1974 Cabinet Papers go public 1 January 2005

National Archives of Australia, 10 December 2004

Medicare and Gair

One incontrovertible result of the 1974 Federal elections was the departure of the DLP. An obvious benefit of the release of Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck's papers by the National Archives is that commentators will increasingly depend on his perceptive trustworthy documents and on the volumes of Hansard, another impeccable contemporary record.

At the 1972 Federal elections I committed my Government to replacing private health insurance funds by a Universal Health Insurance Program. Although my Government did not have a majority in the Senate I had hopes that the five DLP senators would support the commitment. The commitment originated at the Senate elections on 25 November 1967 for which I delivered my first policy speech as Leader of the Federal Parliament Labor Party. I undertook that Labor senators would move to appoint a committee to investigate the means by which patients and doctors could get better value for the money which Federal and State governments were already spending. On 3 April 1968 the two DLP senators, Vince Gair (Queensland) and Frank McManus (Victoria), and the independent Senator 'Spot' Turnbull (Tasmania), a former Minister for Health in a Tasmanian Labor Government, supported a Labor Motion to appoint the committee. The motion was carried by 25 votes to 23.

The Senate Committee compelled the Gorton Government to establish a Committee of Inquiry into [Private] Health Insurance under Justice Nimmo. In March 1969 the Nimmo Committee recommended that the administration of health insurance should be transferred from the Commonwealth Department of Health to a five-member National Health Insurance Commission. In March 1970 the Gorton Government accepted the Nimmo recommendation. A year later the McMahon Government reversed the decision.

In April 1973 Hayden, my Minister for Social Security, promptly published the report of the Health Insurance Planning Committee, which adopted many of the Nimmo Committee's recommendations. Tension now developed between Gair, who was committed to Queensland's free hospitals which desperately needed the benefits of my Government's proposals, and McManus, who was primarily influenced by persons running the Catholic hospitals in Victoria.

It was later revealed by McManus, in his book The Tumult and the Shouting, that as early as mid-1973 he had discussions with Snedden, the Leader of the Opposition, about securing a double dissolution in order to end my Government after less than a year. On 10 October the DLP senators replaced Gair with McManus as their Leader. Hayden introduced his Health Insurance Commission Bill on 8 November and his Health Insurance Bill on 29 November; the House passed both bills on 11 December. The House adjourned on 13 December and the Senate then rejected both bills by 30 votes to 23; if the DLP had voted for them, they would have been passed. McManus might have thought he would secure a double dissolution to end my government.

On 28 February 1974 the Queen, in opening the second session of the 28th Parliament, announced

My Government will bring legislation before the Parliament early in the session to enable proposals for constitutional reforms on a series of matters to be put to the people at the same time as the forthcoming Senate Elections. In keeping with its constitutional responsibilities to provide hospital benefits and medical services my Government is determined to act on a national basis to give all Australians access to high quality health care at reasonable cost.

After the opening of the second session the two Houses adjourned till Tuesday afternoon, 5 March.

On 5 March, after formal business, I informed the House and Murphy, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, informed the Senate, first, that the Queen had approved the appointment of Sir John Kerr to succeed Sir Paul Hasluck, who would relinquish office at the end of June, and, secondly, that Willesee, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, was leaving on a visit to Guinea and Indonesia and was expected to return on 16 March and that in his absence I would be the Acting Minister. Later that afternoon O'Byrne (ALP), the father of the Senate, discussed with Gair their carpel tunnel operations. Gair told O'Byrne that he would be interested in accepting a diplomatic appointment from my Government. O'Byrne related the message to Murphy and Murphy told me.

Hasluck records the appointment I sought with him on Thursday 14 March. I submitted a recommendation for the appointment of Gair as ambassador to Ireland. As the question of Gair's relations with the DLP and his resignation from the Senate were still to be completed, I did not wish the matter to be made public at that stage. Hasluck signed my letter of recommendation s his acceptance and approval of my nomination. I told him that Gair was willing to take the appointment. Ambassadors' appointments are not announced until the receiving country has given agrément. Agrément was sent from Dublin on Tuesday 19 March and was received in Canberra in the morning of 20 march.

When the Senate met at 11 a.m. on 19 March President Sir Magnus Cormack (Liberal) stated

I am sure that all honourable senators will join with me in welcoming Senator Willesee back to Australia after his illness in Europe.

Murphy then announced that Willesee

will be absent from later to-day until 23 March in order to attend the South Pacific Forum in the Cook Islands.

The House of Representatives also met at 11a.m. on 19 March. I announced that Willesee

will be absent from later to-day until next Saturday. He will be attending the meeting of the South Pacific Forum in the Cook Islands.

Hasluck records that Sir John Bunting, Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, arranged a meeting with me and Attorney-General Murphy on Tuesday 21 March 1974 about an appointment on which Sir John himself had no knowledge. Hasluck summoned the Secretary of the Executive Council (Wicks) and Official Secretary (Smith) and a meeting of the Council proceeded with Gair's appointment as the sole item of business. Hasluck understood that neither of the officers was aware of the nature of the business to be discussed. The Senate adjourned at 5.7p.m. and the House of Representatives at 11p.m.

The Houses resumed at 11a.m. on Tuesday 2 April. Murphy was to announce Gair's appointment and the resulting vacancy but failed to do so. I gave the information in answer to a question from Snedden. Next day, at 7.30 a.m. Queensland Governor Hannah told Hasluck by phone that he had sent him a letter to inform him that he had issued writs and signed a proclamation on 2 April concerning the Senate election and had fixed 22 April as the date for the closing of nominations. About 8 a.m. Hasluck phoned me and we discussed a possible double dissolution. Later that morning Willesee was in attendance when Hasluck received the credentials of the first Papal Pro-Nuncio. Between Thursday 4 April and Tuesday 9 April Hasluck travelled to Paris for the memorial service for President Pompidou.

On Wednesday 10 April in the morning I sought an appointment at which Hasluck and I discussed a possible double dissolution, supply bills, the pending referendums and election dates. At 7.30 p.m. I brought him a letter recommending a double dissolution and a supporting Joint Opinion by Murphy and Solicitor-General Byers, reciting six bills. He was prepared to grant the dissolution and dictated the statement that I and Murphy should make the two Houses. At 8.30 p.m. I made the statement in the House of Representatives, which adjourned at 8.36p.m. Murphy made the statement in the Senate, which then passed Appropriation Bills (No.4), (No.5) and (No.3). Supply Bills (No.1) and (No.2), Queensland Flood Relief Bill, NSW Flood Relief Bill, Superannuation Bill, Remuneration Bill and Governor General Bill, heard various valedictories and adjourned at two minutes past midnight.

