3ARTOJ ELECTORATE DINNER
SANIS SOUCI, N. S. W. 2 JULY 1968
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mvr John Gorton
M r Arthur, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:
That was quite a list of qualities you laid down that you hoped
would be possessed by a Prime Minister and I would not pretend to
lay claim to all of them. All I can say is that I would try to do as well
as 1 could to fulfil each one you have mentioned.
When you asked me, Mr Arthur, first to come to this gathering,
I was delighted for two reasons. One was because it would give me an
opportunity, as it has given me, to meet, however fleetingly, so many of
the people in this area, such a cross section of Australians living in your
electorate, and some from adjoining electorates. This in itself is for me
something that I think a Prime Minister should try and do as far as it is
possible. I was glad because this was the electorate which, after a long
perid of aberration before they finally decided, sent you to join us in Canberra.
That meant that we had added to our ranks somebody who was prepared to
work hard indeed one of ' the most energetic characters I have ever met in
my life, who works, as I am sure I don't have to tell you in the electorate
and I think spends more time questioning, cross-questioning, arguing with
Ministers on policy in Canberra than almost any other private Member,
often with great advantage to the nation.
Secondly I was glad because it would give me a chance to meet
some of the people who had sent to us a Member who would help us to
further an attitude to government, an approach to the running of the nation which
over the last twenty years or so has, I think, proved itself to be a proper
approach. Of course, there would in any period of such a time be errors
made, mistakes made, but taking the thing as a whole, it has shown itself
to be an approach which has built a nation, which twenty years ago was small,
to a nation which is now standing on the threshold of real greatness and which
has allowed in that period of time a foundation to be laid on which the great
edifice of a future Australia can be built.
These things do not come about by governments or by politicians.
They come about by the presentation of programmes to Australians and the
acceptance of those programmes by Australians, and the work done by
Australians which enables the programmes themselves to be fulfilled.
We tend too much to underwrite what we have done. We tend too
much to write down ourselves as a country. We must now begin not only
here, not only in New South Wales or in Victoria or in Western Australia,
but throughout the whole of this continent to further the pride of being an
Australian wherever in this continent that Australian may live.
Things are really exciting in this country today. I am going to
weary you a little now, just touching on some of the exciting things which will
affect all of us and our children and our descendants in the future. 2
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One company alone, in the Pilbara region in Western Australia
has export contracts for 32 million tons of iron ore of the total value of,
$ 260 million to be coming in to us over the next two years. Another foTF
105 million tons worth $ 800 million. Another for 160 million tons worth
240 million coming in in the period ahead. The port facilities that have
grown as a result of this, the railways that have been built are all exciting
examples of what is happening in this nation of ours. The new town at
Dampier 170 miles of railways new ports the oil being discovered in
Barrow and under the waters of Bass Strait. soon, together with natural
gas, to revolutionise the z~ spccity of Australia to live on its own resources and
' lot be dependent on the world outside. All these are the sinews and I think
they have come about for two reasons.
One is because of the philosophical approach which the Member
you sent to support us agrees with and furthers that is for this kind of
growth to tak!-e place, it is necessary that the fullest support should be given to
iheprivate initiative of Australian citizens and that they should be able to
take risks, lose, but get rewards if they win, and that in such a climate you
can without too much government direction leave to the initiative and good
sense and brains of individual Australians the development df their nation,
I think it has come about too, because this having been demonstrated
to have worked in that way, has led to an investment in this country from
abroad which this year alone was 100, 000 and which enables us to get the
benefit of the quick development which the changing world around us demands
we should achieve because of stability here and because of the climate here
created. Now I said we tend to underwrite ourselves. This does not mean
that there are not many things still requiring to be done. This does not mean
that we can afford complacency. What it does mean is that looking at what
has been achieved, let us look to the future and say, " This is just the
beginning. All the past is really a prelude", which I roughly translate as:
" fYou ain't seen nothing yet". And I do believe that in these years ahead we
will, those of us sitting in this room, look back in ten years' time and say
how much we have grown, how much our material strength has improved, how
much the living conditions of our people have been improved.
But we stand at this point in history in a position we have never
been in before, For 200 years or more, the Royal Navy has protected us
from any assaultf from overseas against our shores, and we, when called
upon, have rallied to the support of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, but
in between times, have had to expend but little thought on our own defence.
Those times have gone. The United Kingdom can no longer provide that shield.
We, ourselves, must take up and are taking up more and more of the burden
which any prudent country must take up to protect itself against threats which
may not as yet be foreseen but which history indicates are always likely to
be present. And in taking up that burden, we have to examine the situation
where the old theories on which our defence was built are no longer valid, and
examine new possibilities and bring forward new programmes.
This is one of the great problems facing us today, and one which
as you know, we are studying, working for, and providing for. But this is
not the only point of change. 1/ 3
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We have to make choices as to what we will do in
the immediate years ahead from the resources available to us how much,
a government must decide, should be provided for defence purposes;
how much, a government must decide, should be provided for increasing
the requirements for universities, for technological colleges, for schools,
for more teachersi how muich should be provided for scientific work further
to develop the capacity of the land to carry more wealth, to produce more
wealth; how much, and this cannot be skipped, must be provided to see that
the aged and the invalidi the needy, the ill amongst us are provided with
sufficient to live on in moderate comfort.
And how much must be left in the hands of the private
citizens so that that further development we need can take place because the
incentive to the private citizen is there. . These are the things on which
we must make choices, These are the things on which governments choose
priorities-, These are the tasks before us. We will let you know relatively
soon what the priorities are for the coming year,
It is possible that what we think is right may by some
be thought wrong, It would be most surprising if that were not so. * But
we will say what we think is right, We will say why we think it is right,
We will keep arguing unless some better arguments, convince us we are
wrong which I think is most unlikely and we will then leave it to the
Australian people to decide whether in fact we wete right or We were wrong
in what we did. But whatever those choices of Priorities we decide may
be, I know from the atmosphere in this Itoomi from the people that I have
met tonight, that what we decide Is only the beginning of achievement, what
we decidewill only make it possible for each individual Australian himself
to contribute to the growth for which we provide the possibilities if we
make the right choices. Never has there been a time in this nation's history
when it has been more necessary for each Australian going about his,
ordinary occasions wherever he : may be to adopt as his motto that saying:
Whatsoever thy right hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. Because
if that is done, then not only will the individual get satisfaction from what
he is doing in life, and the work he is achieving, but the nation will grow,
he will get a feeling of service, which I am sure our young want more than
anything else, a feeling of giving over and above his own personal requirements.
This is another task, an urgent task of leadership in government to give
to Australians that feeling of participation, that feeling of service, that pride
in achievement which is latent in them and which I believe, stirred properly,
will make us the greatest nation in the world in time, not only in terms of
material strength, not only in terms of opportunities to the individual to
develop himself to the top of his bent, but also in an approach to social
problems which I think we can and will overcome. This is the task before
us as I see it. This is the task I am going to call on you, and others like
you, to carry out. This is the task which, in fact, can only be carried out by
you and us together. I conclude by saying I believe above all there is
amongst the Australian people a will, an ability, a desire and a goodness
which, properly utilised, will make our children proud. I thankc you.