Menzies opens ... campaign, policy Speech on Radio, TV.  The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, said last night that Australia wanted growth and progress and security at home. For this it needed security abroad.  Sir Robert began his policy speech by giving the Government’s reasons for holding an election, then dealt with its foreign and defence policies. More than half his speech was devoted to economic matters and he announced plans for:  A subsidy and loan scheme for housing, competitive scholarships for State and non-State school pupils, increased medical benefits and child endowment, an increased road-building grant to the States, and a subsidy to reduce country petrol prices. Other issues, Sir Robert dealt with included economic growth, trade, restrictive ... practices, northern development and distribution. Sir Robert's speech, which was recorded before a selected audience in Melbourne on Friday night, was broadcast and televised throughout Australia.  Outline of proposals. Sir Robert confined his ... on foreign ... and defence to a ... of government policies and achievements. He said the electoral change needed was to give the government a working majority. The choice you make this time will decide the political and economic future of Australia for 10 years, he said. If it endangers our great alliances, repair will be difficult and slow. If ... a great burst of inflation and rising prices and costs, the answer will be difficult and slow, and the economic casualties high. You will not be able to indulge in the luxury of second thoughts, or of an early and successful repentance. Put the A.L.P. into power this time, and you suffer the consequences for long after my time or that of my most experienced colleagues. Sir Robert made these promises.  Defence. To provide highly mobile, modern and well-equipped forces, maintained so as to co-operate with Australia's SEATO and ANZUS partners to mutual satisfaction. To provide, in Australia, scientific and technical and production hacking.  Economy. To carry on with the objectives of a high rate of economic and population growth with full employment, increasing productivity, rising standards of living, external solvency and stability of costs and prices.  Development. To press on with growth in no timid or faint-hearted way, seeking to avoid any new cost-price spiral. The Government expected that given good government growth should at least equal a total increase of 25 per cent in the Gross National Product, in terms of constant prices, over the next five years.  The North. To establish a special Northern Division of the Department of national Development to examine Northern projects in consultation with Federal and State Ministers and experts. The cost of transport of materials and plant to the north was one of the greatest burdens on northern development by governments and citizens alike. The government proposed to establish a committee of investigation to examine the problem and report to the Government.  Petrol prices. To effect a change in the petrol price so that no where in Australia will the normal price be more than ... above capital city prices. This would be done by arrangement with petrol companies and by arranging with the States for the Commonwealth to make grants to the States to enable them to pay the appropriate compensation to those companies.  Road Works. To increase Commonwealth aid for roads from the £250m granted in the last five years to not less than £350m in the next five years. To discuss with the States the desirability of setting up a national roads authority.  Trade. To change the name of the Department of Trade to Trade and industry, and create within it a special Secondary Industry Division.  Education. To create 10000 special Commonwealth scholarships to be awarded competitively and tenable at secondary schools for two years, to assist children who might otherwise miss the final two years. The scholarships, up to £100 a year for fees and books and a maintenance allowance to parents of another £100 a year, will be open to students of all secondary schools, State or non-State, without discrimination. Another 2,500 similar scholarships will be open to technical school students.  - To offer the States an annual grant of £5m toward building and equipment costs of technical schools.  - To make available £5m a year to supply buildings and facilities for science teaching in secondary schools.  This will be distributed on a school population basis and will be available to all secondary schools, State or non-State, without discrimination.  Child Benefit. To raise child endowment to 15/ a week for third and subsequent children. To pay 15/ a week on endowment for all full-time student children from 16 to 21, whether they are first, second or third children.  Housing. To give a Commonwealth subsidy of £1 for every £3 deposited at an approved institution by a person aged up to 25 to be released for home building or purchasing on or after marriage. The maximum subsidy for one house would be £250 and the recipients’ savings must be accumulated over a period of at least three years. Through a National Housing Insurance Corporation to help people obtain low deposit loans which would fill the gap between available housing loans and the purchaser’s buying needs. The loans would extend to something like three times the borrower's annual income with a reasonable total ceiling. The Government would up to a high percentage of valuation, 95 per cent in appropriate cases, insure the repayment of the loans by approved lenders at approved interest rates.  