SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE RT. HON.
R. G. MENZIES AT CO iRA ON THURSDAY, 3RD
NOVEMBE R, 126o
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Wallace Meares and
ladies and gentlemen:
I think I should begin by thanking the Mayor for his
very flattering remarks at the beginning of the meeting.
Everything he said about other people was quite true.
Itll discount what he said about me for cash at 50% ( Laughter)
and still feel quite happy about it. Sir we're very, very
grateful to you indeed for your generosity.
I am delighted to have the chance of supporting
Wallace Meares. Perhaps I ought to make one or two things
quite clear at the beginning. He is my candidate: he is the
Liberal Party candidate for Calare. And I hope he wins. And
I'll be very, very disappointed if he doesn't.
But everybody who votes for him should take infinite
pains to see that the second preference goes to the candidate
of the Country Party which is a partner of mine, and has been
now, for 11 years, in the Government of Australia.
And in the sama way, if there are Country Party
supporters here I urge them to see that their second
preferences don't go astray.
There is always, in a by-election, a little
disposition on the part of enthusiasts, when you have three or
four candidates, to have little disputes on the side. I just
want to remind you, that for a longer period than has ever
been recorded in the history of the Commonwealth, I have been
the leader of a Government which includes a majority, of
course, of Liberals, having regard to our numbers, and a
minority of Country Party ministers; and we have lived in
complete amity and, I believe, to the great-advantage of the
people of Australia. Now don't let that be interfered with
in Calare. There is no reason why it should be.
Wallace Meares is a Liberal and has been a member of
the Liberal Party since I had the great honor of taking steps
to found it 16 years ago. And of course I want him to T-in.
And without being a prohpet, or the son of a prophet, I think
he will. ( Applause)
All I want to remind you about is this. It is worth
recalling and retaining this fact. There is a good deal of
argument about whether members ought to be in their
electorate or whether some member has boon out of his
electorate, or whether the man on the land is adequately
represented. I hope everybody realises that if ' lallace Meares
wins this seat when he wins this seat to be more accurate on
Saturday he will be of all the men who have represented
Calare in the Federal Parliament, easily the most experienced
in the practical work of a farmer on the land. ( Applause)
So, you wouldn't be able to say about him what you
might say about me if you felt that way disposed, " Wfell he's
only a city slicker". Bocause he's not a " city slicker".
He is I was going to say " earthy" of the soil, except that
that, of course, would be a better description of my friend
Khrushchev ( Laughter) than. it -Jould be of J4allace Meares.
Now, I do bog of you to remember that. I think that
we want more and more people in Parliament who not by way of
theory, but by way of hard and intelligent experience,
understand the great rural problems. Because we have great
rural problems. I'm going to say something about that a little
later on. But at this stage, might I just remind you that the
prosperity, of Australia, thi very high prospority almoBto
threatening to become a boom at present, that prosperito is
still, to a vital extent, bound up with the success of the
great, rural exporting industries. And, if they fail, either
in terms of market, or in terms of price, or in terms of
costs of production, then the prosperity of Australia could
become a pretty sketchy thing, pretty quickly.
So don't let us take anything for granted. And lot
us understand that Parliament, if it is to be rich enough in
talent to discharge its responsibilities, must at all times
contain somebody of this kind representing a seat of this kind.
I think you have a great opportunity hero, and I am sure that
you will take it.
Now, I wonder if, for not too long a time, I might
talk to you a little about what I believe to be the main tasks
of Government and a little about how we try to approach them.
I think that it is a good opportunity for putting yourself in
my position, so to speak, looking at the world, looking at
your own country, knowing, inevitably, a groat deal about the
problems of the world and the problems of the country, what
is our objective. Because if we have an objective, if we know what we
are after, and we are normally intelligent, and above all
things honest and industrious, we will make headway towards
those objectives. Well0, externally, we want security. I made a long
speech I'm not going to repeat it, or even summaries it
at Orange the other night. But I understand, Mr. Chairman,
that somebody, as usual, wanted to know afterwards, " What that
had to do with us?".
I hope that Australians, who have been involved twice
in a great war ahich began many thousands of miles away, will
not fall into the error of thinking that the affairs of the
world are not our concern.
Because they are: they are our vital concern just
as much our concern as they are the concern of the people who
happen to be living in France or in Great Britain, or in the
United States of America.
