PRIME MINISTER'S CURTIN MEMORIAL LECTURE,
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, E,
CANBERXIA 29 OCTOBER 1975
0C1. " I HI
Thirty-four years ago -October 1941 -in\@ dl't at
political upheaval and at a time of supreme danger f t a,
the House of Representatives asserted its unchallenged and
exclusive right to make and unmake Australian governments. As a
result of that assertion of its exclusive authority, John Curtin
became Prime Minister of Australia.
It is timely to recall tonight the manner in which he
achieved office and the manner by which the first Curtin
Government, one of the very great, if not the very greatest of
all Australian Qovernments, was maintained for more than two
years thereafter. It was a. Government formed solely through a
majority of the House of Representatives and maintained solely
at the will of the majority in the House of Representatives.
Neither in attaining nor retaining the Prime Ministership did
Curtin ever have to consider the state of the political parties
in the Senate. Thus, in the most critical time in this nation's
history, one of the,-, strongest of our governments was sustained
by the narrowest possible majority in the House of Representatives.
But that bare majority was enough for the highest possible of
all purposes the security and survival of this nation. There
could be no more striking proof if proof were ever neededof
the power and absolute supremacy of the majority even a
mere majority -in the House of Representatives.
. The Australian Labor Party has happened to form federal
governments during significant parts of the three great world
crises of the tiwentieth century the two World Wars and the
Great Depression. Naturally enough we have tended to believe
that the people of Australia have turned to Labor for leadership
in times of the greatest peril.. This is only true in the very
loosest sense. The eloctions of 1914 and 1929 which both resulted
in the return of Labor Governments were in no wiay fought on the
Sgreat international issues then about to engulf the world. And
in Curtin's case, the government was formed not directly as a
esalt of any election at all, but by the decision of the House
~ Qof lepresentatives -by the will of the majority in the House
. of . aepresentatives. The prolonged political crisis of 1941 was about numbers
* in the-House of Representatives. Throughout that crisis the
Menzies Government and then the Padden Government was supported
by a clear majority in the Senate. But the numbers in the Senate
were never a consideration throughout the turmoil. It was only
because of-his precarious position in the House of Representatives
that Menzies sought to form a national government with Labor
participation. He wanted to build a reliable working majority
* in the House of Representatives. He could not do that unless
he had Labor support. He failed. He resigned. The Fadden Budget
* was then defeated by the votes of the two Independents, Messrs
* Coles and Wilson. That is the majority in the House of Representatives
changed and therefore the Government of Australia changed. And
* with that paper-thin majority in the House of Representatives,
I
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despite its-minbrity position--in* the Senate,-the Ciirtin
Government* went-on'. t mobilise..-Australja anal to steer Australia
through the perils'of. 1942-and 1-943. That Government was not
only Curtin's. vindication; it was'-a vindication " of the authority
of the House of-Representatives, a vindication never to be forgotten.
episodeIt is especially worth recalling those days because the
epiodeillustrates the novelty of the pretensions to make and
unmake governments now being put forward on behalf of the Senate.
The significant thing about 1941 is that throughout the period,
the state of the Senate and the opinions of Senators were always
irrelevant to the central issue, and totally irrelevant to the
* outcome. No historian today would view the position of the. Senate
which resulted from the 1940 elections as an important factor in
the situation any more than did the politicians of the dayany
more than Menzies or Fadden or Curtin took it into account.
the Melbourne University is now publishing the second volume of
' teCaucus Minutes, the minutes of the Parliamentary Labor Party
from 101 to 1949. The most intriguing revelations intriguing
Sperhaps in more than one sense of the word are about the period
W 1940 1941. In particular, there is the correspondence between
SMenzies, Curtin, Fadden,* Earle Page and Beazley about the possible
formation of a national government. In all that correspondence,
you will never find the Senate mentioned.