Benefits. To increase Commonwealth medical benefits by 33 1/3 per cent without requiring increased contribution to medical benefits insurance funds.  Redistribution. To amend the Representation Act so that no State would lose a seat in the House of Representatives through electoral redistribution. Another amendment, to the Electoral Act, would emphasise to Redistribution Commissioners the extent of their discretion to vary the normal electoral quota up or down, to allow for some variation between compact metropolitan seats and very much larger rural areas.  Trade Law. To legislate to deal with restrictive trade practices and to protect the small trader. A bill providing for this will be introduced into the new Parliament. It will be open for public scrutiny for a reasonable time before the second reading debate is resumed.  Other Points. Sir Robert said he would not have time in the 40 minutes in which he appeared to cover fully all points in his policy, but a full statement would be issued. Points omitted covered decentralisation, oil search subsidies, agricultural extension services, mental health subsidies, old people’s welfare and overseas investment.  Menzies Watches Telecast of Own Election Speech  MELBOURNE, Tuesday. The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, sat with members of his family and private staff in his suite at the Windsor Hotel, Melbourne, tonight and watched the telecast of his own policy speech. The telecast was made Friday night before a selected audience in the studio of GTV 9, Melbourne. About 300 people from Sir Robert’s electorate, Kooyong, and 12 Federal Ministers were present at the invitation of Liberal Party officials. Sir Robert's speech was the first recorded election policy speech delivered in Australia. He told his staff that he wished to spend a quiet night tonight before starting on his heavy campaign schedule, covering the next three weeks. He arranged for newspaper photographers to take pictures of him before the telecast began. Staff members said later that Sir Robert was quite satisfied with his television effort. The telecast was limited to 40 minutes, because it was thought that this was sufficiently long for a public reaction through this medium. It did not cover the full text of Sir Robert's policy speech, which he will amplify during his election campaign. In New South Wales tonight, 11 television stations carried the telecast. Thirty-five radio stations and 2BL and regional A.B.C. radio stations broadcast the speech.  Menzies Watches Telecast of Own Election Speech  Menzies gives Details of Election Proposals. The choice at the Federal election was particularly important for voters who were under 35, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, said last night. Sir Robert was delivering his policy speech over a nation-wide radio and television link. Sir Robert opened his speech by saying: this is no ordinary election. He repeated the Government’s reasons for calling the election and said that on November 30 electors would vote on who was to be in Government, not whether the choice should have been postponed for some months. That no Government can live on its past record is true, Sir Robert said. Yet our future growth is largely determined by the quality of what has already been done. There have, as in all other countries, been fluctuations in our fortunes, but the strong general trend has been upward.  No credit squeeze. Those who seek to make ... with foolish and false talk of another credit squeeze must assume that there is such a violent ... in economic activity as will produce an inflation ... boom. We do not anticipate and such state of affairs. ... remarks addressed to under ... he said. You have, as voters never known a Socialist Labor Government at Canberra. Some of you may, therefore, be ... to fall for old .... It’s time for a change, even though it would be a change back to the very people who were dismissed in 1949. Change is a good thing as long as it is a change for the better. Sir Robert said those who recalled the Labour Party Socialist era of restrictions, attempted nationalisation and the discouragement of enterprise which ended in December, 1949, would not need to be reminded that a Liberal Country Party had:  - Helped to create a revolutionary change in the economic climate, in production, in the growth of trade with the world in living standards, in social services, in providing for health.  - Also created change with free choice of employment, population growth, large savings and large industrial investment, increasing educational opportunities, national development credit and security.  