PRIME MINISTER'S PRESS CONFERENCE, ALICE SPRINGS
1 NOVEMBER 1975
PRIME MINISTER: commitment that we have, the Labor Government
said that it would create a fully electea ' Legislative Assembly:
it's done that. It said that it would produce votes for
Territorians in the Senate: it's done that. We have done in
our three years more for the Constitutional and political
development of the Territory than had happened-in the previous
three-quarters of a century. So obviously we are going to get
on with it. But one can't give a timetable, all that I can
point out to you is -that we have carried out these other promises
as promptly as was possible. There was a very great deal of
obstruction as regards the-fully elected Legislative Assembly.
And still more as regards representation in the Senate. But we
overcame it, we carried out the promise, we will carry out this
other promise.
QUESTION: Mr Whitlam. on the subject of the half Senate el-ection
now, you are hopeful that you'll get two Labor Senators in there.
, What happens if you don't get two Labor Senators in there?
How will this help the balance of power?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh well, it would be very much the same as it is
now. See, in ordinary circumstances one would expect that the
Government and the Opposition, whichever Parties they are, would
get one of the Senators from the Northern Territory, and one of
the Senators from the Australian Capital Territory. I believe,
however, that in the present circumstances there are good prospects
of the Labor Senate, candidates both getting up. That would
require two-thirds of the votes. And why I say that I believe
there are good prospects of this, is because in the Northern
Territory more than any part of Australia there is damage to the
people's welfare and the general economy of the region through
the Senate's going on strike. That is, the Senate is holding
up $ 439 million being provided for the Territory in this Budget.
And the other reason why I believe that we will poll so well in
the Senate is that the Liberal Senators and the Country Party
Senators, all of them, without exception, voted against the
Northern Territory getting Senators. And it was a Country Party
Premier, Mr Bjelke-Petersen, who challenged the Bill when it got
through, in the High Court. So wherever it's been in the Joint
Sitting for instance, all the Country Party and Liberal members,
in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, from every
State, voted against the Territory having Senators. Now I think
people will be outraged by the Senate's denial of Budget Moneys
for the Territory and will be outraged by the Liberal and Country
Parties' resistence to the Territory having Senators. That ought
to be to the advantage of the Labor Party, which wants to get
the Budget through, which has wanted the Territory to have Senators.
QUJESTION: Could we just isolate the Territory for one second.
We have a Legislative Assembly which is fully elected but there
is not one Labor member on that Assembly. Do you see this as an
anti-Labor indication?
PRIME MINISTER: I believe that was an utterly exceptional
circumstance. I would have no doubt that at the next time there
is an election for the Legislative Assembly we'll do very much
better; we might win. Because the Country Party members of the
Legislative Assembly, I think one much acknowledge, are a pretty
indifferent bunch. They've not been impressive.
t-the whole week and they didn't call him.' And they didn't call
him because they knew that they'd get no change out of him.
IThat is there was nothing to embarrass me. Now I say Mr Fraser's
been found out because people now-see that he is an impetuous,
as impatient, as greedy, as improper as Mr Snedden. And Mr Fraser
has been led astray by his Country Party confederates and by the
newspaper proprietors.. Now you'll never change the minds of
these Country Party confederates. They will, that tail will
wag the Liberal dog as long as the Liberal dog doesn't have a
better head'than Mr Snedden or Mr Fraser. The newspaper
proprietors, with one exception, have changed their minds.
The Country Party will never change its mind and the other people
whose advice Mr Fraser takes have changed theirs. He's left
high and dry. He's been found out. He did wrong. And people
see it. And he will go the way that Snedden went. Sad but true.
QUESTION: Sir, back to the south road, considering that-you ' ye
made a promise or given a timetable, the last time that you were
approached on the topic, would you care to do that again, to say
that providing you were staying in power, how long would it take
for the south road to be sealed?
PRIME MINISTER: This will come up in the triennial roads
legislation which we were hoping to bring in before the end of
this year.
QUESTION: Sir, we had Mr Anthony and Country Party Leaders here
this week, last week sorry, and you're here this week;
Mr Bjelke-Petersen is coming next week. Does this mean that there
is already a p-ee-Senate campaign on-in the Territory?
PRIM4E MINISTER: I'm coming here because I've had an engagement
for some months in Port Augusta tomorrow morning, Sunday the
2nd of November. And in view of the present circumstances I
thought that instead of getting to Port Augusta on Saturday night
directly from Canberra or Sydney, I'd spend the day at Alice
Springs on the way. After all I was in Alice Springs about
three months ago. I've been to Alice Springs and the Territory
more often than any Leader of the Liberal Party or the Country
Party, Federal or State. You might think that this is an unfair
comparison because I'm now doing over the fifth successive Federal
Liberal Leader. But during the time that Holt was Prime Minister
and then Gorton, and then McMahon and during the time that
Snedden was Liberal Leader, during the time that Fraser has been
Liberal Leader, in every case I've been more often to the
Territory than any of them.