SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER THE RT. HON. R. G.
MENZIES, AT THE MASTER BUILDERS FEDERATION OF
r AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE, ILSON HALL MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY,
MONDY. TH OCTOBER 19
Sir and ladies and gentlemen, I was very interested to
be reminded that I was the number one ticket holder. I am the
number one ticket holder of the Carlton Football Club. I hope
I bring more luck to the builders.
Now I want to begin with a complaint. We have a practice
in Parliament of having questions without notice, and if anybody
has a complaint to make about having been misrepresented he may
get up and utter it. Well I am uttering mine. I received two
or three days ago, some time ago a mass of most informative
notes about the Federation, its fusion for this purpose with the
Asian group; the history of it, together with a few rather encouraging
points about the building industry as a whole. The
Secretary sent these to me. It is quite obvious to me that he
also sent them to the President, and the President has used them
first. So everything that I have to say to you is really a rehash,
but before I say it, might I tell you that it is a great
experience for me to come here and be in this hall, believe it
or not for the first time. I knew a great deal about the old
one from the inside, having sat many anxious hours writing violently
on pads of paper when I was doing my law course. But I
am not at all sure that there is not one thing that I miss. I
do not know where you are going to hang the portraits Sir George
of the Chancellors. W! e used to look at them in my examination
days and try to extract some inspiration from them. As a source
of inspiration they were hopeless, and therefore I suppose that
explains why the architects, egged on by the Council, decided
that they would have no room left to hang any of these worthy
gentlemen again. Now, Sir, I am a great believer in the master builders
of this country, and really very largely for reasons that you
have already mentioned. This organisation, as one realises by
contact with it, by reading its papers, its constitution and its
proceedings, has a most helpful and constructive prposo. I
really believe that this organisation does not exist in order to
prefer the interests of builders to the interests of the community,
but to improve the contribution that builders make to the
community. And that is of course a tremendous contribution.
Right through the piece I have been struck by the fact that so
long as I have known it, and that has been over a fair number of
years now, though not back to 1890 this Federation has set out
to raise the standards of performance and the standards of community
service. If we could all do just that thing, all of us,
whatever our occupations may be, it would be a pretty remarkable
country, even more remarkable than it is now. Jo have, of
course, in Australia and I say this, not that it is news to Aus.-
tralians here, but that it may be to some of our notable .' Tsitors
whom we are so glad to see here we have been passing through
an era, a very remarkable era of prosperity in Australia, prosperity
and advance. VWe have been able to protract investable
funds. We have had, on the whole, good prices for our exports.
We have had, a largo movement into this country of migrant people.
Population has risen in the most remarkable fashion. All of
these things have boon in themselves, good. They have produced
some of dangers, one of the dangers of course being that in a
period of expansion we live under the constant throat of inflation,
as one of the by-products of an expansion , rhich occasionally
may move too fast. But those things are, one hopes, manage--
able, and on the whole they have been managed. But in spite of
the fact that we have boon going through this rumarkable period
of expansion we have also had remarkable stability inAustralia.
We have been able to conduct our affairs successfully because of
the existence of confidence in this country, and of course all of
these things, stability, good sense, confidence, high prices for
the things that we grow and sell all of those things ultimately
have been translated into what I believe is the greatest period
of development which we have had in Australia.
Development: when one thinks of development what does
one think of? I regret to say not of lawyers, though we are a
very useful commodity. I can remember vividly when in my very
young days at the bar, being greatly pleased to got into a few
cases which involved building disputes, because they always lasted
such a long time. But having said that kind wori for the
lawyers, I turn to say that development in Australia is associa-
-ted, essentially, primarily and in fact in some respects, almost
exclusively, with the industries that are represented here this
morning: engineers, buildings, contractors. These are the
people through whom the urge and capacity to expand in a country
like this expresses itself. We go to the country and we look at
great works of development. What are they? Irrigation, hydroelectric
schemes, great road works, great works of agricultural
improvement of a physical kind. All of these things express
themselves in terms of engineers and contractors. ' Je look back
over the enormous increase that we have had in our population,
and we say that that must have presented a remarkable problem,
not only in housing but in business construction, because we
sometimes forget that it is a balanced ration that you need in
these things and that groat office blocks and great factories
are in their place as essential as housing is. And wrhat do we
find? This Federation, as the Secretary reminded me, conducted
a spirited interchange of ideas with my colleague, the Minister
for Development, early in 1958 and I read of it with groat interest;
very carefully prepared views of the Feder. tisn, and the
very carefully prepared replies and commonts by my colleague,
But there was at that time a feeling that some particular stimulus
ought to be given to housing, because a year or two before,
for a variety of circumstunces, there had been a slight falling
off in the rate ofconstruction. And I therefore really interrupt
myself to say that whether it was the result of your vigorous
prodding or not, I do not know Mr President, but in 1957-58
there were 74,000 houses and flats completed in Australia. That
is a very remarkable number I think. Andin 1958-59, not 74,000
but 84,000: a most remarkable increase which all the indications
are will continue in the rate of construction, and one which, related
to the population of Australia, must be regarded, I think,
as a very satisfactory one.