To compare Australia today, under a free enterprise Government, with the Australia of 14 years ago is to pinpoint the most dramatic change and growth to be recorded anywhere in the world, Sir Robert said. As electors you have a great chance to make a change, not by turning away from sound and growing prosperity for new and almost hysterical experiments carried out under the close control of Labour’s outside executive- not elected by you but by giving to the government a working majority. That is the electoral change that is needed. An almost equally divided national parliament is no proper foundation for a stable and positive and authority over you. We leave that to the Socialists whose whole doctrine subordinate the individual to the State. Socialism is in fact both repressive and reactionary. Authority in an Australian Government is what it needs to have when it is negotiating with other countries, whether on political arrangements, or trade, or military alliances or arrangements for the common security. It can derive that authority only from you. Dealing with foreign policy Sir Robert said, We want growth and progress and security at home. For that purpose we need security abroad. We want friends and a defence policy which gets us strength and a true willingness and capacity to co-operate with our friends in the defence of common security."  ANZUS pact negotiated.  Sir Robert said his Government had negotiated the ANZUS pact and had made it clear that Australia would defend Papua New Guinea against attack as if it were part of the Australian mainland. That promise of ours is as a result of ANZUS completely backed by the United States, he said. Yet the ALP has never been enthusiastic about ANZUS. Sir Robert said his government had helped to negotiate SEATO and send Australian forces to Malaysia as part of a Commonwealth Strategic Reserve under SEATO. Since Malaysia had expanded into Malaysia, Labour in parliament guardedly supported the concept of Malaysia, but attached terms to any ... support which it knew to be ... to Malaysia. The pledge the government had given, to join with Great Britain and Malaysia itself to resist armed attack on the political independence and national integrity of Malaysia, had already had a marked effect among Australia's neighbours and allies. It is essential that they should know, as a result of this election, whether the Australian people stand behind our clear-cut statement, or prefer the ambiguous, uncertain, equivocating, fluctuating and almost mumbling attitude of our opponents, Sir Robert said. There is a similar conflict about the establishment of the American naval signalling station at North West Cape in Western Australia. When Labour's outside governing body, the 36, whom you are being asked to vote into power on polling day, met at Canberra to consider this matter it went within two votes of opposing the American proposal outright. The switch of one vote would have warned the Americans off. Finally, a grudging approval was given, but on terms as to control which, as which is well known, but the Americans were not prepared to accept. You must resolve these issues. It is vital that Australia’s foreign policy and relations with foreign powers should be clear and steady, and that the world should know that they are managed by a government which has a clear mandate from the Australian people. That is what we are asking for that, above all, is why we are having an election.  Foreign Policy Issues Stated  Sir Robert said the Government had a notable defence record. It would maintain the armed Forces in such ... as to enable Australia to co-operate with SEATO and ANZUS partners to their satisfaction and its own. ... would provide in Australia at Woomera and in the Department of Supply ... and technical and ... backing. Australia is ready and able to meet its international commitments, Sir Robert said. After dealing the Government’s record in the development of the Armed Services. Sir Robert said: we can look our allies in the face with justice and have no temptation to appease our enemies. He said the objectives of the Government's economic Policy were a high rate of economic and population growth with full employment, increasing productivity, rising standards of living, external solvency and stability of costs and prices. They are being successfully achieved, he said. Indeed our opponents have realised that their prophecies of a depression, unemployment and gloom have been proved false. Having realised that they cannot frighten you they have now decided to try, rather offensively, to buy you.  Economic Rate of Growth. They have made a series of irresponsible bids which would add hundreds of millions to the money in circulation without in any way increasing or cheapening production or supply. In short, they are offering you an inflationary boom of unprecedented .... Sir Robert said that the rate of development in Australia was greater at the end of the Governments 14 years of office that ever before. We believe and confidently expect that over the next five years, good government growth should at least equal a total increase of 25 per cent in the gross national product in terms of constant prices, Sir Robert said. Discussing development of Northern Australia, Sir Robert said the government would establish a special northern division of the Department of National Development. Two special problems in the north were water storage and