In those days; by those men, in the great matter, the
Senate was treated with the reverent silence due to all irrelevant
anachronisms. We do not however have to go back thirty-four years;
recent as that is in terms of constitutional history we have to
* go back no further than our own experience the elections of
1972 and 1974. The elections of 1972 were for the House of
'> Representatives alone; whatever the result had been the state
of the Parties in the Senate had to remain unchanged; an anti-
-, Labor majority was guaranteed until at least July 1974. No
Australian at that time considered that the Senate would be a
> cru,: ial factor in determining the timing of future elections.
Nobody approached the 1972 campaign with any thought other
tha~ i what Australians were doing then was electing a government
for a normal three-year term. There might have been some fleeting
thought given to the possibility of the circumstances by which
Labor, if successful, might be brought to the need for a double
. dissolution. But certainly no-one seriously considered the
possibility of the House of Representatives being forced to an
election by the refusal of Supply by the Senate. And no-one
considered the poss. ibility of a double dissolution triggered off
by the threat of refusal of Supply by the Senate. It has been
* a remarkable example of the unthinkable becoming apparently
quite acceptable. It has since appeared that the Government had barely
taken office when the Opposition in the Senate began planning
to use its numbers to force an early House of Representatives
election. In the words of Senator Withers speaking in April 1974:
" We embarked on a course some 12 months ago to
bring about a House of Representatives election."
-3-
The course of action was being prepared by Senators
who had taken office one and a half and four and a half years
before the Labor Government, and who had been elected two and
five years before the Governmnt. In the present * crisis there
has been a tendency to overlook the fact that the rejection
of money Bills or the refusal of Supply by the Senate does
not of itself and cannot of itself lead to an election for the
Senate. It is aimed only against the House of* Representatives.
The fact that grounds may exist for a double dissolution on
other issues is incidental. It may be politically relevant
but it is constitutionally irrelevant. In April 1973* when this
course was first contemplated there were no grounds for a
double dissolutionno legislation had been twice rejected by
the Senate with a lapse of three months between the first
rejection and the second introduction. Nor when the rejection
of the 1974 Budget was threatened last October did the grounds
exist for another double . dissolution. The slate had been wiped
clean by the 1974 elections. The rejection of the Budget last
,,. year could only hav& led. to a House of Representatives election.
The existence of grounds for a double dissolution now,
on twenty-two Bills which have nothing whatever to do with the
Budget, only obscures -the real implications and the real
intentions of the actions of the Senate. To accept the Senate's
claims now would be to accept the right of the Senate to have
the House of Representatives dissolved without itself having
to go to the people.
It is now clear that behind the present constitutional
struggle there is a wider political question the answer to which
is central to the way in which Australia's whole political life
will develop for the rest of this century and beyond. The
question is not just whether this particular government, the
* Whitlam, Government, will be allowed to govern for the term for
Swhich it was elected. The question is whether any duly elected
reformist government will be allowed to govern in the future.
What is at stake is whether the people who seek change and
reform are ever again to have any confidence that it can be
achieved through the normal parliamentary processes.
0 During my period as Leader of the OppositionlI addressed
-myself to three principal tasks: to develop a coherent program
-of relevant reform; to convince a majority of Australians that
those reforms were relevant; and to convince the Labor movement
as a whole that the Parliamentary institutions were relevant in
achieving worthwhile reform. The great organisational battles
between 1967 and 1970, particular in Victoria, were essentially
about that third task. It was the toughest of all.
I would not wish on any future leader of the Australian
Labor Party the task of having to harness the radical forces to
the restraints and constraints of the parliamentary system if
I were now to succumb in the present crisis. it is clear that
the basic attack which has been mounted against, the Labor
Government from April 1973 onward was not an attack on its
competence or its effectiveness but on its very legitimacy
the legitimacy of any reform government now or in the fut-ure. ./ 4
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There is a certain poignancy for mec in delivering this
Curtin Lecture at a time of deep constitutional crisis ' and high
constitutional drama. It was very mnuch due to John Curtin that
I first became concerned about the Australian Constitution.
