Conscription is the major issue.  The Opposition Leader (Mr. Calwell), opening the Labor party's election campaign last night, said the most important issue was conscription and the threatened extension of conscription.  Speaking at St. Kilda town hall Mr. Calwell said: The most important issue in this campaign is conscription, the conscription of a section of our 20-year old youths against their wishes and their wills to kill or be killed in the undeclared civil war in Vietnam and the threatened extension of conscription to all 20 year-olds and other age groups to increase our unwarranted and unnecessary commitments. We can prevent all this happening by defeating the menace on next Saturday fortnight. The Menzies Government made the first blunder over Vietnam nearly two years ago. It blundered equally badly over Suez in 1958. The Holt Government is determined to increase the extent of the Vietnam blunder. So unimpressed are our men of military age, about the need to fight in the war in Vietnam, that none of them will volunteer. No one can deny this fact: not even our own bellicose Prime Minister. The Government, having failed to attract volunteers, has restored to conscription to maintain our army. It asks for our endorsement. I hope you will refuse it most emphatically. Conscription is immoral. It is unjust and it is a violation of human rights. It must and will be defeated. There are 600000 Australian mothers with sons between 15 and 20 years of age and many of these boys could be sent away to die or be wounded in the long, cruel, dirty war that is raging in Vietnam. I call on these 600000 mothers and their husbands and their other sons and daughters to tell Mr Holt that the lives of their eligible sons are too precious to be squandered by the man who has pledged this country to go all the way with LBJ. I doubt if any one of the governments senators and representatives who voted for conscription and that includes the splinter group duo, has a son fighting in Vietnam. It is so easy, therefore for all these anti-Labor members of Parliament to regard the lives of other people’s children as expendable and to dispose of them in any way they think fit and without remorse or regret. There is no difficulty in separating conscripts from members of the regular army and so we will act in consultation with the  American authorities, immediately we become the Government to withdraw all conscripts in Vietnam. Our first act as a Government will be to abolish conscription and give orders that all conscripts in camp in Australia shall be discharged forthwith. The remainder of our troops will be brought home at the earliest practicable moment after consultation with our allies and so as not to endanger the lives of any Australian or allied troops. While our troops are in Vietnam, we undertake to give them any support they might need. We will never let them down. As it is immoral to conscript our youths to die in Vietnam, so it will be immoral not to withdraw them when we become the Government. This we will do. The Labor views on Vietnam are supported by opinions expressed by the late President J.F Kennedy, and no other distinguished Americans like his two famous brothers Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy, and by Senators Fulbright and Mike Mansfield, and other outstanding senators. Speaking of defence generally, Mr Calwell said Australia must posses its own independent foreign policy and defence policy to enable it to honor United Nations and Commonwealth obligations and to carry out treaty obligations with other countries. Australia's dependence, for its defence, on other nations is due to the failure of the Menzies and Holt Government to develop Australia’s defence capacity to the full, he said. We are spending too much money on expensive sophisticated defence equipment, purchased overseas, the financial cost of which appears to rise beyond reason and beyond the control of the Government and with its value suspect. Labor policy provided for a voluntary defence force properly equipped and possessing modern weapons of war; being capable of great mobility within Australia and its own environs: having sufficient range and strike power to deter aggressors: being capable of use as part of United Nations forces for the maintenance of peace. We will raise Citizen Military Forces which can be rapidly mobilised in time of war. We will: promote the Australian aircraft Industry, use Australian shipyards to build and service naval and supply vessels, encourage the manufacture, in Australia, of modern, small, ordnance and mobile equipment, including light and medium armoured fighting vehicles. Encourage Australian manufacturers to tender for defence equipment, particularly in the field of electronics and to provide equipment manufactured by Australian industries. Mr. Calwell said Labor’s rural policy would be outlined by Mr Pollard, MP, at Inverell, in the Gwydir electorate tonight. In social services, we will provide the following increased benefits to cost $243 million, he said. We will: Establish a universal scheme of national welfare by grouping Age, invalid, widows, unemployment pensions and sickness benefits, to provide a guarantee that no citizen irrespective of dependants would have an income of less than $14 per week (an annual increase of $73 million). Provide a medical entitlement card for all persons of pensionable age, irrespective of income ($14 million). Provide half pension for all persons over 70 without a means test as a first step towards abolishing the means test ($72 million). Liberalise deductions on permissible income by deducting only $1 on every $2 earned above the permissible income for full pension entitlement ($20 million). Permit child endowment payments to be capitalised for home purchases. @. Increase payments for child endowment for the second and subsequent children ($52 million). Double existing maternity allowances ($7 million). Double funeral benefit rates ($2,5 million). Increase grants under the Aged Persons Homes Act to $3 for each $1 raised ($2 million). Labor Would conduct an inquiry into the needs of Australia’s mentally retarded children and help in every way all physically handicapped people to use their abilities so that they can earn a living wage, and also help the production of needed industrial equipment, Mr Calwell said. Labor supports a high basic minimum rate of aged pension for all pensioners whether married or single, plus additional special allowances for those with special needs, he said.  Repatriation  A Labor Government would establish joint parliamentary committee to review the repatriation Act and its administration. Labor would allow all World War I veterans to be treated in repartition hospitals whether their illnesses or disabilities were war caused or not. The Opposition had moved for such a scheme in Parliament, but it had been rejected by the government. Labor would give the benefit of the doubt to an ex-serviceman when medical opinion differed on the origin of his disability and would grant medical benefits to the wives of TPI pensioners. A Labor Government would make war on poverty in Australia to give a just share of all the opportunities in our affluent society to every citizen. We must make Australia a proud, contented and free country, Mr Calwell said.  Poverty war. Our war on poverty does not deal with statistics only, but it cares for our fellow Australian who are living, feeling, thinking people. The war on poverty must cover the needs the aged, the widowed, the sick, the handicapped, the mentally retarded and the medically unfit. Their standards must be raised to the level of the rest of the community. Today they are left to wither in ghettos of economic hardship. Our government will put an end to this unnecessary hardship. Our policy on education includes: the establishment of a Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. In 1961 and 1963, I promised that the Labor Party would establish a Ministry of education. This was strongly opposed by the then Prime Minister and his colleagues: the holding of an inquiry into all aspects of primary, secondary and technical education in government and non-government schools to determine the needs in order of priority of each system of education. The immediate adoption of the Martin Committee’s proposals for commonwealth assistance to teacher training so that a sufficient number of teachers will be trained annually for both government and non-government schools. A special grant of $20 million a year to help state departments of education to overcome the immediate crisis in government schools caused by accommodation shortages and the need to build and modernise their older schools in inner suburbs of capital cities. The continuation of existing benefits to non-government schools.  Teachers. The payment of $23 million a year to lay teachers in primary and secondary non-government schools on the basis of 60 cents a week for each child in each primary school and 80 cents a week for each child in each secondary school. We will use the committee set up by the science blocks legalisation to distribute the $23 million in the way chosen by such committees. In the matter of tertiary education we will implement the recommendation of the Australian University Commission. Mr Calwell said there was much public concern about the state of the arts in Australia. Labor would establish machinery to develop an national policy of aid to Australian arts and letters. A Labor Government would amend the income law tax to ensure that taxation was levied and deductions were allowed in a more equitable manner, to reduce discrimination in favour of foreign capital invested in Australia and to ensure a greater share of Australian ownership in industry conducted in Australia, to review existing double taxation agreements and to eliminate speculation in land and other assets.  Industries. The Australian Labor Party will district and regulate the extent to which control of Australian resources and industries is subject to overseas domination and to overseas use and exploitation. There are a number of types of activity which need immediate attention. These include: resources and industries necessary for rapid national development and essential for Australian defence and, in particular, resources and industries which provide power and fuel. National resources and established industries which have become or are likely to become subject to foreign control or undue influence. The promotion and encouragement of local processing of Australia’s national resources. Facilities which provide finance by capital and loan, including hire-purchase finance. Insurance and shipping services which can safeguard overseas reserves. The working of the tariff. Industries both locally owned and foreign owned where there are restrictive practices and monopoly control. Resources subject to development by the states, but were the states lack the ability to provide the finance necessary to secure development.  Underwrite. In order to secure co-ordinated development of natural resources, balanced development and adequate defence potential, the Labor government will underwrite the provision of adequate capital and will modernise existing administration to carry out any of these activities. Some of them involve corporation between the States and the Commonwealth, some invite the participation of private capital, some depend on the utilisation of overseas techniques, will some require better organisation of the local capital market in the public interest. Labor aims to develop a comprehensive national health service, both curative and preventive and available to all who desire to @ themselves of it. We believe that medical care is not only a basic human right, but also is in the economic interest of Australia. As part of its national health scheme, Labor will in the next three years, re-establish free hospital services. Further, Labor will provide for the modernisation of facilities for the treatment of mental disease and the training of specialist staff. The Australian Labor party will provide free dental @ for children, up to 16 years of age and for students up to 21 years as part of an ultimate national dental service. Labor will expand the activities of the Commonwealth @ Laboratory and Artificial @@ with a view to @ free to all individuals hearing @ @@ and medical and surgical @. My party will intensify the programme of research, especially in the @ of @@@@@ including the programs of environment. Labor will seek, in co-operation with the states to establish Australia-wide standards in drugs and food, and will cease the charge on the patient for drugs made available under the national health scheme.  