SOUTH AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURES
ANA. iA'j DINNER AT ADELAIDE _ JRDOCTBER,,_ 196Lñ
S-oeech by the Prime inister the Et.__ Hon. SirRnbert Menzies
Sir Mr. Premier ( I never go in for any of these fa!-lals I
jus say " Sir, Mr. Premier....
I wondered wihen I came here in wi-at guise I was to
speak to you I had no idea that I was a species of -uestlecturer.
I thought that I'd probably be able to reply to a
few friendly insults in answering some toast, and sure enoug
up pops my old friend, Tom Playford if I may refer to him
in such familiar terms to you wh. o know him so little. ( Laughter)
I think on the whole it would have been better, Sir, if I had
said " No, I couldn't come" because Tom Playford has over the
trifling period of years for which I have been Prime Minister
( a fraction of the substantial period of years in which he has
been Premier). occasionally given me some good advice. Sometimes
he doesn't bother to advise me; he just says, " This is what
I want", and when I say then well... I needn't complete
the sentence. ( Laughter3
But I remember years ago he said to me, " You know,
old man no fellow in our game ever got into trouble for what
he didn't say." Now this may seem to you a bit of mere
flippancy, but of course, it's profoundly true. It's like the
old proverb, you know, about the wise old owl who sat on an
oak the more he heard the less he spoke; the less he spoke
the more he lieard; why can't some folks be like that bird?
Do you remember that? That put into four lines what he put
into a single sentence with me, He said, " Never forget: You
never get into trouble for what you don't say." Oh well, I think
there's a good deal of truth in that, though in my experience
what you don't say is frequently reported. ( Laughter)
Now, if you don't mind I would like to make another
preliminary observation. I was taken this afternoon to the
Adelaide Cricket Ground, where I found myself looking at a
fuotball match, of sorts. ( Laughter) I decided that I was a
suppo'ter of South ( Cheers) now wait a moment. I decided
before the match began and for a very elementary reason.
They had the same colours as Carlton in Melbourne, who have
had a singularly unsuccessful season,
One of the things that was pointed out to me by the
Lord Mayor was a clock face wonderful, superb; there it is
handsome, controlled by electric power and this would tell
you at any given moment how long was to go before the quarter
ended, all time off being allowed for. A brilliant piece of
mechanism, the electric power no doubt being supplied under the
authority of the Premier. ( Laughter) And just after half time,
the power was cut off and I thought to myself, " Now what s Tom
up to now?" ( Laughter) I wouldn't put it past him to have it
deliberately cut off end then send me a little note to say, " tIe
can't afford to keep it on all the time. Don't forget there's
a Loan Council meeting coming up. You have to watch this chap,
you know." I have been watching him in an imperfect way for
a long time. And then, of course, he confirmed this, I thought,
tonight, because he was referring to electric power and he gave
you a broad hint, a somewhat indiscreet one I thought, that by
about March or before March you might expect a reduction in the
charges. Then, I suppose, 1he fellows who run the clock would
be able to keep it going for all four quarters during the game. / 2
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This is a mere broad hint. You are so accustomed to looking
at him as if he were an unsophisticated character I'm not.
And the moment he said, " You might expect a little reduction
by March," I thought, " By Jove, I'll have to go back on Monday
and tell Harold Holt what to expect in the next Loan Council
Meeting." ( Laughter)
But, Sir, that's all as it may be. The truth is
that contrary to all these rumours both Sir Thomas Playford
and I can talk with a very good will about the development of
secondary industry in this State because he in a great way,
and I in my own fashion, have had something to do wlch it, going
back over a long period of yearso
He has been a great champion of this State. I never
make any secret of my view that this State would be lucky if
it ever had another Premier like him for galloping on behalf
of this State. ( Applause) Mind you, he's tiresome occasionally
yes, difficult occasionally, but always either tiresome
or difficult or enthusiastic or demanding, not on his own
behalf but oi behalf of this State of South Australia, and
that is something I can admire and always will.
