FEDERAL COUNCIL OF THE LIBERAL PARTY OF
AUSTRALIA, TWENTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY
HOTEL CANBERRA, CANBERRA. 8TH NOVEMBER. 1 965
Speech by the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies
Sir, I think I ought not to begin to make a speech on
our anniversary, on our twenty-first birthday, without saying
something about my wife, ( hear hear)( applause) because not only
for twenty-one years, but for twenty-four, for twenty-seven, for
well whatever you say, dear she has been alongside of mO
and every time I have come back ana said, " Oh, no I can't stand
it an longer", she has said, " Well, give it anotAer got" and so,
Pat, wan to say to you on this great honorific occasion that
this dinner ought to be in your honour and not mine.
You know tonight I am going to exert the privilege
of an old man and be a little reminiscent. Do you mind hat?
I think a little reminiscence doesn't come amiss. I was looking
around this afternoon at the meeting of the Council and looking at
a young boy like Andrew Peacock and I sent around a special
emissary to say, " How old is Andrew?" and the answer came back
I hope coirectly he's 26. That means that when we had our meetings
in 1944 in Canberra and at Albury falsely called Owlbury by some
people that goes for West Australia but not for New South Wales;
that means that at that time, young Andrew was five years old,
if not actually mewling and puking, at any rate near enough
( Laughter) to give an air of verisimilitude to an otherwise bald
and unconvincing narrative. Five years old. Think of it.
Would you mind standing up Andrew? ( Applause) Almost in the
cradle when this began. I think this is fascinating; it's
marvellous, and I was reminded of it today when as a result of a
move to which I lent such venerable support as I have the Young
Liberals were here today speaking quite freely and voting quite
freely, I though, " Isn't this wonderful?" because, old man as I
am, I will never forget that it is the young men and young women
who represent the future of our party. THear, hear) ( Applause)
moment we have Shiandce ma1n9y44 , p reasbioduetn twsh ich II w wiillll nosta y bea wgoirvdi ngi no uat a
list of names but we have had many presidents, we Have had
State secretaries, we have had all sorts of marvellous people who
have worked for our party, and among them all I would like to
mention here and now Bob Willoughby. ( Applause) A tiresome fellow
who occasionally tells me where I get o or where I get on but
we will never sufficiently understand the people we have haA both
here and in the State Departments, the State Divisions people
like my friend John Carrick and McConnell and all the rest we
will never fully understand how vastly important they have been
to this party, lo this organisation and to the future of this side
of politics. Well having said that I want to tell you that back
in 1945 I hud a roblem. Might I tell you, being a reminiscent
old boyI as to what had happened? In 1941, I was believe it or
not Prime Minister and in 1941, believe it or not, I was made
to understand that it would be of advantage if I resigned from
being Prime Minister. So being the instant obedient of views,
I sald, " All right", and I did and so I went out and then for a
few weeks another government was in control and then at the end of
that time, in about August or September of 1941, we were beaten / 2
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by the Labor Party. That produced at once a problem. I'm sure
that all of you who have . ever gone through this painful experience
will understand it perfectly perhaps to be something different,
and so I had a meeting of my party.
We were then a rather, well, smallish majority and we had
a meeting and then not all my colleagues but some of them said to
me, " WelI, you know, we think you ought not to be the Leader of
the Opposition, though we were much the greatest party in Opposition.
And then I propounded a view for which I make no apology which was
that a party which is unwilling to lead is not worth leading. I
mention this tonight because I think it is something that may
perhaps in the future be thought of a little: A party that is
unwilling to lead is not worth leading. And so I resigned, and
from 1941 to 1945, I sat in the Opposition corner, just about where
Jim Cope sits today or words to that effect, do you see? This'
was very interesting. There I sat.
I wasn't on the Executive Committee when the next election
came round. I didn't know what was in the programme. I hadn't
been told. I hadn't been asked. And I mention this because there
are a few people who think that I was leading the Opposition at the
1945 election. I wasn't. I was over there in the corner. And
they had an election and of course being what I am, I went all round
Australia. I was counted out and had things chucked at me, but
I wasn't the leader of anything except myself, and so we were
beaten and having been beaten we came back. 1943. And that was
when tAe road back began.
Now I want to say this to all of you, all of you great,
strong Liberals that was when the road back began, because after
the 1943 election, some of my colleagues came to me and said,
" Would you care to be Leader of the prty?" and I said with my
usual humbleness, " All right". ( Laughter) " I don't mind, but
must be the Leader of the Opposition, which had been denied in
1941, and I must above all things have the right, the clear right,
to develop a new party to agglomerate the whole of our opposition
in Australia. My colleagues having had a severe battering in
the 1945 election, strangely enough said, " Yes, that's O. K.
We'll see to that. So it was agreed.
Now I don't know whether you all realise of course the
older among you realise this perfectly but I have been looking
around among the young to whom I attach all the importance in the
world for the future do you realise that after that election when
our side of politics had the biggest thrashing it ever had we had
fourteen different political organisations in Australia fourteen.
