I o OFFICIAL OPENING OF MEDICAL BEIEFITS BUILDING, YDNEY
ON
7TH OCTOBER. 1961
SPEECH BY THE HRIME MINISTER, THE RT. HON. R. G. MENZIES.
Sir, and ladies and gentlemen:
I speak here under very very great difficulty. I would like to take
you into my confidence on that matter. First, they have these wretched li& ghts,
which, in my experience render only the rarest people like Sir Ronald Grieve
capable of utterance. To me they have nothing but destruction in them. My
second difficulty is that Sir Ronald Grieve, himself, having gone throu. eh the
gesture of sending to my secretary all the things I ought to know in cvrde,-to
make a speech has now, for greater caution, produced them all in his vn speech.
( Laughter) This is the first " dirty" trick that he has ever jiayed on Irc--. My
third disability is one that all laymen here can understand perfectly: I am
sitting here under a battery of what I can only describe as " basilisk medical.
eyes". ( Laughter) It is bad enough to consult your own physician and have him
look at you, penetrating all the murky secrets of your carcass I'm spe aking
only of myself but to look along and see them all, all equally f orthcoing, all
looking at us up here, saying to themselves " a clear cpse of so-arnd-so".-or " I
think I would like a blood test", is very embarrassing. Therefore, subje: t to
these disabilities I will proceed to declare the building open. But I suppose
that having done that you would expect me to say a word or two about the
occasion and what it stands for.
I have been in Parliament, man and boy, State and Federal, for 33
years. I dontt want the obvious rejoinder I get them up at Canberra. I think
for most of that time one became accustomed to the problem of sickness, people
having to secure medical. aid hospital treatment almost as if it were one of the
unalterable laws of life. There it was and perhaps nothing very much could be
done about it. That is usually, historically, the way in which problems begin to
evolve. Then somebody begins to say, " Well the right way to deal with these
matters is to put them all in the hands of the Government". Vie have a great
passion for that in Australia. 1I feel complimented, I do indeed, when so many
people who disapprove of me personally, want to put everything in my hands. But
that is rather one of our ideas. Well, the Government ought to provide medical
treatment; and it ought to do it, of course, by having a great corps of medical
people, and nurses, and all those who go with it, and attend to the people,
whether they like it or not, willy-nilly. The Government is to do the lot.
That is one extreme view, I would doubt whether anybody, today, se3riously
entertains it. As so frequently is the case, on the other hand you E-' t the
exctreme view of doing nothing and saying, " Well this is one of those matters
that happens and if you can raise the general standard of living then. people can
provide these things for themselves". So you get the extreme view on -ea-ch side.
What has happened in connection with this scheme is that tro':' e has
been a tremendous effort made to get a middle of the road course .% hich; il
pre serve the best aspects of both; a middle course which irl retain th6
precious relationship between doctor and patient not to be underestimated, I
believe, even therapeutically a tremendously important relationship of mutual
confidence; and, of course, after a period of time, of great knowledge and
understanding. Keep that; but at the same time do something to get rid of the
horror that attached itself for so long to sickness in the house, the brnead
winner out of action, great financial liabilties incurred, financial assets,
perhaps small, dissipated. These things couild alter an entire life, destroy
the entire family history. Th.-refore the middle of the line course had to be
to rake some arrangements which would leave people free from that kind of horror
and at the same time not deprive them of that proper feeling of pride and
independence which, thank God, charactarises our community. Out of those ideas
came this scheme. I very well remembeor it is very interesting that Sir Earl Page is
here today because I very well remember the first time he produced whlat I must
tell him quite frankly was a rather hazy outline of this schem, accon-panied by
estimates which were conspicuous for their slight inaccuracy. They were
optimistic, let me put it that way, This was his technique: don't make it too
clear to these lawyers, or they will have the insides out of you intellectuiJ-y
speaking but make all your estimates optimistic and then people will be in a
happy frame of mind. A pearfect piece of medical work, it was. In the long run,
as you very properly acknowledged, this scheme emerged. Of course like all
schemes of this kind which don't please either the extreme of this side or the
extreme of that side, it was under great criticism. But in spite of the fact
that it was under great ci-iticism it has been so seized upon by the people, it
has so hit the mark in the social and individual consciousness, that today
somewhere between 70 and 80% I think I am right in saying of the people of
Australia are covered by these voluntary arrangements. Now this, I think, is a
splendid thing. Government responsibility, self-help, justice and the
preservation of the personal relationships which still remain so important.
Now of course it couldn't have succeeded unless there had been ( a)
people who belioved in it and people who would work, devotedly, about it.
In the case of this one, well there is Ronald Grieve. The first time I ever
heard of him he was unfailingly reported to us in Canberra as " a very diffic4t
fellow",' the sort of man, who, unlike myself wanted to argue about things.
( Laughter) I have no doubt that he argued, with great force, and fought his
battles with great force, and when these things were concluded he has set a
conspicuous example of devoting his energy to making it succeed. He has
around him, as he has already told us himself, hundreds of people, with a
spirit of devotion, who know that this is a very great social thing, this is one
of the most significant social mvements in our time, and Vwho, accordingly,
: egard it, I've no doubt, as something rather more than a job. People who
regard their work as a job achieve without dif. Ficulty a state of miserable
mediocrity. The people who are going to do things properly must think that it
is more than a job, that it is something that calls upon everything that they
have ini them. The result of all this has been this fantastic development. I venture
to say, ladies and gentlemen,' that if, a few years ago, when Earl Page was
dazzling us with science in the Cabinet room at Canberra, anybody had said that
the day would come when a building like this would find itself, not only in
existence, but necessary, housing active people and dealing with thousands and
thousands of-people, few would have believed it. It is one of the most tangible
proofs that 1 have ever seen of the complete success of the medical benefit
schemeI and of the matters associated with it.
I want to compliment you, Sir, I want to compliment aji~ those who have
been associated with you, and through you all the thousands of people around
Australia who in this and compflarable entarprises, arc doing so much to make
effective what I believe to be, and there are people who agree with me, the
finest medical scheme in the world.
Sir, I declare this building open.