CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OPENING OF RAAF BASE TINDAL
KATHERINE 31 MARCH 1989
Administrator, Chief Minister,
High Commissioners,
New Zealand Minister of Defence, Bob Tizard,
Parliamentary -colleagues,
Chief of the Air Staff,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Forty-seven years ago, Australians were facing the gravest
dangers and the greatest challenges of our history.
Nineteen forty-two was in many ways our most perilous year.
our very survival was threatened by military attack and
invasion.
After Pearl Harbour, with the stunning advances of the
Japanese armed forces through South-East Asia and the
Pacific, and with the bulk of Australia's own armies engaged
in the struggle in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East,
Australia's vulnerability indeed, our virtual
defencelessness was exposed as never before.
on February 15, 1942, the fortress of Singapore that
Australian defence planners had relied upon as our principal
guarantor of safety, fell to the Japanese.
Four days later, for the first time in our history,
Australian soil was struck by an enemy as Japanese air
forces attacked Darwin.
Amidst the confusion and horror of that attack, the
defenders of Darwin displayed many individual acts of
heroism.
But perhaps none better illustrates the determination and
the grit of the Australian armed forces than the actions of
Wing Commander Archie Tindal.
On the morning of 19 February, as the Darwin RAAF Base was
under attack, Wing Commander Tindal manned a machine gun
mounted on top of a trench, and kept up a steady rate of
fire as the air strike continued.
2.
When he was killed by a cannon shell he became the first
member of the RAAF to be killed in combat on the Australian
mainland. It is in his memory, and in recognition of his courage, that
the Base is named. I have just presented a painting
depicting Tindal's gallantry which will hang in the entrance
of the Headquarters Building.
I note also with pleasure that his sister, Mrs Elizabeth
Mitchell, is with us today to mark this ceremony.
Ladies and gentlemen,
There are many lessons to be learned from the events of
1942. It was a dark year but the fact is that in the long months
and years following that first attack on Darwin we did
eventually repulse the enemy from our shores and from our
region.
We did it with the incomparable leadership and
self-sacrifice of Prime Minister John Curtin.
We did it with the valour of our fighting men who after a
brilliant record of service against the European Axis
nations, were brought home to defend Australia in the
Pacific theatre.
We did it with the generous and courageous assistance of our
allies, especially the Americans who stood shoulder to
shoulder with us in the worst of the fighting.
The grim lessons of the Second World War brought home to
Australians the vulnerability of our nation to attack and
external threat.
We learnt also that Australia cannot abrogate its
responsibility to provide for its own security: ultimately
we Australians are responsible for our own destiny.
With today's ceremony, we are proving that those realities
of our strategic situation, so dramatically highlighted in
1942, have been well and truly understood and are, at last,
being acted upon.
For the first time, as a result of the Government's 1987
Defence White Paper, Australia's defence policy now places
full and proper emphasis on the development and maintenance
of a self-reliant defence capability.
In addition, our alliance arrangements and our firm
friendships with countries in the region provide the
framework within which we can not only deter aggression
against Australia but also promote the security of our
region and, ultimately, of the globe.
Fundamental to all this is the maintenance of a modern and
effective defence force.
In planning for defence self-reliance, the Government's
defence policy has focused on the need to develop and
maintain a credible force able to mount operations in
Australia's area of direct military interest.
In particular, the White Paper clearly emphasised the
crucial need to protect our northern approaches.
That is what RAAF Base Tindal is all about.
So with this ceremony we are marking the inauguration of one
of the most important defence bases Australia has developed
in many decades.
RAAF Base Tindal is the permanent base for a squadron of
F/ A-18 aircraft a major component of Australia's Tactical
Fighter Force and the most powerful operational unit in our
far North.
Tindal provides tangible proof of the technological strength
and the strategic orientation on which Australia's defence
planning will be based into the 21st century.
more particularly, it is concrete evidence of the key role
which the RAAF will continue to play in preserving our
national security in the North.
It is, accordingly, appropriate that this major RAAF
facility be officially commissioned into service today, the
anniversary of the establishment of the Australian Air Force
as it was then called on 31 March 1921.
For the Air Force, Tindal is the central and most important
component of an arc of air bases being developed across
northern Australia. To the west lies the bare-base RAAF
Base Curtin at Derby which I opened last year. Further west
is the airfield at Learmonth. To the east, in addition to
our defence facilities at Townsville, plans are well
advanced for the construction of a bare-base airfield on
Cape York Peninsula.
