House of Representatives
7 August 1962

24th Parliament · 1st Session

  1. House of Representatives
  2. 24th Parliament
  3. 1962

Mr. SPEAKER (Hon. Sir John McLeay) took the chair at 3 p.m., and read prayers.

page 3

BATMAN ELECTORAL DIVISION

Mr SPEAKER:

– I have to announce, with deep regret, the death on 21st July of the honorable member for Batman, Alan Charles Bird, Esq. I have to inform the House that I issued a writ on 31st July for the election of a member to serve for the electoral division of Batman in the State of Victoria in place of the deceased gentleman. The dates in connexion with the election were fixed as follows: - Date of nomination, Wednesday, 15th August, 1962; date of polling, Saturday, 1st September, 1962; date of return of writ, on or before Saturday, 6th October, 1962.

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THE PARLIAMENT

Ministerial arrangements: Illness of Leader of the Opposition.

Mr MENZIES:
Prime Minister · Kooyong · LP

– Before I address myself to the unhappy event to which you have referred, Mr. Speaker, I desire to inform the House that, following the resignation of the Honorable L. H. E. Bury, the Honorable D. E. Fairbairn has been appointed Minister for Air. Mr. Fairbairn will represent the Minister for National Development in the House, except for war service homes matters which will continue to be the responsibility of the Minister for Social Services.

Again, before we go further, I should like to say to the House that this week, at any rate, it will not be possible for my colleague, the Minister for Defence (Mr. Townley), to be present. He has undergone an operation, as honorable members know, and should not return to his duties in this House prematurely. I am happy to say that he is making very good progress.

All honorable members will share with me, also, a great regret at the illness of the Leader of the Opposition, who has undergone an operation. I must say that he had not, up to that time, been looking physically very well, and apparently it turned out that he needed surgical treatment. I spoke to him on the telephone at his hospital yesterday. I am happy to report that I found him in very good spirits. He was very bright, but, as 1 gathered, it will not be possible for him to leave hospital under a total period of a fortnight, and thereafter there will be some period of convalescence. I am sure that all honorable members will agree with me in hoping that his recovery will be sufficient and complete, so that he may make in September the journey overseas to which he has been looking forward so much.

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DEATH OF MR. ALAN CHARLES BIRD, M.P

Mr MENZIES:
Prime Minister · Kooyong · LP

– Mr. Speaker, you have already referred to the death of our late friend, Mr. Bird, the member for Batman, and a sitting member of this House at the time of his death. His death came after a long illness, which, as we all know, he bore with great courage and fortitude. That death removed from us a man whom, I think, we all hold personally in the greatest respect and who, 1 know, enjoyed the well-earned admiration of members on both sides of this House.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1949, and was re-elected at each contest thereafter. It is a very poignant comment to recall that he made what we know now, and what we suspected at the time, was an extraordinarily difficult journey in order to be sworn in as a member of this present Parliament in March of this year. His health was then failing. He knew it and we knew it, but he came bravely. He was a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works from June, 1951, until October, 1958. He was a member of the Printing Committee from February, 1959, until November, 1961, and a Temporary Chairman of Committees from August, 1954, until November, 1955.

The mere cataloguing of Mr. Bird’s official appointments cannot convey the full measure of the devotion he brought to his parliamentary duties. He was a good member, assiduously attentive to his duties as a member of this Parliament. He was a man of great integrity and political resourcefulness, yet he had a natural simplicity that everybody liked and admired.

Mr. Bird worked hard in the interests of those he represented here, and held steadfastly throughout his life to his political beliefs. We feel sad about’ his loss; all of us do. We grieve for his family, and I feel sure that I speak for all honorable members when I offer to his widow the deep sympathy of this House. Mr. Speaker, I move -

That this House expresses its deep regret at the death of Alan Charles Bird, a member of this House for the Division of Batman, places on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in its bereavement.

Mr WHITLAM:
Werriwa

– The Opposition supports the motion and thanks the Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) for the terms in which he moved it. Alan Bird was reared with a strong sense of religious and civic obligation. He devoted his life to the pursuit of the ideals with which he was reared. He gave a lifetime of service to his community and to the Australian Labour Party.

Mr. Bird was elected to the Northcote City Council in 1930, when in his midtwenties, and he was a member of that council for the rest of his life. He was elected Mayor on two occasions - in 1939 and in 1958. He was chairman of various committees and particularly of the Public Works Committee of the Northcote City Council. He was elected to the chairmanship of that committee in 1951 - the same year in which he was elected to the Public Works Committee of this Parliament.

Alan Bird thus had had a long and intense training in elected offices and had enjoyed the support of his community for many years before he came to this Parliament. In this Parliament, we all realized his dedication, his diligence and his decency. Even where members did not support the principles or the policies he espoused, they respected him for the integrity with which he pursued them, and for the manner in which he expressed them.

He was respected and liked by every man in this place throughout the years of his membership. We knew how wide were his interests. In particular, he became an expert in three fields. He realized the responsibility which rests on an industrialized country like Australia to share in aid to under-developed countries. He realized the responsibility which rests on the National Parliament under a federal system such as Australia’s to make adequate provision for housing and roads. He put his views forcefully and persuasively. He has had an enduring influence on thinking in this country in those three matters. He was recognized as one of the authorities on them in Australia.

Sir, it will be some comfort to his widow and to his great number of friends to know that the hundreds of people who attended his funeral - you among them, Mr. Speaker - were merely a fraction of the huge number of people who valued his services and who will value his memory. It is a matter of regret and loss to us all that his life of public service - municipal and national - was brought to an end when he was still at a rel-‘: - *lv young age.

Mr McEWEN:
Minister for Trade · Murray · CP

– I wish to associate myself and my colleagues of the Australian Country Party with the motion proposed by the Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) and supported by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Whitlam). We join in expressing regret at the death of Mr. Alan Bird and in extending deepest sympathy to his widow. It is a very unhappy circumstance that Mr. Bird, after distinguished service in the Parliament and having been re-elected, was not able to participate in the debates of this present Parliament. However, he leaves behind him, as evidenced by the remarks to-day, a memory of a man we liked and respected. We recognized him as a man who brought the best of the normal man into the Parliament, who fought hard for his party, for his electorate, for his principles and for the people he represented in the Parliament. He did so courageously and with devotion, and he was always attentive to all of the duties that befall a member of Parliament. These are the matters that remain in our minds to-day as we extend our sympathy to Mr. Bird’s widow and place in the annals of the Parliament the record of our feelings on this occasion.

Mr PETERS:
Scullin

– I wish to pay my tribute to the late Alan Bird for the services he rendered to the people amongst whom he lived and worked. I knew Alan Bird for more than 30 years. He gave service as a youth in the organizations of the church to which he belonged and gained considerable inspiration to go on to serve in a wider capacity as a councillor and later as a member of Parliament. He was a member of the Northcote Council for more than 30 years and was a member of the Parliament from 1949. During all those years he gained, as he earned, the admiration of all those with whom he came in contact.

In recent years he was very ill. During his illness, his wife had a very exacting job in taking care of him. Just as she was an able and helpful assistant to him in his work, so during his later years she gave him the most tender of care in what was indeed a very exacting illness. It may be! truly said of Alan Bird that he never turned his back on a struggle. He always fought cleanly and put his best foot forward. He never doubted that the clouds would break. He never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph. He held we fall to rise - are baffled to fight better - sleep to wake. The heart of Alan Bird beat for many worthy causes. We all share in the mourning of his loss.

Mr DUTHIE:
Wilmot

– I wish to associate myself with the motion before the House. I thank the Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) and those of my colleagues who have spoken for the kind things they said about our late friend and fellow member. This Parliament mourns the death of a member who was deeply respected on both sides of the political frontier. We are saddened that one so active and worthy in public life should pass from the sight of man at the height of his powers. But, although Alan Bird has passed from our sight, he will not pass from our hearts, because he had the capacity to win a place in the hearts of all men who really know him.

Alan Bird was a thorough gentleman. He was a clean and fair fighter. He was a friendly, cheerful man - a man of character and decency. Those are the qualities that we will always remember. The memory of those qualities in a man will outlast the memory of his position, wealth and power. Alan Bird was richly endowed for public life. He was completely honest, delightfully modest and essentially human in his attitude to life. He was rock-like in integrity, true to his convictions, and absolutely loyal to his political party. He was devoted and conscientious in the discharge of his parliamentary, municipal and social duties.

As member for Batman since 1949 he endeared himself to his constituents. He worked untiringly for their welfare, but Alan Bird was no parish pump member. He displayed a great knowledge of matters both national and international. He took a tremendous interest in the national road problems, and will always be remembered for his sustained fight for a national roads plan. I pay a tribute to Alan Bird’s outstanding contributions to the debates in this Parliament. He was always ready to take part in any debate. A Whip gets to know very well the members of his party. Alan Bird was always ready when required. His speeches were always thoroughly prepared. He never did anything in a half-hearted way. His speeches were an example to all of us. He always spoke with conviction, earnestness and sincerity. It was always pleasing and informative to listen to him when he took part in a debate. His work displayed intense concentration, deep sincerity and outstanding conscientiousness. As the Prime Minister has said, throughout his illness he displayed wonderful courage and fortitude. I sympathize with his wife in the ordeal that she has gone through in the last few months. To Alan Bird’s sorrowing wife, mother, brothers and sisters we extend our sincerest sympathy. Our lives have been the richer for having known, as a friend and colleague in this parliamentary sphere, the late Alan Bird.

Question resolved in the affirmative, honorable members standing in their places.

page 6

DEATH OF SENATOR THE HONORABLE ALBERT DAVID REID, M.C

Mr MENZIES:
Prime Minister · Kooyong · LP

– Mr. Speaker, the death occurred of Senator Albert David Reid, Military Cross, Chairman of Committees in the Senate, in May, about six weeks before he was to have retired from the Senate. His death closed a long and distinguished career in State and Federal politics. He first entered public life, in a parliamentary sense, in the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales in 1927, and was Minister for Agriculture in the State Government from April, 1938, to May, 1941. In 1949, our late colleague became an Australian Country Party senator from New South Wales and served continuously in the Senate until his death. He was a Temporary Chairman of Committees there from 1951 to 1953, when he became Chairman of Committees. He was Vice-

Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works from June, 1951, to September, 1953, and a member of the Senate Standing Orders Committee from September, 1953. At the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 1953, he was a member of the Australian parliamentary delegation. He was also a member of the Australian delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in 1959.

Earlier, I referred to Albert Reid’s entering parliamentary life. It is very interesting to recall that he also began his life of public service in local government affairs, though he went into them at the age of 21.

Albert Reid was in the first Australian Imperial Force and was on the first convoy to sail from Australia. He had a very distinguished military career that was marked with the award of the Military Cross, which, as the honorable member for Chisholm (Sir Wilfrid Kent Hughes) will recall, was won by the late senator when he led the 4th Light Horse Regiment, which he then commanded, in the famous cavalry charge at Beersheba. Our late colleague returned to service in the Second World War, when he served with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Eastern Command.

That, Sir, is a brief and perhaps almost perfunctory account - though I hope it will not be taken as perfunctory - of a notable career of public service. We shall remember Albert Reid for those distinguished services. Many of us will remember him, too, as a man of uncommon uprightness and of great personal charm and attraction. I think that it would have been hard to find anybody who was his enemy. He was ill for some time before he died, and we thought about him a great deal. We thought about his wife a great deal, too.

Albert Reid will be remembered very vividly, not only in the story of his party, in which he was a very distinguished ornament, but also in the story of the New South Wales Parliament and of the Commonwealth Parliament. It is well to remember, when we speak about a man of this kind, that we use no ordinary form of words. We are commemorating services which have built themselves into the fabric of self-government in Australia, and when we speak of them we all are their debtors.

I move -

That this House expresses its deep regret at the death of the Honorable Albert David Reid, a senator from the State of New South Wales, places on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in its bereavement.

Mr WHITLAM:
Werriwa

– The Opposition associates itself with this motion. Our colleagues in the other place have always acknowledged and proclaimed that Albert Reid was as upright in his conduct as he was in his bearing. He was one of a handful of men who in the 1920’s made the Australian Country Party a redoubtable force in politics in the New South Wales Parliament and the Australian Parliament. Among them were Sir Earle Page, who died last year; Sir Michael Bruxner, who retired this year; and the honorable member for New England (Mr. Drummond), who has announced that he will retire at the next federal elections. Albert Reid was of their number and of their character. The influence of these men was felt and has had an enduring effect on the party with which their party is associated and on the party to which it is opposed.

Sir, we mourn with his relatives. He gave distinguished service in two wars and in municipal, State and Federal politics. We are all his debtors.

Mr McEWEN:
Minister for Trade · Murray · CP

– I desire to associate myself and my colleagues of the Australian Country Party with the motion that has been moved by the Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) and so eloquently supported by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Whitlam). The late Senator Albert Reid was indeed a very distinguished member of the Australian Country Party. He served this country in peace and in war during his lifetime. He evinced an interest in public matters very early in life, and as quite a young man he became a member of the Farmers and Settlers Association of New South Wales. As the Prime Minister mentioned, he became active in local government when he was as young as 21. When war broke out in 1914, he was one of the first to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. Indeed, as the Prime Minister has told the House, he was one of the band that left for overseas service on the very first convoy from Australia in 1914. He served with distinction with the 1st Light Horse Regiment and later with the 4th Light Horse Regiment on Gallipoli and in Palestine. This is really a bit of Australian history, because we are recording the recent death of one of the few men who took part in that quite dramatic cavalry charge at Beersheba probably the last military cavalry charge in history - in which Australians covered themselves with great glory. Albert Reid, as a captain, led his squadron in that dramatic event with such courage and distinction that he was awarded the Military Cross for his participation.

Upon his return to civilian life in Australia he renewed his association with the Country Party and in 1927, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales as the member for Young. He served the party there with such distinction that in the 1930’s he became Minister for Agriculture in the Government of New South Wales, an office which he discharged with distinction. He re-enlisted in the Second World War and after serving for a period as Deputy Director of Recruiting in the State of New South Wales, he spent two years in the Australian Imperial Force. In 1949 he was elected to the Senate as a Country Party member and, as the Prime Minister reminded us, after a period of service as a Temporary Chairman of Committees he became the Chairman of Committees of the Senate, an office which he upheld with dignity. In that capacity he earned both for himself and for the chamber the respect that derives from occupancy of an office with dignity and distinction. I have never heard any one say that he acted other than with complete impartiality in that high office. Certainly he acted at all times with great devotion to the Country Party, and he will always remain in our minds as a figure of consequence, of character and distinction in the annals of the Country Party. I extend, with others, sympathy to Lis widow, Mrs. Reid, whom many of us - and our wives - know. We will miss her visits to Canberra. We extend our sympathy to Mrs. Reid and to the two sons of the late senator, Mr. Ian Reid, of Crowther, and Mr. Keith Reid, of Wagga.

Mr DRUMMOND:
New England

– Mr. Speaker, I wish to associate myself with the tributes which have been paid to the late Senator Albert David Reid, and also with the message of condolence to the members of his family. Albert Reid and I became members of the Parliament of New South Wales many years ago. We were colleagues in the Country Party and I served with him in two ministries in the life of one parliament. He was one of the finest type of Australian citizen and certainly one of the finest type of parliamentary representative with whom I have had the honour and pleasure to be associated.

As Minister for Agriculture in New South Wales he made a marked contribution to the thinking upon the conservation of water and had the proposals he made been carried into effect instead of being delayed by the onset of war, they would have assisted materially in the development of rural New South Wales and would have added to the wealth of this country. I can only express deep regret at the loss of a firm friend who never failed in any circumstances. 1 express my regret, too, that the Parliament of this Commonwealth has lost a distinguished soldier and a fine citizen who, in times of war and peace, rendered great service to his country. My sympathy goes out to his lady and the other members of his family.

Question resolved in the affirmative, honorable members standing in their places.

page 8

DEATHS OF FORMER MEMBERS

Mr MENZIES:
Prime Minister · Kooyong · LP

– Mr. Speaker, this is an unhappy day, because I have, further, to advise the House formally of the deaths of three former members of this House and I wish to make some brief, and, I am afraid, inadequate reference to each of them.

The first is the late Herbert Victor Johnson - Vic Johnson - who was a member for the Division of Kalgoorlie from 1940 - I remember him arriving in this House in that year - to 1958. He was a Minister of the Crown, being Minister for the Interior from 1945 to 1949, in cabinets led by the late Mr. Chifley. He was an acting Minister in other portfolios at different times. He was a member of the Standing Committee on Broadcasting, chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on War Expenditure and chairman of the Board of Management of the Australian War Memorial. I have given just a very brief summary of his parliamentary activities and experience. He also had a long and interesting history of activity in union affairs. He devoted a great deal of his energies to those affairs, particularly in his earlier days. He was one of the pioneers of the Australian Workers Union, and I think I am right in saying that he held the No. 1 membership ticket in that union until he died. He was a foundation member of the Western Australian branch of the union, which was established in 1908. He was State Secretary from 1936 to 1940 and Federal President from 1942 to 1948. This was all very proper, because if ever a man exhibited in himself what we regard as the great qualities of the back country and of people who work there, it was Victor Johnson. I cannot imagine a better man to be president of that great and famous union. I cannot imagine a better man from Western Australia, and from the interior of Western Australia.

I had a tremendous personal affection for him. I do not think that Victor Johnson could have lied if he had tried to. He had all the great strong masculine virtues. Some of us will remember always with pleasure inducing Vic Johnson, at the end of sessions, to recite a few outback ballads and to give us a few slabs from Henry Lawson, to our intense delight and enduring memory. He was an absolutely first-class Australian. I am proud to think that he served in this House and that I knew him. I do not need to say how well regarded he was in this House, and how so many of us, particularly those who might be classed, perhaps, as older members, remember him with gratitude.

Since we last met, Mr. Speaker, George James Bowden, a former Chairman of Committees and Deputy Speaker of this House, has also left us. He did not contest his seat at the last election. His health had been failing. He had a very distinguished record in politics in his own party, of which he was an eminent member in Victoria, and also as a soldier. He, like

Senator Reid, served in the First World War, and he was wounded three times and was awarded the Military Cross. In 1939 he again enlisted. He could not be sent overseas, but he commanded a coastal defence battalion until 1943. In that year he was elected to the House of Representatives as the member for Gippsland, and he retained that seat until he retired just before the last election. He was a temporary Chairman of Committees from 1956 to 1958 and Chairman of Committees from February, 1959, until March of last year, when ill health compelled him to relinquish that office.

George Bowden, although so unlike Victor Johnson in many ways, was also a fascinating personality. I always think of him as standing over there, where the state of the House no longer permits a Country Party member to take his seat, with that superb faculty he had of looking like a benign grandfather, while at the same time shooting the arrow of argument with deadly accuracy into what he believed to be wrong. He was a great, warm character. We will long remember him. We are very grateful for his service to this country and in this Parliament. It is men like this, you know, who enrich our treasure house of memories, particularly for those of us who, like myself, are getting a little senior in the parliamentary service of the country.

Also, 1 regret to say, reference must be made to Rowland James, better known as Rowley James, who represented the electorate of Hunter from 1928 to 1958. He had 30 years in which to imprint himself on the eye and hearing and feelings of people in this House. He preferred to be called Rowley. I think it was one of the great moments of his life when a horse named Old Rowley won the Melbourne Cup. He took it almost as a personal tribute. We all remember him. We can look back on him with great pleasure- a miner, the son of a miner and the champion of the miners in this Parliament for 30 years. He spoke with great authority. He had been through the mill. He knew what it was about. It must have given him great comfort towards the end of his life to find that his own son became the member for Hunter to carry on, as I trust he will, the tradition of representation of that kind which his father established.

Rowland James held a number of official parliamentary posts. He was chairman of the Joint Committee of Public Works from October, 1943, to August, 1946. He was a member of the Manpower and Resources Survey Committe in 1941 and 1942. He was leader of the Australian delegation of the coal mines committee to the International Labour Organization, in December, 1945. From 1943 to 1949, he was a liaison officer between the Commonwealth Government and the committee of the coal-mining industry. In August, 1954, he was a member of the Australian delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference at Nairobi, in Kenya. He was, in all these matters, remarkably assisted by one whom I will describe as a remarkable wife. He lived in his community. I have had, in my own time, the pleasure of being there with him, and attending things there with him. He lived in the middle of a coal-mining area. He was part of it. He spoke for it, in his own fashion, not always with the final polish of the schools, but always with the vigour of the heart. All of us who knew him - I, perhaps, in particular - remember his services with great pride and pleasure, and I feel that this is an opportunity to place on the record a tew honest words about him so that his family may be able to read them and, perhaps, derive some comfort from them.

Mr WHITLAM:
Werriwa

– The three colleagues whom we commemorate ail lived their allotted span. They all had long careers in public life. Each ended his career at a time of his own choosing.

The first to be elected to this Parliament was Rowley James. Hunter was first represented in this Parliament by the first Prime Minister. Rowley James succeeded a leader of the Australian Labour Party as member for Hunter; he was succeeded by another. He was elected at a time of great trouble in the coal-mining industry. Over the whole country, conditions deteriorated in the years immediately after his election. In the first ten years or so that he was a member, he literally shared his income with his electors. There was in no other part of Australia a whole community in more straitened circumstances than was the community which be represented. He became and remained the guide and counsellor of thousands of people in an unlimited variety of matters.

In the 1940’s, he was able to achieve for his community and for his mates a transformation in the coal-mining industry.

The Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) has read the official appointments within and outside Australia which he held in coal matters. Through the Coal Industry Tribunal and the Joint Coal Board, for both of which he was as much responsible as any other man, he was able to bring about a measure of stability, security and justice in the coal industry which put it, at that time, well ahead of anything that could have been imagined at the time he was elected.

He was an extraordinarily robust character. Physically, there has probably never been a more powerful man to enter this Parliament. We all remember him as a companion in the party room and in this chamber. Elsewhere, too, he contributed to our gaiety and our memories. He was a good team man. He was ready to stand down for John Curtin in 1940 when it seemed that Curtin could lose his seat in this Parliament. He did stand down for Dr. Evatt in 1958. He did not enjoy good health in the years after his retirement from this Parliament; but, as the Prime Minister has said, he was comforted by the fact that the goodwill and affection which he had established for his family endured, and were demonstrated in the election of one of his stalwart sons to succeed him in the seat of Hunter.

Another of my colleagues in the Australian Labour Party, Victor Johnson, enjoyed, as the Prime Minister said, a very long training in public life in the Australian Workers Union. He held ticket No. 1 in the Western Australian branch until the day he died. He had been a pastoral organizer of that branch from 1916 until 1937, when he was appointed branch secretary. In 1940, he was elected to Kalgoorlie, the largest electorate in the world. He knew it as few people could ever know it, well before he became the member for it. He had cycled many miles in his electorate on organizational work, in the course of which he gained a great deal of personal support and goodwill. He helped to make his union effective in remote areas, and to ensure the policing and enforcing of awards in places where otherwise they could have been readily evaded. In establishing a network of unionism he also established a network of friendships, which later became a network of enthusiastic political supporters as long as he chose to remain a member of this Parliament. He, too, achieved a very great deal for the area which he served and knew. In 1945, he became Minister for the Interior. It was a time when the Commonwealth Parliament realized its responsibilities for the Northern Territory and set about developing it. As member for Kalgoorlie and as the Minister for the Northern Territory, he was able to coordinate and initiate the development of the greater part of the northern part of the continent. As member for Kalgoorlie he was naturally an expert on the gold-mining industry, but he also knew of the pastoral and agricultural wealth which could come with a proper public initiative in research, conservation and communications. He was a successful advocate of such pioneering work. It is for us to see that it is carried through.

Then we mourn George Bowden. If I may say so, Mr. Speaker, he was very similar to you in the chair. He was a digger from the First World War. He knew that he had to command a group of spirited men who had human feelings. When he had to call for discipline or obedience, he knew they would respond. There was mutual respect between him as the Chairman of Committees and the men over whom he presided. He kept a good committee. I myself can recall only one incident when he departed from strict impartiality. It was while one of his colleagues was speaking, and he could not forbear from saying, “ Hear, hear! “. Immediately, however, he recovered’ and rebuked himself by crying, “Order! “ Sir, in a long and distinguished career George Bowden served his country, his electorate and honorable members well.

Mr McEWEN:
Minister for Trade · Murray · CP

– I wish to associate members of the Australian Country Party with the references made by the Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Whitlam) to our former colleagues in this Parliament - George Bowden, Victor Johnson and Rowland

James. For members of the Australian Country Party, it is sad to speak of the passing of George Bowden. He had been a leading figure in the Australian Country Party organization in Victoria. For three years he was chief president of the Victorian organization before becoming the Country Party member for Gippsland in this House. He represented that constituency with distinction for eighteen years.

As has been said, Mr. Bowden’s qualities were accorded recognition by the House when he was made Chairman of Committees, and in that position the force of his quiet strength of character evidenced itself. He sustained the kind of discipline that is seen in a democratic parliament without any semblance of the iron fist and certainly without any suggestion at any time of partiality in the exercise of his office. He was respected in this place. George Bowden served the Australian Country Party well at the organization level and in this Parliament, and he will always be remembered and respected as a distinguished parliamentary member of that party.

Mr. Bowden was a member of the First Australian Imperial Force, and he served in some of the most bitter fighting in France as a captain with the 24th Battalion. He was wounded three times and finally was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. So we recall George Bowden as a man within every meaning of the word, and as a colleague liked by his team mates and by his political opponents alike. He was a man respected by all and his passing is regretted by all. We extend our sympathy to his sister, Mrs. Murphy, and to his surviving brother.

Victor Johnson was a very distinguished member of this Parliament and the . Australian Labour Party. I remember when he was elected to this House, succeeding another quite picturesque figure, the late Texas Green, as the representative of the gigantic constituency of Kalgoorlie. Victor Johnson served his apprenticeship as a drover on the road and started, as I remember him telling me, before he was in his teens. Then he graduated to the shearing sheds and from an active life in the pastoral industry he became a union organizer. In due course he became a very good representative of his State, his constituency and the Labour Party organization as a member of this Parliament. We liked and respected Victor Johnson, and I record the regret of myself and my colleagues at his passing.

Rowland James was a member of this House when I first entered it in 1934. He was a very active and vigorous member who left no one in any doubt about his complete understanding of the problems of the men who worked in the coal-mines and the women and children who lived in the coalmining areas. In Mr. James, human qualities were complete. He fought vigorously and well and, as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has said, he fought effectively for all he believed in with a special concentration on the community of the coal-fields. Rowley James had a full life. It was a life of distinguished service to his party, his community and the Parliament.

I express the sympathy of the Australian Country Party to the relatives of each of our three former colleagues.

Mr BEAZLEY:
Fremantle

– I should like to identify myself with what has been said about Rowland James and George Bowden, but otherwise I shall confine my remarks to my former Western Australian colleague, Victor Johnson. When I was first elected to this place, Mr. Johnson was the senior Western Australian member. In those days, the Australian Labour Party held all five seats for Western Australia in this place. Mr. Johnson went out of his way to show me very great kindness in helping me to find my feet here and for that I shall always remember him with gratitude.

When I first met him, I thought Victor Johnson was the most radiantly happy man I knew, but a lot of the radiance went out of his life when he became Minister for the Interior. He was above all an outdoor man. As the Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) has said, Victor Johnson was a man of the outback. In his union experience as an organizer, he always dealt with people on a personal and friendly basis, and I think he found it difficult and distressing very often to make the impersonal decisions of a Minister. Because he was a very conscientious man, he was concerned that his decisions should be right, and he found it difficult, I think, to face a situation where he could not always see directly the effect of his decisions as had been his experience when he was a union organizer.