And indeed, of course, one of the things that you
must remamber on all these matters is that no Commonwealth
Government, though it has major responsibilities in this fie'd,
no Commonwealth Government by itself can complete a full
improvement in industrial development. It must have in the
various States governments with imagination and the willingness
to do things that the States can do and that the Commonwealth
cannot do. Our main job in life, a job which everybody knows
we peiform indifferently, is to create an economic climate,
to pursue economic policies that will be sound õ to pioduce,
so far as we can by cur policies though there are some
things that we cannot control a state of affairs in which
there is a reasonable stability in the price level, a reasonable
stability in the value of money, and at the same time a feeling
of confidence outside Australia in our future. Now these are
-reat tasks, and we have to do our best in the Parliament of
the nation and in the Government of the nation to perform them,
-nd on the whole, looking back on it over the last fifteen
years, I would venture to hope not too badly, when I look back
on what has happened during that time,
But what I really want to say a little to you about
is this. The longer I live, the longer I hold my present
responsibilities, the more I am struck by the fact that the
day is fast disappearing in which wie ought to divide ourselves
as if inevitably into groups, de want this we want this
we want this it's quite true, I am not objecting to
organisations. I am all in favour of them. But if there is
one thing that is quite clear today, it is that what we need
is a full sense of our interdependence in this country. In
the words of the apostle Paul, " We are all members, one of
another." Now this is profoundly true.
I have said before and it will stand repeating, that
I have lived long enough to remember the days when political
controversy in Australia was between the protectionists and
the free-traders, I suppose there are some free-traders left
in Australia, but not too many, not too many. The day has
gone when it was said that there was an inevitable conflict
between the manufacturer and the man on the land. Increasingly s / 3
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it is understood that there is no such conflict, that the man
on the land achieves enormous advantages from developed
manufacturing industry, and that manufacturing industry derives
tremendous advantages for a variety of reasons, one of which
is, to put it quite plainly that the great exports of primary
commodities from Australia to the rest of the world provide
every year hundreds of millions of money for imports by manufacturers
of raw materials and of plant. Don't forget that.
There is a tremendous community of interest.
It is a very interesting thing to reflect that the
greatest importers . n Australia are the manufacturers, as you
all know. The greatest exporters are the primary industries,
Under the pressure of events and with some enccuragement, the
secondary industries are now becoming, as Mr. Allison reminded
us, very substantial exporters, and when the day comes that we
are exporting the products of our factories, and why not, to
a world that is opening up before us, and we are doing that to
the same extent as we are exporting wool and wheat and dairy
and products and meat and what-have you, that will be the day
in which we can say that Australia has a conspicuous example in
itself of the balanced economy, which is the best kind of
economy to survive the shocks of economic variation. And therefore
this is a case of interdependenceo
But it goes beyond that. Interdependence all along
the line, I suppose this old nonsense that used to be talked
about the inevitable conflict between the employer and the
employee tends to disappear. I acknowledge with great pleasure
the remarkable record of South Australia in this field. but the
job is noc yeti completeo Tilere nre still people who appcer to
think that the solvency and success and pr'ofit-making capacity
of the employer has nothing to do with his employee, o0 with the
future of his employee, or the welfare of his employee, the truth
being, of course that each is dependent on the other. They b3ve
a common interesk, It would shock some of biie old-fashioned
warriors in this field, wouldn't it,, to be told that all their
interests are in common and yet they are.
There is another aspect of this matter. You know, I
have a very great respect for economists because they're quite
numerous and give them enough chance and they cancel out, and
therefore I like them. By the time I have measured one against
the other, and the other against one, I find I am at complete
liberty to apply my own judgment and I like this very much.