use and freights. The Government would fully support the Water resources Council. Sir Robert said the cost of transport of materials and plant to the north was one of the greatest burdens on northern development by governments and citizens alike. The Government proposed to establish a competent committee of investigation to examine the problem and report to the Government. Sir Robert said the government would bring about a change in the price of petroleum products (other than fuel oil) so that nowhere in Australia would the normal price be more than 4d a gallon above the level of Capital City prices. We propose to effect this by arrangement with petrol companies and by arranging with the States for the Commonwealth to make grants to the states under section 96 of the constitution to enable them to pay the appropriate compensation to those companies. City prices and those and present with a 4d or smaller differential will not be affected. Turning to the questions of roads, Sir Robert said the government would early next year put before the States proposals on Commonwealth aid to succeed existing legislation which would expire in mid 1964. Under the current legislation a total of £250 m has been granted to the States for roads over a five year period. We intend that over the next five years our contribution will not less be than £350m  National Roads Authority. The Government would propose a national roads  authority try to provide a focal point for the planning and development of comprehensive system and to help in co-ordinating the activities Commonwealth and State Governments in the roads field. The nation would benefit from a thorough going survey and appraisal of the existing roads system and of foreseeable road requirements. Sir Robert said to make clear that the Department of Trade was concerned with tariff policies, trade treaties, and promotion of secondary products, its name would be changed to Department of Trade and Industry. A special Secondary Industry section should be created inside it under a senior official working ... under the ... and secretary to the department. Announcing proposals on education, Sir Robert said: first, there are many good pupils in secondary schools who would benefit if ther were helped the final two schools ... which they might otherwise miss through family circumstances. There are many ongoing technical training. Any scheme which assists a student to carry through a course of technical study for an additional two years would have great national value in these times. We propose to create special Commonwealth scholarships to be awarded competitively, at standards to be worked out with the  State. There will be in the case of secondary schools 10000 such scholarships per year, tenable at a secondary school for two years. They will cover each year payments for fees and books up to £100 a year and a further maintenance allowance to the parents of £100 a year. They will be open to students of all secondary schools, State or independent, without discrimination. There will also be 2500 scholarships carrying the same benefits open to students at technical schools. Second, having in mind the urgency of increasing technical school facilities, we will offer to the States an annual grant of £5m towards the building and equipment costs of technical schools.  Finance for education planned. Third, there is a special need for improved science teaching in the secondary school, if we are to keep in step with the march of science. As some recognition of this need, we will make available £5m a year for the provision of building and equipment facilities for science teaching in secondary schools. The amount will be distributed on a school population basis and will be available to all secondary schools, Government or independent, without discrimination. Sir Robert said child endowment would be raised to 15/ a week for third and subsequent children. Having in mind the education responsibilities of parents, 15/ a week endowment will be paid in respect of all full-time student children from 16 to 2l, he said. This would apply whether they were first, second or third children. Sir Robert said the Government proposed to solve two special housing problems. The first was the difficulty experienced by young married people, particularly in the age group up to 35 in financing the purchase of a home. He said: We will provide a Commonwealth subsidy of £1 for every £3 which a person in this age group deposits or shall have deposited, over a period of at least three years in an identifiable account at an approved institution to be released, upon or after marriage, for home building or purchasing. The maximum subsidy for one house will be £250. Thus by Commonwealth subsidy, £750 saved in this age group for a home after marriage will be increased to £ 1000. For obvious reasons, this will not extend to the purchase of State houses, or for the purchase of house and land costing more than £7000. The Minister for National Development, Sir William Spooner, said in Yass last night that this scheme would apply retrospectively as far as prospective homebuyers' sayings were concerned. He said applicants would have to establish that they were under 35 and married or