PRIME MINISTER'S PR,-S, CONFERENCE, j-2 IS, N'VMBER 1974
QUESTION: Are you going to make any major announcements here
in Mt Isa?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't have it in mind to make any particular
announcement, any one announcement. The approach that my
Government has to Mt Isa can be seen from the fact that we have
set up a Department of Northern Development. We particularly
want to concentrate on developing this most distant part of
Australia and the first Minister for Northern Development,
Dr Rex Patterson, is a public man who knows the North from
east to west more than any one has ever known it.
There have been quite a number of specific things
that we have been able to do for Mt Isa, for instance, we
have now put through the Parliament it went through the Senate
on Thursday night the Local Government Grants Bill constituting
the first recommendations made by the reconstituted Grants
Commission and Mt Isa City Council will get $ 250,000 within
a fortnight to spend as it sees fit. Cloncurry will get
$ 86,000. My colleague Mr Frank Stewart, the Minister for
Tourism and Recreation, has already I believe announced a grant
of $ 115,000 to a community recreation centre in Mt Isa.
My colleague Mr Bill Hayden, the Minister for
: oial Security, will be opening a regional office of the
De -rtment of Social Security this financial year. There are
par cular difficulties facing the residents of Mt Isa because
of . ie city's isolation. A social worker will be included among
the st of the Social Security office in Mt Isa. It won't
theret r-e dealing just with paym-nts and the assessment of
payments; i ill also have a person trained to give advice.
I think there are 340 aged pensioners in Mt Isa, 133 invalid
pensioners, 123 widow pensioners and 4,000 families receiving
child endowment. I don't think ever in Australia I've been
received by so many babes in arms at an airport. I have at
Rabaul, in Papua New GC: inea, but never in Australia. Mr Hayden's
Deprrtment is also considering an application for a 34-bed
ho,' tal for the care of the aged in Mt Isa.
Now perhaps I can give the Northwest Star details
of th . e afterwards. You aren't going to press until Monday
are you.
QUESTION: This ' 250,000.....
PRIME MINISTER: It is for -he Council to spend as it sees fit.
QUESTION: Has any request been made to you for finance ( unclear)
PRIME MINISTER: That's being considered by the body that the
Australiai and State Governments have all set up. It's being
reviewed by that body the Screening Committee of the National
Water Program and it may be that the Queensland and Australian
Government will be able to make some announcement. There has
been no proposition made by the State Government than the one which
we accepted in the legislation in 1972 and then again earlier
this year. An agreement was signed between our two Gove, iments
on 11 April this year embodying the only matters which had becn
formally put b the State Government to the Australian Government
up till that time or at all. I also should tell you that there
is. going to be. a legal aid office opened in Mt Isa. In the
overall context Mt Isa will have the great advantage of being
a pivotal point on the National Highways Program. The Australian
Government has alway-had the authority under the Constitution
to build roads to promote trade between the States or access to
the Territories, so we are going to undertake the whole cost
of maintaining and constructing the Flinders and Landsborough
Highway. That means you will at last be certain there is a
decent road available all the time between Mt Isa and Brisbane
and all points south and between Mt Isa and of course, the
Northern Territory. Mr Connor, is very keen to upgrade the railway, which
is now fully extended and he may tell you more about his proposals
for the phosphate deposits for which the railway would have to
be upgraded between Duchess and the Coast.
You not only have copper here and so on but in this
region you also have the very best deposits that Australia has
ever discovered in phosphates, and they're very large items of
import to Australia. These places from which we've been importing
phosphates are running out Nauru, Ocean Island, Christmas Island,
in the Indian Ocean and we have these very great deposits within
Australia, within this region.
QUSTION: The building industries in town are worried about the
lack of housing commission homes which are to be built in the
next year within this city. Are there any commission homes
planned early in 1975 to keep these men who are frightened of
losing in employment?
PRIME MINISTL_. The State Government builds housing commJisuoi.
houses; the Australian Government finds the money for thE
Last June I gave every State Premier a blank cheque to bui,.,
housing commission b-uses. As many houses as the Queensland
Government can let a ntract for will be financed by my Government.
