I I VISIT TO THE U. K. 1969
AUSTRALIA CLUB ADDRESS
GIVEN BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. JOHN FUIN
AT THE DORCHESTER HOTEL, LONDON
17 JANUARY 1969
Your Royal Highness, the other Lords who were mentioned by the
Toastmaster, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:-
May I first express the great pleasure and the great lifting
in the heart I feel at being in this room with such a distinguished company,
who have come together, as I believe, to demonstrate affection and support
for the country which I lead.
It is indeed a demonstration to warm the heart of any
Australian. But though I come from half a world away, yet I do not stand
here completely as a stranger. As you, Mr. Minister, have said, some
formative years were spent in this country during the course of my edu~ cation
at a college called Brasenose which was then, not noted for learning in any
way at all. But nevertheless judging from the alumni if I may use a word
borrowed from my American wife it does seem to have thrown up a large
number of people leading in a large number of fields, in spite of the fact
that so much of their time was spent either rowing or playing hockey or
engaging in some other enjoyable and agreeable activity.
I was much struck, talking of this kind of agreeable activity,
by the typical British understatement you made, Mr. Minister, when you
said you had thought of Australians as people who just played cricket. I
seem to remember in the course of the years that they played it reasonably
well. Brasenose was not my only early life experience in the United Kingdom.
With a typical politician's desire to make the best of both worlds I engaged
in labouring activities. Indeed the present Lord Tweedsmuir and I shipped
as deckhands on a trawler out of hull and worked our way around the Farao
Islands and back, although at that stage, Sir, it was not absolutely essential
for us to have a union ticket. But we did learn much of this country in that
time, and indeed, to know more perhaps because of that study of history in
which I was engaged at this great university.
It became clear to me, as it must to anyone who studies
history, that it is the British people over the centuries who have internally
and externally engaged in struggle aimed always at seeking to destroy
arbitrary power wherever it may raise its head; who have sought to give
to the individuals who alone are the riches of any country the right fully
to participate in the decisions that their country makes. And from the time
of Cromwell or before, through the Napoleonic wars, through the wars when
at any time absolute and arbitrary power sought to conquer Europe ( which
then was the significant world) it was Britain who stood as the bulwark against
that idea, and this we cart never forget. Nor can we forget, as Australians,
that for nearly two hundred years, we lived in that faraway country completely
under the protection of the British Navy. We had no need to defend ourselves
/ 2
except occasionally when we raised trained bands because it was thought
that Russia might invade us at the time of the Crimean War or something
of that kind history has a habit of repeating itself. And yet the trust,
the faith, the protection, was in the British people and the British Navy.
When the calls came in South Africa, or in the First World War or in the
Second, then naturally we repaid, or sought to repay, that which had been
so generously given to us. And on the whole, I think one can say the books
are reasonably fairly balanced.
We will, I think, as you suggested, Mr. Minister, take more
part in the region in which we live, provide more in the way of defence for
the stability of the regions in which we live. Indeed we have little choice,
but this is not unreasonable and this is not something at which 1, at any
rate, intend to cavill. For we do still revere and we do still uphold those
same institutions of parliamentary democracy, that same reverence for
the rule of law which this country has brought into the world, which you
helped us for so long to retain and which I know should they be threatened
in our own country from some source outside, we could look to you and the
British people to assist us to retain.
So you spoke of the development of Australia, of the
excitement of Australia, of the future of Australia. I would like for a little
while myself to say some words on what I see as a brash, a growing, an
exciting, and exhilarating country; perhaps one of the most exciting and
exhilarating countries in the world, just getting off the launching pad in a
way. Thirty years ago we had a population of 7 million: today we have a
population of 12 million in thirty years we will have a population of 28
million. And thirty years in the life of a nation is but the blinking of an
eyelid and then having attained the population we will go on as I believe to
60, 70 million and be a real power in the world. It will be a power I
hope that will always be exercised for good and always be exercised in
conjunction with the British Government of the United Kingdom itself.
