Federal policy speech.  Eighteen months ago in an election triggered by a diplomatic appointment by Mr.Whitlam, which filled even his own supporters with shame, the Democratic Labor Party lost its Parliamentary representation, Mr. Whitlam declared then that the DLP had been an obstacle to good government. Has there been better government since the DLP lost its Senators? Rather has the Australian government been revealed as more incompetent ruthless and corrupt! It is commonly said that we have the best country in the world! All that is wrong is the people running it. The sheer incompetence of the Whitlam government is revealed by the fact that it cannot fight the election on its record - it has none. Instead it invests its leader with the halo of martyrdom! Surely the role of slaughtered innocent sits oddly on one whose Prime Ministership has been marked by his political assassination of Messrs. Creang, Cairns, Cope, Connor, Cameron and others of his own followers; whose proudest boast is that he destroyed four Liberal leaders – Holt, Gorton, McMahon and Snedden; whose ambition is to add to their number Fraser and even a governor-general. He has proved that he can destroy - we need another Prime Minister, who will build!  Therefore, the DLP calls on the Australian people to  1. Remove from office the corrupt, incompetent, and economically disastrous Whitlam government.  2. Restore Democratic Labor representation as an inspiration towards policies for economic good sense, wise control of inflation, free enterprise, better family life, realistic defence and foreign policies, preservation of rural industry and adequate education for all.  The unedifying Canberra events of the past two months have made many Australians determined to vote for the acceptable alternative the D.L.P. In a desperate attempt to sidetrack the real issue - the failure of his government, Mr Whitlam on 18th October, stated the issue of the Parliamentary crisis - this is the first Senate in Australian history to reject a money bill.  The President of the Australian Labor Party, Bob Hawke, supported Mr. Whitlam - he said it has not happened once in 75 years. These statements are blatantly untrue. I know because I voted in the divisions where money bills were rejected. Voting with me were Labor Ministers, Senator Lionel Murphy. D. McClelland, J.Cavanagh, and the full A.L.P. Senate team. I recall the Senate majority (Labor and DLP) defeating,, among others  1. The Income Tax Bill, 1965 - a money bill.  2. The Bill to increase Post and Telegraph Rates, 1967.  3. The State Receipts Duty Bill, 1970 - a money bill.  On May 12, 1967 (see Hansard) on the 1967 Bill, Senator Murphy was very explicit. He said: "The Labor Opposition opposes this Bill. There is no tradition, as has been suggested, that the Senate will not use its Constitutional powers, whenever it considers it necessary, or desirable to do so in the public interest. There are no limitations on the Senate in the use of its constitutional powers except the limits imposed by discretion and reason. There is no tradition in the Australian Labor Party that it will not oppose in the Senate any tax or money bill, or what might be described as a financial measure. Mr. Whitlam must have known his statement was untrue, that no Senate had ever rejected a money bill. In his own Party Caucus discussions in 1965 and 1970, he took a prominent part. The Labor Party rejected his view and supported Senator Murphy, who triumphantly incorporated in Hansard a list of almost 300 occasions when Labor Party Senators voted against money bills, supply bills and appropriation bills. The Whitlam constitutional issue is exposed as a "phoney". Australians must look at the real issues. Since 1972 we have seen two grave threats to our Parliamentary democracy - threats which Parliamentary leaders in Britain have warned are a grave danger to the Parliamentary system. They are:  One - An increasing trend for the executive power, the Cabinet, to by-pass Parliament, culminating in Mr. Whitlam's action against which even some of his own Party protest, to replace the traditional Prime Ministership by an American Presidential style of pre-watergate vintage. The Whitlam Cabinet attempted to evade Parliamentary control through the notorious Khemlani loans.  Two- Assertion by trade unions @@@ influenced), of their right to reject the rule of law in industry, reject economic policies declared by the elected government to be vital to the people's welfare, deprive citizens of their property rights and determine without regard to the elected government, government's policies on foreign affairs, defence, social issues and a host of other purely political issues.  On the first issue, we have seen  1. A first Whitlam Cabinet of two – selected by one who claims to stand for political convention.  2. The gag and guillotine regularly used to prevent all but perfunctory discussion of bills making vital changes in the Australian way of life. Twenty one bills are lined up waiting to be passed if Whitlam wins. They will change the whole face of Australia.  3. A wholesale expansion of ministers’ personal staffs a Cabinet bureaucracy.  4. A "dirty tricks" department, formed to manage the press, by offering inducements where they are acceptable and by hints and threats where they are not.  5. Blatant treachery to by-pass Parliament and the Loan Council and obtain vast sums from dubious criminally exorbitant interest rates.  The Whitlam Party poses as the champion of democracy, yet in this election a Whitlam win could end Parliamentary democracy as we know it. The second issue - trade union power - has almost brought the United Kingdom to its knees and threatens Australia with a similar fate. Australian examples are - the ban on wheat to Chile, the ban on the export of live cattle without a permit from the meat union, the ban on supplies to Australian troops in Vietnam in Australian ships, the ban on certain overseas ships unless bribes are paid to certain unions, the ban on the transport of uranium, the ban on mining on Fraser island, the ban on the erection of the Newport Power House, the ban on demolition of the Regent Theatre. All these bans imposed arbitrarily by persons not subject to popular election, are a threat to democracy. Government, both Liberals and Labor, has preferred, appeasement to assertion of the @.  It is time to assert that Australia will be governed by the people's elected representatives, not un-elected union bosses! It is no answer to ignore the facts, and as so many commentators do, bleat about "kicking the communist can. None of the four communist groups here expects to win power by political action. Where communist candidates stand, they do so only to issue propaganda and win recruits. Their power is in the trade union, and it is stronger than at any time in our history. Even though divided at the trade union level, except for occasional personalities, e.g. Mundey versus Gallagher, the communists work as a team. They have power inside the ACTU, they are close to control of the Trades Hall Councils. Their aims are to produce a revolutionary situation by  1. Amalgamation of trade unions into 4 huge economic units, each under a communist secretary, i.e. Transport, Light, Fuel and Power, Iron and Steel, and Building. With these four, they can control the economic life and eventually the political life of Australia.  2. They have the shop-steward movement whose object is to give the communists control at the job level, and by-pass any non-sympathetic non-union leaders. It should be remembered that both Bob Hawke and Clyde Cameron have warned of possible authoritarian coups unless economic disorder can be eliminated. Sharkey, the Communist theorists called the shop stewards the leaders in producing a revolutionary situation.  It is pathetic to see the Whitlam government pleading with men who are dedicated to destroy capitalism and build communism on the ruins, to instead co-operate to make free enterprise work. There is danger also in the election claims of ALP leaders that the unions will not permit a Fraser government to govern. This would mean that governments are not to be elected by the people but subject to the approval or veto of Messrs, Carmichael, Bull, Halfpenny and Gallagher. The DLP believes the solution to communism in the unions lies with the rank and file unionist. He must be activated to defeat Red influence not by bans but democratically at the union ballot box - as the Industrial Groups did. Opponents will brand a statement of policies by the DLP as unrealistic. They believe we will not be a government. Yet ideas in world history have outweighed numbers. In the Senate we voted for issues on their merits - not on the rigid party lines of the Government and official opposition. Our presence was for years a factor in resolving Senate deadlocks, when neither major party would budge. We were a powerful factor in influencing desirable advances on pensions, social issues, housing the family, especially education and child endowment, defence and foreign policy, industrial and economic policy. We will do that again.  