PRIME MINISTER'S PRESS CONFERENCE, PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
2 JULY 1974
Ladies and gentlemen, first I can inform you of some
appointments. The Government has decided to appoint Mr Philip
Evatt, B. Sc., as a Judge of the Australian Industrial
Court; Mr Justice Starke of the Victorian Supreme Court and
Mr John Dixon of Melbourne to the Board of Trustees of the
Australian War Memorial; and Brigadier A. B. Stretton as
Director-General of the Natural Disasters Organisation. The
brigadier will be promoted to major-general. Cabinet has also
approved the re-appointment of Mr J. L. Burke, barrister, and
Mr M. Dempsey, accountant, as members of the Taxation Board
of Review. Mr Walsh can give you biographies of the gentlemen
concerned. Mr Walsh will also give you press statements concerning
appointments to the Industries Assistance Commission. I'll
just briefly mention the persons involved. Mr Peter Westerway
is to be a commissioner and, after the act has been amended
to permit the ceiling on the number of appointments to be
raised from the present nine to eleven full-time commissioners,
Mr Frank Pascoe will be appointed as the tenth commissioner.
He was recently appointed as associate commissioner for the
inquiry into the clothing industry and, as you know, he is
the president of the South Australian Chamber of Manufactures
and now the first president of the amalgamated Chamber of
Manufactures and Chamber of Commerce of South Australia, and
he is deputy president of the Associated Chambers of Manufactures
of Australia. There are some other associate commissioners
who have been appointed. Dr Melville for the inquiry into the
financing of rural research; Mr Fisk for the inquiry into
the dairy industry and rural reconstruction; Mr J. Poulton
for the inquiry into paints, varnish and lacquers; Mr Kevin
Brown for the inquiry into electrical machinery and equipment.
Mr Colin Grace, whose present term as an associate commissioner
expires on the 16th of this month, has been re-appointed on
a temporary basis in order to finalise a number of inquiries
on which he has been engaged, and the acting Premier of New
South Wales has agreed to make the services of Dr Dunn of the
New South Wales Department of Agriculture available for the
inquiry into the financing of rural research, subject to
certain administrative arrangements being satisfactorily
concluded. Here again, if you want the biography of the
appointees, Mr Walsh can give them to you.
Cabinet yesterday received the Cochran Committee report
on labour market training. We are getting it printed as soon
as possible and expect to be able to table it next week.
Similarly, we are trying to get copies printed as soon as
possible of the report by Mr Justice Woodhouse of the New
Zealand Court of Appeal and Mr Justice Meares of the New
South Wales Supreme Court into the national compensation and
rehabilitation scheme. You'll remember that was appointed at
the beginning of last year and last March its charter was
extended to cover compensation and rehabilitation for sickness
in general, not merely for people injured on the roads or in
factories or in the home. That also we hope to be able to
table and thus publish next week.
Are there any questions you would like to ask me? ./ 2
QUESTION: We received a cable from Cairo which says in
part: " The Palestine Liberation Organisation welcomes the decision"-
welcomes, Sir, is the word " of the Australian Government to
allow it to open an information centre in Sydney' I ask, has
the Government in fact granted such permission and have you
any comment to make on the whole question?
PRIME MINISTER: The Government has received no approach on this
matter at all. It knows nothing other than it has read in the
newspapers on it.
QUESTION: Does your silence on the attack by Senator Brown
on Mr Marshall Green indicate, as has been suggested, your tacit
approval of what he said?
PRIME MINISTER: I think you're putting such an allegation to
me so directly and promptly so that I can refute it. I wasn't
proposing to dignify or magnify Senator Brown's attack. It is
a miserable in fact a cowardly thing to attack an ambassador.
An ambassador cannot reply. If Senator Brown has any information
which would indicate that Ambassador Green has not conducted
himself with propriety in his present post it is his duty to
give it to the Foreign Minister or to the Prime Minister. He
has given no such information. I don't believe there is any
such information. I read in the papers that he is keeping it
for some rally to mark the Fourth of July. If there's any
information it shouldn't be kept for an occasion like that
it should have been promptly put at the disposal of the
responsible minister. From what I know of Mr Green and I've
known him for ten years in Washington, in Jakarta and in
Canberra he is, as you all know, a singularly alert, active,
articulate man. I don't believe that any member of the U. S.
