Speech by the Prime M inister, Mr. Harold Holt
OPENING OF MURRAY 1 PO.: 3R STATION
KHANC0j3A, 22ND JULY, 1967.
Mr. Fairbairn; Mr. Morton representin the Government
of New South " ales; Mr. Rylah the Government of Victoria; and
Mr. Riches the Government of South Australia; Mr. Courtney
representing Her Majesty's Opposition in the Federal Parliament;
Mr. Pettitt representin the Country Party; Sir ' illiam Hudson;
Mr. Raymond Hill MLr. . ilkinson, f. Thiess Mr. Perini and Mr.
Loutit who are all representative of Contractors who participated
in this gre: at scheme; and also Mr. Rodd; and then the Commissioners;
Mr. Dann and the Assistant Commissioners, Messrs. ; arrell and
Skinner; Your Excellencies; ladies and gentlemen:
I felt I should give you that full introduction oecause
it helps to demonstrate just how many people and interests have
been participating in this magnificent scheme. I come to the
Project today, not to the Snowy Scheme generally for the first
time but erha s not as often as I should or would have wished,
usually concerning myself with the Snowy Project from the documents
which reach us in Cabinet, the graphs, he diagrams the pictures,
the statistics and the narrative; and we sit around the able
as each year the Minister puts his bid ( as the Treasury rather
indelicately calls these a -nroaches from Departments) and we
consider what we should aptly for the needs-of the Snowy Mountains
Authority in a particular year. 3ut I find it a very different
thing from doing that to come to what is for most of us a rather
remote area and to see carved out of the native wilderness this
magnificent engineering project.
I don't know how most of you feel about it as most of
you no doubt close to the project itself have become a bit blase
about it out to me it is a stirring thin. to feel that here in
this young country of ours we have added this magnificent engineering
achievement, this further stage in what has oeen a most imaginative,
ambitious Australian project, the largest and in many ways the
most successful that we have ever undertaken. And it spells out
quite a few things to us as we have heard the Minister give us his
stor it was a very good story, I thought, because it absorbed
about five of the best points I had hoped to make to you here this
afternoon. 3ut, be that as it may, as he unfolded this story we
had a picture before us of the happy combination of Government decision
and planning with the enterprise of competitive entrepreneurs,
themselves setting out to give the oest service they could on a
tender basis and' how successfully that has oeen was demonstrated
by the Minister in his speech.
I was certiinly most impressed and it couldn't have
been a more timely tonic to me, having come from three days,
afternoons and nights of Cabinet discussions on the Judgel to
find at least here is one section of the Australian economy
measured in terms of Government financial provision which is
keeping inside its 3udget allocation, inside its estimate, and
producing the results inside the scheduled time. That is a
matter for congratulation, of course, to all concerned.
The other thing which must strike anyone who cares to
think about the matter at all, sitting in this reat ouilding,
is how well we do in Australia to recognise that with less than
/ 2
-2-
12 million people trying to develop a continent the size of the
United States we make he machine and we make power come in aid
of our quite inadequate population.
Here I suppose the actual mannower involved in operating
this equiroment, :. hich will bring to INew South . iales and Victoria
the additional electrical power to assist industrial growth in those
States, will be quite minimal when compared with the outpouring of
power from these impressive machines. So we have much cause, not
only for conratulation for those who have contrijuted to the
enterprise, but of self-congratulation as a nation that we are
seizing the opportunities available to us and making machine and
power serve the needs of the Australian population.
This is the first phase, I am told, of the Snowy/ Murray
diversion. The three earlier power stations already opened Guthega
in 1955, Tumut 1 in 1959 and Tumut 2 in 1962 ha-e a combined
capacity of six hundred and sixty thousand kilowatts. This new
Murray 1 Power Station is lar er than all of them together, with a
capacity of nine hundred and fifty thousand kilowatts.
It is important to see this particular occasion in its full
context. Immediately, this power station marks the first completed
project in the second half oi the two-pronged Snowy development.
Today's opening represents the expenditure of two hundred million
dollars one quarter of the estimated total cost of the scheme of
eight hundred million dollars, and the revenue already received is
of the order of one hundred million dollars. So the Government is
not only getting this project completed within the time allowed for it
and within the cost estimated for it 17 or 18 years ago, but it is
getting its money oack on time as well.