But they will keep on, won't they, Tom, talking about " expenditure
in the public sector" and " expenditure in the private sector,"
And some of you gentlemen here tonight have pursued them no doubt
into those tortuous paths, when you look at a budget. You look
at it and you say, " Look at the way the public expenditure, the
expenditure in the public sector is increasing; that is a great
mistake. They ought to cut that down by a couple of hundred
millions and have more expenditure in the private sector."
Now just let's have a look at that,
What is this expenditure in the public sector? The
Premier of South Australia is in course of spending a great deal
of money, with which we have something to do, in constructing
the Chowilla Dam. Why? WJhy are these steps being taken with
the expenditure in the public sector, mind you, to create this
doubling, I suppose, of the water supply of South Australia,
water being the greatest non-indigenous commodity that this
State needs. Nowr why is that being done? In order to have the
water laid on at the public offices? Don't be silly. In order
to give this State and the industries of this State an opportunity
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sometimes without much advantage to anybody finds its way into
the stock exchange, but mostly finds its way into capital
investment in Australia. And some of us are more nervous about
this than others, but I don't think that when we come to reflect
on it we'll have much real difference among us.
Every time a million pounds comes in, or ten, or
twenty, or a hundred or, as in recent years, two hundred, for
investment in an enterprise, say of this kind that we are in
( and it's not the only one by a long chalk) every time that
happens, something is created in Australia an industry, a
section of an industry; something is added to Australia
experience know-how, special skills, special techniques. These
are part at once of our national assets, and a few thousand
Australians get employment of a highly stable kind. Is this
a bad thing for Australia? I don't believe that it is.
I admit, Sir, that I would be much happier if all
the people who came into Australia were willing to admit
Australians to some share in the equity in the business, some
share in the management of the business. This is sometimes done,
it is sometimes not done, but we haven't yet reached the point
of time at which we can frown at a movement of investment in
Australia, because properly considered it is again an example
of interdependence. I don't imagine that Chryslers, I don't imagine
that General-Motors, I don't imagine that Fords, or the
International Harvester family, whoever it may be, lay out
millions and scores of millions in Australia because they have
an undying affection foi you or even for me. They lay their
millions out in Australia because they feel that this is a
country with a future, and that this is a country wheie there
is sanity in government, and where there is a reasonable stability
in currency and in monetary management. Don't let's overlook
that. I don-t imagine that any country or any company would
be anxious to throw its money into a whirlpool of inflation and
instabilityo I don't believe it for a moment.
Our great task, speaking now on behalf of the
C. mmonwealth, has been to achieve as great a degree of stability
as we could and at the same time encourage by national development
the greatest degree of growth that we can, and that this has
succeeded, I think is beyond controversy. And I hope, whoever
is in the government, it will continue.
I am not meaning that we want to live indefinitely
in our balances of payments in our overseas reserves on private
capital investment. I hope it goes on, I don't want to be
entirely dependent on it, but we won't be entirely dependent
on it. We have just come out of a year the past year, in which
our record exports were achieved, in which our overseas balances
rose to an enormous extent. There will be fluctuations of course,
but we are in a very healthy position in our overseas funds, and
at the same time, we are attracting the interest of investors,
shrewd investors, experienced investors, industrial investors,
from other countries, because they see in Australia a degree of
good sense and stability and opportunities for the future that,
quite frankly, they can't see in any other country in the
world. a */ 6 j
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And so? Sir, all I have to say can be summed
up in this fashion. We ought to be jolly proud to be
Australians, and we are. die ought to be jolly proud to
live in a country which has established enormous records
in our own time of growth, of expansion and of solidity.
Wle ought Sir, to conduct ourselves that we will continue
to be attractive in that sense to the rest of the w~ orld.
And if we keep on doing that, and we keep on realising that
we are not just a lot of fragments warring with each other,
but that we have all our greatest interests in common, and
that fundamentally we depend upon each other in tbio,
country, then I believe that the future of Australia is
completely assured, and indeed, will exceed anybodyts
expe cta tions. And if that's not~ true. I will rise some day
from my grave and shake my fist at all of you~ t