Congress would have any justification to criticise an
Australian ambassador who had said or done in the United States
what Mr Green has done in Australia. Mr Green is one of the
most experienced of America's diplomats. He has had experience
for over 30 years in the western Pacific. And not only did
the Government approve his appointment that's obvious, of
course, from the fact that he became ambassador here but it
welcomed his appointment. Mr Green is a man whose experience
and qualifications would have entitled him to the embassy in
Tokyo or the liaison office in Peking. I believe it is a
singular indication of the importance that America attaches to
her relations with Australia that Mr Green was appointed to
Canberra. QUESTION: Have you contacted Mr Green or caused a message
to be sent to him dissociating yourself and the Government from
the senator's attack?
PRIME MINISTER: I've seen Mr Green since, as you would have
expected. I've been in Canberra some days since this. Mr Green
doesn't need to be reassured of my attitude to him or his country.
QUESTION: Indications are that unemployment may worsen during
the last half of this year that the economic situation may worsen
during the last half of this year. Do you have any information
supporting or refuting these indications and what are your views
and your information on the economic situation?
PRIME MINISTER: You mention there are " indications". Now
specify them. I know of two events which are said to be
indications. One is that Leyland have put off 1,000 people;
but the motor car industry is producing as many vehicles as
ever. It's not the Government's fault if Leyland finds it
more difficult to sell its products than other companies find
it to sell theirs. The other field is in the textile industry.
People who lose their jobs in the textile industries in the
State capitals are, we believe, able to find other employment
which they like just as well. In regional areas there can be
a difficulty there, but the cure for that is not to ban the
imports of textiles or to put a prohibited tariff on them.
There's no need to burden the Australian consumer because of
some regional difficulty. What we are doing and there has
been a committee of our ministers considering it, and there
is a conference pending between my ministers and State ministers on
the decentralisation or regional aspects of this question for
something needs to be done to improve regional developments in
many areas. I notice that the Victorian Government and the
Victorian Minister for Decentralisatiop have been singularly
vocal in these matters, not least, of course, during the recent
election campaign. Their arguments would have carried very
much more weight if they had stuck to the facts. If State
ministers were to specify areas of regional development they
would find that the Australian Government is very happy to
collaborate with them. The Australian Government is very
happy to collaborate with them. The Australian Government has
taken the initiative in the biggest regional development
project, Albury-Wodonga. We are very happy to collaborate with
other States which have designated such areas. Our attitude
to Bathurst and Orange, which New South Wales has designated,
evidences that; and there have been for the last dozen years,
I suppose, four other areas apart from Wodonga which Victoria
has designated Ballarat, Bendigo, the area of Warrnambool,
Portland and Hamilton, and the Latrobe Valley. You might
remember there was a debate on the Latrobe Valley in the
House of Representatives a few months ago on this very point.
We are very happy to collaborate with State Governments in
regional development but, as in all these things, one needs to
plan properly and co-operatively. We've shown that we are anxious
to do this.
QUESTION: I was speaking specifically of the Associated
Chamber of Manufactures/ National Bank survey which indicated
that something like 73% of businesses or companies surveyed were
extremely pessimistic.
PRIME MINISTER: Well those are expressions of opinion. Give
me some facts. I've quoted the two that I am aware of.
QUESTION: Ever since your address on Saturday night to the
Industrial Relations Society, when you said that we couldn't go
on with wage increases at 20% a year, there's further evidence
that wage-price pressures are increasing. Is there anything that
you can say now that you couldn't say then about the Government's
strategy in face of this, and in particular is there anything you
can say about how quiickly the Government is going to take action
with so many wage negotiations currently overhanging the economy?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I've got nothing to add to the prepared
remarks which I made on Saturday night.
QUESTION: Would you consider following or giving a lead to
the lead put up by four of your backbenchers in Victoria yesterday
that pay rises for M. P. s should be postponed for some time in
the fight against inflation?