At 9a.m. on Thursday 11 April Hasluck received me and, after I gave him explicit assurances that supply had been granted and an election was practicable, he handed me his signed letter agreeing to dissolve Parliament. He assented to all the bills. At an Executive Council with Daly and me, he authorised the issue of writs for the election of the House of Representatives. He sent letters to the State Governors asking them to issue writs for the election of Senators. His proclamation was made at noon.

At the elections on 18 May 1974 all the DLP candidates for the Senate were defeated. In Queensland the extent of the defeat was horrific; in 1970 Gair had received 134 199 votes but in 1974 the leader of the DLP teams received 40 704 votes.

On 10 July Hayden reintroduced the Health Insurance Commission Bill 1973 and the Health Insurance Bill 1973 which had been twice rejected in the 28th Parliament and Treasurer Crean introduced the cognate Health Insurance Levy Assessment Bill 1974, Health Insurance Levy Bill 1974 and Income Tax (International Agreements) Bill 1974. On 16 July Hayden introduced the cognate National Health Bill 1974. The House of Representatives passed the first and second bills on 11 July and the other four bills on 31 July. All six bills were introduced in the Senate on 31 July and rejected on 1 August.

On 30 July the new Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, convened a Joint Sitting of the two Houses on 6 August. The Health Insurance Commission Act and Health Insurance Act were affirmed 95 votes to 92, an absolute majority of the total number of members of the two Houses.

On 27 November, after the 1974 Appropriation Bills had received assent, the four health bills which had not come before the Joint Sitting were reintroduced in the House of Representatives. Hayden's bill was passed on 3 December and Crean's bills on 5 December. The House rose on 5 December. On that day the Senate, which had 60 members, rejected the National Health Bill by 25 votes to 23. On 11 December there were 26 Ayes and 26 Noes on the Health Insurance Levy Assessment, Health Insurance Levy and Income Tax (International Agreements) Bills; in the words of section 23 of the Constitution, when the votes are equal the question shall pass in the negative. Senator Steele Hall (Liberal Movement, South Australia), incensed by the Opposition's intransigence and obstruction, had voted Aye. As a result of the Senate's negative attitudes the Universal Health Insurance program had to be funded entirely from general revenue.

One Vote One Value

The overriding reason for the rejection of my Government's legislation in the Senate was the Country Party's determination to retain its influence in the redistribution of Federal electorates.

The 28th Parliament met on 27 February 1973. On 13 March Daly, the Leader of the House, introduced a Commonwealth Electoral Bill to reduce the permissible variation in the number of electors in the divisions of a State from one-fifth to one-tenth. The House passed the bill on 4 April but the Senate rejected it on 17 May. Daly introduced the bill a second time on 22 August, the House passed it the following day but on 29 August the Country Party again persuaded the Liberal Party to reject it in the Senate. Thus it became a bill on which I could advise the Governor-General to grant a dissolution of both Houses.

As a result of the 1971 census Western Australia was entitled to ten divisions instead of nine in the House of Representatives. The McMahon Government had delayed a redistribution and at the 1972 elections I had undertaken to conduct one. On 12 March 1974, as an election was imminent, Daly tabled the report of distribution commissioners under the existing legislation. When the House resumed on Monday 8 April Daly moved that the House approve of the redistribution. Next day the Senate approved of it in 30 minutes. Before the double dissolution Western Australia had four Labor Party members, three Liberal Party members and two Country Party members in the House. After the election on 18 May Western Australia had five Labor and five Liberal members in the House; the Country Party members had not been able to save themselves by masquerading as National Alliance candidates. The largest and smallest enrolments were:

Swan 68011
Kalgoorlie 53066

In other States at the elections on 18 May the largest and smallest enrolments were as follows:

New South Wales
Mitchell 81905
Darling 47290

Victoria
Diamond Valley 86763
Wimmera 49236

Queensland
Bowman 79064
Maranoa 46656

South Australia
Bonython 79498
Wakefield 49003

Tasmania
Braddon 51589
Bass 46491

At the Joint Sitting on 6 August 1974 the Commonwealth Electoral Act was approved.

On 24 September 1974, on Daly's advice, Governor-General Kerr appointed sets of three Distribution Commissioners to redistribute New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania into electoral divisions in the House of Representatives in accordance with the provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act. The chairman of the Commissioners for each State was the Australian Electoral Officer for that State and one of the two other commissioners for each State was the Surveyor-General for that State.

On 30 September, in an article in The Age, Doug Anthony, the Leader of the Country Party, declared:

When the new boundaries are presented to Parliament, many Country Party members and senators will vote against their implementation. We are confident that our Liberal colleagues share our views, and that the proposed boundaries will be defeated in the Senate.

Anthony was anticipating the spinelessness of the Liberal leadership. At the elections on 18 May he had won the division of Richmond, which had an enrolment of 59 428. The Liberal Leader Snedden had won the division of Bruce, which had an enrolment of 77 084, and the Liberal Deputy Leader Lynch had won the division of Flinders, which had an enrolment of 78 343; the redistribution would clearly benefit their constituents.

In April and May 1975 the Commissioners' reports were presented to Parliament. The largest and smallest enrolments were as follows:

New South Wales
Hume 65625
Macarthur 60008

Victoria
Melbourne 66949
Doncaster & Templestowe 59355

Queensland
Brisbane 68515
Glasgow 58537

South Australia
Adelaide 68372
Kingston 57015

Tasmania
Braddon 51394
Wilmot 46148

The psephologist Malcolm Mackerras, whose first job was as a research officer for the Liberal Party, commented:

In overall political terms, the 1975 redistribution is the fairest set of proposed boundaries ever to be presented to any Australian Parliament in my lifetime. The Commissioners have bent over backwards to avoid any sense of gerrymandering. They have set out to draw boundaries so patently fair that rejection by the Senate would reflect discredit on the Senate, not on the Commissioners.

On 8 April 1975 the Liberals, including Lynch, dumped Snedden in favour of Fraser. At the election on 18 May 1974 Fraser had won the division of Wannon, which had an enrolment of 53 325. On 13 May 1975 Anthony told the House that the party he led was now called the National Country Party of Australia.

Motions for the approval of the distributions proposed for South Australia and Tasmania were passed by the House on 21 May 1975 and negated by the Senate on the following day. Motions for the approval of the distributions proposed for Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales were passed by the House on 22 May 1975 and negated by the Senate on 27 May 1975. While the Constitution provides solutions where the Senate twice rejects bills or referendum proposals, it provides no solution where the Senate twice rejects redistribution proposals; accordingly Daly incorporated the redistribution proposals in five bills entitled Electoral Re-distribution (South Australia) Bill, etc. The five bills were passed by the House on 29 May 1975 and rejected by the Senate on 10 June 1975. On 1 October 1975 the five bills were again passed by the House but on 8 October 1975 were rejected by the Senate by 29 votes to 26 votes (including Steele Hall). The five redistribution bills became five of the 21 bills on which Kerr granted a double dissolution on 11 November 1975.