There has been an " explosion" in Australia just recently
and I am going to weary you with some statistics to indicate the extent of
this " explosion". Not so many years ago we were thought to be poor in
natural resources and to be growers of wool, growers of cattle, growers
of cricketers, growers of people who sometimes unjustly criticise the
United Kingdom, but not richly endowed in those dry, arid, inland areas
which make up so much of our continent. Yet now our known oil fields will
be producing about 70 per cent of our own requirements for crude petroleum
by 1970 just two years on. Only a fraction of what is there to be discovered
is I am sure, as yet, discovered.
We have at the same time discovered supplies of natural gas
for industry in our great cities, and this will be available in those cities
Melbourne, Brisbane probably by the end of this year. Cur iron ore
mountains seem to be illimitable and made of a grade unmatched elsewhe-re.
By 1973 vwe will be exporting 35 million tons of iron ore every year and by
that stage or ' 71 or ' 72 these minerals, nickel as well, will be producing
one billion dollars a year of export income for our country. / 3
3-
We have more than a third of the world's known deposits of
bauxite, to make alumina and aluminium and the output will rise from about
a million tons which is the present output to 10 million tons in 1972.
Production of coal for export will double. Nickel discoveries, in which I
think quite a number of people in the United Kingdom have done reasolpably
well, will add to this future which lies so close within our grasp. Phosphate,
copper, other minerals have been discovered and will follow.
This is no credit to us. I do not tell this to this distinguished
company in the suggestion that it is something that resounds to Australian
individual's own credit; I say it because I want to indicate that there is ill
my belief an illimitable future, that there will be a doubling in our economy
every thirteen years, and that those who are interested should get in on
the ground floor, as some already have, to take full advantage of the
opportunities which are there in such great abundance. Not opportunities
merely for Australia. Because if it is true that this economic development
is possible and I am sure it is and if it is true that this economic
development in its turn w~ ill enable the influx of population which we so
require and I'm sure that too is true then this vision of a nation in
twenty, thirty years will be of advantage not just to us, but to us and to
that England which will be tied to us forever in general approaches to the
world's require ments and the world's problems.
I did read in one of the distinguished papers of this country
this morning, a leading article suggesting that we regarded the United
Kingdom as a quarry for taking people and population. Well, I suppose
in a sense we do. But it will be to both of our advantages, and indeed it
will be different from what was originally said when the settlers first
came to Australia, because we will be able to say with full truth " True
patriots they, for be it understood, they left their country of our country's
good." But what we I must pause here all the things which I
have said will take place. The speed with which they take place will
naturally depend upon the amount of capital flowing in to enable such
development. And this is the more true because on current account, on
what we sell to other countries and what we buy f~ om other countries, we
don't do so well. The United States places difficulties in the way of us
selling meat and wool and other products, and there are murmurings of
some entry into some kind of association by Great Britain which might cut
down on the prospects of selling our own primary products. And so the
current account does need to be balanced by inflow of capital. Inflow of
capital, which will go to a country as stable as any country in the world,
and be able to be invested in enterprises which will return to those who so
invest an interest as great, I think, as they could receive anywhere.
We want this, and we want it urgently. But we want it, in some respects,
on our own terms. e. / 4
-4-
Up until very recently it has seemed to me that the postpre
of Australia in seeking overseas capital has been the posture of a puppy
lying on its back with all legs in the air and its stomach exposed, and
saying, " Please, please, please, give us capital. Tickle my tummy on
any conditions", and this is being re-examined for those who seek and
wish to take the risks and the advantages that are offered, by bringing in
capital for new development, then we are delighted, and we are receptive
for that capital. But we do say and I go no further than to say that we do
say that we would be happy if in such cases when some new great
development were to take place, and capital from here were to come to
help it, and there was an opportunity I say only an opportunity offered
for some equity participation by Australians in that new development.
Should they care not to take it up, that is their business, that is their loss.
Should they wish to take it up at some later stage, after the risks have
been taken and have been successfully overcome, then they must expect
to take it up at a premium, because somebody else has taken the risks.
But initially, it would please us if in such cases an opportunity were given
to get in on the ground floor.