He was a man whose formal schooling came late in life, and that gave him a very great deal of sympathy for people who were inarticulate. As a union organizer, he frequently had to deal with people who did not know their rights. They lived in remote areas and some of them were Australians of aboriginal race. He, as a union organizer, was their advocate and a man whose duty it was to explain their rights and to enforce their rights.

His other concern was that the particular industry with which he had to deal - the gold-mining industry - had been a great source of ill health to very many men in Western Australian history, and zeal for the battle for legislation, and the enforcement of legislation, which would compensate the men for miners’ phthisis burned in his heart for many years. He was, therefore, a man whose whole training was to assist people who had difficulty in assisting themselves.

As Minister for the Interior, Mr. Johnson did an extraordinarily conscientious job. As I have said, he was the doyen of the Western Australian members at the time when a Labour government was in office and those of his colleagues in Western Australia who were associated with him when the Chifley Government was in office will remember him with gratitude.

Mr COLLARD:
Kalgoorlie

– I should like to associate myself with the remarks that have been made. I join with previous speakers in expressing my regret at the passing of Mr. Bowden and Mr. James. In particular, I pay tribute to Vic Johnson, who was a man who battled throughout his life to ensure that the people he represented at various times received justice and fair play. Unfortunately, at the time of his passing I was in a rather isolated area in the north of Western Australia and I was unable to attend his funeral and pay my respects. However, I was very pleased to learn that a large number of people followed Vic to his last resting place. This showed without a doubt that he was held in high regard as a very worthy citizen. Of course, those who attended his funeral were only a small proportion of the people who would have liked to have paid their respects to him.

Vic Johnson was known throughout the length and breadth of Western Australia, particularly in the north and north-west - in what we term the back country - where he spent most of his early years in the pastoral industry as a shearer. He was known in those early years as a top-class shearer Many honorable members may not be aware that Vic suffered a very severe shock shortly before his demise. I refer to the ultimely death of his son, Merv. Merv and Vic were very closely attached and I am sure that Merv’s death played a vital part in the final collapse of Vic.

I join with other honorable members in expressing my sincere sympathy to Mrs. Johnson and the remainder of the family at the passing of both Vic and Merv. The loss of a husband and father and a son and brother in such a short time is a very severe blow for any family to receive. However, I am sure that the fact that so many people attended Vic’s funeral and expressed their regrets to his family softened the blow.

As the Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) and other honorable members have said, Vic Johnson played an important part in the formation of the Australian Workers Union in Western Australia. To a very large extent, he laid the foundation on which the union is so firmly placed at this time. It has been said that Vic held the No. 1 ticket in the union. He took out the very first ticket to be taken out in the Western Australian branch of the union and continued to hold that ticket with considerable pride for some 50 years.

I had the pleasure and privilege of travelling with Vic Johnson throughout his electorate. He was well and favorably received wherever he went. Wherever I went in his electorate, I always met several people who were old mates of his and who held him in very high regard. Vic was a jolly good mate to be with in the bush. He would keep the party not only amused but also interested with the stories he told of his early days as a shearer, of his experiences as an organizer for the union and of his life as a member of the Parliament. I did not have the pleasure of seeing Vic in his place in this House, but I did have the honour and pleasure of being with him in the bush. As I said, Vic was well known. I remember once in the Workers Club in Boulder, when we were having a drink, a chap selling sweep tickets said to Vic, “ What is your name? “ Vic put down his glass, put his hand on the other man’s shoulder, as he always did, and said: “ Young fellow, you have not travelled very far. If you had, you would have seen my name on every gum tree at every bend in the road.”

I join with others in expressing my deep regret at the passing of Vic Johnson and extend my sympathy to members of his family.

Mr NIXON:
Gippsland

– I wish to associate myself with the remarks of other honorable members regarding the deaths of former members of the Parliament. I first entered the Parliament as the successor of Colonel Bowden and I was gratified when many members from both sides of the House approached me and asked after his heal’.h. This showed some of the esteem in which he was held in this place. Throughout the electorate of Gippsland many people inquired after his health right up to the time of his passing. He was held in very high esteem. He served the Australian Country Party well, he served the electorate of Gippsland well and he served the Parliament well.

He was noted for his sense of humour. I remember an ocasion during a meeting of the Australian Country Party in Gippsland some years ago when my father, in making a speech, referred to the fact that the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority was taking water from the upper reaches of the Snowy River. He said, “ They are even taking our water “. Colonel Bowden, who was sitting alongside him, said, “What; without an anaesthetic! “ This was typical of the man. Frequently he could get himself out of some bother with a lit’.le quick quip.

Colonel Bowden was held in the highest esteem by the people of Gippsland, and I would like to asociate myself with the expressions of sympathy to his family.

Mr JAMES:
Hunter

– I associate myself with the expressions of condolence at the passing of the late George

Bowden, Vic. Johnson and others whom we remember on this occasion. I am deeply moved by the expressions of sympathy at the passing of my late dad. He represented the electorate of Hunter for many years. The welfare of the people of the electorate was always uppermost in his mind. I now have the honour of representing the electorate and I will strive to serve the people I represent with the same tenacity, sincerity and honesty of purpose as my dad did. He was an ordinary man. His philosophy of life was, never try to be something that you are not. He bore malice to none. He believed in charity for all. I know that our family will obtain great satisfaction from the kind words uttered in the chamber to-day by the Prime Minister, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and other honorable members.

Mr TURNBULL:
Mallee

– 1 wish to be associated with these remarks, and I should like particularly to say a few words about the late George Bowden. I met George Bowden a few days after my election to the Parliament on 9th February, 1946. For ten years I travelled by train with him to Canberra. We used to share a sleeping compartment. When you travel with a man under those circumstances you get to know him very well. Our friendship remained right up until his death.

I had the privilege of visiting George Bowden at his home and when he was a patient in Heidelberg Hospital. George Bowden was a man who stood for those principles that have made the British people great - principles without which we cannot long endure. His sister, Mrs. Murphy, tended him with great care, and I pay a particular tribute to her.

George Bowden was a man of great faith and confidence. He was a popular speaker at Anzac Day ceremonies and at other functions. I was impressed by his recollection of something that he saw in Anzac Cove at a spot where the cliff jutted out. He told me that as he walked round the corner of the cliff he saw a rough cross marking the resting place of a soldier. On that cross was a placard bearing the words -

Halt, soldier, ere you pass me by. As you are now, so once was I; As I am now, so you will be; So be prepared to follow me.

George Bowden referred to those words at Anzac Day ceremonies. The words impressed him. When I visited him recently he said, “Give messages to all my friends in the House of Representatives and the Senate “. That meant everybody, because everybody was friendly with him. He said, “ I will be back to see them soon “. He kept his confidence and faith. It must be some consolation to his sorrowing relatives - to Mrs. Murphy especially - to know, as I know, that when George Bowden passed to the great beyond he was prepared to meet his Maker.

Mr Menzies:

– As a mark of respect, Mr. Speaker, I suggest that the sitting be suspended until 8 o’clock.

Sitting suspended from 4.14 to 8 p.m.

page 14

QUESTION

ESTIMATES 1962-63

Messages from the Administrator reported transmitting Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure and Estimates of Expenditure for Additions, New Works and Other Services, involving Capital Expenditure for the year ending 30th June, 1963; and recommending appropriations accordingly.

Mr SPEAKER (Hon Sir John McLeay:
BOOTHBY, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

– This procedure is in order. It is laid down that a message from the Administrator shall be presented to the House at the earliest possible opportunity.

Ordered to be printed, and referred to the Committee of Supply forthwith.

page 14

BUDGET 1962-63

In Committee of Supply:

Mr HAROLD HOLT:
Treasurer · Higgins · LP

– I desire to lay before the House estimates of receipts and expenditures in the financial year 1962-63.

On these estimates, expenditures by the Commonwealth this year will exceed the total of its revenues, loan proceeds and the cash available to it from trust funds by £118,328,000. I shall explain these estimates later and I shall also discuss the likely impact of such a budget result on the economy. Here, however, I state it chiefly as signifying the determination of the Government to follow through with its expansionary programme until the economy is operating at the highest level of activity we can hope to sustain.

That is our first and predominant aim. We have, without doubt, gone a long way towards achieving it. In 1961-62 there were big increases in employment, production and the volume of trade and, generally, expansion appears to be proceeding steadily. But there is still some way to go. Unemployment has to be reduced further. There is still a fair amount of plant capacity which could be taken up and there is always new labour coming forward and new plant being installed. I shall in due course make a close analysis of the situation but it is enough to say here that, after talking things over with representative leaders from industry, trade and finance and studying a wealth of statistical information, we have decided to continue in full strength all the expansionary measures we adopted progressively through 1961-62.

There is, however, much more to the problem than simply to keep expansion moving over the next few months. To take one aspect of it - amongst the people we lately consulted, more than a few told us that there was still some lack of confidence in the business world and, on closer discussion, it appeared that several elements were contributing to this. One was a doubt whether the recent expansion, after going some distance, might not flag and peter out. Another was a fear that the Government might be apprehensive of another boom like that of i960 and might suddenly and hastily reverse its policies. A third anxiety, very different from the rest, was that something would be done, or allowed to occur, that would jeopardize stability, start prices and costs rising again and unhinge our balance of payments. The spokesmen for rural industry were particularly strong on this.

Confidence is vital - we all recognize that; and if apprehensions such as these exist it is for the Government to meet and allay them as far as it is able. This Budget, our chief instrument of policy, has been carefully shaped to do that.

As to continuance of expansion the course is, surely, plain enough. We must give the immediate situation all necessary support and, when I have explained the position, it will, 1 think, be clear that the Budget does that. But we must not concentrate the whole of our attention on the immediate future. We have to look to the period beyond and establish conditions and put action in train that will encourage and promote and provide a sound basis for continued expansion. Especially by the Budget provisions for development - for projects, large and small, that will open up new and great resources as well as enlarge and modernize the existing facilities of our economy - we will leave no doubts as to our intentions in that direction. We must enlarge the sources of Our export income if we are to generate employment opportunities in our rural, mining, manufacturing and other industries on the scale necessary to match the growth in our work force. There is still too little recognition of the link between export income and our objective of full employment. Without an adequate export income, we cannot have created for us the job opportunities which a growing workforce will need.

I come now to our supposed preoccupation with a future boom and the risk of our reversing current policies. Naturally we do not want another boom like that of 1960. Not many do. It would, of course, be denying a great deal of experience to say that another boom could not occur - many things can cause a boom and they can crop up suddenly. But we see nothing in the present situation, external or internal, that will necessarily lead to a boom; on the contrary, we see no reason why, given forethought, responsible management and cooperation between government and business, expansion should not continue at a good strong pace, absorbing resources as they become available without running into a condition of excess demand which is the real essence of a boom.

We are not ruled by fear of a boom; but when I am told, as I am from time to time, that we are preoccupied with stability. 1 readily admit that charge - just as I reject the implications that our critics read into it. To me, stability means three things, all related to and dependent on one another - steady growth, a balance between current supply and demand and stable costs and prices. At that, it is one of the great objects of economic policy. We have pursued it consistently through thick and thin and, despite all the doubts and jeers and recriminations, we have achieved it. By most tests, this country is in a position of great strength to-day. Production and sales are improving in most branches of industry and trade and in all States. Externally, our position is as good as we have known it for very many years. Capital is flowing in. Money for investment and for current spending is abundant. Employment, though not as high as we would like to see it, is certainly high by the standards that prevail in many countries. Prices and costs are stable and the pay envelope has held its purchasing power in a year of better values. There have been widespread gains in managerial efficiency and competition is now keen in many sectors of business. The public is getting the benefit of reduced prices in many important lines, and this has particular merit for young people setting up homes. The housewife has welcomed the wider choice and better value offering to her.

It would be easy enough to wreck all this by some ill-judged stroke - some action that caused a sudden upsurge of demand or a sweeping addition to costs in industry. It could be eroded, too, by the edging up of prices and costs over a widening field until a rising spiral began again. It could be dissipated in some renewed outbreak of speculation. Those are the kinds of things the Government does not want to see happen, and the great majority of people does not want to see them happen either. From the external stand-point, with trade competition sharpening and likely to sharpen further, and the unknown possibilities of the Common Market ahead of us, it is critically important that they should not happen. Costs are vital both to our exporting industries and to the industries which compete with imports in our home market; and here already our policies have won for us an important advantage. We know that, while costs in countries abroad, especially the countries of Western Europe and Japan, have been rising fast, our costs have been largely stable. If our industries, or any of them, have difficult days to come, I can think of no better way of safeguarding them than this; and it is for hard, practical reasons such as these, and not from any morbid fear of past events repeating themselves, that we emphasize the need for stability and plan and work for it.

page 16

THE BUDGETARY SITUATION

I shall now state, in terms of estimated expenditures and receipts, the financial prospect for 1962-63 and explain certain proposals the Government will make to Parliament.

page 16

EXPENDITURE ESTIMATES, 1962-63

Estimates of expenditure in 1962-63 on items ordinarily charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund total £1,725,815,000. This amounts to an increase of £82,787,000 on expenditures in 1961-62. The estimates for both revenue and expenditure are set out in detail in Statement No. 3 attached to the Budget Speech and similar details for 1961-62 are given in Statement No. 1. With the concurrence of honorable members, I shall have those and other statements referred to in my speech incorporated in “ Hansard “.

Defence

A new three-year defence programme has been drawn up in the light of changes in the world political and strategic situation and particularly of the responsibilities we have in the region of South-East Asia. A statement on it will be made to the House in due course. Inevitably it will lead to a rise in the annual level of our defence expenditure. Pending completion of inquiries into actual outgoings under the programme in the coming year, a sum of £210,000,000 has been tentatively included in the Budget for expenditure on Defence Services in 1962-63. The increase of £6,922,000 on the expenditure in 1961-62 is chiefly attributable to the costs of additional proposals in the new three-year programme which begins in this financial year.

The National Welfare Fund

Payments from the National Welfare Fund are estimated to be £387,574,000, an increase of £22,383,000 over expenditure last year.

Age, invalid and widows’ pensions are expected to rise by over £13,000,000. This figure reflects both the increased number of beneficiaries and the full year effect of the substantial increases in benefits made in our last Budget.

Payments of pharmaceutical benefits under the general scheme are expected to rise by rather more than £5,000,000 and payments of such benefits to pensioners by nearly £1,000,000. Together, these two items will require expenditure this year of more than £41,000,000.

Since certain parts of the hospital benefits agreements with the States will expire in the near future, the Minister for Health has been having discussions with State Ministers on the future of these agreements. Any variations in the agreements which may arise from those discussions will be made known to Parliament in due course. Meanwhile, provision of £24,118,000 has been made in this Budget for the cost of carrying on existing policies and agreements.

Although expenditure on unemployment and sickness benefits will reflect the additions to these benefits announced last February, expenditure on this item is estimated to be about £3,000,000 less this year than in 1961-62. This is because we expect unemployment to be reduced further in the course of the year.

According to its practice, the Government has reviewed the social service benefits payable from the National Welfare Fund. As I have mentioned already, there will be a large addition to expenditure this year, partly because there will be more beneficiaries and partly because the additional benefits provided in 1961-62 will operate through the whole of 1962-63. In most of its years of office the Government has found it desirable to make some increases in benefits or to broaden their range. Payments from the National Welfare Fund were £92,804,000 in 1949-50; they are estimated to be £387,574,000 in the current year - which is more than a four-fold increase. It may illustrate how largely such payments have come to share in our Budget if I indicate that, in 1949-50, payments from the National Welfare Fund were equivalent to some 47.7 per cent, of revenue from income tax and social services contribution paid by individuals. The comparable figure for 1961-62 was 68 per cent, and it is estimated to reach 72 per cent, in the current year.

A most welcome feature of the past year has been that, in each quarter thereof, the consumer price index recorded a small fall. Taking into account this experience, the wide-ranging increases in benefits in 1961- 62 and the budgetary situation now confronting it, the Government has decided not to vary the current scales of benefit.

Further details of the National Welfare Fund estimates are contained in Statement No. 4.

War and Repatriation Expenditure

War and Repatriation expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to be £110,701,000, which is £6,363,000 greater than expenditure last year. Like National Welfare Fund expenditures, it embodies both a greater number of beneficiaries and the substantial increases in rates of benefit made in our last Budget.

For reasons similar to those I have just stated in relation to National Welfare Fund benefits, the Government has decided not to alter the current scales of repatriation benefits in 1962-63. This item also makes a relatively large call on our budget resources. If estimated expenditure on war and service pensions and allowances, repatriation hospitals and other repatriation benefits is added to National Welfare Fund payments, total expenditures of these kinds would be equal to 91 per cent, of our estimated revenue from income tax on individuals in this financial year.

Other Special Appropriations

Other special appropriations, including certain bounty and subsidy and price stabilization payments, are expected to amount to £36,744,000 in 1962-63, or £4,332,000 less than in 1961-62. The principal reason for this decline is the amount provided from Consolidated Revenue for payment in 1962-63 under the Wheat Industry Stabilization Act is £7,500,000 whereas last year such payments cost £11,906,000.

Departmental

Departmental expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to be £148,041,000, an increase of £8,637,000 over expenditure in 1961-62. The estimate includes £91,111,000 for the running costs of Commonwealth departments and authorities, an increase of £4,653,000 on expenditure last year, and £56,930,000 for other expenditures under the control of departments. Details are given in Statement No. 3.

Business Undertakings

A sum of £106,459,000 is set down for ordinary services of the Post Office. Expenditure was £114,772,000 in 1961-62, but £13,000,000 is being charged this year to Capital Works and Services on account of certain items of a capital nature previously charged to ordinary services of the Post Office. On a comparable basis, Post Office expenditure would show an increase over last year of £4,687,000.

Current expenditures by the Commonwealth Railways are estimated at £5,437,000, an increase of £215,000 over last year, and current expenditures by the Broadcasting and Television Services at £14,120,000, an increase of £1,320,000 over expenditure in 1961-62. Here again there has been a transfer to Capital Works and Services from ordinary services, the amount in this case being £78,000.

Territories

Expenditure in 1962-63 on ordinary services in the Territories is estimated at £35,207,000, which is £4,879,000 more than the amount expended last year. I ask the committee to make particular note of this increase. The grant to the Papua and New Guinea Administration will be increased by £2,700,000 to £20,000,000, and expenditure in the Northern Territory is expected to rise by £1,482,000. Honorable members opposite would do well to compare the massive provision being made in the Budget this year for the Territories - Papua and New Guinea and the Northern Territory - with the provision which they found it possible to make in their last year of office.

Payments to the States.

Payments to or for the States are expected this year to reach a total of £422,575,000, which is £26,013,000 greater than comparable payments in 1961-62.

Financial assistance grants are tentatively estimated to be £305,290,000, an increase of £13,150,000 over last year. Commonwealth Aid Roads grants will be £54,000,000, which is £4,000,000 more than in 1961-62. Again, it is interesting to recall, in passing, that less than £9,000,000 was provided for this purpose in the year in which we took office. Assistance for universities will rise by £1,733,000 to £15,894,000.

The amount of special grants to Western Australia and Tasmania recommended by the Commonwealth Grants Commission for 1962-63 is £11,251,000. The amount last year was £11,231,000. Legislation to authorize these grants will be introduced later in the session.

Within the total I have given for payments to the States from Consolidated Revenue, there is the interest-free additional assistance grant of £12,500,000 the Commonwealth is making to the States this year for employment-giving activities, and there is also provision for several amounts of Commonwealth assistance to developmental projects in certain States. I shall refer to these matters in greater detail presently.

Capital Works and Services

Expenditure on Capital Works and Services in 1962-63 is estimated at £180,977.000. To recall a point made earlier, this amount includes £13,078,000 for certain items of a capital nature which, in previous years, have been charged to ordinary services of the Post Office and Broadcasting and Television Services. Allowing for that, provision for Capital Works and Services is £6,307,000 larger than expenditure in 1961-62.

An amount of £24,150,000 is proposed for expenditure this year by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. Last year the authority spent £16,010,000. The increase of £8,140,000 is attributable in the main to larger contract payments on the major works comprising the Murray 1 power project, which is scheduled for commissioning in 1966. Some £13,100,000 of the total will be charged to Loan Fund, where it will be met from proceeds of the International Bank loan negotiated early in 1962. 1—- - -

Estimated capital expenditure of £62,643,000 by the Post Office represents an increase of £15,704,000 on expenditure last year. As already mentioned, £13,000,000 of this increase arises from an accounting transfer.

Provision of £4,175,000 is being made for expansion of television and broadcasting services, compared with £2,847,000 last year. Honorable members will be interested to note - this applies particularly to those from rural electorates - that practically the whole increase of £1,328,000 is for the establishment of national television stations in provincial and country areas.

The Estimates include £3,500,000 for advances to the Overseas Telecommunications Commission, to meet progress payments on the trans-Pacific cable from Canada to Australia. I am informed that this project will be completed towards the end of 1963. Capital expenditure by the National Capital Development Commission is estimated to be £12.150,000, an increase of £1,150,000 over expenditure last year. An amount of £35,000,000, the same as in the past five years, ls included in the Estimate for war service homes.

Besides these major items to which I have referred, a considerably increased amount is to be made available by the Commonwealth this year for the various developmental projects on which it is giving special financial assistance to the States. To set these items in an appropriate context, I propose to review the subject of Commonwealth participation in, and assistance for, development throughout Australia - an area of expenditure which is rapidly acquiring a larger and larger place in the Commonwealth Budget.

page 18

DEVELOPMENT

Earlier 1 stressed the need to look beyond the immediate situation and shape our policies to ensure support and encouragement for expansion well on into the future. This I thought necessary to provide a firm basis for confidence, and to remove any remaining fears that growth might falter and lose impetus.

As I see it, this is not a matter for budgetary measures alone. It involves the whole range of economic policy measures and, amongst them, I have always given high importance to the immigration programme. The assurance of a continued strong growth of population has become the foundation of forward planning for innumerable enterprises and authorities and, for that reason as well as for many others, the Government has long considered it imperative that immigration should continue at the highest possible level consistent wilh our capacity to absorb more people. Accordingly the immigration target for 1962-63 remains at the unchanged level of 125,000 permanent and long-term arrivals.

The programme will be matched to the needs of the economy and to the best interests of the individual. Hence recruiting will concentrate on skilled and semiskilled workers and their dependants and on re-uniting the families of migrants already here.

It is also, I contend, the particular role of our developmental activities to furnish the economy, so far as governmental action can do so, with a basic assurance of continuity in growth. By that means we reach forward into the months and years ahead, making certain not only that there will be a large and increasing measure of activity and demand but also that the basic facilities will be there when other forms of enterprise, and especially private enterprise, require them.

To an extent that would scarcely have been conceivable before the war, the Commonwealth now takes an ever-increasing and more positive part in the development of our resources and the general up-building of our economy. I outlined just now our own large programme of capital works and services - the Snowy, postal and other communications, work in the Territories, and construction works in general. That represents direct participation in development.

We have’ long given massive support to the works and housing programmes of the State governments and will do so again in this financial year. At the recent Loan Council meeting the Commonwealth agreed to support a borrowing programme for State works and housing of £250,000,000 for 1962-63 and, since it is probable that public loan raisings will fall considerably short of that amount, this undertaking means that we will have to call heavily on our own resources to provide money for State development - railways, water conservation, irrigation, forestry, schools, hospitals and the like. Over the past eleven years we have in this way provided the States with no less than £800,000,000 to support their general developmental activities.

Incidentally, although it makes no direct call on our own resources, we agreed at the Loan Council to a borrowing programme of £105,155,000 for State semigovernmental authorities, and we also took the initiative in removing the overall limit on borrowings by authorities which individually seek £100,000 or less in this financial year.

I may also say, in passing, that this year the Commonwealth will provide directly and indirectly over £91,000,000 for housing. Of this, £45,900,000 will take the form of advances to the States under the Commonwealth and State Housing Agreements, and is part of the borrowing programme for State works and housing to which I have just referred. With part of this money the States will build houses and flats, some for rental, the majority for sale on very favorable terms to home-seekers, and the remainder they will advance to building societies. The Commonwealth will also be providing £35,000,000 for war service homes, £5,900,000 for housing in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, £3,000,000 for homes for the aged and £1,600,000 for defence housing.

However, the more characteristic form our recent extensions of developmental activity have taken is that of assistance to the State governments for special purposes or special projects. This kind of assistance is not, of course, new. Perhaps the bestknown earlier example is Commonwealth aid for roads, which has been going on for many years. In recent years, however, it has increased very greatly. In 1949-50 the grant was a little over £9,000,000. This year it is £54,000,000, and that grant, of course, forms part of a five-year programme which began in 1959 and under which, subject to certain matching arrangements, the Commonwealth will provide £250,000,000 for road construction and maintenance in the States.

In this new phase, however, we have joined with State governments in a series of projects which, from the stand-point of the Commonwealth, aim to further particular purposes. One is to increase exports by opening new resources or facilitating the transportation of exportable products. A second is to promote development in outlying parts of the Commonwealth, especially in the far north and the north-west. In furthering both these objectives we are, at the same time, providing employment on the spot in areas where opportunities for additional employment are not always easy to find.

Thus, in Queensland, we are providing on a repayable advance basis two-thirds of the finance for the great Mount Isa railway project, the construction of which, I am told, is making splendid progress. In this Budget we are allocating £8,195,000 for this work, compared with the initial amount of £3,750,000 provided last year.

There is also the scheme, started last year, for construction of cattle roads in Queensland, under which the Commonwealth undertook to provide £5,000,000 over five years. Last year we contributed £650,000 under the scheme. This year the amount is estimated to be £1,480,000 and we have also decided to provide an additional amount of £250,000 this year for the sealing of roads included in the programme. The necessary legislation will be brought before the House at a later date.

Under a further agreement with the Queensland Government made last year for improvement of coal-handling facilities at the port of Gladstone, we are providing £145,000 this year.

I am now pleased to be able to announce that, following discussion with the Queensland Government, we are including in the Budget this year an amount of £1,750,000 to assist in financing the first stages of a scheme to open up and develop to full production a vast area of the rich brigalow lands in the Fitzroy Basin of Central Queensland. We are satisfied, after investigation, that these brigalow lands offer magnificent possibilities for increasing the output of beef for export. A detailed agreement is being worked out with the Queensland Government and in due course legislation will be brought before Parliament.

In Western Australia the huge project to construct a standard-gauge railway from Kalgoorlie to Kwinana is under way, and there is £4,300,000 in the Estimates to meet the contribution we will be called on to make towards the cost of construction in this financial year.

Under the existing scheme for development in the north-west of Western Australia, whereby the Commonwealth undertook to find £5,000,000 over a five year period commencing with 1958-59, we are making provision for payment to the State this year of the remaining amount of £1,432,000.

Last year we made an extra grant of £500,000 to Western Australia for expenditure on cattle roads in the north-west of the State. This year we propose to make a further grant of £700,000 to the State for similar purposes, and appropriate legislation will be introduced accordingly.

Further, after discussions with the Government of Western Australia, we are providing an amount of £300,000 this year towards the construction of a new jetty at Derby, to facilitate particularly the shipment of cattle from the region served by that port. This also will be the subject of special legislation to be submitted to Parliament for approval.

Taken with our developmental activities in the Northern Territory - we are allocating £1,000,000 for cattle roads there in 1962-63 - these several projects in Queensland and Western Australia are building up to a fairly substantial programme for Northern Australia as a whole.

For the improvement of coal loading facilities at certain ports in New South Wales we are providing £685,000 in this financial year, compared with expenditure last year of £284,000. There will, in addition, be a grant of £415,000 for that purpose from the Coal Industry Fund of the Joint Coal Board. The grant from that source last year was £172,000.