Bill Anderson who took a great part in this matter, he ran a thing
called the..... Services and Citizens was it Bill? Look, we had
fourteen different organisations over the whole of Australia andthe
great thing was to bring them together and have one because
unless we had one we were not only out in 1945, we were out
. crever. And so I sat back in my box, being then a very humble
Leader of the Opposition. These were the days when a Leader of
the Opposition drew a private member's pay and had an allowance of
œ 300 a year and lost and lost and lost year by year, and I had
the great good fortune to have with me P. woman who is here tonight
Eileen Lenihan and she had with her Miss Wilkinson whom some of
you know ( Applause). In my brash innocence, I said " All right.
Now I am going to have one party in this country" and we got to work.
I did what I am always pleased to credit myself with the brainwork,
you know. There were fourteen organisations " Well write to
them. They'll write to me." Oh, I had great assistance Bill
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Anderson, he conducted one of the most lively of these factional
groups. He was all on my side. And look, forgetting all names,
in 1944, in that rather revolting building you now wat I mean,
don't you Jock you know, that thing. Ayhow it was that building
that looks flat on the top. We had a meeting and we had a great
argument fourteen different organisations. This was really the
most incredible affair in the world, and the fourteen met. We had
great arguments. I even had a great argument with Tom Playford
where's Tom? Even had a great argument with Tom, but in the long
run, we agreed that instead of being fourteen, we ought to be one.
Now this was a remarkable achievement, and it happened.
And so we were agreed that we would have a meeting at
Albury, fondly called Owlbury by McBride. It's like Freeth who
always insists on Albany being called Owlbany. Anyhow, it was
Albury and we had another great conference, and being what I am,
I sat down and wrote out in my own unfair hand a constitution and
a platform. At this stage, young Bob Willoughby, he came to work.
He s a tiresome fellow, you know who has the signal dishonour of
devoting the whole of his adult life to the service of our party,
and he got to work on it too, Anyhow the constitution and the
platform, And of course they were both altered; in my recollection,
both to the worse, and before 1944 was out there was a new party,
the Liberal Party of Australia, which had begun to ring the bell
all around the world.
Now I wouldn't want you to believe that there were no
problems to be solved. There were great problems to be solved.
One of the very first was this that in my earlier days in politics
and in the earlier days of perhaps nobody else, an how mine we had
financial bodies which raise d the money, which tola the party
organisation what to do. In Melbourne the National Union; in
Sydney,( thank God it was under the control of a very wise and
great man, the late Sir Charles Lloyd Jones) the Consultative
Council. And the first thing that we had to determine in Albury
was whether we would continue to be a party organisation financed
by other people and therefore to that extent controlled by other
people, or whether we would raise our own mone, raise our own funds
and be in command of our own resources. And the first great
decision made by the Liberal Party of Australia was: We will
raise our own funds, we will control our own funds, and ever since
then, nobody has ever been able to say that we were doing what some
moneyed fellows wanted us to do. ( Applause)
And the second thing that happened was that we had to
determine whether the platform of the party and the policy of
the party should be under the control of the organisation. Now,
this was a very great issue, and I want you all to remember this
because as the first draftsman of the platform of the party, I had
a very clear idea that nothing should happen that commandea the
people who were in Parliament. In other words, by a sheer stroke
of luck I anticipated the idea that if the people in Parliament
were told what they were to say, then there would be the thirty-six
faceless men. And this, believe me is one of our great strokes
of fortune. Nobody has ever been able to say that about us " the
thirty-six faceless men" because we have from beginning to end said,
" The platform, the broad principles on which we live, of course we
announce them, of course we do, of course we publish them, but when
it comes to an election policy then we must pay regard to our
leaders, to the Parliamentary Members. We must not have them put
in the position of being tola what they are to say in amplification
of the platform, in pursuance of the platform, in the policy that
they pronounce. And therefore we very early established a system
in which a proper status was organised for the Australian Parliamentary
leaders and party instead of subordination. That's very
important. And this enabled us long afterwards to attack effectively
the thirty-six faceless men. / 4
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Now having said that,' may Ilgo back a little. You see,
1945, we lost, we were thrashed; 14 we created the new party;
1946 we had some victories, some, not many, and after the 1946
election, all round the club rooms in Sydney, Melbourne, even
Adelaide, they began to say, " Oh, you can never win with Menzies."
This is worth remembering You can never win with Menzies".
And they had all sorts of ideas qite prolific ideas, as to
who ought to do theljob, and notody could agree with anybody
else and so poor ol dMenzies he was still there for the 1949
elections. And in the 1949 elections, look we had the most enormous
gowth, we had the most marvellous entAusiasm reachin a pitch
retmaat rkhaabdl en eavnedr, yboeuenng apspetr oaocf hecda ndbiefdoartee. s and Wew e Aahadd , e ndleivsefleodp eda an
issue. I don tknow that we are entitled to all the credit for
the issue but we had developed one socialism, which up to that
time had teen a sort of academic idea you know, a sort of
debating society idea and which was then taken out of the realm
of academic debate tAank Heaven, by the Chi fley Government whi~ ch
had reduced it to terms in the Air services and in banking
airlines and bankin. And this enabled us in 1948/ 1949 to
concentrate the public attention on socialism as perhaps we could
never have concentrated it before, and so we won in spite of
Menzies. Then of course since then we have had victories in 1951
and 1954 and 1955 and 1958 and 1961 and 1965, in spite of the
old man. This, I think, is rather fascinating. But it is one
thing to say we have won seven consecutive elections. it is
quite another thing to say, " Why have we? What have we done?"
