PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA 19 January 1986
TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
ETHNIC MEETING LALOR LIBRARY, SCULLIN BY-ELECTION
Friends, It gives me very great pleasure to be here today. And that is
not something that I just say in a formal sense to you.
As I was able to say in the Federal Parliament in 1984 when the
opposition had sought to make something of a political issue out
of immigration and did themselves a very great disservice in the
process. I was able to say that in fact one of the basic reasons
why I joined the Australian Labor Party straight after the end of
the last war, when I was a student at the University of Western
Australia, was the great pride that I took in the way in which
the Labor Party in government at that time, developed the most
imaginative immigration policy which has ever been adopted by any
political party in any western democracy.
The Labor Government in power then firstly under the Prime
Ministership of John Curtin till 1945 and then Ben Chifley after
1945, with the Immigration minister being Arthur Calwell made a
decision even~ during a period of war when massively important
issues had to be confronted in war-time, they thought about what
sort of country Australia was going to be after the war.
And one of the central features-of their thinking as they tried
to plan for a b etter Australia after the war was a commitment to
a massive immigration.
As a young man in Perth, as I went to university in 1947, I
joined the Labor Party then now nearly 40 years ago, 40 years
next year one of the main inspirations that I had was the way
in which I was able to identify with the Labor Party in their
view about what needed to be done to change the composition of
Australia.
At that stage, at the end of the war, Australia had a very small
population of 7 million people. And the leaders of the Labor
Party realised that this was a large country with very great
resources. And they knew that if we were going to be able to
develop those resources we had to have more people. more people i
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than could just be provided by the process of natural increase.
And so there was born the great immigration policy of that
post-war period.
And under that policy, which saw the greatest migration wave in
recorded history, we had a total transformation of the
composition of the Australian population.
This was a two-way thing. It obviously has been a great thing
for Australia that people could come here and bring their skills,
traditions, experience and background to this country. And also
it has been good for them because we have been able to offer a
new home and new opportunities for people in circumstances better
than -they probably would otherwise have been able to enjoy_ from
the countries from which they came at least in those earlier
day~ s just after the war.
And so this has been a good thing for the people that-have come
and certainly a great thing for Australia.
As I look at this country today in 1986 and I try an compare
it with that country of 40 years ago when I joined the Labor
Party, it is almost impossible to see the country as the same
place. Because now it is not 7 million people. It is getting on for 16
million people.
And an economy which has been radically transformed. A country
which is now not inward-looking but is realises that we are part
of South East Asia the most rapidly growing part of the world.
A country which is now able to make a very significant
contribution to developments in those areas and in turn to
benefit from them.
And right through all those changes has been the change in
composition of our population.
As I say, it is easy for me to come and meet with a group like
this because for the whole of my adult political career I have
identified with, and regarded as fundamentally important, this
change that has taken place in Australia via our immigration
program. Peter referred to the fact that before I went into the Parliament
I was the President of the ACTU for the decade of the 1970s. And
in that decade one of the most important tasks of that job as
President of the ACTU, I regarded as my work on the immigration
advisory and immigration planningcouncils jobs which I
undertook for the whole of that decade of the 1970s.
Because it is true and should be remembered, that when the Labor
Party at the end of the war, decided that it was going to embark
on -this massive immigration program, a great deal of persuasion
had to be done with the trade union movement.
In the period before the war we had never had full employment in
this country and there was some suspicion on the part of workers
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in this country that if we had hundreds of thousands of people
coming here from overseas, then they were suspicious that there
wasn't going to be a continuation of their employment.
Fortunately for this country, the leaders of the industrial
labour movement, as well as the political labour movement in that
period at the end of the war, they had a vision of the futu~ re as
well. I
And my predecessor Albert monk, President of the ACTU, Percy
Cleary another leader in the industrial movement and who was also
briefly in the Federal Parliament, those leaders of the
industrial labour movement also had a vision of the future. And
they supported-and gave the support of -the trade union movement
to the Government as they developed this immigration program.
And i was able to continue that commitment of the trade unions in
my period as President to ensure that not only would we continue
to bring people to this country but that we provide the services
within this country which were necessary to ensure that the
people who came here were given the best possible opportunity of
integrating into their new homeland.
And so it was that when I finished with the ACTU and went into
the Federal Parliament it was perfectly natural given the
history that I have referred to that I should continue to give
importance and significance to matters concerning our immigration
policy and the welfare of people in this country who have come
from overseas.
-indeed I ensured that the immigration portfolio was elevated into
the Cabinet so that the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic
Affairs would be at the centre of discussions in our policy
formulation in Canberra.
So you can see that this great labour movement, which I have the
honour to lead--federally, is the movement in Australia both
politically and industrially which has been right at the centre
of the formulation of policy and then the implementation of it to
Kchange the character of Australia.
