NEW ZEALAND TOUR 1967
PRESS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY THE PRIME MINISTER,
MR. HAROLD HOLT AT FAIRBAIRN AIRPORT, CANBERRA
ON HIS RETURN FROM NEW ZEALAND 8TH FEBRUA* YW-1967
MR. HOLT: Well, I am very glad to be back home, and the first thing I want
to say is how saddened I have been to learn of this tragic business in
Tasmania. VWhen I got the news this morning, I sent a message off
immediately to Mr. Reece and then tried to contact him by telephone, but
he was, I gather, on the mainland at the time, and I talked to Mr. Fagan.
I told him that in my message to Mr. Reecel hadasked'if there was
anything more that the Commonwealth Government could be doing to be of
help, and when I spoke to him on the ' phone I suggested if there was
anything he could think of, to contact my colleague, the Deputy Prime
Minister. I gather Mr. McEwen himself had been active in the matter and
that Mr. Howson had been appointed as a liaison Minister f-r-) m the
Commonwealth Government. I asked Mr. Fagan whether our own Service
people had been able to help in any way and he said they had been extremely
helpful on the day of the fire, and at that stage, he felt it was under
control. As to the rest of the detail, I have only been able to pick up a
little bit along the way. I told Mr. Fagan to contact me If he could around
about seven tonight. I expected to be in then. He may have tried to do
so. If not, I will be trying to get in touch with him from the Lodge.
Q. Wil l you go down yourself and have a look at it do you think
you will get an opportunity?
PM: Well, I am willing enough It is a question of whether I could
serve any valuable purpose by doing so. There are busy days ahead here,
but of course if it was of any usefulness and help, I would be glad to do so.
Q. Have you any comment on the result of the Labor leadership
contest
PM:-Well, I heard the news on the plane of Mr. Whitlam's election.
I sent him a message telling him I had just learnt of his election, offered
my congratulations and expressed the hope that he would have a long tenure
of that office, as Leader of the Opposition. The election of Mr. Barnard
revealed, I think, how deep and strong the divisions remained inside the
Labor Party. There have been changes of personalities, but the problems
which confronted the Labor Party before the election remain with the sole
exception that there has been a change of personalities. As for myself
and my Government, we shall continue to strive to command the public
support which currently holds us there.
Q. I didn't understand what you meant about the divisions....
That was the vote between Barnard and Cairns you are referring to?
PM: I am not wishing to discount Mr. Barnard's abilities, but I
think most observers, most objective observers, would have considered
that there were several Members of the Labor Party who on Parliamentary
form would have had a claim on the vote rather more strongly than Mr.
Barnard, but it is not for me / 2
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Q. Are you aware of the fact that Senator Willesee has been replaced
in the Senat
PM: No, I was not aware of that.
Interjection: By Senator Murphy.
P M. Yes, well, again I thirk that confirms the point I was trying to
make that this after Senator Vlillesee had been so shortly in office that he
should be rejected again reveals, I think, the divisions which exist, and the
currents which are swirling around the personalities. Howeier, we have
our problems; they -have theirs. We shall do our best to remain a Government
and no doubt they will do their best to displace us.
Q. Gould we ask you something, Sir, about -your New Zealand trip.
From what has come back, you have been most reluctant to discuss economic
issues. You made a big point of the fact that you were not ove r there
specifically for that and that Mr. McEwen was going over afterwards.
I was just wondering whether you could tell us whether there were any specific
points of difficulty raised with you from official sources because there were
a number of private criticisms of the operation of the trade agreement.
PM: Well there weren't all that many private criticisms. There
was the criticism expressed by Mr. Stock the Chairman of the Chamber
of Commerce. On the other hand, I was given the most cordial welcome
and reception by the Chamber of Commerce at Christchurch which was
attended by representatives of the Chambers of Commerce of all other parts
of the South Island. It was one of the agreeable surprises of the tour. I
had been asked to meet the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce. I went
along expecting to find twenty or thirty people of industry and commerce
around the table and having a discussion with them. Instead of that, it was
a very crowded and quite convivial gathering of estimable people from all
over the South Island. They told me in the 179 years which we had
celebrated just a few days before, I was the first Prime Minister to have
ever visited the South Island. There were these comments of Mr. Stock
as well as one or two editorials in the Press which came to my notice.
I think some of my critics here in Australia would have been rather surprised
to learn that in New Zealand some people think we are so smart that we
in some way are able to score advantages over the New Zealanders. The
point of substance, of course, is our hope that this agreement will work to
the mutual advantage of both. countries. Australia has much to gain from a
developing, prospering, strengthening New Zealand, as indeed they have
from a strengthening, prospering Australia, and I said there that this
agreement which, after all, is only about twelve months' old, could hardly
have been said to have given full expression to its elements in so short a
space of time, and particularly following a year in which Australia had been
contending with the effects of very serious drought in two of our principal
States that if this agreement in the longer haul was not working out to the
saisfaction of one side or the other, then I was sure that the parties to
it would approach it in a constructive and helpful spirit. I am sure that is
the spi nit my colleague will carry with him to New Zealand when he goes
there. I may say that in talking to members of the Government, I didn't
find this same degree of concern expressed. The question of forest
products is an important one with them, and I shall be mentioning that to
Mr. McEwen, although I didn't discuss it in any detail with the Government
there. The Deputy Prime Minister did tell me that the aspect which they
regarded as of topical importance was this question of forest products.