The McMahon Government in 1971 had abandoned not only the requisite redistribution in Western Australia but also the modernisation of electoral laws in general. After the elections on 18 May 1974 Daly had to introduce the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill to simplify and expedite the electoral process. There had been 245 candidates for the Senate, more than twice as many as had ever previously nominated; there were 73 in NSW alone. The precise number of formal votes was unknown for more than two weeks after polling day; not a single senator could be elected until three weeks after polling day. The bill was twice passed by the House of Representatives and twice unacceptably amended by the Senate. On 26 May 1975 the bill was laid aside because the Senate amendments removed the major reforms contained in the clauses dealing with the introduction of optional preferential voting, the registration of political parties, the printing of party affiliations on ballot papers, the drawing for positions on the House of Representatives ballot papers, reforms to postal voting procedures and the closing of the poll at 6p.m. The bill was another of the 21 bills on which Kerr granted the double dissolution on 11 November 1975.

At the elections on 13 December 1975 the largest and smallest enrolments were as follows:

New South Wales
Mitchell 87326
Darling 47979

Victoria
Diamond Valley 91818
Wimmera 50208

Queensland
McPherson 102175
Maranoa 46433

South Australia
Bonython 87805
Wakefield 51307

Western Australia
Moore 74466
Kalgoorlie 57171

Tasmania
Braddon 53977
Bass 47376

My Government was vindicated at the next elections on 10 December 1977. Distribution Commissioners had redistributed all six States into electoral divisions in accordance with the provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1974. The largest and smallest enrolments were as follows:

New South Wales
Cunningham 73956
Berowra 66651

Victoria
Deakin 74645
Mallee 65024

Queensland
Oxley 69571
Kennedy 59190

South Australia
Adelaide 77992
Wakefield 72650

Western Australia
Curtin 72986
Kalgoorlie 63852

Tasmania
Denison 54928
Braddon 50406

Daly's long campaign was vindicated when Hawke defeated Fraser at the double dissolution election on 5 March 1983 and appointed Mick Young as Leader of the House. Young moved to establish a Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform. That committee drafted the Commonwealth Electoral Legislation Amendment Act 1983, which substantially adopted the reforms proposed by Daly's Electoral Laws Amendment Bill 1974.

Menzies on East Timor

On 25 June 2002 the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, declassified a damning report on Portuguese Timor by James Dunn, the Australian consul in Dili (January 1962-August 1964). On 5 February 1963, on the basis of the Dunn report, the Menzies Government decided

The course which it seemed best to follow is for Australia to bring such quiet pressure as it can upon Portugal to cede peacefully and in addition to explore ways by which the international community might bring pressure on Portugal.

On the same day Foreign Affairs sent the following cable to Australia's missions in Washington, London, Jakarta and New York:

Following is report prepared by Australian Consul in Dili. This does not represent an agreed assessment but may be drawn on for background.

The Portuguese in Timor have little real support from the indigenous population who, if given the opportunity, will probably favour a change in the status of their territory. In these circumstances there would be some pressure towards the setting up of an independent state but the majority could probably favour Indonesian rule as the alternative to the continuation of Portuguese rule.
(a) Portuguese Timor is a poor and extremely underdeveloped territory. It has no secondary industries, poor mineral resources and low-level subsistence production in agriculture. Very little has been done by the Portuguese to remedy these weaknesses and there is no evidence of any genuine effort to overcome them in the foreseeable future.

(b) As an independent state it is difficult to see how Portuguese Timor could exist as a viable economic state without substantial financial and technical assistance from outside.

(c) Continued Portuguese rule will mean further stagnation of the economy with increasing dissatisfaction on the part of the indigenous population and probably some attempts at insurrection. There is already some evidence of the existence of a movement with the aim of ousting the Portuguese, with aid of Indonesia.
In the event of an Indonesian attack few of the Timorese would remain loyal to the Portuguese. The Portuguese forces, with no air or sea support would be overwhelmed or driven into the interior of the island within a matter of hours. Without the support of the native population it is unlikely that they could resist long in guerrilla warfare.
If Indonesia were to send in agitators they would undoubtedly win support and, with appropriate supplies of arms etc., could start a campaign of insurgency throughout the province.
The Timorese themselves are unlikely to succeed in any attempt to overthrow the colonial regime if only through lack of leadership. However, with Indonesian aid and inspiration the Portuguese position might soon become intenable.

Dunn has not quoted his own original in his subsequent books and articles.

1974 Treasury Records

The documents selected by Ian Hancock for the 1974 Treasury Records demonstrate that Connor and Cairns were foolish and deceptive. There is, however, no evidence or suspicion that they personally profited from their actions. There is such evidence and suspicion about Phil Lynch.

When the Selected Documents 2005 are distributed they should be accompanied by the findings of the Board of Inquiry into Housing Commission Victoria Land Deals conducted in 1977 and 1978 by retired Victorian Supreme Court Justice Sir Gregory Gowans. Lynch's family profited from speculation in funds made available to the Housing Commission to purchase land for public housing. Lynch was sacked just before the 1977 elections and Lindsay Thompson succeeded Rupert Hamer as Premier in 1981.

Railways

A year ago Ian Hancock (Ed: The National Archives of Australia Historian) began his assessment of my Government's record in 1973 by referring to the statement I made on the last sitting day in 1973. A prominent component was Transport, including railways.

During this year Australians have celebrated the inauguration of the South-North Transcontinental Railway. It is remarkable that Ian Hancock has not mentioned the 1974 acts without which the Transcontinental could not have been constructed. On 18 October 1974 assent was given to the Tarcoola to Alice Springs Railway Act and the Adelaide to Crystal Brook Railway Act. The latter act approved an Agreement of 17 May 1974 between Premier Dunstan and me; Laurie Oakes witnessed my signature.

The prospects of the Carr government would be much better if the Fraser Government had not cancelled the Parramatta Railway Project mentioned in my statement on the last sitting day in 1974. My Government had proposed to construct a rail system radiating from Parramatta and servicing the rapidly developing areas of Hoxton Park, Carlingford, Epping and Castle Hill. The State Government had agreed to study the feasibility of this project.

The Constitution prevents the Federal Government from constructing railways in a State without the consent of the State. During the last 70 years no railways extensions; reconstructions, standardisations or re-equipments have been achieved without Federal initiative and participation. The present Federal Transport Minister has failed to consult the States on the deteriorating railway between Melbourne and Sydney, one of the busiest transport corridors in the world. Experience in the United States and Europe has shown that freight by electric rail is cheaper, faster, cleaner and safer than freight by road. Under my Government rail freight held a 70% share of inter-capital freight by net tonne kilometres and road freight had a 30% share. Under the Howard Government the position is reversed.