about to be married, were buying their first home and had been paying over a period of three years into a bank or other savings institution for the purpose of buying a home. Sir Robert said the second special problem of the homebuyer was filling, often on oppressive terms of borrowing, the gap between available housing loans and the buyers need. We must not encourage too much uniformity of dwellings in a refreshingly individualist country. To meet this problem we will assist the obtaining of low-deposit loans related to the income and reasonable creditworthiness of the borrower. We will do this by a system of insurance by a National Housing Insurance Corporation. Loans, the subject of the guarantee, would extend to something like three times the borrower's established income, with some reasonable total ceiling.  Housing Loan Proposals. The Government will, up to a high percentage of valuation, ranging up to 95 per cent in appropriate cases, insure the repayment of such loans by approved lenders at approved rates of interests which, under guarantee, should be reasonable. Sir Robert made these promises on health matters: In view of the medical profession assurance regarding stabilisation of fees, we will increase Commonwealth medical benefits by 33,1/3 per cent. This means that the gap which has to be met by the patient will be reduced by at least 20 per cent. All contributors to medical benefits insurance funds will be entitled to this increase without being required to make any increase in their weekly contribution to the fund. Sir Robert said that under the existing methods of dividing the electorate quota into the population of each State to determine how many seats the State should have in the House of Representatives, growing States stood to lose a seat. The Government thought that was wrong, and proposed to amend the Representation Act to see it did not happen. Another amendment to the Electoral Act would emphasise to Redistribution Commissioners the extent of their discretion to vary the normal electoral quota, up or down, to allow for some variation between compact metropolitan seats and very much larger rural areas. The amendment would provide that they would specifically take into account community of economic, social and regional interests, difficulties of communication, remoteness or distance, the trend of population changes, physical features and the relative areas of proposed divisions.  Restrictive Trade Practices. Referring to restrictive trade practices, Sir Robert said: privately imposed restraints which are against the public interest or submit the small trader to oppressive limitations should be eliminated. After the publication of a broad statement of policy in general terms, the government has held many discussions and has received many criticism and suggestions. I now announce that we will, after the election, assisted by these and any further discussions and suggestions, prepare and introduce into the new Parliament, a bill to deal with restrictive practices and to protect the small trader. After its preparation and introduction, it will be open for public scrutiny for a reasonable time before the second reading debate is resumed. C.P. Policy Announced By McEwen  Shepparton (Vic.). Thursday. The government’s policies clearly showed its objective of growth, the Leader of the Country Party and Minister for Trade, Mr J. McEwen, said tonight. . The Government aimed at essentials, at production from not just words, he said. Mr McEwen was opening the Country Party’s campaign in the Federal election. He said the Labour Party had copied the Country Parry Policy for a lower uniform price for petrol in the country. Opening his speech Mr McEwen said the Country Party and the government were dedicated to continue the development of an expanding nation with a free and prosperous people.  More Vehicles, Production. While the Government had been in office, population had increased by three million; 700000 more jobs had been made available, vehicle production had reached 1000 new cars a day and farmers were producing half as much again. Land, mining and forest industries were thriving, real wealth had been produced and turned into development works. These are not promises for an election, Mr McEwen said. This is the record of what we have done. This is real growth, the result of deliberate, constructive policies. Mr McEwen said the government had declared for its objective a growth to lift Australia's economy by 25 per cent over the next five years. We aim at essentials, he said. A good price in the home market, protection against damaging imports, international agreements, negotiations for markets, strong sales promotion, an unceasing drive to increase efficiency and £9 m a year will be available to pay £3 m a ton subsidy on superphosphate. A complete transformed wool industry in a position to contrive its own policies in which the government would give assistance. Woolgrowers were highly efficient but huge expenditures in research had helped them to come close to doubting their production since the war.  