THE ECONOMY  The Whitlam Government, whose leader is so scapegoat-minded has sought a scapegoat for its misgovernment in overseas conditions. That is an unacceptable plea. In countries like Britain or Japan, their problem has been the need to spend vast sums on imports of food, raw materials and especially oil. We are the lucky country. We have all the food we need, vie have most raw materials, we produce 70% of our own oil (and that the most costly type). Overseas conditions have some effect, but overall our troubles are due to ineffective and disastrous government policies, which were humiliatingly reversed by the Socialist-minded Whitlam government-in recent months. No political party has an infallible nostrum for our economic ills and the DLP does not claim to be an exception. The first essential is a restoration of confidence. Investment and employment are bound up with this, just as during the depression of the early thirties. Government policies must seek to restore the private sector, to rehabilitate the struggling farmer and aid the small business man. If this is done, Australia has the resources for complete recovery.  The DLP recommends in addition  a) Substantial cuts in unessential government expenditure, which has been a major contributor to the inflation rate.  b) reform of the tax structure - tax indexation both for @.  c) Wage indexation.  d) A return to the Rule of Law in industry. Outlawing of political strikes.  e) immediate reduction of excessive charges for postal and communication services, which are gravely inflationary and affect all industry, especially rural industry.  f) Encouragement for mineral industry development and oil exploration. If our present oil supplies run out, we will face vast increases in our overseas costs.  g) A more stable economy would eventually make possible a desirable lowering of interest rates.  The DLP will call in the Senate for a complete survey of the whole field of rural industry and its problems over the next decade at least. We sought this in the last Parliament, without avail. It was contended that each rural industry wished to be a law to itself. That policy has been a failure. An overall rural plan is vital. Rural industry and the mining industry are the mainstays of our export trade and deserve encouragement, not the economic attacks under which they have suffered in the past 3 years. Finally, there is a need for every Australian to work to make his country a better place. Wage increases ultimately must depend on increases in productivity and not the something for nothing attitude encouraged by the Whitlam government.  SENATE RIGHTS.  All the hysteria and emotion about Senate powers is unnecessary and bogus. There is a method available to obtain democratically the people's decision on Senate powers - a referendum. The DLP has no objection to such a referendum.  FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENCE.  As a result of Liberal ineptitude, the 1972 and 1974 elections were fought with foreign policy and defence non-issues. As these two issues have been for years Labor's Achilles heel, it is no wonder Whitlam won!  FOREIGN POLICY (Cont).  Australian foreign policy and the defence policies associated with it are the creation of Mr. Whitlam. He has said that he believed himself to be the greatest Foreign Minister in Australian history. When pressure was put on him by his party to relinquish the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and concentrate en the Prime Ministership where frequent absences abroad would not leave Australia leaderless, he used a subterfuge to retain Foreign Affairs. He removed the Ministry from the House of Representatives so that he could remain spokesman for it there. The Titular Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Willesee, was to Whitlam a figurehead. Our foreign policy is Mr. Whitlam’s. The keynote of the Whitlam policy was set some years ago, when returning from South East Asia, he said we must accept division of the world of the future into spheres of influence dominated by super-powers -Europe to the Soviet; North America to the United States; South East Asia and probably us, to Red China. Whitlam's policies in Asia are dominated by the need to appease China, but appeasement does not bring peace - it brings war. The danger to us is greater when our defences are emasculated. Remember, most of the world's people today live under communism - Russia is the most powerful military nation in the world. Yet the Whitlam cry is that a world full of violence has offered us immunity for 10 or 15 years!  The DLP offers these realistic policies:  1. We should make ourselves as self reliant as possible in defence, even if this involves considerable spending on the army, navy and airforce. Even if danger were not in sight for 10 years, it would take all that to rebuild our defences.  2. We should prove by self reliant defences to our allies in Anzus that we are equipped to make a contribution to mutual security instead of adopting the Whitlam policy of free- loading. Our army of 30,000 means only 5,000 fighting men. Our navy, airforce and defence supply department are equally in need.  3. Our subservience to Peking should be replaced by a cool realization that China regards 12 million people as of minimal importance and their interest in us only extends as far as we can be made us of.  4. Alliances and associations with Britain, U.S.A. and friendly South East Asian countries, especially Indonesia, should be strengthened.  5. Double diplomacy, e.g. encouraging guerrillas in countries like Vietnam, Laos, South Africa, Cambodia, Rhodesia, while condemning them in countries under Communist rules should cease.  6. Aid to "have not" countries should be doubled at least. Our aid is still small and largely confined to New Guinea.  7. Oil exploration should be stepped up on terms attracting overseas capital but ensuring adequate Australian content.  8. Friendlier relations should be cultivated with the Pacific Island areas and mutual security agreements encouraged.  EDUCATION.  The DLP stands for the best possible education for Australian youth. It therefore supports the dual system of State and registered schools. It should be remembered that the DLP pioneered the call for aid, a better term for which is "justice" - for the registered schools. The DLP also supported and voted in the Senate for every proposal to advance State education. The DLP believes that there should be a survey of the whole field of education. Australians have readily provided money in astronomical quantities for education, but are we getting value? Should we spend more on primary education and less on the more glamorous forms. Where are the advances best made? A wide ranging survey should be made to provide the answers, so that we get full value in both State and registered schools. Mr. Whitlam profited in 1972 by posing as the friend of the registered schools. He promised additional aid and that no aid then being given would be withdrawn. Yet he proceeded to withdraw all aid from A class schools and only reversed the decision under DLP pressure. Parents of children, in A class schools should remember that Mr. Whitlam declared their aid would be continued only for 2 Years. That term is @.  EDUCATION (Cont).  Perhaps Mr. Whitlam’s true attitude was shown when he eliminated in his Budget, tax concessions to parents of children in private schools. The increased sums allocated to private schools have largely been robbed of their value by Whitlam-caused inflation. The DLP regards the latest Schools Commission Report as most unsatisfactory. The DLP attitude is for each child to be treated equally no matter what type of school he or she attends. Finally, the DLP believes there should be an examination of the voucher system favoured by many teachers as a remedy for excessive centralism.  RURAL.  Long ago, Mr. Whitlam decided that elections were determined by the city vote, the pensioner vote and the civil service vote. That explains his indifference to rural problems. Even Senator Wireidt, who is closer to him that most of his Ministers, could get little from Whitlam for the farmer, and it is no secret that he was glad to be transferred from the Primary Production portfolio. Mr. Whitlam's creed is that the farmer has never had it so good and therefore Labor's mission should be to improve the quality of life in the cities. Yet rural production is our biggest industry and today languishes from governmental indifference and neglect! Farmers, whose debts are mounting and whose prospects are deteriorating for the first time in history, demand the equivalent of unemployment pay. Their problems have no hope of solution under a Labor government. The DLP advocates an overall survey of rural industry to spotlight problems and determine solutions. The DLP calls for long term finance at low interest rates, reform or elimination of estate duties, immediate drastic reduction of postal, telephone and other communication charges and measures for effective decentralisation and preservation of the family farm. Without measures such as these, the Country will die, and Australia will be the worse for it!  