Archbishop Loane on Family Law Bill

When did the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney make the comment about the Family Law Bill which Jan Hancock records at the foot of page 12?

In launching a book by Canon Stuart Barton Babbage last Tuesday 1 said Bishops are more prone to comment on politicians than vice versa. I received only one direct approach while I was Prime Minister. On 21 January 1974, Archbishop Loane, invited Margaret and me to dinner in the Gothic splendours of the Bishopscourt. I was a little taken aback when he asked me to have my Government oppose the Family Law Bill. A Senate Committee had drafted the bill and on 13 December 1973 Lionel Murphy had given it a second reading. I had to disappoint the Archbishop. I told him that my Government had allowed a debate on all private members' bills and that all parties allowed a conscience vote on matrimonial issues.

After my Government was reelected on 18 May 1974, Senator Murphy reintroduced the Family Law Bill on 1 august 1974. A motion to postpone the bill till 1975 was defeated by 34 votes to 23. On 18 November the bill was given a second reading by 49 votes to 7. Murphy accepted many amendments in Committee. The bill was then passed without a division at 10.57p.m. on Wednesday, 27 November. I introduced the bill in the House at 10.26p.m. on Thursday, 28 November. A motion to postpone till February was defeated by 52 votes to 45.

1974 Decisions in Foreign Affairs

31.12.73
Withdrawal from 1953 Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration.

23-25.1.74
Prime Minister Visits New Zealand.

28.1.74 - 13.2.74
Prime Minister visits Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Singapore, Sabah and The Philippines (Hansard 7.3.74 pp. 202-207).

6.2.74
Agreement with Japan for the Protection of Migratory Birds and Birds in Danger of Extinction and their Environment.

28.2.74
Trade Agreement with German Democratic Republic

28.2.74
Queen's statement in speech opening the second session of the 28th Parliament:

I inform honourable senators and members that I have decided not to refer to the Privy Council petitions addressed to me by the State of Queensland and the State of Tasmania concerning rights to the seabed. My Australian and United Kingdom ministers were agreed that the High Court of Australia is the appropriate tribunal to determine the issues raised in the petitions and, accordingly, that the petitions should not be referred to the Judicial Committee.

4.3.74
Ratified 1971 Protocol to 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation.

12.3.74
Acceded to 1971 Unesco and WIPO Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorised Duplication of their Phonograms.

15.3.74
Agreement amending the 1946 Air Services Agreement with Canada.

19-23.3.74
President of Tanzania visits Canberra and Sydney.

6.4.74
Governor-General was accorded Persepolis precedence at President Pompidou's funeral.

9.4.74
Accepted 1973 GATT Arrangement regarding International Trade in Textiles.

21.4.74
Agreement further amending the 1963 Agreement relating to the Establishment of a IS Naval Communication Station in Australia.

30.4.74
Further amendment to the 1963 Agreement concerning the Foreign Exchange Operations Fund for Laos.

30.4.74
Signed but did not ratify 1973 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents.

8.5.74
Signed 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl habitat.

14.5.74
Extradition Treaty with USA.

27.5-4.6.74
President of Burma visits Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

12.6.74
Guarantee Agreement with IBRD relating to PNG.

13.6.74
Acceded to 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

18.6.74
Ratified 1971 International Wheat Agreement.

25.6.74
Ratified ILO Convention No 137 - Dock Work Convention, 1973.

5.7.74
Signed definitely Second Nam Ngum Development Fund Agreement.

10.7.74
Agreement with IAEA for the Application of Safeguards in connection with the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

10.7.74
Protocol suspending Safeguards applied in Australia under the 1966 Agreement with the IAEA and USA and providing for the Application of Safeguards pursuant to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

28-30.7.74
Australian Ambassador to the USSR officially visited Estonia, thus extending de jure recognition to its incorporation in the USSR (Compare official visit to Goa by Australian High Commissioner to India under the Menzies Government in April 1964. See Archives files and Senate Hansard 13.8.74, pp. 781 and 782).

31.7.74
Established diplomatic relations with DPRK and maintained diplomatic relations established in 1949 with ROK (détente).

21.8.74
Agreement amending 1957 Air Transport Agreement with Federal Republic of Germany.

22.8.74
Ratified 1962 Unesco Protocol Instituting a Conciliation and Good Offices Commission to be responsible for seeking the Settlement of any Disputes which may Arise between State Parties to the 1962 Convention against Discrimination in Education.

22.8.74
Ratified 1972 Unesco Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritages.

23.8.74
Agreement with USA concerning a Cooperative Scientific Program designated Hi Star South.

5-9.9.74
Prime Minister visits President Sedato.

16.9.74
Chargé d'Affaires replaces Ambassador Deschamps in Santiago de Chile (Whitlam Government, pp.50 and 172).

20-27.9.74
Shah and Shahbanou of Iran visit Canberra, Cairns, Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

25.9.74
Cultural Agreement with Iran.

25.9.74
Trade Agreement with Iran.

26.9.74
Agreement with New Zealand extending the 1973 Agreement concerning Rates and Margins of Preference.

27.9.74
Papua New Guinea Act 1974

27.9-13.10.74
Prime Minister visits the UN, President Ford, Prime Minister Trudeau, Fiji and Norfolk Island.

30.9.74
Trade Agreement with Hungary.

9.10.74
Accepted 1973 Protocol for the Accession of Hungary to the 1947 GATT.

9.10.74
Accepted 1973 Declaration on the Provisional Accession of the Philippines to the 1947 GATT.

9.10.74
Ratified Agreement establishing the International Bauxite Association.

12.10.74
Agreement with China concerning the Registration of Trade Marks.

17.10.74
Acceptance of amendments to articles of the 1948 Convention on the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization.

24.10.74
Papua New Guinea (International Bank) Act 1974
Papua New Guinea Loans Guarantee Act 1974

31.10-6.11.74
Prime Minister of Japan visits Canberra, Sydney, Perth, Newman and Karratha.

1.11.74
Cultural Agreement with Japan.

6.11.74
Denounced 1954 European Convention on the International Classification of Patents for Invention.

12.11.74
Acceded to 1971 Strasbourg Agreement concerning the International Patent Classification.

26.11.74
Trade Agreement with Vietnam.

3.12.74
Acceded to 1973 International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures and Annex E.3.

5.12.74
Trade Agreement with Bulgaria.

10.12.74
Ratified ILO Convention No 100 - Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951.

10.12.74
Acceded to 1953 UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women.

14.12.74
Governor-General signed Executive Council authority for Connor to borrow up to $US4 billion. (The authority was revoked on 7.1.75. On 28.1.75 Governor-General signed Executive Council authority for Connor to raise a loan not exceeding $US2 billion. The authority was revoked on 20.5.75.) (The Truth of the Matter, pp 44 and 45).