It goes without saying that there has been great skill both
in planning and execution to bring a nroject as large as this to its
oresent stage without excesses of cost or time. There must by now be
many thousands of Australians to whom the nation should be grateful
for this achievement and not really our fellow Australians but all
who have contributed from whatever country to this project. I am
sure that the Ministers responsible Sir .; illiam Hudson ( who so richly
deserves the tribute warmlyaccordea him by the Minister), our able
present Commissioner, Mr. Dann, would all want to je amongst the
first to pay tribute to the many thousands of workers, many of them
recruited from overseas, whose untiring work has brought all this
about. Nor could it have , een achieved without the work of the
many engineers, skilled in a wide variety of disciplines and
techniques who helped plan it all and watched over its successful
achievement. In this spirit I am sure you will recognise my motive if
I permit myself to mention specially the various Ministers in
successive Commonwealth Governments who have played their part of
leadership in the project. There was first Mr. Nelson Lemmon,
Minister for ' orks in the Chifley Government; and then successive
Ministers in our own Governments since the end of 1949; our present
Governor-General, Lord Casey; the late Sir . illiam Spocner; and now
my colleague iMr. Fairoairn; and, together over the past years since
1949, they have oeen responsiule for bringing this scheme towards its
full maturity. I should also mention the willing and effective
co-operation in this great scheme that we have received from successive
Premiers of New South ' ales and Victoria and their Public ' orks
Departments and Electricity Authorities, and of course the South
-3-
Australian Government has also had a close interest in this
development. jehind them all as guidiny and guardian angel has
stood Sir Hilliam Hudson. In fact it might also oe called " The
Hudson Authority", so closely hAs he been associated with it. 7e
are very glad to see him here today and the nation owes him the
conratulations and thanks already voiced uy my colleague. all
join in wishing all those concerned including Mr. Dann and his
colleagues, successful progress as they carry on the good work.
The fact is, of course, that the Snowy Project,
although it serves directly in principle two of the major States,
is a national achievement and serves national purposes. It has
been warmly supported oy all political parties and all of us, as
Australians, can take pride in the example it his set us in many
fields. It has been the product of successful co-operation oetween
the Commonwealth and the State Governments between management and
workers. In a sense it has been an international project as the
flags that you see around you here today will help to indicate.
International in that some 33 nationalities are represented amongst
the employees of the Snowy Scheme and amongst the contractors and the
suppliers there are of course many countries re" resented is well.
Fallure in any of these import > nt relationships" ould have materially
affected the successful working of the roject but, ouite obviously
from the results, that cooperation has een close and effective.
I now want to say a word also as my colleague did,
about our attitude to the future of the Snowy Aountains Authority.
It will oe immediately recognised that a good deal of the success of
the organisation springs directly from the fact that they have been
associated with a project so exciting in itself, the nation's largest
single effort at development. In a sense, the very name the Snowy
Mountains Authority implies that its role ends once the Snowy Project
has been completed. There would be understandable criticism if the
Authority were retained fully in its present form without any major
project to sustain it and I am sure nboody, least of all those
associated with it, , wants to see the Snowy Authority to turn before
our eyes into a sort of white elephant.
But there are skills and experience gained in the
course of this great project which it is eminently desirable to have
continue serving the national interest and, with this in mind the
Government has turned in a responsible and constructive spirit to
seeing how much of the very valuaole skills and experience now
existing in the staff of the Authority could oe retained for further
projects of national importance. After a great deal of thought, it
has oecome clear that elements of the investigation design and
scientific services staff, including the hydraulic laooratories, could
very usefully be retained. Staff in these sections will not form a
nucleus for construction activities but, with their snecialised skills,
will be available to assist in major civil engineerin .: ork. It is
in this field particularly that the Authority has justly earned
Australian and even world-wide acclaim.
Je found that Commonwealth and Territory programmes
were not in themselves on a scale sufficient to maintain even these
important skills, so we approached the State Governments who have
themselves of course lirge constructive authorities, to see if they
had suitaole civil works in which they would ue prepared to engage
the Authority on a scale which would sustain a workable organisaion.
