EMBARGO 10: 15 am
PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA WEDNESDAY, 6 OCTOBER-1982
OPENING OF DARWIN PATROL BOAT BASE
The opening of ' this base is a significant event. We are all
delighted, Your Majesty, that you are able to perform the task.
In recent years your Australian Government has added
considerably to the effectiveness of the Australian Defence
( j Force. Major new equipment are being introduced into that
Force, and the numbers of our reserves have expanded.
This base is part of that expansion. It will add very
significantly to the effectiveness of the new Fremantle Class
Patrol Boat and reduce the need to visit Cairns for refitting.
Today, the minister for Defence, Ian Sinclair, will be
announcing that a new Royal Australian Naval Reserve Port
Division is to be established in Darwin, the first new port
division to be created in over 30 years.
The defences in our north will be further strengthened by the
stationing of the FA/ 18 fighters in Darwin or in Tindal, a
little to the south.
In Townsville, we have set up the Operational Deployment Force
which is designed to be able to mobilise, at very short notice,
to respond to those threats to our security which might appear
without warning. In addition, Darwin is the headquarters of
the Norforce, the small, well-equipped, highly mobile force
designed for strategic surveillance and reconnaissance in
northern Australia.
All the arrangements are now complete for work to go ahead at
the RAAF facility at Derby South, which will give the RAAF's
operational flexibility in northern Australian an enormous boost.
The range and endurance of our strike force and our fighters
will be even greater with the acquisition of an in-flight
refuelling capability which Cabinet ' agreed to recently. We
are also looking at the development of another naval patrol
boat facility near Port Hedland, and new ships have entered
the service. The strength and capability, of the Australian
Defence Force is greater than it has ever been in-peacetime.
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I would like to take this opportunity, Your Majesty, to say
how much we all admire the determination of the British
Government to protect the Falklands and the skill of the British
armed forces in that campaign. The manner in which the United
Kingdom forces mounted a very considerable task group, and
undertook effective operations 8,000 miles from Britain so
successfully, has won the admiration of all of us.
It has done much more than that. It also reminds us that
we live in an unpredictable and unsettled world. The best guarantors
of the security and the peace that we all want are effective
defence forces to undertake our separate national responsibilities,
and proper alliances between like minded nations.
Our forces maintain their traditional links with those
of the United Kingdom. We have the five power defence
arrangements which involve Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia,
Singapore and the United Kingdom. The ANZUS Alliance with
the United States is also critical for the defence of our
region. But these arrangements do much more than simply provide for
the defence of the region. They make their own effective
contribution to the broad Western Alliance and to the defence
of the free world.
Your Majesty, we all welcome you here very warmly. I have
very great pleasure in asking you to declare this patrol
base open. o0o---