In addition to these bases, work is proceeding as a matter
of high priority on the development of an Over-the-Horizon
Radar network to cover our northern approaches.
This surveillance capacity, combined with the substantial
airpower which the RAAF will be able to provide from Tindal
and through the other bare-bases in the North, will comprise
a key element of Australia's ability to protect our
security: the ability to monitor, identify and, if
necessary, intercept air and sea traffic across thousands of
kilometres of coastline.
In short, the development of RAAF Base Tindal as the
northern home-base for a fighter squadron is a major
expression of the Government's defence policy and our
commitment to placing greater emphasis on our defence
capabilities in Northern Australia.
Earlier last year, as I am sure most of you are aware, our
remaining Mirage fighters based at Butterworth in Malaysia
were returned to Australia. Their participation in Five
Power air defence exercises will be replaced by annual
deployments of F/ A-18 Hornets from Australia to Malaysia and
Singapore for periods of not less than 16 weeks.
The first such deployment occurred last in September for the
largest air defence exercise in the history of the Five
Power Defence Arrangements. During such exercises the
aircraft are operationally assigned to the Five Power
Integrated Air Defence System.
All aircraft of the RAAF tactical fighter force are of
course available to contribute to the activities of the
Integrated Air Defence System. Our policy is to give all
elements of our fighter force experience with our Five Power
partners. Indeed, 3 Squadron based at Williamtown, is
currently deployed to Singapore on such training.
But 75 Squadron based here at Tindal is particularly
important in providing Australia's capability to meet our
commitments to the Integrated Air Defence System, because
from here they are only a few hours flying time from South
East Asia.
In assigning 75 squadron to the Integrated Air Defence
System we are demonstrating the strength and durability of
Australia's commitment to the Five Power Defence
Arrangements, and to the security of our neighbourhood.
The value of Tindal in underpinning our Five Power
commitments shows how the Government's policy of expanding
our defence capabilities in Australia's north and west helps
us to play a larger role in South East Asia.
Bases like Tindal, and the expanding Naval presence in the
West, allow the Australian Defence Forces to deploy more
forces more quickly to South East Asia, in support of our
friends and allies there, than we have ever been able to do
before. Ladies and gentlemen,
The significance of this new base should not be estimated
solely in strategic terms. The contribution it will make to
the economic development of Northern Australia is a second,
and very important, element of Tindal's role.
Since October 1984, when I officiated at a ceremony to
commemorate the commencement of works on this site, the
Commonwealth has spent $ 230 million in the Katherine area to
complete stage 1 of the project. This figure does not
include the value of the Hornet aircraft, their spares and
other associated equipment, which will be based at Tindal.
Stage 2 of the Tindal Base, to replace interim facilities
and to extend some stage 1 works, has been approved by the
Parliamentary Works Committee and will be funded by the
Government. Planning for stage 3 is well advanced.
Tindal will also provide a significant injection of funds
into the local economy. If account is taken of the flow on
effect of the RAAF presence, approximately $ 11 million will
be spent each year in the Katherine area and some
$ 14 million in the Northern Territory as a whole.
The stationing of large numbers of Defence personnel and
their dependants in the Katherine area must, of course, have
a significant impact on the local community.
The Country Task Force of Government MPs visited Katherine
in 1987 and identified the need for additional civilian
infrastructure to support the dramatically increased
population here. The Federal Government will do what we can
to support Local and Territory Government initiatives to
address these needs arising from the establishment of the
Tindal Base.
The close cooperation achieved between the Federal
Government, the Northern Territory and Local Governments and
the local communities has been a key ingredient in the
successful establishment of RAAF Base Tindal.
I also offer my congratulations to the many unions involved,
the contractors, the RAAF, and the coordinating authority
which drew all these efforts together Australian
Construction Services.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have spoken today about the crucial strategic and economic
role which RAAF Base Tindal will play over the coming years.
Tindal's success in fulfilling those roles will depend
ultimately on the dedication and commitment of the
individual men and women who make up the RAAF.
It's important to remember that fact and to understand the
many difficulties which service life places on those
individuals and their families.
The Government remains firm in its commitment to give full
priority to addressing the special needs and concerns of our
service men and women.
6.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have great pleasure in declaring Royal Australian Air
Force Base Tindal open.
In doing so I extend my best wishes to all those who will
operate this base and I express my complete confidence in
your abilities to fulfill the heavy responsibilities that
await you. I