There's no bottleneck far as the Australian Government is
conct-rned. Every house which the Housing Commission can build
in t, ensland will be immediately funded by the Australian
t. That has been the position ever since last June 7.
You are mentioning building too. There is, I don't know the
details f-t -stance schools in Mt Isa, but a year ago the
Australian i iament passed legislation to provide for additional
funds for schoo uildings for 1974/ 75. Queensland to date has
only sought 18% o-the m, -v which the Australian Parliament passed
twelve months ago for GoveL..-nt school buildings. So that
means there is an inense amou: i ) f nioney available for housing
commission homes as many as the StaLe Government can construct
and for school buildings. The Government can have as much money
for those buildings as it has so far spent.
QUESTION: Can I ask Mr Connor a question?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes indeed. I would like you to. This is one
of the mineral capitals of Australian and he's the Czar of
minerals in Australia.
-3-
QUESTION: Th-.. ee countries have taken measures to boost
maintain the copper price? What will Australia b1-doing ahojc this-
CONNOR: Well the CIPEC countries that's Peru, Chile, Zambia
and Zaire have decided to curtail production by 10%. It's
debatable as to what the net result of it will be. Copper is of
course, is a highly volatile metal in price and its history has
traditionally been one of production in politically unstable
countries. We in Australia have tried to maintain a stable
price and I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to the ultimate
effect. I don't think it will have much. The trend in copper
has been downwards. Copper at one stage was right up around
$ 2.260 a ton so dear, in fact, that it was pricing itself our
of the market and substitutes were coming in. The position t0lay
is a much more healthy one, providing we can hold the present
price structure.
QUESTION: There's no question of you suggesting that Mt Isa
Mines should cut their production?
CONNOR: I think we can place all that they can produce
immense amounts.
QUESTION: Are you expecting a censure motion in the House on
Monday? PRIME MINISTER: I just have to read what you have to say in
the papers. I don't know.
QL. ' TION: Are you going back for the Parliament on Monday?
PRIIE PINISTER: Yes I'll be going back.
QUESTION: Yr i made a comment a while ago that the petrol sn1 : y
for country .: eas would only affect mining companies and sm.
Do you think this is really true when you ccnsider thai , T
of petrol now costs ll½ more than when the subsidy was i, t".
which is now coming out of the woilking man'.-pocket-
PRIME MINISTER: Th( . rincipal beneficiaries were mining companir
in this city and in Western Australia. In this context I buliev
th; 4orking man in general would be much more assisted iby
ele : ity. As you will appreciate, there are . rr, qreat
numhel of people in this region who don't have Lars a. J1l and
the petr-l subsidy makes no difierence to them. There ctre ve
few indeeu don't use electricity and provincial cities ir
Queensland pa, -re than provincial cities anywhere else in
Australia. Las. Jane I ' rote to the outgoing Premier suggesting
that his Government and Government might co-operate in a str-v
to ascertain the cost Y e1 -tricity in Queens-la:;. i : vinci
cities and in th: State gcne. Ad be Drought dowi. cise:
the average price of the eastern Stares. He hasn't yet answered
the letter.
QUESTION: Has Mr Hawke contacted you about the ajrline sLrik.-
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. Yes.
QUESTION: Can you tell us anything....
PRIME MINISTE: No I don't publicise conversations I ha,.
QUESTION: He apparently was anxious....
PRIME MINISTER: Well that may be but I'm not going to. I never
have and I'm not going to. A very great number of people speak
to me face to face or on the telephone and I do not make a
practice of announcing what we discuss.
QUESTION: Have you spoken to Mr Jones?
PRIME MINISTER: No. Well what do you mean by telephone? No.
QUESTION: Could I ask whether you support the idea of TAA and
Ansett together discussing the wage issue? With the....
PRIME MINISTER: I believe that the domestic pilots ought to
go to Arbitration. I have no sympathy whatever at their
resorting to direct action so promptly as they've become
accustomed to do.
QUESTION: Did they not resort to direct action because the
Government airline and Ansett would not negotiate with them?
PRIME MINISTER: It's for them to say why they resorted to direct
action. The proposition is that they should go to Arbitration.