Housing. Mr Calwell said in the field of housing Labor would provide adequate grants to the states to build homes at the lowest possible rate, for sale and rental and to provide subsidies for tenants or purchasers who, through bereavement or injury, could not meet a prescribed economical rental or payment. We will raise the maximum War Service Homes loan limit to $10000 and extend the purposes for which supplementary loans at made available at reasonable interests rates. We will establish a homes finance division of the Commonwealth bank, including @, inspection and insurance service, to provide finance at reasonable interests rates and up to 95 per cent of the value of the couples first home to a limit of $10000. We will restore the allocation for war service homes to $75 million and end the rationing scheme now being applied. We will reduce home mortgages by the amount of $200 for each child born during the period of the mortgage. As announced earlier in this speech, we will allow capitalisation of child endowment. This will be effected on any period of a child's life between one and 16 years of age, for any number of children in a family with a maximum advance of $2000.  Equal pay. The Labor government will honor Australia’s international obligations by ratifying all ILO conventions that are within our constitutional powers. We will introduce equal pay for work of equal value in the Commonwealth Public Service and its instrumentalities. We will grant four weeks annual leave for Commonwealth public servants. We will support this principle before industrial tribunals. We will consult with state governments as to the adoption of ILO equal pay decisions. We will establish a women’s bureau section of the Department of Labor and National Service. The will take action to @ the panel provisions of sections 100 and 111 of the Commonwealth Arbitration Act. We will establish a productivity index and a committee of review to prepare recommendations in an advisory capacity to the Commonwealth Statistician. We will intervene before the Arbitration Commission to support the ACTU in its application for an immediate restoration automatic quarterly basic-wage adjustments to the meet the increasing cost of living.  Apprentices. Labor will do everything possible to encourage the training of more apprentices to satisfy the needs of Australian industry. Labor will amend the Commonwealth Employees Compensation Act with a view to removing existing injustices, securing adequate entitlements for injured and disabled workers and providing satisfactory machinery for the hearing of claims. The Labor party was conscious of the chancing scene in the employment of white collar workers. This important section of the community is entitled to wage and salary justice, Mr Calwell said. A Labor government will take an active interest in the welfare of its own Commonwealth employees and intervene wherever possible to make submissions on their behalf and on behalf on all white-collar workers up to the level of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. Labor will create a section of the Department of Labor and National Service as a permanent organisation to deal with the effects of automation and mechanisation. Labor will set up a joint organisation comprising government, ACTU and employer representatives for the purpose of continuing joint consultation and planned introduction of automation for the transition to the era of the new technology.  Price control. On @ government, the Labor party will hold a referendum at which @ people will be asked to give the Commonwealth Parliament control over prices and interest rates. The people themselves will decide if the federal parliament is to have power to pass laws in respect of two of the most vital factors affecting the economy. In seeking these powers a Labor government will not set up a bureaucracy or introduce wholesale rationing. It will give justice to wage and salary earners, to pensioners, to those on superannuation and fixed incomes. The Liberal Country Party Government controls wages and nothing else, it permits @ to continue their alarming spiral. The Holt Government has used the political @ of depriving the states of sufficient money and forcing them to make the unpopular decisions. The states have had to enforce severe tax raising @. While the federal government denies any responsibility, fares, gas and electricity charges and hospital fees have soared. Hand in hand with control of prices, goes the need for a complete readjustment of relationships between the states and the Commonwealth. Under the existing arrangement, the states are being forced to introduce higher charges for essential services and these charges hit hardest the pockets of the poorer sections of the community. These are the people who are paying the price of the Liberal government’s mismanagement of the economy; these are the people Labor government will protect.  Development. On national development he said: The Australian Labor Party declares that the balanced development of this nation must be accepted as a national responsibility because it is necessary for the effective occupation of this continent. Sound economic growth must be based on the wise use of our natural resources. The Labor Party undertakes to proceed with a vigorous developmental programme to build economic strength with rising living standards. A new exciting phase of national development in processing our raw materials will make valuable contribution to our defence potentials. Develop to defend of a slogan for the nation. Public enterprise has a particular obligation to do those things which private enterprise is not doing adequately or is not doing at all. Commonwealth- state co-operation is essential to a broad programme of development and where found desirable, the Commonwealth should join with the state and private enterprise in the promotion of industry for our economic growth and self sufficiency. A national conservational authority will be established to incorporate the highly skilled technical officers, engineers and scientists of the Snowy Mountains Authority to undertake, in association with the states a national plan of water, land and forest development. North-western Australia, the Northern Territory and North Queensland are areas urgently in need of development. In Australia, the driest continent in the world, about three-fourths of the surface water is in the Northern part of Australia: 36 per cent of Australia’s water run-off is in north Queensland. The loss of these run-off into the sea is the tragedy of the tropics.  Forests. The Commonwealth, in co-operation with the states will accept a more responsible role in a programme of reforestation. Encouragement will be given to local authorities and landowners to plant forests. The Bureau of mineral resources will be more directly under the control of the minister for national development and will placed on a similar organisational basis as the CSIRO. Concern is expressed with the present exploitation of our mineral resources. Effective control will be exercised to protect Australia’s interests and equity in companies holding mineral leases. As population growth is related to industrial expansion, Labor will give a high priority to processing our extensive mineral resources and will promote our manufacturing industries. A more vigorous search for minerals and phosphate rock will be undertaken and rewards will be given to prospectors for exploration work and successful search. Labor will establish a division of the Department of National Development to implement a national fuel policy. It will have regard to our national resources in coal, oil, natural gas, water and nuclear power. It will co-operate with the state government in establishing a Joint Fuel Board to discover, conserve, develop and market fuel and power resources, including atomic power and natural gas. Australia’s uneven population spread calls for immediate positive action. A division of decentralisation of industry will be established under the Minister for National Development. A Federal Government will convene a Ministerial meeting with the states to determine respective responsibilities and priorities in a national decentralisation programme in order to initiate a national programme of decentralisation, a Labor government will establish @ Development Fund, the capital of which will be @ by annual contributions from the Commonwealth.  Decentralise. Labor envisages the concentrated development of specific towns and regions by the infusion of selected industry, housing, public utilities and educational and social facilities and other services to a stage where growth is self-generating. Labor will seek to decentralise public enterprise and administration, where practical, and will also examine the constitutional possibility of offering incentives in taxation concessions and concessions in charges for the use of public utilities for industries being established or expanded in such centres. Country industries and consumers will be freed from the sales tax levied on the amount by which the cost of goods and products is increased by freight and other charges. Labor in government will take action to relieve country telephone users of the high cost of trunk-line telephone charges which discourage industrial expansion. Public enterprise and government departments will be established in country centres. The establishment of national parks and the protection of our distinctive flora and fauna is an objective of the Labor Party. A national programme in co-operation with the States would also aid our tourist industry. The Commonwealth Government has a role to play in the promotion of our fishing industry in remote coastal regions. Mr Calwell said a Labor government would help to provide the loan money to complete the Ord River scheme in Western Australia.  Ord scheme. The Western Australian government was encouraged to go ahead with stage one of the scheme but the Hold Government will not assist with stage two. The fact is that the success of stage one of the scheme (the division dam) depends upon the completion of stage two (the main dam). The Ord River scheme, more than anything else, reflects the basic drive and spirit of the WA people. It reflects their great to break away from the type of thinking which has caused culpable neglect of the vast northern areas of a state with significant agricultural, mineral and in some cases, industrial potential. The Ord River scheme, once started should have continued on to completion. The Prime minister, Mr Holt, says the Ord scheme is of a little value. I do not believe him. In any case, it is too late to judge the scheme on purely economic grounds. The Ord scheme should be regarded in a much wider concept. It should be looked on as part of a general scheme of development, and the development of the north should be a vital consideration in the defence of Australia. On transport, shipping, roads and civil aviation, Mr Calwell said: our government will re-establish the Inter-state commission to co-ordinate all types of inter-state transport in Australia including rail, road, air, water and regulate conditions of carriage.  Shipping. The commission was provided for in the Constitution. The Labor Party believes that the inter-state commission should be the authority to formulate a national programme so that all forms of transport can be co-ordinated. It is the only way to reduce our far to heavy transport costs. The Australian national shipping line must enter the overseas shipping trade to release Australia from the stranglehold of the international shipping monopoly. The Australian National Inc has achieved great success on the coastal trade. The line could complete in the overseas shipping trade at a modest profit. The serious increases in freight charges on overseas trade are adversely affecting our national economy. Rates on wool and refrigerated cargoes have risen by over 100 per cent, since 1949. The minister for Trade (Mr McEwen) said last charges on Australia’s exports and imports has climbed to a staggering $600 million a year. Labor’s policy provides for modern shipping services to be maintained by Australian built, owned and manned ships and for this purpose a Labor Government will expand the Commonwealth-owned shipping service. A Labor government will progressively construct, charter and operate sufficient ships to carry an equitable share of Australia’s exports and imports. A national inquiry will be held into wharfage, stevedoring facilities and future cargo handling requirements. Labor believes that the Commonwealth should construct and maintain adequate dry docking facilities. We will help to establish a shipbuilding industry in Tasmania.  