It now seems that the States individually would not have sufficient work
to justify retaining the specialised and necessarily expensive skills
of the Authority. But we find that their combined needs would justify
maintaining the specialist staff I have mentioned. So we can see an
/ 4
-4-
important future for those who remain with the Authority. It is a
future which I like to see as spreading the successes which have
attended the Snowy venture into many parts of the Continent, and
overseas as well, in support of our Colombo Plan projects.
Just oefore we came here, Mr. Dann very kindly
presented to my wife and myself a oeautiful small table made up
of stones taken not only from projects in the Snowy area, but also
from those projects which the onowy authority has assisted in
overseas as part of our Colomoo Plan arrangements. This will be
a constant reminder to me that there is a usefulness in the Authority
which stretches even beyond the border of this country.
I am sure we can see the future of the Authority
in this way as forward looking constructive and efficient. There
will be no need to look back Ath regret on the disbanding of a highly
efficient organisation geared to achieve a very special purpose.
Rather, we will be looking forward to a new Authority holding
to-ether important specialist services and we will be seeing those
not needed for this purpose taking the skills they have learned and
applied in the Snowy pro ect out into the highways and plains of
Australia and perhaps into other parts of the world in our immediate
neighbourhood. And in this connection, Mr. Morton, we were delighted
to learn that the offer we made to the Government of New South ' ales
that the advisory and designing services of the Authority could be
made available on suitable terms to your Government in relation
to the Eastern Suburos Railway, has oeen gldly accepted by the
Government of New South * ales.
Turning to development generally, there will always
oe found, of course, critics to argue that a government is not doing
enough for development. This Tovernment, we believe, is doing a very
great deal and we turn to the facts to tell that story for us. There
has ueen, over recent years in particular, a remarkable development
in Australia both oy private enterprise and by puolic authorities.
The result has been that Australia devotes a greater proportion of
its national product to fixed capital investment than does any other
major country in the world with the exception of Japan. That is the
only country that surpasses Australia in what it reserves from its
gross national product for its fixed capital investment. Our
percentage is in the neighbourhood of 27% of our national product
compared with just under 25% in Canada, 24% in NIew Zealand, and around
about 16% or 17% in the United States and the United Kingdom. This
investment comes very largely from our own domestic savings. ie
take pride in having an economy which can and does produce savings
of this order and a people responsible enough to accumulate them in
a continent which cries out for development.
Over the past ten years there has in fact been an
increase in the percent ige of our gross national product devoted to
capital expenditure by pblic authorities. Ten years ago a little
over 3 per cent of went to public authority investment. Now
it is a-little over 4 per cent and that is just short of the total
percentage of our G._ I that we now apply for defence purposes.
This increase reflects the concern which we and other Governments
have with providing our fellow Australians with their basic needs.
But the smallness of the fiures underlines at the same time the
wide scope left for the rest of the community to plan and execute
its own investment decisions.
In its own field of expenditure the Commonwealth
has oontinued to place great emphasis on capital works. If defence
expenditures are excluded, the pro ortion of expenditure from revenue
devoted to capital works has over he past 10 years remained over
of the total and, as I shall mention in a little more detail
later, this has been coupled with ra-idly increasing grants to the
States for important capital works.
The place of the Snowy project in the Commonwealth's
own capital works prora~ mme is interesting. In 1949-50 we sent
million dollars on The Snowy and that was 4% of our total capital
works expenditure. The peak of expenditure on the Snowy was in
1959-Go when we spent 56 million dollars and it occupied no less than
2U% of our capital works budget. As the Scheme nears fruition and as
other caoital works projects are developed, the proportion of the
Commonwealth's capital works expenditure devoted to the Snowy has
now reduced to auout 10%, but this is one demonstration of the
broadening of the Commonwealth's developmental activities.