14.12.74-21.1.75
Prime Minister visits Sri Lanka, Belgium, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Netherlands, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, USSR, FRG, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Hansard 11.2.75, pp 61-67).

16.12.74
Cultural Agreement with Thailand.

19.12.74
Agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany concerning the Launching of a Skylark Vehicle and Payload at Woomera for Scientific Purposes.

20.12.74
International Court of Justice held in Nuclear Tests (Australia v. France) that 'the objective of the applicant has in effect been accomplished inasmuch that the Court finds that France has undertaken the obligation to hold no further tests in the atmosphere in the South Pacific'.

24.12.74-11.6.75
Agreement with USA relating to Reciprocal Acceptance of Airworthiness Certifications.

30.12.74
ELDO agreed to continue 1962 Convention for the Establishment of a European Organisation for the Development and Construction of Space Vehicle Launchers.

1974 Overseas Travel by Ministers

Hansard

7.3.74, 202
EGW, visit to South East Asia

2.8.74, 1109-1110
Overseas trips by ministers, January-July 1974

24.9.74, 1767
EGW, overseas trips, January-September 1974

24.9.74, 1780
Each Minister 1973-74 (Appropriations)

24.9.74, 1650
Willesee, UNGA and Britain, 20 September-14 October

24.9.74, 1651
Patterson, London EEC Sugar Agreement one week

1.10.74, 1959
Crean IMF, Washington, 27 September-14 October
Morrison, South Pacific Conference, Rarotonga, 1-7 October

15.10.74, 2293
Cairns, Peking 5-7 October
Beazley, Unesco, Paris, 9-20 October

22.10.74, 3299
Stewart, Pacific Area Travel Association, West Samoa, 25 October

12.11.74, 3299
Cairns, International Bauxite Association, Georgetown, 1-16 November
Willesee, Iron Ore Producers, Geneva; Economic Development of South East Asia, Manila
Cass, OECD Environment Committee, Paris

19.11.74, 3626
Everingham, Commonwealth Medical Conference, Sri Lanka, 16 November-2 December

19.11.74, 3630
EGW, visit to Italy, outstanding for 7 years

28.11.74, 4225
EGW, no official visit to Europe since 1950s

14-25.12.74
EGW, Sri Lanka, Belgium, England, Ireland, England

26-28.12.74
EGW, London-Darwin-Sydney

30-31.12.74
EGW, Sydney-Heraklion

The Decolonisation of Papua New Guinea
Mr Whitlam referred to these notes which informed a speech he gave on this topic at University House, Canberra, 3 November 2002

Last March Professor Donald Denoon asked whether I would consider an invitation to this workshop. His first sentence declared 'one of the great monuments of your political career is an independent PNG'. I could scarcely resist.

I wrote on PNG in The Whitlam Government 1972-85 (Viking 1985) between pages 71-101. I did not have access to Ian Downs' The Australian Trusteeship Papua New Guinea 1945-75 published for the Department of Home Affairs by the Australian Government Publishing Service in 1980. Downs referred to several of my visits to PNG but did not adequately identify the people who accompanied me. I attach a list of the visits. It would be useful for the editors of the DFAT volume on the 30th anniversary of independence to have the attached list of my itineraries and my comments on them.

The first visit was on my way back to the Philippines, where I was the navigator of the only Empire aircraft attached to MacArthur's headquarters. I frequently saw the pioneer Mick Leahy (1901-79), who was working for the American forces. When he married in 1940, my wife was his wife's bridesmaid. She attended the family dinner to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary in April this year. I did not always share Mick's views but I learned much from him for the rest of his life. (He scored a footnote in Downs at page 185.)

My second visit was in 1953, my first year in the Parliament. I was in the Parliamentary group which accompanied Governor-General Slim when he dedicated the three Commonwealth War Graves in Lae and outside Port Moresby and Rabaul. My father-in-law had been a sergeant in the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force which captured Rabaul in 1914.

(A Chatham House conference was held in Palmerston North, New Zealand, in January 1959. Paul Hasluck, the Minister for Territories, and I were among the Australian participants and James Callaghan among the British. I raised developments in PNG, the Solomons and New Hebrides. I discussed these territories in my book at pages 115-119.)

In March 1960 Arthur Calwell and I were elected Leader and Deputy Leader of the ALP. In July to use the greater facilities which had become available to me to take Lance Barnard, Charlie Jones and my wife on an extensive tour of PNG. We noticed the campaign being mounted by the Protestant churches against drinking by the indigenous population; they thought it was futile to urge prohibition for the expatriate population. Calwell took a simultaneous but different itinerary with Clyde Cameron and Dr Felix Dittmer.

In October 1960 my wife and I attended the meeting of the Legislative Council at which Governor-General Dunrossil assented to amendments to the Papua New
Guinea Act. In my book at page 78 I describe the humiliating treatment accorded to Dr Reuben Taureka MLC when we took him to lunch at our hotel.

In January and February 1963 I made an extensive tour of PNG with Frank Crean and a new senator, Sam Cohen Q.C. (Downs at page 460 mentions an unknown W.J. Harrison.) At the end of our tour the Rotary Club of Port Moresby asked me to address a dinner at which there were 200 guests, including six Papuans. My theme was that Australians could justify their role in PNG's society and economy only if the indigenes perceived that they themselves were being prepared for participation in all the jobs which were being performed anywhere in PNG. My illustrations of sea and air transport produced hilarity which was discourteous to the Papuans and irksome to me. I telegraphed Reg Ansett and the Chairman of TAA. The former promptly responded and set out to train PNG aircrew. I never heard from the latter. The ALP Commonwealth Conference (29 July - 2 August) adopted, to Calwell's displeasure, a specific and advanced policy on PNG drafted by Don Dunstan and me.

In April 1965 my fife and I attended a seminar in Goroka on the 1963-64 World Bank report. Nugget Coombs supported the assumption of some responsibility for the allocation of budget funds by elected members of the House of Assembly. I declared 'The rest of the world will think it anomalous if PNG is not independent by 1970.' C.E. Barnes, the Minister for Territories, opposed my view. John Guise, the leader of the elected members of the House of Assembly, did not publicly support me but privately conceded that he shared my opinion (Downs, page 460).

(In August 1966 the British Colonial Secretary, Arthur Bottomley, visited Australia for a fruitless discussion with the Holt Government on the New Hebrides. He briefed me.)

I was elected Leader and Lance Barnard Deputy Leader of the ALP in February 1967. At the House of Representatives elections in November 1966 the Coalition had received 49.98% of the votes and the ALP 39.987%. At the elections in October 1969 the votes were respectively 43.33% and 46.55%; the coalition won on DLP preferences. I was encouraged to make my seventh and most extensive trip to PNG in order to propagate and develop the ALP's policy. At the end of December I set out in an RAAF plane with Bill Hayden, Kim Beazley, Graham Freudenberg and Peter Cullen from my staff, my son Antony and several pressmen. The most dramatic moments of our tour were in Rabaul, where we were greeted by the combined choirs of the Catholic and Methodist churches and cheered by a congregation of 11,000, the largest in the Territory's history. Downs at page 464 and 465 quotes the text of 'Labor's Plan for New Guinea' which I issued on the eve of our departure from Port Moresby.