Under the agreement reached with South Australia for financing the purchase of twelve diesel-electric locomotives and 100 wagons to transport ore on the Broken Hill-Port Pirie railway, we have included an amount of £1,300,000 in our 1962-63 Estimates.

I turn now to gold-mining and the search for oil.

Gold-mining.

The gold-mining industry has made representations for Commonwealth assistance additional to that available under the existing subsidy scheme. Although the subsidy scheme has helped and is continuing materially to help in sustaining the gold mines eligible for assistance, the Government is concerned about the declining trend in employment in the industry and its general outlook as a whole. The industry is, of course, vital to a number of outlying areas, particularly the Kalgoorlie area. The developed ore reserves of the large unsubsidized Kalgoorlie mines, expressed in terms of number of years supply of prepared ore, have been dwindling, while in some of the larger unsubsidized mines in other areas the presently-known resources of ore are being worked out fairly fast.

We propose to give additional assistance in the form of a development allowance to mines not in receipt of subsidy. The aim of the development allowance will be to encourage the mines to increase expenditure on development - that is, the investigation and preparation of ore bodies for future working. Under the proposal a mine not receiving subsidy will be eligible, subject to certain limits, to payment of an allowance not exceeding the amount by which its expenditure on development in a year exceeds the annual rate of its expenditure on development in a selected base period. The cost is tentatively estimated at £300,000 in 1962-63 and somewhat more than that in subsequent years. Legislation will be introduced to give effect to the proposal.

Oil Search

The discoveries of oil at Cabawin and Moonie have led to a great growth of interest in the search for oil and to a considerable expansion in the programmes of oil exploration companies. These are encouraging developments, towards which the Government’s oil search policy over a number of years has contributed much. However, a vast effort still lies ahead and, in view of the greatness of the prize to be won, the Government considers it highly important that the momentum of exploration activity be kept up. Accordingly the Budget provides for a substantial increase in the amount of Commonwealth assistance for oil exploration purposes.

In 1961-62 Commonwealth expenditure on oil exploration was £3,700,000. Of this, £2,500,000 was disbursed as subsidies to oil exploration companies under the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act 1959-1961, and £1,200,000 represented expenditure by the Department of National Development on its basic work in oil exploration. The 1961- 62 figures were themselves considerably higher than those for 1960-61, which were £1,400,000 and £900,000 respectively, a total of £2,300,000.

This year the total estimate for Commonwealth expenditure on oil exploration is £6,674,000, an increase of almost £3,000,000 on expenditure last year. The amount of £6,674,000 comprises £5,000,000 for payments under the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act and £1,674,000 for expenditure by the Department of National Development.

By its assistance for these particular activities and undertakings, the Commonwealth is not concerning itself so much with development in the broad - we do that by our support for the State government works and housing programmes and by our Commonwealth Aid Roads grants. Rather, we are moving in at points where some new possibility has opened up or some obstacle to expansion can be overcome. As to the significance of these activities for the Budget and, indeed, for the economy in general, I may make the point that, on the specific projects and special assistance I have been discussing here, our expenditure in 1960-61 was only £2,607,000. Last year it increased to £9,798,000 and this year it is estimated to reach £26,837,000, an increase of £24,230,000 over the two years and of £17,039,000 in the current year. Obviously, the direct impact on employment alone must be very considerable.

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OTHER COMMITMENTS

Expenditure on redemptions of matured securities, repayments of International Bank loans, market repurchases and other similar outlays are expected to amount to £106,000,000 in 1962-63, which is £11,402,000 more than the cost of these items to the Budget in 1961-62. This increase mainly reflects the greater amount of securities maturing in 1962-63 and our undertaking to the States to arrange, to the maximum possible extent, for the refinancing of maturing loans that may not be fully converted. Payments to the States for War Service Land Settlement are expected to total £1,750,000 compared with £1,577,000 in 1961-62. I have already mentioned the estimate of £8,195,000 for advances to be provided from the Loan Fund in respect of the Mount Isa railway project.

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TOTAL EXPENDITURE

Bringing together the main expenditure groups, we have the following picture of estimated commitments in the financial year 1962-63:-

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REVENUE, BORROWINGS AND OTHER RECEIPTS, 1962-63

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ESTIMATES OF REVENUE

The total receipts of the Consolidated Revenue Fund this year are estimated to be £1,665,432,000, which is an increase of only £23,890,000 on actual receipts in 1961-62. Within this total, revenue from all forms of taxation is estimated at £1,418,000,000, an increase of £9,426,000 on revenue obtained from the same sources last year. This would be approximately the same as our total taxation revenue in 1960-61.

In making these estimates we have allowed for very considerable increases in employment, earnings, imports and sales of goods subject to sales tax and excise; but two important factors will be operating this year to keep any increase in revenue over last year down to small proportions. One is the fall during 1961-62, compared with the previous year, in incomes that will be assessed for taxation in 1962-63. This applies especially to company taxation. We estimate that revenue from that source will be £20,688,000 less this year than last. The other is the full year effect on revenue in 1962-63 of the major tax concessions made in 1961-62 - chiefly the reductions in sales tax on household equipment in our last Budget, the February reductions in sales tax on motor vehicles and parts, the rebate of 1s. in the £1 on income tax on individuals, and the investment allowance on plant for use in manufacturing. Together, such concessions are estimated to cost revenue £75,000,000 in the current financial year, whereas in 1961-62 their cost amounted to only £38,000,000.

We are reckoning on increases of about £10,800,000 in collections from customs duties, £10,400,000 from excise duties, £6,200,000 from sales tax and £3,000,000 from pay-roll tax. An increase of about £9,000,000 is expected in revenue from business undertakings, of which £7,200,000 is from the Post Office, £400,000 from Commonwealth Railways and £1,400,000 from broadcasting and television services.

In accordance with the policy announced in 1960 of working progressively towards full recovery of the cost of air navigation facilities, there will be an increase of 10 per cent. in air navigation charges for airline operators and also certain increases in the charges payable for private, aerial work and charter aircraft. Details will be announced by the Minister for Civil Aviation (Senator Paltridge). The additional revenue is estimated to be £177,000 in a full year and £89,000 in 1962-63.

It has also been decided to increase Commonwealth rates of charges for lighthouse services from1s. to1s. 3d. per net registered ton from 1st October, 1962. The additional revenue is estimated to be £175,000 in a full year and £131,000 in 1962-63. Miscellaneous revenue, which includes the above charges, is estimated to increase by about £4,900,000 in the current financial year, mainly because of increased receipts from the proceeds of electricity sales by the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Authority.

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LOAN RAISINGS

To estimate public loan raisings is always a difficult matter, because the result cao be affected by rapid changes of conditions in the course of the year that cannot possibly be foreseen at the start. Last year the total, including State domestic raisings, was f 243,041, 000, but that was altogether exceptional - easily a record for any peacetime year. Our loans had good support from most quarters but what made the principal difference was the very heavy subscriptions of the trading banks. Their liquid funds rose greatly and were largely invested in Government securities, which were obtained partly by subscriptions to Commonwealth loans and partly by purchases elsewhere.

While in the current year it is likely, as far as we can foresee, that the position of the trading banks will be fairly liquid, it is improbable that they will have as much to invest in Government securities as in 1961-62. Apart from that, however, we see no present reason why the level of subscriptions from other sources should fall away, and we will also be drawing upon the proceeds of the loan negotiated early in 1962 with the International Bank for the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Taking these considerations into account, we feel justified in adopting for Budget purposes a figure of £215,000,000 for public loan raisings in 1962-63. It may be worth pointing out that this would be the same as the amount raised in 1958-59, which was previously the record peace-time year and one in which there were also heavy subscriptions from the trading banks as well as a large total of overseas borrowings.

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OTHER RECEIPTS

Apart from revenue and the proceeds of public loans, we expect to have available from the National Debt Sinking Fund about £80,000,000 - approximately £3,000,000 more than last year- for redemption of maturing securities and other similar expenditures, and perhaps a net amount of £13,000,000 from other Trust Funds.

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OVERALL RESULT

Altogether, therefore, receipts from revenue, public loan raisings and the other sources just mentioned are estimated this year to total £1,973,432,000. If, as estimated, total expenditure this year is £2,091,760,000, there will be a deficiency of £118,328,000. This would compare with the actual deficiency of £27,010,000 in 1961-62. As I have said, the main reasons for this increase in the deficiency are to be found in the large increase in the Commonwealth’s total expenditure commitments and in the negligible rise in our total receipts. On the basis of our estimates, total expenditures in 1962-63 are expected to rise by over £100,000,000. Total receipts, however, are expected to increase by less than £10,000,000.

It is proposed that £51,000,000 be appropriated from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve against the possibility that loan raisings will, by that amount, fall short of the total funds required for the State works and housing programme. It is also envisaged that defence expenditure to an amount of £98,283,000 will be charged to Loan Fund and that, so far as redemptions of debt exceed the amount available in the National Debt Sinking Fund to meet them, they will be met from the resources of the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, cash being raised as required against investments of that reserve. Legislation to authorize such borrowings as may be necessary to meet the deficiency will later be submitted to Parliament.

The estimates of our overall Budget position are set out in detail in Statement No. 2 attached to the Budget speech. Further details of estimated loan transactions in 1962-63 are contained in Statement No. 5.

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IMPACT OF THE BUDGET

Having outlined the Budget, I now take up the question of the effect it can be expected to have on our economic situation through the financial year.

I said earlier that, although expansion had made good headway in 1961-62, it still had some way to go before reaching the level of activity we desire to see. On estimates we have, there may be a net addition of about 85,000 people to the work-force during the year. Some of these may find occupations on their own; but the majority will be seeking wage or salary jobs. There is also a certain number of people who do not depend on continuous employment but who will take a job if one that suits them comes on offer. Besides these additional workers, there are the unemployed; I have already said that we regard the total of these as being still too high.

To cope with this quite formidable task of absorbing labour, it is clear that there has to be a substantial and continuing rise in the demand for labour - directly, as on building jobs or in transport and the service trades or, indirectly, through the demand for goods back along the lines of production.

Spending by the public on consumer goods and services is, of course, by far the largest element in total demand. Normally, it comprises about 60 per cent, of domestic expenditure and, for that reason, it has the largest potential influence on productive activity and demand for labour. Recognizing this, the Government reduced sales tax on household equipment in the Budget last year and, in February, we provided the rebate of ls. in the £1 on individual income tax. Since then, there has been a fairly strong rise in the total of consumer spending. Provisional statistics of retail sales for the recent June quarter show an increase of 3.6 per cent, over the June quarter of 1961, and, as there has been some fall in prices since then, the quantity of goods sold has increased by more than that.

There should be a lot more to support consumer spending from now on. With employment rising and more overtime being worked, spending in the shops ought to increase further. During the next few months, moreover, there will be a big outflow of tax refunds - estimated to total more than £90,000,000 this year - which always helps to boost sales, and these should more than offset, for the time being, the drop back in the rebate on payasyouearn instalments from the temporary level of 3s. in the £1 to ls. in the £1 from 1st July.

Besides these income factors there is, without doubt, a big accumulation of potential spending power. Savings bank deposits increased during 1961-62 by no less than £157,000,000. Meanwhile, people have until recently continued to reduce their debts on hire purchase and similar contracts, and this has put them in a position to do more buying on credit as and when they are disposed to do so. By and large, therefore, the rise in consumer spending ought to be well sustained.

Public authority expenditure is the next largest source of demand for goods and services. In 1961-62 it was 8.4 per cent, greater than in 1960-61 and 16.1 per cent, greater than in 1959-60. The State governments will have available from Commonwealth sources about £34,000,000 more than in 1961-62, and their own revenues will increase this year. Since, on the figures I have given earlier, our Commonwealth expenditures - net of provision for the States - will also rise considerably, it is quite clear that public authorities as a whole will be making substantially increased contributions to demand in 1962-63.

Other large classes of expenditure have also been rising. Dwelling commencements in the June quarter are estimated at 21,238, an increase of 4.4 per cent, over commencements in the March quarter and 10.7 per cent, more than in the June quarter of 1961. The value on completion of non-residential buildings commenced in the March quarter of 1962 was 15.7 per cent, greater than in the March quarter of 1961, and the indications are that the upward trend has continued since then.

Registrations of new motor vehicles in the six months to June totalled 145,575, an increase of 26.3 per cent, over registrations in the first six months of 1961 and of 1.6 per cent, over registrations in the first six months of 1960. Registrations in May and June of this year exceeded those in the corresponding months of 1961 by 40.5 per cent, and those in the corresponding months of 1960 by 7.1 per cent.

Some doubts have been expressed about the trend in private capital expenditure. In respect of building construction and motor vehicles, there seems little reason for concern and these, after all, comprise about two-thirds of what is described as private fixed investment. It seems reasonable also to expect that expenditure on plant and equipment will respond to the investment allowance available since February and to the prospects of expanding production and sales.

I think I have said enough to show that recent trends in most of the chief branches of spending have been headed upwards. They are likely to continue that way. Looking at the financial side of things, it certainly seems that ample finance should be available to support such trends - I have already mentioned the great increase in savings bank deposits. It is also common knowledge that the hire-purchase companies are well supplied with funds to finance an increase in credit buying. The trading banks are abnormally liquid for this time of the year and, through 1961-62, their commitments for future lending increased very greatly. From f 1,579,000,000 in July, 1961, the total of their outstanding overdraft limits rose to a record level of £1,741,000,000 in July last. In 1961-62 actual advances outstanding fell quite heavily, though largely for seasonal reasons, until the later months, when they began to rise again. Although this movement was also partly seasonal, there are grounds for thinking that it portends a continuing rise.

As the huge net outflow of cash from the Government occurs, mainly during the next few months, the liquidity of the banking system and the public will certainly increase and, taking the financial outlook as a whole, it is a fair inference that the forces making for expansion are not likely to be checked by any dearth of money for investment or community spending.

So much, then, for demand prospects. What is to be said about production and the supply of goods generally? Output has been rising in most branches of manufacturing - strongly in some - and there is no evident reason why this should not go on. Demand is on the increase, labour and materials are available, industry has wide access to supplies from abroad, a good many firms are said to have some margin of spare plant capacity. All this should help towards a steady growth of industrial output.

In the rural field, seasonal conditions have so far been favorable in most areas. The wool clip is estimated to be slightly larger than last year, when it was a record, and very large plantings of wheat have been reported. A big sugar crop is in sight. There may be some increase in production of beef and it seems possible also that production of mutton and lamb will be maintained at the high level of last year. At this stage prospects seem generally fair in most of the other rural industries.

Externally, a good many uncertainties overhang world production and trade in 1962-63 and there could be some falling back from the very high point our exports reached last year. On the other hand, imports are certain to increase considerably as industrial activity and demand rise here. There will, however, be some off-setting factors. Capital inflow has continued to be fairly strong, and we will be drawing quite heavily on the International Bank loan arranged for the Snowy Mountains scheme last year. By now, too, it is probable that most, if not all, the import credits taken out in 1960-61 have been repaid. In point of overseas reserves, our position is very strong. At the end of June our balances of gold and foreign exchange stood at £561,000,000 and, as we have repaid the £78,000,000 drawn from the International Monetary Fund in 1961, our drawing rights with that institution have been restored to their full amount of £212,000,000. All told, we started the year with firstline and second-line reserves totalling over £770,000,000.

It is, then, in a promising context such as this that the Government has decided to carry on, in certain directions with added emphasis, the full range of stimulatory measures adopted during 1961-62. This involves budgeting for a deficit, in the accounting sense, of £118,328,000. Essentially, as I have said, we are doing this to ensure that expansion shall not falter. Perhaps I may first offer a few comments on the general effect such a budget can be expected to have on the trend of demand.

Our 1961-62 Budget was a lot more expansionary than the cash result on an accounting basis made it seem. On that result, there was a deficiency of £27,010,000, which was financed by treasury-bills and a reduction of cash balances with the Reserve Bank. But, in economic terms, the impact was a great deal larger than that - mainly for the reason that a very considerable amount of government spending was financed by the proceeds of loan subscriptions from trading bank sources, from money market dealers and possibly from other sources which could not be said to represent a subtraction from funds which would otherwise have been used to finance private spending. On the same grounds, the economic impact of this Budget will be greater than the estimated accounting deficit of £118,328,000 might indicate. This is because the estimated loan raisings included in total receipts allow for some trading bank and similar subscriptions to loans, even though not on the same scale as last year.

I should also point out that the expansionary effect will be fairly heavily concentrated in the next six to eight months, which is normally the period during which the outflow of cash from the Government greatly exceeds the inflow. For that reason, the Budget can be assumed to provide the greatest stimulus to demand through a time in which it is likely to be most needed.

Let me refer next to the character of some of the measures we are carrying forward into this year. They were all carefully designed originally to stimulate particular sectors of demand, and they will undoubtedly continue to do that in the current year. The large reductions in sales tax - first on household equipment and next on motor vehicles and parts - were meant to boost public spending on those classes of products, and the rebate on individual income tax rates was intended to encourage spending over the whole range of consumption goods. The investment allowance, on the other hand, aims to encourage investment in manufacturing equipment - a class of expenditure which was thought to have been lagging. It is very likely that the effect of that allowance would not have shown up much in the months between February and June, but it is likely to be more in evidence from now on. In all, these and the other concessions made in 1961-62 are estimated to cost revenue some £75,000,000 in 1962-63, and virtually all of this will represent additional funds in the hands of taxpayers.

Along with these measures goes the special interest-free grant to the States for employment-giving activities, now to be continued in 1962-63 at an increased figure of £12,500,000.

I cite these facts to show that not only will the Budget give a large aggregate stimulus to demand in the current year but that, in large part, the stimulus will be channelled to those sectors where it is likely to do most in promoting expansion and increasing employment.

It has been put to us by a number of people that, besides carrying on the 1961-62 measures, the Government should introduce some new measures to stimulate the economy, preferably in the shape of further tax reductions. We gave a lot of thought to these possibilities but, on our assessment of how the economy is moving and of the encouragement it is likely to get from the increased stimulus in the Budget we propose, they did not appear to be justified. In fact, we concluded that they could lead to difficulties which might be serious, if not immediately, then at some time not too far ahead. On the one hand, they could be the means to provoke a rise in spending greater than expansion will require. On the other hand, they would almost certainly create major budgetary problems at some time in the future. For it has to be kept in mind that, in our efforts to promote expansion, we have called upon our budgetary resources very freely. Taking the rise in expenditure last year with the projected rise for this year, our total expenditure will have risen over two years by no less than £263,000,000. Meanwhile tax concessions have made deep inroads into our sources of revenue. As I have already shown, the estimated deficit for this year is, in part, due to the short-fall of revenue on account of reduced incomes in 1961-62, but to a greater extent, it is the product of tax reductions made last year and additional expenditure undertaken last year - and now being continued. To be sure, as employment and incomes improve, revenues will improve; but if only because of our large standing commitments, expenditures are bound to rise also. To give a further major tax reduction at this stage would make it practically certain that the Budget a year or so hence would be carrying a large builtin deficit - this, quite probably, at a time of high incomes and expenditure. There would then be the choice of either carrying such a deficit, with the risk of inflationary consequences, or else of taking action to bridge an insupportably large gap. On the latter possibility, I may be allowed to remark that my colleagues and I have less liking than most people for policies of stop and go.

It could perhaps be that the significance of what we are doing in carrying forward all the special expansionary measures of last year may not everywhere be fully appreciated and it may be useful if I draw the picture together.

As I have said, the tax concessions of 1961- 62 - the sales tax reductions on household equipment and motor vehicles, the rebate on individual income tax and the investment allowance - are estimated to cost revenue £75,000,000 this year as against £38,000,000 last year. And there is a point I might make here about the investment allowance. Because tax collections in 1962- 63 will be affected only by what manufacturers save through the investment allowance on account of plant installed during the last five months of 1961-62, the cost to revenue this year will be only a portion of the full year cost - about £6,000,000 according to the estimate and this is the figure included in the £75,000,000 total. But it can hardly be doubted that the stimulus to expenditure on factory plant in 1962-63 will be much greater than this £6,000,000 figure suggests because manufacturers will have in prospect a tax saving in 1963-64 through the allowance being available on all kinds of eligible plant they install throughout this year. I recall that in February we estimated the full year cost of revenue of the investment allowance to be something of the order of £17,500,000 and that was regarded as a conservative figure.

Of the special measures involving expenditure there is the grant of £12,500,000 to the States for employment-giving activities and there is the large increase in expenditure this year- from £9,800,000 to £26,800,000 - on the special development activities and projects I described earlier.

Summed up, the expansionary action of last year, which is to be continued and amplified through 1962-63 will cost the Budget - and in so doing put into the hands of the community - something above £110,000,000. The comparable figure for 1961-62 was about half that.

If I am told that much of the stimulus in 1961-62 was concentrated in the last five months of the year, I must recall my earlier point that a great part of the stimulus from this Budget will be concentrated in the first six to eight months of 1962-63, the period in which it is likely to have the most useful results.

In fact, then, we are providing the economy with a considerable extra stimulus - both in an aggregate sense and in carefullychosen specific ways. We are doing this at a time when the general level of activity is undeniably on the rise, as indeed it has been for a good many months past.

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CONCLUSION

Wider though its field becomes, year after year, it is still, in our conception, a key role of the Commonwealth in the economic sphere to provide an environment favourable to private enterprise and all who depend on it for employment and share generally in its activities and the fruits of its efficient production. This is a matter, first of all, of establishing a strong foundation for the economy. Beyond all reasonable doubt we have done that. It is a matter, secondly, of removing any needless impediments to enterprise. Not since the Second World War began have there been so few restraints on Australian enterprise as there are to-day. It is a matter, finally, of using the powers and resources of the Commonwealth, within their limits, to encourage enterprise and to open up sound opportunities for it. In that direction this Commonwealth Budget contains an unparalleled range and variety of measures to promote development in all the main regions of the continent. It pays due regard to the need for care that any responsible Government must observe, and yet its approach to our national economic problem is, predominantly and in the truest sense, forward-looking and constructive.

I commend it to the committee.

STATEMENT No. I. - BUDGET RESULTS, 1961-62.

PART A.- SUMMARY OF BUDGET RESULTS, 1961-62.

