PM Transcripts

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FOE PRIME MINISTER I IRAry
~ MEDIA FRIDAY, 9 MAY, 198,"~
VISIT TO HOBART BY ANTARCTIC CONVENTION DELEGAT~ z~
Delegates to the International Conference on the
Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources,
currently meeting in Canberra, will travel to Hobart
this weekend by RAAF ( VIP) aircraft. The delegation
will travel with Mr. Newman, the Minister Assisting the
Prime Minister in Federal Affairs, who will lead their
visit to Hobart.
The visit has been arranged as a result of the strong
-representations I have received from Federal Government
1* embers and Senators in Tasmania, to ensure that the
permanent headquarters of the proposed International
Conservation Commission for Antarctic Marine-Living
Resources will be established in Hobart..
Such a move has been strongly advanced by the Australian
delegation at the Conference in Canberra, and also through
informal diplomatic contacts over a long period....
These continuing Australian moves to secure-. Hobart's
selection by the international delegates as the site
0of the headquarters, are an extension of previous.
Commonwealth initiatives to ensure Tasmania's
. pre-eminence in fields relating to Antarctic and-.
marine matters.
Senior delegates from the fifteen nations taking part in the.
Conference will have an opportunity to see for themselves
the significance of the initiatives undertaken by the
Commonwealth Government to strengthen Tasmania's position
in these fields. These have included establishment of the
Australian Maritime College in Launceston, transfer to
Hobart of the Antarctic Division of the Department of
Science and the Environment, and most recently, the
Government's decision to establish a Marine Science Centre
in Hobart including the transfer of the CSIRO division of
Fisheries and Oceanography. These actions are a part of
the Commonwealth's positive response to the report by
Sir Bede Callaghan on the structure of industry and the
employment situation in Tasmania.
The Commonwealth's support for the visit is a reflection of
the importance the Government attaches to the representations
I have received in support of Hobart as the preferred site
for the Conservation Commission headquarters.
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