EMBARGO: 9.00 p. m. 24 September 1973 Check against delivery
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR E. G. WHITLAM, TO
THE ANNUAL DINNER OF THE HEAVY ENGINEERING MANUFACTURERS'
ASSOCIATION LAKESIDE HOTEL, CANBERRA, MONDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 1973
Some of you may remember, when we brought down our
Budget, certain commentators describing it as Phase I of the
Government's economic policy. I suppose this occasion will be
branded as Phase IV of our manufacturing policy. Yours is
the fourth manufacturers' dinner I have attended in the past few
weeks. Now at last I am dealing with the heavies.
Let me begin by proclaiming the fundamental community
of interest between the Labor Government and your branch of
industry. Rather, let me proclaim it in your own words.
In one of your recent annual reports I found this passage:
" Since its formation in 1968, the Heavy Engineering manufacturers'
Association has consistently advocated Government-industry
co-operation as the best means of attaining the national
objectives of development, full employment and prosperity."
I accept those words as an accurate statement of our
common policy our shared objectives, our shared methods.
I should add that my Government has been pursuing the same
objectives since its formation in 1972. So we are both, in a
way, fledgling organisations. You can be proud of your
Association's achievements in the past six years. I am equally
proud of the Government's record in the past 10 months.
I return to those three objectives again " Development,
full employment, prosperity". First, consider employment.
There is nothing more central to our common needs, to our common
philosophy, than the maintenance of full employment. You
cannot afford the waste and losses which large-scale
unemployment inevitably brings. We cannot afford them either;
nor can be afford, or tolerate, the social axd political
consequences. We inherited the worst unemployment for 10 years.
We have restored full employment in less than 10 months.
Second, prosperity. I venture to suggest that Australia
is more prosperous today than it has ever been. In saying this,
I do not overlook the vast areas of poverty that remain for
many of our people, and I acknowledge that for such Australians
the very word " prosperity" has a hollow ring. Nevertheless, it
is true that for most of us consumer spending is running at
record levels; profits are higher than ever; world demand
for our exports is immensely strong. And nowhere is this healthy
situation more' manifest than in manufacturing industry. In short,
we have record prosperity. / 2
-2-
Your third criterion is development. Let me assure
you that the Government regards the development of strong,
healthy Australian industries as a fundamental, long-term
objective. It is one of our essential and unqualified
commitments and it is reflected, I believe, in every major
policy announcement, every major economic decision we have taken
since coming to office. We are a Government of growth. Our
success, perhaps our survival, certainly the achievement of our
basic social objectives, depends upon the maintenance of strong
and prosperous local industries. We need your strength, we
need your growth, we need your prosperity.
I think you will agree on reflection perhaps even
my friend Senator Cotton will agree that our incentive in
this matter is far more powerful than it was for our predecessors.
It is precisely because we are pledged to certain reforms, to
a program of social change and renovation which the Australian
people entrusted us to carry out, that we are more than ever
determined to maintain and develop the underlying strength of
our industrial economy. Does anyone imagine that my Government
of all governments can be indifferent to the needs of industry,
and epecially of your industry an industry that provides
the know-how and the muscle for important development developmental
projects, for construction, for transport, for shipping or
pipelines, for power supply and generation, for water conservation
projects, for northern development, for vital defence industries
( like light aircraft) that we are determined Australia shall
maintain for herself? ( Now that a certain by-election is
behind us, I might even mention such things as airports.) Of
course your industry's prosperity is essential to us, essential
to our plans, our vision, our whole philosophy. You are the
businessmen, and yours are the industries, that will be needed
to bring many of our plans to fruition.
I give you this further assurance tonight: Nothing
my Government does to correct our economic difficulties either
those we have inherited or those we have imported will be
allowed to jeopardise the fundamental strength of Australian
industry. The very opposite is true. The whole burden of our
attack on inflationary pressures has been through measures
designed to strengthen industry, streamline it, to build up its
efficiency and sharpen its competitive edge. We inherited
a pattern of growing inflation. The great bulk of that inflation
has been due to factors and pressures imported from countries
where inflation is running at a high rate. It is as much an
international as a national problem. There is no simple solution.
But faced with this situation, what did we do? We did not throw
up our hands in despair or bludgeon the economy to a standstill. / 3
-3-
We took prompt and responsible action. We initiated a series
of carefully timed and related steps designed to increase our
level of imports, build up the supply of goods and reduce
domestic prices. We are now seeking a further weapon from the
people direct power over prices. Depending on the attitude
of the Senate, we shall submit that proposal to a referendum
of the people before Christmas or as early as possible in the
new year. That has been our approach a steady, responsible,
coherent attack on the roots of the problem. How easy it
would have been for us, faced with an inflationary problem,
to act as other governments have done, and throw thousands of
Australians out of work. How easy to take refuge in
conventional remedies, despite their futility in the past!
But what would be the effect on industry if we did? Loss of
production, half-empty factories, businesses driven to the wall.
Your industry, as you are all painfully aware, is only now
recovering from the effects of the most recent attempt to
restrain inflation by such means. Again, how easy it would
have been for me and the Treasurer to yield to the clamour of
our critics, the editorialists, the airmchair propagandists,
and cut back on public spending in the Budget. Think of the
plaudits we would have received for acting responsibly. But
think of the consequences. We would have totally abrogated
the trust placed in us by the people. We would have denied
to industry, to you, to manufacturers, the great long-term
opportunities that our program offers for investment and growth.