Not the Liberals, not the conservative forces of this country,
but the great labour movement, politically and industrially,
which enabled the implementation of this vast immigration policy.
And we have remained steadfastly committed to that policy.,
There have been times when pressures have been imposed by various
elements within this community to try and make us waver from our
commitment to that policy. But it is one of the matters of great
pride for me that never, from the time that we made that
undertaking during the last the last war, has the labour movement
wavered from that commitment to both the policy of bringing
people to this country and also toensure that once people are
here that as much of our resources as possible can be devoted to
ensuring that their transition into our society is facilitated.
And since I have been Prime Minister I have ensured that the two
Ministers that we have had first Mr West and now Mr Hurford
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have had whenever they needed it, immediate access to me with any
problems.
And we have, on a national basis, very significantly increased
the amount of resources made available to the programs directed
towards facilitating the entry and assimilation of migrants in
this country.
And within this electorate of Scullin I would like to indicate to
you the difference in the amounts of money allocated. In the
year before we came to office only 33,000 dollars that was in
the year 182-183 was available for the funding of migrant
resource centres in this electorate. And now in this year-
185-186 that has been increa sed by_ 350 per cent to a total of
148,00. And-that in" itself is a reflection-of the-sorts of
priorities that we attach to these things.
Now as Peter said, the policies of government which are of
importance to the ethnic community are not simply the policies
that deal with immigration per se, or deal with the provision of
resources for migrants once they have arrived here, but a whole
range of policies in the area of employment, education and health
that are important to you.
At a function which was held just a short time ago when we
launched the campaign for Harry, he said there that the Liberals
had the temerity to try and say that they are the ones who had
the concern for families.
Now of course as he said that is arrant'nonsense. And indeed it
is. It is all very well for the Liberals to get up and say they are
concerned about families as though in politics you only have to
say I am concerned about families and that means something.
what families--are concerned about are the specific things that
determine whether families are better or worse off. It-is no
good a politician getting up and saying we are concerned about
families and then sitting down and saying aren't I a good boy.
The things that determine the well-being of Australian families
are the policies about things like housing, education, health and
employment. Those are the things which determine what the
conditions of Australian families are going to be.
And just remember the comparison between our opponents in
government and what they did and did not do in those areas. And
what we have done since we have been in.
Just look at the issues briefly.
Housing. Are there going to be bomes for the families of
Australia. When we came to office at the beginning of 1983, the
level of the building of homes wsjust ovr100,000 -105,000.
The housing industry was operating~ at significantly below its
capacity. We have lifted that up to 150,000 a 50 per cent
increase. We have had that sort of increase in the allocation of
funds for public housing. So on the question of homes for
families we have turned the housing industry around and
provided many, many more homes for families in Australia.
in education. For the first time now we have a significant
increase in the amount of funding in real terms available to the
education system, for primary, for secondary and the tertiary
levels. It had been allowed to whither under the Liberals.
money available to the education system had gone down. We have
turned that around.
In regard to health. When we came to office there were millions
of Australians, particularly low income families, for whom
spectre of illness was totally frightening because they had no
proper cover. Under the scheme that we have introduced, no
family in Australia has to be worried about the spectre of
illness as they were before.
In regard to jobs. Whether there are going to be jobs for the
kids of Australian families. A quarter of a million jobs
disappeared in the last 12 months under the Liberals. We have
created half a million new jobs. Creating jobs at a faster rate
than they have ever before been created in the history of this
country.
So those are the things that are important for families. Not for
a politician to get up and say we are interested in families and
at the same time as saying they are interested in families
allowing the bui-lding of homes to run down; to allow jobs to
disappear; to make health a horror area' for the families of
Australia. All those things they did while they talk about
having concern for families.
we Just don't get up and say we are concerned for families
which we are. We, at the Federal and State level, pursue the
policies which ensure that Australian families, and may I say
particularly families that have come from countries overseas, are
going to have the opportunity of living a better life.
Y So I join with Peter in saying how pleased I am to be here. But
I also particularly join with him in asking you that you will try
and make sure that between now and the 8th of February that you
will talk with your friends; with you neighbours; with the people
you meet in your churches; your clubs; your sporting
associations; wherever you have your contacts with your fellow
Australians; please tell them how important it is to get out
there on the 8th of February and vote.
Because we want to receive from you in this by-election the sort
of endorsement which we believe those policies which I have
referred to deserve.
And finally let me say that the electors of this area have been
very well served by Dr Harry Jenkins in this electorate. The
measure of respect in which he is held is that he was elected to
the very high office of the Speaker.
Now the time has come when both he and the Government have
decided that his services can be used in another capacity.
And his son, Harry Jenkins Jnr, who is going to be standard
bearer for Labor. Just as his father has done an oxcellent job
representing the interests of the people of this area, I know
that Harry Jenkins will do that.
Please ensure that he gets the support that he deserves and that
the Labor Government deserves.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce Harry to you now.
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