' p TRANSCIF T PRlOOF ONU. f E. O. E.
DECIATTN QOF VMLS. RQL-TYAY 21 7PCiI, 1983
Firs. t~ v, of course, I'd lil: e to thank all of those who took~
part in the electorate of Wills during the election period,
especially in the circum= itancos when I~ could zpend virtually
no tims here at all -and their magnificcnt efrt3, as well
as camapaigning fcr the Party oa a whole, are reflected in tl-.
-vo-rds that 1have Ju. t been read out. I thank you a. 3l m ost
S incerely' for the work that you did on my 1beha1l and on behalf
of the Party.
0Juot a faconunents about the election generally. All I call say 3. s
that if the election were being held today, I think we would hv c~
even better. We had a magnificent result. We've got a rco:) d(
Majority in the House of Representatives and the actual voteseem~
s to be about the best since 1914. It's an unusual experience
to go into the Caucus rocm now as wre did the ot her day, Land be
sitting there with more than 100 people
The results that we expected on the 5th March hay iontinued to
be reflected here on Saturday in the Springvale Ey-eiection.
It's quite remarkable to be there, Xfter so many elections the
Labor Party going ahead again by a further I t', s no0t
surprising that this is the case because I believe that what
I was saying during the election campaign is being nowv refle~ cted
in the truth. And that is that I expressed the view that the ecplc
of Australia were going to revolt against the insult to their
intelligence which was involved in the campaign of thc L:. bera.
Party. They tried to say that the people of Australia who
Q were concerned about unemployment, and concerned abcut the
real issues which were affecting their daily lives the best the
Liberal Party could do was talk about con=. unists under the bed
and talk about the banks collapsing, and talk about money l. eavin~ g
the country. They did a lot of damage to our country in that
campaign. But the greatest damage they did was to themselves in
in making the people of Australia realise -that they couldn't be
trusted, if they were going to talk like that.
With those things behind us we are going to be sure that in the
governnernt of this country, with what is left of the Liberal
Party in Opposition that they have the laciiiticcn prc. vided tc' hcm to
play somne part in the proper processes of the arimn. are not
cjjoing to be vindictive, we will * iive them the b!: efitSthtto.
made available to us. And all I can say is that I c'nw Lr
they will respond to what we're doing ard to what the verdict ef
the Australian pople is. And the verdict of the ;% ustralian
people is cl2oar. ThFy understand very clearly what the qreC3L
economnic . problems,/' f-i~ t we'ye ihrtdfrom the T. ibor.-i1 ol
They aire exnect ing us jirprozich c cor-,-truct . vo1y. I re
doIrng thazt and it.' s tourcnratV c. of'nt:; v
up and to live in 19 13 and not to u oe sthiey in~~ h
campakigjn, that: thecy juc. t. ch-ea tvu; h n 1 r
horn r f... 1
2.
All the events here in Victoria have shown that the natural
party in Australia is the Labor Party. We now govern in Western
Australia, in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and
federally. And we will show by the way we govern at both State
and Federal level that we are the natural party of government to
the people of Australia. We will address ourselves to their
problems. We, within Lhe very, very severe limitations that
have been put upon us by the deception of the previous government,
will move gradually to make this country a fairer and more decent
place so that the ordinary people of Australia are going to
have the opportunity of sharing in the great wealth of this
country, so that their children can have an opportunity for the
fulfilment of the talents within them.
So, I conclude, as I began. I thanX the members of my Party
the people of around here in Wills/ B9e been so good to me and
the Party I thank you who are not in the party who have supported
us so much. And I give you the pledge that in respect of this
electorate Wills you have now a representative in the person
of the Prime Minster of the country I will assure you, the
electorate of Wills, that I won't let you down and that the
Government that I have the great honour of leading, will do
great things for this electorate, for this State and for this
country, We are looking forward to a long period in Government
to do the sorts of things that you want us to do..
Thank you.