Let me explain those opportunities. I have pointed
out to manufacturers on other occasions that it is an absurdly
over-simplified proposition to suggest than any increase in
public activity, any widening of the public sector, is
automatically at the expense of the private sector. For example,
in our Budget this year we gave top priority to Education. We
shall provide $ 843 million for Education in 1973-74, an increase
of 92%. But governments do not manufacture the equipment,
make the bricks, install the fittings that make a school.
When governments spend on these items they provide new investment
opportunities for the private investor, new scope for the private
manufacturer. The same opportunities apply to our proposals
in the cities, in hospitals, in transport, in development projects.
When governments take initiatives where none existed before
initiatives that would not otherwise be taken at all it is
private investment and private industry which share in the
benefits of such initiatives.
I have not yet mentioned one great quality of your
industry that commends it to the new Government. That is:
you are an Austrdlian industry, you are overwhelmingly Australianowned
and controlled. You exemplify what we hope to achieve in
other sections of the economy: greater Australian ownership
and control of our industries and resources. Moreover, as you
yourselves have pointed out, the very platform of my party / 4
recognises the importance of heavy engineering in the achievement
of our national goals. Section 8 states that the party's policy
is to encourage nationally the scientific development of our
national resources through the use of our raw materials and
human skills in the fields of metallurgy, metal fabrication and
engineering. This is to be achieved through Government and
private co-operation in the development of national industries
for the greatest advantage to Australia. Section 5 of the
Platform provides that the Government will protect industry by
whatever means are necessary after thorough examination by an
independent government authority.
Many of the decisions we have taken reflect this
awareness of your special importance, your central role in
Australia's future. We established at the outset a new Department
of Secondary Industry, and, within that Department, an Engineering
Industries Division. You have always emphasised the need for
co-operation between government and industry; so have we.
My colleague Dr Cairns has announced his proposal for " industry
panels" to bring together representatives of industry, government,
the trade unions and consumers to advise on the development
of industries. Your Association has had discussions with
the Department of Secondary Industry on setting up a panel in
the area of heavy engineering. We will strengthen the Australian
Industry Development Corporation and free it from restraints,
to enable it to play its full role in developing Australian
industry and keeping it in Australian hands.
I acknowledge the anxieties you have experienced
recently over our tariff proposals. The Tariff Board completed
a long review of your industry early last year. Our predecessors
accepted the Board's recommendation for protection on the grounds
that you are an efficient, economic industry and a national
asset. I should not wish to dispute that finding for a moment;
I wholeheartedly endorse it. But in-view of your application
for a review of tariff levels in the light of our currency
realignments, I do not wish to anticipate what future assistance
your industry may receive or deserve. As you know, we have
decided to transform the Tariff Board into an Industries Assistance
Commission. It will co-ordinate all forms of aid to industry
and improve the allocation of resources among industries throughout
Australia. It will throw open the whole process of assistance
to public scrutiny. It would be unfair to mislead you at this
stage with predictions of what the new Commission will or will
not do. But I assure you of this: no section ot industry ranks
higher in our estimation, or higher in our priorities, than yours.
I know the measures we have taken against inflation
two revaluations, our 25% tariff cut, our policy on interest
rates are not necessarily the measures you would have chosen
yourselves. Yet I suggest that Australian industry, operating
within a basically sound economy, is in a strong position to
withistand the effects of our measures, and to respond to them
in positive and beneficial ways. As you know, we have undertaken
that the Government will assist any industry adversely affected
by our revaluations or tariff cuts. We have set aside $ 25m to
help industries and employees hurt by our tariff measures.
The latest information I have is that one Australian factory
has claimed assistance. The total number of employees
claiming benefits as a result of our measures is 25 throughout
Australia. Three still remain to be placed in new jobs. That
is how disastrous our measures have been to date. So let us
be realistic. If you have worries or grievances we expect
to hear from you. But we want to hear of specific and detailed
cases. We do not want vague and generalised forecasts of
unspecified calamities.
There is no point in my coming before you pretending
that nothing has changed since last December, or that Government
decisions on which you based your plans and expectations last
year will remain unaltered. You know as well as I do that much
has changed. We have a new department with a new and able
Minister at its head, dedicated to your welfare. New positions
are being created and filled in that department. We are
establishing new machinery for consultation and co-operation
between government and industry. We are establishing new
machinery to assist industry and assess its needs.
I ask you to accept that all our reforms are designed
with one purpose: to strengthen Australian industry. Not to
benefit me, or the Government, but to benefit you and
ultimately the Australian people. We have a new Government,
a vigorous Government, a Government that is likely to be around
for some years to come. I suggest that you accept that reality
and work with us, beside us, for tChe welfare and progress of
our nation. Because you are prudent men, realistic men, and
in the last resort, courageous men, I know it is not in your
nature to shirk the challenge of change and opportunity.,
If I merely wanted to offer you comfort and reassurance, I would
simply remind you, as I have already done, that we have your
interests at heart and will safeguard your security. But I
do more than that. I invite you to accept that our plans for
Australian industry, undertaken now in the context of a sound
and expanding prosperity, will lead us forward to a richer,
more progressive, more exciting future.