Fuel tax. A Labor government will spend all the fuel tax paid by road users on the construction, improvement and maintenance of roads and will seek to achieve uniform traffic laws. Labor agrees that the question of road safety should become a national responsibility. A Labor government, in co-operation with the States, will make grants for the purpose of meeting the cost of research work into the causes of road @. A Labor government will hold an inquiry into the operation of air services with a view to the staggering of timetables and the rationalisation of services. We will maintain the two-airline policy and will administer the policy fairly. Referring to immigration, Mr Calwell said: A Labor government will support and uphold a vigorous and expanding immigration programme, administered with sympathy, understanding and tolerance. Our policy will be bases on the need: To strengthen and protect Australia’s national and economic security. To safeguard the welfare and promote the integration of all its citizens. To preserve our democratic systems and the balanced development of our nation and to avoid the introduction into Australia of the difficult social and economic problems which will follow from an influx of people having different standards of living, traditions and cultures. Australians are descended to a predominant degree, from people of English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh origin. That predominance should not be disturbed. The Labor party which formulated, inaugurated and built our great migration scheme, gives and always has given a warm welcome to migrants from other lands.  Assimilation. Labor believes that our policy of assimilation and absorption is the only sensible policy for Australia to pursue. It is determined to continue to oppose, for many obvious reasons, any attempt to create a multi-racial society in our midst. We can and do absorb migrants from Asia as well as from Europe, and we shall continue to do so, but a policy that, the tragedies of Ceylon, Fiji, Indonesia and Singapore- to give but a few instances – is one to be supported. It must have the support of all Australians, young and old and whether born in this country or not, who are mindful of their heritage and the need to maintain and improve their living standards and social conditions. Turning to Aboriginal affairs, he said: The Australian Labor party believes that the welfare of the Aboriginal people is a national responsibility and as such should be primarily a function of the Commonwealth parliament. Labor will hold a referendum to grant the Commonwealth parliament the necessary constitutional powers. Labor condemns the absence a national plan for Aboriginal advancement as being a chronic national disgrace, and will establish such a plan. Labor will develop the Northern Territory as a model for all Australians in respect of basic human rights, health, welfare, education, employment and housing for the Aboriginal people. Labor will wage a determined war on poverty and disease among the Aborigines and in particular, will seek to eliminate tuberculoses. Hansen’s disease and yaws within five years. Labor will give financial assistance to the States to assist progressive programmes for Aborigines and islanders. Labor will submit the proposed referenda to repeal the section 127 and amend section 51 of the constitution which the government appears to have abandoned.  N.G. role. The minister for territory in the next Labor government would bring down such additional legislation as may be necessary to help the people of Papua-New Guinea on the road to independence, he said. We will devote 1 per cent of Australia’s national income to foreign aid for under-developed countries. In conclusion, he said: and so I ask you to give us your mandate to do the things which I have promised we will do. We will not fail you. In the first 100 days after the 26th parliament meeting, under the leadership of another Labor government, we hope to be able to report to you and to point with pride to the legislation we have placed on the statute books in accordance with our promises. We believe that the realisation of these promises will contribute greatly to the peace, order and good government of Australia and the advancement of all its people. Let me conclude on the words of a great American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: were half the power that fills the world with terror. Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts. Given to redeem the mind from human error. There were no need of arsenals nor forts. For a safe and prosperous Australia.  The policy of the Democratic Labor Party for the federal elections.  November 26, 1966. delivered by Senator The Hon V.C. Gair. D.L.P.Parliamentary leader.  INTRODUCTION.  The D L.P. enters this election with expectations of a substantial increase. In its vote and its acceptance by the Australian voter as the Party with the right solutions to the major domestic and external problems facing this country. We have prepared a programme of policies which clearly distinguishes us from the DECEPTIVE LIBERAL COUNTRY PARTIES and the DANGEROUS A.L.P. This programme should find support amongst all sections of the community because it is constructive and forward-looking. Our major theme is the economic and social development of Australia, under the protective shield of adequate and realistic defences. WE ARE THE YOUNG PARTY FOR A YOUNG, GO-AHEAD AUSTRALIA. A country with exciting potential, with resources and initiative but also a country situated in a crisis area of the globe. That is why we have given top priority to the preparation of adequate defences and the associated need to assist our non-Communist Asian neighbours.  THE PARTIES.  Our Liberal opponents, under Mr. Holt, are expected to offer you plenty of woolly promises and high-minded intentions, but their record shows them to be SPEECH-MAKERS AND NOT DECISION-TAKERS. Our A.L.P. opponents are LEADERLESS AND CONFUSED, DANGEROUS to the future security of this country and HEAVILY INFLUENCED by un-elected and alien pro-Communist forces. THE D.L.P. IS YOUR REAL ALTERNATIVE IN THIS ELECTION and I am confident that thousands of former Liberal and A.L.P. voters will support us, on this occasion, because we have the policies and determination not found in our opponents.  THE A.L.P.  No fair-minded person can any longer deny that the D.L.P.'s case against the present-day A.L.P, has been fully established. In AUGUST, 1965, the New South Wales State President of the A.L.P., Mr. C. Oliver, said: "Half a dozen Communist-controlled unions are more effective at the Federal level than the N.S.W. A.L.P., which comprises half the Labor movement." In December 1965, the Federal Secretary of the A.L.P., Mr. C. Wyndham, indicated that the men who had beaten him in his attempt to reform the A.L.P. machine were "anti-American," "pro-Communist and "neutralist." In JUNE, 1966, Mr. Jordan, Secretary of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council, stated that he would find it hard to sit on the Victorian A.L.P. Executive with members who "voted here every Trades Hall Council night with members of the Communist Party." In AUGUST of this year Captain Benson was expelled from the A.L.P,, when the Federal Executive of that Party obediently bowed to a Communist demand to "get" Benson. There' are still good Australians in the A.L.P. But the good Australians don't control the A.L.P. They merely give a veneer of respectability to the pro-Communists who run the Party in the interests of their own ideology, and who are ruinously determined to smash Australia's American alliance.  AUSTRALIA'S PROBLEM.  Before I turn to discuss the D.L.P.'s specific policies I want to describe Australia's problem, as the D.L.P. sees it, and to describe the pattern of policy with which we confront that problem. Also, I will demonstrate why a vote for the D.L.P. will hasten the day when that programme can be put into effect.  SIR ROBERT MENZIES.  IN THE SIXTEEN YEARS IN WHICH HE GOVERNED THE COUNTRY SIR ROBERT MENZIES WAS WRONG ABOUT AUSTRALIA. When he left office Australia was defenceless and divided. The "Sydney Morning Herald" said of Sir Robert Menzies: "Sir Robert has made his alliance with the D.L.P. yield much more than their office-giving first preferences. No Party has been more responsible than the D.L.P. for focusing public attention on matters of foreign policy and defence. No one has been more successful than Menzies in making it appear that the Liberals have been the movers and not the moved on these issues. He has given the form, but failed lamentably In achieving the substance."  AS FAR AS THE D.L.P. IS CONCERNED IT IS THE SUBSTANCE WHICH MATTERS, NOT THE SHADOW.  MR. HOLT.  Mr. Holt has tried to create a different "image," but under the new "image" there still lies the old mistaken unreality. It is because when the "chips" are down Mr. Holt is fundamentally as unreal as Sir Robert Menzies that the present Government almost shipwrecked Australia's policy on Vietnam. That policy had to be rescued, as Sir Alan Watt (former head of the Department of External Affairs) pointed out, by bodies like the D.L.P. and the R.S.L.  NOW AND 1975.  What kind of world are we going to face in the ten years between now and 1975? It Is NOW that we must look at this question, not in 1975. It will be too late either for answers or action in ten years time. IT IS ESSENTIAL TO BE RIGHT. BUT IT IS ONLY USEFUL IF WE ARE RIGHT IN TIME.  ALTERNATIVES.  I believe that Australia will face one or two possible situations in the years ahead.  THIS IS THE FIRST SITUATION: WITHIN THE FEW YEARS ENDING IN 1975 EVERY NATION IN SOUTH EAST ASIA AND THAT INCLUDES AUSTRALIA COULD BE CONFRONTED BY THE HORRIFYING REALITY OF COMMUNIST CHINA ARMED WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND DETERMINED TO USE THEM, AT LEAST' TO THE EXTENT OF DIRECT THREATS. This situation cannot be discounted. It is the more dangerous of the two. On 20th August the highly-respected London "Economist" wrote: "Until and unless there is solid evidence that China does not intend to do what Lin Piao (Mao Tse Tung's Chief Aide) says it wants to do, or cannot do it, THE ONLY SAFE ASSUMPTION FOR THE AMERICANS OR ANYBODY ELSE TO MAKE IS THAT THE CHINESE MEAN EVERY WORP THEY SAY. That is where any safe Asia policy starts from." THAT IS WHERE ANY SAFE AUSTRALIAN POLICY STARTS FROM. Now, that situation is a possibility. If it eventuates it can be met, but I believe it is the OTHER situation which faces us today. THAT SITUATION IS THE COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY COMMUNIST SUBVERSION OF THE AUTHORITY OF NON-COMMUNIST ASIAN STATES.  IMMEDIATE DANGER.  If we do not face, up to this immediate danger, here and now, we won't have the stomach to deal with the greater danger, should it emerge later. Already this immediate danger has forced the Australian Government to send Australian troops overseas. As I speak to you in this hall tonight there are Australian soldiers and airmen in Vietnam, in Borneo (completing the process of withdrawal), in Malaya and in Thailand. It is not unlikely that more will go to other countries. Even now there is talk that Australians withdrawing from Borneo may soon be fighting guerrillas on the border between Thailand and Malaya: The programme of organised murder which Peking has promised throughout South East Asia has begun in Thailand. What has happened on the border between Thailand and Malaya, and in North East Thailand, is likely also to happen in Sarawak and Sabah. The reason I make this prophecy is simple: The Communist underground in Sarawak and Sabah will not stay quiet for long. When it goes into action, even if the Indonesians are eventually withdrawn, our Malaysian allies MAY be compelled to ask that Australians be sent to their assistance. And then, even if Indonesia ultimately assumes sovereignty in this part of Borneo, what real chance is there that its authority will be effective, or beneficial? This is the second situation, but I believe it is the national danger which we face today. What does it demand of us and what are the hard facts of the situation?  THE DEMANDS ON AUSTRALIA.  Vietnam provides us with an indication of what this situation demands. It demands the continuous presence of soldiers, engineers, road-builders, doctors, dentists, teachers. BUT THE FIRST JOB OF PACIFICATION DEMANDS FRONT-LINE SOLDIERS AND THE SOLDIERS ARE NEEDED NOT JUST AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PROCESS, THEY ARE NEEDED RIGHT THROUGH TO THE END. If the soldiers are not there the workers in the field of civic reconstruction will be kidnapped-or murdered. For the programme of civil aid we must send doctors, dentists, engineers, builders, teachers. Also, there will have to be persons who know politics, who know Communists and who know what makes and motivates Communists. These men will have to separate the Viet Cong remnant from the villagers and destroy its influence. All of these operations are necessary, and each one must be as complete as we can make it. Military power is necessary, but not enough. MR. WHITLAM'S "BOY SCOUT" VIEW OF THESE SITUATIONS -THAT YOU SEND CIVIC WORKERS, BUT NOT SOLDIERS, AND HOPE THE AMERICANS WILL LOOK AFTER YOUR CIVIC WORKERS - WOULD PROVIDE A ROMAN HOLIDAY FOR THE VIET CONG AND OTHER GUERILLAS. This is the shape of Asia's challenge to Australia and it calls for diversified action. The needs of India, a relatively stable democracy, challenge our programme of international aid and trade. What is the sense of building the future of the wheat industry on China's uncertain and dangerous market when Australian wheat could be the backbone of our aid policies in countries which are our friends? In North East Thailand and Sabah the situation takes a different form Political institutions in those countries have been heavily attacked and weakened. In such cases the needs are civilian and military, but with the emphasis on the civilian activities.  