HEALTH and HOUSING.  The DLP originally opposed Medibank. We believed the voluntary Health Benefits system effectively covered 90% of the people and the Government should provide for pensioners and those unable to cope. Whitlam Labor pressed on and as a result we have a huge bureaucracy set up to handle Medibank and promising unlimited problems with doctors, pharmacists and others - also unlimited costs! When Australians, receive their tax assessments they will realize that Medib-W1k is not free! The DLP will urge the new government to seek a better system, with less regimentation, less bureaucracy and less cost. On housing, Whitlam, Labor has been a total loss. The building industry is at an all-time low, and homes are priced out of the home seekers reach. The DLP will seek to divert finance to home builders at lower interest rates. The DLP, in order to assist genuine home seekers, calls for a reduction in interest rates and the re-introduction of an up-dated Home Grants system which in the past has helped young people to reach the deposit required by lending institutions. We call again for the setting up of a special fund at the Reserve Bank which will provide loans for the erection of homes on the purchaser's own land, the purchase of land itself, the purchase of a home already built, or the purchase of a home unit.  SOCIAL JUSTICE.  In the area of social policy there are two groups of persons which require immediate and sympathetic attention the pensioner and the family man.  Pensioners - Pensioners have not and will not receive justice under the existing system, where pension rates are determined in the auction room atmosphere of politics, particularly at Budget time or Election time. All pension rates should be determined on a regular basis by an independent tribunal of exports. The tribunal, which should include a pensioner representative, should review all the relevant criteria, cost of living, prices, wage increases, etc. On many occasions the DLP moved in the Senate for the establishment of such a tribunal and on every occasion the ALP joined with the Liberal-Country Party to defeat it. The tribunal, would now be a reality if the ALP had, for once, voted for a proposal on its merits and not solely on @.  SOCIAL JUSTICE (Cont).  The best way to assist the family is through child endowment. Under the present and past Governments, child endowment payments have been allowed to decline in real value. The DLP believes that child endowment payments should be increased, particularly for the third, fourth and later children, and that, the increase should be on a graduated basis. There is no point or logic in spending millions dollars on immigration if the natural increase in population is ignored and not encouraged. To assist those families who are experiencing accommodation problems, the DW also advocates the introduction in Australia of the very successful New Zealand scheme of the capitalisation of child endowment payments in a lump sum for housing additions and improvements. The DLP directs attention to and supports the child endowment policies set out by Professor Henderson in his report on poverty, especially regarding large families.  WOMEN.  The DLP affirms that women have certain undeniable natural rights. Foremost is the right to contribute to the welfare of home and family as a full-time homemaker. While women have a rightful role as part of the workforce, it cannot be accepted that this role be promoted as superior to a woman's traditional role in society as a full time homemaker, particularly if she has dependent children. To assist these women to maintain their rightful natural role in Australian society, the DLP calls for:  1. An inquiry into the contribution made to the community by the mother who stays at home, and an assessment of its value.  2. Immediate and significant increases in child endowment.  3. Promotion of family life education, especially at the secondary school level.  Working women.  The DLP advocates that married women be guaranteed absolute freedom of choice as to whether they wish to work in industry or to care for their families full-time. There is no real freedom of choice unless the economic rewards of both occupations are substantially the same. In order to ensure absolute freedom of choice for married women, the Arbitration Commission be urged to structure a new wage system on the following principles  a) There should be a Standard Wage, expressly fashioned to provide for the 'needs' of the unmarried wage-earner, including savings for marriage.  b) There should be equal pay for equal work among male and female workers.  c) There should be a-system of Family Allowances, including an allowance for the wife who chooses to stay at home and for each child, fixed at a level to meet the actual cost of maintaining both wife and children.  REFUGEES.  The DLP regrets and condemns the callous indifference of the Whitlam government to the plight of refugees, particularly from Vietnam. The DLP will urge the new government to undertake a realistic, contribution to world refugee problems.  ABOLITION OF DEATH DUTIES.  Let me now turn to another issue - the abolition of probate or death duties - in which the DLP has played a leading role. We believe that death duties must be abolished on the following grounds. While a man is working, his income is taxed. It is outrage that when he dies, his life savings are also taxed! The tax schedules for probate have remained unaltered for more than two decades. Inflation over that period leads to ever higher valuations on farms, houses and other property. As a result, ordinary Australians are being taxed as if they were cattle kings or squatter barons.  DEATH DUTIES (cont).  In the case of the primary producers, over the past 10 years they have paid on average 35% of all Federal death duties collected by Canberra. But primary producers make up only 7% of all taxpayers. This is blatant discrimination against the rural community, practised - I remind  You- by both Liberal-Country Party and Labor Governments. In the cities, too often a widow is forced to sell up the family home to pay death duties because inflation has caused her home to be valued at ridiculous levels. The DLP had a Bill before the Senate to solve the problem by the complete abolition of Commonwealth probate. The Liberal-Country Party coalition always refused to abolish probate when it held office. Perhaps in order to win office, it will repent and support our proposal!  INDUSTRIAL.  The DLP believes that a return to the Rule of Law in industry is vital to our economic and social future. Therefore the DLP calls for Australian governments to defend the Arbitration system against the efforts of so-called militant and communist union leaders to destroy it. The DLP points to the warning given by Mr. J.B.Chifley in 1947 - "There are circumstances that must be guarded against, those that arise as a result of employers and employees engaged in industries that are almost monopolistic, coming together and reaching an agreement with a certainty that they will be permitted to pass on to the consuming public the excessive costs arising from such agreements”. Governments must insist that the public interest be not excluded from such negotiations and where, powerful unions threaten, employers with demands for. such "sweetheart agreements" governments must firmly protect those threatened. The DLP further believes that  1. The use of trade union strength by strike action to achieve political purposes should be made contrary to law.  2. That the trade union movement be called upon to develop effective procedures for dealing with demarcation disputes, so preventing ruinous strikes.  3. That elections for full time union officials be according to a system of compulsory voting in ballots conducted by Commonwealth Electoral officers.  INDUSTRIAL (Cont).  4. That employers be encouraged by tax and other concessions to introduce as far as possible worker participation and profit-sharing.  5. That the principle of secret ballots on strikes is democratic and desirable.  6. That wage and tax indexation should be implemented.  OIL.  The failure of the Whitlam government to promote oil exploration has gravely endangered our economic future. Our reserves have been allowed to fall from 2,300 million barrels in 1970 to 1,700 million in 1974. No new reserves have been discovered and consumption is rising. Oil imports have been estimated to cost  $650 million 1975  $1300 million 1977  $2000 million after 1980.  The Whitlam government removed exploration incentives and, exploration dropped catastrophically. Investment allowances should be re-introduced, together with tax concessions for exploration. Australia must provide significant sums for exploration and development of newly discovered fields. Oil exploration is a gamble but the rewards can be more than worth while. Additionally, Australia should seek to produce oil from its proven coal deposits. Oil price rises can make this an economic pro-position. We should plan to produce oil from coal deposits in the Eastern States. We will need home-produced oil for industry and defence, and as a barrier against inflation.  