
Let us work together in co-operation and good will for a
greater and more prosperous Queensland in a greater and more
prosperous Australia. It will be a tragedy for the Queensland people
if local jealousy, parochial sentiment and intolerant suspicion
are allowed to stand in the way of Queensland's progress.
I offer a lasting contract of mutual goodwill and shared
purpose between our Governments. Our ultimate interests
are the same, and I am sure that our common aims will be
approved by the people of your great State and by your
fellow Australians.
23 MARCH 1973