WE CAN HELP.  One form of activity open to us in such countries has already been demonstrated: Twenty Snowy Mountain engineers in three years built a hundred mile of feeder roads and brought half a million Lao peasants into the Thai economy, and partly out of the control of the guerrillas. This cost a few million dollars. Multiply this by twenty, and you will have no problems in Thailand and no problem with the future of the Snowy Mountains Authority. In Vietnam the Communists have stepped-up their attack to the level of full-scale civil war. In such cases the soldiers must go in first to clean the land of the aggressors, so that the civilian workers may build up what the aggressors have destroyed over a period of years.  WHAT RESPONSE DOES ALL THIS DEMAND? IT INVOLVES: INCREASED EXPENDITURE ON DEFENCE AND ECONOMIC AID, THE ALLOTMENT OF HIGHLY-SKILLED PERSONNEL TO DEVELOPMENT WORKS OVERSEAS, A RE-SHAPING OF OUR EXTERNAL ALLIANCES, IF WE DO NOT FACE UP TO THIS CHALLENGE WE WILL SURELY NOT SURVIVE AS A FREE NATION.  This is the real issue of the coming Federal Elections, and it is not only the A.L P.'s policy which is involved. But in any case, what is A.L.P policy? The contradictory and ambiguous statements of A.L.P. spokesmen in the last year have been like a sideshow, but one thing is clear: Should the A.L.P., by some miracle,, achieve the Government benched the ruthless and clear-sighted pro-Communist forces will do their utmost to ensure that the A.L.P. withdraws Australian troops from Vietnam and ignores the real threat of Communism in South East Asia.  THE GOVERNMENT.  It Is the Liberals who are in government and THEIRS IS THE GREATEST FAILURE, since they do not have pressure from Communist-controlled trade unions to account for the flabbiness of THEIR policy. When Sir Robert Menzies was looking backwards towards the British Commonwealth which had ceased to have any military reality, the D.L.P. looked forward to a tighter military alliance with the United States. The D.L.P. is therefore in the best position to say that Mr. Holt's slogan, "All the Way with L.B.J." ought not to sum up the WHOLE direction of future Australian policy. THE AMERICAN ALLIANCE MAKES SENSE ONLY IF IT IS FOUNDED ON A STEADY ATTEMPT TO BUILD UP SELF-RELIANCE IN DEFENCE. On 30th August, on the eve of his visit to London, Mr. Holt said: "I do not think that defence self-reliance will be within our grasp for many years to come. It is in the alliances we have and to which we ourselves make a reasonable contribution that our security lies. I would regard five per cent (of the national income devoted to defence) as a sort of practical working limit IN THE ABSENCE OF SOME TRAUMATIC INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT."  LIMITED OUTLOOK.  This statement is the same sort of thing that Mr. Holt has been saying for some time - that we can't do too much in South East Asia because we have to keep up a high rate of development and maintain our present standard of living at all costs. This was always based on a delusion that Britain would be there to help us. When Britain was needed in 1942 she could not come. Are we going to replace that old, ill-founded belief with another based on the straight, unproved assertion that America will ALWAYS come to our aid, that she will do this even when she does not need to, and that therefore we do not need to establish our own self-reliant strength? IF WE THINK THIS WAY, WE ARE TAKING THE FIRST STEP TO NATIONAL SUICIDE! It is not inconceivable that various situations might arise, preventing the United States from coming to our assistance in a desperate hour. For example: If the Sino-Soviet split was healed and Europe was endangered. This is not beyond the realms of possibility. The 1966 Defence Budget, while it raises defence expenditure from 3.5% to 5% of the Gross National Product, does not give us hope of meeting the real challenge before it is too late. Its monetary expression is deceptive: First, part of it will be paid for under credit arrangements with the U.S. Second, minus these credit arrangements, it is still less than our expenditure at the height of the Korean War. Third, it is based on the assumption of providing 10,000 combat troops. What we require is more like 30,000 combat troops. Mr. Holt speaks of "traumatic experiences" of the future, as the only thing which can justify more than 5% of the Gross National Product being spent on defence. Does he forget the 30th September last year when the Communists were within a couple of steps of taking over Indonesia? The Communists only failed because they didn't murder Nasution and Suharto. It isn't enough to say "Well, Holt IS doing something that Menzies didn't do."  RIGHT IN TIME.  WHAT MATTERS IS NOT ONLY TO BE RIGHT, BUT TO BE RIGHT IN TIME,  No better sign of Liberal flabbiness can be given than their approach to this election. What they should be doing in this election is not to fight a defensive action against Labor's midsummer madness on Vietnam. They ought to be tracing the future of similar situations and telling Australians what they intend to do. But they are too flabby and frightened to lead. This Is Australia's future. We can't bluff our way out of it by refusing,  to look at it. We won't be reprieved simply because frightened politicians - and  sometimes un-Australian politicians - are afraid to tell the people the truth.  D.L.P. VOTE POWERFUL.  IF YOU SUPPORT US BY ADDING TO OUR EXISTING VOTES, YOU BRING THE DAY CLOSER IN WHICH THE D.L.P. IS A PARTNER IN A GOVERNMENT WITH THOSE LABOR MEN WHO WILL HAVE NO TRUCK WITH COMMUNISM, OR A GOVERNMENT IN ITS OWN RIGHT. EVERY VOTE WHICH IS ADDED TO THE D.L.P.'s EXISTING HALF-MILLION WILL BE AN INDICATOR TO THE HOLT GOVERNMENT OF THE TYPE OF POLICY THE MOST FORWARD-LOOKING  AUSTRALIANS WANT. THEY DON'T WANT FLABBINESS, WEAKNESS, LACK OF VISION. EVERY VOTE WHICH THE A.L.P. LOSES WILL BE AN INDICATOR THAT ITS OWN SUPPORTERS WANT AN END TO COMMUNIST INFLUENCE, DIRECTION AND CONTROL. LABOR MEN WANT A LABOR PARTY, NOT A SHADOW COMMUNIST PARTY. EVERY VOTE ADDED TO THE D.L.P.'s EXISTING HALF-MILLION WILL HASTEN THE DAY WHEN THE SOUND ELEMENTS WHO STILL REMAIN IN THE A.L.P. WILL REPUDIATE THE DIRECTION OF THE TYPE OF MEN WHO EXPEL CAPTAIN BENSON AND GIVE PREFERMENT TO DR. CAIRNS. THAT IS WHY A VOTE FOR THE D.L.P. ON 26th NOVEMBER IS THE MOST AUSTRALIAN VOTE ANY AUSTRALIAN CAN CAST. IT IS ALSO THE MOST EFFECTIVE.  FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENCE.  I have now completed my outline of the D.L.P.'s approach to these elections. So that there will be no confusion or misinterpretation. I want to make two comments before turning to our specific policies and particular proposals.  (a) All social and domestic policies, no matter how just or progressive, are not worth the paper they are written on unless this country has adequate defences and is guided by a realistic foreign policy.  (b) Not all of our policies could be implemented in a short period of time and therefore we give priority to some policies, over other policies. We give first priority to the specific defence, foreign aid and foreign policy recommendations.  SELF-RELIANCE.  IN THE FIELD OF DEFENCE WE SET OURSELVES THE OBJECTIVE OF SELF-RELIANCE. We want to defend this country with allies, if allies are available. We have to be in the position to deter attack if allies are not available.  EXPENDITURE.  We repudiate the Holt concept that 5% of the Gross National Product devoted to defence is a sort of upper working limit. THERE IS NO UPPER LIMIT - SAVE WHAT IS NECESSARY. We pledge ourselves to spend whatever is necessary to give Australia an army of three divisions, sufficient naval and air power to transport whatever sections of these divisions may be needed anywhere In South East Asia, and air power to cover their military operations in the field.  AMERICAN ALLIANCE.  THE AMERICAN ALLIANCE IS THE PIVOT OF OUR FOREIGN POLICY. But every alliance is secondary to self-reliance in defence.  PACIFIC COMMUNITY.  WE WILL WORK HARD TO BUILD A PACIFIC COMMUNITY AS A REGIONAL ALLIANCE OF NON-COMMUNIST ASIAN COUNTRIES, TO CONTAIN THE POWER OF CHINA. A Pacific Community is the political entity through which social, economic c and military aid to the nations of the area can in the first instance be channelled. When this Party pioneered the concept of the Pacific Community in 1961 it was treated with scorn. Today the foremost leaders of the Pacific nations are moving positively in this direction.  MILITARY SERVICE.  The D.L.P. believes that the demand for the services of young Australians overseas - and at home in our own developmental projects - will grow. WE WOULD THEREFORE ABOLISH THE PRESENT INEQUITABLE SYSTEM OF MILITARY SERVICE. IN ITS PLACE WE WOULD ESTABLISH A SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR TWO YEARS FOR EVERY YOUNG MAN. In this period he would be given adequate military training and he would serve his country not only militarily, but in useful civil occupations, whether in the development programme at home, or in the military or economic aid programmes abroad.  NUCLEAR POWER.  THE D.L.P. WOULD PROCEED IMMEDIATELY WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR REACTORS- FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES. The building of harbours, the excavation of reservoirs, the de-salination of sea water, are three examples of the ultimate use to which nuclear power may be put for peaceful purposes in a country crying out for development. At the same time, this programme will, as in the case of India, provide Australia with supplies of fissile material, in case all efforts at the limitation of nuclear weapons break down and Australia is compelled to consider their production as a deterrent.  SEPARATE DEFENCE BUDGET.  To clarify the issues for the voters and to force all political parties to stand up and be counted in the defence issue, WE WOULD ESTABLISH A SEPARATE DEFENCE BUDGET, FINANCED BY A SPECIAL CATEGORY OF TAXES.  AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE PRODUCTION.  WHEREVER POSSIBLE WE WILL ENDEAVOUR TO HAVE DEFENCE PRODUCTION CARRIED OUT IN AUSTRALIAN PLANTS. It is obvious however, that some items, because of their technical complexity, cannot be produced locally and must be purchased overseas.  AMEND DEFENCE ACT.  The most complete defence and foreign policy will not command respect so long as Australian citizens are permitted to manifest active disloyalty to Australian soldiers In the field. Therefore the DEFENCE ACT OUGHT TO BE AMENDED TO MAKE IT AN OFFENCE TO GIVE "AID AND COMFORT" TO AN ENEMY AGAINST WHOM AUSTRALIAN TROOPS ARE IN OPERATION, even if, for political reasons, there is no formal declaration of war.  IMPROVEMENTS IN CONDITIONS.  THE D.L.P. BELIEVES THAT THE D.F R.B. (Defence Forces' Retirement Board) ACT IS IN NEED OF EXTENSIVE AMENDMENT.  We propose:  - Pensions should be 75 per cent of rate of pay at time of retirement. Widows' pensions to be 75 per cent of late husband's entitlement.  - Members invalided out for any reason whatsoever (not due to misconduct) should receive a full pension.  The D.L.P. also proposes that all people serving in South East Asia should be covered by a $10,000 LIFE POLICY for the time of their service there. Premiums on existing policies to be paid by the Government for that period.  FOREIGN AID.  In his 1966 Budget Speech the Federal Treasurer claimed that the Government was increasing Foreign Aid by approximately $8 million. But when the figures are analysed it is quite clear that this additional assistance is to go to New Guinea, and not to other Asian countries, like Indonesia, South Vietnam, Thailand, etc. Our assistance to the other countries, apart from Papua-New Guinea, has been reduced.  Regarding Foreign Aid, the D.L.P. proposes:  - The Australian Government's contribution to overseas aid must be increased to 1 per cent of the Gross National Product, including the development of Papua-New Guinea.  - The Commonwealth Government should establish an authority to co-ordinate all aid by Australia to other countries, both Government and private, provided that private organisations shall have the right to define their own programmes.  - An Australian Government-aided or directed Peace Corps, of adequately selected and trained personnel, should be established to provide aid in every field required by a developing country.  - Approved private aid organisations should receive Government subsidies.  - Taxation exemption should be granted to donations to approved private aid organisations.  - The Government should accept responsibility for the social security rights of all personnel of Government and approved private aid organisations who are serving overseas.  - The Federal Government should assist State Governments to provide increased educational and technological facilities to enable more students from underdeveloped countries to attend Universities and other technological Institutions.  - Resources should be made available to encourage better farming methods and the development of secondary industries in developing countries to assist them in creating a balanced economy.  WHEAT.  The large amount of wheat exported to Communist China builds up a dependence on that country as a permanent part of our wheat disposal arrangements. This power in the hands of China will be used against Australia for political purposes.  Therefore, the D.L.P. proposes:  - That greater efforts be made to diversify markets and to find new markets.  - That the Australian Government provide gifts of wheat as some help to nations in difficulties.  - That storage facilities be increased.  - That full information about the terms of our overseas sales of wheat be disclosed and that these essential facts not be withheld from the public view.  - That the Wheat Board be subject to the Government for disposal of the wheat crop by home consumption, assistance to Asian countries, legitimate overseas sales and storage of surpluses.  The A.L.P. attitude on the China Trade is hypocritical. That Party criticises the Government for its trade with China and North Vietnam but when pressed for an answer it states that it would act no differently if in power.  SOCIAL SERVICES.  The Government's complete disregard of social services is strikingly illustrated by the fact that not once between the years 1950-1964 did it increase the rates of child endowment payments. Also, it has not increased Maternity Allowances since 1943. Since 1943, of course, the real value and purchasing power of money has fallen dramatically, but the Government has not taken account of this and updated payments accordingly. In the field of Social Services THE GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN SIMPLY AN ADMINISTRATOR AND NOT AN INITIATOR. In particular the Government has ignored the unfortunate financial position of thousands of aged persons and family men. THE D.L.P. BELIEVES THAT, IN THE LONG RUN, THERE IS NO ESCAPING THE NEED FOR A CONTRIBUTORY NATIONAL INSURANCE SCHEME TO COVER SICKNESS, ACCIDENT, UNEMPLOYMENT, INVALIDISM, DEATH OF A BREADWINNER AND OLD AGE. THE PAYMENTS COVERED BY THIS SCHEME AND ALL OTHER SOCIAL SERVICE PAYMENTS SHOULD BE DETERMINED BY AN INDEPENDENT TRIBUNAL OF EXPERTS. The adoption of these two proposals would do much to remove the determination of Social Service payments from the auction room of politics, which does not provide the best climate for arriving at equitable social justice. Pending the adoption of these Joint proposals we have more immediate suggestions for reform in this field:  D.L.P. plan:  - Increases in endowment payments for the third child, from $1.50 to $3.00 per week, the payment of $3.50 for the fourth child, and $4.00 for fifth and later children.  - The capitalisation of future child endowment payments, in a lump sum, so as to enable young families to make renovations and building improvements, as operates in New Zealand.  - The introduction of an interest-free marriage loan of $1,000 for all young couples, for a period of ten years; $200 of the loan to be liquidated on the birth of each child.  - Restoration of the real value of Maternity Allowances by increasing the payments to an amount commensurate with the increases in the basic wage since 1943, when the allowances were last increased. We would therefore increase the pay for the first baby from $30 to $95, for the second and third babies from $32 to $100, and for the fourth and later babies from $35 to $105.  - The immediate increase of age and invalid pensions to an amount not less than half the basic wage.  - The immediate liberalisation of the iniquitous Means Test, with the aim of its ultimate abolition; this abolition to take the form of a phasing-out process whereby the application of the Means Test is progressively limited to different age groups until the time is reached when no Means Test is applied.  Betrayed in Senate.  The A.L.P. adopts a completely hypocritical attitude on the question of inadequate Social Services. In May of this year I Introduced in the Senate a Private Member's Bill, on behalf of the D.L.P., to increase Child Endowment payments as outlined earlier in this speech. The A.L.P. Senators even tried unsuccessfully to deny me the courtesy of having this Bill formally introduced into the Senate. Just how sincere are they in their repeated verbal support for increased Social Service payments? Repeatedly in the Senate it has opposed D.L.P. proposals to have all Social Service payments determined by an independent tribunal of experts. The A.L.P. has never offered convincing arguments to support its opposition to these Social Service proposals. The A.L.P.'s hypocrisy is remarkable.  DENTAL HEALTH.  No political party in Australia has ever given an serious thought to the dental health of the nation. THE D.L.P. WILL BRING DOWN LEGISLATION TO THE EFFECT THAT ALL CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF TWELVE WILL HAVE THE COST OF TREATMENT CARRIED OUT BY A QUALIFIED DENTAL PRACTITIONER SUBSIDISED IN THE SAME WAY AS MEDICAL TREATMENT IS SUBSIDISED TODAY.  EDUCATION.  Australia's educational system is facing a new era: the age of nuclear power, automation and electronics. Our future will depend partly on whether we can succeed in educating our people in the new technology and partly on whether as a result of this development in human resources we can contribute more to the economic growth of South East Asia. Orderly progress in education in Australia requires the active support of two systems, the private and public, and two Government authorities, State and Federal. More funds need to be spent on both the private and public sectors and the only real source is the Federal Government. The D.L.P. is in favour of the granting of financial aid for the purpose of assisting all forms of education and that a greater degree of decentralisation of the management of education be encouraged.  TWO PRONGS.  FIRST, WE BELIEVE THAT AN IMMEDIATE ADDITIONAL GRANT OF $100 MILLION BE MADE TO THE STATES, FOR PARTICULAR USE  IN SECONDARY AND TERTIARY EDUCATION IN UTILISING THIS  GRANT, PRIORITIES SHOULD BE GIVEN TO (I.) TEACHER TRAINING AND SALARIES, (II.) EDUCATION RESEARCH, AND (III.) BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT. SECOND, WE RE-AFFIRM OUR SUPPORT FOR THE PAYMENT OF AN ALLOWANCE TO INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS FOR EACH CHILD IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS, THE AMOUNT TO BE EQUIVALENT TO THE AVERAGE COST OF EDUCATING A CHILD IN A CORRESPONDING STATE SCHOOL. The formula suggested for the payment of this allowance will be similar to that used in the payment of Federal Health Benefits. The allowances will be claimed by the parents of the child or children from the Government, but will only have value when credited to the independent school nominated by the parents. This procedure will ensure: (i.) the safeguarding of the fundamental right of the child to assistance; (ii.) freedom of the parent to choose the school to be attended; (iii.) the safeguarding of the independence and proper authority of the school's management. THIRD, WE PLEDGE TO PRESERVE ALL EXISTING FORMS OF ASSISTANCE TO INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS. It should be remembered that for a number of years the D.L.P. was the only political party in Australia to support the principle of financial justice for the independent schools. The other parties only now support this policy through reasons of expediency. The point is that the D.L.P. had a policy of justice to independent schools because we believed in the merit of their claims and were not afraid to publicise the fact.  HOUSING.  There are approximately 90,000 marriages in Australia every year and one of the biggest problems facing the young married couple today is the building of suitable accommodation and the purchase of land. THE D.L.P.'s POLICIES ON THE CAPITALISATION OF CHILD ENDOWMENT PAYMENTS AND THE PROVISION OF AN INTERESTFREE MARRIAGE LOAN ARE TWO SUGGESTIONS DESIGNED TO COPE WITH THIS PROBLEM. IN ADDITION, WE BELIEVE THAT THE GOVERNMENT'S $500 HOUSING GRANT SHOULD BE INCREASED REGULARLY, SO AS TO KEEP PACE WITH INCREASES IN THE CONSTRUCTION COSTS OF HOMES. ALSO, THE D.L.P. BELIEVES THAT THIS GRANT SHOULD BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THOSE WHO SAVE THROUGH CREDIT UNIONS, because these Credit Unions encourage saving which normally would not have taken place. Our policies on housing can be summarised:  - The capitalisation of Child Endowment payments.  - Interest-free marriage loans.  - Regular upgrading of the existing housing grant.  WAGES AND AUTOMATION.  With the growth of technological change and automation, new and unusual problems are facing the work force. These developments result not only in increased productivity, but give rise to problems in employment. Also, it is becoming increasingly obvious that wages must be related to these productivity increases, rather than to work value. However, the Government has failed to publish a suitable index to measure these changes in productivity, and such an index is necessary before any correlations can be made. The D.L.P. Is concerned at the lack of knowledge and understanding of the likely future developments in technology and the problems raised by the introduction of automation. For that reason WE PROPOSE THE APPOINTMENT OF A NATIONAL COMMISSION TO STUDY TECHNOLOGY, AUTOMATION AND WORKFORCE PROBLEMS. THIS COMMISSION WILL CONSIST OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT, EMPLOYERS' BODIES AND THE TRADE UNIONS. THE D.L.P. ALSO CALLS FOR THE IMMEDIATE PREPARATION AND PUBLICATION OF AN INDEX CAPABLE OF MEASURING OVERALL CHANGES IN PRODUCTIVITY IN THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY. This is essential for the wage problem, which has been responsible for so much industrial strife.  DECENTRALISATION.  Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. At the same time, more than 55 percent of our population is concentrated in the six Capital cities and the suburban areas. This is an unhealthy situation from the point of view of defence and overall development. That is why the D.L.P. enthusiastically supports the principle of decentralisation. Indeed, the decentralisation of industry and population and, ultimately, of administration and ownership, is the central theme of all the economic policies of the D.L.P. As the decentralisation of industry must precede the decentralisation of population WE PROPOSE THAT TO ENABLE FIRMS ENGAGED IN COMPETITIVE INDUSTRIES TO SET UP IN COUNTRY AREAS, CERTAIN CHANGES SHOULD BE MADE IN THE METHOD OF COLLECTING GOVERNMENT REVENUE.  THE D.L.P. WOULD REDUCE INCOME AND COMPANY TAX AND INSTITUTE A DECENTRALISATION TAX, TO BE LEVIED AT A FLAT RATE ON INDUSTRIAL SITES. This decentralisation tax would place the provincial industries in a position of taxation advantage which would compensate for the disadvantages of higher transport costs, etc. In addition, THE D.L.P. PROPOSES THAT THE COMMONWEALTH BANK MAKE AVAILABLE LONG-TERM LOANS AT NOMINAL INTEREST RATES TO FINANCE THE MOVING OF EXISTING INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT. THE D.L.P. WILL ALSO PRESS FOR THE PRESENTATION OF REPORTS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH-STATES DECENTRALISATION COMMITTEE, which was established in March 1965, but has so far produced no reports on preparatory research into the problems of decentralisation.  MONOPOLY AND SMALL BUSINESSES.  The D.L.P. firmly supports the principle of private endeavour in the business field, and at the same time we are concerned at any unnecessary displacement of the small-scale business. Small businesses are the biggest business in Australia, over 60 percent of our manufacturing units employ less than ten people. Many of these small businesses are at a disadvantage when faced with competition from the larger chain stores, distributors or manufacturers. We do not accept the proposition that small businesses must eventually go out of existence and that the retailing or manufacturing unit must inevitably become larger and larger. Small businesses should be encouraged by:  - Credit at a low rate of interest by the Commonwealth and State Banks and also by Credit Unions and Co-operative Organisations.  - Increased Government facilities for professional education and training, especially in the form of evening courses.  - Reduction of Income and Company Tax to enable small businesses engaged in competitive industries to set up in country areas (see decentralisation policy).  The many problems met by the owners of small businesses vary from situation to situation. Therefore, THE D.L.P. PROPOSES THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SMALL BUSINESSES AGENCY, to provide advice on these different problems. The Small Businesses Agency will be directed to operate within the D.L.P.'s major policy of decentralisation and it will serve as an organisation which will GUIDE, ENCOURAGE AND ASSIST THE OWNERS OF SMALL BUSINESS. AN ASSOCIATED VOLUNTARY BODY WILL BE ESTABLISHED WHEREBY RETIRED MANAGERS AND EXECUTIVES WILL BE ABLE TO OFFER THE WEALTH OF THEIR PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE.  ECONOMIC POLICY.  The D.L.P. economic policy aims to develop a self-reliant Australian nation of free men and women in full recognition of the State's existence for the benefit of the individual. The keystone of our economic policy is support for the decentralisation of ownership, administration, industry and population, and this policy is spelt out in more detail in another part of the policy speech. However, there are other sections of the D.L.P.'s economic policy which merit particular comment. They are:  - The establishment of a fact-finding commission to study and report on the tariff requirements of industry, by reference to industries available for defence and export, industries which save expenditure on imports, and industries which are not essential.  - The institution of a "usefulness test" on all incoming overseas investment.  - An inquiry into Australian banking, to be carried out along the lines of those undertaken in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and New Zealand.  The Vernon Committee of Enquiry into the economy made a number of useful suggestions and comments, but these were rudely brushed aside by the Government. THE D.L.P. WILL RE-OPEN DISCUSSION ON THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE VERNON COMMITTEE.  NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT.  The D.L.P. does not accept Mr. Whitlam's statement that Northern Australia could not have been developed more rapidly. THE D.L.P. BELIEVES THAT THE APPARATUS OF THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS AUTHORITY COULD PROVE A USEFUL FOUNDATION ON WHICH TO BUILD A NEW AUTHORITY TO UNDERTAKE DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS IN THE NORTH AND OTHER AREAS OF AUSTRALIA. The Authority will soon be completing its tasks in the Snowy Mountains area. THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE AUTHORITY SHOULD REMAIN IN COOMA, BECAUSE THE OFFICES, STAFF AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE ESTABLISHED IN THAT TOWN, BUT TEAMS FROM THE NEW AUTHORITY WOULD WORK ON DIFFERENT PROJECTS, THROUGHOUT AUSTRALIA.  THIS NEW AUTHORITY WOULD BE DIRECTED TO DEVOTE PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO PROJECTS IN THE NORTH OF AUSTRALIA. As the Snowy Mountains Authority has obtained special expertise in water matters and as water is a major problem in the North, THE INITIAL PROJECTS COULD BE IN THE AREA OF IRRIGATION, ETC., IN THE NORTH. The D.L.P. condemns the Government for its indecision on the Ord River project. This is a further example of the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Government for Northern Development. THE D.L.P. WILL STRIVE FOR A CO-ORDINATION OF THE EFFORTS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, QUEENSLAND AND WEST AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTS IN TRANSPORT, COMMUNICATIONS, HEALTH, EDUCATION, WATER, IRRIGATION, HOUSING AND ASSOCIATED SERVICES, to ensure that there is no obstacle to efficient and prosperous development in this vital area of Australia.  TRANSPORTATION.  In a country like Australia, where road transportation is vitally important for development, servicing and communications, finance for road construction and repair cannot be neglected to an unimportant position. THE D.L.P. BELIEVES THAT THE COMMONWEALTH SHOULD CONTRIBUTE MORE FINANCE TO THE STATES, UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH ROAD ACT, FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION.  THE D.L.P. WILL ALSO INCREASE THE STAFF OF THE COMMONWEALTH BUREAU OF ROADS TO ENABLE IT TO COMPLETE, WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY, ITS STUDY OF THE ROAD SITUATION IN AUSTRALIA.  WATER.  THE D.L.P. PROMISES TO COMPLETE THE PRELIMINARY RESEARCH NECESSARY FOR THE EVOLUTION OF A NATIONAL WATER POLICY. THE D.L.P. WILL ALSO SUPPORT INCREASED RESEARCH INTO DESALINATION PROCESSES.  SUGAR.  The vulnerability of the Australian sugar Industry to a fall in world prices (more particularly when associated with drought conditions) has been shown in the last two years. Consequently, with the expansion to meet world demands involving the expenditure of large amounts of capital, the sugar producers, particularly the new growers, have found themselves in grave financial trouble. The sugar mills likewise have struck real trouble and have had to be assisted. THE BIGGEST SINGLE MARKET FOR OUR SUGAR IS NOW JAPAN. THE D.L.P. WOULD ATTEMPT TO NEGOTIATE A PRICE WITH JAPAN SIMILAR TO THE BRITISH NEGOTIATED PRICE, AND THIS WOULD BRING CONSIDERABLE STABILITY TO THE INDUSTRY.  ARTS INQUIRY.  THE D.L.P. PROPOSES THAT A COMMITTEE BE APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE THE NEED FOR THE FORMATION OF AN ARTS COUNCIL TO ADVISE THE GOVERNMENT ON SUITABLE FORMS OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO LITERATURE, MUSIC, PAINTING AND THE PERFORMING ARTS.  ABORIGINES. The ultimate objective of D.L.P. policy, regarding aborigines, is to enable all aborigines to develop their full potential as persons, to be accepted as full citizens by the white community and to enable them to enjoy the benefits of the modern way of life, as the fruits of their own work within the white community. In November, 1965, when a Bill was introduced in the Federal Parliament to enable a Referendum to be held to approve of the deleting of Clause 127 from the Constitution, the D.L.P. voted in favour of this Bill. This Referendum was cancelled. THE D.L.P. PLEDGES TO PROCEED WITH THIS REFERENDUM PROPOSAL AND TO GIVE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION TO THE PROPOSAL THAT CLAUSE 51, SECTION 24 OF THE CONSTITUTION ALSO BE PUT TO A REFERENDUM. WHEN PROCEEDING WITH THE CANCELLED ABORIGINES' REFERENDUM PROPOSAL WE WILL ALSO CONSIDER ASSOCIATING OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS WITH THE SAME REFERENDUM.  PARLIAMENTARY AND ELECTORAL REFORM.  There are many intelligent Australians who feel that Parliament and our democratic system of representation are being slowly but inevitably submerged by the growing bureaucracy of Government administration. That is why the D.L.P.has formulated a fivepoint policy of electoral and representation reform. Our proposals in this field are:  - The appointment of a Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, or "Ombudsman."  - An investigation of the opportunities of introducing Proportional Representation for elections to the House of Representatives.  - Support for the "nexus" or 2:1 ratio between the memberships of both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament, and opposition to any increase in the numerical size of either House.  - The formation of Joint Committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, to examine closely particular areas of legislation and administration.  The Parliamentary Commissioner or "Ombudsman" is not intended to usurp the traditional role of representation through the elected members of Parliament. Indeed, we believe that there is much value in the recently established British system whereby CASES CAN ONLY BE REFERRED TO THE COMMISSIONER THROUGH A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. THE COMMISSIONER WILL EXAMINE GRIEVANCES WHICH ARE ALLEGED TO EXIST BETWEEN A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC AND THE COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION. HE WILL REPORT DIRECT TO THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENT.  IMMIGRATION.  There are two vital areas of immigration policy in which the Government has been found wanting and for which the A.L.P. has offered no constructive suggestions or remedies. The first problem concerns the decline in the number of migrants remaining in Australia and the seriousness of this in the light of untapped sources of potential immigrants. The second problem concerns the refusal of the Government to welcome to Australia selected and suitable migrants from non-European countries. Recognising these problems the D.L.P. Proposes:  - To widen the scope of the present migration programme in Great Britain and Europe with added assistance to whole family migration and by providing assisted passages to all migrants with particular appeals to relatives of migrants already here.  - To adopt a more positive approach to the prospects of dramatically increasing the numbers of Americans actually migrating to Australia.  - To welcome from amongst the other nations of Asia, a proportion of new settlers capable of economic and social integration into the Australian community.  - To concede to all temporary residents the immediate right to bring with them their wives, husbands and children.  - To assist approved Australian families desirous of adopting War Orphans from Vietnam who are under five years of age, to bring them here. This assistance to cover arrangements with the Government of Vietnam or with any organisation capable of organising family adoption.  We need a rapid population increase to maintain a high rate of growth and to maintain a claim to our under-populated areas, having regard to the crippling population problems of our Asian neighbours.  CONCLUSION.  In conclusion I want to briefly summarise our approach to the great issues facing Australia.  - The D.L.P. has given priority to foreign affairs, defence and the threat of Communism in South East Asia.  - Without adequate defences, all social and domestic policies are not worth the paper they are written on.  - The D.L.P. believes that Communist China poses a long-term threat to the security of Australia. This fact must be recognised and. plans made accordingly.  - We stand four-square behind the American Alliance and believe that a withdrawal of American power from South East Asia would place Australia in an untenable position.  - The D.L.P. condemns the A.L.P. for its equivocation on defence and foreign affairs and its opposition to the Vietnam commitment.  - The Government deserves strong criticism for its long-standing reluctance to take the people into its confidence and to inform them of the real dangers facing Australia.  - The Government's record on internal measures, particularly policies relating to the family man and the old-age person, is shameful.  - An A.L.P. Government would be disastrous for Australia because it would be a Government not answerable to you, the elector, but to outside, unelected, Communist-influenced bodies.  - The D.L.P. Is the real alternative in this election.  - What is urgently needed is more D.L.P. representatives in Parliament.  - A vote for the D.L.P. will tell the Government that you do not accept its deceptive approach.  - At the same time it will tell the A.L.P. that it can never hope to govern this great country of ours while it equivocates on the important issues of foreign affairs and defence, and while it allows Communist influence to overpower and destroy its structure.  If you want to make this country a prosperous and safe place for your children and their children, then vote for the D.L.P, on 26th November. Give a resounding endorsement to the D.L.P.'s realistic, positive and progressive policies by voting (1) for the D.L.P. candidates. No other vote has more value than a vote for the D.L.P. PRIME MINISTER’S ELECTION SPEECH. OUR GREATEST DECADE AHEAD.  Mr. Holt, delivering his first policy speech as Prime Minister last night to a nationwide television audience, said the central issues of the election campaign were the development and security of Australia. He said Australia faced a critical period but predicted that that the next 10 years could be the greatest in its history. Mr. Holt said: these will be critical years for Australia, but they hold great ... for our advancement. They should be years of steady national progress- progress, fortifying our security and strengthening the base of our economy. The economy, despite one of the most, severe droughts in our history, is in good shape. It has continued to expand. So has our trade. Our own efforts and savings, aided by a continuing flow of capital investment from overseas, are enabling us to maintain full employment with a growing population. We have one of the highest standards of living in the world. We have continuing policies, many of which require increasing annual expenditures. But, in addition to these, we have a number of new proposals, which I will outline. First I mention education.  