In the financial year 1961-62 the total expenditures of the Commonwealth Government exceeded its total receipts by £27,010,000. When the 1961-62 Budget was introduced it was estimated that there would be an overall deficiency of £16,471,000; in February, 1962, a series of measures designed to increase employment and business confidence was introduced, the estimated direct cost of which, in that year, approximated £53,000,000. The final Budget result was also affected by exceptionally high subscriptions to public loans in Australia during 1961-62. The comparison between the overall Budget results for 1961-62 and the preceding financial year is as follows: - Expenditure ordinarily charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, including an amount of £23,641,000 of expenditure on Defence Services charged to Loan Fund but excluding the payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, totalled £1,643,028,000 in 1961-62, which was £147,310,000 greater than in 1960-61. Receipts of the Consolidated Revenue Fund totalled £1,641,542,000 or £3,263,000 more than in 1960-61. After charging £23,641,000 of defence expenditure to Loan Fund, the amount available for payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve was £22,155,000. Details of the Consolidated Revenue Fund results, compared with Budget estimates, are given in Part B of this Statement. The Loan Council borrowing programme for State works and housing in 1961-62, which the Commonwealth, at the June, 1961, meeting of the Loan Council, had agreed to support at a level of £240,000,000, was increased by £7,500,000 in February, 1962, to £247,500,000. As State domestic raisings in 1961-62 amounted to £2,880,000, the amount to be met from loan raisings by the Commonwealth was £244,620,000. Cash proceeds during the year from loans raised in Australia and overseas totalled £240,214,000, compared with £140,291,000 in 1960-61, an increase of £99,923,000. The amount of Commonwealth assistance required to finance State works and housing programmes was therefore £4,406,000. Redemptions of matured securities, repayments of loans from the International Bank, market repurchases and other expenditures from the National Debt Sinking Fund totalled £94,598,000 in 1961-62 compared with £101,251,000 in 1960-61. The income of the National Debt Sinking Fund in 1961-62 was £76,651,000, compared with £73,853,000 in the preceding financial year. During the year agreement was reached with the Queensland Government on the basis on which the Commonwealth would provide advances to Queensland for the rehabilitation of the Mount Isa railway line. Initial advances to the State from Loan Fund during the year totalled £3,750,000. Payments to the States for War Service Land Settlement amounted to £1,577,000 in 1961-62. Further details of the various loan transactions of the Commonwealth during 1961-62 are given in Part C of this Statement. The manner in which the various expenditures comprehended in the 1961-62 Budget were financed may be summarized as follows: - This deficiency was financed by the issue of £22,000,000 of Treasury Bills to the Central Bank and by a reduction of £5,010,000 in cash balances. Revenue. Total revenue collected in 1961-62 amounted to £1,641,542,000, or £55,656,000 less than the Budget estimate. Taxation revenue fell short of the estimates by £57,477,000 offset by an increase in other revenue of £1,822,000. Customs revenue was £2,655,000 less than the Budget estimate, refecting a lower level of imports than had been expected. Excise collections were £577,000 greater than the estimate. Clearances of tobacco, cigarettes, spirits and diesel fuel were lower than anticipated but were more than offset by higher clearances of petrol and beer. Sales tax collections were less than the Budget estimate by £11,982,000, partly due to the reduction in rates of tax on motor vehicles, spare parts and accessories which became effective as from 7th February, 1962, and partly to the fact that sales of taxable goods during the first half of the year were lower than had been estimated. Income tax collections from individuals were £39,270,000 less than the Budget estimate. The 5 per cent, rebate of personal income tax payable for the 1961-62 financial year, announced in February, 1962, was the main factor accounting for this shortfall. In addition, a smaller increase in wage and salary incomes in 1961-62 than had been expected resulted in " pay-as-you-earn " collections being lower than estimated. Collections of Income Tax from companies were £8,312,000 less than the Budget estimate. The rate of collection of tax on current assessments, though higher than in 1960-61, was somewhat lower than that upon which the budget estimate had been based. Dividend (Withholding) Tax collections exceeded the Budget estimate by £2,366,000. Remittances of dividends overseas were higher than had been estimated. Collections of Pay-roll Tax were £528,000 less than the Budget estimate as a result of wage and salary payments being lower than expected. Estate Duty collections were £2,279,000 greater than had been estimated, due to the number of estates on which duty was paid being higher than expected. Collections from Gift Duty were almost precisely as estimated. Total revenue from Business Undertakings was £158,389,000, or £2,971,000 less than the Budget estimate. Receipts from the Commonwealth Railways and the Post Office fell short of the Budget estimates by £678,000 and £2,436,000, respectively; Broadcasting and Television revenue was £143,000 higher than the Budget estimate because of a greater than anticipated increase in numbers of television viewers' licences. Revenue from Territories was £494,000 greater than the Budget estimate. The increase occurred mainly in the Austraiian Capital Territory where receipts from premiums on sales of leases were £212,000 greater, and proceeds from sales of houses £173,000 greater than the Budget estimates. Miscellaneous Revenue was £4,298,000 greater than the Budget estimate. The largest variation from the estimates within this item was an increase of £2,233,000 in the payment to Consolidated Revenue Fund from the profits of the Reserve Bank of Australia, resulting mainly from greater profits than had been estimated from the Note Issue Department of the Bank. There were also increases over the estimates of £1,100,000 in repayments of unrequired balances from Trust Accounts', of £439,000 in Civil Aviation Revenue; of £337,000 in Primary Industry Revenue and £912,000 in Other Revenue. Receipts from the Stevedoring Industry Charge and Defence Revenue were, respectively, £317,000 and £335,000 less than had been estimated. {:#subdebate-18-0} #### Expenditure Excluding the payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, expenditure charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund totalled £1,619,387,000 in 1961-62, which was £5,468,000 greater than the Budget estimate. However, whereas the Budget had provided for all expenditure on Defence Services to be met from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, £23,641,000 of such expenditure was in fact met from the Loan Fund. Allowing for this amount charged to the Loan Fund, total expenditure, excluding the payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, was £1,643,028,000 in 1961-62, or £29,109,000 greater than had been estimated in the Budget. Expenditure on Defence Services (including the amount charged to Loan Fund) was £219,000 more than had been estimated. The payment to the National Welfare Fund was £6,961,000 greater than the Budget estimate. Expenditure on Unemployment and Sickness Benefits exceeded the Budget estimates by £7,275,000. Payments of Age and Invalid Pensions were also higher than estimated by £2,245,000 and Pharmaceutical Benefits by £764,000. However, expenditure on Hospital Benefits and Child Endowment fell short of the estimates by £989,000 and £422,000, respectively. Medical Benefits for Pensioners were £370,000 less, Widows' Pensions £356,000 less and Medical Benefits £288,000 less than had been estimated. Debt charges were £2,425,000 less than had been estimated because of cancellations of debt by the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve in the first half of the year. Other Special Appropriations were £1,392,000 less than the Budget estimate. Payments under the Wheat Prices Stabilization Scheme were £1,116,000 less than expected because of an increase during the year in the export price of wheat. The payment to the International Development Association was £687,000 less than estimated; the payment to the Australian Stevedoring Industry Authority was less than the Budget estimate to the extent of £264,000 and expenditure on Public Service Pensions and Retiring Allowances was £409,000 less than estimated. The other main variations were in respect of the payment of £721,000 to the International Monetary Fund, for which no provision was made in the Budget and £286,000 for additional payments of copper bounty due to an increase in bountiable production. Departmental expenditure was £1,426,000 greater than expected. Expenditure for assistance to approved organizations for the building of homes for the aged exceeded the Budget estimates by £1,473,000; the contribution to the cost of the United Nations Force in the Congo was £586,000 greater than had been estimated. Administration costs of the Taxation Branch and the cost of the remission of taxes in special circumstances were £420,000 greater than the estimate; and the contribution to the maintenance of migrant families on arrival in Australia was £267,000 greater. Shortfalls in expenditure compared with the estimates included £157,000 on the subsidy for the search for oil, £194,000 in the administrative expenditure of the Department of Works, and £318,000 in the appropriations for the development of civil aviation. Expenditure on War and Repatriation Services exceeded the Budget estimate by £1,971,000. Payments in respect of War and Service Pensions and Allowances were £1,235,000 greater than had been estimated, and £445,000 more than the estimate was expended on Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. Expenditure on medical and hospital treatment and miscellaneous benefits was £194,000 greater than had been estimated. Expenditure by Business Undertakings exceeded the Budget estimate by £1,278,000. Expenditure by Commonwealth Railways was £137,000 more than estimated because of increased maintenance requirements on tracks and rolling stock. Post Office expenditure was £1,262,000 more than the Budget estimate because of awards and determinations made during the year, restoration of services following flood and fire damage, and the provision of additional funds during the year to stimulate employment. Expenditure on Broadcasting and Television Services was £121,000 less than the Budget estimate. Expenditure on Territories was £178,000 below the Budget estimate. The under-expenditure occurred in the Northern Territory, mainly in respect of general services where expenditure was £169,000 below the Budget estimate. Payments to or for the States exceeded the Budget estimate by £11,694,000. As part of the Commonwealth Government's measures to stimulate employment, announced in February, 1962, a non-repayable additional assistance grant of £10,000,000, for which no provision was made in the Budget, was paid to the States in 1961-62 under the authority of the States Grants (Additional Assistance) Act 1962. The amount of financial assistance grants paid to the Stales wai £1,091,000 greater than the estimate included in the Budget because of variations from preliminary estimates in the grants finally determined for 1961-62 under the States Grants Act 1959 and because of payment to the States of Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania of additional grants, authorized under the States Grants Act 1962, to compensate them for the effects which the use of census results had upon the calculation of the amounts of their grants. During 1961-62 the Commonwealth provided an amount of £500,000 for cattle roads in Western Australia and an amount of £284,000 for coal loading works at certain New South Wales ports; no provision had been made for these in the Budget estimates. Expenditure on Capital Works and Services exceeded the Budget estimate by £9,554,000. The major factors were the provision of £5,000,000 as additional capital for the Commonwealth Development Bank of Australia, announced as part of the Government's measures in February, 1962, and the subscription of £1,785,000 to an issue of United Nations Bonds; no provision was made for either of these items in the Budget. An additional amount of £1,500,000 over the Budget estimate was provided for share capital for Qantas Empire Airways Ltd. Expenditure of £1,960,000 in excess of the Budget estimate was incurred by the Postmaster-General's Department, including a further advance of £1,000,000 to the Post Office Stores and Services Trust Account. Expenditures which fell below the Budget estimate included advances to the Overseas Telecommunications Commission and to the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority, by £600,000 and £550,000, respectively. The amount paid to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve was £22,155,000, or £61,124,000 less than estimated in the Budget. {: .page-start } page 32 {:#debate-19} ### PART C- LOAN TRANSACTIONS 1961-62 {:#subdebate-19-0} #### Loan Commitments, 1961-62 At its meeting in June, 1961, the Australian Loan Council approved a governmental borrowing programme of £240,000,000 for State works and housing in 1961-62. The Commonwealth offered, subject to certain conditions, to make monthly advances to the States for the first six months of the year on the basis of that programme and indicated that it would then review the position. In February, 1962, the Loan Council approved the addition to the borrowing programme of £7,500,000 which was allocated to the Commonwealth for advances to the States under the Commonwealth and State Housing Agreements. In consequence the borrowing programme for (State works and housing increased to £247,500,000. At the same time the Commonwealth advised the States that it was prepared to continue to make advances for the remainder of the financial year, and to provide assistance, as necessary, to enable the increased borrowing programme to be achieved. As State domestic raisings totalled £2,880,000, the amount of the programme to be met from Commonwealth borrowings was £244,620,000. A further amount of £1,577,000 was required to finance Commonwealth payments to the States for War Service Land Settlement, bringing the total amount required to £246,197,000. At the June, 1960, meeting of the Loan Council, approval was given for an additional Commonwealth borrowing of £20,000,000 to finance advances which the Commonwealth had offered to make to Queensland to assist in the rehabilitation of the Mount IsaTownsvilleCollinsville railway line. Accordingly, an amount of £20,000,000 was added to the borrowing programme for 1959-60. At the end of June, 1960, the Commonwealth subscribed an amount of £54,895,000 (face value £55,000,000) to a special loan of which £20,000,000 was credited to Loan Fund on account of the Mount Isa borrowing. During 1961-62, the Commonwealth was called upon to make advances totalling £3,750,000 to Queensland for the Mount Isa railway project. {:#subdebate-19-1} #### Loan Raisings, 1961-62 During 1961-62 the Commonwealth issued three public cash loans in Australia, and three concurrent conversion offers to holders of maturing securities. After allowing for discounts in the issue price, total subscriptions to the cash loans, including advance subscriptions received before 1st July, 1961, were £202,430,000. Securities eligible for the three conversion offers amounted to £286,793,000. Of these, £221,888,000 were converted, £63,841,000 were redeemed and £1,064,000 were outstanding at 30th June, 1962. The issue of Special Bonds - Series E was discontinued in August, 1961, and was followed by the issue of Special Bonds - Series F. In May, 1962, Series F Bonds were replaced by Series G Bonds. Proceeds of sales of Special Bonds during the year were £27,362,000 and redemptions amounted to £7,597,000. Net proceeds from Special Bonds during the year were thus £19,765,000. In addition, maturing Commonwealth Bonds and Inscribed Stock totalling £8,245,000 were converted into Special Bonds in 1961-62, of which £8,235,000 related to debt maturing during 1961-62. During the year two cash loans and one refinancing loan were raised overseas. Cash loans issued in New York (U.S. $25,000,000) and the Netherlands (fi. 40,000,000) yielded £10,860,000 and £4,957,000, respectively, making a total of £15,817,000. The refinancing loan totalling U.S. $30,000,000 (£13,381,000) was issued in NewYork to refinance in part U.S. $38,085,000 (£16,987,000) of maturing debt. The balance of U.S. $8,085,000 (£3,606,000) was redeemed by the National Debt Sinking Fund. Commencing in September, 1961, Seasonal Treasury Notes were again issued in order to moderate seasonal fluctuations in the liquidity of the banks and the public. The Notes had a currency of thirteen weeks, and were issued daily until 30th March, 1962. In February, 1962, the amount of Notes outstanding reached a peak of £95,000,000. All the Notes matured and were repaid before the close of the financial year. Detailsof public cash and conversion loans raised by the Commonwealth in Australia and overseas in 1961-62 (other than issues of Seasonal Treasury Notes) are given in the following table: - The amount of £202,430,000 shown in the table above as the proceeds of the three public cash loans issued in Australia in 1961-62 differs from the actual cash receipts of £204,010,000 available during the year from public loans of this kind. The main reasons are that cash receipts exclude advance subscriptions brought forward from the previous year, but include those received up to 30th June, 1962, in respect of the first cash loan to be issued in 1962-63. Cash receipts also take into account outstanding instalments received during the year from loans floated in previous years, but do not include instalments still outstanding at 30th June, 1962. The actual cash receipts in 1961-62 from public loan raisings in Australia amounted to £223,782,000 including net cash proceeds of £19,772,000 from Special Bonds. The cash proceeds available from public loans overseas totalled £15,817,000. Cash receipts in 1961-62 from public loan raisings in Australia (including net cash proceeds of Special Bonds) and overseas therefore totalled £239,599,000. In addition, £615,000 was available from net recoveries of loan flotation expenses, making a total of £240,214,000. An amount of £5,983,000, representing the excess of the amount required for State works and housing programmes over loan proceeds (£4,406,000), and for payments to the States for War Service Land Settlement (£1,577,000), therefore remained to be provided by the Commonwealth. The financing by the Commonwealth of Loan Council borrowing programmes and payments to the States for War Service Land Settlement in 1961-62 can be summarized as follows: - Of the assistance provided by the Commonwealth, £1,192,000 was made available from Loan Fund balances for War Service Land Settlement. Cash to cover the remaining amount of £4,791,000 was provided out of a Special Loan of £6,993,000 (face value £7,000,000) subscribed from the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. This left an amount of £2,202,000 to be added to the balances of the Loan Fund. During 1961-62, £11,827,000 (U.S. $26,483,000) was received as a result of drawings on a loan made to the Commonwealth by the Export-Import Bank in December, 1960. These proceeds were made available in their entirety to Qantas. Loan Redemptions, 1961-62. In 1961-62, expenditure by the National Debt Sinking Fund on redemptions of Inscribed Stock and Bonds maturing in Australia during 1961-62, of War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates, of Commonwealth Bends maturing in New York, together with repayments due on loans from the International Bank and market repurchases and other expenditures totalled £94,598,000. Securities with a face value of £286,793,000 were offered for conversion in public loans in Australia during 1961-62 and of these £63,841,000 were redeemed. Redemptions of War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates cost £3,460,000. A loan of U.S. $38,085,000 matured in New York, of which U.S. $30,000,000 was refinanced from a loan issued in January, 1962, and the balance from the National Debt Sinking Fund at a cost of £3,606,000. Repayments of loans from the International Bank cost £7,911,000 (U.S. $17,727,000). In addition, the Sinking Fund expended £11,114,000 in Australia in 1961-62 on repurchases, repayments and other expenditures, and £4,666,000 on repurchases and redemptions overseas (principally repurchases on the New York market). The total amount expended by the Sinking Fund in 1961-62 was therefore £94,598,000, made up as follows: - Current receipts of the National Debt Sinking Fund during 1961-62 were £76,651,000. This was Supplemented to the extent of £12,941,000 by the sale to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve of securities held as investments by the Sinking Fund. The balance of the Sinking Fund's commitments (£5,006,000) was met by drawing on the cash balance in the Fund. As is pointed out above, in addition to the debt redeemed by the Sinking Fund, £7,597,000 of redemptions of Special Bonds were met from the proceeds of Special Bonds subscribed during 1961-62. In addition to the reduction of £78,410,000 (face value) in Commonwealth and State debt in Australia resulting from the operations of the National Debt Sinking Fund, there was a reduction of £54,523,000 in Commonwealth Government Inscribed Stock and Bonds through the operations of the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. The Commonwealth established this Reserve in 1953 to assist in reducing the large amounts of Commonwealth debt, chiefly war debt, that would fall due in subsequent years. Since 1935, the operations of the Reserve have resulted in the cancellation of Commonwealth Inscribed Stock and Bonds amounting to £479,363,000, mainly as a result of exchanges of medium and long term securities from its own portfolio for early maturing securities held elsewhere, which were then cancelled. An amount of £119,000 was paid from the Canadian Loan Trust Account for contractual repurchases of Commonwealth Bonds issued in Canada. Securities with a face value of Canadian $306,000 were repurchased and cancelled. STATEMENT No. 2- SUMMARY OF BUDGET PROSPECTS, 1962-63. Total expenditures of the Commonwealth Government in 1962-63 are estimated at £2,087,760,000, or £100,187,000 greater than in 1961-62. Receipts of the Consolidated Revenue Fund and Trust Fund and proceeds of loan raisings are estimated to total £1,969,432,000, leaving a deficiency of £118,328,000. In 1962-63, total expenditures of the Commonwealth are estimated to rise by £100,187,000 but an increase of only £8,869,000 is expected in total receipts, compared with actual increases in total receipts of £120,136,000 in 1961-62 and £150,036,000 in 1960-61. The main reasons for the estimated increase of £100,187,000 in total expenditures in 1962-63 are - {: type="a" start="a"} 0. Expenditure on social service payments from the National Welfare Fund and on War and Repatriation Services is estimated to increase by £28,745,000 in 1962-63. 1. Payments to or for the States, payments to the States from the Loan Fund and the State works and housing programmes which the Commonwealth has undertaken to support are estimated to increase in 1962-63 by £33,131,000. 2. The total amount of redemptions of securities maturing in 1962-63 and other repurchases, repayments, &c, to be met in 1962-63 is expected to be £11,402,000 greater than in 1961-62. The main factors accounting for the comparatively small estimated increase of £8,869,000 in total receipts in 1962-63 are - {: type="a" start="a"} 0. Receipts of the Consolidated Revenue Fund are estimated to be £1,665,432,000, or £23,890,000 more than in 1961-62. The taxation revenue estimates for 1962-63 reflect the full year effects of the measures announced in February, 1962, and also the effect on income tax collections of the decline in individual and company incomes in 1961- 62 which fall to be assessed in 1962- 63. {: type="1" start="6"} 0. Receipts of £16,000,000 are anticipated by way of initial drawings on the International Bank loan for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. However, proceeds of public loans (other than State domestic raisings), which increased substantially in 196 1 - 62 mainly because of the highly liquid monetary situation, are expected to decline by £45,214,000 and are estimated at £195,000,000 for 1962-63. 1. The income of the National Debt Sinking Fund is expected to be £3,349,000 greater than in 1961-62 and other Trust Fund balances are expected to increase by £10,844,000 more than in 1961-62. In 1961-62, expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, excluding the transfer payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, was £1,619,387,000. In addition, £23,641,000 of expenditure on Defence Services was met from the Loan Fund, so that total expenditure ordinarily met from the Consolidated Revenue Fund was £1,643,028,000. The comparable figure for 1962-63 is estimated at £1,725,815,000, of which £13,100,000 of expenditure on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme is expected to be charged to the Loan Fund. It is proposed to charge an amount of £98,283,000 of expenditure on Defence Services to the Loan Fund in 1962-63 so that, excluding the payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, expenditure charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund is estimated to total £1,614,432,000 in 1962-63. On this basis, it is estimated that the Consolidated Revenue Fund will be balanced after the payment of £51,000,000 to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, whence this amount will be available to assist in financing State works and housing programmes. The approved Loan Council borrowing programme for State works and housing for 1962-63 is £250,000,000, or £2,500,000 greater than the finally approved programme for 1961-62. Pending a review of the position at the end of the first half of the financial year, the Commonwealth is making advances on the basis of an annual programme of £250,000,000. For purposes of estimating the Commonwealth's financial requirements it has been assumed that the borrowing programme will in fact be £250,000,000 and that the gap between this amount, less the amount of State domestic raisings, and Commonwealth loan proceeds available towards the programme will be filled by Commonwealth assistance from its own resources. As State domestic raisings arc estimated to amount to £4,000,000 in 1962-63, the amount which would have to be met from Commonwealth loan raisings and Commonwealth assistance is estimated to be £246,000,000. In 1962-63, loan proceeds (excluding State domestic raisings and receipts from the International Bank loan for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme) are expected to amount to £195,000,000. Loan finance will again be required in 1962-63 to finance payments to the States for War Service Land Settlement. The amount so required is estimated to be £1,750,000, compared with £1,577,000 in 1961-62. Advances to Queensland for the Mount Isa railway project are estimated to be £8,195,000 in 1962-63 compared with £3,750,000 in 1961-62. Redemptions of matured securities, repayments of loans from the International Bank, market repurchases, &c, are expected to total £106,000,000 in 1962-63. The income of the National Debt Sinking Fund is estimated to be £80,000,000, which would fall short of the estimate of redemptions, repurchases, &c, by £26,000,000. In 1961-52 the income of the National Debt Sinking Fund was £76,651.000, and in order to finance the total of £94.598,000 of redemptions, repurchases, &c, the Sinking Fund supplemented this income by drawing on its balances. Receipts from the International Bank loan for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme are estimated to total £16,000,000 in 1962-63. It is estimated that £13,100,000 of expenditure on the Scheme will be charged to the Loan Fund in 1962-63. The difference between receipts and expenditures from Loan Fund is expected to arise from differences in timing between expenditures on the Scheme and drawings against the loan. In 1961-62 there was a net increase of £2,156,000 in other Trust Fund balances, which supplemented the funds available from loan proceeds and the income of the National Debt Sinking Fund in meeting commitments outside the Consolidated Revenue Fund. In 1962-63 it is estimated that £13,000,000 will be available from this source. The foregoing figures are brought together in the table below, which compares the prospective overall Budget result of the Commonwealth in 1962-63 with the actual result in 1961-62. The approved borrowing programme for State works and housing for 1962-63 is £250,000,000 and it is estimated that State domestic raisings will be £4,000,000, so that the amount to be met from loan proceeds and Commonwealth assistance would be £246,000,000. If loan raisings available for this programme are £195,600,000, a further £51,000,000 will be required to complete the programme. It is expected that this amount will be provided from a Special Loan subscribed from the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. The manner in which it is proposed to finance the various expenditures comprehended in the 1962-63 Budget may be set out as follows:- NOTES ON REVENUE ESTIMATES. Total revenue in 1962-63 is estimated at £1,665,432,000, or £23,890,000 more than in 1961-62. Brief explanations of the estimates for particular items follow. Item No. I. - Customs Revenue. Imports are expected to be higher in 1962-63 than in 1961-62, with the result that Custom collections are expected to increase by £10,799,000 to £96,000,000. In 1961-62, Customs revenue declined by £16,621,000. Item No. 2. - Excise Revenue. Excise collections in 1962-63 are expected (o total £276,000,000 compared with £265,607,000 in 1961-62. The estimated increase of £10,393,000 is expected to result mainly from increased clearances of beer, cigarettes and locally produced petrol in 1962-63. Some increase in Excise collections from other dutiable goods, with the exception of tobacco, is also expected. In 1961- 62, Excise collections rose by £8,195,000. Item No. 3.- Sales Tax. Sales Tax collections are estimated to total £155,000,000 in 1962-63, which would be £6,182,000 greater than in 1961-62. Collections in 1961-62 were £24,198,000 lower than in 1960-61. The increase in the sales of taxable goods, and in particular of passenger motor vehicles, in the later months of 1961-62 is expected to continue during 1962-63. However, the increase in sales tax collections in 1962-63 on this account will be greatly reduced by the full year effects of the reductions in rates of tax on household and domestic equipment which were made in the 1961-62 Budget and on motor vehicles, spare parts and accessories from 7th February, 1962, as part of the measures announced at that time. Item No. 4. - Income Tax. It is estimated that collections of Income Tax from individuals in 1962-63 will be £538,000,000, or approximately the same as in 1961-62. In 1961-62, in spite of the introduction as part of the February, 1962, measures of the 5 per cent, rebate of personal income tax which applied to the whole of the income of that financial year, Income Tax collections from individuals rose by £18,601,000. Net " pay-as-you-earn " collections in 1962-63 are expected to exceed those of 1961-62 by £24,500,000 as a result of higher wage and salary levels and an anticipated rise in employment. It is estimated that overall there was some decline in the 1961-62 incomes of taxpayers with income other than salary and wages, who are subject to provisional tax. Assessments based on these incomes will be issued in 1962-63. In addition, the 5 per cent, rebate of tax will apply to provisional tax collected on account of 1962-63 incomes as well as to tax assessed on 1961-62 incomes. As tax assessed but not collected at 1st July, 1962 was lower than the corresponding figure at 1st July, 1961, collections from this source in 1962-63 will be lower than in 1961-62. Collections, other than " pay-as-you-earn ", are expected therefore to be £23,800,000 less than in 1961- 62. It is estimated that Income Tax collections from companies in 1962-63 will be £262,000,000 which would be £20,688,000 less than in 1961-62. Collections in 1961-62 showed little change from the level of 1960-61. The decline expected in 1962-63 collections mainly reflects the fact that company incomes in 1961-62 (subject to assessment in 1962- 63) are estimated to have been lower than in the preceding year. Collections of tax on 1961-62 company incomes will also be reduced as a result of the investment allowance which came into effect from 7th February, 1962. In addition, collections in 1961-62 would have been lower had there not been a higher rate of collection on assessments compared with 1960-61. Although this higher rate should be maintained, no corresponding benefit to revenue on this account can be expected in 1962-63. Dividend (Withholding) Tax, which came into operation as from 1st July. 1960 in respect of certain dividends paid by Australian companies to non-residents, is expected to yield £7,000,000 in 1962-63, a decline of £1,116,000 compared with collections in 1961-62. Dividends subject to Withholding Tax in 1962-63 are not expected to reach the high levels obtaining in 1961-62. Collections in 1961-62 were £2,157,000 greater than in 1960-61. It is estimated that total Income Tax collections in 1962-63 will be £807,000,000, or £21,150,000 less than in 1961-62. Item No. 5. - Pay-roll Tax. Pay-roll Tax collections in 1961-62, totalling £60,972,000, were slightly less than 1960-61 collections because of rebates of Pay-roll Tax paid to exporters under the export incentive system which was introduced as from 1st July, 1961. After allowing for an increase in these rebates in 1962- 63, and also for the higher level of employment and wage and salary payments expected in the current year, it is estimated that Pay-roll Tax collections will total £64,000,000, or £3,028,000 more than in 1961-62. Items Nos. 6 and 7.