In 1961 1 delivered the second Curtini Memorial Lecture uinder the
auspices of the University of Western Australia branch of the
Australian Labor Party. I said then:
" My interest in constitutional matters stems from
* the-time when John Curtin was Prime Ministor.
The Commonwealth Parliament's powers were than at
their most ample and it was constitutionally, if
not always politically, more open to a Labor
* Government to carry out its policies than it is in
peace time. Johin Curtin, however, saw -that he was
presiding over a passing phase. He was not content
with the paradox that the Labor Party was free to
enact its policies in times of war alone.
Accordingly, in 1944 he sponsored a referendum
to give the Federal Parliament post-war powers.
His motives for holding the referendum were based
on patriotism and experience. He argued the case
with his full logic and eloquence. The opposition
to the referendum was spurious and selfish. The
arguments were false. My hopes were dashed by the
outcome and from that moment I determined to do
* all I could to modernise the Australian Constitution."
The title of that lecture was '. Democratic Socialism
within the Constitution". Some years previously, in 1957,
I delivered the Chifley Memorial Lecture in Melbourne. The
title of that lecture was '' The Constitution versus Labor'.
It. would be fair to say that the difference in the two subjects
expressed the development of my thinking over the intervening
four years. In the Chifley Lecture I was concerned with
the difficulties confronting the Australian Labor Party in
carrying out its policies under the federal system. In the 1961
Curtin lecture, I emphasised the opportunities a Labor Government
would have to carry out its policies under -the federal. system as
it then stood and as it still stands. I summed up by saying:
" Members of the Parliament must accept the permanent
necessity of seeking the people's consent before
they can nationalise an industry. This should not
be regarded as too stifling an inhibition in these
* times. Socialists are now more concerned with the
creation of opportunities than the imposition of
restraints. Within our own nation we do not have
to ration scarcity but plan abundance The
Australian Government has as much constitutional
freedom as any other national government to plan the
public sector in Australia and to make arrangements
with other countries. Through its financial
hegemony it can create better conditions in transport,
housing, education and health; it can create new
industries; it can create new communities. Through
international arrangements it can share in the more
orderly and equitable production, distribution andexchange
of goods and skills. Socialists have to
play the most dynamic role in the relatively skilled
and affluent community inhabiting our remote, dependent
and unevenly developed continent."
To a very great extent the broad lines of actionI
then foreshadowed were to form, after years of refinement and
development in the Parliament and within the Party, the, program
on which the Party was elected in 1972 and which the Australian
Government has endeavoured to carry out during the two Parliaments
in which we have had a clear House of Representatives majoritythe
truncated twenty-eighth Parliament and this threatened,
turbulent twenty-ninth Parliament.
One of the ironies of the present situation is that
the philosophy of the program assumes acceptance of the rulesthe
ground rules of a system which is inherently conservative.
The program accepts the limitations of the Cornstitution, the
unwieldiness of the Parlirnentary system as an instrument for
executive action and the frustrations of the federal system.
We accepted the rules of the game. In our innocence we thought
that our opponents did too.
In practice the real difficulties in carrying out the.
pogram have not arisen in any serious degree from the obvious
limitations imposed by the Constitution and the federal. system.
* True, there has been obstruction and non-co-operation and often
sheer bloodymindedness on the part of the States. And true,
we have so far failed in attempts to secure amendments to the
Constitution. These involved setbacks;. but the Government can
live with them. I know it would disappoint him terribly, but
I must confess I never lie awake at nights worrying about
Mr Bjelke-Petersen. I can easily put up with the pretensions
* of the Premier's palindromic pro-consul or as easily put
them down. The really intractable difficulties, however, have
arisen from problems quite external to the Constitution and
* the federal system. These have been political and economic,
but the economic difficulties themselves have been vastly
., compounded by political distortions. So in a very real sensewithout
any attempt on my part to escape responsibility or to
* deny mistakes and misjudgements Australia's present difficulties,
M. ot least the economic difficulties, spring from a gross and
prolonged distortion of normal political processes.