Environment.  The DLP strongly supports policies for the protection and improvement of the environment. The DLP however, condemns approaches by certain pro-environment organisations to trade unions, seeking to make them and their officials the arbiters on environmental disagreements. The DLP supports the establishment of judicial tribunals to determine such disagreements, the decisions of such tribunals, which shall have power to co-opt expert advice, to be final and enforced by law.  BALTIC NATIONS.  The DLP is irrevocably opposed to the Australian Government’s recognition of Soviet control over the captive Baltic nations. The DLP directs attention to the broken promise of Mr. Whitlam prior to the last election that his government would not recognise Soviet control over the Baltic nations.  DEFENCE FORCES.  The DLP will strive to  a) Widen the powers and charter of the National Disaster Organisation to incorporate Federal, State and Local Government representation and incorporate the armed services to the extent of purporting a purposeful, vital and essential need for the services in both peace and war.  b) Fully involve the expertise and technological training of the Services in national scientific and research programmes thereby allowing members to -apply the benefits of their education to their satisfaction and the nation's benefit.  c) Take all necessary practical actions to develop a living awareness within the Services and the nation at large of the achievements and traditions of our Services.  d) Relate individual service units to the local community and give commanders the facilities to allow effective cultivation of this concept.  DEFENCE FORCES (Cont).  e) Modernise service dress so that servicemen and women again wear their uniforms in public with pride and dignity.  f) Establish a Defence Forces Work and Resettlement Commission to continually investigate and advise or implement conditions of service, pay variations and repatriation in accord with the relevant conditions applying in outside industry.  g) Provide such national works as will anticipate wartime defence needs.  We record the fact that the DLP was the initiator of the inception of a National Disaster Organisation.  MIGRANTS.  The DLP supports migration and regrets the recent restrictions. It points to the words of the late Albert Monk that you cannot turn migration on and off like a tap. The great advances made in Australia since 1946 were to a big extent due to the migrant contribution.  The DLP calls for -  1. Increased assistance for family migration.  2. Supervised migration of single women in collaboration with national, Church and philanthropic bodies.  3. More humane attitudes to Asian migration.  The DLP condemns anti-migrant attitudes and attacks on human rights of migrants, of which the raids and attacks on citizens of Croatian origin were the worst attacks on human rights in Australian history.  ELECTORAL.  A sinister feature of the Whitlam Governments' plans is its legislative programme to alter the electoral system to perpetuate itself in power.  Features of this programme are -  1. Electorates are to he made equal in population, not in numbers of voters. With Labor electorates containing more children, this gives the adult vote in a Labor electorate far more value than a Liberal or Country Party vote.  2. The present ballot system is to be altered to first past the post or optional preferential. Either change gives substantial advantages to the Labor Party.  3. As part of the Labor plan to discourage or destroy small parties, large scale increases in candidates' deposits, and percentages necessary for the return of deposits are to be introduced. Yet, it is only a few years since they were previously increased. The DLP firmly supports the only just system preferential voting and proportional representation.  THE MEDIA.  The media can make or mar the election. It could be a British style election with not only major but also minority opinions represented, or an American Presidential style election - Whitlam v. Fraser. That was the style in 1972 and 1974, which were both media disasters. The DLP in 1972 and 1974 were censored from the election debate. We had five Senators and were the decisive force in the Senate, yet with most of the media we did not exist! If only we could get the coverage given to the Communist Party - the Mundey's, Gallagher’s, Halfpenny's and Carmichael’s. The DLP hopes the call for a fair go in the election will not be confined to Mr. Whitlam; minority views deserve a fair go too!  THE NEXT ELECTION.  This election will not be the decisive one for Australia; the decisive election will be the one after it. If Fraser wins, as we believe he will, everything will depend on his ability to do a good job. Already union elements are declaring that there will be no co-operation with a Fraser government and that the unions will bring him down. Their  belief is that Australia will then turn back to and give it the power in both Houses to implement Socialism. That is why whatever the result on December 13, the DLP will continue. Already we have created a record. No other small party in Australian history has lasted 21 years. The pressures favouring the major parties are too great. To those who sneer at the DLP’s performance. We point out that if someone opened a shop between Coles and Woolworth's and in competition with them, the fact that he failed to put both out of business would not mean that he was a poor businessman or sold a poor type of article. The DLP does not resent those who examine our arguments; we do resent those who ignore our arguments and attack us. We will still be there when the real crisis comes in the next five years! PM delivers Liberal Party policy speech.  This is the text of the liberal’s party policy speech delivered by the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, in Melbourne last night.  The Australian people face a historic decision on December 13. On that day we will be deciding the future of our country. Let us all as Australians determine to restore prosperity, defeat inflation and provide jobs for all. Let us all Australians decide to reward initiative and encourage achievement. Let us decide to realize at last the aspirations of all Australians for security, self-respect and for freedom to control our own lives. This election results from the dishonesty and incompetence of the @ Labor Government. This election has been caused by the dismissal of two acting Prime Ministers for deceiving the Parliament. This election has been caused by a Prime Minister who refused to face the people who tried to rule without Parliament, who defied a fundamental principle of our Constitution and who finally forced the governor-general to dismiss him, the man who took Australia the first significant step on the road to dictatorship. This election is about the way Labor has been destroying our way of life. We @ the election so you could choose the way of life you want. The Liberal and National Country Parties have prepared a far-reaching program to restore prosperity and to give effect to our philosophy of freedom, opportunity and concern for individual. Australia needs change. Australia needs reform. Australia needs idealism. Australia does not need socialism. Together in freedom we can build an Australia of which we can be proud, an Australia for our children and our grandchildren. We can have idealism, we can have reform without handing control over our lives to politician and civil servants. For three dark years our freedom, our prosperity, the self-respect of many Australians have been eroded by the highest taxes in our history, more and more inflation, more and more unemployment, more and more power to Canberra, more and more dependence on government, more and more regulations, more forms, more controls, more bureaucracy. In the last two years Labor spent 56.500 million more than it raised. Australia needs an immediate change of direction. What can be done immediately and must be done is to establish for the first time in three years sound and honest management of Australian’s affairs. We have a comprehensive strategy to restore prosperity. The major element in this strategy is to bring about growth in production in the private sector. Last year we actually produced less than in the year before. Australia’s growth under Labor has been half the rate of the previous 10 years. As a nation we are operating well below capacity. We can attack the deficit by getting our economy working up to capacity. Because of the slack caused by Labor, there are great opportunities for growth above the long-term average growth if the right policies are adopted. More investments will lead to jobs, both will lead to more revenue. That will be a significant factor in reducing the deficit. To enable economic growth in the private sector we will take a number of steps. There will be an end to Government extravagances and excesses. There will be no international safaris by members of Parliament. The purpose and nature of overseas trips will be subject in clear @. Australia does not need a tourist as Prime Minister.  