OPENING OF TIE AUSTRALIAN GUARANTEE
CORPORATION BUILDING, SYDNEY, N. S. W.
ON 24+ TH APRIL, 1963.
Speech by the Prime Minister, 1 the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert-Menzies
I think I ought to make a personal explanationwe
do that occasionally in Parliament to explain why I am
here. When I received an invitation signed in a somewhat
truculent signature by Hector Clayton, my secretary, who
looks after my interests with loving care, said to me, " This
surely is one that you can refuse," ( Laughter) and to her
intense regret, I said, " No, this happens to be one I must
accept," and for two reasons one is that Hector Clayton is
an old friend of mine, and I am a little bit frightened to
say " 1No." 1 ( Laughter). The other is that I am one of the few
living old boys of a Legislative Council in Australia, having
begun my political life in the Victorian Upper House. And
therefore, you know, once a mortgage always a mortgage,,
( Laughter) and once a Legislative Councillor, always a
Legislative Councillor, and so by the strict union rule that
we apply among ourselves, I said, " That's the second reason
I must be there." It is very kind of the Chairman in the course of
his very interesting speech, in which he lefl me literally
nothing to say, to refer to the honour that has been conferred
on me* You haven't failed, I am sure, to notice that the
motto of this Order, " Nemo me impune lacessit" was published
in various newspapers andfor the benefit of those educated
at the university translated into English ( Laughter), and
one or two of my 6abinet colleagues wore heard to say, rather
unkindly, " Oh, we knew that was his motto fifteen years ago".
( Laughter) Well, now you've been told a good deal today
about the history of Lhis Company and it is really a very
remarkable one. It is tremendously interesting to people of
my own vintage to realise that the whole development of this
particular branch of industry has occurred in Australia during
my own adult life, so that this is quite young. I'm younger
than he is. ( Interject-1on " Not by much") He says, " Not by
much" but I still don't need to have a special resolution
( Laughter, applause), although I am bomnd to say I do
occasionally need to survive a " No Confidence" Motion which
is, roughly I suppose, the same thing.
But what I was saying when I was rudely interrupted
was that this is something relatively new, and it is like most
things in the world that we live in which are mostly new. I
imagine that if anybody else in this room had had my experience
of sitting down at the Prime Minister's table twenty-four years
ago and comparing what came then to the table with what comes
now, twenty-four years later, he would understand perfectly
how immensely complicated have the affairs of the world become.
They are so complicated that those who have to handle them
feel constantly puzzled by the aspects of them and the only
people who clearly understand them are the commentators who
don't have to do anything about them at all. ( Laughter) / 2
-2
Forty years ago when this particular company
began forty-five years ago, whenever it was the use of
credit was something that was understood in certain orthodox
and limited channels, The complexity of the world's affairs,
the enormous pressure of the rise of living standards the
enormous development in what we are now pleased to cal.
" 1consumer durables". as the motor car became the commonplace,
as household equipment became the commonplace and so on all
these events could hardly be carried on by the old normal
routine methods that were available and so I haven't the
slightest doubt that this expansion of the instruments of
credit, which is represented by your Company and by many
others was something that was quite inevitable, full of value
and full of danger, like all credit facilities. A wonderful
thing for people, wisely handled and wisely administered and
for some people perhaps a little tempting as meaning that they
can get out of their depth and that the Lord will provide, the
Lord for this purpose being mixed up with Mr. Clayton.( Laughter)
Like every other instrument that we have to our
hands, it is capable of misuse. But I have no doubt whatever
myself that the present face of the country, the present
availability of private resources to private citizens, would
be nothing like what it is today if it hadn't been for the
facilities provided by the various credit bodies, including
in particular the hire purchase authorities in Australia and
therefore I acknowledge the service that this industry has
done, and is doing and will continue to do, to the ordinary
men and women of Australia.
Now there is another aspect of that and I hope
you will allow me to refer to it. Every now and then there
will appear to be a conflict between what the hire purchase
companies are doing, what thc trading banks are doing, what
the Reserve Bank may wish to have done, what the Government
desires to have done, There will appear to be and there
will be problems of interest policy, for example, and how
these problems are to be handled, and in Australia whenever
we encounter problems of this kind we are terribly tempted,
aren't we, to use the blunt instrument of compulsion. Funny
thing about us, we are cheeful, light-hearted, on the whole
rather happy-go-lucky sunsible people, but we have got a great
passion for compulsion. Wde even have compulsory voting, not
that I am anybody to complain about it because it has worked
out on the whole rather well ( Laughter) from my point of view.
But you know, instrinsically, there is something rather
fantastic about it, isn't there? Wse do think so rapidly of
compulsion. I, myself, am a great believer in the handling
of these problems in the instrument of co-operation, of
consultation consultation between the Reserve Bank and the
Trading Bank effective mutual understanding, consultation
between them and the outside semi-banking I suppose that's
a permissible expression to use instruments such as the hire
purchase companies. We ought not all the time to be looking
around to see whether we can invent a statute that will
produce co-operation. No statute ever did. Every statute
produces a crop of legal advisers whose business it is to
explain how you can get out of the net of the statute. That's
right. And as Mr. Justice Else Mitchell will recall one
wise man once said that in the classical conflict between the
parliamentary draftsman and the conveyancer, the conveyancer
always wins. Now, there is a good deal of truth in that. we
mustntt run to compulsion as our first resort. o9 / 3
3-
I believe, from my own experience, that consultations
from time to time with people who have groat responsibilities,
particularly in this financial world we are discussing this
afternoon, do nothing but good. After all, we are all Australians.
We pride ourselves on being honest men, having some objectivity
of view, not a lot of greedy, self-seeking people, We are good
citizens we trust. I believe we are. And we will get further
sitting down together, so that if somebody says, " Well, the
interest rates being offered by tho hire purchase companies are
inconsistent with the bank structure of interest rates. Letts
sit down and talk about it, because in the long run, Sir, your
Company and all other companies like it have, just as much as
I have, just as much as any other person has7a vested interest
in sound stability in the economy of Australia. Not stagnation.
There is nothing stagnant about the industry that you carry on.
Not at all. If it became stagnant it would die. I don't
talk about stagnation. I talk about stability in the sense
of avoiding soaring levels of prices and costs so that the
development of the country can proceed on a sound foundation,
so that you have stability and growth. The two things are not
inconsistent, They will be more and more consistent with each
other if we take the opportunity from time to time, all of us,
in Government or out of Government, to sit down together, talk
about our problems and say," Well, now, what do you think about
that? What do you think can be done by your group to achieve
this common rosult?" 1
And therefore Sir, I am without any reservation
at atll delighted to be here this afternoon particularly
delighted, of course, because you are an old friend, but
delighted in any event because I think that you may look back
with pride on the record of this company. I hadn't realised
until you spoke this afternoon that you had been gathering the
organisation together from a variety of places into ono centre.
A great contribution to the company, a great contribution to the
city of Sydney and I am perfectly certain as I declare this
building open that the work it does wisely administered,
properly understood, will be a great contribution to the
commercial and domestic life of Australia.