In the late 1940' s there was a concentration on
the Snowy project. That was due partly to its size but partly, I
suggest, oecause there were not many other major projects being
developed. with our new emphasis on development at particular
places and to meet particular needs, the number of active developments
has increased enormously. In the private sphere there are at present
associated mostly with mining some'of the biggest projects being
carried on in Australia today. In the public sphere the concentration
is on transport and on water. . es-tern Australia and Queensland in
narticular are benefiting from the 50 million dollar programme for
the construction of beef cattle roads. . iestern Australia and South
Australia are benefiting from the Commonwealth's expenditures on rail
standardisation in Western iAustralia alone the Comnmonwealth has
provided some 53 million dollars since 1962-65 for these purposes.
NewSouth -ales and Victoria have benefited from the Snowy Scheme
itself and from other assistance iven b the Commonwealth. I think,
for example, of the development of coal loading works at Newcastle
Port Kemola and jalmain in New South ' iales, of the railway standardization
and the Murray River developments, including the 3ufFalo and
Chowilla Reservoirs in Victoria. In Tasmania we have agreed to
assist with the financing of the Gordon River Project which will
accelerate hydro-electric development in that State.
In addition to these projects, the Commonwealth
has been active in promoting the national water resources development
programme which was announced in my policy speech last year. Through
this scheme we are wanting to extend the conservation and use of
water in rural industry and Australia surely is a country which
desperately needs development of this kind.' There are many other
projects related to water use and conservation with which the
Commonwealth has been associated. I hardly need rehearse these,
but they show how importantly we rate the efficient use of water and
how widely spread are the projects we are willing to assist.
In all of these projects we are tryin, to take a
national view. The money and resources bein' devoted to them are too
important and too scarce to waste. ; e cannot afford inefficiency or
laxity to enter into our decisions aoout development projects. , e
have made them and will continue to make them on the oasis of
jud ments about tieir economic importance and their national significance.
Much as we all would like to see our own particul r local projects
prosper, the national government will only oe serving the people best
when it endeavours to see parochial considerations in their national
setting and act in the interests of the nation as a whole.
As I have su gested, our concern for development
has extended beyond the projecs undertaken by the Commonwealth and
its instrumentalities. In this the Snowy Authority is an example of
whit is becoming a firmly established Commonwealth policy. / 6
-6-
ie reco nise th-t both the national and ti. e
State governments canm n should play significant parts in the
development of australia. The Snowy has men one such development.
is it araws to its conclusion, the important skills it possesses
will be made availale to all pulic : uthorities throughout the
Commonwealth. Likewise we hive accelerated greatly our grants to
the States for canital purnoses. Ten years a ro tiese grants totalled
only 60 million dllars-la-st year they totailed 257 million dollars
and will be over 325 million dollirs this year. It can oe seen that,
far from the Commonwealth's expenditures on its own capital projects
declininY as expenditure reduces on its . reatejt single project the
Snowy Scheme they are, in point of fao rapidly increasing. Further,
the emphasis is on partnership with the States in'the int-rests of the
nation as a whole. Turning now to m immediate task today it is to
open the Murray 1 Project. I am old that each of the 10 , eneratin.
units in this station can ce started un automaticail ly by the closin.
of a switch in the control room. For The purposes of today's
ceremony I have been told to close the switch in front of me. Now
I add that any memuer of my family knows ti-t my mechanical ineptitude
is a matter of notoriety. At one point you are asked not to leave
this p lace until we have done so. I asked Mr. Dann what closing a
switch meant whether you pushed it foriaird or pulled it Oack. I
regret to say he ; asn't too sure himself and I hope that if I pull
it the wron, way, you all don't leave this place oefore I do.
However, I ave since oeen -cmforted by the information from Mr.
Dann that it only moves in one direction. So, by a fairly simple
process of trial and error, we shall get there. When I do eventually
successfully pull it in the right direction, the Numoer 1 unit will
start its full automatic sequence if everything goes according to
plan and will be comnnectyd to the line for the generation of
ower. It and the nine other units will each ce aule to produce
thousand kiloiatts of power for tAe grid which links New South
ales and Victoria for power purposes. I understand that, apart
from the noise you have already heard, you will hear some noise from
the turbine valve when I close the switch and the water be rins to
turn the t. uroines. ithin acout 20 seconds the machine wil oe: in
to rotate and then two minutes later the turbine will be producing
full power. So0 -is I now close the sitch, I have much pleasure
in declaring open the Murray 1 PoKer Station.