Now this is really the No. 1 question: " Why have we?"
and the only answer to that is to , say, " Well, what have we done?"
I know it is , commonplace to say " Oh , you know his opponents have
made errors." I don't doubt that. Ii'ye usually watched for them.
Suppose our opponents have made errors, what have we done in the
las sxteen years to justi fyging to the country and sayirg
" We want another term. N'ow this is the great question. IOU
can't live on the past. And so I have been saying to myself,
" Well, now, what have we done? What have we done in the laot
sixteen years to give us what I believe to be true an unrivalled
reputation all round the world." This is true * hat have we
done? Well, in international affairs, we started off with the
Colombo Plan. That was ours, you know. Never forget that.
The Colombo Plan, the plan under which Australia and twenty
countries have lent their aid to people in the Eastern world.
ANZIJS. I remember being taken apart by dear old Winston in
London, because he said, " You know, you have forgotten us." And
I said, " No not at all. ANZUS Australia and New Zealand and
the United States. And if anybody who is concerned with the
history of our time who is not bemused by being an intellectual
will just think a little, he will realise that the ANZUS Pact
meant so much to us in Australia and to our security and to the
security of our children and our grandchildren this is out of
the world the ANZUS Pact, and the Americans understand it in
exactly tAe same way as we do.
And then there was another achievement of ours, the
SEATO Treaty the ø outh East Asian Treaty organization. Well,
now you know all sorts of people they are very clever, they
understand that this doesn't mean a thing. Doesn't it mean a
thing? You know, Dean Rusk himself being challenged as to why
the Americans were in South Viet Nam said, " The SEATO Treaty".
This is right. He is there, the United States is there our
eople are there, many other people are there because this reat
treaty was designed and consummated. It is a treaty against
communist aggression. So therefore SEATO is a wonderful thing.
Then apart from all these things, well, look, I would
weary you if I tried to explain to you how our trusteeship has
been performed. Defence. Some of you heard my colleague this
afternoon on the subject of defence. Defence. Would you have
supposed five years ago that Australia would be doing so much in
defence as it is now? No, not a bit. Defence has been one of
the great things, the development of resources. You know, it is
always easy for people to say, " Oh, well of course, you know,
you just want to leave things alone." * e don't want to leave
things alone. If I were to say to my colleague, my distinguished
Liberal colleague, David Fairbairn, " Tell us about development in
Australia; tell us about uranium tell us about bauxite, tell
us about all these things", the whab story would be so tremendous,
somebody would be bound to say, " Yes, but what is the Government
doing about it?" This is true.
If we were to talk about..... I look across there and I
see Oppy..... talk about Immigration. Immigration. This is the
most fabulous story in the world and this has been going year after
year. Somebody then is heard to say, " Well, of course ou couldn't
do these things without capital from overseas," to which I reply,
v" hy not?" Believe me, all these remarkable things that have
happened in Australia are happenin-because we have money and we
have manpower and they marry together. Now Immigration has
produced a great deal of the manpower and the money has been
produced time after time by investment from overseas. And for
people to say, " We don't want it. We don't want investment from
overseas"/ is almost as if they said " We don't want people from
overseas." Really, ladies and gentlemen, this whole problem,
this whole tremendous earth-shaking problem from our point of
view is one which requires the marriage of money, of peole, of
enterprise, and one of the great fortunes of your Government in
all these years has been to say something and do something about
the marriage of all these developments so that this marvellous
country of ours can proceed.
Now that is all I want to say except one thing. I
mentioned earlier one or two of my younger colleagues in this
conference. You knowi many years ago I was one of the founders
of the Young Nationalist Organisation in Australia and later on,
I saw this and did this and did this.
Look the future of this country doesn't belong to you
of my generation or to others of my generation. It belongs to
/ 6
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the young ones of this generation. ( Hear, hear) ( Applause)
It's not just funny for me to think of somebody as mentioned
earlier who was five years old when this movement began. This
is tremendously important. People like me I will be 71 next
December people like me are not to be regarded as eternally
in charge of an organisation or a reat movement. What is
needed is that all of us should understand that it is the young
who not only have the responsibility for the future but who must
have the authority for the future. Now this is tremendously
important, tremendously important.
Oh dear, if I could only sit down carefully and write
my benediction to my successors, I would indeed be happy, and
I want to say to all of the young who are here tonight: This
is your job. The future is not only within your power but
within your responsibility, and so far as we are concerned,
my wife and myself, we hope to live long enough to realise how
well you are doing your job and how much you are doing for
Australia.