End to excesses.  There will be no more jobs for the boys. Economies can and will be made in Government spending without disrupting essential programs, or programs for which contracts have already been let. On December 14 we will start the most rigorous planning for the 1976 Budget. We as a Government will be concerned that you will get value for the dollars we spend on your behalf. Spending on essential education, health and welfare programs will be protected against inflation. At the same time, great many improvements in administrative efficiency can and will be made. These actions will give the private sector room to start expanding production and providing jobs. Over the next three years, we will introduce a number of major reforms to direct resources away from Government and back into the hands of @@@@. We can then work @ way out of Labor’s deficit. Getting rid of extravagances will make its own contribution to reducing the deficit. In addition a growth rate of 6 or 7 per cent, quite feasible in recovering from the slack under Labor, would enable us to halve the deficit. It won’t happen unless policies for growth are adopted immediately. Our strategy to promote growth is clear. We will reward personal initiative. We will encourage achievement, we will mobilize the imagination and the resources of the Australian people. The great strength, the real wealth of Australia is the creative energies of its people. We will encourage people’s initiative and enterprise, not batter them into the ground with punishing taxes. We have got to give a high priority to encouraging private enterprise to start building factories, buying machines, and providing jobs. Unless we do that we will never work our way out of inflation and provide jobs. We will work positively in co-operation with trade unionists. An increase in Australian’s wealth is the only way Australia can do more for the disadvantaged. It is time to give Australia freedom and prosperity. It is time to get rid of Labor’s socialism. It is time to get Australia moving again. There are many reforms we want to introduce. Some can and must be introduced immediately. These reforms will not be a charge on the revenue this year. Other essential reforms will be introduced as soon as possible as and when the money is available. The speed with which we can introduce these reforms depends largely on the success of our efforts to rein in the mad extravagances of governmental expenditure.  Tax reforms.  One of the most significant contributions to prosperity will be our personal income-tax reform. We will reduce the tax burden. We will put an end to Labor’s tax rip off. We will make a start towards this and next year’s Budget. We will fully index personal-income tax for inflation over three years. This reform will reduce the pressures for excessive wage demands. It will support wage indexation. It will make Government more honest with your money. They will no longer be able to rely on the secret tax increase of inflation. This tax reform has been recommended by an expert committee and fully supported by the ACTU. Looking to the future we shall introduce a new and improved home savings grant to assist first homebuyers bridge the deposit gap. The new scheme will be available to people of any age, single persons, rural homebuyers and new settlers. Future savings from January 1. 1976 will be eligible.  The grant will be $1 for 53 savings with the grant being a maximum of $2000 saved over three years. As economic circumstances allow, there are a number of other reforms we will introduce. They are all important, they are all urgent but the problems of overcoming inflation and unemployment are pre-eminent. The single-income family has special problems, which will be taken into account in our tax reform. For single-parent families or families where one parent is an invalid, we will introduce a special child-care @. Where an estate or part of it passes between a husband and wife estate duty will also be changed to give an increased tax exemption. We will remove the injustice from Labor’s tax scales. They promised it was a great reform but they are still taking 52.600 million more from you can than they did last year. What kind of reform is that? We will not penalize people who want to do things for themselves. The real value of pensions will be preserved. We will be generous to those who can’t get a job and want to work. We will not use the earnings of Australia’s families to finance Gold Coast holidays for those who don’t want to work. Our reforms will give back to people money they earn by their own hard work and which Labor has taken away from them. We will also introduce a number of new measures to expand investment, create jobs and increase revenue measures, which are essential, if we are to get rid of the deficit. We will introduce a 40 per cent investment allowance as well accelerated depreciation allowances from January 1, 1976. The investment allowance will be available for leased as well as purchased equipment. Conditions attached to convertible secured debentures will be relaxed from January 1, 1976 to encourage business expansion. Quarterly tax collections of company tax will be suspended for the period of the present crisis. We will give Australian industry the protection it needs. We will instruct the Industries Assistance Commission to take note of the Government’s policy. We will make Australian’s industry competitive again. We will examine the mass of Labor-imposed rules and regulations and abandon those, which damage prosperity. Management ought to be used for forward planning, not filling in forms for the Government.  Abolish tribunal.  We will abolish the Prices Justification Tribunal. It has presided over the worst inflation in our history. It has damaged jobs. We will work within the ambit of the restrictive practice machinery to see that we have fair prices by competition, not bureaucracy. We need to understand that profits are necessary for investment and investment is necessary for jobs. Profits will no longer be a dirty word. In the next Budget we will make the first major move towards adoption of the stock valuation provisions of the Mathew’s Report. We will introduce the report in full over three years. Small business and private companies in particular are in desperate straits. In our first Budget we will change the tax rules which operate unfairly against small business and private companies. Those measures will provide the bases of the 1976 Budget. Unless these reforms are made, private enterprise will not survive. A Government, which understands and can manage the Australian’s economy, is essential to Australian prosperity and to the revival of business confidence. Unless confidence in private enterprise revives, Australia quite literally faces economic disaster, there will never be enough jobs. The ALP has lost the confidence of private enterprise. It will never recover that confidence. Only under a Liberal national Country Party Government will there be a return to business confidence. Only under a Liberal Country Party Government will there be jobs for all those who wanted to work. Prices and wage restraint is an essential element in our strategy for prosperity and employment. Because of our acceptance of the Mathew’s Report on individual and company taxation, a report endorsed by the trade-union movement, we have an opportunity to achieve wage restraint not open to our opponents. This will give the Arbitration Commission much greater opportunity to maintain its guidelines for wage indexation. Our reforms will maintain the purchasing power of wages and ease the pressure for excessive wage demands. An improvement in industrial relations is fundamental to prosperity. Labor’s policies have produced the worst industrial strife in our history. Under Labor workers have lost $256 million in unpaid wages, an all-time record for Australia. Labor’s claim to a special relationship with the trade-union movement is a myth. We have had three years of record industrial conflict. We must start working together as a people. Our policy is directed towards preventing industrial disputes, but inevitably some will occur. We will establish fair and just machinery to deal with them, machinery, which will protect the long- suffering public.  Secret Ballots.  