The record.  Education is the responsibility of a number of authorities. Each has his role to play. For our part, we have assisted in meeting the needs of the universities and in the establishment of advanced colleges of education. We have helped technical education. We instituted grants for school science blocks. To assist parents and students we have greatly enlarged the Commonwealth scholarship scheme for university education. With the establishment of colleges of advanced education, we have provided similar scholarship system for them. Commonwealth scholarships are also available for the final two years of secondary education and for technical education. We have given special taxation allowances to parents for education expenses. We now propose further assistance to education. We will provide $8 million a year over the next three financial years for the construction and equipment of new colleges for teacher ... throughout Australia. This money will require no matching grants from the States. I will be used by us to build colleges on sites selected by the States on condition that the State does not reduce its expenditure on teacher training, and on condition that at least 10 per cent of the places at the new colleges are reserved for teachers not bonded to state education departments.  Any colleges.  Winners of advanced education scholarships will be able to apply those scholarships to a teacher training course in any training college to which they are admitted. These scholarships carry the same benefits as university scholarships and will be available unbonded students. Our scheme to provide science laboratories and equipment to all schools has been highly successful. We intend to do more. In the next financial year and subsequently, we will double the amount available to independent schools for these laboratories. We believe this will ensure that in four years every science teaching secondary school in Australia, whether Government or inscience teaching laboratories dependent will have the and the equipment it needs- provided with the financial help of the Commonwealth government. We believe the time has come to establish a Commonwealth Ministry of Education and Science and we will do this. The ministry will be responsible not only for education, but also for certain areas of scientific activity. CRIRO will function within the new Ministry. I turn to social services.  The needy  All through the life of the Government we have carried out our policy of giving the needy the assistance we can afford as a Government and nation without many other obligations. It has been our practice to review all aspects of our health and social service policies each year when we consider the Budget. We have liberalised the means test progressively. We now propose further liberalisation. We will enlarge our social service programme on for fronts: we will raise by $156 the limits both of property and income within which pensions will be payable to the aged, the invalid and the widows. We will expand the scope of the Aged Persons Homes Act, particularly in regard to housing the needy, by making local governing bodies eligible for our subsidy. We will further assist the disabled in the community by capital assistance on a $2 for 1 basis to sheltered workshops and by a special allowance to disabled persons, employed in those workshops. We will make annual grants to certain national voluntary agencies working in the field of social welfare. Mr. Holt gave details of these proposals in this supplementary statements issued with the speech. On incomes of pensioners, he said: Very significant improvements have been brought about. In 1949, a single person with an income including income from property of $377 a year, or a married couple with a total income of $754 a year, were not entitled to an age or invalid pension. Since then these limits have been more than doubled so that today pension eligibility is retained by a single person until income, ignoring any income from property, reaches $1040 a year in the case of a single person, and $1950 a year for married couple (assuming that the value of property does not affect the rate of pension payable). We now propose to increase these limits still further by $156 a year for both single and married couples The new limits of income before eligibility for pension ceases will be respectively $1196 a year for single persons and $2106 a year for married couples. Full age or invalid pensions will be payable where a single person’s income does not exceed $520 a year, and a married couple’s combined income $ 684. These income limits are increased if there are children. Expressed in terms of property what we propose ... equally liberal. In 1949, no age or invalid pension was payable if a single person had property valued at $1500 or $3000 in the case of a married couple. Because of the progressive easing of the means test, the corresponding figures today for property, apart from the value of a home, motor vehicle and certain personal effects, are $10000 for a single person and $20320 for a married couple. Under the further improvement now proposed, a single person may have $12... in value of property, and a married couple $21..., provided there is no income other than from property, before losing eligibility for pension. The means test on widows’ pensions will be similarly cased. For example, at present, a widow with one child may receive a full pension if her income does not exceed $520 a year, and she retains eligibility for some pension until her income reaches $1404. These limits will be raised to $676 and $1560 a year respectively. As in the case of age and invalid pensioners, a widow with children may receive an extra $156 a year for each child after the first without affecting her pension, which is increased by a further $78 a year for each child. Thus, the amount of income which renders her ... for pension rises by $234 a year for each child after the first. If a widow with a child or children has no income other than from property, she will receive pension until the value of her property reaches $16040.  Homes plan. On homes for aged persons, Mr Holt said in his supplementary statement: During the 12 years the legislation has been in operation, the response by the churches, charitable and other voluntary agencies and the public to the Aged Persons Homes Act has been magnificent. We have recently widened the policy under which grants are made on a $2 for $1 basis, to permit eligible organisations to give greater attention to the aged who are frail and infirm. We will widen the scope of assistance by including local governing bodies in the organisations eligible under the act and accepting contributions by them towards aged persons homes as qualifying for Commonwealth matching subsidy. It is our hope that local governing bodies will sponsor aged persons homes in the areas of their administration and that particular attention will be given by them to the housing needs of pensioners. On help for the disabled Mr. Holt said: we will forthwith begin consultation with both voluntary and other agencies with a view to granting capital assistance on a $2 for $1 basis towards the expansion and establishment of sheltered workshops conducted by voluntary agencies throughout the Commonwealth. We have in mind that this aid should run not only to workshops that aim to restore the disabled to outside employment but also to those that will provide employment under sheltered conditions to those who have a permanent residual disability. We will introduce a special allowance for employes in sheltered workshops. The allowance will be reduced when earnings exceed a certain limit but will be so arranged that employes will receive a net increase in income for each increment of earnings. The effect of these two measures should provide a strong incentive to the development of sheltered workshops. On social welfare the Prime Minister said: we have decided to make annual grants to the Australian Council of Social Services and to the Australian Council Rehabilitation of Disabled. The annual grant, over the next three years, to each of the councils will be $15000 of which $10000 will be on the basis of $1 for each $1 raised by the organisation. These two grants will be additional to a grant of $60,000 for each of the next two years that the Government has undertaken to make to the National Old People’s Welfare Council to assist it in co-ordinating the work of voluntary agencies in the field of the welfare of the elderly. Mr. Holt said Australians wanted to own their own homes and the Government had fostered this ambition. He said: No country can point to a higher percentage of home ownership. More than half the homes in Australia today have been constructed since in we came to office in 1949. In the last parliament we introduced the home savings grant scheme which already benefited 64000 young couples. We also introduced the Housing Loans Insurance Corporation. We will now give the Minister for Housing new ... powers designed to meet the cases of headship under the home savings grant scheme. The discretionary powers will date back to start of the scheme. Details of these are set out in a supplementary statement. Further, we will extend the scheme to benefit widowed persons aged less than 36 who have one or more dependant children. The limitation on the value of the home, including land, will be raised from $14000 to $15000. In his supplementary explanation, Mr. Holt said: in the 1963 policy speech we undertook to provide a Commonwealth grant of $2 for every $6 saved by a person under 36 years of age to assist young married people to buy or build their own homes. The maximum grant payable to any young couple is $500. to be eligible for the grant, the savings must have been deposited over a period of at least three years in a home savings account with a bank or with a building or housing society, or used for purposes of acquiring a home. Our home savings grant scheme has been in operation for nearly 2,5 years. Grants totaling almost million have been paid. Because ... scheme novel one, and is still ... early years of ... cases have arisen where ... to genuine misunderstand ... or lack of awareness of the requirements ... have failed ... qualify for the grants. While we wish all ... to be lodged ... 12 months of buying ... building a home, we propose to give the secretary of the department of housing ... discretionary ... that cases may be ... sympathetically ... individual merits. The discretionary powers ... to eligible persons ... bought or commenced ... build their homes on ... December 2, 1963. The matters in ... of which a discretion ... be given are: (a) to extend the ... limit for the lodgment ... applications from the months, ... to empower the department to accept application ... within a further period ... circumstances suggest ... this is justified. (b) to empower the department to disregard ownership of another dwelling house where it is ... that it would be ... able to regard the dwelling house as the ... home or suitable for ... purpose. (c) To empower the ... to determine that ... interest in land that it ... appropriate for the ... of the act be ... as an approved .... (d) To give the department a discretionary power ... accept savings made in a period of three years ... a date not more than ... days before or after the ... date in circumstances it considers .... The definition of the described date will not be .... To permit the department to pay a grant to ... who has been ... on or after the ... date of the amount ... grant that would have ... paid to one or both ... couple if the spouse ... died. To give the department a discretionary power to permit an applicant’s ... period to be broken ... short period should ... appear to be good or ... reasons. ... these proposed new discretionary powers are ... to meet cases of ... that have already .... The discretionary powers will therefore, apply ... date of ... of the scheme. ... national development Mr. Holt said: We believe a programme of water conservation related to national needs should now be drawn up by us with State Governments. We have in mind a national water resources development programme. Its ... would be to increase water conservation activity to reduce hasards of droughts and expand primary production. We envisage that the States will maintain at least their existing levels of expenditure in this field, from their own financial resources. We shall invite the States to put forward programmes of additional works they would propose for Commonwealth financing. We, in turn, will make a contribution to enable additional works, selected on their merits, to be carried out. One cannot, at this stage, be precise about the capital requirements of our programme. We contemplate, however, that the contribution to be made by the Commonwealth for selected additional works could amount to $56 million over the next five years. The wool industry: a soundly based research effort is essential to this important industry’s prosperity. So is an energetic, imaginative and well-directed promotion campaign. The government is prepared to increase the scale of its contributions for wool research and promotion when the present arrangements expire next June. For the ensuring three years the government would provide funds on a dollar for dollar basis subject to a maximum annual contribution of $14 million for a programme agreed upon by it and the wool industry.  