And what we have done as a Government has been to
take every stop within our power to improve our external
security by getting and holding great and powerful friends.
When . e came into office the relations between
Australia and the United States of America were, to put it
quite simply, very poor. All that had happened with my
predecessors had been that they had succeeded in having a
quarrel with the United States over Manus Island, and had
refused the United States the opportunity of establishing a
powerful base as close as that to Australia, and out stocks
were, quite frankly, pretty low.
I venture to say that our stocks today are the
highest that they have ever been with the United States.
( Applause). So high, that the two most important engagements
to which we are parties in relation to our external security
ebrace the United States each time.
0 3.
You have the ANZUS Pact a pact between the United
States, Australia and New Zealand. AIe promoted it. And we
ultimately secured it.
When you consider what a long period of time there
was in . merican rodern history, when that country was
isolationist; when you remember that in the First Ular, and in the
Second, they had a period of neutrality before they became
involved, because of this tradition of standing aloof from the
conflicts of the world;
when you remember those things you will realise what
a great thing it was in time of peace, to got the United
States to join in with Australia and New Zealand in what is,
in substance, a pact of mutual security in the Pacific.
This is a fact frequently overlooked. 3ut as an
item of foreign policy I regard it with some pride as one of
our greatest achievements.
And similarly, we have the South-2ast Asian Treaty.
And there we have a combination of countries Pakistan,
Thailand, Philippines, United States, Great Britain, Franco,
Now Zealand, Australia. This is a barrier in the path of the
advance of Comnunism in the north and north-west of Australia
of enormous potential importance.
I say " potential" becauso, as yet, it has to grow,
it has to develop its strength. And anybody who imagines that
Communist China has no territorial ambitions, that aggressive
Communism in South-East [ isia has gone to sleep, has gone to
sloop himself. Because as we stand, or sit, hero tonight there are
Communist disturbances in Laos; there are always a few
troubles in Cambodia; there is a growing throat in North
Vietnam to South Vietnam the old French Indo-China of our
school maps Communist activities in Singapore; powerful
Communist movements in Indonesia.
These are of tremendous significance to us. I should
not sleep comfortably at nights in the face of these events if
I had not, with my Govern iant, gone to infinite pains to help
to establish the South-East asian Treaty and the ANZUS Pact.
( Applause) Now, Sir, I say no more about that because as I tell
you i I have been warned that people are not interested. I
don't believe it. I don't believe it. I think what I have
been talking to you about is perhaps the most vital matter,
today, in our lives.
But let us turn away from that, external security.
Let us turn to our internal affairs. Now, our internal
policies inevitably find themselves confronting two great
problems, enormously difficult ones to reconcile.
First of all the problem of developing the country.
And second, the problem of how to prevent a great
movement of development from producing such inflationary
pressures that prices and costs go into the sky.
This is the practical business of governmentof a
Commonwealth governient.
4 It is quite true that every now and then one he2rs,
or reads, how si. plo it is. It is extroi:: uly simple except
to people : ho understand it. But as a problen of Gov-ernment,
it is the all absorbing one. It far surpasses any particular
application. I was asked this afternoon by a highly intelligent
citizen of this tomn, what could be done about the small
farmnr. The answer to that is not some particular answer
about a particular farr, or a particular group of farmers.
The answer to that is, " Ho-w can we so handle our oneroral policy
that the country develops, our narkets increase, our
population rises, but our costs don't . ot out of hand?"
I don't profess that this problem is solved. 3ut
looking back over the last ten years I can ronenbor, i hope
not without pride, going t: rough a feow pretty sticky patches
on this matter, and co. ing out with the country in pretty
good shapeo. But it is not easy and it is not to be laughed off
by people who don't know about it.
You take the problem of diveloplent. in the
last ten years . re have had : roll over a iliion . i., rants to
Australia, w. ll over a million. It is almost fantastic to
think what that has involved.
People of my generation in this hall tonight -ill
remember how, in our y:) uth, we used to read :-bout the United
States of America and the great lmovements of population into
the United States fromn urop, In tcrns of percentago on the
base population are have had a greator -moveaunt into Australia
than the United States of america had in the reoat flush days
of iigration in the 19th and the first ten years of this
century. And this, of course, produces at once an asset and
a liability. Ain asset, because lwe have had moro and nore
scores of thousands of people willing to . ork, willing to work
in heavy industries, rilling to work to develop industries in
Australia. And at the sa. e ti, O, of course, the sa e people
have sot up doieands for houses, schools and hospitals wrhich
are not very easy doeands to meet because there is a limit to
manpower and a limit to natorials, and sometines, though
people don't believe it, a limit to noney.