We will take action to prevent militant union leaders dictating to their rank and file members. We will stop dictation to the Australian government by these same few leaders. We are going to give the Australian worker the opportunity to control his own union. Office bearers of all trade unions and of all employer organizations registered under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act will be elected under electoral office supervision by secret ballot. Australia’s prosperity was dealt a devastating blow by labor’s obstruction of new minerals and energy developments. Under Labor no new development has been started. We will welcome overseas investment, but on terms that serve Australia’s needs and interests and preserve Australian identity and Australian control. Our guidelines have been published. This will provide more wealth, more revenue, more opportunities and more jobs for Australians. The prosperity of all Australians has been damaged by Labor’s attack on the rural community. Labor has created the worst rural crisis in our history. We will redress this situation. We will give the rural community the confidence and certainty it so desperately needs. We will initiate the farm income reserve fund. We will establish a rural bank for long-term finance. As recommended by the AIC the super-phosphate bounty will be re-established and assistance will be provided to the depressed beef industry. We will continue the reserve price scheme for wool at not less than 250c a kilogram through the 1976-77 season. These will give long-term confidence to the industry. We will ease eligibility provisions for unemployment assistance to farmers. Australia’s prosperity has been further damaged by Labor’s attempts to destroy the States and centralize total political power in one House of parliament. We will provide a sound basis of financial independence and responsibility for the |States and local governments with the most significant reform of the Federal system since Federation. State and local government have hailed our policy around Australia. The States and local government will each be given a guaranteed proportion of income tax revenue. On top of this the small States and poorer local areas will have equalization guarantees so the equity will be preserved. States will be given a greater flexibility in raising their own revenues. Local governments under this plan will receive more funds than at present, they will be more secure than funds received from the Grants Commission. They will be funds that can be spent independently of Canberra’s whims. We will establish an independent council for inter-government relations, designed to resolve problems between the levels of government. Once our reforms have been introduced State and local governments responsible to their electors will have a genuine control of their own affairs. This will be of great help to the local government areas in the new and expanding areas of the outer suburbs. The policy disasters of the past three years have damaged hundreds of thousands of Australians. The weak, the poor, the unorganized, the people wanting to buy homes, the under privileged and the disadvantaged, Labor has fobbed them off with words instead of real assistance. Education planning, scientific and medical research has all been thrown into chaos by Labor’s incompetence and false priorities. Because of the damage done to the economy, long-term planning has been destroyed. Labor’s inflation has harmed the poor of all. Its emphasis on huge bureaucratic welfare schemes failed to provide help for those most in need.  Welfare inquiry.  The total expenditure on welfare last year was 55.700 million. 58.000 for every person below the poverty line. We will have a rigorous examination of social welfare machinery to ensure that those in need actually get the money. We will ensure that there is a basic level of security below, which no one can involuntary fall. We will help the disadvantaged in ways leaving them the greatest scope independence. We will move towards replacing means tests with an income test, with a view to not penalizing those who have saved. This reform will not diminish the benefits any person now gets. This will enable us to eliminate red tape and to greatly simplify the number of types of application forms, which now cause confusion and hardship and add greatly to administrative costs. These benefits will be protected against inflation. We stand by our commitment to abolish the means test on pensions. We will maintain Medibank and ensure that the standard of health care does not decline. In education we will ensure that all Australians have access at primary and secondary levels to schooling, which provides equal opportunity for personal achievement. Particular stress will be placed on meeting the needs of the disadvantaged including handicapped, insolated migrant and Aboriginal children.  Triennial funding.  As the economy comes under control we will restore triennial funding on the recommendations of the education commissions and maintain free tertiary education. We will retain the tertiary education assistance scheme, which we introduced. We will provide a basic grant for children at all schools including non-government schools and ensure that where children are in greater need because of educational disadvantage they receive extra financial support. A Liberal National Country Party Government will initiate a new deal for migrants. A Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs will be established. Adequate bilingual staff will be made available at Government departments and public hospitals. The transmission and perpetuation of ethnic languages and culture in Australia and ethnic schools will be encouraged and supported. Measures will be taken to assist migrants to overcome the language barrier. Aboriginal affairs under Labor have been a disaster, which even they admit. We will maintain present levels of assistance to Aborigines, enable Aborigines to be self-reliant, introduce land rights legalization for the Northern Territory based on justice for all. There are many areas, which need our attention. We have already published over the past few months a comprehensive range of polices that time does not permit @ to outline tonight. We shall ensure that no person is denied legal aid because of lack of means. We will continue urban programs. We are the people who can work with State and local government to overcome the problems caused by rapid growth in the cities and in new expanding suburbs. We will maintain an active interest and support for the creative and performing arts. We will encourage young artists. We will work to achieve a responsible balance between conservation of the environment and economic growth. We shall immediately ask the Law Reform |Commission to recommend appropriate laws to protect individual privacy. Our general attitude on defense is well known. We will not, like Labor antagonize our allies, we will not, like Labor, run down our defenses. We will not give your money to African terrorists. We will reverse the recognition of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States. We will maintain close ties with countries in our region and countries with which we have clear philosophical commitments in common. Australia has been sliding downhill for three years. On December 13 we can turn on the lights. We must change direction. On December 13 we can start helping all those people who have been harmed by Labor. We have heard about a fair go for Labor A fair go for the most hopeless Government in our history? A fair go for the party that created the first depression for 40 years? A fair go for the party whose leaders, one after the other, deceived the Parliament? A fair go for a man who had to be sacked because he was prepared to damage the nation rather than face the people? They’ve had a fair go. What about a fair go for Australia? The hour is on us when we must act to save our freedom, our prosperity, our self-respect. The hour is on us when we must act to save Australia and our way of life. On December 13, vote for honesty. Vote for prosperity. Vote for the liberal and National Country parties. Vote for Australia. Rural discrimination to end. Anthony outlines policies of NCP in Brisbane speech  The following extracts from the policy speech of the leader of the National Country party, Mr Anthony, in Brisbane last night cover the main points of his address. The great goal of this election is to put Australia back on its feet. To restore good management. To repair a damaged nation. To put men and women back to work. To fight inflation. To remove stagnation. To rebuild confidence. To revive national growth. The people of this nation have seen their dollar devalued, their money watered down, till its almost counterfeit. Today you need $1,43 to buy what a dollar would get you in 1972. That’s what Labor’s failure to check inflation has done to every dollar you save. What is inflation? It’s prices rising as much under Labor as they did in the 15 years before Labor. It’s stamps under Labor in three years going from seven cents to 18 cents. It’s the cost of a home under Labor rising 70 or 80 per cent, or doubling under Labor of the cost of borrowing money for a home. It’s a loaf of bread under Labor going from 27 cents to 45 cents. This inflation, this watering down of your income, this destruction of our savings, lies at the heart of Labor’s betrayal. Yet Labor’s only theme in this election is a so-called ‘threat to the democracy’. Democracy is still safe, because it’s in your hands. If there is to be a threat to democracy, it will come when a Prime Minister defies Parliament. When a Prime Minister rubbishes the Governor-General. When Prime Minister sets out to smash the Parliament’s power. When a failed, corrupt government cannot be required to account to the people. These are the threats to democracy. Yet Mr Whitlam weeps crocodile tears for it, while he stands knee-deep in the wreckage of policies. The real lawlessness in government. Economic lawlessness.  