Dairying. On the diary industry, Mr. Holt said: the present five-year plan finishes on June 30, 1967, and my government would consult with industry bodies on the details of a further five-year plan. We would discuss with the industry the level of the annual subsidy allocation; the Commonwealth’s underwriting op the equalisation arrangement for butter and cheese; and plans for ... markets abroad. On sugar, he said: we have shown our determination to maintain a strong and prosperous sugar industry. Recently we have made loans available to cane growers and millers distreased by drought. The nitrogenous fertiliser subsidy introduced in August will be of particular help to this industry. The 1966 season’s production was affected by drought and abnormally low export prices. We have holstered the return by loaning the industry $19 million on concessional terms. We are persisting vigorously with our efforts to negotiate an international sugar agreement. Our aim is to ensure our producers remunerative prices for satisfactory exports quantities. Mr. Holt continued: my government has a programme, which assists rural industry considerably in research and extension. Some $80 million has been made available through joint industry, Commonwealth schemes for research by State and Commonwealth departments, universities and the CSIRO.  Extension. The results must be passed on to the farmer. For this improved agriculture extension services are necessary. We have now embarked on a five-year programme. Under this the Commonwealth’s contribution to extension services will be increased by $4 million above the present level of $1,4 million. At the appropriate time, my government will go into discussions with the wheat, cotton and dried vine fruits industries for the renegotiations of stablisation schemes having the objective of sustaining in respect of each a stable industry. On northern development Mr. Holt said: Commonwealth, state and local governments, private industries and companies are all involved in the whole pattern of northern development. Currently, capital projects totaling more than $2000 million are in train. These works are giving new employment and creating new communities. New arrangements and facilities for the provision of capital have to be devised. Mr. Holt said the government saw an expanding future for the tourist industry. Our annual grants to the Australian National Travel Association have been increasing substantially and in 1966-67, were $862000. Increasing activity and expenditure providing growing exchange earnings for us require the establishment of an Australian tourist commission set up as a statutory body, he said. We believe this would have support of ANTA, the tourist industry generally, and the state government all of whom have a direct interest in this matter.  Core of poll. On foreign policy, he said: this brings me back to what I described earlier as the very core of this election. Our domestic programme depends for its fulfillment on the security of the nation. But the principles and objectives of our foreign policy are at issue in this election. Our Labor opponents attack our assessment of Australia’s external security. Domestic affairs cannot be separated from foreign affairs. Our foreign policy is based on the believe we have, and the plans we have, about the kind of Australia all of us want to see and about the kind of society we want to build and preserve here. Unless there is security for all small nations there cannot be security for any small nation. Unless principles of international conduct are preserved in all international situations they are not likely to be preserved in any. That is the essence of our foreign policy. We have always seen Australia’s security in terms of world security.  Alliances. To that end we have for long allied ... with Britain and the United States. The basic principles and objectives of their policies are, for the most part, shared by us. We have sought, above all things, to keep our country at peace: but to have some ... that Australians will have strong and reliable friends. That is why we played our part in the ... of the ... and ... which carry with ... as well as benefits. ... of these responsibilities, Australian soldiers are fighting in South Vietnam. We ... a ... through .... But think of the ... of abandoning our objectives, and the people of South Vietnam. South Vietnam would become a communist State, and the lives and security of millions who have resisted communism would be in jeopardy. The impact of our complete withdrawal as proposed by the Labor party would be felt throughout South-East Asia. We, too, would come under threat. I turn now to defence generally. The centre of this problem, in global perspective, is in Asia and ... in our own part of the world. We must, meet ... expenditures for forces adequate to our obligations, thoroughly trained and equipped with the best and most modern conventional armaments. We live in an unstable region. We see it as a basic responsibility of the government of a free people to be prepared for any eventually.  Army plan. On of the basic issues of this election is national military training carrying the duty to serve abroad as well as at home. If we are to meet our obligations, we must have trained men immediately available to do the job. Our army is to be built from 22750 to 40000 as quickly as practicable. Voluntary enlistment did not provide suitable men to the extent needed. We and our advisors concluded there was no realistic alternative to national service. The call-up has been devised so as to cause the smallest possible disturbance to studies, employment and family commitments, and so as to ensure thorough and effective training before a national serviceman is required to serve overseas. The policy permits young men to make a choice between service with the regular forces and service with the citizen forces. Withdrawal of national servicemen from Vietnam as intended by the Labor party would render our task force ineffective and seriously disrupt the army. It would inevitably mean loss of confidence in Australia by its allies. Machines and money alone do not make a defence establishment. Our concept of highly trained, mobile striking forces has been made effective by the individualism, the intelligence and cool ... of the men who wear Australia’s uniform. National servicemen serving Australia abroad today are as one with their Regular Army comrades in efficiency, purpose and courage.  Vigorous. In his conclusion Mr. Holt said: the Liberal party, in association with the country Party, has had the longest period of unbroken federal rule in Australian history. Our government has remained vigorous and forward looking, assisted by fresh talent from the ranks of our private members. The Deputy Prime Minister and myself are the only two members ... from the ministry formed when we were returned to office in 1948. Today we are clearly more in tune with the aspirations and outlook of Australians than our opponents. For the greater period of our long term of office, the Australian Labor party has been ravaged by bitter faction fights. Nowhere has this internal conflict been ... nor more destructive than in the critical field of external security. Even our American allies have been a target for the spleen of the extremists in the Labor party. Surely we Australians recognise who are our true friends. The Labor party, plagued for ... long by the virus of doctrinaire socialism, left-wing influence and class bitterness, seems to have its will too paralysed to think clearly on great issues that affect our safety. The business of government and the conduct of our internal and international affairs are not for men who cannot be of one mind, sometimes for a week on end. Our national affairs are not merchandise for backroom bargaining between leaders of factions.  No claim. Many times in recent years, the people of Australia have had a sharp reminder that a Federal Labor Government would not be responsible to the people, or even to its own judgement, but that it would be bound hand and foot by the decisions of 36 people from the A.L.P., not, for the most part, elected by the people of Australia and in so sense responsible for them. On the great questions of national security, my Government is completely single-minded and united. Our opponents are confused and divided. We believe our national policies look to Australia’s future and the national thinking of our opponents is still bogged down in the past. We offer the country strength, unity and purpose as opposed to disunity and confusion. We offer you a programme in domestic affairs which advances national development, national security and social justice. In his supplementary statements, Mr. Holt said the government would continue to spend more on Papua and New Guinea to shorten the period before the Territory could finance its own basic needs. The Government had granted $70 million this year, compared with $... million three years ago. He said: The further expansion of primary and secondary industry and increased export income will be vigorously pursued in harmony with the broad policy or economic development based on the World Bank Missions 1964 report. The newly-established Papua and New-Guinea Development Bank will play an important development role. In political affairs the government will not be slow to make constitutional changes if the Papuans and New Guineas want them, nor will the government press changes upon the people if they do not want change. In accordance with this approach the membership of the House of Assembly which was set up in 1964 with a great majority of elected members, will be increased in ... for the next elections in 1966. again if the people of Papua and New Guinea indicate a desire for a limited system of ministerial representation, appropriate arrangements will be worked out. The new institute of higher technical education and the new university of Papua and New Guinea have been establishment to help in the training and education of Papuans and New Guineas. In political, social and economic matters the advancement of the indigenous people of the Territory will continue to be a basic objective.  Aborigines. I confirm once again that we will defend the territory of Papua and New Guinea as it was par of the Australian mainland. On Aborigines, Mr. Holt said: in the field of Aboriginal advancements, we will continue to co-operate with the governments of the states. In employment, we will continue to support equality of ... and conditions for aborigines. The Government supported the principle in the pastoral industry where substantial ... increases are being made and where complete equality under the award will apply not later than .... Royalties on minerals in Aboriginal reserves will be paid into a trust fund for the benefit of the aboriginal people. We will continue to improve the educational opportunities for aboriginal children. Proposals are being put before the Northern territory legislative Council to make land on Aboriginal reserves available for ... to Aborigines on the advice of 3 special board of which the majority of the members will be Aborigines. On the Northern territory, Mr Holt said: we will continue policies that provide a climate of opportunity and open up further prospects of growth for the mining, pastoral and tourist industries in this territory, which occupies one-sixth of the continent and in an area of special Commonwealth responsibility. We will go on encouraging the development of the great mineral potentialities of the Territory in such places Gove, ... and McArthur River. At these and other places investment could total more than ... million. The pastoral industry has been developing substantially with the establishment of export ... at ... and Darwin and with new techniques for improved ... and with the provision of more credit for water and subsidies for imported ... stock. This development will be stimulated still further by the continuation of the beef road programme for the territory. More than $3 million will be spent on the programme during the current year and 900 miles of beef roads will then have completed in the Territory.