- Estate and Gift Duties. Estimated collections in 1962-63 of Estate Duty and Gift Duty at £17,000,000 and £3,000,000, respectively, are expected to be little changed from 1961-62. Item No. 8. - Business Undertakings Revenue. The operating revenue of Commonwealth Railways is expected to increase by £398,000 in 1962-63 with increasing traffic on the TransAustralian and Central Australian Railways. Small decreases are expected on the North Australia and Seat of Government Railways, in the latter case due to the incidence of receipts and not to a decrease in earning rate. Post Office receipts are estimated to increase by £7,186,000 to a total of £147,000,000 in 1962-63, due to the growth in postal, telephone and telegraphic traffic. Broadcasting and Television revenue is estimated at £13,800,000, or £1,447,000 greater than last year, mainly because of an expected increase in the number of television viewers' licences. Item No. 9. - Territories Revenue. Territories revenue in 1962-63 is estimated to be £6,551,000, compared with £5,996,000 last financial year. The estimated increase of £555,000 comprises £76,000 in the Northern Territory, and £479,000 in the Australian Capital Territory. The increased revenue in the Australian Capital Territory relates primarily to rental returns from a larger number of Government-owned dwellings, increased sales of such dwellings, and an increased level of repayments of housing advances. Defence. - Receipts in 1962-63 are expected to be £647,000 less than in 1961-62 when revenue included certain non-recurring items. A continuing decline in receipts from the disposal of surplus stores and materials is also expected. Interior. - Revenue in 1962-63 is estimated to be £559,000 below the amount collected in 1961-62 because of lower receipts expected from sales of property. Civil Aviation. - In 1961-62, there were certain receipts which are not expected to recur in 1962- 63. These included £551,000 as repayment of an advance and interest by Qantas Empire Airways Ltd., £633,000 as a dividend from Qantas and £51,000 as a final dividend from Tasman Empire Airways Ltd. In 1962-63, the payment in the nature of a dividend by the Australian National Airlines Commission is expected to increase by £35,000. Air navigation charges are expected to increase by £116,000; £89,000 of this amount is expected to result from the proposed increases in the rates of charges which are estimated to yield £177,000 in a full year. Primary Industry. - It is estimated that revenue will be £309,000 greater in 1962-63 than in 1961-62, with increased collections expected from the cattle slaughter levy, the wool use promotion levy and the dairy produce levy. An amount of £205,000, representing accumulated profits from past trading operations in cornsacks by the Australian Wheat Board on behalf of the Commonwealth, is expected to be brought into this year's accounts. Shipping and Transport. - The estimated increase of £158,000 reflects the proposed increase in the rates of charges for lighthouse services, estimated to yield £131,000 in 1962-63 and £175,000 in a full year. Reserve Bank of Australia. - Under the Reserve Bank Act 1959 the profit of the Note Issue Department of the Reserve Bank of Australia and such proportion as the Treasurer determines of the profit of the Reserve Bank from Central Banking business are payable to Consolidated Revenue. Payments in respect of these profits are expected to be £103,000 less in 1962-63 than in 1961-62. Commonwealth Banking Corporation. - Under the Commonwealth Banks Act 1959 half of the net profits of the Commonwealth Trading Bank and of the Commonwealth Savings Bank is payable by the Commonwealth Banking Corporation to Consolidated Revenue. These payments are expected to be £321,000 less in 1962-63 than in 1961-62. War Service Homes - Interest. - The estimated increase of £689,000 in 1962-63 compared with 1961-62 reflects the larger total amount of advances outstanding under the War Service Homes scheme. General Trust Fund - Interest. - The estimated decline of £354,000 in 1962-63 compared with 1961-62 anticipates a reduction in the holding of Commonwealth Inscribed Stock by the General Trust Fund. Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. - The interest and depreciation components of the proceeds from electricity sales are payable to Consolidated Revenue. The estimated increase in receipts of £3,928,000 reflects the commissioning of the Tumut 2 power station early in 1962, and the Tumut 1 and Tumut 2 power stations being brought into full production in April, 1962. Stevedoring Industry Charge. - Revenue in 1962-63 is expected to be £1,067,000 more than in 1961-62 because of an increase in the rate of charge effective from 1st April, 1962 and an expected slight increase in man-hours worked at the waterside. Other- The estimated increase of £1,688,000 in this item reflects a non-recurring receipt in 1962-63 estimated at £2,200,000 from accumulated proceeds of sale of uranium oxide produced since 1954-55 at Rum Jungle under an agreement with the Combined Development Agency. Of this amount, £1,294,000 represents repayment of Commonwealth advances to the project, the balance being profit on operations. In 1961-62 the Christmas Island Phosphate Commission repaid £500,000 from advances received, but no corresponding payment is expected in 1962-63. Defence expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to be £210,000,000 which is £6,922,000 greater than actual expenditure in 1961-62. The main items contributing to the variations shown in the above table are: - Defence. - The increase of £1,111,000 is mainly for the purchase of equipment and the provision of staff for the Electronic Data Processing Centre. Navy. - Expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to be £1,146,000 in excess of the expenditure in 1961-62. This is due, in the main, to increases of £902,000 in the provision for the purchase and construction of ships, £2,484,000 in respect of the purchase of aircraft and £552,000 for defence research and development, partly offset by estimated reductions of £2,321,000 in the purchase of equipment and stores and £413,000 in repairs to ships and aircraft. Army. - It is estimated that Army expenditure will be £2,142,000 in excess of that for 1961-62, because of increases in expenditure of £895,000 for pay, maintenance and general services mainly resulting from an increase in the strength of the Permanent Forces, £1,119,000 on the maintenance of arms and equipment and £346,000 on new buildings and works. Expenditure for maintenance of the forces overseas is expected to decline by £264,000 and expenditure on the purchase of new equipment by £204,000. Air. - Items contributing to the increase of £1,161,000 are increases of £252,000 on administrative expenses, £756,000 on the purchase of equipment and stores and £284,000 on maintenance of buildings and works; there is an estimated reduction of £298,000 on the purchase of aircraft. Supply. - The increase of £1,156,000 is mainly due to increased provision of £1,121,000 for research projects, £522,000 for machinery and plant and £822,000 for the purchase of motor vehicles and equipment which hitherto had been charged to a Trust Account. These increases are partly offset by a reduction in the Australian contribution to the Joint United KingdomAustralia Weapons Research Project of £1,500,000. S.E.A.T.O. - Economic Assistance. - Further assistance to the value of £1,000,000 to S.E.A.T.O. and Protocol States is proposed for 1962-63. This is an increase of £423,000 on the expenditure in 1961-62. Civil Defence.- An amount of £330,000 has been provided for expenditure on civil defence in 1962-63, an increase of £108,000 on expenditure in 1961-62. Construction of Jetty for Handling of Explosives. - The amount provided is to cover the cost of completing this work in 1962-63. Item No. 12. - Payment to National Welfare Fund. The National Welfare Fund Act 1952 provides that the payment from Consolidated Revenue to the National Welfare Fund each year should be equal to the actual expenditure from the Fund in that year. Expenditure from the Fund was £365,191,000 in 1961-62 and is estimated at £387,574,000 in 1962-63. Detailed explanations of the estimated increase of £22,383,000 in expenditure from the Fund in 1962-63 are given in Statement No. 4. - National Welfare Fund Estimates, 1962-63. Item No. 13. - Debt Charges. *Estimated Expenditure* 1962-63, *Compared With Actual Expenditure* 1961-62. Total Debt Charges in 1962-63 are estimated to be £67,980,000, or £684,000 less than the corresponding expenditures in 1961-62. Sinking Fund contributions in 1962-63 are estimated to total £27,472,000, compared with £25,109,000 in the previous financial year. The estimated increase of £2,363,000 reflects the normal rate of accumulation in these contributions. Interest payments on debt repayable overseas are estimated to increase by £404,000 in 1962-63 as a result of the additional loans floated in the United States and the Netherlands during 1961-62. The estimated decrease of £3,012,000 in interest payments on debt repayable in Australia reflects an estimated decline of £2,100,000 in accrued interest payments on matured War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates and also the reduction in other Commonwealth debt outstanding through the operations of the National Debt Sinking Fund and the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. Loan redemption and conversion expenses in 1962-63 are estimated to be £440,000 less than in 1961-62. No expenses will be incurred by the Commonwealth in respect of debt maturing overseas during 1962-63. Moreover, the amount of debt maturing in Australia in respect of which the Commonwealth is responsible for redemption and conversion expenses will be considerably less than in 1961-62. Public Service Pensions and Retiring Allowances. - The estimated increase of £1,179,000 in expenditure in 1962-63 reflects the normal growth in Commonwealth contributions to the Superannuation Fund and the Defence Forces Retirement Benefits Fund. Primary Industry Research and Sales Promotion. - Expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to increase by £302,000 principally because payments under the Wool Use Promotion Act and the Cattle and Beef Research Act will reflect the anticipated increases in receipts from the wool use promotion levy and the cattle slaughter levy. See Item No. 10 - Miscellaneous Revenue. An increased Commonwealth contribution for cattle and beef research is also expected. Bounties. - Includes those items shown in previous years under the head Bounties and Subsidies, with the exception of the Butter and Cheese Bounties, the Flax Fibre Bounty and payments to the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund. Comments on all these items are set out in an addendum to this Statement. International Bank Subscription. - In August, 1957, Australia agreed to release the then outstanding balance of £15,910,000 of its 18 per cent, capital subscription to the Bank for use in its lending operations in member countries. The agreement provided for this amount to be released over five years in roughly equal annual instalments. The last instalment of £2,801,000 was made available in 1961-62. International Monetary Fund. - Expenditure of £721,000 in 1961-62 related to an obligation incurred by Australia under the Fund Articles of Agreement to increase the gold portion of its subscription to the Fund. No corresponding provision is made for expenditure in 1962-63. International Development Association. - On 8th November, 1962, the International Development Association will commence its third year of operations. On that date, Australia's third annual instalment of its capital subscription, equivalent to £1,734,000, will fall duc for payment. This will be met by the payment of £113,000 to the Reserve Bank of Australia for the credit of the International Development Association, and by the lodgment with the Reserve Bank of non-negotiable non-interest-bearing demand securities amounting to £1,621,000 which the International Development Association will cash as required for its operations. The estimated expenditure of £700,000 in 1962-63 represents the cash payment of £113,000 plus the amount of demand securities which it is estimated that the International Development Association will cash in 1962-63. Expenditure for this purpose in 1961-62 was £113,000, or £587,000 less than the estimate for 1962-63. Colombo Plan - Indus Basin Development Fund. - Because of a temporary slowing down in the rate of disbursements by the Fund, expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to be £1,000,000, or £358,000 less than expenditure in 1961-62. Stevedoring Industry. - The Stevedoring Industry Act 1954-1961 requires the payment to the Stevedoring Industry Authority of amounts equal to revenue raised under the Stevedoring Industry Charge Act 1947-1962. Expenditure in 1962-63 is expected to be £1,064,000 more than in 1961-62 because of an increase in the rate of charge effective from 1st April, 1962. See Item No. 10 - Miscellaneous Revenue. Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund. - Under the Wheat Industry Stabilization Act 1958-1960, growers are guaranteed a return based on " cost of production " in respect of up to 100 million bushels of wheat exported from each of the five wheat crops for the seasons 1958-59 to 1962-63. If the average export price for a crop exceeds the guaranteed return, growers are required to contribute to the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund. When the average export price for a crop falls below the guaranteed return, the deficit is made up by drawing upon the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund, and, if that Fund is exhausted, by payment from Consolidated Revenue. In 1961-62 payments from the Consolidated Revenue Fund amounting to £11,906,000 were made in respect of the 1959-60 and 1960-61 crops. In 1962-63 it is expected that a payment of £7,500,000 will be necessary to make up the guaranteed return on the 1961-62 crop. Other.- The estimated decrease of £244,000 in 1962-63 chiefly reflects a decline from £264,000 to £100,000 in the amount expected to be received from the United Kingdom Government under the Meat Export Deficiency Payment legislation for subsequent payment to primary producers. Departmental Expenditure comprises the annual running costs of Civil Departments (excluding War and Repatriation Services, Business Under.takings, the Defence Departments and expenditure in the Territories) and those other items which arise in connexion with a Department's responsibilities. The composition of the total Departmental Expenditure set out above is as follows: - Some of the more important factors affecting the estimated expenditure of individual Departments in 1962-63 are - Prime Minister's. - The estimated increase in expenditure of £736,000 reflects an increase of £169,000 in running costs and of £567,000 on other services. More than half the increase in running costs is due to a change in procedure under which all audit fees will be credited to revenue and not shown as a reduction in expenditure. Expenditures in 1962-63 on other services include an additional £146,000 for the Commonwealth Educational Co-operation Scheme; an increase of £357,000 in expenditure on the Commonwealth Scholarships Scheme; an additional £194,000 for the grant to the Australian National University; and increases of £54,000 and £50,000 in the grants to the National Library and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, respectively. New expenditures to be incurred in 1962-63 include the visit of the King and Queen of Thailand, the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to open the Commonwealth Games in Perth, and the 1963 Royal visit, provisions for which total £240,000. Reductions in estimated expenditure include £160,000 in respect of the Commonwealth Games; £193,000 in respect of cyclone relief in Western Australia and £50,000 in respect of bushfire relief in Victoria. External Affairs. - The estimated decrease in expenditure of £620,000 in 1962-63 is the net product of an expected increase of £343,000 in running costs and an estimated decrease of £963,000 in expenditure on other services. The estimated increase in running costs is expected from increases in expenditures of £186,000 for salaries of additional staff and for increases in overseas allowances; of £57,000 in respect of the full year costs of posts opened during the year in . Tanganyika and Korea; and of £62,000 in the expenses of the Antarctic Division. The cost of the Colombo Plan Consultative Committee Meeting, to be held in Melbourne during the year, is estimated at £60,000. The estimated decline in expenditure on other services is due primarily to the estimated savings of £1,722,000 in respect ofUnited Nations Forces. As a result of alternative financing arrangements, no contributions will be made in 1962-63 towards either the United Nations Force for the Congo or the United Nations Emergency Force, to which Australia contributed £1,576,000 and £146,000 respectively, in 1961-62. On the other hand, provision is made under other services for increases of £801,000 for expen'diture under the Colombo Plan and £58,000 under other bilateral aid programmes. Treasury. - Lower running costs account for £346,000 of the estimated decrease of £383,000 in expenditure in 1962-63. The running costs of the Statistician's Branch are expected to fall by £645,000 in 1962-63, chiefly because of the higher than normal expenditure incurred in 1961-62 in connexion with the population census. This saving is expected to be partly offset by an increase of £262,000 in running costs of the Taxation Branch, of which £197,000 is for additional salary costs. Attorney-General's. - Increased expenditure of £287,000 expected in 1962-63 is almost entirely in respect of an estimated increase in running costs. Of this increase, £198,000 is attributable to additional salary expenditure, including reclassifications of Legal Officers and the filling of vacancies. Administrative expenses are expected to rise by £89,000, due mainly to the initial printing and other costs associated with the administration of the Matrimonial Causes Act and to accessions to the staff of the Patents Office. Interior. - The estimated increase in expenditure of £119,000 reflects a corresponding estimated increase in running costs. Increases in expenditure total £433,000, of which £172,000 relates to office accommodation, services and rent and £146,000 to expenditure by the Meteorological Bureau. On the other hand, expenditure by the Electoral Branch is expected to be £314,000 less than in 1961-62, when the Federal Election was held. Works. - Expenditure is estimated to increase by £476,000 in 1962-63 as a result of expected increases in running costs. Before allowing for recoveries, which are expected to be £452,000 greater than in 1961-62, the running costs of the Department are expected to rise by £928,000 in 1962-63. The gross increase in running costs includes £300,000 for filling new and vacant positions, £80,000 for a special staff intake in Papua-New Guinea, and an increase of £212,000 for fees to private architects. In addition, the repairs and maintenance provision is £90,000 more than last year's expenditure. Civil Aviation. - It is estimated that expenditure will increase by £647,000 in 1962-63, of which £607,000 reflects an expected increase in running costs. The main components of this increase are £408,000 for maintenance and operation of aerodromes and airways facilities, £119,000 for administrative wages and salaries, and £73,000 for rent and meteorological services. Customs and Excise. - The estimated increase of £184,000 in 1962-63 is expected to arise from an increase of £177,000 in running costs of which £139,000 is expected to' be required to meet the cost of new ' staff positions and the filling of existing vacancies. Health. - Of an estimated increase in expenditure of £950,000 in 1962-63, £298,000 is the ' result of an expected increase in running costs. An additional £165,000- is required for salaries, a substantial part of which relates to the filling of existing vacant positions associated with the National Health Scheme. Administrative expenses under the Scheme are also expected to increase by £82,000. Expenditure on other services is estimated to be £652,000 greater than in 1961-62, of which £636,000 arises from the transfer to annual appropriation of certain items of expenditure previously met from the National Welfare Fund. Trade. - Of the estimated increase in expenditure of £425.000 in 1962-63, £266,000 represents an estimated net increase in running costs, mainly because of expected increases of £98,000 in the cost of staff in Australia and £191,000 in expenditure on the Trade Commissioner Service. Expenditure on other services is expected to be £159,000 greater than in 1961-62. The additional grant to the Australian National Travel Association accounts for £61,000 of this increase while the subsidy to the South American Shipping Service accounts for an increase of £75,000. Primary Industry. - Increased expenditure on other services accounts for most of the additional expenditure of £292,000 expected under this item in 1962-63. It is proposed to contribute £205,000 towards the cost of purchase of premises by the Australian Wheat Board and to grant £149,000 to New South Wales and Queensland for recharging cattle dips. Payments of bounties on butter and cheese are expected to total £13,500,000 in 1962-63, the same amount as in 1961-62. Further details of these bounties are given in the addendum to this Statement. Social Services. - The estimated decrease in expenditure of £325,000 in 1962-63 is the net result of an estimated increase in running costs of £146,000 and a decrease in expenditure on other services of £471,000 arising from an estimated decrease of £473.000 in payments in respect of the building of homes for the aged. Shipping and Transport. - It is estimated that expenditure in 1962-63 will be £372,000 more than in 1961-62. Running costs are expected to increase by £92,000, while costs of other services are expected to rise by £280,000, mainly because of an increase of £246,000 in expenditure on assistance to the shipbuilding industry. Immigration. - Of the estimated increase in expenditure of £901,000 in 1962-63, £860,000 is in respect of other services. This increase reflects expected increases in expenditure of £986,000 on Assisted Migration and £91,000 on migration publicity, and decreases in expenditure of £98,000 on the accommodation and maintenance of migrant families, £83,000 on non-recurring shipping expenses, and £79,000 on education in the English language. Labour and National Service. - The estimated increase of £179,000 in expenditure in 1962-63 is wholly in respect of higher running costs and for the most part reflects the full year cost of additional staff appointed during 1961-62 as well as additional expenditure, estimated at £72,000, to be incurred in holding the Sth Asian Regional Conference of the Internationa] Labour Organization in Australia during 1962-63. National Development. - It is estimated that expenditure in 1962-63 will be £3,492,000 greater than in 1961-62. Running costs are expected to increase by £74,000 for the Division of National Mapping and £377,000 for the Bureau of Mineral Resources, both increases reflecting further accelerated oil search activity. The increase of £3,019,000 in the provision for other services includes an estimated additional £2,457,000 for oil search subsidies and an additional £557,000 for the Atomic Energy Commission. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. - It is estimated that expenditure by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization will increase by £800,000 in 1962-63. Running costs are estimated to increase by £730,000 while £70,000 relates to other services. The increase in running costs provides for the additional activity associated with new projects (the Townsville Pasture Research Laboratory and a Computer' Laboratory) and for some expansion in other fields of the C.S.I.R.O. research programme. War and Service Pensions and Allowances. - Of the estimated increase of £4,985,000 in war and service pension payments, £4,190,000 is attributable to expected increases in the number of pensioners and in the rates of pension following re-assessments of incapacity; the balance of the estimated increase reflects the full year effect of amendments made to the legislation in 1961. Hospitals and Other Institutions. - It is estimated that operating expenses of Repatriation hospitals, out-patients clinics, artificial limb factories and Anzac hostels will rise by £376,000 in 1962-63. Of this increase, £122,000 is attributable to the full-year cost of additional staff appointed during 1961-62 and the cost of filling a small number of approved vacant positions in 1962-63. The cost of the first stage of a five year ward reequipment programme is estimated to be £110,000; and increases in other operating expenses largely associated with increased numbers of in-patients are expected to total £144,000. Other Repatriation Benefits. - The increase of £1,379,000 expected in expenditure in 1962-63 is chiefly attributable to an estimated increase of £874,000 in the cost of pharmaceutical services due to an expected rise in the number and average price of prescriptions. Of the balance, amounting to £505,000, £155,000 is due to an anticipated increase in the number of visits by local medical officers and a rise in certain medical fees and £295,000 is attributable mainly to increased expenditure on travelling, sustenance and other expenses associated with the increased numbers receiving medical and related treatment. An additional provision of £91,000 is also made for the Soldiers' Children Education Scheme. Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. - Expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to be £439,000 less than in 1961-62, mainly because of an expected decline in the amount of the Commonwealth's contribution towards certain capital losses incurred under the War Service Land Settlement Scheme. Miscellaneous. - The main reason for the estimated decrease of £130,000 in expenditure is that recoveries from Other Administrations for supplies and services are expected to exceed expenditure on them in 1962-63, whereas the reverse was the case in 1961-62. Railways. - The estimated increase of £215,000 in expenditure in 1962-63 provides for additional costs associated with an expected increase in traffic and with the maintenance of tracks and rolling stock. Post Office. - The apparent decrease in estimated expenditure by the Post Office in 1962-63 results from the transfer of expenditure to the Capital Works and Services Vote of £13,000,000 on items of a capital nature, previously provided under Ordinary Services Vote.If this transfer had not been made, the estimated increase in expenditure would be £4,687,000. Of this amount, expenditure on stores and materials is expected to increase by £2,192,000, mainly because of a new basis for the purchase of motor vehicles which were formerly handled through a Trust Account. £1,500,000 is required to meet the cost for a full year of increases in salaries, wages and allowances during 1961- 62, and additional staff to be recruited in 1962- 63. Provision has been made for an increase of £266,000 in administrative expenses, mainly the additional cost of fuel, light and power and the printing of telephone directories. Payments to mail contractors are expected to increase by £634,000 reflecting the increased volume of overseas airmail and the increased payments for the carriage of mail by rail. Broadcasting and Television. - Expenditure in 1962-63 is expected to increase by £1,320,000, or by £1,398,000 if account is taken of the accounting change referred to in footnote (b) to the above table. The costs of the PostmasterGeneral's Department for technical and other services are expected to increase by £275,000, mainly due to the operating costs of new television stations to open during 1962-63. The increase in respect of the Australian Broadcasting Commission is estimated to be £882,000 and includes provision for production of a larger number of live television programmes in 1962-63. Salaries are expected to increase by £359,000 reflecting the cost for a full year of staff recruited in 1961-62 and new staff to be engaged in 1962-63. Northern Territory. - The requirements of the Northern Territory Administration account for £1,060,000 of the total estimated increase of £1,482,000 in expenditure in 1962-63. The opera tion of public utility services will require increased expenditure of £106,000 and repairs and maintenance and development services an additional £104,000. Australian Capital Territory. - The estimated increase of £655,000 in expenditure in 1962-63 reflects the demands of continuing population growth in, and development of, the National Capital. Provision has been made for additional expenditure of £83,000 for general services, £86.000 for maintenance of parks and gardens, and £87,000 for educational services. Expenditure on health services in 1962-63 is estimated to increase by £109,000. The Australian Capital Territory votes also include £80,000 for the repair and maintenance of Commonwealth offices in Canberra; in previous years, expenditure for this purpose was provided for under Departmental Expenditure Papua and New Guinea. - The estimated expenditure of £20.201,000 in 1962-63 relates almost entirely to the grant of £20,000,000 by the Commonwealth to the Administration of the Territory to meet the difference between proposed expenditure and local revenue in the Territory, lt is estimated that expenditure by the Administration will increase by approximately £4,000,000 in 1962-63. of which £2,700,000 will be met from an increase in the grant by the Commonwealth. This will permit the recruitment of additional staff and increased expenditure on capital works and services, particularly for housing, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, wharves and electricity generation and reticulation. Full details of these payments are given in the revised White Paper entitled "Commonwealth Payments to or for the States" issued as part of the information provided to the Parliament in connexion with the Budget. Brief notes on individual items included in Part IV. of the Estimates are given below. Details of other Commonwealth payments to or for the States, apart from those included in Part IV. of the Estimates, arc also contained in the White Paper. Financial Assistance Grants. - Under the provisions of the States Grants Act 1959 the financial assistance grant payable to each State in 1962-63 is to be determined by adjusting the grant paid to that State in 1961-62 in accordance with a formula based on estimated movements in the population of that State between 1st July, 1961, and 1st July, 1962, and the percentage increase (adjusted by a " betterment factor " of one-tenth) in the level of average wages for Australia as a whole between 1960-61 and 1961-62. The States Grants Act 1962 provided that the grant deemed to be payable to Victoria in 1961-62 for this purpose is £72,730,000. Revised preliminary estimates made by the Commonwealth Statistician indicate that the financial assistance grants payable to the States in 1962-63 under the States Grants Acts 1959 and 1962 will total £305,290,000, or £13,150,000 more than the grants paid under those Acts in 1961-62. The final determination of the grant payable to each State will be made by the Statistician as the necessary data become available later in the year, and in any case, as required by the legislation, not later than 31st December, 1962. Special Grants. - The Commonwealth Grants Commission has recommended special grants for the claimant States totalling £11,251,000 in 1962-63, compared with £11,231,000 in 1961-62. Of this total amount recommended for payment in 1962-63, the Commission has recommended that Western Australia be paid £6,210,000, compared with £6,156,000 in 1961-62, and Tasmania £5,041,000, compared with £5,075,000 in 1961-62. Additional Assistance Grants. - As one of the measures announced by the Commonwealth in February, 1962, to stimulate employment, an additional assistance grant of £10,000,000 was provided to the States on a nonrepayable basis under the authority of the States Grants (Additional Assistance) Act 1962 for expenditure on employment-giving activities, mainly in the works field, in the remaining months of 196-1-62. At the Loan Council meeting and Premiers' Conference in June, 1962, the Commonwealth offered to make available to the States in 1962-63 a similar grant of £12,500,000 to be expended by the States at their discretion on employment-giving activities. Payments under the Financial Agreement. - The Financial Agreement provides that the Commonwealth will, in each year during the period of 58 years commencing 1st July, 1927, contribute a fixed amount of £7,585,000 towards the interest payable on State debts existing at 30th June, 1927. The Sinking Fund contributions made by the Commonwealth in respect of State debts existing at 30th June, 1927, and incurred since that date, vary according to the nature and extent of borrowings by the States and are paid direct to the National Debt Sinking Fund. The estimated increase of £506,000 in these contributions' in 1962-63 reflects the growth in State debt. Commonwealth Aid Roads Grants. - The Commonwealth Aid Roads Act 1959 provides for the payment of a total amount of £54,000,000 to the States in 1962-63, £46,000,000 as a basic grant and £8,000,000 as matching assistance. In 1961-62 roads grants to the States totalled £50,000,000 of which £44,000,000 represented basic grants and £6,000,000 matching assistance. The amount payable to a State as matching assistance in 1962-63 is subject to adjustment if it is subsequently found that the State has not qualified in full for the matching assistance paid to it in 1961-62. Financial Assistance to States for Universities. - The States Grants (Universities) Acts 1960 and 1962, which were enacted following the presentation by the Australian Universities Commission of its report in 1960 and the report in 1961 by the Committee on Teaching Costs of Medical Hospitals, provide financial assistance to the States for universities of up to £44,000,000 over the three calendar years 1961, 1962 and 1963. As a result of the operation of this legislation, payments to the States for universities are expected to increase from £14,161,000 in 1961-62 to £15,894,000 in 1962-63. Tuberculosis Hospitals - Reimbursement of Capital Expenditure.- Under the Tuberculosis Act 1948 the Commonwealth provides assistance to the States in reimbursement of their capital expenditures on buildings, furnishings, equipment and plant for the diagnosis, treatment and control of tuberculosis. It is estimated that expenditure in 1962-63 will be £400,000, which is the amount it is expected the States will claim during the year. Expenditure in 1961-62 was £387,000. Mental Institutions - Contributions to Capital Expenditure.