Spending doubled, Yet while Mr Whitlam laments his self-imposed fate, we head for 400.000 unemployed. We're on the way to 20 per cent inflation and worse. We are running up a national debt of $6000 million under Labor. Under a Labor Government, spending has doubled. Nothing, not the sacking of a Prime Minister, not the defiance of a Parliament, not the votes of a Senate -raises the threat to democracy, to stability, to our enjoyment of life, that's raised by inflation. Inflation is a poison that can make our society sick, paralyse our wills and destroy the capacity of government to govern. These policies must change. There are things we can no longer afford. We can't afford more pay for less work. Welfare with the price tags torn off. Idleness and cheating at other’s expense. We can’t afford the cost of socialism with its crippling, disabling inflation and its massive bureaucracy. We can’t afford to destroy the hopes, of our youth by educating them, then denying them expression. By failing to give them the chance of worthwhile satisfying work; of useful, fulfilling lives. Labor's destruction of your economic security is the great issue of this election. The Australia built by the free enterprise of its people is under threat. That prosperous productive Australia has been reduced by Labor to m inflation-ridden, debt-burdened country. A once fully employed community suffers unemployment on a scale not seen for 40 years, with worse to come. Expansion has given way to stagnation. Industries have been sapped of their productiveness and robbed of their profitability. Business, large and small, have been driven to the wall. As they have faltered, jobs have been destroyed.  Working time lost. Industrial trouble has grown worse under Labor, as it always does. Working time lost? The same in three years under Labor as in six years under us. Extravagance, things we couldn’t afford, have brought massive spending, crippling taxes and worse inflation. And all this under a government whose leader said in April last year, "Full employment has been restored. Business activity is at its highest for a decade. Company profits are at record levels. Business expectations are at an all-time high. We want to put more money back into your hands. We want to put an end to government profit-taking from inflation. We want you to put your own money to work. We want industry to move again, to produce again, to employ again. Under a Liberal-National Country Party Government, pensions will continue to improve. Student aid will be maintained. Better economic management will enhance the value of both. A Liberal-National Country Party Government will establish a National Rural Bank to provide capital for land, to finance development, machinery and stock, to refinance debts. We will reduce the disadvantage of fluctuating income with a farm income reserve fund. We will review the impact of probate and the need for taxation measures to encourage good land use and conservation of soil, water and fodder. We will maintain a range of reconstruction schemes. We will examine ways of extending unemployment benefits to farmers without incomes, to end the discrimination they suffer. We will seek improved operations of research programs and seek to encourage more diversification in land use. We will pursue the establishment of a maximum security laboratory and quarantine station to guard the nation’s livestock. We will implement the industries Assistance Commission’s recommendations on the eradication of diseases. We will seek to broaden Australia’s agricultural marketing efforts.  We will bring back the bounty on super-phosphate, as recommended by the IAC, and we will go into the whole question of Australia's need for fertilisers. We will maintain the bounty of nitrogenous fertiliser at least to the end of next year, while the matter is studied in the light of the IAC report. We will look for ways, through extension of reconstruction schemes, to facilitate the entry of younger men into farming. We will maintain the support price for wool for the current season and confer with the industry on the level for next season. We will maintain adequate support for the Wool Corporation and have early discussion on the marketing report. For Australia’s stricken beef industry, we will immediately introduce the recommendations of the IAC on short-term help. We will suspend the export levy, extend credit facilities and provide household support for non-viable producers, working with the States. We will urgently examine the imminent IAC report on diarying. We are deeply concerned about the industry’s market position. We will seek an adequate price eqaulisation scheme and hold urgent talks with State Governments in an effort to maintain stability in the market.  Reports by IAC. We will ask the wheat industry and State Governments to discuss stabilisation. We will maintain the apple and pear stabilisation scheme and extend it as recommended by the IAC, We will examine the inquitable operation of the levy. We will urgently examine the problems of the canned fruits industry in the light of forthcoming IAC report. We will extend the dried vine fruits stabilisation scheme for 12 month as recommended by the IAC. We will encourage farm and private forestry. We will facilitate the purchase of more modern fishing vessels through provision of long-term finance. We will ask the IAC to consider extension of the shipbuilding subsidy. We will establish a fisheries reconstruction scheme similar to those in agriculture. In the new international climate, we will support extension of the fishing zone to 200 mills. Labor's destruction of mining must be redressed. Under Labor, not a single major project has been started, in a country rich in minerals. We will end this stagnation by creating a climate to encourage exploration, to stimulate development. We will establish a National Energy Council to determine energy reserves, forecast energy use am costs, promote more economical use of energy and encourage research into alternative energy sources, including solar energy. The tragic destruction of small business must end. The neglected yet vital area must be helped to remain a major source of jobs and a basic element of free enterprise. We will look to the capital needs of small business, to its taxation burden to its information needs.  Regional growth. The unhealthy problems of national growth must be checked. We are committed to policies to restrain urban growth and foster regional growth. We take the view that the needs and the feelings of the people must come first in our actions. Our capacity to meet the nation's vital transport needs has been seriously affected by rising costs. The people of Australia are entitled to transport that efficiently meets their freight and personal needs. We will seek to provide it - but no nation can afford the transport it wants if inflation is not controlled. You have a right to adequate communications at reasonable cost. The community has been shocked by inflation’s impact on charges for basic services. This trend must be resisted before the right to post a letter, to make a phone call, is turned into a burden. In the interests of the nation, we must have a healthier relationship amongst the people, the government and the unions. We want to see more democracy in the unions. We want less dictation by communist officials. We want more say for the rank and file. The secret ballot in union elections is the way to get it. Mr Whitlam said he should govern for three years. Should an incompetent government have three years. Should a dishonest government have three years? Should a corrupt government have three years?? Should a prime minister accused of ... have three years? Should a man who said he’d smash the senate have three years? It’s time to stem the socialist tide. It’s time to return to integrity. It’s time to sweep out the Whitlam wreckage. It’s ....  Whitlam hits coalition's pension policy.  CANBERRA. Wednesday. The former Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam, claimed today that the real value of pensions would be reduced under a Liberal National country Party Government. He said the reduction would result from the commitment by the Minister for Social Security, Mr Chipp, to tie pensions to the cost-of-living index. If pension were tied solely to the cost of living they would not increase in real terms in relation to the rest of the community, he said. Pensioners would be left behind as the nation's prosperity increased. Mr Whitlam said Labor’s policy of tying pensions to average weekly earnings - a policy adopted in the last three years, was the only way to give pensioners a decent standard of living. Under the last Liberal Budget, pensions were worth 19 per cent of average weekly earnings, Whitlam said. In 1972, Labor promised to raise pensions to 25 per cent of average earnings. This was achieved for the first time by the Hayden Budget. Under Labor, pensions had risen by 80 per cent, but would have risen by only half that amount if they had been tied to the cost of living. Mr Chipp’s promise to make the Liberal adjustments automatic means nothing if the increases themselves are inadequate, Mr Whitlam said. What Mr Chipp is really promising is that the Liberals will tie pensioners to a cost-of-living figure and then forget about them while the rest of the community is free to seek genuine gains in the living standards. Pensioners must look very carefully at the phony Liberal offer and remember the Liberals record of meanness when they were in office. Mr Chipp has committed the coalition to increasing pensions automatically twice a year based on the cost of living. He said on Monday that this would take pension increases out of the hands of politicians, meaning increases would apply without legislation having to be passed by Parliament. He has said that the coalition will not reduce the rate of increases that Labor has said it will implement.  