VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND
AUCKLAND
OPENING OF NEW ZEALAND EASTER SHOW Ap, 16
BY MR. JOHN GORTON March 1968
Mr. ( Co-Chairman, the Right Honourable the Prime Minister,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
You, Mr. Prime Minister, have said you attached
some significance to the fact that within three months of
assuming office in Australia the first overseas trip taken
by me as Prime Minister of Australia has been to New Zealand.
But this is, I think, in no way surprising. There cannot be
two nations more contiguous than New Zealand and Australia.
There cannot be two nations which have in the past forged
closer bonds in war and peace and which are now fusing yet
closer thosc bonds which were previously forged. And there
cannot be two nations which, if they are given the opportunity
to grow as they have the capacity and the will to grow, can
more significantly complement each other, can more significantly
help the growth of each other, and more enrich the standards
of living of each other, and by so doing can more contribute
to the region of the world in which these nations live. So
it is not surprising that the first visit of an Australian
Prime Minister should be to New Zealand, nor is it surprising
that that visit should take place quickly.
Rather would it be surprising if an Australian Prime
Minister first went anywhere else, or delayed too long before
he came to see those whose past and whose destinies are, as I
believe, so closely intertwined, and that is why I think there
will be now and in the future, not for a person but for an
Australian Prime Minister a requiremcnt to be closely and
constantly in touch with this nation and a requirement for a
New Zealand Prime Minister to be closely and constantly in
touch with ours.
This has been an all too brief sojourn amongst you,
but during the period of time I have been able to be here, I
have had extended to me that hospitality I expected before I
came and I expected much and got much and have had the
opportunity to speak in Nellington to the leaders of commerce,
to the leaders in politics, to the head men in all kinds of
human endeavour. This, I think, is the first time that I
have had the chance to speak to a large gathering of
representative men and women of New Zealand, and to them I
want to say that I bring in my person greetings from
representative men and women of Australia.
' tie are, as the Co-chairman has pointod out, as a
nation an exhibitor in this show and have been an exhibitor
for 10 years. d~ e are, I think, the only overseas exhibitor,
and from my memory I think we have committe ourselves to
continue to be an overseas exhibitor here until the lease of
the showgrounds runs out in 1974. ' Ie cannot commit ourselves
to be exhibitors after that because we don't know what the show
and the owners of the showgrounds are going to do, but if they
can work things out then you can count on us to continue to be
involved. And so we should, because here, and particularly in
this division of the show, we see the growth of secondary
industry in New Zealand.
Now we, Australia and New Zealand, are competitors
in producing the products of primary industry and our markets
are, because of that, difficult of access, the one to the
other, for primary products, and we are competitors in other
countries of the world for the sale of primary products. And
we have a balance of trade which is adverse to New Zealand.
So how can we overcome this; what is being done to overcome
it? I think we can overcome it b0y endeavouring to open our
markets to the secondary products of New Zealand and by
continuing to sell in New Zealand our own secondary products,
and by expanding the volume of trade from New Zealand to
Australia and back, in that way, and in secondary products
but not entirely, hope to increase the manufacturing capacity
and the markets of each of our nations.
For that purpose we entered into an Australian/ New
Zealand Free Trade Agreement. This required that, at the time
that agreement was entered into two years or so ago, all those
products of New Zealand which were duty free should continue
to be duty free for admission to Australia, and it required
that a listed number of products on which duties were charged
when the agreement was entered into would have those duties
progressively reduced over a period of eight years until those
tariffs too were quite removed and those on that schedule were
also freely admitted. The result of that is already showing,
because, as your own Minister, Mr. Marshall, pointed out in a
press statement last February, in the last half of 1967 the
exports from New Zealand to Australia increased by over
compared with the exports in the last half of 1966.
And it is being required by this agreement that, by
arrangement, in order to help both countrics, manufacturers
can agree amongst themselves, and governments can endorse that
agreement, that something manufactured in New Zealand and
brought into and sold in Australia can be brought in and sold
without tariff even though it is not on the list of goods to
which I have rcferred, provided the New Zealand Government will
grant import licences to Australia for 80% of the value of the
goods imported to Australia from New Zealand. And it is provided
in that agreement that as it progresses the governments converse
with each other and can remove duties altogether before the
eight-year period is up, and this has been done on more than
one occasion, and just recently on undressed timber, so that
last October a decision was made to admit undressed Douglas Fir;
and this month another decision to admit undressed native timber
without duty, which we calculate, without taking in the factor
of growth, will mean an extra one million dollars a year trade
for New Zealand with Australia.
Now I know and I don't intend to traverse this
subject too much, because it is more one for manufacturers
and perhaps not immediately one which catches the imagination
of men and women I know that not only in the field of
secondary industry but also in the field of forest products
is New Zealand vitally interested, and this, too, will be
discussed between us in a week or so.
But these are mere mechanics of something which we
are seeking to achieve between us in the future, mere indications
of thc paths we are trying to travel, more hopes that the goals
that are held out to us will be reached. Those goals are ones
that we seek in the future, and the building we are hoping to
start now is one which will reach its fruition in the future,
at some time when you are a nation of 20 million people and
we are a nation of 50 million people perhaps, and we can together,
by what is in effect going to be joint effort through these
3.
kinds of' agreements and their working out, see that there are
diversified opportunities for employment in this country and
in ours, that there are markets in this country and in ours,
amd that because there is this diversified manufacttiring
capacity, because there are these markets, because we are both
nations which can use technology, we will be able to make and
sell to each other things more cheaply than before and in
greater volume than before, and from the strength that generates
in both our countries will be able again jointly to contribute
to building up the standard of the region in which we live.
This is a task that I think destiny has laid upon New Zealand
and Australia. This is a task we cannot achieve if we hold
each other at arms' length. This is a task which is coming
nearer to being fulfilled because we are coming nearer together.
Some feelings of suspicion in the past, some feelings of
worrying about a big brother seeking a takeover, I think are
going, and they must go, because that is not the question that
confronts us. The question that confronts us is, how can we, who
are not cousins but more like brothers, work together, being
so close together and you, in terms of' time and distance
are closer to Sydney than is Perth work together for this
end which we have begun now to work for and which I think all
no, not all, but 90% 6 of the people in my country and in yours
wish to see pushed ahead until the goals I have outlined are
attained, and wish to see achieved, as a building is achieved
in the future, without having it handicapped by problems which
arise from some immediate consideration, which ax'e difficulties
but which can be overcome if that great structure which I think
you want and we want is jointly to be achieved.
Because this show helps towards it, because it gives
me an opportunity to speak to those of you who come here, not
as heads of great companies, not as members of parliament, not
as people in the Chamber of Manufactures, but as men and women
from New Zealand, because it gives me these opportunities, and
because I think the aims in front of us are so high, I thank
the organisers of this show so much for having given me the
opportunity to talk to you, to weary you a little with statistics,
but I hope to open to your minds a vision. It is because of
this that I thank the organisers, and declare this show open.