PM Transcripts

FOR PRESS: 66/ 052
P. M. No. 32/ 1966
KOOYONG BY-ELECTION RESULT
Comment by the Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Holt
The Kooyong result has given to the Federal
Parliamentary Liberal Party a very able young recruit who
should have a long life of fruitful parliamentary service ahead
of him. His majority is considerably below that attained by
Sir Robert Menzies in 1963, but it is unrealistic and misleading
to attach the significance to the percentage of movement which
Mr. Calwell has done. It is notorious that by-election
figures tend to run against the Government of the day. In
1965, Sir Robert Menzies, then at the height of his prestige
as a national leader with a record tenure of office, scored
his highest vote in Kooy' , ng in an election which increased the
Government's majority from one to more than twenty.
Another factor which undoubtedly affected the
scale of movement was the fact that both the A. L. P. and the
which had merely put in a token campaign against Sir
Robert at earlier elections, each mounted a most vigorous and
thorough campaign on this occasion,. Each saw in the by-election
an opportunity to score tactical political gains and campaigned
accordingly. In the circumstances, whatever he may say
publicly, privately Mr. Caiwell can take little comfort from the
result. The D. L. P. vote has increased by approximately the
same proportion of the total as the A. L. P. vote.
The A. L. P. attempted to convert the Kooyong by-election
into a national forum on the issues of South Viet Ram and the
National Service scheme. In the result, the combined vote for
parties supporting the Government's policies on both these issues
has been nearly two-and-a-half times that secured by the A. IL. P.
CANBERRA, 4th April, 1966.