I first put our economic problems in their world
perspective but, equally, I do suggest that our ability to
take national action to ameliorate the consequences of an
international situation has been seriously compromised by an
artificially-induced domestic political crisis.
When my Government was elected our aim was to finance
our new programs from growth. But world-wide inflation and
recession frustrated this objective. This is no mere self-
* justification. The whole industrialised world is currently
going through the worst peacetim~ e inflation on record and the
deepest recession since the 1930' s. Within the OECD, the
membership of which includes virtually every industrialised
country in the world, the average rate of inflation jumped from
3.9 per cent per annum in the decade 1962 to 1972, to 7.9
per cent in 1973 and 13.4 per cent in 1974. Real Gross National
Product which rose at the rate of 5.4 per cent per annum in
the decade to 1972 declined slightly for the OECD countries
? a whole in 1974 and is expected to show a decline of about
5per cent in 1975. / 6
-6-
The OECD Economic Outlook stated on 17 July 1975:
" The present recession in OECD countries is the
most serious since the war. It is remarkable not
only for its length and depth a third consecutive
. half-year of negative growth has now been recorded
for the area as a whole but also for its widespread
nature: virtually every OECD country grew by less
than-its miedium-term average rate in 1974, and no
economy is expected to take up slack in 1975.
The margin of idle resources in the OECD area is now
the largest in the post-war period, with unemployment
at record levels. The forecasts presented in the
December Economic Outlook, and to a greater extent
those being made at that time by national authorities,
proved to be too optimistic. Industrial output
in the matjor countries fell very sharply in the last
quarter of 1974 and the first quarter of this year.
The extent and simultaneous nature of the decline
was unlike anything recorded in the post-war period.
The combined GNP of the major countries, which was
thought at the time to have increased marginally in
the second half of 1974, is now estimated to have
fallen, at an annual rate, by over one per cent.
output was expected to continue stagnating in the
first half of this year; it may in fact have fallen
at an annual rate of about five per cent. The
December Economic Outlook gave reasons for supposing
. that the balance of uncertainties attaching to the
. forecasts was on the downside; but the extent to which this
proved to be the case is astonishing."
There is no way in which Australia could have escaped
being caught up in these disruptive world-wide economic developments.
We are, after all, a major trading country, so what happens to
our major trading partners the United States, Japan and the
United Kingdom is bound to affect us. It is estimated that in
the course of the recession industrial production fell by
Spei7 cent in Japan, by over 14 per cent in the United States and
by. over 8 per cent in the United Kingdom. Even West Germany,
wh . ch has ridden out this storm better than most, suffered a
fall in industrial production of ' over 11 per cent. What is more,
these declines should be viewed against strong upward trends
previously existing at least for the United States, Japan and
West Germany; on this basis the loss of potential output has been
much greater than these figures imply.
Against this background, the OECD forecast for a real
growth of 2 per cent of GDP in Australia this calendar year is
relatively good, disappointing by past standards though it may
be. In the same period, the OECD expects real growth in Japan
to rise by 1 per cent and to fall by 2 per cent in Germany and
almost 4 per cent in the United States. And overall, growth
of real GDP in all the OECD nations in calendar 1975 is expected
tLo be minus 1 1 per cent. In an international situation such as
this, it was inevitable that Australia would also be faced with
sizeable economic problems. ./ 7
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Havin~ g said that, it is impossible to exaggerate the
degree to which the impact of these world-wide trends has been
exacerbated by internal political disruptions. It is impossible
to exaggerate the additional. pressures placed upon the
Government in trying to ameliorate those difficulties. For the
fact is that during two critical periods in the nation'--
economic cycle, the normal business of Government has been
disrupted and interrupted. In his Calwell Memorial Lecture.
on 22 September the Treasurer, Bill Hayden, emphasised the
disruption that-had occurred because Australia was forced to
have two general elections within eighteen mnonths and which
would occur again if Australia were forced to have a third
election in less than three years. Mr Hayden said:
" Surprisingly, it is not widely realised that that
very act of premature elections itsel~ f is enormously
destabilising to the administration of this country.