Now, Sir, that rovmenant of irligration has been
phenomenal in its effect. I rent to a big factory, not in
Coura I regret to say, but in one of those bloated cities
further down, a very big factory. And I said, " How many
new Australians, as we call theia, employed here?". Sixty
per cent of those neployod were no . australians. They have
made, and are makingr a tremendous contribution to our
development. But at the sa.. o time there is a constart
pressure on aterials, a pressure on manpower.
In New S,) uth *: ales and in Victoria today -we have
obvious ove-full employeont. And that ioeans a rapid turnover
of labour and less efficiency and highor costs. So that you
have the problem all the timeo you must develop the country,
but you are not to ruin the currency and value of the
currency in the country in the process.
The development itself has becun, I think, phonomenal.
We're a very choeerful people in australia, and that's a very
good thing. Je're very optinistic. This is Cup leek and I
niy safely say that e are v'ery optimistic people. ( Laughter)
( Applause) We are broad-minded. oJ don't mind whether the
New Zealandurs come over : nd take all the prizes. We're
cheerful people. But, we have one defect of our cheerfulness; we do
rather want to have everything at once. If it's Television,
well we want to have television now. If it's something
else, we want to have the best, and we must have it now.
Well ten million people doing as veoll as we are in
Australia still can't have everything that 180 million people
in the United States could produce, or become entitled to.
eJjou st go on getting the bst that we can.
And I must say that I am astonished as I look back
over the last ten years to soe the enormous development that
has gone on in the country. But of course whatever it may be
there will be somebody who has, particularly if ho is in
Opposition, some reason to complain.
Why, back in 1949, when we were coming up the
straight to the 1949 winning election, blackouts were the
regular thing, particularly in the big cities; there was a
tremendous shortage of coal, a tremendous shortage of power.
All those shortages had become as familiar as the
town clock. People had learned to live with them, just as a
dog learns to live with a flea. ( Laughter) I thought the
Mayor was going to rebuke . me; but he agreos with me.
What is the position today? The dovelop. ent of
production has been enormous, but the production of power has
gone on in Australia phenomenally beyond anybody's
imagination, and we are at long last a substantial exporter of
coal to other countries.
Those are dramatic changes. And I do want everybody
to realise they don't happen by accident. They will happen
only if there is a bit of sensu, and a bit of judgaent, and
determination among those who are responsible for the general
direction of affairs.
Over the same period we have had wonderful
developments in Australia by the importation of capital. I
want to say a word about this, the importation of capital in
Australia. I don't moan borrowing by Governcmnt; though
nobody has any reason to complain about the value of the
money that we have borrowed overseas for Australian development.
Because unless we had done what they told us was impossible,
our prodc-ssors, and borrowed hundreds of millions of
dollars, a lot of the developmental work done in Australia
would not have been done at all, for sheer shortage of
equipment. But putting all that on one side we have had a flow
of private investment capital into this country without
which we could not possibly stand where we do today in terms
of prosperity. A few years ago I was able to say to people
that private capital was coming into . ustralia at the rate of
œ 100 millions a year. In the last 12 months it has come in
at the rate of œ 200 millions a year.
These are enormous sums of money. The only person
who would think that rwas, as we say, " chicken feed", would be
the leader of the Opposition making a speech on the Budget.
( Laughter, applause)
IAnd
the result of ill this has booeen, of course, the
most treondous irrigation of enterprise in the country.
Wherever you go in Australia, particularly, I agree, in the
manufacturing field, and so on, but sometios in other fields
than that, you will find the result of this invostmont some
of it from the United States, perhaps 40O of it, and about
of it from the United Kingdom.
Now, isn't that valuable? I wouldn't lieto soee
anything happon that cut it off. It is valuable in two ways.