We do not look with complete and utter favour on overseas
corporations, having started development in our own country, having
brought capital from abroad to make that development possible, then seeking
to raise debenture capital inside our own country in order to keep the process
rolling. Well this is not overseas capital, this does not bring in with it a
capacity for us to bring in more migrants. This does not bring the machinery
or whatever it may be that true overseas capital provides. But being
reasonable people, we are amenable to any suggestions that, should such
a situation arise and should debenture capital be sought to be raised within
Australia for purposes of some overseas company, we would look at-. that
with sympathy, as long as it was coupled with the offer of equity to,.
Australian shareholders at the same time.
You may have heard perhaps I gather you have from reading
the newspapers some queries in some minds as to our attitude towardis
portfolio investment, as distinct from development investment. We are
delighted to have portfolio investment, particularly if Mr. Smith, or Mr.
Brown or Mr. Jones, wishing to take a flutter in Great Western, or in
B. H. P. or some other of our great companies, wishes to buy two hundred
shares, three hundred shares, five hundred shares this is marvellous.
We like it. Wie trust no impediment will ever be put in its way. And we
realise that in the case of companies already established, that there are
instances in which such Australian companies could with advantage to them
and to Australia, be taken over. If there are inefficient companies, companies
badly run, companies which need capital they cannot raise inside our country,
companies which need an infusion of technical management, then it could
well be of advantage to all that from abroad somebody who can provide the
required capital and management skill and technology should be enabled to
enter into and if necessary control and certainly have a very great influence
on such a company. But we do believe that there are other companies, well
run, well managed, sometimes under-valued on exchanges in relation to the
assets they have, who can be subject to market raids, to offers of first come,
first served, to cert ' ain shareholders so that the whole company itself does
not have a chance, all the shareholders do not have a chance to examine
the offer that is made, and we do not have a chance to know who is buying
the company. There was a specific instance of that not so long ago and
we had to discover who was trying to buy one of our insurance companies,
who was buying it and whether we thought that such a company should in
such cases be taker. over.
These are under examination, these last two matters at the
moment. They will be worked out. But let there be no doubt in the minds
of anybody in this room, but that we need, wish, welcome, investment
capital, that there is stability of opportunity for those who have it to invest.
And speaking for myself, in spite of what I am told from some quarters,
I think that if we provide a stable government, and if we provide clear
evidence that there is going to be a darn good return on any capital that
is invested, then that capital is going to come to us and not be frightened
off because of the sort of things that I have just now been saying.
We do not want, in twenty or thirty years, to have Americans,
or French, or Swiss or British, owning the major companies in Australia,
for a variety of reasons I do not need now to go into. But I had promised
I would say sometling on this subject, tonight. I know it's dull. I know
it's dry. Now "' ye said it. But when all is said and done, Sir, to come
back to what you said at the beginning, all these things, really, are tools
with which to build the future. The tools with which to make one potentially
great nation realise that potential, so that it can in the future, in conjunction
with an already great nation, make a far greater contribution and effect
on the world, to the benefit of all of us.
And this is essential, I believe, if we are to keep in a world
swinging down the grooves of change, those things of which you spoke and
for which Britain stands. The avoidance of the knock on the door of the
secret police at midnight; the avoidance of the fear of one man to speak
his mind because he may be punished; the opportunity for a man to develop
his own capacity to the top of his bent. And it's a charge laid on all of us
to see that these things are kept. All of us English, Australians, New
Zealanders all those of common stock and of these beliefs. A charge
that was laid in 1939 and ' 45. And can I ask you, as you look at me, to try
not to see me, if I make this point, but instead to see behind me, regiment
on regiment of young men dead in ' 39 to ' 45, and try and hear them saying
burning in tanks and aeroplanes, drowning in submarines, shattered and
broken by high explosive shells we gave, for our full measure of devotion,
that these things of what you spoke, and of which I am speaking, might
continue. And they will continue the better while we stay together,
while we stay in conjunction, while we in Australia reach towards our destiny.
While we convert the vision splendid, of the sunlit plains extended, into a
reality which is now within our grasp. With our work, and your help, to
our common effort, and for the protection of those things, we both, as I am
sure, desire for our children.
Thank you.