PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH AT THE WHYLL WORKERS CLUB S
1 NOVEMBER 1975
engagement f or months past up at Port Augusta
tomorrow morning. It's a diamond jubilee, an ecclesiastical
diamond jubilee. And I get so few of these invitations I
found it irresistable. So I though in the present situation
I should spend a day on the way at Alice Springs and then, of
course, we flew on here and I welcome very much the opportunity
to drop in at the Club.
There is perhaps a couple of things I might say to
you. The situation that we have in the national Parliament is
one to which you're very much accustomed in South Australia.
Because there is no part of Australia which is so very much
aware of the intrusions and the usurpations of an Upper House
of Parliament as you are in South Australia. Because the
Legislative Counrcil here for years has rejected legislation
from the House of Assembly and for years has prevented
South Australia having a decent, equal, fair electoral system.
And Don Dunstan has suffered from this and Steele Hall suffered
from this.. That is, anybody who wanted to bring about any
reforms has suffered from the Upper House of South Australia.
Now for three years that we've had a Labor Government
in the Australian Parlia. ment, we've been suffering from the
Senate, the Upper House there. And in the last three years
the Senate has rejected more Bills than it had rejected in
the previous 72 years of its existence. Fewer than 70 Bills
were rejected from 1901 to the end of 1972 when we came in;
and since then it's rejected over 90 Bills. Now it's come to
a climax when the Senate has gone on strike over the Budget.
It hasn't rejected the Budget Bills. But for three times on
each of the three basic Bills it has carried a motion to defer
the debate, to go on strike, as far as the Budget is concerned.
And they are doing this partly because they know that if there
is a vote on the Budget it would be carried.
Mr Fraser's own Senators, some of the Liberals, have
said they would not vote against the Budget; that was
Senator Bessell of Tasmania said it on Four Corners last weekend
and he also said that there were several others of the same
mind. So if it came to a vote on the Budget it would be passed.
Now the attempt t-hat is being made is to stand over
the elected Government. Because in Australia as in British
democracies all round the world, the Government is formed by the
Party or Parties with a majority in the Lower House, the House
of Commons or the House of Representatives. That's where the
Prime Minister has to be; that's where the Treasurer must be.
And, you know, the Senate in Australia now, is behaving as the
House of Lords used to do before 1911. Just as Asquith in 1911
broke the power of the House of Lords over Money Bills we now
in Australia have to break the power of the Senate over Money
Bills. / 2
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As you know, in Britain the House of Lords can't hold
up any Money Bill for more than three months. And it's never
tried even to do that. And in Australia for the last 75 years
the Constitution says that the Senate can't initiate Money Bills;
it can't amend Money Bills; and all. it can do is make requests
to amend them. And the House of Representatives may then,
if it likes, make amendments. But this time the Senate hasn't
rejected, it hasn't in fact even made requests. But what it is
trying to do is to say that whenever a Government hasn't got a
majority in the Senate, then the Senate can bring about an
election for the House of Representatives.
And they tried this in April last year and I then
accepted the position, we had a double dissolution but for
three months we were without a Parliament, it took so long to
hold the election and to count the results. I'm not prepared
to have another three months without a Parliament at this stage.
I'm not prepared to say that the Government which has been twice
elected, twice elected for a three year term is to be interrupted
and brought to a halt and the whole system interrupted at the
behest of tShe Senate. Because the Liberal and the Country Party,
they haven't got a majority in the Senate, they had 165,000
fewer votes last May for the Senate than we had, 165,000 votes
more for Labor candidates for the Senate in May last year,
than for the candidates for the Senate of all the other Parties
in the Senate. And we ended up with 29 Senators; they ended
up with 29 Senators and there were two Independents. One of
the, Steele Hall, has remained pretty independent. The other
one joined the Libe-rals. But they still haven't got a majority
inm the Senate. We have a majority in the House of Representatives;
we have a majority in the whole Parliament. The Joint Sitting
showed that. We are entitled to govern. When we went to the
people they elected us for three years; the other side have
not accepted that. Never before in the 75 years that there's
been an Australian ? Parliament has the Senate ever voted against
a Money Bill. Althorgh again and again, 139 occasions, there
have been Money BillIs passed by the Senate although the government
of the day didn't have a majority of the Senate. Because if the
Senate is evenly divided then the motion or Bill is not passed.
Now it's on that technicality that they're relying. Although if
it went to a vote there would be sufficient Liberal Senators to
vote in favour of the Bill, for the money, the Budget and it
would be passed. What's be'e-n happening is that Bjelke-Petersen, the
Country Party Prem~ ier of Queensland, appointed an anti-Labor
man a scab, Pat the Rat to succeed a Labor man. And if
Senator Milliner '-ad still been alive he would, as he had always
throughout his life of service in the Labor movement, have
supported the Labor Par-ty. And the motion to defer the debate
would have been defeated because there would have been as many
people voting agars it as voting for it. But it's purely over
a dead man's body as Steele Hall has put it, that this motion
to defer the Budge-t, to go on strike in the Senate, has been
carried.
A -3-
Now I want to conclude on this: an area like this
at the top of the Gulf, this Iron Triangle you depend very much
on Australian Government employment, and Australian Government
orders. Places like this would be hard up indeed if it were
not the Australian National Railways; if it were not for the
subsidies which are paid for the ships which are constructed
in the largest shipbuilding yards in Australia, here in Whyalla,
And you know better than most people in Australia what happens
to your employment and to your amenities and to your prosperity
if the, payments made by the Australian Government are interrupted
or reduced. My Government has been the first one which has
taken any interest in local amenities. Your Council here, has
received money directly to spend as it sees fit. In the last
two years it's in the Budget at the monent which is waiting
to go through you've have assistance from the Australian
Governmen-for sporting and cultural and educational facilities,
such as no-previous Australian Government has ever paid.
Let me give you some of the figures on that:
Local Government here, the Whyalla City Council last year got
$ 178,000 from the Australian Governmnent. In this year's
Budget there's $ 210,000. The Australian Assistance Plan uptil
24th of October so far-has $ 18,000, and that's the rate it
will be getting for the rest of the year, if the Budget goes
through. You've had a community recreation centre, $ 360,000
from the Australian Government. And a supplementary grant of
$ 40,000; you've had things for the lifesaving club; for the
sew erage program $ 73,000; pensioner dwellings $ 105,000;
the RED Scheme over half a million.
Ladies and ilentlemen these are indications of what
the Labor Government of Australia has been trying to do for areas
like tais which no Drevious Australian Government has ever
attem--, ed to do. oWe set out to do it. We want to make
certaina that company tzw-ans, such as Whyalla or Port Augusta or
Port Pinie, are assisr~ ed to provide the amenities which people
want in their spare timne: education, culture, recreation
and so on. No Austral-ian Government has ever done it before.
Previous Governments afforded not to. Do you want a Liberal
Government again to cut off all these things? You have your
answer mate; you have your answer. The Australian people
have twice elected an Australian Labor Party Government in Canberra.
It's entitled to govern. And you can't have the usurpations,
my Lord, of the Senate taking over from the elected government
of Australia. Ladies and gentlemen, stand firm on this. So
many people came to Australia because they thought that it was
possible here to elect a government at a secret ballot to change
the Government by peaceful means; their faith is being destroyed
by these impatient, t:--ese unconstitutional, these greedy people
in the Senate: the LIberal and Country Party. In an area like
this in the next few months you will have an election for the
Senate. Make certain-that once again you give a majority in
this area, this State, 1 to the Labor Party candidate.