First of all it actually does provide the wear-with-all to
expand. And in the second pliace, it is the most glorious
proof that people, shrewd people, hard-haded people outside
of Australia, have confidence in our stability, our integrity,
and out future. ( Applause) That is the 3reat importance of
this nratter. And anybody who wants to noss that up, anybody who
wants to lower the reputation of the Governnont for integrity
and stability in the world, or for that matter mine, is not
doing miuch of a service to Australia. Because, iherever I go
in these places, it is a certainty that at somne stage somno of
the nest influential non in the invest* ment world will mak a
point of speaking to ne nd saying: "\ Io are all fascinated by
the way in which ustralia hbs preserved an even kool, and has
developed at such spod at the sam ine".
That always gives ; e gr] oat pleasure. And I hope it
gives all Australians great pleasure.
. And yet, since this is a by-election, and since I
ams told on not very , ood authority that the Labor Party
expects to win it, it night be desirable for you to consider
what the Labor Party says on this point. Because, for the
last two years in the Federal P-rliame nt it has mado no bones
about it. It is aainst invostnoint from overseas. It takes
the groatest exception to it. If it finds that one company,
like the General Metors-Holdens, not to advertise one
particular car, cones here, establishos a motor car industry,
and makes a lot of 1.. Dney, and pl ughs back most of it into
expansion into australia, they rave about it on the Opposition
Benches. ? It's a scandall Jo ought not to allow this kind
of thing. Those people bringing their own money hero actuallyr
daring to mnako profits in Australia and taking son of the
profits out! This is anti-iustralian activity'.
I had groat fun at the last Geoneral Election: I went
down to Geolong ta that very distinauishod enterprise, the
Ford Company, at Gclong where they are always kind enough to
allow i. e to make a spoch from the tail-end of a lorry.
( Laughter) ( ind there are worse places than that too, if you
keep the engine running). ( Laughter)
4nd, just at that tino my then opponont my then
Leoader of the Opposition, had " gone to tirn" I think is the
expression, in a big way about overseas capital. And
addressing about fourtcon hundred em. ploycos if the Ford works,
I just said to then: " Do I take it that you are in favour of
preventing overseas capital being invested in Australia;
going back homo to mother without a job?". Jll, of course
it is too ludicrous. I werlcome investmont frol overseas. -s far as I an
concerned it is difficult to sooee how we could have too . iuch of
a . ood thing. And don't forgot this: where a iman's
treasure is, there shall his he. rt be also.
And if other countries, groat and powerful, and
rich countries have some of their treasure in . ustralia, who
an I to be displeased about it? Because they will have an
interest in this country, and in its security, and in its
future, and in its prosperity, that perhaps no other would
provide so quickly.
And yet Labor doesn't like it. How it is going to
replace this capital, whore it is going to get it, it doesn't
say. Because although I have the deepest affection for then
as individuals, the follows sitting opposite no in the House
why shouldn't I? I have a deep affection f. r then but they
don't know anything about these problems. They are willing to
shrug off a couple of hundred million pounds cumin fromr
' ther countries, but when you say, " Well, what about it;
where are you going to get it?" all they can think of is that
you go to the Commonwealth Bank. ( Laughter)
Just let mn say one more matter about internal
probleos which has caught my eye in the course of this byelection.
I think, and I speak as an experienced politician,
that if you are disposed to be inconsistent you really ought to
have a good nreoory; you ) ught to try to reonmbor what you
said on some occasion; you ought even to try to roemeber what
your Party did when it had the chance.
Now, I don't want you to listen to the tiresome
rominiscencos of an old politician, but in 1946 to 1949, well
after the war, I was the Leader of an Opposition which
nunbored 17 in a Housu of 74. So that we woren't, numrically,
very strong. But we had a handsone majority at the end of ' 49.
But there we were, a misorable, sall well sall,
if not miserable Opposition. And, at that tin, the Labor
Party was in office with this handsorme majority, able to do
whatever it wanted to do; nothing to prevent it from putting
its financial or economic ideas into practice; nothing to
prevent it, at that time, if it had wanted to, for example,
from taking the whole of the Petrol Tax money and distributing
it to the States for roads.
But it didn't. ; And so I road with great interest a
placard, or whatever you : ight call it, of the respected *, LP
candidate for Calaro who says this, I must read it to you:
" Last year the Liberal and Country Party Gjvernonnt
pretended it had a generous plan for road assistance to
the States. The fact is, however, that at the end of the
planned five-year period, the Federal Government will have
collected in Federal tax about œ 100 million more than it
will have paid to the States in road grants. Labour
believes ( this is in double type) that all petrol tax
should be made available for road use. For better roads
in Calare, vote Labour on the 5th Nove: ber"
Now I've read it to you. That is a free advertisonont,
you see. ( Laughter) But I read it to you because I want
to demonstrate to you what utter nonsense this is.
