House of Representatives
15 August 1961

23rd Parliament · 3rd Session

  1. House of Representatives
  2. 23rd Parliament
  3. 1961

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

page 3

SOCIAL SERVICES

Petition

Mr. CHANEY presented a petition from certain electors in the State of Western Australia praying that the House will restore child endowment to the extent necessary to ensure the economic stability of the Australian family.

Petition received and read.

page 3

QUESTION

TOBACCO

Mr CAIRNS:
YARRA, VICTORIA

– Is the Minister for Trade aware that a meeting of tobacco-growers at Wangaratta, Victoria, some time ago, directed the Victorian Tobacco Growers Association to put proposals to the Commonwealth Government? Also, is he aware that on 7th August, about six weeks later, a further meeting of growers at Wangaratta unanimously adopted a motion of noconfidence in the executive of the Victorian Tobacco Growers Association and elected a committee to put proposals to the Commonwealth Government for immediate financial assistance to growers and to prevent waste of the unsold crop?

Mr SPEAKER:

– Order! I think the honorable gentleman is giving information now.

Mr CAIRNS:

– The committee was also to put proposals concerning the future development of the industry. I ask the Minister what proposals for action have been put to the Government. Will the Government decide to take action without delay to assist tobacco-growers in their very difficult position?

Mr McEWEN:
Minister for Trade · MURRAY, VICTORIA · CP

– I have heard of the incidents to which the honorable member refers. The position is that certain representatives of the Australian Tobacco Growers Council from Victoria waited on me here in Canberra and made certain representations, maybe a fortnight ago. Another deputation is coming to me at the end of question time this afternoon in order to follow up those representations.

I can assure the honorable member, the House, and the industry that the Government is quite concerned with the problems of the Australian tobacco-growing industry. The attention of the Minister for Customs and Excise and of Cabinet Ministers, including the Minister for Primary Industry, is being directed and will continue to be directed to the problems of this industry with a view to a stable basis being achieved for the production of leaf acceptable to Australian smokers at prices that will enable the industry to survive on a payable basis.

page 4

QUESTION

WOOL

Mr Malcolm Fraser:
WANNON, VICTORIA · LP

– I ask whether the Attorney-General will keep under close watch the moves undertaken by the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers of Australia and by the Australian Council of Wool Buyers to oppose successful wool sales at Portland. Will the Attorney-General examine the actions of these bodies to see whether they have contravened the law as it now stands or whether their actions represent a proper field of inquiry for possible legislation to deal with restrictive practices?

Sir GARFIELD BARWICK:
Attorney-General · PARRAMATTA, NEW SOUTH WALES · LP

– The honorable member for Wannon brought under my notice some information with respect to the activities of people to whom he has referred. I looked at that information and concluded that it was not sufficient to warrant any intervention by me with the powers that I now have. But in this instance, as in all others brought under my notice. T shall place the facts with the other material 1 have when deciding whether something should be done in this connexion in the restrictive trade practices field which I am considering. I shall continue to keep a watch on the matter in that way.

page 4

QUESTION

ASSOCIATED PULP AND PAPER MILLS LIMITED

Mr DAVIES:
BRADDON, TASMANIA

– My question is addressed to the Minister for Trade. Having regard to the announcement of Associated Pulp and Paper Mills Limited, Burnie, Tasmania, that the company will be obliged to close down its mills for from three to four weeks, resulting in the dismissal of some 2,500 employees, through lack of orders brought about by overseas imports, can the Minister say whether a decision on the emergency reference to the Tariff Board will be available to enable the closedown decision to be reviewed?

Mr McEWEN:
CP

– Upon representations being made to the Government by the company concerned, and as soon as the case was made to the Department of Trade on this issue, I referred the matter for consideration by a deputy chairman of the Tariff Board as an emergency step. The statute requires that the deputy chairman shall make a report within 30 days. So soon as that report is to hand the Government will make its decision, no doubt guided by the report. I have no doubt that the company, with the knowledge that its representations will be paid full regard, will not suffer dismissals to take place in the meantime.

page 4

QUESTION

SUGAR

Mr BANDIDT:
WIDE BAY, QUEENSLAND

– I preface a question to the Minister for Primary Industry by saying that those engaged in the sugar industry are eager to learn of the findings of the Sugar Industry Committee of Inquiry. Is the Minister able to say when the report will be presented? Would it be possible to expedite the report?

Mr ADERMANN:
Minister for Primary Industry · FISHER, QUEENSLAND · CP

– The report has not yet been received from the Sugar Industry Committee of Inquiry but 1 expect to receive it within the next two or three weeks. Of course, it will then have to be considered by the Government before it is released to the public.

page 4

QUESTION

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT

Mr WARD:
EAST SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

– Is the Minister for Social Services aware that the unemployment benefit has remained unchanged since 1957? Is the Minister aware that in the intervening period the currency has continued to depreciate in value as has the value of the unemployment benefit as a consequence? ls it a fact that since 1957 parliamentary allowances, including expense payments, have been substantially increased? Is the Minister aware that, as a result of the paucity of the amount paid as unemployment benefit, many Australian citizens and their dependants are now in a desperate plight which grows worse daily?

Mr SPEAKER:

– Order! The honorable member is continuing to give information. He should direct his question to the Minister.

Mr WARD:

– I want to ask: Is it a fact that Church and other charitable organizations are now unable to cope with the calls for charity being made upon them? Will the Minister immediately urge Cabinet to grant a substantial increase in the unemployment benefit, and make a substantial financial grant to assist all charitable organizations engaged in the work of giving sustenance and accommodation-

Mr SPEAKER:

– Order! The honorable member must conclude his- question.

Mr WARD:

– Will the Minister press for such a grant to aid charitable organization* to assist citizens who have been forced into unemployment by the Government’s economic policy?

Mr ROBERTON:
Minister for Social Services · RIVERINA, NEW SOUTH WALES · CP

– If the honorable member for East Sydney were a new member, he might be pardoned for asking a question in the terms he now uses, but no one knows better than he does that the Minister for Social Services does not determine the rate of unemployment benefit paid to those who qualify for it. The determination is made by the Parliament from time to time, and from time to time the Parliament is given an opportunity to review those rates and make a considered judgment.

page 5

QUESTION

SURF LIFE SAVING ASSOCIATION

Mr ASTON:
PHILLIP, NEW SOUTH WALES

– I direct a question to the Treasurer. Having regard to the deputation I introduced to his good self, consisting of Judge Adrian Curlewis and Mr. Ken Watson, national president and national secretary respectively of the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia, and representations that 1 have been making on their behalf-

Mr SPEAKER:

– Order! The honorable member should ask his question.

Mr ASTON:

– Can the Treasurer give an assurance that representations made for an increase in the grant to the Surf LifeSaving Association were given serious consideration when the Budget was being framed?

Mr HAROLD HOLT:
Treasurer · HIGGINS, VICTORIA · LP

– I can assure the honorable gentleman that the very impressive story put forward by representatives ot so highly regarded an organization was carefully considered with the multiplicity of other matters that had to be considered by the Government during its discussions on the Budget.

page 5

QUESTION

BROADCASTING

Mr MAKIN:
BONYTHON, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

– Can the Postmaster - General give a reply to the House concerning my representations on behalf of many who have had the advantage of frequency modulation broadcast programmes? Will he recognize that South Australian country television cannot be subject to any adverse effect because no programme for television in country areas has yet been proposed for South Australia?

Mr DAVIDSON:
Postmaster-General · DAWSON, QUEENSLAND · CP

– The subject to which the honorable member has referred is one to which I have applied myself not only in replies to individual members of the Parliament and members of the community who have written to me, but also in a statement that was issued to the press covering the whole field of the use of frequency modulation broadcasting. I have nothing to add to what I have said in those various references on the reasons why certain decisions have been reached except to say that quite shortly - probably within a month - I expect to be able to table in the House the report of the Huxley committee, which goes into the whole range of the frequency spectrum and shows the reason* for the action that has been taken.

page 5

QUESTION

TAXATION

Mr BROWNE:
KALGOORLIE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

– Has the Treasurer yet considered the question of the taxability of relief payments made to residents of Carnarvon who suffered in floods and cyclones only this year? If so, what decision has been reached?

Mr HAROLD HOLT:
LP

– The honorable member for Kalgoorlie raised this matter with me during the last sessional period. It appeared that because these relief payments had been related in some way to the acreage of land of the fruit-growers concerned, in the first instance the Commissioner of Taxation had taken the view that the payments were taxable. Further inquiries revealed that the acreage had been referred to merely for the purpose of convenience, in order to ascertain the extent of the damage, and that what was really involved was the restoration of personal effects and the like. I am informed by the commissioner that after further review it has been decided that the payments are not to be taxed.

page 6

QUESTION

EDUCATION IN CANBERRA

Mr J R Fraser:
ALP

– 1 ask .the Prime Minister whether he has received representations from organizations concerned with education in Canberra, seeking the establishment in this city of facilities for teacher training. When the right honorable gentleman is giving serious, and, 1 hope, favorable consideration to these proposals, will he have particular regard to the views on this subject expressed by the principal of the School of General Studies at the Australian National University?

Mr MENZIES:
Prime Minister · KOOYONG, VICTORIA · LP

– I am aware that representations have been and are being made on this matter, and I will, of course, give the closest attention to them.

page 6

QUESTION

CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW COMMITTEE

Mr BLAND:
WARRINGAH, NEW SOUTH WALES

– My question is directed to the Treasurer, in his capacity as Leader of the House. The right honorable gentleman will recall that during the last sessional period I asked him whether it would be possible so to arrange the business of the House as to make available time to discuss the report of the Constitutional Review Committee. I should like to know whether the Treasurer has had an opportunity to consider that matter, and what he proposes to do about it. Furthermore, I should be glad to know whether the right honorable gentleman will authorize the publication of the submissions made to the committee by interested parties, particularly those submissions prepared by the New South Wales Institute of Public Affairs, at considerable cost and trouble, and presented to the committee by the gentleman who is now the Attorney-General.

Mr HAROLD HOLT:
LP

– No firm decision has yet been made on the honorable member’s suggestion that a discussion should take place on this subject. 1 can assure him, however, that when the planning of the remainder of the business for this session is being undertaken, this matter will not be overlooked. There may well be an opportunity, as this sessional period proceeds, to arrange for a discussion of the matter referred to by the honorable member. As to the second part of the question, I do not know precisely what is involved in this suggestion. I shall under take to consider the request and see whether the honorable member’s wishes can be met.

page 6

QUESTION

SOCIAL SERVICES

Mr McIVOR:
GELLIBRAND, VICTORIA

– My question is directed to the Treasurer. In view of the inadequacy of social service payments made to unemployed persons, will the right honorable gentleman undertake to issue free travel passes with unemployment benefit cheques, so that unemployed persons may more expeditiously undertake the very difficult task of finding jobs?

