SPEiECI 3Y ñ THE PRIME MINISTE~ R TKE RT. HON.
ii 1' iE. NZIES~ AT .,* rVIC RtiCEP'lION, TdN
HALL, TOJ1{ AIILLE, ON 20TH JUNE. 161
Sir, There is just one thing that you said in your very generous
speech to which I take e. ception: " You people from the south", you
said. ( Laughter) N ow i wouild have you know that I am a sort of
expatriated Victoifian beclUnse I live in Canberra, but Australia is my
PLarisif. Thie i-r-ime M. inister of Australia must be a ueenslandec, a
New 3outh . Jelshrnan, a 3outh itustraiian, a Vict6rian and so on right
round the Corm~ onwealth. So let'' s , et thie record straight. My
responsibilities in r.' l ition to queensiand are every bit as . gre-t as
my rcsporisibilities Lo any other part of the Commaonwealthi. Indeed,
they are rather retrbecause 1* ha-ie always, as you know, believed
profoundly ;:: hat the develop. ent of this J3tate wh-ich is relatively an
unde-. eloped 3-Gale, is one of the great, exciting tast~ s of the future.
It becomes all the more e citing as the character of our
economy chan!, es. ' Aheirc vas a time, well withain my memory at any rate,
when we exported urimary products in a fairly orthodox fashion, we
imported lot of m: nrnf uactured -oods, a-nd we madb some ourselves, But
as t*( he years hLave _. one by and as thie pressure of events hAas developed,
this country of ours 1 as uecome a remarkably viell-b~ al ' ncedl one
economically. 0Oir Industrial develo,), enL has been p) henomenal; and
beczcuse it iias be * n neloi, unal we iioif have ti capa_, city Lo iti-stand the
stres.-es of int., rnitiorial 3conoiriic ev,. ents .! iuch :-rEat. er thian wel1ad
years ago. tiat is r,-y Iconsta; Itly ant to remind ieonle that the
greaL depression of thle ttiirties *. rhiich did not oe--in in " tustralia hi
in the United Jt:: uces ofL J_ r_ oic r-easons thiat i co-iid -liscuss with
yoll, couald not hap) pen tLoday. It could not h appen and I don't say
that simply becaus I f. -rime M, 1inister it could not h-afpen under
any Government t. hat took advantag e of the knowledge that hnas been
gained over the intervening_ period, and . cooLk advon , a e of the fact
that we are now a rirxiydevi/ eiopeu. Couzitry Onl both primary and
secondary sides of idstry.
But t1ie ! gr at t'ltat no; J -uts imiore and wiore, pressure on
our minds is how we can :-void tu--e pi) i," odical rises in th,, e bala~ nce of
paymients, the fluctuatios in our overisoas ' unds. Thtie re are two or
three bankers here t iis ;: orin en, se -1 h-aie met them, and if they
were hc--vin g an u~ o~ cLi! 2uoment ! id not just saying " No, !' in sorry,
it's the credit suueozety odtell yo itat tne move . Aent up and
do-vn ofc our int(-rn ulinal reserves has at direct acid profound effect on
La n'-in-poli,-cy inside A trla-bec:,. ase it affects the liquidity of
th1e7 ban!-, s. .1' ien You a~ thJ a run-down of your overseas funds, you will
expect liquidity of thie ar.. zs to oe teiidin g to dry up in
Aus tralia. So we !-ll hra ie a tremendoiis inter~ est in ( ureserJ: Ln ga
reasonable balance of .' aYiients in our trade . zith th:-e rest of the world.
And our trade aith uh.-, e rest of thie cforld is enormous. ihere is no
other country in t. he voend that could compare, peir capita, withair
trade with the rest', of tnie world not one. Our export u. rade, our
import trade, are both en) ormously sigiificant in world terms, ta
absolute terms. Plore and more, its ftou dy this problem, we realise,
don't we, that w., e must liave more ex ports, a -greateir va: riety of
exports. You must, so far-as you can, insulate yourself ag_, ainst the
violen't fluctuation that ., ay be produced by drought or by a
fluctuatuion in the world's wool price. . iVe are doin-g what we can
about that. 0,1l, in thi-e last 48 hiours have I been p-utting myself in
communication w. ith the administration of the United States on the old
question of the American tariff on Australian waool, which I venture to
describe as a perfectly foolish tariff since it protects an American
wool-growing industry w'iich-is not tremendously efficient that is the
understatement of the year. It protects it at the expense of
Australia, the ctreatestwo-rwn nation, the -reatest grower of
fine wool in the wJorld. And to hiave a tariff on our wool passing into
the United States is really very foolish. I hope that having regard
to current neg-otiations the light lay be seen in that great and
generous country. If '. ie could secur1-some m., odification of that tariff
we would in one stroke do a great deal to improve a little andidien to
staullize the price of wool in Austvr,-, lia. This would be tretmendous.