First of all, it' all right to talk about us
" pretending" that we had a generous plan. I don't rind telling
you that not only did we have a goenrous plan, but we put it
into operation. And the effect of it is that over the next
five years the States will get from the Comno. nwcalth for road
purposes, irrespective of Federal T-x revenue, œ 250 million
instead of the œ 150 million that it wiuld h:. ve been on past
figures.
In other words we put into operation a plan which
adds, over a period of five years, œ 100 million to an already
very substantial sun going to the States for roads. Fifty
million pounds a year frou the Coomronwealth is not a bad sun.
So I reject the idea that we hven't carried out our ideas.
But do lot rnoe -o back to what did I say it was?
' Labour believes that all petrol tax should be uade available
for road use". I wonder when they cane to believe it.
( Laughter) I sat in Opposition in the Federal Parliaeont for
ight years. It rnight not have soe cdI long to you, but it
seoccod an awful long tine to le eight years in Opposition,
looking at a Government that had a copper-bottom majority, and
looking at a Governeont which for four or five year s fter the
war had all the opportunity in the wrorld of putting its
beliefs into operation.
So, I got the figures taken out. In 1946/ 47, that's
the financial year, in their time, : ith a full majority, they
collected œ 16 million odd from Tax and they distributed to the
States, œ 4 million odd. That was odd wasn't it? ( Laughter)
" tre believe that you ought to have the lot we stand for
this but this year let us off with a quarter of it".
So they collected œ 16 million and paid œ 4 million.
The next year they collected œ 16 million and they paid œ 6
million. The following year they collected œ 17 million and
they paid œ 7 million. The following year œ 19 million and they
paid œ 9 million. The highest percentage of the Petrol Tax that the
Labor Government ever distributed to the States for roads was
47%, This year my own Government, collecting œ 58
million, distributes œ 44 million, or 78% ( Applause)
And now this qtimistic gentleman who is a candidate
for the ALP comes along and says, " Ah, yes, well it's a pity
that when we had the chance we paid 47%; and it's a pity now
you come to mention it, that we have to admit that you pay
78%; but give us our chance . and we'll pay over the lot".
I don't know if it's supposed that if the ALP won
Calare, if I may indulge mysolf in a flight of fancy, the
effect of this will be to alter the whole history of road
legislation. It's a great pity that people don't know about
these things. The whole of this roads grant was thrashed out by
us with the States, all of the States, some of them are Labor,
some of them are not, only two years back, rather less than
that I think. And we said at that time, ' Jo don't want to
be tying what you get to a particular tax because, after all,
we might for some reason or other want to reduce a particular
tax and if you are only to get a percentage of it, you will
find your road expenditure is reduced. VIe would much
prefer to forget all about the source of the money we pay
you, and put down a five-year plan so that every shire engineer
whose shire or municipality gets a share of this from the
State, will know where he stands; and every State will know
where it stands'.
You can't have a road policy that lasts for six
months or has to be changed every year. . e saw this, and we
put it to them: " Let's have a five-year scheme . on this matter,
with a provision that will give you an increasing amount each
year of the five".
: de made certain arrangements about the distribution
of the amounts between the States; we put in the whole
proceeds of another tax that had been proposed on certain
vehicles. And, in the result, as I say instead of getting
these varying, and sometimes, in earlier years, sketchy
amounts, the average amount to be found over the period of five
years is œ 50 million œ 250 million over a period of five
years. I venture to say that if anybody had gone to an
election just before we made this agreement, and had said on
behalf of a Commonwealth party, " My policy is to find œ 250
million for the States for roads over the next five years", it
would have boon received with enormous applause all over
Australia. So that if that is an issue in Calare I wish our
opponent joy of it, because he won't get very much comfort
from it. Now, Sir, the other matter that I i½ antod to say
something about is the problem of reconciling development with
control of inflation. there is a great deal of
inflationary pressure going on. I announced on behalf of the
Government back in February, four points of a policy.
