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.