QUESTION: Yesterday a comment was made by a prominent ALP man
that especially in Queensland, the employers were forcing or
inti. midating the worker into strike action to make it look bad
for the ALP. Do you have any comments on that?
PRIME D NISTER: No, quite frankly I haven't seen the papers.
Where vas this supposed to be said? The other chaps here with
us wou. d ki. i that I don't comment on comments like this. Y
can ask me tu my views but I'm long experienced now; I
that there's nothing in commenting on somebody's summary
selection of somebody else's comment.
QUESTION: I would 1-e to talk about thc National Highway Schem?& te.
The Landsborough Highway is now a national road but the slightcst
amoint of rain closes it. What allocation frow the Highway Scher,.
wil] he Government make for this stretch of road?
PRIME Ii[ NISTER: I haven't got at my fingertips the exa, amiour
There a: national highways in Queensland the one
State bcrde ar Warwick through Brisbane to Cairns and ther: will
be another one om Cairns up to Mt Isa and the Territory border.
We have now accented the sponsibility of maintaining and
constructing those roads. er since the war successive
Australian Govcrnments have -11 hundreds of millions of dollrs;
to State Governments for roads and State Government i
succeeded in producing a national highway scheme. You c; jinot cgo
at every time of the year with certainty between the varous Stc. t,*
Territory -apitals. In those circumstances the Australian Gov. i
has decided to accept the responsibility which it has always
had under the Constitution.
QUESTION: What plans do you have or does the Government have
to improve the statistical information regarding economic changes
which Treasury delivers to the Government?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll be in a better position to tell yr. within
a week.
QUESTION: There are plans for this....
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, but it would be premature for me to mention
them.
QUESTION: Why do yoL say within a week, Prime Mi . ister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I might be able to tell you that ii, a few
days. I'll issue communique in a few days, probably on that.
QUESTION: Prime Minister, will you answer questions today about
the transfer of Mr Crean from Treasury portfolio?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
QUESTION: Do you think that the Premier is taking the ri. jht
line in campaigning on national issues in the State election?
PRIME MINISTER: I welcome the opportunity to expose his lack of
co-operation on national issues. We have decided to accept
responsibility for a national roads scheme because of the failures
for 17 years now of Country Party/ Liberal Government in this
State. It's true that in two years we have been unable to
overcome the deficiencies of 17h years of LCP Government, Federal
and Queensland. We're doing our best. He doesn't like it but there
are other Premiers who don't like it either but they are accepting
-t where they see it is of benefit to their citizens. Other
Pi. tiers realise that there have been shortcomings which have
developad and they swallow their pride and accept our assistance
in (. veicoming those shortcomings. But the Queensland Premier
alone c7-s not do so. I have pointed to the fact that the
Premie h. c -ived his State of at least $ 50 million udcir
schemes whi have been accepted by every other State.
legislation has been passed by the Australian Government
with the support in most cases of the Liberal and Countr'
in both Houses. Sometimes those parties have divided e.
Country Party suppo '-ed the Schools Program; the Liberals opposeit
b-it it went throus,, both Houses. Any schemes we enact apply
to The whole of Australia. They are available on the same con: Li
in c ' ery part of Australia and the other States have accepted
theoL s-hemes, e. g. the scheme for reducing the r -cc of land&,
for bu..-ding in regional centres.
is a situation resented by the Queensland Libera
leader, Sir G. ion ChalTk, the Treasurer, the Deputy Premier. He
would have ente. I into these schemes, the same as any other
Liberal Premier in Austr._ i as well as the Labor leaders in
Australia have already don.
QUESTION: This $ 50 million that Mr Bjelke-Petersen hasn't spent;
how much has this contributed to unemployment? Have you got any
figures on the jobs that may have been provided with increasel
expenditure?
4 -6-
PRIME MINISTE~ R: No I haven't but very obviously there w,. uld b
a great deal of employment created by the development of growth
centres or laind development schemes. That has been the case in
Monarto in South Australia and Albury-Wodonga and with Bathurst-
Orange. But I would say the big contribution to employment is in
the building industry., i. e. if they would only in this State use
the money which is available for school buildings and welfare
housing.