Mr HAROLD HOLT:
LP

– The general question of unemployment benefit payments was one of the matters considered, as is customarily the case, by the Government during its discussions on the Budget. The other matters raised by the honorable member are also matters of policy, which it would not be proper to discuss at this stage.

page 6

QUESTION

EXPORT OF LAMB

Mr FORBES:
BARKER, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

– My question is directed to the Minister for Primary Industry. Can the Minister inform the House regarding current export prospects for lamb? Further, can he explain why, when more than 80 per cent, of Australian lamb is consumed in Australia, the price received by producers appears to be largely governed by the export price?

Mr ADERMANN:
CP

– In recent months the United Kingdom price for lamb has been depressed because of increased United Kingdom production and increased supplies from New Zealand. When the United Kingdom delegation was in Australia for the purpose of discussing prices under the fifteen years meat agreement, the leader of the delegation said that the United Kingdom market had reached saturation point because of the increase of supplies. It had also been affected by increased poultry supplies in the United Kingdom. Honorable members will recall that recently I announced an export bounty of 2s. per carcass on lamb shipped to the United Kingdom to try to improve the position. The Australian lamb season falls within a very short period during which we produce quantities greatly in excess of Australian requirements. The dominating influence during that season is export buying, and this has had a depressing effect on the price.

page 7

QUESTION

SOCIAL SERVICES

Mr POLLARD:
LALOR, VICTORIA

– 1 ask the Minister for Social Services a question, ls he aware thai a large number of new Australians have sponsored the migration of their parents to Australia and given a guarantee to the Commonwealth Government that they will support their parents? ls he now aware that under existing economic conditions many of these guarantors are in the unfortunate position of being no longer able to support their parents adequately? Will he take up the matter with Cabinet and ascertain whether Cabinet is willing to ensure that these aged people from overseas are given the same eligibility for age and invalid pensions as is given to Australianborn citizens?

Mr ROBERTON:
CP

– I am interested in what the honorable member for Lalor has had to say, but I would direct his attention to the fact that it has been the traditional practice for Australian women to become eligible for the age pension at 60 years and for Australian men to become eligible at 65 years. The residential qualification for both the age pension and the invalid pension is twenty years. It would be unreasonable to reduce that period in either case to give preferential treatment to elderly people who come to this country under guarantees from those who brought them here.

page 7

IMMIGRATION

Mr DRURY:
RYAN, QUEENSLAND

– I wish to ask the Minister for Immigration whether the estimated flow of migrants to this country has been maintained since the Parliament last met and whether there is any prospect of attracting a greater number of settlers from South Africa.

Mr DOWNER:
Minister for Immigration · ANGAS, SOUTH AUSTRALIA · LP

– In reply to the honorable member for Ryan, I point out that for the financial year ended 30th June. 1961, Australia more than filled its quota in the number of migrants it attracted. I know that my honorable friend is interested in bringing South African settlers to this country. As I told him in the last sessional period, a much larger flow has taken place in recent months than hitherto and I have no reason to suppose that that flow will be diminished in the future. As always, Australia will welcome South Africans in the appropriate categories for whom ready employment and settlement can be found.

page 7

QUESTION

SYDNEY GENERAL POST OFFICE CLOCK

Mr MINOGUE:
WEST SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

– Can the PostmasterGeneral tell the House when the General Post Office clock in Sydney will be restored to its original position? Is the Minister aware that the latest estimate for this work is £130,000 and not £200,000 as stated by him previously? Further, is the Minister aware that thousands of men are unemployed and amongst them are many tradesmen who would welcome this work? Now is the time to do it.

Mr DAVIDSON:
CP

– The honorable member for West Sydney has asked whether I am aware that the latest estimate of the cost of restoring the clock at the General Post Office in Martin-place, Sydney, is about £130,000 and not £200,000 or more, the amount that I had stated previously. Of course I am aware of the latest estimate, because I am the person who told the honorable member what it was. 1 also told the House quite frankly, as well as telling my friend, the honorable member for Mackellar, who was inquiring. The honorable member for West Sydney has now suggested that it may be advisable - at least, I think this was his implication - to expend money on the restoration of the clock in order to deal with the present situation in industry. Again I say that we have plans for the development of essential services by the Post Office which will achieve the result that the honorable member set out <to achieve when he asked his question. This will be done without restoring the clock, because we have still to do a lot of things which are more important than that.

page 7

QUESTION

EMPLOYMENT OF PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED PERSONS

Mr McCOLM:
BOWMAN, QUEENSLAND

– My question is directed to the Prime Minister. Some time ago, a committee was appointed to inquire into the possibility of physically handicapped people being employed by the Commonwealth Public Service. Can the right honorable gentleman tell the House whether that committee has yet reported its findings to the Government or whether any other relevant information is available?

Mr MENZIES:
LP

– I had extensive discussions on this very matter with the Chairman of the Public Service Board only three or four days ago, and I hope quite soon to be in a position to take the matter to the Government and then to make an announcement about it.

page 8

QUESTION

ATOMIC ENERGY

Mr UREN:
REID, NEW SOUTH WALES

– I direct my question to the Minister for Defence. I remind him that, on 16th March of this year, I asked whether it was a fact that the United States Government was being granted permission to build a nuclear-powered radio station in northern Australia. In reply, the Minister said -

There has been no request from the United States Government to this Government for any station of any sort in the north of Australia.

I now ask: Is it a fact that negotiations over a proposed site for the building of a nuclear-powered radio station have been held between the governments of Western Australia, the Commonwealth and the United States of America? Is it a fact, also, that United States Government survey teams have carried out work on the proposed site? If so, will the Minister make a statement without delay, or does he propose to ignore the Parliament and the people as he has done up to date?

Mr TOWNLEY:
Minister for Defence · DENISON, TASMANIA · LP

– I refer the honorable member to the statement that I made in the Parliament in September of last year.

page 8

QUESTION

POSTAL DEPARTMENT

Mr WIGHT:
LILLEY, QUEENSLAND

– My question is directed to the Postmaster-General. Will the Minister give the House the facts in answer to allegations of the improper use of motor vehicle registration number plates on Commonwealth vehicles under the control of the Postmaster-Genera’s Department - allegations which I know have been brought to his attention? I ask, also, whether it is true that the Queensland Minister for Development. Mines, Main Roads and Electricity made certain comments for publication in regard to these allegations.

Mr. DAVIDSON__ Allegations made in a certain newspaper in Brisbane regarding what was classified, I think, as a Post Office scandal naturally were brought to my notice, and I am glad to have the opportunity to say that there is no basis whatsoever for the rather scurrilous charges which were made. I am sure that all honorable members recognize that from time to time an institution like the Post Office, and also other institutions in Australia, have to make certain security investigations for the protection of public property and the public interest.

Mr Curtin:

– Turn that up.

Mr DAVIDSON:
CP

– I will turn it up. I am giving the House the facts. Sometimes when the police force is investigating a felony, it does not send out a uniformed man. Similarly, in order that investigations which have to be made from time to time into various Post Office thefts such as thefts of copper wire from our lines and thefts from our line depots, or into obscene communications with some of our subscribers and other such matters, may have some chance of success, we do not blazon the fact that we are carrying out investigations by having “ C “ numbers on our motor cars. Therefore, quite properly, the Post Office, not only in Queensland but also in other States, has applied to the State authorities through the proper channels for the issue of civil number plates. I believe that that practice has been followed for very many years in a number of departments.

The practice has now been publicized in the press as being something improper. I assure the House that when this matter was brought to my notice I viewed the card that had been issued by the State Motor Registration Branch and signed by the Secretary of the Registration Branch. That card carried not only the civil plate number but also the Commonwealth number, so there is no question of any improper use of the civil number plate.

The honorable member for Lilley has asked me whether a certain statement was made by a Queensland Minister. Yes, the statement was made. I have spoken to that Minister and I am prepared to state quite frankly that he has acknowledged that when he made the statement he was unaware of the circumstances. He has since learned of the circumstances and he has said that he has received some legal advice to the effect that it might not have been legal to issue these number plates because they were cancelled plates. But we did not apply for cancelled number plates. All we wanted was civil number plates. The Minister has stated that this practice of issuing cancelled number plates must not continue. That is all right, but if there has been any mistake it has not been on the part of the Post Office but on the part of the State instrumentality that issued the plates and was fully aware of all the facts.

The newspaper comment in question has performed a very great disservice to the instrumentality that I administer and to others which seek to protect the public interest and public property.

page 9

QUESTION

UNEMPLOYMENT

Mr LUCHETTI:
MACQUARIE, NEW SOUTH WALES

– My question is directed to the Treasurer. In view of the grave hardship which is being experienced by unemployed persons who have to live on the unemployment benefit or their meagre savings, or with assistance from relatives and friends, will the Minister review the loan allocations which have been made to the various States for the purpose of carrying out local government works? According to an authoritative statement issued by the Local Government Association of New South Wales to the effect that that State-

Mr SPEAKER:

– Order! The honorable member must not quote the statement.

Mr LUCHETTI:

– My question is: In view of a declaration by local government bodies to the effect that they could employ every unemployed person if sufficient money were available, will the Minister review the loan allocations so that local government authorities will be provided with funds to carry out essential work on roads, water supplies, sewerage, electricity projects and other necessary undertakings? They sought £45,000,000 on the last occasion-

Mr SPEAKER:

– Order! I call the right honorable the Treasurer.

Mr HAROLD HOLT:
LP

– Since the last meeting of the Australian Loan Council the Government has given some further consideration to the area of policy to which the honorable gentleman has referred, and I have been in communication with the State Premiers. 1 shall make some reference in my Budget Speech to-night to the matter that the honorable gentleman has raised.

page 9

QUESTION

ORANGES FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

Mr TURNBULL:
MALLEE, VICTORIA

– Has the Minister for Health heard of the proposal that where it is impracticable to supply milk to school children under the Commonwealth’s free milk scheme, each child be given an orange on each school day in lieu of milk? Is the Minister aware of the health-giving qualities of the orange? Will he consider the proposal fully with a view to its implementation?