One was that we would go into the Arbitration Court
in broach of all our own precedents, and resist an increase in
thne basic wage. And we did that most deliberately. o
submitted to the Arbitration Commission a fully documented
case on it; and the Commission unanimously agreed with us and
made no change. Because coming on top of a very large
increase in the basic wage in the previous year, and a very
large increase in margins, do you remember? towards the
end of that year, we felt that this would put such a strain on
the economy that costs would be going up, and that they would,
as usual, come right back hor. m to the man on the land who for
the most part can't pass them on.
Well we announced that; we did it. And we did it
with success. i-e said that we were not going to budget for a
deficit; that in a time of inflation you should budget for a
surplus because you ought not to be increasing the supplies of
money when the supply of goods is not increasing at the same
rate. And so we budgeted for a surplus.
11e said that we would get rid of import licensing.
That was a bold stroke. The main purpose of it was to
increase the supply of goods available so as to damp down the
inflationary pressures, to match high purchasing power with
more and more goods, and services to be bought.
We put all these propositions up and they have all
gone into operation. L4ell it can't be said that so far they
have had a hundred per cent of success because, unfortunately
for the country, the market for -rool has boen far from
satisfactory. And wc live so much on wool that fluctuations
in that . ronderful commodity will perhaps determine the whole
economic color of the country.
0 But we are always watching those thinrs. Jo are
constantly alert to know whether this change, or that change
may have to be made in order to restrain a wild boom of
inflationary growth.
As for the Opposition and, after all, you must
remember that elections present a choice you not like
me and I don't blame you but if you dislike the other man
more you probably vote for no. That s; ems reasonable.
( Laughter) Perhaps that is how I have got in so many times
in the past. But you are always bound to say, " what's the
other man going to do about this kind of thing?".
I tell you there is no symptom that the Australian
Labor Party recognises the existence of an inflationary trend,
is interested in the costs of production of our great
comnodities. Not a sy ptom.
Because every time that they condescend to speak
about these matters, which is usually on the Budget, their
proposals for new expenditure on the part of the Conmronwealth
are so phenomenal that today's inflationary pressure would be
a mere circumstance if they were adopted.
It's an old, and perhaps dull expression to say that
what the people require of a national government is a sound,
financial outlook, a steady financial outlook, and a clear
objective of preventing the country from pricing itself out of
the markets of the world upon which it so vitally depends.
Now, on all these matters you may say to no, " Yes,
there are some aspects of life on which I night claim to have
expert knowledge and a great deal of expert experience". But
we will always be better off, in Parliament, always, if we
can turn to a nan with vigour and experience, and practical
knowledge of a great number of these problems 2nd say to him,
" Cone in and have a talk with mno nd tell me what you think
about this matter".
And that is why, Sir, coming down here tonight, or
coming up here, I felt delighted to think that I night just
have one more opportunity of saying , rord on behalf of a man
whom I regard as one of the outstanding country candidates
I have ever supported on the platform,
11.
Question: Mr. Chairman I would like to direct a question to
the Prime Minister which is in three sections. The first one
deals with Bank credit, or rather the lack of it, I should say.
I should like to ask the Prime Minister if he can inform us
what instructions, if any have been given to the Trading Banks
as related to primary producers in particular? And also if
any similar instructions have been given to Hire Purchase
companies?. If not is it your intention, Sir, to give such
instructions?
Chairman: I think it's mther a long question. It's going to
be one that no one is ever going to be able to remember.
All right, I'll let it go at that.
Prime Minister: I don't quarrel with it at all. The question
as I understood it fell into two parts. First of all bank
credit to primary industries and what directives have been
given on that matter?
The Reserve Bank has, right through the piece
urged upon the Trading Banks that they should continue to find
proper advances for their rural customers. And in order to
give some further protection to those customers, as you
probably know, Sir, the interest rate chargeable by the banks
on overdrafts has been calculated on an average so that
advances for rural purposes can be at the lowest rate of
interest and not at the highest.
That directive stands. It may very J1ll be that we
shall have to take some steps to strengthen it. But that
depends on some examinations that we happen to be making at
this very tine. I've been engaged in them myself, to an
extent, this week.
But you may take it from me, on behalf of the
Government, that we think that whatever movements in creditpolicy
may occur, and whatever restrictions nay have to be put upon
advances and of course they have to be put from time to time
there should allways be preferential treatment for those
industries which are the export industries of the nation.
That is a clear statement of what we believe to be the
position. In the second part of your question you asked me
whether similar directions are given to the hire purchase
companies. I regret to say they are not within our jurisdiction.