PRIME MINISTER: You will remember that the Act on this subject,
the Remuneration Tribunal Act, provides that the tribunal can
make recommendations concerning judges' salaries and ministers'
salaries and can make determinations concerning members'
salaries, ministers' allowances and the salaries of first division
members of the public service.-Now I'll read-what th ' e Act says
on this very aspect: " If either House of the Parliament within
fifteen sitting days of that House, after a copy of the
determination has been laid before that House, passes a
resolution disapproving of the determination, then if
the determination has not come into operation... I interpose
there to say that the Tribunal can fix a date for determination.
Well, if the determination does not come into operation " or
if the determination has come into operation, the determination
shall not have any force or effect in respect of a period on or
after the day on which the resolution was passed." So it's open
to the Parliament, either House, to disapprove of a determination.
QUESTION: If I asked for your personal opinion, would you
consider following or leading
PRIME MINISTER: I don't choose to express my personal opinion.
I'm the man in the Parliament who has the highest salary. it
would be very easy for me to get kudos by expressing a view.
I prefer to consider this in a collective way.
QUESTION: You said that Senator Brown's comments were cowardly
and miserable. Do you intend to tell him so face to face?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't propose to magnify this issue. I suppose
I'll speak to him. I'm not going to call him in. I don't propose
to answer any further questions on this matter.
QUESTION: Sir, do you disagree with Clyde Cameron's forecast
yesterday that unemployment will increase?*
PRIME MINISTER: I was speaking to Clyde Cameron quite a lot
yesterday. I didn't hear him make that forecast. I appreciate
that it's necessary to ask, Do I approve of what some particular
critic or reporter or colleague has said? I wish you chaps would
take responsibility for the unpleasant things which you want me to
answer.
QUESTION: Mr Cameron said yesterday, " I've felt for a long
time that unemployment will rise."
PRIME MINISTER: I didn't know he had.
QUESTION: He also says, " We are in fact taking steps which
are based upon the possibility that this will happen.' What steps
will those be?
PRIME MINISTER: I believe you've already been given a statement.
I think you were given a statement last night concerning the
Structural Adjustment Board, for which legislation was approved
yesterday, and I think you were also given information concerning
the action we're going to take on the Cochrane Report which I've
already mentioned to you the one about retraining.
QUESTION: The question of wage indexation awaits Mr Justice
Moore' s conference.
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
QUESTION: Then are there any moves which will speed up the
holding of the conference, which I think would take place about
September?
PRIME MINISTER: The holding of the conference is an initiative
by Mr Justice Moore, the president of the Australian Conciliation
and Arbitration Commission. Clearly, therefore, it should be
left to him. We said that we were happy to support that initiative.
I think we've shown that, including on Saturday at the Industrial
Relations Society Seminar at Surfers Paradise, where both
Mr Cameron and I supported the idea.
Perhaps I should have mentioned another thing about
Senator Brown. I'm sorry that his statement of the declaration
of the Senate poll in Victoria, of all places, took out of the
papers I think, relegated t6 the third page of the Melbourne
Sun, which is a pretty comprehensive medium the comments made
on the same occasion, of all places by Mr McManus. I notice,
not for the first time, that he said he had been offered the
post of Ambassador to the Vatican. He was never offered the
post of Ambassador to the Vatican. At the time that Australia
established diplomatic relations with the Vatican at the time
that Australia appointed an ambassador to the Vatican I was the
Foreign Minister, and Senator McManus was never approached nor,-
if it's not too harsh for me to say, was he ever considered.
QUESTION: While we're talking about senators, does the
Government intend to provide Senator Steele Hall with any
increased facilities or staff? If so, why?
PRIME MINISTER: Senator Steele Hall hasn't written to me or
spoken to me about the matter.
QUESTION: I understand there was a meeting of ministers and
Treasury officials at the Lodge last night. Was the tenor of
that meeting optimistic that the Government would be able to
both contain or reduce inflation and maintain employment and
that it would be able to do both together?
PRIME MINISTER: It was a private meeting both before, during,
and after dinner. So don't expect me to state
or to repeat the views which the wide number of men there
expressed. The object of it was for me to have the benefit of an
exchange of views with and between the Government's senior
economic advisers. And I do this not infrequently. Not as
often as I'd like to, but...