Dr Donald Cameron:
OXLEY, QUEENSLAND · LP

– I have heard of numerous such proposals, including this one, but it is not at present proposed to alter the provisions for the distribution of fresh milk to school children.

page 9

QUESTION

AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY

Mr DUTHIE:
WILMOT, TASMANIA · ALP

– I ask the Prime Minister: Was he correctly reported when he said, at a Liberal Party meeting in Sydney eight days ago, that the credit squeeze had ended? If this is so, why is bank credit still unobtainable at the most stricken spots of our economy and why have bank managers no knowledge of such an order or direction? Can the Prime Minister tell the House of any practical signs that would give his statement even a semblance of reality?

Mr MENZIES:
LP

– I will do much better than the honorable member asks me to do. I will give him, because it was taperecorded, the full context of ray speech, which I am sure he will read with great advantage. As to the general position regarding the credit structure, if he listens to my colleague the Treasurer to-night, he will be well informed.

page 9

QUESTION

BERLIN CRISIS

Mr WENTWORTH:
MACKELLAR, NEW SOUTH WALES

– My question is addressed to the Prime Minister, as Minister for External Affairs. Would it be possible, as a matter of urgency, to have prepared for the information of honorable members a paper containing the basic documents and the facts leading up to the present situation in Berlin?

Mr MENZIES:
LP

– I appreciate the value of this suggestion. It may turn out to be a fairly formidable task, because there are many circumstances and factors involved, but I am having an inquiry made from the department as to whether, within a reasonable time and in reasonably compendious fashion, this might be done.

Mr CALWELL:
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

– If the Prime Minister does give favorable consideration to the question just asked by the honorable member for Mackellar, will the right honorable gentleman make a statement on the situation in Berlin and in Europe generally and permit a debate on the matter to follow immediately? If he so decides, will he arrange for such a debate to take place within the next few weeks?

Mr MENZIES:

– If it turns out to be practicable, as no doubt it will, to prepare a statement which is not too long, because that would require a great deal of work to get ready all the documents, I think that in those circumstances it would be useful if I were to produce that document and make some remarks in relation to it, thereby giving opportunity for debate on the subject.

page 10

QUESTION

ASIAN STUDENTS

Mr CHANEY:
PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

– My question is directed to the Minister for Immigration. It refers to Teng Chin Kiat, a student from Singapore who completed his degree last year at the University of Western Australia and is doing an honours course there, but whose fiancee has been refused a vise for three months to visit Western Australia, which has resulted in his saying that he will return home without completing his course. Has the Minister had time to consider this case? If so, will he clear up some of the points raised in the newspapers in regard to it.

Mr DOWNER:
LP

– The papers in this case only came into my hands at a late hour last night, but I know the honorable gentleman is interested in it. I remind him, at the outset, that from the commencement of our Asian student policy we have always had a fundamental rule that Asian students coming here in a private capacity do so on the understanding mat they cannot bring in their wives or children, and this applies with even greater force to their fiancees. The reason for this is that the object of this scheme, which has worked so successfully over the years, is to bring these young men and women from Asia to Australian universities to enable them to enlarge their educa tion here so that at the completion of their studies they can return to their countries of origin and place whatever knowledge they have been able to acquire in Australia at the service of their own fellow citizens. We feel, Sir, that if we encourage them to bring their wives and families and close associates here, then, human nature being what it is, there is a very good prospect that they will be disinclined to leave Australia and will wish to settle here and thereby, of course, completely undermine the whole foundation of the Asian students plan. In the particular case referred to, as I said, the papers have come to me only recently; but I do acknowledge, as the honorable member for Perth has implied, that there are rather special circumstances connected with it. I understand that Mr. Teng has only three months to go before completing his course, and I promise the honorable gentleman that I will give very special consideration to the factors involved. I have asked for further evidence to be adduced, and, perhaps, if Mr Teng only wishes his fiancee to come here for the next three months, and both would give an undertaking to return to Malaya by the end of this year, it might well be possible to fulfil his request and to grant this young lady a vise.

page 10

QUESTION

PARLIAMENT OF UNITED EUROPE

Mr CHRESBY:
GRIFFITH, QUEENSLAND

– My question is directed to the Prime Minister. In view of the proposed establishment of a Parliament of United Europe, can the right honorable gentleman give an assurance to this House that no change is contemplated in the present constitutional position and prerogatives of the British monarchy in relation to Australia and its six sovereign States?

Mr MENZIES:
LP

- Sir, no change of any kind in relation to these matters is under contemplation, nor, so far as I am concerned, could it ever be contemplated.

page 10

QUESTION

IMMIGRATION

Mr PETERS:
SCULLIN, VICTORIA

– I ask the Minister for Immigration: In view of the vast number of people at present unemployed in Australia, has the Minister issued instructions to the representatives of the Department of Immigration in various countries to withdraw the circulars that induced migrants to come to Australia in the belief that employment was readily available to them in this country?

Mr DOWNER:
LP

– As honorable gentlemen know, two or three weeks ago I announced revised arrangements with regard to the intake of migrants in the next few months - that is, between now and the end of the year - particularly relating to the virtual cessation of the admission of unskilled workers. There seems to be a misconception - and I am sorry that my honorable friend apparently shares it - that officers of the Department of Immigration abroad are unaware of local conditions in Australia and apparently go out of their way to misinform people, and delight in doing so. I should like to tell the honorable gentleman that any such suggestion is entirely false. I know from my own experience, and from inquiries that I have made, that the information given at all migration offices in all our posts abroad, both in England and in Europe, has been factual, has been accurate and has been up to date. The last thing that any of the migration officers would wish to do would be to deceive or mislead people. So far. Sir. as our publicity is concerned, may T also remind honorable gentlemen that it is revised repeatedly every few months so that it can give the up-to-date picture of Australian conditions.

page 11

GOVERNOR-GENERAL

Mr MENZIES:
Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs · Kooyong · LP

– As honorable members are aware, the GovernorGeneral, Viscount De L’Isle, was sworn in here in Canberra on Thursday, 3rd August. However, I should like to take the opportunity to give formal advice of that to the House and to extend - and I know that in this I speak for all honorable members - our welcome and good wishes to His Excellency and his family. We are delighted at the appointment of this most distinguished man. Lord De L’Isle is a man of extensive experience, both civil and military. He is a man who has made his mark as parliamentarian. Minister, businessman and soldier. We know that he will carry out the duties of his important office with courage, candour and dignity. We look forward to seeing much of him, and wish him a long and happy stay in this country.

page 11

QUESTION

PAPUA AND NEW GUINEA

Mr HASLUCK:
Minister for Territories · Curtin · LP

– by leave - This statement is to inform the House of certain developments which have taken place or are being planned in respect of labour policy in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. These developments include administrative changes and new legislation.

At the outset I would ask the House to think of these matters and to judge them in the context of Territory conditions, not in the context of Australian conditions.

To give a clearer picture of the situation in the Territory some statistics may be quoted briefly. The total indigenous work force in paid employment is only 70,000 in a total population of 1,850,000 and a total male work force of possibly 600,000. This total of 70,000 wage-earners has shown only minor increases in recent years, largely because of the more efficient use of labour and economy in the use of labour as the cost of it has risen, and partly because of a decline of employment in oil exploration and gold mining. The big increases in gainful occupation of the people during the past seven or eight years have been in self-employment, chiefly on the land, producing cash crops. There are far more self-employed native workers with cash incomes than there are wage-earners and this pattern of occupation seems likely to continue.

Among the 70,000 native wage-earners more than half are employed in primary production. The most marked change of recent years has been in the growing numbers moving into urban employment. The present total employed in manufacturing is 3,000, building and construction 4,000, transport and storage 3,000 and commerce 3,500. There are about 4,600 wageearners in personal service, largely domestic workers, but this is not a new feature in wage-earning and, proportionately to other occupations, is tending to become less significant. There has also been a marked growth among those engaged in health and education, mainly in government service, although some are in missionary service. In addition, the numbers engaged in all other avenues of public administration have increased significantly. The present total for government employment is 14,000. The total of native urban workers in all grades of employment is about 27,000 out of the grand total of about 70,000 wage-earners. In the immediate present it will be these urban workers, and particularly the more advanced ones, who will be mainly interested in the new labour measures. 1 mention these figures in order that we may keep the situation in perspective. We need to test critically the exaggerations of those commentators who give a picture of very large numbers of people clamouring for industrial change. We also need to remember while we are dealing with some thousands of urban wage-earners, that there are also hundreds of thousands of self-employed little men - peasants, if you like, working their own land - and tens of thousands of unskilled and unsophisticated rural workers employed under agreement. I suggest that we will see the situation more clearly if we recognize the present measures as indicating the direction of changes which are just beginning and which will gather pace in the next ten years. What we do now is less for to-day than for the decade ahead of us.

From time to time since the war there have been adjustments in labour policy in the Territory both to keep pace with changing conditions and to anticipate prospective changes. In 1950 the indenture system was replaced by a system of labour under agreement, all penal sanctions against workers being removed. In 1952 and 1953 fhe labour legislation was amended so that, while maintaining the system of labour under agreement, the supervision over the engagement of labour and the conditions applying to the period of labour and the welfare of the worker were improved. In 1958 a completely new Native Employment Ordinance was passed, one of the m*in effects, apart from other improvements in the conditions of labour, being to recognize a class of freely-engaged labour consisting of those indigenous workers who were fully capable of engaging themselves for employment and to a large extent protecting their own interests.

Throughout this post-war period the Government, as by far the largest single employer in the Territory, has also introduced successive amendments to those ordinances and regulations which affected the various classes of skilled and unskilled workers employed by the Administration. The general purpose of these amendments was to raise the standard of the native employee, to give him improved conditions and improved wages, and to introduce higher rewards for higher skill. The indigenous worker was also given the opportunity of entering the Territorial Public Service, either through the auxiliary division, which is a training division, or direct to the other divisions of the public service on the same qualifications for entry as applied to Europeans.

There are already 28 indigenous public servants in the third division who have entered it on the same standard as entry as Europeans, and recently over 200 new positions have been created to which indigenes will be appointed. There are also already over 500 members of the auxiliary division which is the training division. These are in addition to the 9,000 employed by the Administration as Administration servants including semi-skilled workers such as aid post orderlies, boiler attendants and drivers; trained workers such as agricultural field workers, clerical and store assistants; artisans such as carpenters’ assistants and mechanics’ assistants; and specialized workers such as agricultural instructors and co-operative inspectors.

The measures that have been taken in respect of the public service have had two important historical effects. One is that, by being admitted as members to the Public Service Association, the indigenous public servants joined, for the first time, an industrial organization and gained their first access to a system of industrial negotiation and arbitration as members of the public service. The other effect - and this is a far-reaching effect - is that those who entered the public service on the same standard of entry as Europeans were paid at rates which were calculated on the principle of equal pay for equal work, the indigenous public servant receiving the same base rate as the European and any additional payment to the European being regarded as an expatriate allowance containing such elements as an attraction or a compensation to take notice of the fact that he was living away from his own land.

