PRIME MINISTER
CHECK RGAINST DELIVERY EIBARED-UNITLInLIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OPERATION IMMUNE " THANK YOU" CEREMONY
RICHMOND RAAF BASE 15 DECEMBER 1989
On behalf of the people of Australia, it is my pleasure
today to thank all those pilots, aircrews and support staff
who over the last three and a half months have taken part in
Operation Immune.
Operation Immune has provided the nation with vital air
services at a time when the domestic airline industry had
been crippled by the shortsightedness and greed displayed by
the leadership of the pilots' Federation.
The dimensions of your contribution to the nation during
this damaging period can be simply measured:
You provided some 224,000 seats including, at the height of
operations, 3071 seats on a single day;
You carried 175,000 passengers;
You were, for the first four weeks of Operation Immune,
Australia's major domestic carrier, providing between 30 and
per cent of available seats;
You serviced seventeen locations around Australia and in
particular maintained air links between Tasmania and the
mainland; You flew nearly 2 million nautical miles that's to say,
equal to one thousand trips across Australia, or about
times to the moon and back.
Behind these statistics of course lies something harder to
measure the intangible but all-important Quality of the
service you have provided.
And as you know from the tributes you received directly from
passengers, your service has not just been good, it has been
exceptional. I ~ v
As Vrlim(-n ,3 ' I ve the req u i r pl~ t; i~ oCI ; r i l
RAAF on my of PL1a. tave.). around Ain tVrl. La atid ovc~ ent%
even flown in a Hierr-most recently, to the South
Pacific F'orumf in Kiribati. I've always known that RAAF
flights are synonymous with reliability, good humour and
service. So it did not surprise me at all that when the RAAF was
exposed to many more Australians, the public's response was
overwhelmingly positive.
I do have some questions, however.
Is it true that passengers were told in pre-f light briefilngs
to " sit down until we reach the terminal, or else you wll.
be shot?" They apparently obeyed, anyway. And were
passengers reassured when told that the only time to paniu
was when they saw " the men in green running down the aisle
and jumping out of the rear of the aircraft"?
I want to pass on to you the contents of a letter written to
me by Michael Field, the Premier of Tasmania, expressing the
gratitude of the people of Tasmania for the vital help you
provided. fie said:
My dear Prime Minister
Now that the Defence Forces are winding down -their passenger
air services to Tasmania, I wish to express the profound
gratitude of this State for the vital help provided by our
flying servicemen during a period when air travel to and
from the State has presented many stresses.
The pilots, cabin crew and ground crew of the Defence Force
aircraft have filled a gap which, quite frankly, co'ild not,
have been closed without their presence.
' rhe planes might be somewhat old and noisy and the oii-board
amenities fairly basic, but they have carried thiousoinds of
people from point to point in safety, with little fuss and
in great humour. Everyone I have spoken to has beeni futi of
praise for the Defence Force effort.
The sudden switch to general passenger carrying must have
come as a shock to many of the crew, pilots and stewards
alike, but all responded in the positive manner we have come
to expect from our armed services.
4 1' i~
To you and to those of your Ministers responsible for the
" air lift", and to all the Defence Force pilots, cabin crew
and ground crew involved, I extend a hearty thank you from
the Government and the people of Tasmania.
Yours very sincerely
Michael Field
PREMI ER
This is an opinion that has been repeated over and over by
the many people who have travelled on Defence Force
aircraft. In expressing that widespread gratitude today, I don't want
to spoil the occasion with undue political partisanship.
But I cannot let pass in silence the amazing hypocrisy of
the Opposition's spokesman on aviation one David Jull, in
attempting to add his voice to the national expression of
thanks to the defence forces.
After spending the last few months doing nothing but support
the Pilots' Federation, including questioning the safety of
RAAF flights which led to a specific repudiation by Air
Vice Marshal Radford Mr Jull yesterday issued a press
release vouching for your " professionalism and dedication".
If you think that's a breathtaking U-turn you're right.
And let me take this opportunity to pass on Hazel's
appreciation for your hard work. As she has told me on a
number of occasions after her Defence Force flights, what
you have been doing over the last couple of months has been
the best possible publicity for Australia's defence forces.
Now, of course, as normal conditions return to the
commercial aviation industry, the need for your services has
dramatically declined. In the week ending 8 December, Air
Force and Navy aircraft accounted for less than 4 per cent
of available seats.
In other words, you've done your job, and you've done it
well. So to all those involved, in Squadrons 32, 33, 36 and 37,
Maintenance Squadrons East Sale and 486 RAAF Richmond, and
to the Royal Australian Navy HC 723 Squadron, let me express
my thanks and the heartfelt thanks of a proud nation. 4 1