Between 6 and 11 July 1970 Prime Minister John Gorton, who had never visited PNG and who, as a senator, had not engaged in debates on PNG, - I have not checked the Senate Hansard - and David Hay, the new Secretary of the Department of External Affairs and former Administrator of PNG, made as extensive a tour of PNG as I had made but in one-third of the time. They were greeted in Rabaul by an audience of 10 000 who were as hostile as our 11 000 had been enthusiastic. Tom Ellis, heard of the Department of the Administrator, gave Gorton a handgun. In a panic, On Sunday 19 July, Gorton called a cabinet meeting which, without a written submission, agreed on the precautionary step of an Order in Council calling out the Pacific Islands Regiment. The tension between Gorton and Malcolm Fraser, the Minister for Defence, over this proposal was a factor in the resignation of Fraser on 8 March 1971 and the replacement of Gorton by McMahon on 10 March 1971. Downs and I were not allowed to see the Cabinet documents: Downs, footnote 56 on page 484, and Whitlam Government, page 92. Fraser's and Gorton's accounts are to be found in Hansard on 9 March 1971 at pages 683 and 688. Tom Hughes, Gorton's Attorney-General, gave his account in his eulogy at Gorton's State Funeral. Minister Downer has given me the archived copies of the Cabinet Minutes, which I attach. The Order in Council was repealed on 22 April 1971.

Meanwhile, in January 1971, I had made another visit to PNG as Leader of the Opposition. I went with Tom Burns and Mick Young, the Federal President and Secretary of the ALP, Bill Morrison, who had been elected to the House in 1969 after 20 years in the Australian diplomatic service, and Clyde Cameron, who was now free to revisit PNG, the time having expired for writs to be served on him by those who felt aggrieved by his remarks in 1960. My fie and sister, Fred Whitlam, a school principal, also accompanied me.

On 20 May 1971 Barnes reaffirmed that it was the policy of the Australian Government to advance PNG to internal self-government and independence as a united country (Downs, page 446).

On 23 June 1971 the ALP National Conference declared that 'the Labor Party will ensure the orderly and secure transfer to PNG of self-government and independence in its first term of office.'

Barnes resigned from the ministry on 25 January 1972. Andrew Peacock was appointed Minister for External Territories by McMahon on 2 February and quickly established constructive relationships with all the indigenous politicians and officials.

Australian Parliament

My maiden speech on international affairs was delivered on 15 September 1953. I discussed the regional territories which were still subject to the Netherlands, Portugal, Britain and France. Paul Hasluck constantly interjected on my references to Indo-China but not on my references to PNG. I pointed out that, although Papua was an Australian colony, the first Minister for External Territories, E.J. Ward, had stated that the Chifley Government had no objection to the Trusteeship Council exercising surveillance over Papua. Outside Parliament I applauded Hasluck for substituting an Australian flag at Government House in Port Moresby for the Union Jack that his predecessors Ward and Spender had not noticed and for resisting RSL pressure to allow soldier settlements in Papua.

Calwell condoned Hasluck's leisurely programs for PNG because he believed the territories were a cordon sanitaire for White Australia. The schoolteachers in Caucus rebelled when the 1961 annual reports for the two territories made identical statements:

There are no universities in the Territory and some years must elapse before their existe4nce can be justified. Qualified students have access to universities in Australia.

The Trusteeship Commission's fifth Visiting Mission under Sir Hugh Foot, the last British Governor of Cyprus, was due in Canberra in the second week of April 1961. Before the House adjourned in the early hours of Friday 6 April Kim Beazley gave notice that he would propose an urgency debate on

the need to establish a university in PNG with faculties designed to meet urgent needs and with residential colleges, and with ancillary high schools and technical schools to give secondary schooling adequate to prepare the undergraduate students of that university for university courses.

On Sunday night 8 April the ABC broadcast a statement by Hasluck that the government intended to establish a university college in association with an administrative college. On the next sitting day Beazley, Len Reynolds and Gordon Bryant regaled Foot and his colleagues with well-documented accounts of the deficiencies of education in PNG. The Mission was not satisfied with Hasluck's belated proposals. It reported

The Administration's education program for mass literacy is commendable but, in terms of today's world and today's needs in New Guinea, it is inadequate. Three results are discernible from the present policy: first, a broadening of the literacy base; secondly, the providing of a number of indigenous teachers for primary schools; and, thirdly, the providing of workers to feed into the economic stream at the unskilled and semi-skilled levels. But the existing system does not: (a) provide university education; (b) produce individuals capable of replacing Australians in other than unskilled or semi skilled positions; (c) give a level of knowledge required to exercise responsibility in the field of commerce or industry; (d) make provision for senior administrative and professional staff; or (e) adequately generate political confidence and leadership.

In March 1963, Hasluck appointed the Currie Commission to prepare plans for higher education. It reported to Hasluck's successor, C.E. Barnes, in March 1964.

Separatism

At the 1972 elections my more dramatic commitments on China and Viet Nam somewhat obscured the fact that the 'It's Time' Policy Speech set out a comprehensive framework for Australia's international relations, with specific priorities. I stated:

A nation's foreign policy depends on striking a wise, proper and prudent balance between commitment and power. Labor will have four commitments commensurate to our power and resources.

First, to our national security;
Secondly, to a secure, united and friendly Papua New Guinea;
Thirdly, to achieve closer relations with our nearest and largest neighbour, Indonesia;
Fourthly, to promote the peace and prosperity of our neighbourhood.

The emphasis on a united PNG and its juxtaposition with Indonesian relations was not accidental. They were fundamental to regional stability and, equally, to the fulfilment of our United Nations Trusteeship. After my visits of 1970 and 1971, here was no question but that Australian government policy would set the same goal for the Territory of Papua and the Trust Territory of New Guinea and that bipartisan goal would be the independence of a united PNG. Nevertheless, centrifugal forces in PNG were immense and intense; economic, historical, regional, racial and religious.

Another 30th anniversary should be noted; the third House of Assembly elections in February-March 1972 and the creation of a coalition government (Pangu with 7 ministers, People's Progress Party 4, National Party 4 and 2 Independents) with Michael Somare as Chief Minister. His staying power has certainly exceeded mine.