During the post-war period we also gave close attention to ancillary legislation such as the Transactions with Natives Ordinance 1958, which was designed to give protection to natives entering into job contracts; the Native Apprenticeship Ordinance 1951- 1960; the Workers Compensation Ordinance 1958-1960; the Industrial Safety (Temporary Provisions) Ordinance 1957 which is an interim and holding provision while we are preparing for submission a complete workers compensation ordinance; and the Minimum Age (Sea) Ordinance 1957-1958. These measures and amendments made to the Native Employment Ordinance in 1958 greatly increased the protection afforded to the worker by law.

Throughout the period, the administration of native labour was strengthened at various points and successive ministerial directions were given to ensure that in practice this protection of the worker was effective.

During most of the period, all except a very small minority of native wage-earners have been employed in unskilled or lowskilled labour. Over five years ago, in February, 1956, when our concern was mainly with an illiterate, low-skilled labour force, recruited from their native villages under fixed term agreements or working as casual labour close by their villages, I summarized the aims of labour policy as follows: -

  1. to advance the general policy for the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the Territory; the development of the Territory’s resources; and the maintenance of good order and government; particularly through -

    1. control of the nature and rate of social change among the native peoples;
    2. education of the native people;
    3. promotion of an association between the non-native and native communities favorable to the natives’ own advancement and good relations between the races;
    4. the association of both non- native and native in the development of the resources of the Territory in order to sustain a high standard of living and improved services:
  2. to protect the native -worker against unfair treatment, damage to his health, or deterioration in his traditional standards;
  3. to ensure that the employer and worker honour their obligations.

Those will still be our aims in our work among a large part of the population. Pursuing them, the Administration will continue to control the recruitment of agreement labour so that village life and family life will not be endangered, and will continue to supervise employment so that nothing is done that is harmful to the welfare of the worker or impairs the good relations and the trust between the races. I hope that the House will recognize - particularly those honorable members who have visited the Territory - that for some years to come there will be a body of labour, mostly rural labour, whose interests can best be served by the supervision of the Administration.

Yet, at the same time, largely as a result of other measures taken for the advancement of the people and for the economic development of the Territory, we can see the emergence of new fields of employment and new groups of workers to occupy them. To-day, as well as the large body of unskilled workers, many of them absent from their villages on a two-year agreement or working in the neighbourhood of their villages, we can see a body of more highly skilled or more experienced wage-earners tending to concentrate in centres of large employment and tending to stay there.

Various factors are contributing to the growth in skilled labour, such as the spread of education, the opening of technical schools (which are now training nearly 600 students), the inauguration of an apprenticeship system, from which 44 tradesmen have already graduated while there are at present 270 apprentices in training, and the engaging of educated natives in various services and utilities of their country in which they are trained on the job for higher responsibilities. These factors, and the move towards a higher standard of living, are producing many candidates for a different level of employment. The growth of public undertakings and of commerce and industry “in the Territory is providing that employment.

The changes, and their consequences, were clearly foreseen when the legislation of 1958 was prepared, and since that date 1 have myself been in consultation in the Territory with spokesmen of these more advanced groups of workers - as, too, has the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Calwell). I recall that, in December, 1959, I had conversations in Port Moresby with representatives of three of the newly formed “ welfare “ societies or workers’ associations, and I hope that the counsel 1 offered was as useful to them as their description of their hopes and purposes was helpful to me. Officers of the Administration have kept closely in touch with them both before and since that date. Continuously, over this period, officers ot the Department of Territories have been engaged with the Administration on a number of inquiries and studies and. as the outcome, the present proposals are being made.

The changes were introduced gradually with the creation, in July, 1959, of a Native Employment Board composed of representatives of employers, native workers and Administration officers, under a chairman who is a statutory officer.

Out of that experience, we moved, in February, 1961, to the creation in the Administration of a Department of Labour, the principal functions of which will be -

  1. The control of the registration of employee and employer organizations and the provision of the necessary registry facilities;
  2. the development and encouragement of negotiations between employees and employers and their associations at the individual employer and industry level, and the provision of necessary conciliation facilities;
  3. the establishment of a system of consultation between the Administration and representatives of employees and employers on labour legislation and other industrial matters;
  4. the provision of an employment placement service, a vocational guidance service, a personnel management service to employers, and assistance and advice on health, welfare and safety matters;
  5. the administration of legislation relating to employment in the Territory;
  6. research into such labour matters as employment requirements, patterns and levels of wages and conditions of service, and means of promoting industrial safety, health and welfare;
  7. the provision of advice on industrial and commercial training;
  8. labour inspection;
  9. advice to workers on the formation of industrial organizations and on industrial relations matters.

These are the functions of the newly created Department of Labour. Honorable members will see that they are comprehensive and follow a pattern which will be familiar to all students of labour relations. The functions previously exercised by the Department of Native Affairs in respect of the regulation and supervision of native labour have been transferred to the new department, and this transfer symbolizes the recognition that native labour is no longer a matter only of benevolent care and oversight - a task which native affairs officers carried out with honour for many years - but also of employment, labour conditions and industrial relations in a more positive and constructive sense.