QUESTION: Do you consider immigration more important as an
instrument of foreign policy rather than one of domestic, social
and economic policy?
PRIME MINISTER: Immigration, as far as the present Australian
Government is concerned, involves people who were born overseas
and who have migrated to Australia; our prime objective is to
make them happy in this country, and to see that they get as
good opportunity, individually and as families, as it is
possible for the country to provide as their new home. I notice
that you still get some references to a mass immigration program.
The Government has no mass immigration program at all. Its
efforts are directed to making migrants feel at home in Australia.
QUESTION: How can you emphasise family reunion and yet give
the Immigration Department to Mr Clyde Cameron, the Labour
Minister, where the obvious orientation is going to be towards
manpower needs, considering that family reunion has the least
requirements for manpower policies and national need?
PRIME MINISTER: Mr Cameron, as Minister for Labour and
Immigration, naturally has the prime responsibility for
determining what the opportunities are for permanent migration
to Australia that is, for people coming here who want to
live here permanently and obviously, therefore, want to maintain
themselves when they come here. It's quite an unreasonable and
cruel thing to permit, still more to encourage, people to come
to Australia as permanent residents if there aren't jobs
available for them. I notice there's a great deal of speculation
in the newspapers on this subject arising from fomentation by
members of the old Department of Immigration when it was an
individual department. It's true that that department fell down
very badly in respect of Australia's urban affairs and foreign
affairs, but it has got many skills which are appropriate to be
retained and which will be retained in the augmented Department
of Labour and Immigration. Nevertheless, there are some aspects
which were left to that department and which obviously would be
better handled by other departments. For instance, it has already
been decided that the administration of the Immigration
Guardianship of Children Act should be transferred to the
Minister for Social Security; and that the administration of
the Immigration Education of Children Act be transferred to
the Minister for Education; and that the policy and issue of
passports for Australian citizens should become the responsibility
of the Foreign Minister. And other matters are being considered
with the general object in mind of assuring efficiency of
administration and humanity of administration.
QUESTION: Have you or Mr Daly been able to reach any agreement
with the-Opposition parties or their leaders on the procedures
to be adopted for the proposed joint sitting of Parliament this
month? PRIME MINISTER: Mr Daly at this moment is studying the Canadian
federal elections, where it is expected that a result will be
achieved rather more efficiently and promptly than was the case
in the Australian federal election. I haven't spoken to him
about this for a couple of weeks, I think.
QUESTION: Has the rise in the price of phosphatic rock,
combined with the fall in the price of meat, given you any
reason to reconsider the decison to abolish the superphosphate
bounty at the end of this year?
PRIME MINISTER: I can only repeat that if any industry or
region--. believes it is disadvantaged by the increase in the
cost of superphosphate then it can make an application to the
Department of Agriculture to see if there's a prima facie case
for a reference by me to the Industries Assistance Commission.
There has already been one successful proposition of that nature
put to me by the department and one unsuccessful one. The cost
of superphosphate as a fertiliser in Australia is lower than
in pretty well any other country in the world. At last
Australia might find it profitable, therefore, to develop her
own very considerable resources of phosphate, those near
Mt Isa, in the hands of Australia's greatest and most prosperous
company. QUESTION: When do you propose to announce the appointment of
the inquiry into security services?
PRIME MINISTER: I'Id say in a couple of weeks.
QUESTION: Do you intend to make public the findings of the
inquiry some of the hearings of that inquiry?
PRIME MINISTER: Terms of reference, yes. Findings,. almost
certainly, in respect to procedures to review decisions which
are thought to have affected public servants or immigrants.
Hearings, that will be up to the judges.
QUESTION: If the Palestine Liberation Organisation approached
the Government, does that....
PRIME MINISTER: Do not speculate. Wait until the matter
happens. Wait until there is such a proposition.
QUESTION: The metal trades unions have said they will press
ahead with new wage claims despite your call for restraint last
Saturday. Do you feel that this is a legitimate stand for
the unions to take at the moment and do you agree with your
Labour Minister, Mr Cameron, who said yesterday the metal
trades....
