8TH October, 1962,
Mr, President, Mr. Minister and Ladies and Gentlemen
I want to make, I think, two preliminary remarks.
The first is that there is a certain benevolent quality about this meeting this afternoon dommercial broadcasting stations meeting under the benevolent smile of Sir Charles Moses ( Laughter), I think that's very agreeable, The second preliminary remark is that by some error somewhere, I am at present somewhere else having had the rare experience of being double-booked Loday. And, as " somewhere else" involves me talking with three Premiers and you kniow what Premiers are like I have craved leave of the President to enable me to depart when I have said what few things I have to say to you,
I don't profess to be an expert on brcoadcasting.
I speak over the air more than I listen. That, I suppose, you might say was an endemic disease of politicians. I leave all the fine work, the expert work, the neat parry and thrust of wave lengths and things of that kind, to Charles Davidson who, though he doesn't understand them any more than I do, ( Laughter ) gives a very, very good imitation as a Minister, of knowing what they're about.
All I want to say to you in reality is that I
have now lived quite a long time, as any opponent of mine
would tell you. I am not unacquainted with change for, after
all in the last Parliament, I had a majority of 32. And
so Lir' I know all. about change which is the law of life.
But, like very many other people, I can look back to a time
when nobody had ever heard of wireless broadcasting, or of
television, or of aircraft. And it is one of my minor
boasts, that I can go back to a time in my boyhood memory when
the first motor vehicle arrived in the district and it was
a motor buggy. We have lived through the most extraordinary series
of miracles, haven't we? And, interestingly enough, most of
them haven1t been so much miracles of understanding*-I doubt
whether we understand much better than we did but miracles
of communication. It seems only the other day that anybody
who wanted to broadcast, some amateur was regarded as a harmless
crank. I remember when the first stations were set up
commercial stations. I confess to you, I thought that the
people who put their money into them were mad and now I
know better ( Laughter). The way in which, what began as a
sort of bit of fun, has become a tremendously powerful
influence in business and in social life is, I think, one
of the miracles of my time0
I shall always feel glad that when these matters
began, Governments in Australi. a were intelligent enough, as
I believe, to decide that they would have a dual system;
that we would have the Broadcasting Commission, and that
we would have commercial stations with advertising, iand all
the rich variety of programmes that result from a hghly
competitive system0 This, I am sure, has been a wonderful
thing, I. for one, would not wish to go back on it. I think
it has boen a great thing for Australia,
Now I know, Sir, that now -that television is descending upon us one mast on Black Mountain when I went away, almost two masts on Black Mountain when I came back we have the rich privilege of seem what the movie stars looked like twenty years ago, ( Laughter)
1 know Sir, that a lot of people, many ofi. s perhaps,
felt that when television came in, broadcasting would go oi..; t,
Quite frankly I don't believe it and I believe I am right
in saying tha? there is nothing i~ n your own experience which
suggests that. Broadcasting and I am now talking in particular
about commercial broaacasting, brings to millions of people,
the direct voice, thle direct statement, the direct song, the
direct piece of drama whatever it may be and that is a
wonderful thing because there is a constant conflict in -the
modern world between what a man says and what he is reported
to have said these are entirely different matters; and
although I witnessed with a certain amount of wry humour the
development of Parliamentary broadcasting I have seen that
little instinctive movement that takes a Member a little
nearer to -the next microphone ( Laughter) and I have watched
with regret what I believe to be the decline of the intimacy
of Parliamentary debate in favour of the set speech still
it must be said that, wherever I go in Australia, I will
encounter somebody, perhaps one, perhaps a dozen, perhaps
fifty who were able to say, " Well, I was following that
debate, such and such a point was made and I didnvt find it
answered." Now this I think is an advantage for thoughtf'ul
people, But above all things, when somebody like myself
sits down in front of a microphone to address this wretched,
unresponsive piece of metal backed by a blaril wall, he of-ten
says to himself, " Oh dear, I wonder if anybody is listening
to -this. If I stopped suddenly would anybody know?" You
all know this feeling that we get perhaps you get it
occasionally, I don't know but I get it.
At least one has the knowledge that whoever does
happen to be listening, and possesses the patience to hear
you through, will know what you said and will be able to
form a judgment about whatever personality accompanied the
words over the air.
I am speaking now purely as a political person but
consider how many people in how many remote places in L7stral ja
thirty years ago cut off from their nearest neighbour 161
miles away, thirty years ago, living in remote places thirty
years ago9 perhaps not all that many miles from a Capital
but on a little branch line in the country with one train
a week and a batch of newspapers once a week, and then consider
what broadcasting has brought into the lives of these
people, consider the way it has contracted the geographical
area of Australia and integrated the Australian mind and the
Australian feeling. All I can say is that I don't think there
is any invention that has done more for social development
and individual enrichment in our own country,
Now you gentlemen of the commercial broadcasting
stations are of course open to the gravest of suspicion
you are deeply suspected of trying to make a profit ( Laughter).
That, of course, is something which a lot of people dontt care
for so long as it is practised by other people. Good luck to youi may you go on and make profits, because the success
of your enterprises will maintain this rich flow of competitive
material and competitive secLvices -to the people of
As t , ali a I very well remember when I was small boy
not such a difficult feat I suppose living up in ' the
Mallee. A train arrived once a week and everybody went
up to see it arrive. Newspapers came in and I used to cut
out of them, when they reached me and the family, the pictures
of the celebrated cricketers cf the Clay and paste them on
the wall0 This was the one injection of pabulum, the pab~ ulum
of instruction or of entertainment for the week. Wise
people emulated the old gentleman that dre read about in
Somerset Maughamts stories if not in his autobiography
( Laughter) who, having received seven copies of the
newspaper for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday,
Saturday, perhaps Sunday read them one day at a Zimc,
so as never to be ahead of the news,,
Today all that is gone and it is very largely due to you tnat it has gone. Therefore, as the temporary occupant of the post of Prime Minister temporary for the next two and a half years ( Laughter) I welcome the chance
of coming down and saying to you just a little about how I feel over the work you are doing, over the service you are rendering. I express two hopes one is that your enterprises will go on forever, and the other is that you will never be in the red on the profit and loss accounts.
I declare this Conference open.