64/ 056
FOR PRESS P. M. No. 26/ 1964
COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATION INTO
TRANSPORATION COSTS IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA
Statement by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Menzies
The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, today
announced the appointment of a Committee to investigate
transportation costs in northern Australia. In announcing the
terms of reference and the composition of the Committee, the Prime
Minister recalled that in his policy speech prior to the recent
general elections for the House of Representatives, he had
expressed the Government's intention to appoint such a Committee
to carry out a thorough and authoritative examination of the facts
behind the high cost of transportation in northern Australia.
The names of those appointed are as follows
Sir Louis Loder, CBE,( Chairman), former Director-General
of Works
Mr. G. R. Fisher, Chai-man, Mt. Isa Mines Ltd.,
Queensland
Mr. Blythe, Managing Director, Air Beef Ptyo Ltdo,
Western Australia
Mr. P. Baillicu, Grazier, Vice President N. T. Cattle
Lessees' Association
Captain J. P. Williams, CMG, OBE, Chairman, Australian
Coastal Shipping Commission
Mr. B. B. Callaghan, General Manager, Commonwealth Development
Bank.
The Cormmittee will function under the following
terms of reference " Having regard to the Government's economic
policy objectives of
assisting, in co-operation with the States of
Queensland and Western Australia, the promotion
of soundly-based development within the northern
part of Australia; and as part of such development
of achieving significant and stable increases in the
population of the area; and
of encouraging the growth and diversification of
private enterprises;
and having regard to the special problems that may be posed
for such development by the effects of the present levels
of transportation costs, the Committee is invited SOO0
2
to mako a thorough and factual examination of,
and to report on, the costs of transportation to,
from and within northern Australia, with particular
reference to the costs of transporting goods, and
the effects of such costs on the development of
northern Australia, and
to examine possible moeans whereby such costs might
be reduced and to report on the practical and
economic feasibility and the implications of each
means so examined."
The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction at
the establishment of a sound and workable Committee under a
capable and experienced Chairman. Ho said that every assistance
would be accorded the Committee in its studies of northern
transportation costs. The Government would be looking to it
to produce in due course essential information and analysis on
a problem which is vital to our North.
CANBERRA, 17th April, 1964.