On 14 March 1972 the UN General Assembly resolved to call upon Australia to prepare, in consultation with the Government of PNG, a further timetable for independence. The resolution re-affirmed 'the importance of ensuring the preservation of unity'. In Canberra on 17 January 1973 I assured the Chief Minister that we would follow the time-table agreed by the McMahon Government for self-government on 1 December 1973, but that full independence could be achieves as early as 1974. In Port Moresby on 18 February 1973 I said:

It is folly for anybody to believe that any section of Papua New Guinea would serve its interests by going it alone. For it would truly mean going alone.

In December 1973 the UN General Assembly emphasised the 'imperative need to ensure that the national unity of PNG was preserved and strongly endorsed the policies of the administering authority and of the Government of PNG aimed at discouraging separatist movements and at promoting national unity.'

The forgetfulness of things not in yesterday's headlines is such that it is commonly thought that PNG separatism was restricted to Bougainville. In fact, from December 1972, through Self-Government Day in December 1973, and right up to Independence Day in September 1975, PNG unity came under desperate and disparate challenges. There was separatist rioting and violence in Goroka, the Gazelle Peninsula, Kieta and Port Moresby itself. The Papuan secessionist movement, Papua Besena, was led by Josephine Abaijah, MHA for Central Region. She had succeeded Percy Chatterton of the London Missionary Society. She was an educated and sophisticated version of Pauline Hanson. She openly exploited tensions between Papuans and Highland workers in Port Moresby. Father John Mornis, MHA for Bougainville Regional, a Marist Brother and protégé of Bishop Leo Lemay, supported a separate Bougainville. The diocese had been called German Solomon Islands from May 1898, Northern Solomon Islands from May 1930 and Bougainville from November 1966 (Annuario Pontificio). Lemay was a brother of General Curtis Lemay, who succeeded General Kenney in command of General MacArthur's air force, who advocated bombing Viet Nam 'back to the Stone Age' and became George Wallace's vice-presidential running mate in 1968.

In August 1975 the Bougainville separatists unilaterally declared a new nation to be known as the Republic of North Solomons. On 1 September declarations of independence were made in Arawa and Kieta, the latter attended by Leo Lemay's successor, Gregory Singkai, another Marist.

A week before independence, the PNG Minister for Justice, Ebia Olewale, and Father Mornis both appeared before the UN Trusteeship Council in New York. Mornis said that Bougainville wished to determine its own destiny and that it's 90,000 people were ethically and culturally part of a separate Solomon Islands group. Olewale told the Council that if the separatist principle was accepted 'it could result in the creation of 700 potential mini-states in Papua New Guinea'. The Trusteeship Council unanimously extended congratulations to Papua-New Guineans on their successful preparations for independence and expressed confidence that the unity of the country would be successfully maintained. The President and three members of the Council attended the ceremonies at Port Moresby on Independence Day, 16 September. Josephine Abaijah was not present.

Australia did, indeed, have the power and commitment to bring a united Papua New Guinea to independence. More, Australia had the highest national and international obligations to do so. The most powerful force for unity was the momentum towards independence once self-government had been achieved. As Michael Somare wrote in his autobiography Sana (1975): 'It took me months to get the self-government date of 1 December 1973 passed by the House of Assembly, but only forty-five minutes to set the date for Papua New Guinea's independence.' Papuan secessionism, in particular, withered in the face of my Government's determination that independence would be secured only by a House of Assembly speaking for a united Papua New Guinea. As it was, it was a closer run thing than many like to admit. What kind of message would have been received in Rabaul, Kieta or Port Moresby if the Australian Government had been playing a different gave elsewhere in the region? Bishop Lemay was succeeded by Henk Kronenberg, another Marist brother but a Dutchman, in April 1999.

When PNG achieved independence our security agencies asked me if we should leave or bugging equipment in place as the British had done when their African colonies achieved independence. I told them that we should not. The equipment, however, was still in place when the Hawke Government took office.

Education after Independence

As a member of the Unesco Executive Board (1985-89) I noted that Australia, like all colonial powers, had for too long left schools and clinics to missionaries. Protestant missionaries translated the gospels, and sometimes the whole Bible, into regional dialects. They certainly failed to promote national languages in Melanesia. In Africa and Latin America, on the other hand, Catholic missionaries have at least made Spanish, Portuguese and French into the national languages of their old colonies.

A Melanesian Literacy Project was established as an Australian International Literacy Year project in February 1990. In March I was the head and Margaret was a member of the Australian delegation to the World Conference on Education for All at Jomtein, Thailand. The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu ministers for education, Jerry Tetaga, the head of the Papua New Guinea delegation and the secretary of the PNG Department of Education, and I agreed that government-to-government discussions on the project should take place. The PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu ministers and officials representing the Australian minister held discussions in Port Moresby on 17-18 May. The Ministers agree to form a Melanesian Literacy Council to cooperate in literacy development and expressed gratitude to the Australian Government for making the project possible. Kim Beazley junior, the Minister for Employment, Education and Training, did not pursue the project.

When the Hawke Government sent me as Australia's permanent delegate to Unesco in 1981, I was briefed to secure Australia's transfer from the Western European group, Group 1, to the Asia and Pacific Group, Group IV. In 1985 the General Conference at Sofia unanimously approved the transfer at the 1987 Conference of a Board seat as well as Australia and New Zealand from Group 1 to Group IV. Tetaga succeeded me on the Board from 1989 to 1993. It has become accepted that two states from the South Pacific forum should have representatives on the Board.

Conclusion

I am grateful for the invitation to this workshop and the terms in which it was made.

Yet I still hear it asserted that my government was in error in pushing the PNG into independence too soon. It is exactly the same sort of argument used 150 years ago against self-government for the settlement colonies of the British Empire, the argument that they were not ready. In the case of PNG, however, I use no such lordly and imperial arguments. I simply assert that, had we delayed PNG independence, even for another year, we would have put the whole country in the gravest danger of breaking up.

Mr Whitlam's Record of Travel to Papua New Guinea

27.5.45 Townsville-Milne Bay-Manus
28.5.45 Manus-Biak-Palau

18.10.53 Brisbane-Port Moresby
20.10.53 Port Moresby-Law
22.10.53 Law-Finschhafen-Rabaul
24.10.53 Rabaul-Lae
25.10.53 Lae-Brisbane

24.7.60 Brisbane-Port Moresby
26.7.60 Port Moresby Goroka
27.7.60 Goroka-Kundiawa-Omkolai-Kerowagi-Kundiawa
28.7.60 Goroka-Wau
31.7.60 Lae-Finschhafen-Rabaul
3.8.60 Rabaul-Lae-Port Moresby-Brisbane

16.10.60 Cairns-Port Moresby
18.10.60 Port Moresby-Brisbane

29.1.63 Brisbane-Port Moresby
30.1.63 Port Moresby-Lae-Goroka
31.1.63 Goroka-Madang
1.2.63 Madang-Lae
2.2.63 Lae-Finschhafen-Lae
3.2.63 Lae-Rabaul
4.2.63 Rabaul-Kavieng-Rabaul
7.2.63 Rabaul-Lae-Port Moresby
10.2.63 Port Moresby-Brisbane