" For instance, at the time of the double dissolution
* last year, the administration of national affairs
was more or less in a state of suspension for
some thing like three months during the election
campaign and the post-election uncertainty until the
marathon Senate count was completed.
" The distraction of the election diverted, attention
from detailed social and economic management,
especially from the latter.
" The community should be aware that the economy
cannot afford that again.
n " In retrospect, it seems that there were a number
of significant economic developments during that
period which were subsequently to create problems.
" If the undistracted attention of the Government
had been available to attend to economic management
. at that time, the ill effects of those developments
might at least have been moderated."
That was the Treasurer speaking on 22 September. None
of us really foresaw what would be happening a mere month later.
Quite frankly we did accept at their face value the repeated
statements made by the Leader of the Opposition. Clive of
India contemplating the plunder he might have engorged confessed
he stood amazed at his own moderation. Sometimes I stand amazed
,. at our own trustfulness.
In this situation we should be concerned not only with
the political disruption but the psychological effects that
this disruption must inevitably have upon the economy, upon the
people, and not least, upon the public service. ./ 8
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The Budget itself is a nicely balanced even a
precariously balanced attempt to deal with the competing
demands of pressing economic problems and of social justice.
It is as adventurous and as imaginative a Budget as has ever
been attempted in this country or in any comparable country.
For any significant Budget, and this one in particular, at
this time in particular, its effectiveness depends on a whole
range of subtle, intangible, psychological factors. It was
in recognition of this, for instance, that the Treasurer, very
properly, very-commendably, took a special step to ensure that
the leader of the trade union movement the spokesman for
that section of the Australian community upon which the
success or failure of the Budget must chiefly turn should
understand its underlying nature and purpose.
But what authority can a Budget have,, what success
can a Budget strategy have if it is delayed week after week--
and those the most . critical weeks in the financial year?
There is another very serious aspect of this present
crisis which perhaps only those of us who have to live and work
most of our time in this city will fully appreciate. This
capital is, arguably, the most pol. itical and most politicised
Scity in the world, not excepting Washington. We are not the
'. only City cxeated as the political and administrative capital
of a nation. But the curious combination of isolation and
intimacy in this city, of all the people who live and work in
it, makes it a uniquely sensitive organism. It is extraordinarily
difficult for the normal administration, the normal decisionmaking
processes, the normal operations of the on-going public
service to continue unaffected, uninterrupted almost at any
level -when this city is preoccupied by a political crisis.
I think we are all aware of this. Without putting it too high,
there is always a very real risk in Canberra that an
,-overwhelming political preoccupation will mean administrative
paralysis. I think it appropriate I should point this out
here in this city and in this University, which gives Canberra
its best claim to be a true city in the full meaning of the word.
V. It is something of which everybody who has to make decisions
about this present crisis should take note.
I I want to put it to you that we have an extraordinary
situation combining great international difficulties with
artificially imposed political difficulties. Yet it is a
situation in which the elected Government is determined to continue
the business of Government and is duty-bound to continue the
business of Government. The world's economic problems will
compound Australia's problems and only a slow recovery can be
hoped for. Encouraging signs are emerging; the wisdom of the
Budget is now apparent if it is allowed a chance to work.
Nevertheless, highly undesirable implications of inflation
impose a limit on the rate of recovery. Control of inflation
is the Government's first economic priority. Unless inflation
is curbed the nation's productive capacity will run down and job
opportunities will diminish. Failure to control inflation would
mean that the present undesirable unacceptable -high levels
of unemployment would worsen. / 19
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This Government rejects any policy of deliberately creating
massive unemployment and widespread business failures in order
to stop inflation abruptly but until inflation is controlled
we will have to live with unemployment at a level that would,
in other circumstances, be unacceptable; otherwise we will not
be able to achieve our goal of full employment in the future.
The Government is adhering resolutely to its wages
policy and to support of indexation. There already are
indications of the value of its resolute stand. But we can
only successfully continue that stand if the elected Government
has, and is seen to have, authority and legitimacy.