Altogether I may say, that the Prime Minister of New Zealand and myself / 3
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( Mr. Holt Contd.)
both felt we had derived great value from the visit and our two Governments
and two countries. He has exchanged with me, even on the aircraft, the
most cordial of messages. We were able to spend a lot of time together
covering a wide range of subject matters in a most direct and intimate
fashion. I did give to the press representatives who were accompanying
me ap indication of several of the subject matters we discussed. It
wasn't by any means an exhaustive list, but it ranged over a wide area both
of domestic matters and of international matters of mutual interest. The
overwhelming impression I bring back from New Zealand is the friendliness,
warmth and goodwill towards Australia and towards, if I may say so, its
Prime Minister. It struck all of us that there were quite spontaneous
expressions of this wherever we went and I didn't see a sour face or hear
a sour voice in the whole of my journeyings. On the contrary, people went
out of their way to come and see us in what is not a demonstrative country,
a little less demonstrative even than this undemonstrative country of
Australia.
Q. Did you arrange any further mutual visits wh-ile you were there?
PM: I made it clear and public that there was an open invitation to
Mr. Holyoake to come here with Mms. Holyoake whenever he would find it
convenient to do so and I have suggested to him that such is the relationship
between our two countries we should encourage more frequent visits by
Ministers on -natters of mutual interest or even of particular concern to
one country or the other and that we should not regard these as the kind of
formal visit which occurs from other countries to Australia. In point of
fact, it is no further indeed it is a good deal shorter from Canberra to
W7ellington or Christchurch than it is from Canberra to Perth, and there is
every good reason why Ministers from his Government should fly in and
do a few days of business here and fly out again, and the same with my
Ministers if that can be of advantage to us. I mentioned at the Parliamentary
Luncheon given to me or rather the Government Luncheon given
to me in the Parliament Buildings that we had already provided opportunities
for our own Members of Parliament to visit New Zealand as one of the
perquisites of off ice. Whether there will be reciprocity on that score remains
to be seen, but I may say Mr. Holyoake and his Cabinet greeted very warmly
my proposal about Anzac scholarships and immediately indicated that they
wished to have a reciprocal arrangement going, and we will see how this
works out. If it is as useful as I would expect k to be and successful as
Iwould hope it to be, then we can enlarge on that if we both think that is
desirable as time goes on.
Q. Do you see any possibility of a move to help New Zealand in its
balance of payments difficulties?
PM: Well, no requests were put to me. We did give some assistance,
as you may remember, not so long ago, but T gather that the Prime Minister
and his colleagues are looking at these matters now in their Cabinet
discussions.
Q. Sir, have you had a preliminary report, or a final report yet,
on this incident in Viet Nam in which the Australians were killed.
PM: No, I did receive an expression of sympathy and regret from
Mr. Holyoake as soon as he knew of the matter. It wasn't easy to get details
at first, and I contacted Australia, of course, as soon as I had some word
of the incident and was later supplied with the text of the two statements
made by the respective Ministers for Defence in each country and I made
a short comment myself while in New Zealand, which was appreciated by / 4
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( Mr. Holt contd.
them. I spole on the ' phone again to Mr. Holyoake this morning and the
first thing he said to me was another expression of his profound regret at
what had occurred. He referred to the skill and efficiency for which the
New Zealand artillery are noted. But both Ministers the Minister for
Defence in New Zealand and ours have indicated that a full investigation is
going forward into the incident and I don't think I can help you any further
on it at this point.
Q. Sir, is there likely to be a common approach between Australia
and New Zealand to the possible entry of Britain into the Common Market?
PM: Well, I don't think we have yet reached the stage where we know
precisely what sort of timing or conditions would apply to a British entry.
Both Australia and New Zealand have made it clear in the past that their
industries could be affected New Zealand's, perhap4 more seriously
than our own by British entry. The United Kingdom Government has
maintained at all times that it would have regard to Commonwealth
interests in any such approach, and there have been assurances given
from various quarters that the special position of New Zealand would be
safeguarded. Whether this would extend beyond a transitional phase has
yet to be seen. We didn't go Into that matter in any detail or, indeed,
discuss it more than superficially, because our two experts on this are
Mr. McEwen and Mr. Marshall. They will be meeting again very
shortly.
Q. Could you just elaborate on that balance of payments question,
Mr. Holt. You said there was no request for assistance at this stage
but the Prime Minister and his colleagues were looking into the problem
now. This doesn't rule out the possibility of an approach from New Zealand
at this stage?
PM: Well, I am not in a posi tion to anticipate what action the New
Zealand Government may take. There are various ways in which a country
seeks to redress a balance of payments problem, and no doubt these are
being examined by them at the present time.
Thank you.