May I pause here to say something mainly for the benefit of the people in the Territory: This new department should not be regarded, any more than any other department of the Public Service, as being a department that is " taking sides " either for or against any claimant or respondent. It is there to administer the law and to help promote employment and harmonious industrial relations. In respect of the unsophisticated agreement worker, it will exercise those protective and supervisory functions which were previously carried out by the Department of Native Affairs. In respect of the advanced worker, its purpose is not to think or act for him but to clear the way so that he can think and act for himself. The principle to which we are dedicated is that of freedom of association. In this as in other fields in which we are promoting the advancement of the people, our method is to try to anticipate the need, to provide the opportunity, and to encourage the response, but not to bend an unready people into uncomfortable shapes of our own choosing. I do not regard it as my business to try to shape them. Nor do I think it is within my power to do so, for events are stronger than plans. We have to clear the path but let them walk it. Over the past two years, we have seen and encouraged the first signs among the indigenous workers of an awakening interest in trade unions. We have also seen signs of a interest in expressing their own views on wages and conditions of employment. In fact some of them have already joined in collective negotiations with employers and concluded industrial agreements covering wages and various conditions of work in four urban areas. Arrangements have also been agreed to by employers and workers in Madang for joint consultation between them to be held regularly. At the same time, the spokesmen of the native workers have made it clear that they want to develop their unions in their own way and separate from any Australian trade unions. I understand that Australian trade unionists who have visited the Territory to familiarize themselves with the situation came to the conclusion that it was desirable that they should develop their unions in their own way and not be bound by Australian experience. As I have indicated, it will be one of the functions of the new Department of Labour to assist groups of workers in the formation of trade unions. I admit to having had some hesitation about committing this function to a government department. It will be difficult in practice for a conscientious officer to distinguish between the moment when he is assisting workers to form a union and when he is telling them what to do; between the moment when he is guiding and informing them, and the moment when he is deciding what should be done. Yet the Territory Administration has had some success in a similar task in respect of the formation of co-operative societies to help the economic progress of the people. When a group indicates that it wishes to form a co-operative society, an officer is on hand to tell them how to go about it, to arrange for the training of their clerks and storemen, to explain the customary rules of such bodies, to explain how to raise capital and how to open a bank account and to give friendly guidance in the early stages. A similar success has followed the Administration's efforts in encouraging the establishment of native local government councils. In the same way I think we can rely on the officers of the Public Service to give impartial and disinterested counsel and guidance to those wishing to form a trade union, and to arrange for the training on accepted lines of their union officers. At this stage, I think we should face frankly some of the risks that the indigenous workers face in groping their way towards industrial organization. At present, some of the groupings of workers in the Territory are tribal rather than occupational. A continuance of these tribal groupings will prevent all further advancement. There is also a tendency for associations which were formed primarily as social, recreational or denominational groups to take up subsequently the advocacy of industrial claims, and this tendency carries the same risk of incompleteness or exclusiveness as do the tribal groups. There is a risk of unions being formed by native leaders who could act as " stand-over " men and manipulate unions for their own purposes. There is a risk of the promotion of unions primarily to serve the ends of political subversion. There is a risk of what I believe is called the " tame-cat " union. I am sure that all honorable members would wish to save the Papuan and New Guinean from encountering those risks at a time when they are taking the first steps in industrial organization. I am inclined to think that we can trust a public servant, acting strictly within the limits of his functions, to help steer them through the early dangers. Our purpose must be to preserve to them the right, and to help them to gain the capacity, to join together in that form of trade or industrial association which seems to them to be best suited to their own conditions. We have to keep enough flexibility in our own minds to recognize that their organizations may be different from our own. At the same dme as we created the Department of Labour we made arrangements within the Public Solicitor's office so that, until such time as native industrial organizations can engage and instruct their own advocates, they can invoke the aid of the Public Solicitor in the preparation and conduct of any claim they may wish to make. The purpose was to separate entirely from the Department of Labour the advocacy of any particular cause. It was recognized that unless some such arrangements were made for assistance to the trade unions in the preparation and presentation of any claims, their formation could become meaningless, and it was thought best to place this function in the office of the Public Solicitor, who already performs a function of legal advice and assistance to the indigenous people. In keeping with these administrative changes, draft legislation has been prepared. As these measures will be introduced into the Legislative Council for the Territory at its next meeting in September, I will only indicate their general nature. An Industrial Organizations Bill will make provision for the right of free association of persons for industrial purposes. It will regulate the conditions under which industrial organizations of employers and employees alike may be recognized by law and given the protection which is absent in the common law. These conditions will be laid down in the interests of individual members and of the community generally. An Industrial Relations Bill will provide for a system of free negotiation on industrial matters between employees and employers. To encourage such negotiation provision is made for bodies containing representatives of employees and employers to be formed either for an industry or for a locality to deal with matters of common interest by consultation. Where differences are incapable of settlement by negotiation the Administration will be empowered to provide conciliation assistance when required, and in the case of an intractable dispute provision is made for arbitration to be available to the parties. Special provisions are contemplated in respect of essential services. The legislation will also provide for the Administrator to appoint boards of inquiry to advise him on any matter relating to labour or employment. Being representative of many sections of the Territory community, these will give to the Secretary of Labour and, through him, to the Administrator a broader view than might be perceptible within the departmental circle. These will provide a more flexible medium for advice than the existing Native Employment Board, which will be no longer required. Amendments to the criminal code of Queensland in its application to the Territories of Papua and New Guinea are also being drafted. These amendments relate to the need to relieve industrial organizations from liability to prosecution for criminal conspiracy as a consequence of certain industrial activities. There will, of course, be consequential amendments to existing labour legislation when the new bills become law. Following a practice that has been adopted in the past, the principal legislation will be introduced in the Legislative Council at the next meeting in September, and the debate will be adjourned to a subsequent meeting in order to give all members time to study it in detail and to give the Territory community in general an opportunity of expressing views. The Government looks to the Legislative Council, which now has a strong element of elected indigenous and non-indigenous members, to represent the views of all inhabitants of the Territory on this important and farreaching legislation, and it will be a matter for the council to decide how it can best perform that duty. At this stage our purpose has been to provide the minimum necessary for the legal existence, recognition and proper functioning of industrial organizations and for the conduct of industrial relations, and to leave as much room as possible for development and adjustment so that the people of the Territory may work out for themselves the form of organization and the industrial system best suited to local needs and their own wishes. We have tried to refrain from imposing on the Territory too many of our own ideas or methods. We do not propose to bring into being the complete system of industrial tribunals and procedures with which we are familiar in Australia but to content ourselves with providing sufficient statutory powers to enable any claims or disputes to be handled ad hoc as the occasion requires, and to rely on the Territory to develop the machinery and methods that best suit its situation. All of us in Australia join in our adherence to the basic principles of free association, freedom of negotiation, regulation of the hours of work, a fair wage, decent living standards, industrial safety, protection of women and children, and the promotion of full employment. Those are also the principles which Australia applies in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and which the changes T have announced are intended to advance. In the light of these changes, I would enlarge the aims of labour policy, as set out in 1956, by adding the following principles: - {: type="a" start="a"} 0. To facilitate the growth of indus trial organizations and to provide for their legal recognition; 1. to encourage good industrial rela tions; 2. to provide an orderly method for the determination of wages and terms of employment; 3. to assist in ensuring that the worker has stable employment and that industry has efficient labour; 4. to provide and encourage technical and vocational training directly related to the prospective market for labour; (0 to ensure protection and compensation in respect of all occupational hazards. In the Territory, labour policy is necessarily an evolving policy and, as the rate of advancement of the population varies greatly from place to place, we have at any given time several different stages of evolution in active being, some workers at one stage of evolution and other workers at a more advanced stage. This calls for clear sight on the part of the Administration. It requires honorable members and other commentators to be careful before they generalize. Labour relations in the Territory mean a lot more than an argument. They are an inseparable part of a great creative undertaking. Labour policy is part of general policy and cannot be developed in isolation from other activities in the Territory. We have to think of labour in broad terms. Labour is one of the great untapped resources of the Territory and unless it is developed to its full potential - and that means raised to the highest point of skill that it can achieve and used with economy in the right places and in the right way - the Territory will fall short of its full capacity for economic progress. Labour is one of the major factors in social change and unless labour is used in a way which is honorable, conducive to the self-respect of the worker, and rewarded at a rate which enables him to support himself and his family in decency at the prevailing standards, social progress will be limited. Labour affords a practical channel for the advancement of education, both of the individual and of a people. Labour is one of the means through which men and women become linked in a direct and practical way with the daily affairs of the nation to which they belong and help to share directly in the promotion of national advantage. It is also possibly one of the most important points, though not the only point, at which men and women are directly touched by political decisions. Thus 1 would earnestly ask the House to consider the shaping of policy in respect of labour in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea as being an essential and inseparable part of the whole pattern of economic, social, educational and political advancement of the people and not to think of it solely as a question of the assertion of one set of rights against another set of rights, important though that side of industrial relations may be in particular instances. It will be part of the function of the new Department of Labour, in conjunction with other departments of the Administration and particularly the Department of Trade and Industry that was recently created, to promote employment and to help match the labour supply, both in number and in skill, with the needs of industry. In the short term, with expanding public expenditures and expanding development of the country's resources by private enterprise, we anticipate no lack of opportunity for the educated workers who are now appearing in greater numbers. Provided that wage rates are set at reasonable levels and are related to the productivity of the work force, both private employers and government will be able to give increased opportunities for employment. In the long term there will undoubtedly be more complications than we face immediately. The known resources of the country are chiefly agricultural and the big majority of the present population of nearly 2,000,000 are likely to find their advancement in changing from village subsistence gardening to cash cropping, forming a native peasantry that, so long as the families work as families, will not be a major employer of wage-earning labour. Many of the local industries will be those which produce goods for local consumption or provide services and will be directly and immediately geared to the spending power of the local consumer. We need to seek and exploit every opportunity for the developing of export industries for they alone can take the place in the future of the public expenditures financed by Australian taxation which are at present so large an element in sustaining local spending power and providing local employment. These export industries will have little or no control over the price at which they sell their product and so will have to produce at a cost that enables them to compete in world markets. Labour will be a big element in that cost. We are now emerging in the Territory, both in political and industrial matters, into a new period during which a comparatively small group of educated and thoughtful native men and women, most of whom have been found and given opportunity as the result of our conscious efforts in the past decade, will find the way open to them to take part in the handling of their own people's industrial affairs and of assuming the cares and responsibilities of leadership. The measures I have described are based on a faith in their intelligence and wisdom. We, in this Parliament, need to show some patience and understanding. These people have come rather rapidly into the relationship of master and servant - a relationship which, in their own village life, was unknown. Those who are to be employers have to learn how to be employers. Those who are to be employees have to learn how to be employees. For the sake of the Territory we hope that they may all learn about that relationship and benefit from it without forfeiting the sense of community in which, with divisions of labour, they once worked in their own village gardens. That sense of community, of sharing in a common enterprise for the common good, has so often been the first casualty in any contest over rival industrial claims. I trust that it will not be the casualty in the development of industrial relations in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. I lay on the table the following paper: - >Labour Policy in Papua and New GuineaMinisterial Statement - and move - > >That the paper be printed. Debate (on motion by **Mr. Calwell)** adjourned. {: .page-start } page 18 {:#debate-28} ### BILLS RETURNED FROM THE SENATE The following bills were returned from the Senate: - Without amendment - Stevedoring Industry Bill 1961. Conciliation and Arbitration Bill 1961. Broadcasting and Television Bill 1961. Cellulose Acetate Flake Bounty Bill 1961. Defence Pay Bill 1961. Life Insurance Bill 1961. Appropriation (Works and Services) Bill (No. 2) 1960-61. Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Bill 1961. Supply (Works and Services) Bill 1961-62. Without requests - Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 1960-61. Supply Bill 1961-62. {: .page-start } page 18 {:#debate-29} ### ASSENT TO BILLS Assent to the following bills reported: - Income Tax and Social Services Contribution Assessment Bill (No. 2) 1961. Pay-roll Tax Assessment Bill 1961. Coal Excise Bill 1961. States Grants (Coal Mining Industry Long Service Leave) Bill 1961. Excise Tariff Bill 1961. Customs Tariff Bill 1961. Customs Tariff (Canada Preference) Bill 1961. Customs Tariff (New Zealand Preference) Bill (No. 1) 1961. Wine Overseas Marketing Bill 1961. Commonwealth Electoral Bill 1961. Life Insurance Bill 1961. Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 1960-61. Housing Agreement Bill 1961. Broadcasting and Television Bill 1961. Cellulose Acetate Flake Bounty Bill 1961. Defence Pay Bill 1961. Appropriation (Works and Services) Bill (No. 2) 1960-61. Supply Bill 1961-62. Supply (Works and Services) Bill 1961-62. Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Bill 1961. Stevedoring Industry Bill 1961. Conciliation and Arbitration Bill 1961. WOOL TAX BILLS (Nos. 1 and 2) 1961. In Committee of Ways and Means: {: #debate-29-s0 .speaker-JLR} ##### Mr ADERMANN:
Minister for Primary Industry · Fisher · CP -- I move - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. That, notwithstanding section seven of the Wool Tax Act (No. 1) 1957-1960 and any regulations made under that section, the rates set out in the Schedule to this resolution be deemed to have been and be the rates prescribed for the purposes of paragraph (a) of sub-section (1.) of section six of that Act in relation to - {: type="a" start="a"} 0. wool received by a wool-broker (not being wool previously received by a woolbroker or dealer) before the twentyeighth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, and not sold by him before that date; 1. wool received by a wool-broker (not being wool previously received by a woolbroker or dealer) on or after the twentyeighth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, and before the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-two, other than wool that- {: type="i" start="i"} 0. is received after the thirty-first day of March, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-two; and 1. is not sold by the wool-broker before the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-two; and 2. wool received by a dealer (not being wool previously received by a wool-broker or dealer) on or after the twenty-eighth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, and before the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-two. 1. That, notwithstanding section seven of the Wool Tax Act (No. 2) 1957-1960, and any regulations made under that section, the rates set out in the Schedule to this resolution be deemed to have been and be the rates prescribed for the purposes of paragraph (a) of sub-section (1.) of section six of that Act in respect of wool to which that Act applies exported from Australia on or after the twenty-eighth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, and before the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-two. **Mr. Chairman,** I propose, if the committee passes this resolution, to introduce three bills which embody the measures involved in this proposal. As the three bills all are related, I shall explain them in a speech which 1 shall make on the third bill. Question resolved in the affirmative. Resolution reported. Standing Orders suspended; resolution adopted. Ordered - >That **Mr. Adermann** and **Dr. Donald** Cameron do prepare and bring in bills to carry out the foregoing resolution. {: .page-start } page 19 {:#debate-30} ### WOOL TAX BILL (No. 1) 1961 Bill presented by **Mr. Adermann,** and read a first time. {:#subdebate-30-0} #### Second Reading Motion (by **Mr. Adermann)** proposed - That the bill be now read a second time. Debate (on motion by **Mr. Pollard)** adjourned. {: .page-start } page 19 {:#debate-31} ### WOOL TAX BILL (No. 2) 1961 Bill presented by **Mr. Adermann,** and read a first time. {:#subdebate-31-0} #### Second Reading Motion (by **Mr. Adermann)** proposed - That the bill be now read a second time. Debate (on motion by **Mr. Pollard)** adjourned. {: .page-start } page 19 {:#debate-32} ### WOOL TAX ASSESSMENT BILL 1961 Motion (by **Mr. Adermann)** - by leave - agreed to - That leave be given to bring in a bill for anact to amend the Wool Tax Assessment Act 1936-1957 Bill presented, and read a first time. {:#subdebate-32-0} #### Second Reading {: #subdebate-32-0-s0 .speaker-JLR} ##### Mr ADERMANN:
Ministerfor Primary Industry · Fisher · CP -- by leave -I move - That the bill be now read a second time. The three bills which have just been introduced are complementary. The purpose of their introduction is to amend the existing wool tax legislation so as to provide for an increase in the levy paid by wool-growers to finance wool promotion activities. This action has been requested by theindustry itself, following an agreement reached on the matter by the Australian Wool Bureau and the two federal organizations of woolgrowers represented on the bureau, namely, the Australian Woolgrowers and Graziers Council and the Australian Wool and Meat Producers Federation. The Government is therefore acting with the full concurrence of the producers affected by the bills. It may facilitate consideration of these bills if I review briefly the history of the wool promotion levy since its inauguration. In 1935, the Australian Woolgrowers Council asked the Commonwealth Government to implement by legislation a plan under which wool-growers were to pay a tax on all wool marketed. The proceeds of the tax were to be applied to promoting the use of wool as well as to research into sheep diseases and means of attaining greater efficiency. The necessary legislation was passed in 1936. A tax of 6d. per bale was imposed on all shorn wool produced in Australia and the Australian Wool Board was established to administer the proceeds of the tax. Similar grower-financed schemes were inaugurated in New Zealand and South Africa, and, in 1937, the wool promotion bodies of the three countries joined in forming the International Wool Secretariat with head-quarters in London. The secretariat was entrusted with the task of promoting the use of wool throughout the world by publicity activities and other means. In the years that followed, the Australian Wool Board established a promotion organization in Australia and financed a variety of research projects for the benefit of the wool industry. However, mindful of the fact that the great bulk of Australian wool is consumed overseas, the Board devoted much of its resources to wool promotion in other countries through the International Wool Secretariat. The year 1945 saw a major revision of the original scheme in the light of the need to employ to the full all available means of assisting the disposal of the huge wartime carry-over of wool stocks as well as the new clips coming forward. With the concurrence of wool-growers, the government of the day increased the wool tax to 2s. per bale to allow of an expansion in wool promotion activities. Furthermore, the Government assumed the responsibility for wool research and provision was made for such research to be financed by a govern ment grant then equivalent to the proceeds of the wool tax. As a result of the increased wool tax collections in Australia, and also of increased contributions by New Zealand and South Africa, the International Wool Secretariat was enabled to expand its activities - notably in the United States of America where co-operation with American wool-growers was initiated. In the early 'fifties, the wool industry began to really feel the impact of some new synthetic fibres which even then showed signs of becoming formidable competitors of wool. Faced with this development and with the growing inadequacy of funds available for wool promotion, the Australian wool-growers asked the Government to increase the promotion levy to 4s. per bale. This increase was effected in 1952, and thereafter the promotion levy remained unaltered until 1960. The period to which I have just referred also brought some major scientific research successes of great importance to the wool industry - for example, the introduction of myxomatosis - but the problem of inadequate finance also arose in the research field. In order to ensure the continuance and expansion of research work for the benefit of their industry, wool-growers agreed in 1957 to contribute 2s. per bale for this purpose, while the Government increased its own contribution to wool research by a like amount. At the same time, wool-growers were given a major voice in the administration of all wool research funds. In the measures passed by Parliament in 1957 to implement this arrangement, the structure of the legislation covering wool research and promotion was changed in a number of respects, giving that legislation substantially its present form. Thus, we now have five acts inter-related to varying degrees, and in considering the present bills it is important to have an appreciation of the focal relationship of these acts. To begin with, the legislative framework for wool promotional arrangements is provided by the Wool Use Promotion Act 1953- 1960. This act, which succeeds previous legislation on the subject, re-constituted the Australian Wool Board under the name of the Australian Wool Bureau. The wool research arrangements are governed by the Wool Research Act 1957-1960. There are two wool tax acts, of which the Wool Tax Act (No. 1) 1957-1960 covers wool received and handled by wool brokers or dealers, while the Wool Tax Act (No. 2) 1957-1960 relates to wool exported without its having passed through the hands of a broker or dealer. Apart from this difference, both acts are identical and the need for two separate acts is solely due to constitutional requirements. Under the wool tax acts, provision is made for the growers' financial contributions to wool research to be collected, together with the wool promotion levy, as a single tax. However, the acts specify separate procedures for the determination of the two levies making up the wool tax. In the case of the levy for wool promotion, the operative rates are prescribed by regulations after recommendation to the Minister by the Australian Wool Bureau. Such recommendations are formulated in consultations between members of the bureau and the wool-grower organizations they represent. The acts themselves stipulate that the rates of the wool promotion levy are to be fixed within the minimum of 2s. per bale and the maximum of 5s. per bale, with proportionate rates for smaller quantities of wool. The minimum-maximum rates provision was designed to provide some flexibility in determining the operative rate of levy from time to time, without the necessity for amending legislation on each occasion on which that rate is altered. For instance, last year, at the request of the industry the promotion levy was raised by regulation to 5s. per bale, which is the maximum rate provided for in the wool tax acts. Complementary to the wool tax acts is the Wool Tax Assessment Act 1936- 1957, which sets out the administrative machinery for the collection of wool tax. Having touched on the main features of the wool tax legislation and its history, I now turn to the events of the last twelve months, which have led to the introduction of the bills presently before the House. Following a world-wide survey in 1960 of the wool situation, the Australian Wool Bureau presented to its partners in the International Wool Secretariat a suggested plan to expand wool promotional activities throughout the world. This plan was conceived as a determined new effort to meet, with greatly increased financial, scientific and publicity resources, the growing competition from synthetic fibres. In November, 1960, the plan was adopted by the three constituent bodies of the International Wool Secretariat, that is, the Australian Wool Bureau and the Wool Boards of South Africa and New Zealand. As a first step towards putting the plan into operation the International Wool Secretariat was reconstituted. While previously each of the three constituent countries had an equal say in the affairs of this body, the control of the secretariat is now vested in a board consisting of seven members nominated by Australia, three by New Zealand and three by South Africa. The new constitution thus recognizes the major contribution of the Australian wool-growing industry to the cost of maintaining the secretariat. Actually Australia pays 62 per cent, of the combined contributions of the three partners. **Sir William** Gunn, chairman of the Australian Wool Bureau, was elected chairman of the new board of the International Wool Secretariat and the board met in Australia for the first time in May this year. These facts illustrate the determination with which the Australian Wool Bureau is pursuing its objectives. With regard to the financial implications of this increased drive to promote wool, the plan envisages an increase in expenditure by the International Wool Secretariat from £stg.2,600,000 in 1961 to £stg.5,600,000 in 1966-67. In order to implement a scheme of these dimensions, increased contributions will necessarily be required from all partners of the secretariat. The promotion programme envisaged in the plan calls for an immediate increase in expenditure, and with this in mind the Australian Wool Bureau recommended to the main wool-grower organizations of this country that the present promotion levy of 5s. per bale be progressively increased over the next six years to 1 8s. per bale in 1966-67. In May last the Australian Wool Bureau conferred on the matter with the Australian Wool and Meat Producers Federation and the Australian Woolgrowers and Graziers Council, the two federal organizations of wool-growers represented on the bureau. At that conference a proposal was developed which called for an increase in the levy from 5s. per bale to 10s. per bale for one year only. The proposal was then submitted to the State constituent bodies of the two wool-grower organizations for consideration. On 5th July last, the Wool Bureau, the Wool and Meat Producers Federation and the Woolgrowers and Graziers Council met again, and on this occasion agreement was reached. While the Woolgrowers and Graziers Council adopted the proposal unanimously, the federation was somewhat divided in its ranks, and its ultimate acceptance of the increase was qualified by a number of reservations. However, the