10.4.65 Brisbane-Port Moresby
12.4.65 Port Moresby-Lae-Goroka
13.4.65 Goroka-Port Moresby-Brisbane-Sydney-Canberra
14.4.65 Canberra-Sydney-Brisbane
15.4.65 Brisbane-Port Moresby-Goroka-Minj-Banz-Mt Hagen
17.4.65 Mt Hagen-Banz-Lae-Port Moresby-Brisbane-Sydney

28.12.69 Sydney-Townsville-Port Moresby
30.12.69 Port Moresby-Daru-Port Moresby
1.1.70 Port Moresby-Lae
2.1.70 Lae-Goroka
3.1.70 Goroka-Mt Hagen-Madang
4.1.70 Madang-Vanimo-Wewak
5.1.70 Wewak-Manus
6.1.70 Manus-Kavieng
7.1.70 Kavieng-Rabaul
8.1.70 Rabaul-Kieta
10.1.70 Kieta-Buka-Port Moresby
12.1.70 Port Moresby-Townsville

3.1.71 Brisbane-Port Moresby
5.1.71 Port Moresby-Goroka-Mt Hagen
6.1.71 Mt Hagen-Madang
8.1.71 Magang-Lae
10.1.71 Lae-Rabaul
13.1.71 Rabaul-Port Moresby-Gurney
14.1.71 Gurney-Port Moresby
17.1.71 Port Moresby-Brisbane

18.2.73 Canberra-Sydney-Port Moresby
19.2.73 Port Moresby-Goroka-Port Moresby
20.2.73 Port Moresby - Jakarta

14.9.75 Cairns-Port Moresby
17.9.75 Port Moresby-Canberra

30.10.79 Manila-Port Moresby
1.11.79 Port Moresby-Brisbane-Sydney

17.2.81 Honiara-Kieta-Port Moresby
20.2.81 Port Moresby-Brisbane

5.8.84 Sydney-Brisbane-Port Moresby
8.8.84 Port Moresby-Mt Hagen-Port Moresby
9.8.84 Port Moresby-Kiunga-Port Moresby
10.8.84 Port Moresby-Brisbane-Sydney

11.3.87 Sydney-Brisbane-Port Moresby
13.3.87 Port Moresby-Manila

The Reconstruction of Darwin

It was three years before I saw the devastation of Darwin by Japanese aircraft on 19 February 1942. An aircraft from No. 13 Squadron, stationed at Yirrkala Mission, landed at Darin airfield on 11 January 1945; I was its navigator.

It was three days before I saw the devastation of Darwin by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas morning 1974. I had just visited Brussels, Dublin and London at the beginning of a European tour when I heard the news. I arrived in Darwin on Saturday morning 28 December.

Cyclone Tracy had levelled Darwin. Thousands were maimed and injured, 49 killed and 16 declared missing at sea. Electricity, water and sewerage services were eliminated. Between 50 and 60 percent of the 11 000 or so houses and flats were damaged beyond repair with only a few hundred left more or less intact. Public and commercial buildings were severely damaged, roads were impassable and the port was severely affected. On 18 February 1974 Lance Barnard, my first Minister for Defence, had providentially announced the establishment of a National Disasters Organisation to upgrade and coordinate the emergency services of the State and Federal Governments. Under the leadership of Major-General Alan Stretton and with the assistance of the armed services, the NDO was able to evacuate over 75 percent of Darwin's population of about 48 000.

Two days later I assembled all the appropriate Ministers at Kirribilli House in Sydney to make arrangements for the rehabilitation of Darwin. Governor-General Kerr came across from Admiralty House. It was decided to establish a Darwin reconstruction Commission composed of representatives of the Departments of the Northern Territory, Urban and Regional Development and Housing and Construction and nominees of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and the Darwin City Council. I then telephoned the great engineer, Sir Leslie Thiess, at the home of Sir Gordon Chalk, the Liberal Treasurer of Queensland, to ask him to become interim Chairman of the Commission. He readily agreed. On 11 February 1975 Rex Patterson, the Minister for the Northern Territory, introduced enabling legislation, the Darwin Reconstruction Bill. In March Tony Powell, the Commissioner of the National Capital Development Commission, became Chairman of the DRC. He was succeeded in November by Clem Jones, an outstanding figure in Australian local government who for 14 years has been Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

Poor urban planning compounded the damage inflicted by nature. One of the important tasks of the DRC was to construct cyclone-proof houses. I was greatly disenchanted with the Department of Housing and Construction. It passed my comprehension and tolerance that the department and its predecessor, the Department of Works, should have overlooked the certainty of cyclones in Darwin and ignored the necessity for cyclone-proof housing. The interval since the last cyclone in 1937 was the longest on record. Before that there had been cyclones in 1917, 1897, 1882.

My Government introduced a special welfare benefit for the victims of Cyclone Tracy, paid for the cost of emergency accommodation and subsidised residents for the cost of returning to Darwin. The Department of Repatriation and Compensation found that approximately 50 percent of the damage to property was not covered by insurance. The Department's survey emphasised the need for Federal compensation. In May 1975 the Darwin Cyclone Damage Compensation Bill was introduced to appropriate $58 million for property damage caused by the cyclone.

Clem Jones, who had largely built Brisbane, rebuilt Darwin. He completed his mission at the beginning of 1978. Darwin has become one of the most healthy, happy and beautiful tropical cities in the world. It will survive future cyclones.

Whitlam Government installed more Perches for Parrots

My Government did more than any other to diversity and expand ownership of the airwaves of Australia and to create employment opportunities for Australians. Let me remind you.

Prior to our election in 1972 there had been no new capital city commercial broadcasting station established for twenty five years. By 1975 we had broken the commercial broadcasting monopoly situation that had previously existed in Canberra and Adelaide by approving another AM station in each of those cities. We approved a commercial broadcast9ing station for outer western Sydney (2WS) and w established a commercial station in the expanding Mornington peninsula in Victoria.

Additionally, we provided sufficient funds to the Australian Broadcasting Commission to enable it to expand its facilities and we took the adventurous step of allowing the use of its stand-by transmitters to put to air new AM stations in Sydney and Melbourne specifically to cater for the broadcasting needs of our younger generation.

We introduced FM broadcasting in Australia and we awarded the first licence to the Music Broadcasting Society of New South Wales. For years the Society had been pressing the Australian Broadcasting Control Board to introduce FM.

We also opened Australian Government Bookshops in the CDB of our capital cities and in regional Albury-Wodonga to give Australians ready access to a wide range of Government publication. These bookshops were highly successful and popular and were well patronized by the business community and members of the public.

End of notes