27th NOVEMBER, 1963.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, this time I think perhaps you ought to feel a little sorry for me because I have to try to sum up an election camapaign in four and a half minutes and that's pretty difficult.
But I would like to say this to you that I tiaink that three issues at least have been disclosed in the course of this campaign,
The first of them concerns our relations with other countries and that means, of course, from our point of view the
relations between our leaders and the leaders of other countries, and this brings up the problem of leadership who is to speak for you and in what sort of a voice, clear or ambiguous. Now you know
in this election you have had presented to you your choice on the side of leadership. I don't just mean Mr. Calwell and myself but
I mean the top men in my Government and the top men in a prospective Labour Governmunt. Now, would you feel very happy about having your external relations with the world handled by people with great
respect to them like Mr, Haylen and Dr. Cairns and people of that kind who are by concession on the Left " ing of the Labour Party, W with all that that involvas What do you suppose happens to the
Right Wing people, the moderate people in the Labour Party when
they come to form a Government? Well, it is quite clear that they have tVo compromise with the Left Wing or the bird won't fly at all.
Now this is a big choice, It concerns the external security and tatus of Australia. Now, that is one issue.
There is a second issue. The second issue is: How should we create and carry out a defence policy for Australia?
You know what we have had to say about this, all perfectly true, all perfectly well known. We have set out, by saying first of all, well, how we have friends overseas; we have the UNited STates, the United Kingdom, the countries in the South East Asian Treaty, andthese are friends upon whom we think, we can rely for help in time of trouble and if we are to do that, of course they have to be
able to rely on us to play our part. Therefore, our conception of W defence is, in a sense, an international one, We want forces that are mobile both Army, Navy Air Force modern, frightfully well equipped but able to be moved here and there as needed, in order to co-operate with our Allies, to keep war out of Australia. I hope we are not going to orginise our policies on the ground that it is
only when war comes inside Australia that we pay any attention to it, because if it comes inside we are gone because our Allies will have gone. Now, the Labour Party offers you a purely local
conception of defence putting forces here and here and here, particularly I gather, in doubtful seats, and, therefore, there is
a great)-conilict between us as to the conception of defence the international conception or the purely local and defensive,
And, of course, the third issues concern the domestic problems of Australia and on these you have heard our case you have heard our policy speech I have had no occasion to retract one word of it. I believe that we have, in performance and in prospect, magnificent policies in relation to housing, in relation to education and, what's more, every one of them can be performed without doing what my opponent would do with his promises create an inflationary boom and inflict very large disasters on the Australian people.
There are the three issues and you know how I would like you to vote on them,