VISIT TO US, CANADA AND UK
SYDNEY DEPARTURE
PRESS CONFERENCE AT MASCOT AIRPORT, SYDNEY 28TH MAY, 1967
PRIME MINISTER gentlemen, I thin k the range of matters we shall be
discussing on this visit must rank amongst the most significant that any
Australian Prime Minister has been called upon to undertake in the course
of an overseas journey. As you know, I shall be seeing President Johnson,
the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Pearson and the Prime Minister of
Great Britain Mr. Harold Vlilson, in addition to other senior members of
those three Administrations. The subject matters themselves will be
tremendously important.
In the United States, I shall be canvassing with President
Johnson a number of matters of mutual interest to us. In the international
field, Vietnam, of course, will loom largely in our discussions, as will the
British intentions in relation to their military presence East of Suez. There
will be discussions between us, I would hope, on other matters of mutual
interest relating to Britain's entry into the European Economic Community,
but apart from that, there will be talks about matters of interest of Australia
in the trade and economic fields,
In Canada, we have no problems as between Australia and
Canada of any significance, but we do have important mutual interests.
17, e are both senior members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and the
Commonwealth is going through a period of difficult movement in which the
future is not easy to perceive. Both of us, I think, would want to see a
continuing role for the Commonwealth. Both of us have a consciousness that
as our own two countries develop in population and in economic strength
and they are both at this time countries of considerable economic sigrifcance
and strength both of us have significant relations with the United States.
I would want to talk with Mr. Pearson about the future role that our two
countries can play in the kind of world which we see developing around us.
I like to think sometimes of where Australia and Canada will be by the end
of this century. I won't be here, of course, to do much about that, but
our two countries, with a growing population there and a growing population
here, able to make our policies and our influence felt amongst such countries
as the United Kingdom and the United States, can, I think, usefully influence
the course of events in various policies which will emerge internationally.
So these are things that he and I will have an opportunity of canvassing
together in the quite intimate discussions I shall be having with him during
the weekend I shall be spending privately with him, and in my talks with him
and other members of his Cabinet.
Of course, the stimulus for my visit to Canada at this time is
Australia's participation in EXPO-67, and I am looking forward to being there
on the day specially set aside to celebrate Australia's participation in this
important international exposition. But Mr. Pearson and I will have
opportunities together for useful discussion on many matters of mutual
interest. W~ hen I get to the United Kingdom, there will be matters there
which are of critical importance for Australia, and amongst these, the most
significant undoubtedly will be British intentions in relation to their military / 2
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role, not only East of Suez, but the global role which the United Kingdom
sees itself pursuing in the years ahead.
As to their entry into the European Common Market, the trade
aspects of this can, of course, be dealt with more appropriately by my
colleague the Minister for Trade, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is our
specialist on these matters and who has returned recently from overseas and
from his own discussions in Europe and in the United Kingdom. But events
move swiftly ir, this era, and by the time I get there, no doubt there will be
further clarification on British prospects and I shall be able to have direct
talk with the Prime Minister who has set aside the whole of the Tuesday
morning immediately after our arrival on the Monday night in London for his
talks with me, and some later opportunities in that week. There will be
other Ministers with whom I shall be in discussion on matters which also ane
of significance for us the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Minister for
Defence, the Minister for Commonwealth Relations, and the Minister for
Trade. These are just highlights, as they occur to me, of the discussions
I shall be holding. In America, as you will see from the detailed itinerary that has
been circulated to you, I have a number of important speaking engagements
which I am hoping will prove helpful to American and Australian interests
internationally. In the United Kingdom, .1 haven't public speaking commitments
as yet, but there will be there the close and intimate discussions with the
Prime Minister and senior members of his Ckabinet.
Altogether I am hoping that this will prove a visit to each country
of great value for Australia. Certainly it will be informative for me and my
colleagues and I hope that I shall be able to conv~ ey Australian views in a way
which will have some impact on the policies which each of these countries will
be pursuing in the future.
C. On the Referendum, Mr. Holt, could we have your reactions?
PM: Well, first as to the aborigine people, I think we can all as a
nation take satisfaction in the overwhelming support given to the proposal to
remove any trace of discrimination, as it has appeared to many people, in the
Australian Constitution. It will not only be of benefit as I see it to pecple
of the aboriginal race in that it will enable the national government to
co-operate more closely with the Governments of the States in ensuring just
treatment and full acceptance in the Australian community of the aboriginal
people, but I think it will help Australia's image abroad in that so many
Australians have shown their determircation to give full acceptance to people
of the aboriginal race in the Australian community.
As to the nexus proposal, here as I said before the result, a
victory for NO would, in my judgment be a victory for prejudice, for
misrepresentation of what was involved in this, and an expression on the
part of many people of fears not very clearly felt or understood, but leading
them to a judgment that when in doubt they would vote N 0. / 3
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I don't know what it is about New S1outh Wales that has given them
the special merit of giving the Government such good support, but my own
interpretation of it is that in this State there was, both at the political level
and amongst the press, a more temperate and responsible presentation of the
case for the breaking of the nexus and this was re flected in the vote. In some
of the smaller StatE, under standably, there was a fear that their own relative
importance in the national Parliament might be diminished in an enlarged
P arliament or with a Senate held where it is now. But I pointed out at the time,
and others supported me-in this, that representatives from those small States
in the House of Representatives unanimously for the proposal and in the Senate
there was an overwhelming majority, including a maujority of Members from
the smaller States who voted in support of it.
It was, I concede, a disappointing result in that we did not secure
our objective, but that has been the decision of the Australian people. I feel
that as time went on and there became a clearer understanding, support
developed, but we were not able to get the majority we needed.
However, we shall now have to proceed in the knowledge that this
is the judgment which has been expressed on the national scale. I have no doubt
in my own mind that there must be a redistribution in the life of this Parliament.
There are electorates, even in the same city, where one Member has to
represent more than two and a half times the number of electors of a n. other.
I, myself, would not wish to go through another general election without a more
equitable and balanced representation Inside each of the States of the ' Commonwealth.
However, the details of these matters have yet to be discussed between
myself and my colleagues. W~ ork will be done on the implications of this
outcome before I return, and I hope -after my return to be able to talk closely
with them about it.
Tha-nk' you.