FOR PRESS: I4DMC " g FM. No. 126/ 1967
VSENATE ELECTION
Eve of Poll Message from the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt
When you vote for a government or a party, you expect
to know where it stands on the big issues affecting the nation's security and
well-being. I have stated all through this campaign that the great issue
of the 1966 House of Representatives election whether we should desert our
allies in time of conflict is still the critical question we all have to answer.
You know where I stand on this matter. You know
where the Government stands. W.! here do the Labor Party and its leaders
stand? We know where some leading Labor members stand.
They say their present policy is, in essence, the same as at the last general
election. We cannot say for certain where the Leader, Mr WhItlam stands.
He has conducted so evasive an action since this campaign began that he
must have misled even himself.
So we are forced back to the policy itself the
policy laid down by the ALP Federal Conference binding under the rules of
the ALP on all Labor members, including Mr Whitlam.
At the Adelaide Conference in August, the ALP declared
itself to be opposed to the continuance of the war in Viet Nam and to
Australian participation in it. It laid down conditions which, if not accepted
by our American allies, would lead to withdrawal by a Labor-led Australian
Government of our armed forces. Writing in " Fact", the official Labor
newspaper, shortly after this conference, Mr Calwell s; id
" In its present mood, the United States will not accept any
one of the conditions a Labor Government would lay down, and
it would rather pull out altogether and if it does this it will
abandon its entire Asian communist containment policy and
most of its Pacific Ocean bases, including Okinawa and Taiwan.
It will resume its policy of isolation.
Does Mir WAhitlam accept or reject Mr Calwell's
assessment of the United ' 7tates' reaction to Labor's conditions? Does he
persist in believing that these conditions would promote an alliance with
America, which he now claims 1tfs party recognises to be of such crucial
Importance to Australia? Instead of saying In simple terms what Labor's policy
is, the Leader of the Opposition has tried to make it impossible for the
electors to understand Labor policy. This kind of political smokescreen
is not good enough when the security of the nation Is Involved. It Is not good
enough to hide behind the word " peace" if what you mean by peace is retreat,
stagnation or surrender. */ 2
-2-
I ask the Australian electorate to support us at the
polls not only for reasons of high national policy but for the good and
practical reasons that we cannot have an efficient administration unless
the Government, with a clear-cut mandate of two years to run, has a
majority voice in both Houses of Parliament.
Far-reaching and historic decisons we have taken
even in the heat of this campaign offer you the most potent cause for
ensuring that the business of government is not impeded by hostile
Senate groupings in the critical months ahead.
When in due course the country is called upon to
make its choice of a government, you will be able to decide then whether
the Labor Party should be given an opportunity to demonstrate its capacity
or incapacity to govern. Meanwhile, there are formidable tasks in front of us,
your present government. A. clear vote for the Government in this Senate
election will allow us to get on with the job.
CANBERRA, 24 November, 1967.