Labour protest delays $10m benefits – Chipp.  CANBERRA, Wednesday. - The payment of $10m in increased benefits to pensioner patients in nursing homes is being delayed because of a complaint to the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, against the Minister for Social Security, Mr Chipp. The complaint was lodged last week by the former Minister for Social Security, Senator Wheeldon, after Federal Cabinet had decided to implement the increased rates by regulation because legislation providing for them had lapsed with the dissolution of Parliament. Senator Wheeldon claimed the decision meant a breach of the conditions under which the caretaker Government was appointed. The use of regulations would mean that Labor's policy of making the benefits equal in all States would not be implemented. Mr Chipp said today, that because of Senator Wheeldon’s action, the decision could not be considered by the Executive Council until the complaint had been investigated. He said he was shocked and dismayed by Senator Wheeldon's "callous" attitudes. Is the senator saying that the $10 million immediate relief - averaging $9.45 a week to each nursing home patient - should not be paid?" he asked. He does not seem to care that he hurts thousand of pensioners in nursing homes in the process. Mr Chipp said nursing home benefits had not been increased since October, 1974, despite cost rises. Senator Wheeldon said later than Mr Chipp's statement was a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth. Mr Chipp had deliberately avoided the issues. These were: Mr Chipp and the caretaker Government took a deliberate decision to change policy and this was clearly outside their undertaking to the Governor-General. The changes in the rate of payment proposed by Mr Chipp would reduce the benefits available to ordinary care nursing home patients in NSW and western Australia. Intensive care patients in nursing homes in all States would receive less than was proposed under the Labor Government's National Health (Nursing Homes) Bill 1975.  Where action by they’ll be union.  The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in the caretaker Government, will open the Liberal Party's election campaign in Melbourne tonight. The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Anthony, will be speaking in support of local candidates at a noon meeting in Rockhampton and an evening rally in Darwin. The former Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam, has two campaign engagements - a lunchtime rally in Brisbane and a night meeting in Melbourne. A NSW trade-union has placed its staff and offices out of bounds to representatives of the Daily Mirror newspaper. The committee of management of the NSW division of the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen took the action in protest at what it felt was biased and prejudiced coverage of the ALP election campaign. The president, Mr Joe Booth, said the union did not have a quarrel with the reporters on the paper, just with the management.  Ad attacks former Liberal PM.  CANBERRA, Wednesday. The Liberal Party has attacked a former Liberal Prime  Minister, Mr Gorton, in an advertisement in a Canberra newspaper today. Mr Gorton who resigned from Liberal party recently, is contesting the December 13 election as an independent Senate candidate in the ACT. This morning’s advertisement reproduces a letter he sent to constituent, Miss Helen Sage, of East Malvern Victoria, in October last year. The letter reads, in part: i like you, have never been so pessimistic about Australia’s future, except for two things. The first is that we do have the Senate and I hope that will be a bulwark for us to prevent the worst things that the Labor Government might do. The second is that I do not see how the present Government can go on the way they are doing, without precipitating an election well before the due time. So just, with me, keep your fingers crossed and hope, the letter reads. The advertisement asks: Do you remember writing this letter Mr Gorton? It adds: Now you say you support Labor: now you say, the Senate should not use its powers, now you say an early election is wrong. Why have you suddenly changed your mind, Mr Gorton? How can we believe you? Mr Ian Hardy, who authorised the advertisement and others for the Liberal Party, denied tonight that the advertisement was part of a personal campaign against Mr Gorton. It was a letter that was forwarded to us, we had permission to use it, and we thought it showed Mr Gorton in his true colours, Mr Hardy said. In Melbourne, Miss Sage refused to say whether she had sent the letter to the party, of which she is a member. I’m in Mr Gorton's electorate. I put him in as a Liberal, she said. She had written to him again last week, sending him a copy of the original letter and saying that he had hit her below the belt. Mr. Gorton issued a statement today saying it was dangerous for the Liberal Party to regurgitate past quote of politicians in an effort to discredit them.  Gorton clarifies his support for Labor.  CANBERRA, Wednesday. – The former Liberal Prime Minister, Mr. Gorton, re-affirmed his view today that Labor should be supported in the December 13 election. But it did not mean he would support a Labor Government, he said. Mr. Gorton said his statement of November 12, that he was supporting the return of a Labor Government, was a matter of principle. It was not a decision taken lightly, he said. When this crisis is over it is very possible that I will again support the election of a Liberal Government, that is a liberal majority in the House of Representatives with a Senate controlled by clear thinking, true independents. Mr. Gorton is standing as an independent candidate for one of the two new Senate seats in the ACT. The Liberal Movement is advising its members to support him, but has dissociated itself from his view that Labor should he returned to office. Mr. Gorton also has lost his co-candidate on the ACT independent Senate ticket, Mr. Harold Hird, who disassociated himself from Mr. Gorton after only a week. They joined forces last Wednesday to avoid balloting for places on the ACT Senate paper, but said they would not campaign together. Mr. Gorton said that he was surprised and disappointed by Mr. Hird’s action. Mr Hird had approached him to form a joint ticket and it had been Mr. Hird who had decided to end the association.  PS wants guidelines.  CANBERRA. Wednesday. A meeting of public servants decided today to ask the Governor-General, Mr. John Kerr, to set out in clear terms guidelines for the Public Service under the Fraser Administration. The meeting also decided to ask Sir John to outline avenues for redress if public servants were asked to pursue courses inconsistent with the undertaking of the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser. The meeting was attended by about 200 public servants, but only about 100 remained when the requests were adopted unanimously. It had been called by the ad-hoc committee on Rights and Duties of Public Servants. The resolution adopted suggested also that it would be ... that the avenues and powers of redress be independent of the appointed government. It requested Public Service ... and the next parliament to consider appointing a Public Service ombudsman to consider alleged breaches of guidelines for caretaker governments, the propriety of any request or direction to public servants by the minister or his delegates.  Appeal over bomb. CANBERRA, Wednesday. – The Commissioner for Community Relations, Mr Al Grassby, appealed to all media today to stop the incipient racism in its coverage of the recent findings of letter bombs. He said a delegation of people in Melbourne had protested to him over published allegations that the letter bomber was a European migrant. They complained that a newspaper of national standing had published a report from a handwriting expert who had described the bomber foreigner . . . probably migrants ... Europe about 20 years ago ... socialist.. low intellect, Mr ... said. He said the delegation had ... the right of the expert ... his guesses. But that pointed out in the time of tension in Australia ... front-page prominence to a ... against three millions people was ... and dangerous, he said.