Wool promotion. As a new policy we have accepted a charge of perhaps £5 m a year in matching £ for £ woolgrowers spending on sales promotion, Mr McEwen said. We negotiated the entry of our beef into the American market. Our beef herds are worth more than £100 m above what they would have been worth had we not gained entry into the American market. This is our policy at work. Growth with me is not just for a policy speech, not just a word to get votes. Mr McEwen said that if policies did not influence the location of industry and population, by the time Australia had 20 million people, 10 million would be in Sydney and Melbourne. To the country Party this was intolerable and for Australia it was dangerous.  New States Proposal  The creation of new states in appropriate areas would represent a major contribution to decentralisation. Fourteen years ago only £8m had been granted to the States for roads. Now not less than an average of £70m would be provided each year for roads for the next five year, in addition to money for beef roads. If we are elected, nowhere in Australia is petrol to cost more than 4d a gallon above the city price, and the policy will be the same for kerosene and distillate, Mr McEwen said. I stated my policy on this early this year at Country Party conferences and now Labour has copied it. Mr McEwen said that because they knew it would be bad for Australia, he and his party had opposed a proposal to redistribute seats which would have deprived Western Australia, Queensland and N.S.W. each of a seat and abolished country electorates. The Government would amend electoral Acts to avoid these States losing seats.  Secure grip on Home Markets. Our secondary industries must be secure, Mr McEwen said. To grow and to obtain export markets they must have a secure grip in the home market. We will ensure they are protected, particularly from dumping. We have devoted ourselves to the cause of manufacturing industry. Our policies have provided export insurance, encouraged and subsidised new shipping services to carry our exports, our Trade commissioner Service had extended across the world, trade publicity expenditure has increased by £1m a year, we have effective tax incentives for exporters, trade ships, trade fairs and trade missions. There is real partnership in this country between industries. Secondary industries save Australia foreign exchange by supplying goods which we must otherwise import, but they are also our greatest importers. Primary industries, long our main source of export income, earn foreign change needed by secondary industry, but the primary industries depend for their best market on the employees of secondary industry. Our policies are @ around this interdependence.  Labour Plans Battle Group At Grafton.  Grafton, Thursday. A new battle group of 2000 men to be raised under Labour’s defence plan would be located in northern N.S.W., probably at Grafton, the leader of the Federal Opposition, Mr A.A. Calwell said tonight. He was speaking at an election meeting in the Presbyterian Hall, Grafton, in of the support of the Labour candidate, Mr F. W. McGuren. Mr. McGuren won the northern rivers’ seat of Cowper at the 1961 election from Sir Earle Page, who had held the seat for the Country Party since 1919. Mr Calwell said Labour’s proposal for an additional 14000 men for the regular army included a policy of decentralisation because too much of Australia’s defence system was concentrated in the far south.  Decentralisation Policy. Labour intended placing brigade groups of 6.000 men @ in Queensland, South and Western Australia. Labour’s defence committee, which had drawn up these proposals over the past two years, had pointed out that a headquarters needed transport facilities and water and Grafton would be a logical location. Mr Calwell said that a Labour Government would make a payment at least equal to the unemployment benefit to farmers temporarily deprived of their livelihood by bushfires, floods or drought. Australia was the most centralised nation in the world, Mr Calwell said. Only a Federal Government had power to raise the money needed for thoroughgoing decentralisation.  Petrol Price Reduction. As part of its decentralisation plans, Labour had allocated £10m a year to bring the price of petrol in country areas to parity with city prices. Some days later the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, announcing a similar plan, had allocated £7m for the purpose. Mr Calwell said that this presumably meant that the Prime Minister's plan allowed for partial parity only. He said a statement last night by the Treasurer, Mr H.E. Holt, that the economy is now running in top gear was a damaging admission that Australia had no hope of doing better. In the September quarter the number of new houses and flats begun had risen by 16 per cent but this was only a fraction more than the number begun in the September quarter of 1960.  Tariff Board Streamlining. Mr Calwell said Labour would strengthen and streamline the Tariff Board to prevent delays in tariff decisions that could ruin an industry. It would ensure that if there was a doubt on whether an industry needed protection the industry would always be given the benefit of the doubt. Labour would not hesitate to impose import controls if other protective devices failed. 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.