Jut tliere Lre two other iterts on which our export income can
be built up, I believe, in the relatively shnort term, very
s i~ ni f icar t ly. 0Oie is in miinerals; " ite othler is in the exp ort of
M eat. ; And both of thfes; e concerin ! 4iueensland as perhaps they concern,
to 4th e samte de free, no ot; her Sta-t; e.
d ent P) iomt sa. 11m excited about Nit. Isa. I think
thiis is a phnenomenal clevelopL,,. ent.. 3ut wo t're o:, ly scratching'-the
surface of our rric~ i rEso ~ rces yet. 8~ y t: ie time the geophysicists
and w. e neologis -s t elone Their stuff I believe that are . oing
to ex fiose ; mineral 1veso : Ces 1i ljstrali1a i iicii ., ill be t-uite
t r, idou s. In 2 VeCA,; i~'. . n inl t'a of lead itad zinc, we
thin. i_ erfls of pop-per, ! e 1t inki. in tern-) of bauIxite; -ie are
be -in i i to) ti> if. tent..:-Of ; Jatritd 1' e ha-s, ultimately of
metol" Llc aiunrinitz:. Wh'. ese thiin,; s, :) rcvJded we have thie n! t a-d
Timaginat ion to cope tht.; it emri ll ei produce a-deve-, lop.) ent
not on-'! y Ill 1t.: e SKrAu ~~ P,. Lf> IS ve~ ry importa.-ut, Lout a
d , vlo;,, ent in thie intarn e: ein i . i-ch J ll rcitove rom
Austrclia this partic-olar ( uroblem of the,( fluctuatin-* balances of
payments nd t ; e b., lances of intern, icnal reserves. This, I { hink,
is tremendously important. And when a born Victori-an tnd an Fedopted
Canberran comes up to th-e noith: uenmsland you maustn ' t thn: that he
is bein. g entirely uns3elfi. sh I kno; youi : tould neveiT Laccuseany
politici,. n of that ustn't hei is 9: tirely unselfsh: the
fact is he is ; Avlono l: over & iv L rt of iuthc li e
believes viil]-yield, inie2ure n o h reatest dividends for
th!, e riatioi,. Lou i. ustn't 50 eio ile LutC iet, " InacL tnis is mt in
our .1inds: it is iaosere nt fron zm-y own. mind for more thlan 24+ hours.
tiosw . urnin--2ua our Iocl-1 newspaper and Iread it
wvith ~ radv;: inta . go. I tookl lile to * 2-omiiiment ', dito.-oecause
it h& an imi ense . y 1.111_ e OVV 1u, so . tas c+, oncecrned, seemed
to hiave an u1. comiutonly, -ii -i~ e o * ac: c' o -~ elilco wvs like
mysel e noL 1 dc-u'I I.~ e d ocil : 4 iery * htfu leading
artcleon thie questio' ' oc O1cnt jjt h o. censusso2-1. rether
conice. n _ ny Xustraliaci , b ecl-1) rts LtLCg 20 > 0o inket'S of
th-e old * corld: o :~ n;~ tso ~ oe
1 rIi sñ tri rPSed1,7 I to roln : u. lf 6t ozen
newspa s tl It4 ir0 tj I-. ro o :-ii. he i-t: ln nited
ingdo;-. sivoull -ntoe-iry Oari Jrtion i, ket is sonet viag hat h-as
suddenl: iJsen. I Asueyou i, 3I-~ dnl isen. I know
there iL. s an ' r: vetin the " ouse of ' Ji: OiSTe oth2_ i day nd this
ga~ ve rise, very propeirly, to 6ret. e:-. 1 of'L specIUltir about it.
3J_ 1t i f i t is aiv co,. fori; to _. nyboDdy 1' 3. :, ua. ld tell y ou t ha t th i s i s a
L~ roblein -hat hias been .4iUC! . cssi-, a. jsct. ieen t+, y 6ovcarxalen aid the
. iovercn: m-ent of the riite'J 1ing: daim, A-11 . ie last tlhrec years. Iis a
problem that I have i-iyseif discussed in !) erson witi . denauer in
German and witlh de + daul'le in 1'' rance, atnd *: iith representatives of the
Governmaent in Italy. The last timie T was in London w., e hadI L. v. ery
zpc. lconfer-ence about it. It i! s as a r-! sult of th-at ( coli1-vre,
some mionths go, that. at this very ii _ tent. Astralian offlicialsane
sittin. downm with thne United :, ingdom officials dis.: ussin-'. he essential
details of this mattter. ^-ll this was atrra nged sotme t(. ime a: o. I-t is
perhaps my fault thlat -then -7 nae r g. ents to onduct wihanother
Governm-Pent in th. a Aritish, '_' OfEll' : 2Jaltii I lilke to conduct them
priv-ately and not . ioli ely. They . tre vary familiar ,-ith our lbs.
I attended ( a contference in Loildon this lasL'* tiine andnede
two tiiin-s per ~ ectly cle, r. Tihe firsl, is thlat thle Unrited iigo
sh-ould not agree, even in pjriinciple, to go in to thie Lmropean mmon
Market without haviri,-prior effective consultation with the
Comonwcalth countries concerned, incltudinz, in particular, Aun ralia.
That is agreed, an. tiere will be rio commitment, even in principle,
. until these consulta : ions ha ve -oncluded.
In the second pl.. ace I said th-at in order to bring the
GLeneral problem dotmi to brasis taicks it ,-ias essential that component
officials of theirs n' 1 of o irs shiould, in fact, ' ork out in detail
uha intcres ts of ours iniight ba affected, wiliat e/. orts of ours might
be concrrnedl tfh,-t -,: rice ue t oulo. require to be paid in ter-ms of
entry to the 3uropean marle-P aiid to tile market in tUhe United Kingdom
before we % ri ld : say " Yes". iJou. r tiis is a very practical approach.
What I wiould iil-e to emolmhsise to you is that t'ie problem
is not problem of * h'iolesaie diiscuss. io, ut of ratail discussion.
' here ., rc very good reasons Zo iited ii! dorn should iant to be
in the Eu. iropean area.
( Tapn! i,. comv'ie: Ie)