- The States Grants (Mental Institutions) Act 1955 provides for Commonwealth grants of up *te* £10,000,000 to the States for the building and equipping of mental hospitals, on the basis of £1 from the Commonwealth for each £2 spent by a State. Expenditure by the Commonwealth in 1961-62 amounted to £824,000, and it is estimated that £1,363,000 will be required for this purpose in 1962-63. Replacement of Derby Jetty- Western Australia. Provision of £300,000 has been made for financial assistance to the State of Western Australia during 1962-63 towards the cost of constructing a new jetty with improved facilities at Derby, in the West Kimberleys region of Western Australia. Western Australia Northern Development. - The Western Australia Grant (Northern Development) Act 1958-1959 provides for the payment to Western Australia of up to £5,000,000 for development undertaken by the State in the area north of the twentieth parallel of latitude during the period of five years commencing on 1st July, 1958. Payments to Western Australia during 1961-62 amounted to £1,705,000 bringing the total payments by the Commonwealth in respect of the scheme to £3,568,000. It is expected that the balance of the grant provided under the Act, namely £1,432,000, will be spent in 1962-63. Cattle Roads - Queensland. - The Queensland Grant (Beef Cattle Roads) Act 1961 provides for a grant of £5,000,000 to be paid to Queensland over the five-year period commencing 1st July, 1961, for expenditure on approved roads for the transport of beef cattle. In 1961-62 an amount of £650,000 was paid to the State and it is estimated that payments totalling £1,480,000 will be made in 1962-63. In addition, provision has been made for further financial assistance to Queensland in 1962-63, to the extent of £250,000, for bitumen sealing of beef cattle roads. Brigalow Lands Development - Queensland.Provision of £1,750,000 has been made for financial assistance to the State of Queensland during 1962-63 towards the cost of developing brigalow land in the Fitzroy Basin area of central Queensland. Cattle Roads - Western Australia. - Under the Western Australia Grant (Beef Cattle Roads) Act 1961, a special grant of £500,000 was made to Western Australia in 1961-62 for certain work on roads and bridges in the north of the State. Provision has been made for a further grant of £700,000 in 1962-63. Coal Loading Works- New South Wales. - Under the Coal Loading Works Agreement (New South Wales) Act 1961 the Commonwealth is providing financial assistance to New South Wales of up to £2,650,000, partly by way of repayable advances from the Consolidated Revenue Fund and partly by grants from the Coal Industry Fund of the Joint Coal Board, for improvements to coal loading facilities at Newcastle, Port Kembla and Balmain. In 1961-62 repayable advances amounted to £284,000 (and grants to £172,000). In 1962-63 it is estimated that repayable advances will be £683,000 (and grants £415,000). Coal Loading Works - Queensland. - Under the Coal Loading Works Agreement (Queensland) Act 1962 the Commonwealth has entered into an agreement with the Queensland Government to provide financial assistance up to a total amount of £200,000 to expedite improvements to coal loading facilities at the port of Gladstone. Assistance is to be by way of a repayable long-term advance of up to £100,000 and a grant of up to £100,000. No payments were made in 1961-62. In 1962-63 it is expected that advances and grants will total £145,000. Total expenditure on Capital Works and Services is expected to be £180,977,000 in 1962-63. As £13,100,000 of expenditure on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority is expected to be charged to Loan Fund in accordance with the Loan (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) Act 1962, £167,877,000 of the (intimated expenditure on Capital Works and Services is expected to be charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in 1962-63. Estimated total expenditure on Capital Works and Services charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and the Loan Fund would represent an increase of £19,385,000 over comparable expenditure in 1961- 62. However, £13,078,000 of this increase arises from changes in accounting procedures referred to in footnotes to this table and to the table in Item No. 17, Business Undertakings, so that the estimated increase excluding these changes would be £6,307,000. Reasons for variations in the estimates in respect of some items shown in the table compared with actual expenditure in 1961-62 are: - External Affairs. - It is estimated that expenditure will decline by £1,752,000 in 1962-63 because expenditure in 1961-62 included Australia's subscription of £1,785,000 to the United Nations Bond issue. Treasury - Capital for Commonwealth Development Bank. - In 1961-62 payments totalling £10,000,000 were made for additional capital of the Commonwealth Development Bank. No provision is made in this year's estimates for payments to the Bank for this purpose. Treasury - Other Items. - Expenditure in 1962- 63, which is estimated to increase by £380,000, includes £600,000 to cover advance payments for plant and equipment for the National Mint and an increase from £51,000 to £180,000 in the requirement for plant and equip ment for the Government Printing Office. The provision for 1962-63 works and acquisitions programmes is £379,000 less than actual expenditure last year, mainly because of reduced expenditure on the new Government Printing Office. Interior. - Of the estimated decrease of £1,027,000, it is expected that £761,000 will arise from a decline in expenditure on Commonwealth offices and other buildings outside the Australian Capital Territory, because of a substantially reduced provision for Stage 1 of the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney, and the completion of Commonwealth Offices, Brisbane. The provision for acquisitions is £424,000 less than in 1961-62 when £425,000 was spent acquiring a site for Stages 2 and 3 of Commonwealth Offices, Sydney. An additional £123,000 has been provided for the purchase of plant and equipment for the Bureau of Meteorology. Civil Aviation - Works, Sites and Buildings. - Estimated expenditure in 1962-63 of £2,992,000 consists of £2,353,000 for the works programme, which is £42,000 more than was spent in 1961-62, and £639,000 for the acquisition of sites and buildings, an increase of £188,000 over expenditure in 1961-62. It is estimated that £463,000 will be required this year for the acquisition of land at Tullamarine and at the Brisbane and Perth Airports. Civil Aviation - Technical Equipment. - The estimated increase of £448,000 in expenditure in 1962-63 on technical equipment includes provision for expenditure on a special additional programme, estimated to cost £3,000,000, for the installation over the next three years of surveillance radar at Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane aerodromes and for the modification and expansion of the existing navigational aid system. Civil Aviation - Capital for Qantas and T.A.A. - In 1961-62, Qantas Empire Airways Ltd. received £1,650,000 as additional capital, part of which was used to repay an advance made by the Commonwealth in 1960-61. No provision has been made for additional capital for either Qantas or the Australian National Airlines Commission (T.A.A.) in 1962-63. Health.- The main reason for the decrease of £217,000 in estimated expenditure for 1962-63 is that no provision for new projects for the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories has been made in this year's works programme. Shipping and Transport - Railway Projects. - Under the Railway Standardization (New South Wales and Victoria) Agreement Act 1958, the Commonwealth agreed to provide financial assistance for the construction of a standard gauge railway between Albury and Melbourne. This line was officially opened for traffic in April, 1962, and expenditure by the Commonwealth to 30th June, 1962 totalled £14,485,000, of which £4,000,000 was in 1961-62; no provision has been made for expenditure in 1962-63. Under the Railway Agreement (Western Australia) Act 1961, the Commonwealth is to provide financial assistance to Western Australia for the construction of a standard gauge railway from Kwinana to Kalgoorlie and to iron ore deposits at Koolyanobbing and for the purchase of rolling stock for the railway. The first payments by the Commonwealth will be required in 1962-63 and an amount of £4,300,000 is provided for this purpose. Under the Railway Equipment Agreement (South Australia) Act 1961, the Commonwealth agreed to provide financial assistance of up to £1,325,000 for the purchase of 12 locomotives and 100 wagons for the Port Pirie-Broken Hill railway. It is estimated that £1,300,000 will be required for this purpose in 1962-63. National Development - Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. - Expenditure by the Authority in 1962-63 is estimated at £24,150,000, compared with actual expenditure of £16,010,000 in 1961-62. The big increase is due to increased activity on the part of contractors constructing major works on the Snowy-Murray section of the Scheme. The Murray 1 power project is scheduled to be commisisoned early in 1966. It is estimated that £13,100,000 out of the total expenditure of £24,150,000 wil be financed from drawings during 1962-63 of the loan of $100 million being made to the Commonwealth by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in respect of the Murray 1 power project. National Development - Australian Atomic Energy Commission. - Expenditure in 1962-63 is expected to be £186,000 less than in 1961-62. The provision for buildings and works in 1962-63 is £350,000 compared with £531,000 in 1961-62, and the provision for scientific plant and equipment is £20,000 less than in 1961-62. Expenditure on Rum Jungle plant, at £80,000, is £16,000 higher than in 1961-62. National Development - Other Items. - Increased expenditure of £118,000 includes the cost of equipment to be used in the search for oil. Commonwealth Railways. - The estimated increase of £604,000 in 1962-63 is attributable mainly to expenditure on new diesel electric locomotives under construction, the proposed purchase of additional passenger and goods roiling stock and improvements to the permanent way. Post Office. - A large part of the increase reflects the inclusion of certain items of a capital nature, amounting to £13,000,000, previously provided under the ordinary services votes. The estimated, increase excluding this change in accounting procedures is, therefore, £2,704,000. The continued demand for telephone services will require additional expenditure in 1962-63, while the provision for television relay facilities is increased from £414,000 in 1961-62 to £900,000 in 1962-63. Estimated expenditure on the works programme for the Post Office is expected to be £1,874,000 greater than actual expenditure last year, because of a substantially increased provision for the Sydney and Brisbane Mail Exchange buildings. £200,000 has been provided for micro-wave repeating stations for stage 4 of the regional television development programme. Overseas Telecommunications Commission - The provision of £3,500,000 in 1962-63 represents portion of Australia's contribution towards the cost of the trans-Pacific telephone cable project. Broadcasting and Television. - The increase of £1,328,000 in estimated expenditure during 1962-63 is mainly attributable to the provisions for buildings, services and equipment for television transmission in provincial and country areas. (£78,000 of the increase arises from an accounting change; this amount would previously have been charged to other services.) Northern Territory. - The 1962-63 provision for the Northern Territory is £1,072,000 greater than expenditure in 1961-62. This figure includes increases of £634,000 for the beef cattle roads programme, £106,000 for the provision of health services, and £182,000 for plant and equipment for the Northern Territory Administration. Advances to the Northern Territory Housing Commission for rental housing are estimated to cost £132,000 more this year than in 1961-62. Estimated expenditure on loans to primary producers for water development is £68,000 more than expenditure last year, while the provision for loans for residential accommodation for school children is £102,000 more than last year's expenditure. Australian Capital Territory. - Expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to be £2,425,000 greater than expenditure in 1961-62. This increase includes additional amounts of £1,150,000 in the provision for the National Capital Development Commission's programme, including the new National Mint building; £500,000 for the Department of Health (Canberra Hospital development); £250,000 for additional capital for Canberra brickworks in respect of plant to increase annual output; and £325,000 for loans for housing. The provision of £1,000,000 for advances to building societies is unchanged from last year. Item No. 21. - Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. In 1961-62 an amount of £22,155,000 was paid from Consolidated Revenue to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, which also received interest on investments amounting to £12,283,000. Provision has been made in the Estimates for the payment of £31,000,000 from Consolidated Revenue to the Reserve in 1962-63 whence it can be used, as necessary, to assist in meeting commitments in respect of the State works and housing programmes. Addendum - Bounties and Subsides. The items which were previously shown under the head, Bounties and Subsidies, are now included under Other Special Appropriations and Departmental Expenditure. For information purposes these items are brought together in this Addendum and the estimates for 1962-63 "are compared with actual expenditures for 1961-62. Butter and Cheese Bounties. - The Dairying Industry Act 1962 provides for the payment of bounties on butter and cheese produced during the five year period ending 30th June, 1967. Separate provisions are being made for these bounties in 1962-63 - estimated expenditure of £12,250,000 for butter and £1,250,000 for cheese, giving a total of £13,500,000, or the same amount as was expended under the dairy products bounty fa 1961-62. Cellulose Acetate Flake Bounty. - The Cellulose Acetate Flake Bounty Act 1956-1961 authorizes payment of a bounty of 7d. per lb., subject to an annual limit of £90,000, on cellulose acetate Sake produced in Australia and sold for use in the local manufacture of rayon yarn up to 30th June, 1964. Increased sales of cellulose acetate flake are expected in 1962-63. Copper Bounty. - Under the Copper Bounty Act 1958-1960 a bounty of up to £35 per ton is payable under certain conditions on copper produced and sold for domestic consumption up to 31st December, 1963. The lower estimate of expenditure for 1962-63 reflects expected small reductions in bountiable production and in the average rate of bounty payable. Cotton Bounty. - Under the Cotton Bounty Act 1951-1958 a bounty is payable on seed cotton delivered by growers to processors up to 31st December, 1963. The rate of bounty is designed to give growers an average return of 14d. per lb. The 1962-63 estimate of bounty payments is £310,000, which is slightly below expenditure in 1961-62. Gold Mining Industry Assistance. - The Gold Mining Industry Assistance Act 1954-1962 provides for payment of a subsidy, under certain conditions, on gold produced up to 30th June, 1965. It is proposed to introduce legislation to provide for the payment, under certain conditions, of a development allowance to mines not receiving subsidy. Increased expenditure expected in 1962-63 arises from the proposed development allowance and from a higher level of final payments in respect of the previous year's production than was the case in 1961-62. Pyrites Bounty. - Under the Pyrites Bounty Act 1960, a bounty is payable, subject to certain conditions, on locally produced iron pyrites delivered up to 30th June, 1965, for use in the manufacture in Australia of sulphuric acid. Bounty is payable on the sulphur content of the pyrites and the rate of bounty varies with the landed cost of imported crude brimstone. Expenditure in 1962-63 is expected to be less than in 1961-62 because of a fall in the use of local pyrites and in the rate of bounty. Rayon Yarn Bounty. - The Rayon Yarn Bounty Act 1954-1962 provides for the payment of a bounty of 9d. per lb., subject to an annual limit of £130,000, on continuous filament acetate rayon yarn produced and sold in Australia up to 30th June, 1965. The expected increase in expenditure in 1962-63 *is* attributable partly to a higher rate of bounty on rayon yarn sold after 2nd May, 1962 and partly to an expected increase in sales. Sulphate of Ammonia Bounty. - The Sulphate of Ammonia Bounty Act 1962 provides for the payment of a bounty of £2 per ton, subject to an annual limit of £225,000, on sulphate of ammonia produced and sold in Australia as fertilizer for a three year period from 1st April, 1962. No payments were made in 1961-62. It is expected that expenditure in 1962-63 will amount of £190,000. Processed Milk Products Bounty. - The Processed Milk Products Bounty Act 1962 authorizes the appropriation of up to £350,000 for payment of bounty on certain processed milk products exported between 1st July, 1962 and 30th June, 1963. Expenditure in 1962-63 is expected to amount to £250,000. Sulphuric Acid Bounty. - The Sulphuric Acid Bounty Act 1954-1960 and Regulations thereunder provide for payment of bounty, subject to certain conditions, on sulphuric acid produced from iron pyrites of Australian origin and sold for use, or used in manufacture, in Australia. The lower estimate in 1962-63 allows for a reduction in outstanding bounty claims carried forward at the beginning of the year. Tractor Bounty. - The Tractor Bounty Act 1939- 1959 provides for payment of bounty on the production of wheel-type tractors for use in the Commonwealth or a Territory up to 30th June, 1966. The rates of bounty vary with the horsepower of the units and the percentage of Australian content. The higher estimate in 1962- 63 is attributable to an expected increase in production of tractors qualifying for bounty and to the expected settlement of some claims for bounty in respect of 1961-62 which were not finalized in that year. Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund. - Under the Wheat Industry Stabilization Act 1958-1960, growers are guaranteed a return based on " cost of production " in respect of up to 100 million bushels of wheat exported from each of the five wheat crops for the seasons 1958-59 to 1962-63. If the average export price for a crop exceeds the guaranteed return, growers are required to contribute to the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund. When the average export price for a crop falls below the guaranteed return, the deficit is made up by drawing upon the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund, and, if that Fund is exhausted, by payment from Consolidated Revenue. In 1961-62, payments from the Consolidated Revenue Fund amounting to £11,906,000 were made in respect of the 1959- 60 and 1960-61 crops. In 1962-63 it is expected that a payment of £7,500,000 will be necessary to make up to the guaranteed return on the 1961-62 crop. Receipts. The National Welfare Fund Act 1952 requires an appropriation from Consolidated Revenue to the National Welfare Fund each year of an amount equal to expenditure from the Fund in that year. Accordingly, as expenditure from the Fund in 1962-63 is estimated to increase by £22,383,000, a corresponding increase is expected in the moneys received by the Fund from Consolidated Revenue. After talcing account also Of an estimated increase of £23,000 in interest received from the investment of the balance in the Fund, total receipts of the National Welfare Fund in 1962-63 are estimated at £389,634,000, Or £22,405,000 more than in 1961-62. Expenditure. It is estimated that expenditure from the National Welfare Fund will rise by £22,383,000 to £387,574,000 in 1962-63. This increase reflects the growth in the number of beneficiaries together with the full year effect of the 1961-62 increases in age, invalid and widows' pensions, tuberculosis allowances and unemployment and sickness benefits. Comments on particular items of expenditure, Where the estimate for 1962-63 varies substantially from actual expenditure in 1961-62, are set out below: - Age and Invalid Pensions. - It is estimated that in 1962-63 there will be an increase of £11,755,000 in expenditure on age and invalid pensions. Of this, £9,900,000 is due to the increased number of pensioners and the balance to the full-year effect of the 1961 amending legislation. Widows' Pensions. - Expenditure on widows' pensions is expected to increase by £1,305,000 in 1962-63 because of the full-year effect of the 1961 amending legislation and the increased number of pensioners. Child Endowment. - It is estimated that expenditure on child endowment will he £1,922,000 greater than in 1961-62 owing to the increase in the number of endowed children. Unemployment and Sickness Benefits. - Provision is made under this heading for expenditure of £9,000,000 on unemployment benefit and £4,000,000 on sickness and special benefits. Expenditure in 1961-62 was £12,637,000 on unemployment benefit and £3,268,000 on sickness and special benefits. Hospital Benefits. - Expenditure on hospital benefits is expected to increase by £1,921,000 in 1962-63, mainly because of greater bed occupancy as more beds become available, the continued growth in the membership of hospital insurance organizations, and more people qualifying for the higher rate of " additional hospital benefit ". Pharmaceutical Benefits. - It is estimated that the outlay on pharmaceutical benefits in 1962-63 will be £5,128,000 more than in 1961-62. The factors primarily responsible are greater utilization of the benefits under the scheme, the higher cost of drugs and additions to the list of approved drugs. Pharmaceutical Benefits for Pensioners. - The factors mentioned in respect of the previous item - Pharmaceutical Benefits - are also expected to result in an increase in expenditure of £974,000 under this item in 1962-63. Medical Benefits. - The cost of medical benefits is estimated to rise by £983,000 in 1962-63. The increase is largely attributable to increasing membership of medical benefit organizations and a rise in the average yearly number of services per member qualifying for Commonwealth benefit. Medical Benefits for Pensioners. - It is anticipated that in 1962-63 the cost of this service will rise by £798,000 of which £399,000 is for increased fees for medical practitioners participating under the scheme. The balance of the increase relates principally to an increase in the number of pensioners eligible for the service. Milk for School Children. - Expenditure in 1962-63 is estimated to increase by £163,000 on expenditure in 1961-62. The increase is due mainly to the larger numbers of schools and children participating in the scheme. Tuberculosis Benefits. - The cost of this item is estimated to increase by £474,000 in 1962-63, the main reason for the increase being increased maintenance costs of State tuberculosis institutions. (/) Except for a charge ot 5s. per perscription which is payable by the patient, the Commonwealth meets the cost of a wide range of specific drugs supplied on a doctor's prescription to any person in the community. The drugs and medicinal preparations covered by the scheme are those_ prescribed in regulations under the National Health Act and include, in one form or another, practically every drug in the British Pharmacopoeia and a substantial number of other drugs recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. 0') The Commonwealth meets the cost of specific or compounded drugs prescribed by a doctor for certain persons receiving the invalid, age, widow or service pension, and Tor persons in receipt of the tuberculosis allowance, and their dependants. Ot) The Commonwealth subsidizes the cost of medical treatment incurred by individual members of approved medical insurance organizations and their dependants. (0 The Commonwealth meets the cost of general practitioner medical services for certain invalid, age, widow and service pensioners and for persons in receipt of the tuberculosis allowance., and their. dependants. {: type="a" start="m"} 0. Under the *Tuberculosis Act* 1948 and by agreement with the States, the Commonwealth reimburses the States to the extent that their approved expenditure (other than capita] expenditure) on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis exceeds their expenditure for these purposes in 1947-48. Composite tuberculosis allowances (replacing the allowances payable under the Tuberculosis Act 1945-1946) are payable to persons suffering from tuberculosis, the weekly, amounts being as set out. Allowable income and earnings are £3 10s. a week for a single sufferer and £7 a week for a man and wife. No property means test applies. 1. The Commonwealth subsidizes the States to provide free to every school child under the age of thirteen years up to one-third of a pint of milk on each school day, and meets half the cost of special equipment required for the scheme. 2. The Commonwealth subsidizes voluntary organizations conducting home nursing services that are assisted by the States. 3. This item covers the cost of district laboratory services, the free supply of certain prophylactic materials and biological products and certain costs associated with the blood transfusion services of the Australian -Red Cross Society. 4. The Commonwealth bears three-fifths and the State concerned two-fifths of any net losses under the Agreement, after taking into account the cost of rental rebates. A rental rebate represents the difference between the " economic " rent of a dwelling and the actual rent charged, the latter being based on the income of the tenant family. The actual rent never exceeds one-fifth of the income of a family on the basic wage. The rental rebate increases or decreases as the family income falls below or rises above the basic wage. STATEMENT No. 5.- ESTIMATED LOAN TRANSACTIONS, 1962-63. LOAN COUNCIL BORROWING PROGRAMMES, 1962-63. At its meetings in June, 1962, the Loan Council approved a governmental borrowing programme for State works and housing of £250;000,000 in 1962-63. The Loan Council also approved a borrowing programme of £105,155,000 for State semi-government and local authorities with pro grammes in excess of £100,000 in 1962-63, and a programme of £1,595,000 for Commonwealth authorities in the Territories. In addition, the Loan Council decided that no overall limit should be placed on borrowings by authorities for which the State Governments approve programmes of not more than £100,000 in 1962-63. The allocation of ' the approved governmental programme for State works and housing in 1962-63 is compared below with the allocation of the final programme for 1961-62. The resolution approving the above-mentioned programme of £25,000,000 was supported by the Commonwealth on the understanding that the State Governments would fulfil certain conditions designed to promote governmental loan raisings in 1962-63. For its part, the Commonwealth undertook - {: type="a" start="i"} 0. to make available the Australian currency equivalent of any new money loans it might be able to raise overseas for general purposes; {: type="i" start="ii"} 0. to leave to the States, to the extent neces sary to complete their borrowing programmes for works and housing purposes, the whole of the proceeds derived from public loan raisings in Australia (other than the proceeds of borrowings for temporary purposes) after the amounts required to meet encashments of Special Bonds have been deducted; 1. to arrange, to the maximum possible extent, for the refinancing of maturing loans that may not be fully converted; and 2. to make monthly advances to the States for the first six months of the year at an annual rate of £250,000,000, the position then to be reviewed and a tentative determination made, not later than 31st January, 1963, of special loan assistance the Commonwealth may provide from its own resources. Allowing for £4,000,000 which it is estimated will be raised in 1962-63 by way of State domestic raisings, the amount to be met from loan raisings by the Commonwealth would be £246,000,000. As loan raisings by the Commonwealth in Australia and overseas available for application to State works and housing programmes are estimated to total £195,000,000 in 1962-63, it is estimated that the Commonwealth will have to make available £51,000,000 from its own resources by way of assistance to these programmes in the financial year. It is expected that this assistance will be provided through a special loan subscribed from the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. Details of the manner in which the State works and housing programmes have been financed since 1951-52 (when the Commonwealth first supported the Loan Council borrowing programmes by subscribing to a special loan) are given in the revised White Paper "Commonwealth Payments to or for the States ", issued for the information of the Parliament in connexion with the Budget. WAR SERVICE LAND SETTLEMENT, 1962-63. It is estimated that payments to the States for War Service Land Settlement, which will again be financed from loan moneys in 1962-63, will amount to £1,750,000, compared with £1,577,000 in 1961- 62. The composition of these amounts is as follows: - The increase in estimated expenditure for 1962- 63 is mainly due to the provision for the comprehensive drainage scheme at Loxton, South Australia. At present the decrease evident in development costs is being largely offset by an increasing demand for advances from settlers. In Western Australia, however, it is expected that repayments to the Commonwealth of advances made to settlers will be greater than the demand for advances in 1962-63. MOUNT ISA RAILWAY PROJECT. At the June, 1960 meeting of the Loan Council approval was given for an additional Commonwealth borrowing of £20,000,000 to finance advances to Queensland to assist in the rehabilitation of the Mount Isa-Townsville-Collinsville railway line. Borrowings of that amount during the year were credited to Loan Fund to finance advances to Queensland in future years. During 1961-62 the Commonwealth was called upon to make advances totalling £3,750,000 to Queensland for the Mount Isa railway project. It is estimated that £8,195,000 will be advanced to Queensland for the project in 1962-63. DEFENCE EXPENDITURE. It is proposed that expenditure on Defence Services to the extent of £98,283,000 will be charged to the Loan Fund in 1962-63. REDEMPTIONS OF MATURING SECURITIES, 1962-63. At 30th June, 1962, Commonwealth Inscribed Stock and Bonds maturing in Australia in 1962-63 totalled £475,530,000. Details are as follows:- Commonwealth Registered Stock finally maturing in London in 1962-63 totalled £14,781,000 (£Stg. 11,790,000) at 30th June, 1962, and consisted of 41/2 per cent. Stock issued in 1952 and due to mature on 15th September, 1962. These securities, which were all the responsibility of the New South Wales Government, have been refinanced to the extent of £Stg.l0,000,000 by means of a cash and conversion loan which closed on 20th July, 1962. In addition to redemptions of the abovementioned maturing securities and of securities which matured in earlier years, redemptions of War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates will have to be financed in 1962-63. There will also be repayments of £8,283,000 (U.S.$18,553,000) to the Internationa] Bank and further amounts will be required to meet the cost of market repurchases, &c, in Australia and overseas. The total of such expenditures in 1962-63 is estimated at £106,000,000. It is estimated that the income of the National Debt Sinking Fund in 1962-63 will be £80,000,000, which will be available towards financing the expenditures referred to above. I move - >That the first item in the Estimates under Division No. 101- The Senate- namely, " Salaries and allowances £34,400", be agreed to. Progress reported. {: .page-start } page 60 {:#debate-20} ### BUDGET PAPERS The following papers were presented: - >The Budget 1962-63 - Papers presented by the Right Honorable Harold Holt, M.P., for the information of honorable members on the occasion of the Budget of 1962-63. > >National Income and Expenditure 1961-62. > >Commonwealth Payments to or for the Slates. Ordered to be printed. {: .page-start } page 60 {:#debate-21} ### STATES GRANTS (ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE) BILL (No. 2) 1962 Message recommending appropriation reported. In committee (Consideration of Administrator's message): Motion (by **Mr. Harold** Holt) agreed to - >That it is expedient that an appropriation of revenue be made for the purposes of a bill for an act to grant and apply out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund sums for the purpose of Additional Financial Assistance to the States. Resolution reported. Standing Orders suspended; resolution adopted. Ordered - >That **Mr. Harold** Holt and **Mr. Menzies** do prepare and bring in a bill to carry out the foregoing resolution. Bill presented by **Mr. Harold** Holt, and read a first time. {:#subdebate-21-0} #### Second Reading {: #subdebate-21-0-s0 .speaker-009MC} ##### Mr HAROLD HOLT:
HigginsTreasurer · LP -- I move - >That the bill be now read a second time. The purpose of this bill is to authorize payment to the States of grants totalling £12,500,000 in this financial year. At the Premiers' Conference held in conjunction with the recent Loan Council meeting the Commonwealth indicated that, in addition to supporting the borrowing programme for State works and housing of £250,000,000 adopted by the Loan Council for 1962-63, it would be willing to make available a special non-repayable interestfree grant of £12,500,000 to the States for expenditure on employment-giving activities. These amounts are additional to the financial assistance grants paid to the States under the States Grants Acts 1959 and 1962. It will be recalled that the Commonwealth paid to the States in 1961-62 a non-repayable grant of £10,000,000 which was intended to provide finance for employmentgiving activities, mainly in the works field. In making the present offer of further assistance in 1962-63 the Commonwealth was influenced by the fact that there still exists a need to promote job opportunities. We expect this grant to have a beneficial impact on the employment position. The Commonwealth was also influenced by this fact in suggesting a form of distribution of the total grant between States which proved acceptable to all States. The amounts to be paid to each State are shown in the schedule to the bill, and are as follows: - In arriving at this distribution the Commonwealth had in mind the employment situation in Queensland in particular, but considered that in Tasmania also there was some cause for special consideration on this account. Both these States, therefore, are to receive larger amounts than would have been the case had the total grant been distributed solely in the same proportions as the works and housing programmes. I may mention that some State Premiers indicated at the conference that their budgetary problems were likely to be more difficult in 1962-63 than they were last year. As a result the Commonwealth, while emphasizing that the overall purpose of the grants was to stimulate employment, made it clear that in pursuing that general objective the States were at the same time free to utilize any part of the grants which they saw fit in order to assist their budgets in the present year. In view of the purpose of the grants the Government is anxious that the States should be able to commence to draw upon them as soon as possible. I would, therefore, in commending the bill to honorable members, express the hope that the legislation might be dealt with as expeditiously as possible. Debate (on motion by **Mr. Crean)** adjourned. {: .page-start } page 61 {:#debate-22} ### ASSENT TO BILLS Assent to the following bills reported: - >Wool Tax Assessment Bill 1962. > >Wool Tax Bill (No. 1) 1962. > >Wool Tax Bill (No. 2) 1962. > >Australian Universities Commission Bill 1962. > >Sugar Agreement Bill 1962. > >Sulphate of Ammonia Bounty Bill 1962. > >Commonwealth Electoral Bill 1962. > >Customs Tariff Bill (No. 2) 1962. > >Customs Tariff Bill (No. 3) 1962. > >Customs Tariff (Canada Preference) Bill 1962. > >Customs Tariff (New Zealand Preference) Bill (No. 2) 1962. > >Customs Tariff (Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Preference) Bill 1962. > >Income Tax and Social Services Contribution Assessment Bill 1962. > >Sales Tax Assessment Bill (No. 1) 1962. > >Pay-roll Tax Assessment Bill 1962. > >Wool Tax Assessment Bill (No. 2) 1962. > >Tobacco Charges Assessment Bill 1962. > >Stevedoring Industry Charge Assessment Bill 1962. > >Coal Loading Works Agreement (Queensland) Bill 1962. > >Dairying Industry Bill 1962. > >Processed Milk Products Bounty Bill 1962. > >Dairy Produce Export Charge Bill 1962. > >Dairy Produce Export Control Bill 1962. > >Rayon Yarn Bounty Bill 1962. > >States Grants (Universities) Bill 1962. > >Gold-Mining Industry Assistance Bill 1962. > >International Wheat Agreement Bill 1962. > >Excise Bill 1962. > >Civil Aviation (Carriers' Liability) Bill 1962. > >Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 1961-62. > >Appropriation (Works and Services) Bill (No. 2) 1961-62. > >Supply Bill 1962-63. > >Supply (Works and Services) Bill 1962-63. {: .page-start } page 61 {:#debate-23} ### ADJOURNMENT {:#subdebate-23-0} #### Employment - Immigration - Electoral - {:#subdebate-23-1} #### Migrant Hostels- West New Guinea - European Common Market - War Service Homes - Peace Rallies - Importation of Diesel-Electric Locomotives - Unemployment Benefit Motion (by **Mr. Hasluck)** proposed - >That the House do now adjourn. {: #subdebate-23-1-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr WARD:
East Sydney .- This evening we heard a speech from the Treasurer **(Mr. Harold Holt)** relating to the Government's alleged plan to stimulate employment and the economy. I want to direct attention to a matter which has been brought to my notice within the past few days regarding a Government department - the Commonwealth Department of Works. At present over 1,000 persons are employed in that department in New South Wales. I have been assured - I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of my information because I know the source of it is authentic -that the number of employees in the Commonwealth Department of Works in New South Wales is to be reduced by 20 per cent. Over 200 employees are to be dismissed. That is the intention of this Government which talks about stimulating employment. I am able to inform the House that dismissal notices have been prepared by the department but instructions have been issued that they are not to be distributed until Parliament goes into recess again in a few weeks. If the Minister for Works **(Mr. Freeth)** is able to do so - I feel he would be rather afraid to do so - let him deny that these dismissal notices have been prepared and that his department intends to dismiss over 200 employees representing 20 per cent. of the department's work force in New South Wales. This is scandalous. Among those to be dismissed are building tradesmen and a number of engineers who have had ten years' service, and in some instances longer service, with the department. This state of affairs is even more scandalous when we remember that the policy which, according to this evening's announcement, the Government intends to pursue, is to stimulate industry and employment. One interesting point to note is that unemployment continues to exist in this country. Although the number of registered unemployed is given as 93,000-odd any reasonable member of the community who cares to examine the situation will know that the number of unemployed in Australia to-day is nearer 140,000 than 93,000, which the Government declares to be the number registered. How long must we wait for this Government to fulfil its promise to restore full employment in Australia? We shall have Budget after Budget with the Government telling us how it is approaching this problem and how it intends to tackle it. One of the amazing aspects of the situation is that the Government still intends to pursue its policy of increasing the number of immigrants from overseas, if it can get them. To pursue this policy will cause injury to Australian workers, to the people who already live in Australia and to those who the Government is inducing by false representations to take up settlement here. The Department of Immigration has been showing a propaganda film overseas entitled, "The Way We Live". In this propaganda film, to which attention recently has been directed, the department depicts what it terms the typical English migrant family. The film shows how after twelve months in Australia the family has saved enough to buy a building block at French's Forest in Sydney and how after another twelve months the family has built its own home. The final scene in the film shows the family sailing on Sydney Harbour in its own yacht. That is the kind of propaganda which the Government is disseminating overseas in an endeavour to induce these unfortunate people to come to Australia in the belief that they will secure homes and employment. The Government talks about the number of people coming into Australia. Why does it not tell us the other side of the story - the number of people leaving Australia whenever they have the opportunity to do so? Many thousands more would return to the countries from which they came if they had the money for their fare, but they have been stranded here and are without work and without hope. The Government should be setting an example. Surely there is enough work in the Commonwealth crying out to be done. Surely the Government can employ the number of men already engaged in the Department of Works. If it believes in full employment, surely it could set an example to other organizations engaged in the employment of labour by increasing its work force. The Minister may try to dismiss my information as not being authentic, but I can assure him that the gentleman who gave the information to me is in a position to know what is going on. He knows that dismissal notices have been prepared and are awaiting distribution. 1 wait now with some degree of interest to hear whatever explanation the Minister has to offer. {: #subdebate-23-1-s1 .speaker-KGP} ##### Mr HAWORTH:
Isaacs .- Very briefly I wish to direct the attention of the House to the fact that the proposed plan for the rearrangement of electoral boundaries in Victoria, which now is being exhibited in post offices, provides for the abolition of the Division of Isaacs. I have no need to remind the House that that division perpetuates the name of a great Australian and that it has a general as well as a particular significance for many thousands of citizens in Australia. Many people think that the Government lays down the altered electoral boundaries and deletes names from the electoral map, as is proposed to be done in this instance. Of course, that is not the case, as all honorable members very well know. The Commonwealth Electoral Act gives no specific directions to the electoral commissions in relation to names, so it is conceivable that such important matters as historical names can be overlooked quite easily by the commissioners. The electoral commissioners have given notice of their intention to delete the name of Isaacs. I believe that this would be a very grave mistake. The name of Isaacs is of historical importance because it perpetuates the name of **Sir Isaac** Isaacs who was one of the fathers of federation and one of the most-respected judges to sit on the High Court bench. Later he became Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia and finally was appointed Governor-General of Australia. Perhaps he was best known in the latter capacity, particularly to the young people of this generation. I have received many letters of protest against the proposal to delete the name of Isaacs. They have come from local government, church and public organizations as well as from individuals. 1 repeat that 1 believe the name Isaacs perpetuates the name of a great Australian and has particular significance for many thousands of Australian citizens. It would be wrong if it were allowed to be forgotten in this way and were not retained in the area with which it has been associated traditionally as the name of an electoral division, and in a city and a State in which the people hold **Sir Isaac** Isaacs' memory in high esteem. I bring this matter before the Parliament in the hope that honorable members will remember my remarks when the matter is before us for consideration. {: #subdebate-23-1-s2 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr MENZIES:
Prime Minister · Kooyong · LP **.- Mr. Speaker,** I shall not detain the House for more than three or four minutes. 1 am glad that this matter has been raised, because I think there is a good deal of public misapprehension about it. The Distribution Commission in each State, when it makes its proposals for the distribution of electoral boundaries, also makes proposals about the names of electorates. It does this entirely on its own responsibility. These proposals in no way bind the Government and they in no way bind this House. The Government will very closely consider, as I am sure the House will, the kind of problem that has been raised by the honorable member for Isaacs **(Mr. Haworth).** To my mind, it would be a very bad thing for the name Isaacs to disappear from the electoral map of Victoria. {: .speaker-K8B} ##### Mr Curtin: -- What about Scullin? {: .speaker-N76} ##### Mr MENZIES: -- Wait a moment. I am a perfectly fair-minded person. I think it would be a bad thing if the name Isaacs disappeared, just as 1 think it would be very unfortunate if the name Curtin disappeared from the electoral map of Western Australia and the name Scullin from Victoria in the redistribution of electoral boundaries. {: .speaker-JSU} ##### Mr Bryant: -- And Watson. {: .speaker-N76} ##### Mr MENZIES: -- And Watson, too. I have not gone through the entire list. The fact is that these are great names in the history of Australia. My own strong feeling is that we ought to do our best to resist their disappearance. Even if a seat goes, we ought to do our best to preserve these names. That will be my approach to the matter and I am sure that it will be the Government's approach. And I am quite confident that it will be the approach of honorable members generally. So I say to the honorable member for Isaacs: I do not know how these things can be worked out; discussion of them at this stage is a little premature. But I would not want anybody in Australia to become unduly worried about what is, after all, only a proposal by certain people sitting on a Distribution Commission - a proposal which has never been considered by the Government or by the House. This is a matter in which this Parliament, when it comes to the point, will be the complete master. {: #subdebate-23-1-s3 .speaker-KYC} ##### Mr POLLARD:
Lalor **.- Mr. Speaker,** I have been an ardent supporter of our immigration programme right from its inception, but, from time to time, I have voiced in this Parliament my protest against the most unsuitable, desolating and unsatisfactory accommodation provided for migrants in the respective hostels in various parts of this Commonwealth. Within the confines of the electorate of Lalor are the migrant hostels at Williamstown, Broadmeadows and Brooklyn. Although from time to time I have voiced in this Parliament protests about the accommodation provided for migrants in these hostels, there has not been any substantial improvement that can be considered worth-while. Unfortunately, the psychology of the outlook of Commonwealth Hostels Limited, and the respective Ministers who from time to time have guided the policy under which accommodation is provided for migrants, is: If we provide better accommodation, we shall never get these people out. -To say the least of it, that is a most unfair attitude for anybody to adopt. I have endeavoured to be tolerant and fair. I have said from time to time that this accommodation may be right enough for three months or six months for single persons. To-day, the flow of migrants drifting back to Great Britain, Holland, Germany and other places is becoming of very great magnitude indeed. One of the sources of the dissatisfaction that leads to this drift back to the country of origin is the kind of accommodation provided at these migrant hostels. People have told me - and it is true - " My great-grandfather or my grandfather came to Australia and put up with all sorts of privations ". That was necessarily so in the early days. But Australia is now a country of great resources, **Mr. Speaker.** Large numbers of men in the building trades are at present unemployed, saw-mills are idle, brickworks are not working to full capacity and engineers are available to provide the proper accommodation that is needed for migrants. Yet the present filthy and inadequate accommodation prevails and migrants have to slay in it for up to two years. During the recent by-election campaign in the State electorate of Broadmeadows in Victoria, I visited the Broadmeadows hostel. This was not by any moans my first visit to this hostel. 1 found there- a family with five young children, the eld.-si being about eight or nine years of age, and another child being due to arrive at any time. I was told that many applications had been made to the housing authorities without success. I referred the case to a member of the Victorian Parliament and at last, after two long years, this family with five young children, housed in such unsatisfactory conditions, succeeded in getting a Victorian Housing Commission flat. These hostels are insanitary places. The lavatory blocks are far removed from the sleeping quarters and there is not adequate privacy. Inevitably, all sorts of disturbances occur in these hostels. Some feeble attempt has been made to pave the passage ways between the huts. The occupants live in plain hearing of their neighbours, with only a flimsy dividing wall between. The rooms are small and would not comply with any reasonable housing standards anywhere in Australia. Yet nothing is done about the situation. The present Treasurer **(Mr. Harold Holt),** who formerly was in charge of these matters when he held another portfolio, visited the migrant hostels at Williamstown and Broadmeadows some years ago, but did nothing. The Minister for Labour and National Service **(Mr. McMahon),** who is at present responsible for these migrant hostels, has visited these places, and he, too, has done nothing about them. The hostels are now a seething mass of discontent. Ministers visit these places to see what they are like. They make whatever inquiries they wish and they are taken to see the quarters where children are cared for, the recreation rooms and the dining rooms. Ministers are shown all the show places in these hostels, if these premises can be called show places. They are merely the best one can get in these hostels. Still the unsatisfactory state of affairs continues. There is no reason why the Commonwealth Government, if it intends to continue our present immigration policy - as I hope it will do if migrants are given decent conditions in which to live - should not forthwith take measures to provide first-class accommodation suitable for families and providing adequate privacy for them to live decently with a proper environment for the children. Above all things, there should be adequate protection against disease, crime and the other hazards that occur in these places. I know that the Minister for Immigration **(Mr. Downer)** does his best. But, indirectly, he is partly responsible for the present shocking state of affairs. These unfortunate migrants who live in hostels really have no voice to speak for them. But the particularly regrettable thing is the psychology adopted by those who say, " If we make the migrants more comfortable in the hostels, we shall never get rid of them." Statements to that effect have been made in documents in my possession which have come from Commonwealth Hostels Limited and tha Minister for Labour and National Service. Similar statements have been made in conversation by members of the Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council, too. It is all very well for some one to go to a hostel and say, " This is all right, it is only temporary ". Families have been in these places for four years and longer, and these shocking conditions are still allowed to continue. Yet the Government and its supporters wonder why British, Dutch, German and other migrants are returning to their homelands. There is a continual alarming drift. When a visitor to a hostel goes among the inmates and asks how they are getting on, they say, " If we had the money to go home, we would go tomorrow ". I have heard that said time and again. That is frequently the response that one receives. There is another aspect of the matter. Let us suppose that the immigration programme petered out. If the accommodation in these hostels *wai* decent and adequate, it could in that event be used to house old people in decent surroundings by providing them with suitable flats. The existing situation is horrifying in the extreme. Hepatitis is an ever-present danger in these hostels. I have never blamed the managers of the hostels for the existing conditions, and I do not do so now. I would not be manager of one of these hostels for all the tea in China. With the materials that are available to them, the managerial staffs do a magnificent job, but the right thing cannot be done unless the tools are provided. I appeal to the Minister for Immigration. I know that he is worried. If you want proof positive, **Sir, of** what is going on, let me illustrate what I mean. Earlier this week I went to a photographer's studio in Melbourne to get a passport photograph. The photographer said to me, " I am alarmed at the number of migrants who are coming to my studio to get passport photographs in order to go back to their home lands ". I said, " Yes, I know ". The reason is that they have to live in stinking, temporary accommodation. Ministers of this Government who have, for the most part, never lived in anything but very good accommodation and very good homes, have no conception of the conditions under which the migrants live. Apparently, it is good enough for them. In all probability the Minister thinks, and believes in his innocence, that none of these people are likely to be in the hostels for more than two or three months. Originally, it was hoped that that would be so, but in fact they live in them for years. The position becomes worse when there is no employment for the women folk. They are obliged to hang around these places all day. Perhaps the worst aspect of the matter is the lack of privacy for family life. There are bits of traffic-ways between the huts, which house dozens of people. There are children running about all over the place, listening to conversations between their elders. Living quarters are cramped. Babies are reared in such surroundings. This accommodation is a disgrace and I indict the Government for allowing it. The Government should do the decent, manly thing. There can no longer be the excuse of shortage of materials or labour. The Government should get on with the job. No longer is it dealing with people who are refugees from the countries of Europe; it is trying to attract to Australia the cream of the tradesmen and artisans of Great Britain and Europe. The Government will not get those people to come here by offering accommodation such as I have described. Migrants will return to their home lands in ever increasing thousands, and the ultimate cost to the revenue of Australia will be infinitely greater than would be the cost of doing the decent thing by them. I implore the Minister to go and see for himself, to drop in without announcing his intention to anybody and to see the conditions that obtain. {: #subdebate-23-1-s4 .speaker-KSC} ##### Mr SPEAKER (Hon Sir John McLeay: -- Order! The honorable member's time has expired. {: #subdebate-23-1-s5 .speaker-1V4} ##### Mr CAIRNS:
Yarra .- This has indeed been a very depressing day. Unfortunately, we began with the announcement this afternoon of the passing away of five of our former colleagues. To-night, the proceedings have been even more dismal because we have heard the announcement of the passing away of the element of full employment in the Australian economy and of economic growth. That is registered clearly in the Budget Speech to which we have listened this evening. It was interesting to hear the Prime Minister **(Mr. Menzies)** express sympathy for the retention of the names of former Prime Ministers for electorates in Australia. I should imagine that it will not be very long, if to-night's indication may be relied upon, before we have an electorate named " Menzies ", after a former Prime Minister of that name. During the time that this Parliament has been in recess, a period of thirteen or fourteen weeks, two very important and fundamental things have happened in the outside world. This Parliament has been told nothing about them and no Minister has made a satisfactory statement or explanation in regard to them. I refer to two matters that are even more fundamental than those we have been considering this evening in relation to the Budget. The first is the settlement of the West New Guinea question, and the second is the negotiations concerning the European Economic Community. During the whole of the time this Parliament has been in recess, members of it have not been able to take any part in questioning the Government or requiring from it a statement of policy or of explanation about events in relation to those two very important matters. First, I shall refer to West New Guinea and Indonesia. A great many people in this country feel a considerable amount of uncertainty and insecurity as a result of events that are happening to the north of Australia. Indonesia is very substantially upon a military basis. It has been acquiring arms from the United States of America, the Soviet Union and elsewhere in the world, so that its arms are far in advance of those possessed by this country. I do not suggest that the way to meet this is by means of arms, but I think the Australian Government has completely abdicated from its responsibility in relation to the settlement of the West New Guinea issue. We have been told that all we need to do for the peace and security of the Commonwealth of Australia is to rely upon our powerful friends. Our powerful friend in this case - presumably the United States of America - has arranged a settlement of the West New Guinea issue without any reference whatever to us. If the United States is going to permit the expansion of other Asian countries, or of any other country in Asia, in the way that the expansion into West New Guinea is being facilitated, it is pretty clear that reliance upon our powerful friends is not satisfactory. Australia must have a say in the settlement of questions of this kind. What is the policy of the Government in relation to Indonesia and West New Guinea? We have, if we are lucky, an opportunity as members of the Opposition to ask Ministers approximately one question a week. We have the opportunity now and again to make a speech in relation to a statement that a Minister makes, but we have no real opportunity to test the Government or explore its attitude on important matters of this kind. I should like to know whether the Government intends to tell us, in the next three weeks of the sittings of this Parliament, anything about this question concerning Indonesia and West New Guinea. It seems to me that it is quite impossible to rely upon powerful friends to make some kind of settlement in South-East Asia or in Asia which may be in the interests of the Commonwealth of Australia, because the interests of our powerful friends do not always happen to coincide with our interests. I suggest that it is quite impossible to rely upon settlement of a question of this kind by the use of military force. Something else is necessary. Has the Government any plans to approach Indonesia, with a view to attempting to secure some kind of agreement whereby territorial stability in this area might be maintained by agreement between Australia and Indonesia? Has consideration been given to this matter, and if not, why has that not been done? Is it going to be possible for the Government to see its way clear to approach Indonesia in an endeavour to secure some kind of agreement for a reduction of arms, or an agreement whereby Indonesia and Australia would undertake to refrain from obtaining nuclear weapons? If the Government finds it impossible to reply to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to specify any condition on which it might refrain from obtaining nuclear weapons, let us ask the Government whether it is prepared to approach a country like Indonesia and say to it, " Provided you undertake not to obtain nuclear weapons, we will do the same ". {: .speaker-JZG} ##### Mr Cockle: -- Oh, break it up! {: .speaker-1V4} ##### Mr CAIRNS: -- The security of this country is endangered by people who, like the honorable member opposite, can talk fight but are not capable of fighting. We have had enough of this empty, aggressive talk which leads to nothing but the continued insecurity of this country. Has the Government anything to propose for the stabilization of relations to the north of Australia, or is it prepared to allow those relations to continue to deteriorate, as it has in the last few years? That has been the record of the Government. In the few moments that are left to me I want to refer to the European Economic Community. We are not sure what views the Government holds on this vital question. Very little has been said. One Minister in this country has lost his head and seventeen Ministers in the United Kingdom have lost their heads. What are the causes of disagreement that have led to this particular upheaval? What is the attitude of the Government on this question? On the one hand, a former Minister for Air has said that the consequences of the European Common Market will not touch Australia at all and that we can afford to ignore the consequences of it. On the other hand, the Minister for Trade **(Mr. McEwen)** says that we have a bargaining position and that the former Minister for Air has undercut our bargaining position. I want to know from the Minister for Trade what our bargaining position is worth. If the Minister and the Prime Minister fail to obtain access to Europe for Australian exports at the levels of the past, and if we fail to obtain our export opportunities, what does the Government propose to do? The Prime Minister will be making a statement on this question in a couple of days' time. I want to see in that statement some indication of what the Government proposes to do if Australia loses these export opportunities. I do not want the right honorable gentleman to go to the Prime Ministers' Conference in London in October, free to do anything or nothing as he might choose. I should like him, without delay, to put before this Parliament a statement of what he proposes to do if our export opportunities in Europe are lost. Does he propose to take any particular action at that Prime Ministers' Conference, or does he propose to do anything or nothing as he might happen to choose? Far too often in recent years in this country we have found the Government deciding its policy in secret somewhere - or some one deciding for it because one can never be sure just who is making the decisions. The Liberal Government never puts its policy before this House and never informs the people of Australia of its intentions. Instead, we learn from a press release in some foreign newspaper that certain things have been done. This must not happen in relation to the European Common Market. I want to know whether in this session of Parliament the Government will undertake to state what it considers will be the likely outcome of the present negotiations between the British representatives and the representatives of The Six. What are our prospects of retaining our export opportunities in Europe? The Minister for Trade **(Mr. McEwen)** is seeking to give the impression that with his force and strength he is in a position to achieve success. I think the facts indicate that success cannot be achieved; that these export opportunities will be lost. The Prime Minister should not be permitted to go to the Prime Ministers' Conference in October without his first taking the House into his confidence and telling honorable members what he proposes to do. It is the function of the Opposition to see that on this important matter the Government is not permitted to continue to treat the people of Australia in the negative and non-commital manner in which it has treated them in the past three or four months. It is the responsibility of the House to see that the Government does not do this. One would expect seme support from members of the Country Party on this important matter, because the Liberal Party's policy of free trade and laisser-faire is opposed to country interests. {: #subdebate-23-1-s6 .speaker-10000} ##### Mr SPEAKER: -- Order! The honorable member's time has expired. {: #subdebate-23-1-s7 .speaker-KYS} ##### Mr REYNOLDS:
Barton .- The honorable member for Yarra **(Mr. Cairns),** along with other honorable members, referred to the arrogance of this Government. One wonders, after hearing the Budget speech to-night, and bearing in mind the Government's avoidance of the Batman by-election, how it can possibly persist in such an attitude. I hope that the Minister for Works **(Mr. Freeth)** will not avoid the challenge issued by my colleague, the honorable member for East Sydney **(Mr. Ward)** to-night. It happens that similar but quite independent messages have been circulated to other members of this chamber, including myself, and I ask the Minister to tell honorable members tonight whether it is a fact that his department intends to dismiss up to 20 per cent, of its current employees. I understand that this percentage has been mentioned. I recall a similar situation arising about two or three years ago, shortly after I entered this Parliament. On that occasion only after persistent representations by members on this side of the House did the Minister authorize the cancellation of the dismissals. I hope the Minister will not stalk out of the House to-night without answering this challenge. As I understand the matter, about 20 per cent, or 200 employees of his department are to be dismissed. The notices of dismissal are being held in a restricted number of hands at present, but the axe will fall in about a month's time when this House goes into recess. This is a typical Government performance. If I recollect correctly, it engineered a similar procedure on the former occasion. The average length of service of the employees concerned - they include builders, cabinet makers and other skilled tradesmen - is about eight years, but, of course, many of them have served with the department for a much longer time. They have specialized skills. It would be a dastardly act to dismiss these employees at this time of their lives and to throw them on a labour market that is already so over-saturated that unemployment is widespread. As middle-aged men their chances of getting jobs outside the Public Service would be extremely restricted, especially as the building industry is probably one of the most depressed. Even the Department of Trade's own survey states that the building industry is one of the worst affected by the present lack of confidence of investors in Australian industry. I hope the Minister will not avoid this issue. If he cannot give an answer to-night, he should at least tell honorable members that he is unable to do so. If he can deny categorically that these dismissals are contemplated, he will give much solace to the employees in his department. There are 2,000 employees and they do not know which 200 will be dismissed. Certainly the overseers of his department would not like the job of arbitrarily selecting the 20 per cent, of employees to be dismissed. The Minister should act responsibly to-night, and he should answer the questions that have been raised by my colleague, the honorable member for East Sydney. I have been informed that the typical tactics of the department have been to bring forward at the one time a whole host of jobs to be done. The department then declares that it has not enough employees to do all the jobs, and some of them are handed out to private tender. Apparently this has been the practice for some time. It is most regrettable that the department, wherever possible, has taken work from public servants who chose such employment for their careers, and handed it out by tender. As a result the department finds that it has too many employees for the work on hand. It then issues a purely arbitrary order of this sort to get rid of 20 per cent, of its employees on the ground that they are redundant. That is a terrible situation at a time like this. The Minister has a serious question to answer and I trust that he will answer it to-night. The other matter that concerns me has relation to war service homes. I and many other honorable members, including even Government supporters and Ministers, have received representations from a host of people who have applied for war service homes loans and have had their applications rejected outright. I refer especially to people who are seeking additional accommodation. We acknowledge that last year the Government increased the borrowing limit from £2,750 to £3,500, but I have a notion that more than 10,000 applications for loans have been made since then, and that the vast majority of them have been rejected. When the Government increased the limit of borrowing, it apparently did not foresee that all these applications would pour in, for it made no additional allocation of money to the War Service Homes Division. No provision has been made in the current Budget for an increased allocation, despite the fact that a host of applications for loans have been submitted to the War Service Homes Division. There is now a delay of five, six or seven weeks before an application is considered. Honorable members may not have a chance to debate the Budget provision for war service homes for another six or eight weeks, so I take this opportunity to ask the Government to give urgent consideration to this matter. I can only speak from hearsay, but I understand that a series of ministerial directions has been issued restricting the eligibility of applicants for additional finance and that money is being made available only to people who have an urgent need for extra bedroom accommodation. No assistance is being given to improve kitchens or laundries, or to effect other alterations that are urgently needed by growing families. For instance, no provision is made for families in which there are two boys, one aged perhaps five or six years and the other perhaps sixteen or seventeen years, sharing the one room and needing separate study facilities. AH these things have been wiped out arbitrarily, and I believe that the very strict restrictions being imposed by the Minister are responsible for the rejection of the vast majority of these applications. War service homes are solely the concern of the Commonwealth Government. This is not a case in which it can be claimed that the States are not pulling their weight or that the building trade is depressed because the States are not doing their job properly. In this instance, the responsibility rests solely with the Commonwealth Government, and that Government is shirking not only its responsibility to the economy of the nation and to the employers and employees in the building industry; it is shirking, above all, its responsibility to the returned servicemen of this country who look for a better deal from a government that has prided itself so often on what it does for the exserviccman. {: #subdebate-23-1-s8 .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr TURNBULL:
Mallee .- A moment ago we heard an honorable member ask the Minister for Immigration **(Mr. Downer)** whether he would answer certain questions. It is my intention now to ask members of the Opposition to answer one or two questions. First I want to know whether the Opposition was sincere in the statement that was made recently-- {: .speaker-10000} ##### Mr SPEAKER: -- Order ! The honorable member must address the Chair. {: .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr TURNBULL: -- Through you, **Mr. Speaker,** I ask members of the Opposition whether a statement that appeared in the press recently that the Labour Party would not allow its members to take part in future peace rallies was sincere. It is very important that we have an answer to that question. My main reason for speaking on this subject to-night is that probably twelve months ago in this House I referred to the fact that there were two or three different sections in the Australian Labour Party. One section, which I mentioned as going in what I thought to be the right direction, comprised some of the younger members of the party who were realizing more than were the older members of the party that so-called peace rallies were only covering up for the Communists. Are the older members of the Australian Labour Party now taking the advice of the younger men? Are they realizing that these rallies are organized by the Communists? I certainly hope that the recent press statement that members of the Australian Labour Party must not take part in these peace rallies was sincere. The statement was to the effect that if they do take part in them, they will have to leave the Labour movement. {: .speaker-RK4} ##### Mr HAYDEN:
OXLEY, QUEENSLAND · ALP -- What evidence have you that that report is correct? {: .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr TURNBULL: -- I am not sure whether it is correct, for the simple reason that I am relying only on the press statement. As I have only the press statement to go on, it is only right that, as a member of this Parliament, I should ask members of the Australian Labour Party to confirm or deny that statement. {: .speaker-KYC} ##### Mr Pollard: -- You look after affairs in the country. That is your job. {: .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr TURNBULL: -- The honorable member for Lalor **(Mr. Pollard)** is very vocal. He says, " Look after affairs in the country ". That is the very thing I am doing, because these matters affect not only the country areas but the whole Australian economy and national outlook. My question should be answered. When I first entered this Parliament the Opposition was very small. Now its members number almost as many as those on the Government side, and the Opposition is now saying that it will soon be in office. Therefore, it is more important than ever that we know just where the Opposition stands on this vital question. In yesterday's Melbourne " Sun " there is an article headed - " Rival Factions Brawl at Peace Rally ". Fancy a brawl at a peace rally! In the article is included this statement - >The Q.L.P. Youth Organization secretary, Miss M. Andrews, had a bruised neck to-night after a Peace Committee supporter had held her in a stranglehold during one of the fights. {: .speaker-RK4} ##### Mr Hayden: -- That is not our party. {: .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr TURNBULL: -- I did not say it was. But I am suggesting that this passage does refer to the Australian Labour Party branch in Melbourne - >Students who heckled speakers at a rally after the march claimed that they were threatened with a " bashing " if they did not stop calling, " What about Russia? " > >The students were four members of the Melbourne University A.L.P. Club. I am not asking my question in an effort to gain some paltry political advantage. As a general rule I do not speak about Communists or peace rallies in this House, and every honorable member knows that. Some honorable members have a reputation for speaking on such subjects every time they rise. 1 do not have that reputation, and every honorable member of the Opposition knows it. I mention the matter to-night because it is of vital importance to the future of this country. {: .speaker-K5L} ##### Mr Cope: -- Do you not believe in peace? {: .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr TURNBULL: -- Of course 1 do. But I have always stated in this House that I do not believe in peace at any price. {: .speaker-RK4} ##### Mr Hayden: -- What evidence have you that we believe in peace at any price? {: .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr TURNBULL: -- That is the very interjection I wanted. All the evidence I have is the report that appeared in the Melbourne " Sun ". I am now asking for a statement on it by some responsible member of the Opposition. Perhaps one of the members of the Labour Party's shadow cabinet could answer my question. It is of no use asking what guarantee I have that the press statement is correct. I have no guarantee that it is correct, but I do have a right to ask whether it is correct. Therefore, I put the question again: Is it a fact that the Australian Labour Party executive has said that no member of the Australian Labour Party Can take part in peace rallies, and that if any member takes part in a peace rally he must leave the party? Is that true or false? {: #subdebate-23-1-s9 .speaker-KNM} ##### Mr E JAMES HARRISON:
Blaxland -- The point with which I wish to deal relates to one thing which the Treasurer **(Mr. Harold Holt)** included amongst the many to which he referred when outlining what he said the Government was doing to provide employment in this country. I refer to his statement that a special grant was made to South Australia for the purchase of twelve dieselelectric locomotives. I now take the opportunity of asking the Treasurer, as the responsible Minister, and the Minister for Trade **(Mr. McEwen),** whether or not a matter that was brought to the notice of the Minister for Trade twelve months ago in connexion with this subject has ever been considered on the level on which it should be considered. On 1st September, 1961, I wrote to the Minister for Trade about the importation of traction motors from Great Britain in preference to having these elements of Australia's railway requirements constructed in this country by Australian artisans. On that occasion I pointed out to the Minister for Trade that as a result of the policy being pursued by the Government the provision of the type of traction motor equipment necessary for the efficient operation of diesel-electric trains in this country was getting into the grip of the parent company of Australian Electrical Industries Proprietary Limited in Great Britain. The Minister for Trade replied stating that he was referring the matter to the Minister for Customs and Excise **(Senator Henty).** In his reply, dated 13th September, 1961, after referring to my question, the Minister for Trade said - >These duties would be levied on all imports of direct current traction motors unless the prospective importer or user established that suitably equivalent traction motors of Australian manufacture were not reasonably available. That is the very point I raised with the Minister. With the possibility of Great Britain entering the European Common Market and the likelihood of the manufacturing industries of Great Britain being hogtied as a result, I raise again the question of the advisability of this Government looking at the whole question of what is being done in connexion with the importation from England of equipment that should rightly be manufactured in Australia. A.E.I, in Australia had, until this change of programme on the part of the parent company in Great Britain, built in this country 700 traction motors for diesel electric train operation. The local company provided all the first equipment, but then the parent company in Great Britain decided to change the pattern of the motors. I understand there was no alteration in the horse-power but only a change of pattern of the diesel electric motor being produced by the parent company in Great Britain. That was done first of all to meet the requirements of the English railways. Then the organization decided to send a trial shipment of the same type of motor to Australia. The company in Australia, realizing the importance of what was happening, sought an assurance from the parent company in Great Britain that the Australian company would be re-tooled to provide the more modern equipment then being produced in Great Britain. But the parent company in Great Britain has not provided the blueprints for re-tooling the Australian manufactured article in this country, and consequently the order for all the 400 motors required by the New South Wales Government has been lost to the A.E.I, organization in that State because its factory has not been re-tooled. It has lost the whole of the contract for the diesel electric motors. This is the very thing I brought to the notice of the Minister for Trade **(Mr. McEwen)** in September last year, and more recently to the notice of the Minister for Customs and Excise **(Senator Henty);** but nothing has been done about it. By the end of this year the company that constructed the, first 700 diesel electric traction motors for railway operation in Australia will virtually be closed down because the English parent company has not re-tooled the Australian factory but is supplying the articles from the English factory. Now, I understand they are being imported free of duty, because the new model that is being introduced is not capable of being produced with the machinery available in Australian factories. **Mr. Speaker,** if that line is to be followed by every company in Great Britain that has contacts in Australian industry - particularly when Great Britain goes into the Common Market - this country is going to see shop after shop close down. A.E.I, employed not less than 250 artisans on the construction of the motors for diesel electric traction, and that employment has already gone. I ask the Government whether, when it made available these funds for the South Australian Railways Commission, it understood that the order for the motors to be bought out of the funds provided by this Parliament would go to the parent company in England. I understand that the motors will be imported into this country free of duty because of the failure of the parent company to re-tool its Australian subsidiary. What a silly position we are getting into. Are we, as a National Parliament, providing funds for railway administration, on a State level, to import motors and drive out of employment our own Australian artisans who, up till now, have been employed on this work? The worst feature of the lot will be that we will finally reach the stage where, because our Australian industry is not re-tooled to meet the requirements of modern advances in diesel electric traction motors, the cost of repairs to this equipment will be increased three-fold. I ask the Minister for Trade and the Minister for Customs and Excise whether they are undertaking the inquiry I have asked for on this question in order to preserve for Australian workmen their right to produce in this country the type ot equipment needed for Australian railways and the diesel electric traction motors that they produced until this change of policy was made by the parent company in Great Britain. {: #subdebate-23-1-s10 .speaker-KRF} ##### Mr MCGUREN:
Cowper .- Like the honorable member for Mallee **(Mr. Turnbull),** I, too, am a little concerned about the possibility of communism getting a hold in this country. But does the honorable member realize that communism marches on an empty belly? Does he realize that there are certain difficulties and hardships placed on the unemployed in this country? Does he realize also that possibly the migrants who have left this country have done so because of the injustices handed out to them when they have been unemployed? During the last fourteen weeks I have received numerous inquiries from people as to why their unemployment benefit had been stopped. I refer to people in the Tabulam district. Their names are Michael Walker, Basil Robinson, George Walker, Bert Walker, George Long and Marjorie Marsh. All these people - they have been trying to get work but have been unable to obtain it - have received a note saying that as they are not seeking work their unemployment benefit would be terminated. I took the opportunity of asking the Minister for Social Services **(Mr. Roberton)** whether he had given directions to his department to stop any person who had been on unemployment relief for a certain period of time from receiving further assistance. Among other things he had this to say - >I might add that the Commonwealth Employment Service does not cancel the registration of persons who have sought its assistance to obtain employment unless those persons are placed in employment by it, or, having obtained employment by their own efforts they no longer need assistance in this direction. I wish to give the lie to that statement, because it is not true. It is a different story when these people apply for unemployment benefit. I wish to cite the case of a man who applied for unemployment benefits. He is a returned digger from the last war. He spent three and a half years working on the Burma railway as a prisoner of war and then returned to Australia. He applied for unemployment benefit and received it for some time. Then an arbitrary note came to light one day saying that, as from a certain date, he would receive no further benefit. No explanation was given. I immediately tried to ascertain on his behalf why this had happened and received a letter from the administrator of social services in New South Wales to this effect: First, this man lived in a shack under rather primitive conditions; secondly, his clothes were such that people were unlikely to employ him - I suppose he was expected to wear striped pants when he went to get a job; thirdly, he was a single man but did not seem to be making very much effort to obtain employment outside the district in which he lived. The facts are that this man had worked on the railways and had left that employment, for his own good reasons, some eighteen months before and had become a professional fisherman. His boat was not a particularly good one and needed repairs; and he had to beach it. During that time he thought he had better get a job to obtain the money with which to do the work on the boat. He applied to the employment office for work and also applied for social service benefits. The officer who investigated his case found that his pants were not striped, and so he could not qualify for social service benefits. That is what happened in regard to that man. Another instance is of a man 67 years of age who is receiving a pension. His wife was 58 years of age and was not eligible for a pension, so she applied to the employment office for work and also applied for social service benefits. She was offered a job some sixteen miles from Casino, but there was no daily transport and she had no way of getting to and from the job, which meant that she would have to live away from home and away from her husband, who was not in good health. She therefore refused the job, and consequently she was refused social service benefits. Another case involves a girl, who is an epileptic and lives in the same district. She is 80 per cent, fit, according to the doctors. She received social service benefits for some time, but then the authorities said she was not looking for work, although they had no job which she could perform. Who would want to employ a person in her state of health? The point is that she was refused assistance. She is 21 years of age. In that instance I made representations and after some considerable time the benefit was restored, but only from a date subsequent to it being discontinued, not retrospectively. The honorable member for Mallee is very concerned about communism. As I said before, so am I. This is the type of thing on which communism breeds. This is the type of thing that we have to fight against. This Government must face up to its responsibility for the 100,000 people who are unemployed to-day, instead of handing out the star chamber type of justice that has been handed out to the people I have mentioned. I could give the names of about 20 other people who have made application for social service benefits and, for no reason at all, have been denied them. I have their names and addresses before me now, but I think I should save them the embarrassment of having their names quoted in this House. The names are here for the Minister for Social Services to see at any time he would like to see them. I do not know whether this method has been adopted in order that we might have better-looking employment figures. I am pretty certain that what is happening in the Cowper electorate is also happening in other electorates throughout Australia, lt is about time the people received social justice, not the summary type of justice that has been handed out to most of the people whose cases I have investigated. On future occasions in this House we will hear a lot about the treatment of the native peoples of New Guinea and other places. Quite a few of the people to whom I am referring are of aboriginal blood. I can assure you, **Mr. Speaker,** that the Government has nothing to be proud of in the situation that I have outlined here to-night. {: #subdebate-23-1-s11 .speaker-KGX} ##### Mr HAYLEN:
Parkes **.- Mr. Speaker,** the honorable member for Mallee **(Mr. Turnbull)** asked a direct question about peace. I shall be very pleased to reply to him, so far as I am concerned as a member of the Australian Labour Party. Before I do that, I should like to say that I regret very much the partisan attitude that he takes to peace. As an exserviceman, as a man who was in Changi and went through the miseries of war, he should remember that peace is indivisible. He must know in his heart that to talk in terms of who belongs to a peace movement and who does not belong to a peace movement is wretchedly wrong. {: .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr Turnbull: -- Will you answer my question? {: .speaker-KGX} ##### Mr HAYLEN: -- If you have any desire for peace in the world, you must measure up to the demands made on you in relation to achieving peace. We will not achieve peace by playing miserable, low-grade party politics in relation to what constitutes a peace group and what does not. {: .speaker-KWP} ##### Mr Turnbull: -- You cannot accuse me of that. {: .speaker-KGX} ##### Mr HAYLEN: -- You asked for an answer. Will you take it? The position is that throughout the world people with no political associations and people of the Liberal Party, the Labour Party and other parties, are banded together in a humanistic group because they want to remove for all time the threat of war from this world. It ill befits an ex-serviceman who has been through the miseries of war - 1 pay tribute to the sacrifices of the honorable member for Mallee - to make a miserable political gibe about what is happening in regard to a peace society. If the honorable member wants a complete answer to his question, let him come to the Sydney Town Hall on 9th September, when Labour will launch its great peace campaign. The hall will be crowded with people - not only Labourites - who have an instinct for peace. They will be able to give him his answer. There is nothing party-political about this. No party in this House can halt the march of peace, because the people believe in it. The honorable member supports a waning government. After what we heard to-night, it will not be in power in this country for long. This is one of the matters that the Government has entirely neglected. By the kindness of the Minister for Territories **(Mr. Hasluck)** I have been allowed to say a few words on this matter, and I shall not trespass on his generosity by making a long speech. It seems to me that we miss the whole point if we gibe at each other and ask, " What part of the peace movement do you belong to? " Peace is like Christianity. Peace is like humanity. Peace is like charity. It is indivisible. You cannot cut it up into Country Party segments, Labour Party segments, Liberal Party segments and Communist Party segments. You have to approach it in the spirit in which it was created. If there is a cobblestone march, we will invite the honorable member for Mallee to come with us. He will not feel touched in his political thoughts or anything else. His trouble is that he has not grown up since the war. He does not realize that this is an entirely new world. You do not give any answer to the question of how to achieve peace in our time - for which the United Nations and all decent people in the world are struggling - when you say " Yah, yah, Communist " when there is a peace meeting. You have to realize that if we as democrats have missed the bus, that is because some one else gave us the lead. The honorable member for Mallee should remember that. All he was trying to do to-night was to score a cheap victory over the Labour Party and make a cheap gibe. He said that he had read in the newspapers that we on this side are not allowed to go to a peace meeting. That is entirely wrong. We intend to hold a gigantic peace meeting on 9th September. The honorable member for Mallee and all other members of the Government parties, if they have any desire for peace and if they want to alter their miserable policy on foreign affairs, should be the first people to come along. That is all I have to say. To people who get up in this House and try to separate the inseparable, I say that there are no divisions in peace. If you arc a pacifist, if you believe in peace and if you believe that the world should be free of war, it does not matter to what party you belong. It is a poor thing for an ex-soldier to stand up and say, "I see that you are going to be banned ". Nobody is going to ban me, and nobody is going to ban any other Australian who wants to see peace in our time. I suggest that the honorable member for Mallee do a bit of thinking in the still watches of the night, and when we have a meeting he should join us. Because he is a man who has made sacrifices, he should consider those matters. Political advantages are out in regard to peace. The peace movement is bigger than any party in the world. The peace movement represents a humanitarian desire to do away with the agonies of the dropping of atom bombs and the agonies of fall-out from atomic testing. It is not a question of where you get your votes, but of where you get your means of survival. Motion (by **Mr. Hasluck)** agreed to - >That the question be now put. Original question resolved in the affirmative. House adjourned at 10.37 p.m. {: .page-start } page 74 {:#debate-24} ### ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS The following answers to questions were circulated: - {:#subdebate-24-0} #### Commonwealth Motor Vehicles {: #subdebate-24-0-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. What members of the Parliament or other persons are given the right to use a Commonwealth motor car upon request for any period of time without any questions being asked as to the purpose for which it is required? 1. Arc any conditions imposed upon these members or persons which forbid the person in whose name the car is ordered from making it available for the use of (a) any other member of his family or (b) any other person, to undertake journeys in which he himself does not participate? 2. What members of the Parliament or other persons have the limited use of Commonwealth cars, and for what purpose are these cars made available? 3. What persons are authorized to order Commonwealth cars? 4. Are there any Commonwealth motor cars which carry both a Commonwealth and a private licence number plate, the spare plate when not in use being kept in the boot? 5. If so, what persons have the use of these cars, and what is the purpose of carrying two licence plates? 6. Is he able to give an assurance that Commonwealth motor cars have not been, and are not being, used (a) by Ministers' wives and others to {: type="a" start="i"} 0. do their shopping, (ii) visit hairdressers, (iii) take children to and from school and (iv) take children on outings to the beach and elsewhere when unaccompanied by their parents, and (b) by Ministers, top-ranking public servants and others to take them short distances to attend social functions where the cars and their drivers are kept waiting for hours to make the return journey? {: #subdebate-24-0-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP s. - The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - >These questions resemble very closely questions which have been put previously by the honorable member, and as he well knows, answered previously by me or my colleagues. The arrangements which govern the use of cars by Ministers and by other members of Parliament are the same, expect in one respect which I will mention, as those which applied at the time of the Labour Administration, of which the honorable member for East Sydney was a member. The difference is that there are some new provisions, not previously existing, in favour of some Opposition officeholders. In relation to questions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7, I remind the honorable member that by letter of 5th February, 1962, dealing with a question asked on notice by the honorable member, the following reply was given by me: - " Cars are provided for Ministers, Party Leaders, the various parliamentary office bearers and senators and members generally under conditions which are set out broadly in the report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Salaries and Allowances of Members of the Commonwealth Parliament, 1959. Cars are also provided on casual or full-time hire on the demand of the permanent heads of the various Commonwealth Departments and the Chief Executives of instrumentalities, or the officers authorized by them to order vehicles for official purposes. Buses are used generally for the transport of personnel in migrant camps, Commonwealth projects in remote areas, the Armed Services and, of course, for the public transport system in Canberra and Darwin ". > >I now add for the further information of the honorable member that it is recorded in the report of the Committee of Inquiry mentioned above (paragraph 101) that the Prime Minister, cxPrime Ministers (while members of Parliament), Ministers, the President, the Speaker, and the Leader of the Opposition and their wives are entitled to unrestricted travel facilities, including by official motor car transport. > >Commonwealth motor vehicles are made available in accordance with the provisions mentioned above and for the purposes authorized by those provisions. > >As to questions 5 and 6, I refer the honorable member to the remarks of my colleague, then the Minister for the Interior, recorded in Hansard of 10th October, 1957. As indicated by the Minister, some Commonwealth motor cars used for special purposes are fitted with ordinary number plates. Such vehicles are registered and recorded under a Commonwealth number. But while it is being used for the special purposes concerned, the Commonwealth number plates are carried inside the car and not displayed. When the vehicle is returned to ordinary service, the Commonwealth plates under which it is registered and recorded are fitted in the normal way. {: #subdebate-24-0-s2 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. What Commonwealth car facilities are made available to former members of Parliament? 1. What former members of Parliament are at present eligible for these facilities? {: #subdebate-24-0-s3 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP s. - The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - 1 and 2. The provisions governing the use of Commonwealth motor vehicles do not extend to former members of Parliament. {:#subdebate-24-1} #### Parliamentary Allowances {: #subdebate-24-1-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - >What was the cost to the Commonwealth in each of the past five years of providing (a) stamps as required; (b) a free home telephone service for (i) each Minister, including the Prime Minister, (ii) the President of the Senate, and *(iti)* the Speaker of the House of Representatives? {: #subdebate-24-1-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answer to the honorable member's question is as follows: - >The costs of postage and telephones for Ministers is included in the provision in the annual estimates for postage, telegrams and telephone services for the respective departments. While some amounts are identifiable, others are not, because no detailed dissection is kept as between ministerial offices and departments. In the case of my own department, expenditure on postage, telegrams and telephone services over the past five years has been - 1956-57, £14,495; 1957-58, £16,093; 1958-59, £17,893; 1959-60, £18,513; 1960-61, £17,004. This provision covers the expenditure of the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Deputy Leaders of the Opposition (home telephones only) and the Prime Minister's Department. Employment of Tradesmen and Apprentices by Commonwealth Government. {: #subdebate-24-1-s2 .speaker-KDV} ##### Mr Jones:
NEWCASTLE, VICTORIA s asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - >How many (a) tradesmen and (b) apprentices are employed by the Commonwealth Government as permanent or casual employees in the following occupations: - Electrical mechanic, electrical fitter, fitter-turner, boilermaker, carpenter and joiner, bricklayer, plumber, painter, sheet metal worker, moulder, blacksmith, shipwright, motor mechanic, plasterer, printer? {: #subdebate-24-1-s3 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answer to the honorable member's question is as follows: - >The information sought by the honorable member is not available and a great deal of time, expense and effort would be required to obtain it. {:#subdebate-24-2} #### Surplus Military Equipment {: #subdebate-24-2-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Minister for Supply, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Have any .303 rifles, surplus to service requirements, been disposed of in the last five years? 1. If so, what was the number sold, and what price was received in respect of each sale? 2. To whom were the rifles sold? 3. Was any restriction or limitation placed on the subsequent disposal or use of these rifles by the purchaser? If so, what are the details? {: #subdebate-24-2-s1 .speaker-KWH} ##### Mr Townley:
Minister for Defence · DENISON, TASMANIA · LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Yes. 1. The total number of surplus .303 rifles sold was 135,548. It is not the policy of my department to make available details of prices paid by purchasers of surplus goods which may be subsequently offered for re-sale and I regret that in the present instance it is not desirable to depart from this principle. It can be said, however, that the rifles were sold by public tender and the prices realized represent the best prices obtainable. 2. The abovementioned surplus rifles were sold as follows: - {: type="1" start="4"} 0. No restrictions or limitations are placed by my department upon the subsequent disposal or use of these rifles by the purchasers. Authorized dealers in firearms who wish to resell them within Australia must necessarily observe the provisions of State laws and regulations. Firearms can be exported only with the approval of the Department of Customs and Excise which ensures that they are consigned only to approved destinations. {:#subdebate-24-3} #### Australian Forces in Malaya {: #subdebate-24-3-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Minister for Defence, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. What is the present strength of the Australian forces in Malaya? 1. What is the annual cost of maintaining Australian forces in Malaya? 2. When were Australian forces first sent to this location? 3. What has been the total cost to Australia since forces were first sent to Malaya? 4. What was the task to which these forces were originally assigned? 5. What is the present role of the Australian forces in Malaya? 6. Has the Malayan Government entered into an agreement with the Australian Government which would enable the Australian forces to use Malayan bases in any operations in which they may become engaged? 7. Are there in existence adequate arrangements to evacuate rapidly in an emergency the wives and children of the personnel of the Australian forces? 8. Is it proposed to retain Australian forces outside Australia on a permanent basis? {: #subdebate-24-3-s1 .speaker-KWH} ##### Mr Townley:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. 2,338. 1. The additional cost of maintaining Australian forces in Malaya, over the normal cost of their maintenance in Australia, is £3,018,000 a year. 2. Navy, June, 1955; Army, October, 1955; Air, July, 1950. 3. The total additional cost to Australia to date has been £24,000,000. 4. and 6. The Australian Forces serve with British and New Zealand Forces in the British Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve which, by its presence in the area in a state of readiness, adds strength and confidence to the countries of the region, and is available to meet the demands of an emergency. At the request of the Government of the Federation of Malaya, they assist that Government in operations against the communist terrorists remaining in the area of the border between Malaya and Thailand. 5. The use of Malayan bases by overseas Commonwealth forces is provided for in the Defence Agreement of 1957 between the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Federation of Malaya. The Australian Government is associated with the terms of this agreement insofar as these concern Australian forces. 6. All necessary measures would be taken to ensure the safety of dependants should the need arise. 7. The deployment of the forces depends on circumstances as assessed by the Government from time to time. {:#subdebate-24-4} #### Dr. J. R. Darling: Remuneration {: #subdebate-24-4-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. What salary, fees or allowances are paid to **Dr. J.** R. Darling in his capacity as (a) chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, (b) chairman of the Australian Road Safely Council and (c) member of the Immigration Advisory Council? 1. Does **Dr. Darling** receive any similar payments from any other Government department or agency? 2. Which of these payments will continue during **Dr. Darling's** absence overseas on his present privately arranged tour? {: #subdebate-24-4-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - 1 to 3. **Dr. Darling** receives £2,000 per annum as chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, £500 per annum as chairman of the Australian Road Safety Council and £7 7s. per day for each day's attendance at meetings of the Immigration Advisory Council and its committees. While overseas, **Dr. Darling** will carry out a number of assignments on behalf of the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the Australian Road Safely Council and his remuneration in those two capacities will continue. I am sure the honorable member will agree that the Government is indeed fortunate to have the services of such a distinguished Australian on a financial basis which can only be regarded as a token of the services rendered. {:#subdebate-24-5} #### Adelaide Airport {: #subdebate-24-5-s0 .speaker-2V4} ##### Mr Clyde Cameron:
HINDMARSH, SOUTH AUSTRALIA · ALP n asked the Minister representing the Minister for Civil Aviation, upon notice - >What is the cost of maintenance of park lands, trees, lawns, &c, at the Adelaide airport? {: #subdebate-24-5-s1 .speaker-KWH} ##### Mr Townley:
LP -- The answer to the honorable member's question is as follows: - >The cost of maintaining areas at the Adelaide airport which could perhaps be referred to as park lands and which include the building area and land adjoining the access roadway has over the last three years, averaged approximately £8,500 per annum. These costs include such developments of the area as filling and levelling, fertilizing, and the planting of trees, shrubs and grass. The Adelaide airport at West Beach is of relatively recent development and the opportunity has been taken to provide an attractive access to the aerodrome building area over what was previously swamp land. The costs will decline as the area becomes established and routine maintenance is all that is required. {:#subdebate-24-6} #### War Service Homes {: #subdebate-24-6-s0 .speaker-6U4} ##### Mr Whitlam: m asked the Minister representing the Minister for National Development, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. When is it expected that the War Service Homes Regulations will be amended to include vandalism as a prescribed risk under the War Service Homes Insurance Scheme, in accordance with the suggestion which I made last November and which the Minister accepted last January? 1. Will the regulations provide cover against damage caused by vandalism on and after the date of the suggestion? {: #subdebate-24-6-s1 .speaker-KZE} ##### Mr Roberton:
Minister for Social Services · RIVERINA, NEW SOUTH WALES · CP -- The Minister for National Development has supplied the following answers to the honorable member's questions: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Instructions have been given to the Parliamentary Draftsman to amend the War Service Homes Regulations to provide insurance cover in certain circumstances against the risk of malicious damage to homes insured under the war service homes scheme. This amendment is being dealt with together with a number of other amendments to the regulations dealing with the insurance provisions. The amendments will be made and promulgated as soon as this can be arranged, having regard to other commitments requiring the attention of the Parliamentary Draftsman. 1. It is not intended that the amending regulations will take effect before the date on which they will be promulgated. {: #subdebate-24-6-s2 .speaker-2V4} ##### Mr Clyde Cameron:
HINDMARSH, SOUTH AUSTRALIA · ALP n asked the Minister representing the Minister for National Development, upon notice - >How many persons were required to vacate war service homes in each State in each quarter of the last two years? {: #subdebate-24-6-s3 .speaker-KZE} ##### Mr Roberton:
CP -- The Minister for National Development has supplied the following answer to the honorable member's question: - >It is assumed that the honorable member requires details of the number of cases in which the War Service Homes Division has entered into possession of a war service home under the provisions of section 36 of the War Service Homes Act following a surrender of the property by the purchaser or borrower or the execution of a warrant of possession issued by a court by summary jurisdiction. These details are as follows: - {: #subdebate-24-6-s4 .speaker-K0I} ##### Mr Comber:
BOWMAN, QUEENSLAND r asked the Minister representing the Minister for National Development, upon notice- {: type="1" start="1"} 0. For how many years has the general specification of the War Service Homes Division known as REVISED (Timber and Fibro) dated 22nd March, 1948, been in existence? 1. How many homes have been constructed under the specification in (a) Australia and (b. Queensland? 2. How many of the homes constructed in Queensland have been subject to a deed of arbitration? 3. What is the address of the property and the name of the arbitrator in each instance? {: #subdebate-24-6-s5 .speaker-KZE} ##### Mr Roberton:
CP -- The Minister for National Development has supplied the following answers to the honorable member's questions: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. The general specification of the War Service Homes Division referred to as " REVISED (Timber and Fibro)" dated 22nd March, 1948, was in use in the Queensland branch for approximately six years, wilh modifications and variations to meet the changing circumstances. The specification was specially prepared for Queensland and was not used in other parts of the Commonwealth. 1. Approximately 2,980 homes were constructed in Queensland under this specification. 2. Two homes constructed under the specification have been subject to a deed of arbitration. 3. This information cannot be given as it would amount to a disclosure of confidential details relating to assistance granted under the War Service Homes Act to individual ex-servicemen.

Cite as: Australia, House of Representatives, Debates, 7 August 1962, viewed 22 October 2017, <http://historichansard.net/hofreps/1962/19620807_reps_24_hor36/>.

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