PRIME MINISTER: Here it comes again! Do I agree with one of
my colleagues? Yes, go on.
QUESTION: do you agree with Mr Cameron who said yesterday
the metal trades workers were only trying to keep pace with the
public service?
PRIME MINISTER: Where did he say all these things? I spent
most of yesterday morning, afternoon and night with him and he
didn't say any of these things to me! There's only one person
I listen to on Macquarie and he sounds more funereal than
Mr Cameron. Mr Jack Devereux was at Surfers on Saturday night
talking with me. He had my oration. He didn't express the view
to me that you attribute to the union of which he is head.
I notice that an assistant secretary was reported a day later
as commenting that he was not there and hadn't, at that time,
received his copy of the oration.
QUESTION: This week we're getting the third instalment of the
long-running Bulletin serial on ASIO. Are you concerned that
these documents have leaked out? Do you think they've damaged
the security service or the Government? Have you asked for an
inquiry on how they've leaked out and have you any results
from the inquiry? And will this be one of the things being
looked at by the Royal Commission?
PRIME MINISTER: Any of You who wants the full text of the ASIO
document entitled " Croation Nationalist Movements and Activities
in Australia" can get a copy of it from Mr Walsh immediately
after this gathering disperses. Anybody who wants to know the
titles and the dates of the other documents in this category
which were prepared by ASIO can similarly get that list from
Mr Walsh as soon as this gathering disperses.
QUESTION: Senator Greenwood said these documents were
unclassified.? PRIME MINISTER: I wouldn't be releasing this document if I
were not satisfied that it was completely genuine! But even so
I wouldn't be releasing it but for the fact that the Director-
General of ASIO has assured me that there is no confidential
material in it whatever. All the material in these articles
could have been got from any bookstore, and the dates, the facts,
the quotations were available in newspapers and magazines which
were freely available in Australia. There is nothing in these
documents which ASIO has sought or received in the course of
its statutory duties. in releasing this document I am assured
by the Director-General that the security of the country is not
in any way jeopardised. There is no confidential information in
these documents at all. Security is not involved and therefore
I am making it available to you through Mr Walsh if you're
interested in it. Perhaps I could refresh your memory about
this in general by quoting an answer which the Attorney-General
provided for our colleague, Dr Klugman. You'll see it in
House of Representatives Hansard of 13 December last. Dr Klugman' s
question was: " Has the Attorney-General's attention been drawn
to the statement by Mr Robert Mayne, Assistant Editor of the
Sun-Herald, that he was approached by Mr Peter Coleman, M. L. A.,
and a senior officer of the Australian Security Intelligence
Organisation to work for a magazine called Analysis and ( b)
that the organisation would supply material to discredit members
of the Australian Labor Party." To that the Attorney-General
provided the answer " Yes". Dr Klugman also asked: " If so,
who was this senior officer of the organisation and ( b)
is he still in the employment of the organisation?" To that
the Attorney-General answered: " The officer concerned is still
in the employ of the organisation. The supply of material
about individual citizens to be used in the media of which this
case was an example was wholly unwarranted and outside the
functions of ASIO. The Director-General of Security has informed
me that some time after he assumed office he discontinued the
practice of giving background briefs to journalists." The
documents to which you refer were among some scores of document
prepared from 1962 onwards. The preparation of these documents
was discontinued by ' the present Director-General of Security
before the present Government was elected. The material was
given to a selected number of journalists.
QUESTION: Well we know the author of these documents?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I should say the employee of ASIO who was
referred to in the Attorney-General's reply to Dr Klugman is the
author of all these documents. He's still in the organisation.
He is there, I am sure, doing-work which does relate to the
organisation. I therefore don't believe that I should mention
his name.
QUESTION: Do you welcome the election of Mr Percy Tucker as
Leader of the Opposition in Queensland,. and are you happy with
the way it comes out?
PRIME MINISTER: It's not up to me to express a view on a matter
such as that. Whom any Parliamentary Labor Party chooses to
hold office in it is entirely a matter for that party. I've
known Mr Tucker, of course, for very many years. He is a family
friend of mine as well as a personal friend. I'm sure I can
work very effectively with him. I congratulate him.