The Government has adjusted personal income tax scales
to give relief to those most in need from the higher incidence
of taxation due to inflation and to remove the inequities from
the income tax whereby the well-to-do benefited more from
concessional deductions than those on lower incomes.. The
Government has not hesitated to intervene in industrial disputes
* that threaten its wages policy.
The Government is concerned to stimulate and maintain
business confidence and to create an environment in which business
rcwill invest. Consistent with the Government's wishes the
PriesJustification Tribunal has placed greater emphasis on
future profitability and investment plans of industry. The
Mathews Committee recommended a changed approach to the valuation
of trading stocks for business purposes and the indexation of
* depreciation allowances. The enormous revenue costs and the
practical difficulties of implementation left the Government no
alternative but to set these recommendations aside and to adopt
an alternative recommendation made by the Mathews Committee to
reduce company tax and also to continue the system of double
rates of depreciation beyond 30 June 1975, extending it to all
-vsectors of commerce arid industry.
Let me put this as succinctly as I can: the programn
of the Australian Labor Government has been designed to achieve
iandindeed has achieved a significant redistribution of the
~> national wealth in favour of the majority but the base on which
that redistribution has been achieved and in a mixed economy
the private sector must be a powerful part of that base iS not
now strong enough to sustain the continuing upward redistribution
of wealth or, perhaps, to sustain the great gains that have
already been made.
As to the reality of the redistribution,-let me
instance two examples employees and pensioners that is, the
overwhelming majority of Australian adults.
Average minimum award rates have risen by 55 per cent
and average earnings by 45 per cent over the past two years
while the cost of living, as measured by the increased
by 32 per cent in the same period.
using a slightly different base period between
1969 and 1974 the average income of those aged 65 or ' over
whose principal source of income i-s Government social service
* benefits rose by 74 per cent while the C. P. I. rose by 38 per
cent. For those people it represented a rise in real income
in that period of around 26 per cent.
* I must emphasise, however, that in our mixed economy
the base on which these advances have been made must be
strengthened. Not least of the purposes of the Budge:, this
tremendously important Budget now put in a sort of limbo by
the Senate-is to strengthen that base by increasing the
profitability and viability of the private sector.. A couple
of months ago, business might have said that the one thing
needful to restore confidence was a change of Government.
Increasingly business now recognises that the one thing needful
is to pass the Budget, to end the present political crisis,_
to let the elected-Government govern.
I return to the beginning: the basic principle is that
the elected government must be enabled to govern and that the
elected Government is made or unmade through the House of
Representatives. I quote Quick and Garran first in time and
first in authority on our Constitution writing at the time
of the founding of the Australian Parliament:
" The House of Representatives is not only the
national chamber; it is the democratic chamber;
it is the grand repositry and embodiment of the
liberal principles of government which pervade
the entire constitutional fabric. It is the
chamber in which the progressive instincts and
popular aspirations of the people will be most
likely to make themselves first felt... by the
Constitution, it is expressly intended to be
such a House, and by its organisation and
functions, it is best fitted to be the area in
which national progress will find room for
development." I put it to you with all earnestness: it is because
* this Government has attempted to make this Parliament the
instrument for reform, for long overdue change, for progress,
for the redistribution of wealth, for the uplifting of the
underprivileged, for the reduction of the privileges of great
wealth and deeply entrenched vested interests, an instrument
towards equality of opportunity for all Australians, that our
opponents and those vested interests have from the very beginning,
as Senator Withers revealed, embarked on a course to destroy
this Governmentat the earliest opportunity. l
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I fully expect that the authority of the House of
Representatives shall be asserted and established quite
soon and in such a way as to assert and establish it beyond
doubt for all time. I fully expect that the authority of
that House will be as successfully asserted and established,
in a very different time, in a very different context, but
with the same significance and value for this nation as it
was 34 years ago -as it was to make the greatest of all
my predecessors. John Curtin -Prime Minister of Australia.
3q~~ 2~ o~ 9P jib / Vc
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