They do not fall within the banking system. They can't
receive directions from the Reserve Bank, and they can't
receive directions from us. The hire purchase companies are
operating under State law and under State control. The whole
position of the Hire Purchase companies is, as I don't need to
tell you, very complex. But certainly no Cormonwealth
Government can deal with the problem in a satisfactory way.
( Applause)
Question: Mr. Chairman I should like to direct another question
to the Prime Minister, one about which many of us are
concerned, and that relates to the question of overseas balance.
Of course you are no doubt aware Sir that having regard to the
existing drift in these balances it is likely that they
constitute a force of some œ 400 millions. Assuming that that
basis is correct would you please, Sir, tell us what action your
12.
Government is going to take in this matter?
Prime Minister: Now, Sir, with very groat respect I don't
propose to toll you that. Of course everybody knows who
studies these natters that there has been a down turn, a down
movement in the overseas balances. But for no to got up,
casually, on a platform, and say what I am going to do about
that over the next few months when it is plainly a natter
that is going to involve the closest examination by the
Cabinet would be completely irresponsible. And if any
candidate tells you that he knows the answer I wish you would
write a letter to me about him.
Question: Is it a fact that the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics put out certain figures regarding the income
derived from capital invested by primary producers? Do you
consider that those figures are high enough to encourago
primary production development at the rate that has been
maintained over the past?
Prime Minister: Sir, I hope you will excuse me for not
carrying in my mind any figures that have been taken out by
the Bureau. But if the figures were taken out by the Bureau
of Agricultural Economics they have a very strong chance of
being right. I quite arec.
And there is no doubt about it, that for v rious
reasons that we cre familiar with there was, over the last
couple of years, a very serious fall in rural income. That is
a matter that h. s given us great deal of concern.
We have adopted various expedients in the past to
help, so far as we c. n. But, of course we rego: rd it as
serious. But I don't regard it as something which will
induce me to adopt a calamity outlook on the future of the
country. I don't thin: there is any occasion for that.
There is occasion for a lot of hard thinking and flexible
Spolicy, and doing what you can, where you can. But on the
whole I am an optimist about the future. ( Applause)
SQuestion: I should like to ask the Prime Minister another
question. If ry omeory servos me correctly, at one star,
Sir, you said ' bettor', this may not be the exact words, ' to
give self-governmont' something of that sort ' too early
rather than too late'. Sir, I wish to ask you, having regard
to developments in the Congo and the lack of confidence, I am
sorry to say, in those words of yours in relation to Now
Guinea, can you do anything to allay that lack of c) onfidence
which has developed in New Guinea we fool, and I in p:. rticular
feol, Sir, as a result of that statement which I believe you
made? Prime Minister: lecll, Sir, I ca. n ease your mind at once. I
am sure you read the wrong newspaper. ( Laughter) i am sure
you did. Now, let us be fair about this matter. If you have
any interest in what I s'. id it happens to h-ve boon printed
in a pamphlet typed from a tape-recording machine, so that
there is no chance of being mis-reported, and it was put on
the table of Parliament some time ago, and if you are
interested in this matter I'm sorry that you haven't taken
the opportunity of getting a copy of it. But if you will be
good enough to ive me your address zfterwards, I will see that
you get a copy of it; I'll have it posted to you.
13.
What I said about Now Guinea was this: that we
obviously could not go out of Now Guinea in a hurry. I have
said repeatedly, though you haven't noticed it, that nobody
could do a greater disservice to Now Guinea than to create an
atrosphcre that we are leoving quite soon.
Because Now Guinea can't reach a period of proper
self-governnont development without the aid of export people
and moncy, particularly fron this country. And that to cut
off investrents by foolish pronises of being out in a few
years would be folly. Nobody has said this nore clearly than
I have, publicly. And it is all in print. I nust send you a
copy of it. What I did say and this is the piece that is torn
out of context that you referred to, and was torn out by one
newspaper in particular, with its usual desire to danage me
was that if some tine in the future the country of Now Guinea
and Papua had reached a stage of devolopment in which we had
just the slightest hesitation in our minds as to whether it
was just too early or just too late. the experience in nest
countries, modern countries, indicated it was better to be a
fraction too early, and give then self-government with
friendship than to be too late, and give them self-govcernment
with hatred. And that I believe is jolly good sense. ( Applause)
And I have never had any occasion to alter it. ( Applause)