LUNCHEON, CAN3BRRA. A. C. T.
Spech by the Prime Minister Mr. H: Lrold Holt M rch, 1967.
On the 10th Marcr 1967 the Prime inister of
Australia, Mr. Holt, attended a luncheon in the
honour of the National C. pital Plarnin. Cormmnittee
on the occasion of the final meeting oT their
three year term.
Mr. Holt first expressed thanks and appreciation
to the Committee and to . the Chairman, ir. J. U.
Overall the National Capitial Development
Com,.: ijioner.
The Prime Minister then continued
I nm here as a resident a goid part of the time as
an observer now for very many years and ' by their works ye shall
know them'. I think if th: t text is applied to you and the
members of your Committee, Chalirnan, you would get a unanimous
vote of arproval from all around Australia.
Je hve seen uildin here, before our eyes w-ith the
passage of time a truly oeautif l city and a setting hich gives
it an individua ity and marks it out as one of the really l-vely
Capital cities of he world.
I . o buck thirty-one years plus and the transformation
which hai. s occurred, more narticularly over { he recent years, is
to me truly remarkaole. I cmn remeoer when I set off on one
occasion with Jeoff Stc.: et und Jim Fairbairn later to oe killed
in that trugic accident ; hich helped to ive the airport its
name and walked from Parliament House to the National V. ar
Meorial. No., of course I : ould have to take the flippers and
the mask, and snorkel, if I -ere to attempt that journey again
and this is one of the major tr-insformations which have occurred
in the spectacular growth of the city its layout, the actual
pulling together of the outlyipg parts which could not be so
clearly perceived until the ake . as there to jive a sort of
focal centre to them.
but tnia is not . n easy ob which we hatve set you.
It . ould be difficult enough, I thin to plan a lovely city if
you could take your time acout the development of it and if you
had unlimited funds availale to you for your purposes.
Here you don't merely have the sort of restraints
which a responsible 3overnment feels necessary to impose on any
one section of n-tional growth in the interests of others, and'
although It ink re h 4ve treated the Bt-tional C-it 1 by no means
unreasonaoly, I knojz thtt you h-tve felt at times that the
limitations we have placed on you have held dovn the rate of growth
rather more thin you . ould have desired. Yet the performance itself
indicates that we haven't been too nig ; ardly in that regard. At
the thing which really complicates your task enormously, I imapine,
is that you have not merely the problem of ouilding a ueautifui / 2
R. TII'I cArIT:: II)_. L~ C01U. IS0-IOTK
-2-
C-iital City, but of copin with a city population growing more
rapidly than in any other city of size around Australia.
You have got to satisfy the customers who are there
who feel the need for the engineering services that you've put
in; who want to see tres trow w; here they've selected a fairly
oare site as a building sile; who ' ant to feel they'ce -irt of
a fine city and you've got to do all that for them and at the
same time uild a capital which will be a source of national pride
in itself. And, I think, you have succeeded admirably in bot
these directions. The resident of Canberra must feel that his standard
of service and of accommodation compares very favourably with
that of other parts of the Commonwealth and ri-ht through the
period that accompanies this normal uroan growth. You've got
the ouilding of impressive official buildings, of building up
the commercial centres of the national city and all the rest of
it that goes with w: hat is now, I gather, just on a city of 100,000
souls, and rising, what? 100 or tiereabouts?
Commissioner About seven or eight.
Mr. Holt Yes, we have steadied it down a oit I gather. Anyhow,
that is still a very rapid rate of growth for any city to have to
cope with. You have mentioned one or two things which haven't
altogether pleased your Committee e! emoers. The critic, I suppose,
can always find room for improvement.
I, myself, have puzzled for many years and Sir
Rooert disclaimed any responsibility himselT but I could not
find anybody who would claim any responsibility for the King Jeorge
Statue and I know it is one of Doug's ambitions either to bomb
it or to remove it. Even diurin the earlier periods where there
were threats to Australian security, I could only hope that if
we were so unfortunate as to have an enemy attack, they would
choose their targets skilfully.
And so he will have my moral, parliamentary and
ministerial support in action he takes to restore that sweep,
and that sense of proportion which did previously exist in the
vista between Parliament House and the ' ar i: emorial oy the
removal of this particular excrescence.
I am glad to know that you are so amenable to practical,
sensible suggestion that ooth you and the Minister have responded
so readily to my urgings that we convert the cowtrack from the
Airrort into Ci'berra into something a little more respectable;
and the edging which is now going on again has excited my warm
approval. But to do these things in a ractical way coping
with the growing population providin stndards which will at
the one time be a model to the rest of Australia, but won't oe
so far in advamce of the rest of Australia as to create resentment
and acrimony aro nd the other Capital Cities, is a task which calls
for judgment and discrimination, good sense and a-ain I repeat,
I believe you have achieved these things remarkaoly e. ll
It is not so many yeasa. itht ; ie diplomats
appointed to this country, foud. th it fhe amenities in C.: nperra
were so. lacking, that they / had to oase themselves rather uneasily
either in Sydney or occasionally in LMelbournei
4 -3-
I think that appointment to the Australian scene was
re. arded almost in the sense of a period of solitary confinement.
How'ever, I am sure the doyen of the Corps would concede that now
there is quite a degree ol competition to secure appointment to
Australia and in particulir to Canberra as the national centre and
undoubtedly not only has the improvement in Canberra itself helped
to attract the Diplomatic Corps to C noerra but the oresence in
Canoerra of the Diplomatic Corps with their ow'n distinguished
buildings has added to the attraction of the capital city itself.
I am told that we are now attracting just on 600,000
tourists a year. It seems an extraordinary figure to me but I
am in no nosition to c-tilene it and, if it is a fact, then I
think it demonstrates not only that Canoerra: itself has developed
great attractiveness but there is a growing pride around Australia
in the National C-pital.
I can recall as even some of my more recently-acquired
collea ues the sort of controversy that used to go on even at the
time . en we were building the lake people resentful of C: tnberra's
expenditures and contrasting this ,. ith our failure to provide so
much for the things they needed in their centre. 3ut that's been
a diminishing factor almost to vanishimn point.
And today one senses a very different spirit around
the country. People are proud of Canberra, they flock to Canberra
and in that process, I think they have learned to take a growing
interest in the national Parliament in Canberra and in all these
directions your activities have helped.
May I say to those you have mentioned who served on the
Committee for the oeriod of nine years how, grateful we are to them
for the contribution they have made and indeed to thank you all
for what you have done in this honorary way eating into your spare
time and dra-in on your professional talets, the skills and the
experience whicH you so ably possess. All this is deserving of the
appreciation of your Xovernment of the . iustralian people.
So thank you very much for all that you have done and
all that you will ie doing for the growth and oeauty of this Capital
of ours and my thanks to you Mr. Chairman for the opportunity to be
ith you to say thank you and enjoy your company.
T