Now, Sir, I have just said in general that the building
industry, the constructional industry, are at the very heart of
the material progress of the country. And they are, not only
because they build dams or houses or factories or office blocks
or whatever they may be, but also because the building industry,
using that expression comprehensively, is at one and the same
time the index of social prosperity and the cause of social prosperity.
In other rords this is a crucial industry,, You may use
it as a measuring stick. You say: " Well let us consider whether
we have circumstances of depression in the country, Do not
lot us look at a few little single instances you get nowhere by
that but take an industry like the building industry, in all
its ramifications and say: : How do things go here? How is employment
here? What is the volume of business here?'". If they
are both high, you may be certain that the country is prosperous.
They are the very index of prosperity or depression. And, at the
same time, because of their very nature, they are one of he
cardinal causes of prosperity because a great success in building
and construction grows on itself. It employs more people; it
enables more people to come here and live; it enables more peopl
to establish themselves in well-paid work; it enables more
people to set out to get their own homes, and therefore a great
movement in the building industry tends to perpetuate itself for
the benefit of ordinary people and is one of the causes of economic
. advance. And therefore building, Sir, thoroughly deserves
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to attract the attention of anybody you care to invite to come
here, because it is an index of prosperity; it is one of the
main causes of continued prosperity and it is certainly in calm,
clear, physical terms, the main instrui. tent in national development.
Now, Sir, having said that, which after all you have already
yourself said this morning, though I have endeavoured to
put it in my own way, just let me add one thing which is put into
the mind by the fact that this cohvention is, as it has been described,
a fusion between the Master Builders' Federation, for
this purpose, and the Federation of Asian and Western Pacific
Contractors Associations. Now that is a rather arresting conjunc
-tion of the planet. You know one so readily thinks of building
as essentially local I remember many years ago it was weightily
argued, if I remember correctly, in the High Court of Australia,
that you could not have an inter-State industrial dispute in
building because no building was in more than one State a purely
local form of activity, building and that of course is something
that we can very easily get stuck into our minds, that it
is a purely local matter and no connection with the firm next
door. Each of us has his oim knowledge, his own methods. What
does it matter about what goes on ulsewhere. And therefore, it
is to me, a most imaginative thing that there should have been
this Association between builders, constructional people in Australia,
and those in nearby, or comparatively nearby, Asian countries.
It is at once a demonstration of the fact that building
and construction are not to be looked at solely in local terms,
and of the even greater truth that however clever we may think we
are, . re always have something to learn from our neighbour.
This is a move calculated to stimulate thought, to
stimulate an emulation of each other in our various countries,
and to stimulate a rise in technical and technilogical standards.
And this is a good thing for everybody; it is a good thing for
us in Australia. ! e must not detach the problems of life into
water-tight compartments and say: " Well, we'll just deal with
one". You think of it. Uhat is it that does so much social good
in a country like ours, that produces so much of that sturdy
fibre which has already made Australia and which must be preserved
and encouraged? That note of independence in the mind and
in the heart. What is it that does it? Nothing more remarkable,
in my opinion, than the creation of homes for ownership and for
pride. It is a wonderful thing for me to look back over the
last ten years and to realise that the percentage of houses
built for oiwmership in Australia has, in that period, increased
enormously and that we should have a population living under its
own vine and fig-tree, proud of its home, earning its home, its
place in the world. This is one of the greatest things that can
happen to a country. And if we are to have ownership and pride,
with all the solid citizenship that goes with these things, then
it is for the building industries constantly to strive to become
more and more efficient; to pursue every advance in quality and
economy, because you cannot have a home, you cannot have its
ovmership or its pride unless the cost of it and the quality of
it are able to attract you, having regard to your income and your
prospects in life. Cost and quality, and both of these things
depend upon an almost religious fervour in the pursuit of more
and more efficient methods. After all, a house, a bridge, a
great office block, some great works, may be and will be the
visible and enduring memorial of the builder the engineer, the
contractor. That is one of the great advanLges that he has.
His memorial is visible, it is enduring, but the greatest memorial
that the Building Federation can have is to know that year by
year it is not only by using its own resources, but by cultivating
the knowledge and friendship of people from the other countries
around the world, that it is . improving standards, that it
is building better, that it is putting quality into the work and
that efficiency has meant that the cost of a home is not prohibited
for the very man himself, who works onthe job.
4.
I am a great believer myself, in the constant battle
for the raising of standards. There is a great temptation in
every democracy to lower then, on the ground that to lower the
standard is democratic because more people can achieve it. This
must be resisted. This Federation, and its allies for this purpose
this morning, exists I venture to say, primarily to raise
standards. I believe that it has worked in that sense with
great vigor and with great honesty. I have a very profound respect
for this work and for the people who are engaged in it. I
wish it aell. I declare this Convention opened.