Address to the Nation
by the Prime Ministeron 22 January 1975
I'm taking the earliest opportunity to report to
you on the mission abroad which I have just
completed in company with some principal
members of the Australian administration. This
was very much a representative mission because
of the complexity and diversity of the task
we undertook on Australia's behalf. So as well
as my colleague, Mr Lionel Bowen, the Special
Minister of State. I had with me the heads of the
Overseas Trade Department, the Minerals and
Energy Department and the Attorney-
General's Department and senior men of the
Prime Minister's Department, The Department
of Foreign Affairs and the Treasury. The composition
of the team itself indicates something of
the scope of our task.
The really remarkable thing about Australia's
relations with Europe for the past fifteen years
has been the relative lack-almost total absence-
of contact at the highest level. We visited
seven of the nine members of the European
Economic Community. The Common Market as
a whole is our second largest trading partnerafter
Japan. It buys-or refuses to buyagricultural
products as a unit; it acts as one on
our beef or our sugar. Yet we have never before
had head of government contact with the Community.
More than one and a half million Australians
have come to us from the countries we
have visited in Europe. Those countries have
been ignored by Australian Prime Ministers for
fifteen years. One of the countries-
Yugoslavia-is a founder and leader of the nonaligned
world-a significant grouping with
which every country around the Indian Ocean,
except South Africa, is associated. The Soviet
Union is one of the two super powers which
principally hold the fate of all of us in their hands. No Australian Prime Minister had visited
Yugoslavia or the Soviet Union or most of the
other countries visited by my mission; no Australian
Prime Minister had visited the rest since
the fifties.
Only a visit by the head of government enables
us to put our case, our views-to cover the
whole range of policy-as fully and forcefully as
possible. Only a visit by the head of government
compels the countries visited to clarify and coordinate
their own policies towards us. There
has been a decade and a half of mutual neglect
at this level. It was certainly time that we ended
that neglect-stopped taking each other for
granted-and this was very much the time to do
it.
The countries of Europe are among our chief
trading partners, most of them are in every
sense comparable countries. We share trade,
culture, standards and attitudes, technologyand
we share the same economic problems. It is
because we are a great trading nation, because,
like Europe, we are highly industrialised and
highly urbanised that we cannot insulate ourselves
from Europe's economic problems. There
is scarcely another country whose economy depends
more on the trade which passes through
its ports. Most Australians live in cities which
are trading ports. We cannot isolate ourselves
from the world and its problems and particularly
not from Europe and its problems. Economic
isolationism is not an option for Australia. The
impact of world problems is making its presence
in Australia. Australia must have her presence
felt in the world.
The overall result of my mission has been that
we have been able to present Australia's view
thoroughly, comprehensively and authoritatively
on issues that matter in nations that matter.
I don't believe that any sensible Australian
who cares about our standing in the world, our
reputation, our interests, our influence, our
welfare, would question that this work is a crucial
part of the task of any Australian Prime Min
ister. Australia's economic strength-and this is just
the time when we should be concentrating on
our strengths-lies in our resources. It is a matter
of history that a great deal of these resources
fell under overseas control in the 1 960' s. There
is one resource that is still predominantly in
Australian hands-uranium. I found immense
interest amongst the industrial nations of
Europe in the purchase of Australian uranium,
and therefore, deep interest in the policy of the
Australian Government. I made it clear that we
are anxious to ensure that we are able to
develop our resources with the maximum Australian
ownership. A number of European coun
tries are keen to co-operate with us in the
uranium enrichment process as, of course, is
Japan. Australia's top officials have now been
with me to each of these countries. Our policies
ensure that very soon Australia will be earning
more from her energy resources than she ever
got from wool.
Everywhere I stressed Australia's support for
international co-operation in reducing world
tensions and for the exercise of restraint by the
great powers. I urged the widening and
strengthening of the great movement for
detente. I urged fuller and wider support for the
Nuclear Non -Proliferation Treaty which a
number of countries have yet to ratify. I urged
this course particularly in countries seeking to
buy our uranium. I stressed out belief-strongly
shared by the three Indian Ocean nations I visited-
that the Indian Ocean must not become a
scene of competition or confrontation between
the great powers.
I do want Australians to understand the
remarkable transformation in Australia's standing
and place and prestige in the past two years.
We are in the extraordinarily enviable situation
of having warm, meaningful, mature relations
with all the powers and groupings of relevance
to us. This has been achieved without damaging
old friendships. It has been achieved not by being all things to all men, but precisely because
we put our views clearly and firmly and
stood by them. This visit was necessary to com
plete the pattern-it was a crucial part of the
pattern of relationships we have built over the
last two years. Of course my reception abroad
was personally gratifying, but one just cannot
fail to be heartened by the warmth, the reality of
the interest and respect towards Australia. It
was, for instance, made very manifest again
and again when I resumed my visit after coming
home at the time of the Darwin disaster.
And, of course, the interest in Australia isn't
lessened by the fact that these countries, those
of them who share similar systems and economies,
are experiencing exactly the same
difficulties we are now passing through. Just
before I visited the EEC, the heads of government
of the nine member countries had met to
discuss together their economic problemsunemployment
and inflation-the very same
problems I discussed with seven of them separately.
With all the Western leaders I shared this
common concern. And always the underlying
theme was the recognition that the greatest
danger is loss of nerve on the part of leaders or
peoples. I am confident that the Australian
qualities universally admired abroad will
guarantee that there will be no breakdown here.
During the past five weeks the Parliament was
in recess; the Government certainly was not. It
has been active and alert and will continue to
be. The whole economic measures I announced
in November are now in operation, though the
effect won't show in the figures this month or
next month. We've got under active consideration
the whole range of options open to us, but
it needs cool, steady judgment. We will be applying
it in the weeks and months to come,
strengthened in the knowledge, confirmed by
my visit, that in no sense is Australia alone-not
alone in the diff iculties of the time and above all,
not alone in the world-a world where we enjoy
immense goodwill.