PRIME MINISTER PRESS STATEMENT NO. 167
31 December 1973
NEW YEAR MESSAGE
I wish all Australians a happy and prosperous year
in 1974. The year just ending began o-n a note of great hope for
Australia and her region with the signing of a ceasef ire in
Vietnam and a withdrawal of Australian and American forces from
Indo-China. Relations between the major powers have continued
to improve, despite some outbreaks which were temporarily beyond
their control. The New Year, however, brings with it risks and
challenges of a different kind and on a different scale. The
industrial nations of the West our friends in the United States,
Europe, Britain and Japan face an energy crisis that has already
significantly affected their economic prospects and traditional
standards and habits of living. The energy shortage will be the
paramount concern, the over-riding reality, for the world's
statesmen in the year ahead.
Australia is immensely fortunate that she has been able
to-avoid internally at least the worst effects of the energy
shortage. It would be foolish to pretend however that we can isolate
ourselve ' s completely or indefinately from its effects. There are
bound to be problems of readjustment for us.
The Australian people now have a Government committed
firmly to maximum Australian ownership and control of olir preuious
resources of minerals and energy. We will never allow these
resources to pass further into overseas hands. We are committed,
through our plans for a Petroleum and Minerals Authority, to
undertake a massive search for new resources which the Australian
people will control. Once we are assured of our own energy
req-airements we will be a generous and dependable supplier to our
customers overseas. I am confident that 1974 will bring even greater progress
and prosperity to Australians.
Our important plans for education, health and the cities
will go forward. We will give special priority to tie care of the
very young and the old those who have not yet entered school and
those who have ceased to work.
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Our efforts for a more just society at home, for
greater equality of opportunity for all Australians, will
equip us better for the task of working to redress the massive
inequalities and injustices in the world at large not least
in our own region.
CANBERRA, A. C. T.