recommendation that was conveyed to me by the Australian Wool Bureau, and supported in writing by each of the federal wool-grower organizations concerned, calls for an increase in the levy for wool promotion from its current rate of 5s. per bale to 10s. per bale, the increased levy to apply to wool sold and exported for sale between the 28th August, 1961, and 30th June, 1962, both dates inclusive. It further stipulates that the rate of the levy is to be reviewed by the two wool-grower organizations and the Wool Bureau not later than March, 1962, by which time the parties hope to have before them the report of the Wool Marketing Committee of Inquiry, whose terms of reference include the investigation of wool promotion activities. In order to implement the recommendation of the industry for an increased wool promotion levy, it will be necessary to amend Wool Tax Acts (Nos. 1 and 2), since the maximum promotion levy permissible under those acts is now 5s. per bale. Having regard to the interim nature of the increase, the amending clauses have been drafted in such a way as to enable the acts to revert to the current rates of levy at the end of hine. 1962. without the necessity for further legislation to achieve this effect if growers should decide against a continuation of the higher rate of levy. The amendments to the wool tax acts treat wool brokers and dealers separately. The differentiation is necessary because of the varying methods of trading used by dealers and the impracticability of specifying the date of sale with respect to dealers. In addition, consequential amendments are necessary to the Wool Tax Assessment Act. These provide for a special return from wool brokers of all wool held in store and unsold on 28th August, 1961, which was received prior to 1st July, 1961, and for modifications to the normal quarterly returns submitted by brokers for the quarters ending 30th Sep tember, 1961, and 30th June, 1962. The special return and the modifications to the normal quarterly returns are designed to ensure that tax is collected on all wool taxable at the higher levy rate and that no wool is taxed more than once. I believe that the bills are as closely in accord with the wishes of wool-growers as it has been possible to arrange. In view of the importance of giving practical support to the efforts of the Australian Wool Bureau to maintain and improve the world marketing position of our most important industry, I commend the bills to honorable members. Debate (on motion by **Mr. Pollard)** adjourned. {: .page-start } page 22 {:#debate-33} ### FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE BILL 1961 {:#subdebate-33-0} #### Second Reading Debate resumed from 20th April (vide page 1097), on motion by **Dr. Donald** Cameron - >That the bill be now read a second time. {: #subdebate-33-0-s0 .speaker-JWU} ##### Mr Allan Fraser:
Monaro · EDEN-MONARO, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP -- The purpose of this bill is to provide machinery for the financing of the fight against foot and mouth disease in the dread circumstance that this most devastating disease of cattle, pigs and sheep, which is more contagious than even smallpox, should ever break out in Australia. In particular, the bill provides the machinery necessary in the Australian Capital Territory and in the Northern Territory, although I understand that the Minister for Health **(Dr. Donald Cameron)** intends to move an amendment that will Affect the position in the Northern Territory. At the outset, I agree with the Minister's statement commending the vigilance and high competence of the quarantine service, which has so far ensured that Australia has remained free from this disease. To that I would add only that I believe the powers of these excellent and efficient officers should be strengthened and that possibilities for the entry of this disease into Australia, which still exist, should be closed as far as possible. Steps are still possible in that direction, as I hope to indicate later in my remarks. It is interesting to note that the legislation which has led to this proposal first came before the Australian Agricultural Council as long ago as 19S2. Thus practically ten years went by since the proposal was first initiated before it reached the stage of being presented to this Parliament. This bill is part of a series of measures which have already been passed through some of the State parliaments and which are in the course of being passed, or will shortly be passed through the other State parliaments. The Commonwealth Department of Health put to the Australian Agricultural Council, in 1952, a statement under the heading "World Foot and Mouth Disease - Threat to Australian Industries ". and the whole nature of that threat was very clearly set out in that document. It was then recognized, and it has been agreed ever since, that quarantine by itself no matter how efficient and no matter how drastic can never be a guarantee against foot and mouth disease gaining entry into Australia. In fact, there are so many possible ways in which the disease could accidentally be introduced into Australia that T think it is a reasonable view that, no matter what quarantine steps are taken Australia will, sooner or later, have to face an attack nf foot and mouth disease in this country. The move to establish machinery to deal swiftly and ruthlessly with any such outbreak gained some impetus with the outbreak of the disease in Canada early in 1950. There, although it was kept within reasonable bounds, it involved a most drastic programme of stock destruction in all the affected areas and immense financial and other losses. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that part of the difficulty with which the Canadian authorities were then faced was the disposal of slaughtered beasts. The virus of foot and mouth disease can continue to be infective in the carcass for a long time. Burning of the carcasses is the best solution, but of course this is not always possible. The immense amount of firewood required, for example, might not be available, and in summer there would be the considerable risk of starting bushfires. In Canada, the authorities were faced with an entirely different problem, because in order to bury the diseased carcasses deeply in the soil they had to dynamite large areas through six feet of frozen mud. That is, of course, a problem which we would not encounter in this country; but it presented an immense problem in Canada at that time. In recent years, Federal and State authorities have co-operated in plans to meet the emergency which an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Australia wo i-' immediately create. New South Wales recently went to the extent of holding a tactical exercise to deal with an imagined outbreak of the disease; and the lesson of that exercise was, no matter how localized the outbreak and how quickly it was suppressed, how great would still be the loss of cattle and stock and how immense would be the expenditure involved. I think the authorities in New South Wales contemplated a situation in which a pig-keeper, possibly using feed some of which might have come from the waste bin of an overseas airliner, might notice that some of his pigs were lame and, thinking it was due to some conditions underfoot, moved them to softer and drier ground. Then, not realizing what was at stake, he might continue in the ordinary way to send his pigs to Homebush in a livestock truck, the operator of which would continue to use it on succeedings days to transport stock to other places in the ordinary course of his business The exercise, as I understand it, contemplated the possibility that the pigkeeper would then leave his son in charge of his property and move away for a working holiday to a sheep property owned by his relatives in a different district. It was assumed that it might be some days before the son would become deeply concerned about the nature of the illness of the pigs and call in a veterinary officer, who would then diagnose foot and mouth disease. In the meantime cattle travelling in the contaminated livestock truck would have mixed with thousands of other cattle, and the pig farmer would have carried the contamination on his boots and clothing to the property of his relatives on which thousands of sheep were grazing. By sending heifers to dairy cattle sales where they would be purchased by various owners and by the sale of fat sheep to butchers, who would keep them in resting paddocks with other sheep, the area of contact would be quickly and immensely spread. I think the estimate, in carrying out that exercise, was that in those particular circumstances, with the disease identified within a few days and immediately and drastically dealt with, it would be necessary to destroy 1,000 cattle and 15,000 sheep as well as, say, 500 pigs. At market value the compensation payable might amount to well over £200,000. Judging by experience in other countries the total cost of dealing with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease is roughly double the cost of the compensation involved. Therefore, in this imagined localized outbreak the total cost would be £400,000 or more. From that it is easy to see that if an outbreak of foot and mouth disease spread widely and got out of control, the cost might soon be incalculable and the injury to Australia's national economy would be so ruinous that even the discovery of oil in this country would not necessarily compensate for the losses incurred. As is well known, foot and mouth disease is rarely fatal; that is one of the difficult aspects of it. It is devastating in its effect. The young animals are usually the worse affected. They lose weight and condition until they are almost skeletons and the process of recovery is extremely slow, whilst the process of the spreading of the infection is extremely fast. In Australia one of the complicating factors which has to concern us in taking precautions against an outbreak of this disease is the problem of distance that we have to face in this country. Stock often have to travel a long way to graze and to drink and, of course, foot and mouth disease would hamper them very greatly in travelling, so that there might be an increased number of casualties and fatalities due to virtual starvation arising from the effects of the disease. All those factors, I think, have properly led to the consideration that any attack on foot and mouth disease must be a national attack. No particular State and no particular area can be expected to face the immense cost and effort which would be involved in suppressing an outbreak inside its boundaries. I believe it is properly thought that wherever such an outbreak occurs it is the equal concern of all parts of Australia. I understand that legislation similar to that which we are now considering has already been passed in Queensland. South Australia and Victoria, and that Tasmania, while it has not passed exactly the same legislation, has passed legislation amending its Stock Act to provide for full compensation. 1 assume that the other States will shortly introduce similar legislation in their Parliaments, and then we shall have a complete scheme, so that in whatever State an outbreak may occur, thereafter the authorities in that State will be able toact promptly and with complete confidence in incurring immense expenditure, in the knowledge that the final total cost of the outbreak will be shared by all the governments in the Australian Commonwealth. I understand that the Commonwealth authorities will bear half the total cost and that the six States will bear the other half. The share to be paid by each State is worked out on a formula taking into account the net annual value of that State's production of cattle and the number of its susceptible animals. Thus, this bill provides for a fund to finance measures against an outbreak in the Australian Capital Territory and in the Northern Territory, although I understand that the Northern Territory is to be provided for separately by a Northern Territory ordinance. It also provides for each State Parliament to have a similar fund to deal with an outbreak in its area. One could take as an example an outbreak in Queensland after this legislative plan has been completed. If an outbreak of foot and mouth disease should then occur in Queensland the Queensland authorities could move ahead in confidence, and pay full compensation on market value - that market value being worked out by a departmental or veterinary officer in discussion with the owner of the stock, with the right of appeal to the courts in the event of a disagreement on the amount of valuation. The Queensland Government would have the full knowledge and confidence that all the other States of the Commonwealth would weigh in with their progress payments towards meeting the immense costs that would be involved. The question which I think arises in this bill is not only the need - which has been met here - to make adequate financial arrangements for dealing with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease once it occurs in this country, but also the question of what further steps can be taken to lessen the possibility of the introduction into Australia of this devastating disease which we have been so lucky to escape, aided by the skill and efficiency of our quarantine officers, for so many years. The question, I think, arises of prohibiting the import of all meat in all circumstances into Australia. {: .speaker-KZP} ##### Mr Wheeler: -- Particularly canned meat. {: .speaker-JWU} ##### Mr Allan Fraser:
EDEN-MONARO, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP -- 1 thank the . honorable member for that interjection. As a matter of fact, the present law prohibits the import into Australia of meat from all countries except, I think, New Zealand, whether that meat be fresh, frozen, chilled or preserved, so this is largely a problem concerning canned meat. Canned meat is permitted to come into Australia subject to a certificate from government officials in the country of export stating that the animal was free from disease both before and after death, and that the manufacturer has made a declaration that the contents of the can have been heated to at least 100 degrees Centigrade. It might be thought that heating the contents of the can to 100 degrees Centigrade would make the fat in the can completely unpalatable to humans, because the fat would turn into a sort of sticky lard; but I understand that this problem is overcome by the manufacturers by the addition of gelatine to the fat in the heating process. However, there is some doubt about whether heating to 100 degrees Centigrade is sufficient in the circumstances, although it has long been held that it is sufficient. Incidentally, I should like to direct the attention of the House to the very great increase in the quantity of imports of meat of all kinds, particularly canned meat, in recent years, because it seems to me that nothing is so unnecessary in Australia as the importation of meat. Here is something of which we have at least an ample quantity of all kinds. Yet the figures for the import of meat, poultry and game, fresh or preserved, show that in 1958-59 we imported 354,480 lb. weight; that in the following year we imported 1,057,356 lb. weight; that in 1960-61 the quantity imported had grown to 1,432,332 lb. weight. The value of these imports was, in 1958-59, £42,110 f.o.b.; in 1959-60, it was £144,927; and last year, although the quantity imported was nearly 40 per cent, higher, the value was £4.000 lower than the previous year, at £140,610. Now, if we take meat in tins - the meat to which the honorable member for Mitchell referred by interjection a few moments ago - we find that canned, salted, smoked or other forms of meat imported in 1958-59 amounted to 163,585 lb. weight; in 1959-60 to 112,235 lb. weight; and in 1961 to 3,955,157 lb. weight. Imports jumped in one year from just over 112,000 lb. weight to just on 4,000,000 lb. weight. {: .speaker-KLL} ##### Mr Makin: -- Is anything being done by the Minister about it? {: .speaker-JWU} ##### Mr Allan Fraser:
EDEN-MONARO, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP -- I cannot answer that. As far as I can see these imports are continuing. That jump, I should imagine, was largely due to the importation of American canned chicken, which does not directly concern us when we are dealing with foot and mouth disease. But the cost of these imports which I have mentioned is interesting. At a time when we are trying to conserve our overseas funds we allowed to be imported into this country in 1958-59 more than £47,000 worth of canned and similar meats; in 1959-60 more than £32,000 worth; and last year more than £546,000 worth. As an example of the incredible luxury and waste involved in some of these imports you have such advertisements as that which appeared in the Melbourne " Herald " of Saturday, 29th April, when one of the largest stores gravely advertised- {: #subdebate-33-0-s1 .speaker-KGP} ##### Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon W C Haworth:
ISAACS, VICTORIA -- Order! I think the honorable member is getting away from the subject of the bill. {: .speaker-JWU} ##### Mr Allan Fraser:
EDEN-MONARO, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP -- I am dealing, **Sir, with** the importation of meat, and I am proposing to show that this is very important in relation to expenditure in controlling foot and mouth disease. {: #subdebate-33-0-s2 .speaker-10000} ##### Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: -- Order! I appreciate that, but it is quite apart from the bill. {: .speaker-JWU} ##### Mr Allan Fraser:
EDEN-MONARO, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP -- I have one more sentence to say on it. Imported reindeer steak was advertised for sale at 24 shillings for a 12-oz. tin. I think it is relevant, **Mr. Acting Speaker,** and I hope you will regard it as relevant to the bill, to say that there is no economic reason for the importation of meat of any kind into Australia, since we are obviously selfsufficient in meats. There is, therefore, no heed to risk the importation of stock diseases, especially foot and mouth disease in this way. I have already referred to the large increase in the quantities of canned meats which come into Australia. I refer now, particularly, to the very large quantities of imported ham which came into Australia, beginning at about the end of 1960. Some of this was dumped ham from Canada. I will say, in fairness to the Government that, following these huge imports of dumped ham from Canada, a duty was imposed to prevent dumping. However, the point I want to make is that some canned hams marked " non-sterile " were' discovered in Melbourne and Sydney stores. Apparently these non-sterile hams, a grave source of danger, were enabled by some mistake to come into the country. I do not think it was the mistake of the Health Department in this case. These canned hams, when discovered, were withdrawn from sale, but whether any non-sterile hams were actually sold on the Australian market I am not able to say. Certainly, it is beyond dispute that, despite all precautions, non-sterile canned meat was brought into Australia. Therefore, a very grave risk of the introduction of foot and mouth disease was taken, and this country cannot afford the financial loss which would be involved if the disease were brought into Australia. lt may reasonably be asked whether, if some meats can get past quarantine in this way, there can be any safety at all except by a complete prohibition on the importation of meat into Australia. For trading purposes, Australia has to accept the health certificates given by other nations just as they accept health certificates given by us. I would like the Minister for Health, if he can. to inform me what tests are made and what precautions are taken to ensure that the health certificates purporting to emanate from other countries accompanying this kind of meat are, in fact, valid certificates. How are these tests carried out? When and where are they carried out and in how many cases? Are they merely sample tests or is a test made in every single instance? Undue politeness over the acceptance of these health certificates could mean the wiping out of our livestock industry by a disease introduced carelessly into this country. I should like to quote a brief extract from an address given by **Mrs. Waight,** federal secretary of the Australian Primary Producers Union, to the annual conference of the Queensland division of that organization in Brisbane on 4th May. I am not aware of the basis for the statements that **Mrs. Waight** made but they appear to demand urgent examination. In thai address. **Mrs. Waight.** as reported in theQueensland journal. " Country Life " said - That there is very grave risk of the carelessintroduction of this disease is borne out by investigations which have been taking place by agricultural research service scientists al ins Animal Disease Laboratory in New York. Inrecent studies it was found that the foot and' mouth virus is a lot more resistant to destructionby heat than was previously thought the case. I ask the Minister to examine this statement - Experiments at the laboratory have shown that heating food, etc. to a temperature of 140 degreesor higher does not destroy the virus. Such heat treatment, it has been found, only seals in the infectious core within the protein covering the virus, and in this way the virus is preventedfrom infecting animal cells. But, once remove the sealed protein covering, and the sealedinvirus is found to be highly infectious. Those are said to be the findings of scientists at the well-known Animal Diseases Laboratory in New York. If those findings are correct, obviously, the measures which we are taking and the requirements which we are imposing on the importation of canned meat need some revision. To this statement, **Mr. Acting Speaker,** I would add1 merely that the Opposition is in agreement with the form of the financial machinery proposed to be established to fight against an outbreak of this disease, and that we will not oppose the bill. {: #subdebate-33-0-s3 .speaker-KDT} ##### Mr FAIRBAIRN:
Farrer .- I intend to speak only briefly on this measure. The honorable member for Eden-Monaro **(Mr. Allan Fraser)** has conceded that the Opposition is in favour of it. I want to congratulate the Minister for Health **(Dr Donald Cameron)** and the members of the Australian Agricultural Council on this step to ensure that if foot and mouth disease does break out in Australia we will have all' the machinery necessary to attack it as quickly as possible. As the honorable member for Eden-Monaro said, this is one of the worst and most contagious stock diseases known anywhere in the world. It is widespread in Europe, Asia, most parts of Africa - certainly in South Africa and Central Africa - and in South America. It was, at one stage, widespread in Mexico and in portions of North America, but, at very great expense and by a considerable amount of work, it has been controlled and virtually eradicated in North America. I wonder how many people realize that foot and mouth disease entered Australia in 1872 when there were, I understand, two outbreaks, both of which were eliminated very quickly. This is a disease which must be attacked immediately and we must have this means of attacking it and eradicating it. In Europe it is very widespread. England has managed to control it, but at very great cost indeed. In 1926, I believe, there were serious outbreaks of the disease in Scotland and, at considerable cost to the Government of the United Kingdom, it was eventually eradicated. It was found that the virus was being brought in by carcasses of pigs from the Continent. I understand that tests have discovered that if the carcasses are maintained in a chilled condition it is still possible for them to be infectious at least 40 days later. If one goes back into history one finds that the word " quarantine " comes from the French word " quarante " which means " forty ". In the old days, people believed that isolation of diseases of this nature for 40 days was an adequate quarantine measure, but it has since been found, in the case of foot and mouth disease at any rate, that this is not sufficient time. Over the years there have been sporadic outbreaks in the United Kingdom. Some people attribute these outbreaks to birds bringing the virus over when they fly from the Continent which is only a short distance away. Others believe that the virus has been brought to the United Kingdom in imported meat. It is interesting to note that the Farmers Union in the United Kingdom has recently called on the Government to exclude all meat from countries in which the virus of foot and mouth disease is known to be endemic. This would call for the exclusion of Argentine meat particularly. There is, perhaps, quite a probability that the United Kingdom Government will accede to this request if it can be convinced that this is the source of these sporadic attacks. The disease is costing immense amounts of money in the United Kingdom and it could cost us the same if it ever became endemic in Australia. Only in the last few months, an outbreak occurred very close to one of the leading beef shorthorn studs in Scotland. At one stage, it appeared there was every possibility that this famous stud, with lines of genes going back over a long period, would have to be destroyed. The loss to the beef industry of the world if that had happened would have been very considerable. I agree with the honorable member for Eden-Monaro that we should strengthen our quarantine regulations. We have become more and more worried about the possibility of the introduction of foot and mouth disease into Australia for three reasons. First, in the past twenty years we have seen the development of fast aircraft which fly large numbers of passengers to Australia. These aircraft also carry food for their passengers, and unless any surplus is destroyed when it reaches Australia, the virus of foot and mouth disease could be introduced in that way. Secondly, we are bringing immigrants from areas where foot and mouth disease exists. There is always the possibility that the virus will be carried on the shoes of immigrants who left their homeland only a few days before. {: .speaker-JWU} ##### Mr Allan Fraser:
EDEN-MONARO, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP -- The virus might be carried in sausage in the pockets of immigrants. {: .speaker-KDT} ##### Mr FAIRBAIRN: -- That was my third point. Many of the immigrants coming to Australia are sausage eaters. They bring with them all sorts of sausages which were unknown to us before the Second World War. One way in which we can strengthen our quarantine and make certain that the entry of the virus of foot and mouth disease is prevented is to see that every immigrant entering Australia is presented with a small piece of paper pointing out that the importation of food of any sort is prohibited. Such a notice should be printed in the language of the immigrant to whom it is given. Undoubtedly, many persons who do not want to break the regulations bring food into Australia without realizing the dangers. Although we have a very efficient custom organization, it is quite impossible for the customs officers to search everything coming into Australia. We know, for example, that the ordinary traveller is given a form and is asked whether he has any goods to declare. The customs officers probably open only one of his suitcases. It is impossible to go through even one suitcase thoroughly, let alone search a number of them. Food which is capable of carrying the foot and mouth disease virus can get into Australia, and there is a possibility that sooner or later the virus will be introduced in that way. There are several anomalies to which 1 wish to direct attention. 1 should like the Government to investigate them and see whether something can be done to overcome them. The first was brought to my notice recently. It concerned an immigrant from Lebanon who had been in Australia for some time. He became naturalized and went back to Lebanon to marry his fiancee. When they went to book a passage back to Australia, the husband found that he could book a passage by aircraft, but that his wife, being a new immigrant, would have to travel by sea. They were in an area where foot and mouth disease was suspected. It seems absurd to me to rule that an immigrant from that area should travel by sea because she might be carrying a virus in the mud on her shoes or in some other way, whilst another person who had been over exactly the same area could fly straight to Australia by aeroplane. The regulations in that regard should be tightened up. If the precautions are necessary, both of those persons should have travelled by ship; if the precautions are not necessary, the regulation should be abolished. We should find out whether it is necessary to implement this regulation. My second point, to which the honorable member for Eden-Monaro referred, concerns tinned meats. Some years ago, a constituent of mine was sent a Christmas present from his son-in-law in Scotland. The present consisted of some tinned grouse and pheasant. The meat was delivered with a note from the Department of Customs and Excise stating that any meat coming into Australia must have a premortem and post-mortem inspection. Obviously, if you shoot wild grouse and wild pheasant, it is impossible to eve them a pre-mortem inspection. This food was delivered in Australia when it had not been through the tests required under the regulations. This means that wild birds or game can be allowed into Australia, and I hope the regulations will be checked. I agree with the bill generally. I think it is excellent. I am glad to note that it provides that market value is to be paid for stock if it has to be destroyed, and that the owner has the right either to accept arbitration or sue in the courts, as one would normally expect. While we are discussing the virus of foot and mouth disease, I should like to say something about the virus of the disease known as blue tongue, which also has been banned. The ban on the importation of ruminants has been in force for some considerable time in Australia. There is no such ban in New Zealand. The honorable member for Eden-Monaro said that meat could be imported from New Zealand to Australia. I should like the Minister for Health **(Dr. Donald Cameron)** to inform the House at the conclusion of the debate whether that is so. If it is, then we have a chance of having the blue tongue virus enter Australia. This virus has done tremendous damage in Africa and North America. It has decimated some flocks of sheep in North America, but it can be introduced by cattle as well as by sheep. I should like the Minister to tell us what action has been taken to ascertain how to identify an animal which is carrying blue tongue disease. It is said that, up to now. it is impossible to show by known tests which cattle are carrying the disease. We should find out, first, whether it is possible to identify carriers of the disease; and secondly, whether it is possible for the virus to be earned by semen, because there is no doubt that in Australia we still require importations of good cattle stock from Scotland to improve the standard and quality of our herds. At the same time. I agree entirely that until we can import cattle and know they are completely free of disease, no one would want to import them. We must do our utmost tn <s»e that the ban is lifted if it can be lifted with safety to Australia. I commend the hill. **Mr.** DUTHIE (Wilmot) f5.29I. - The bill before the House is unique because it provides a weapon to attack a disease that has not vet developed in Australia. T do not recall a similar measure in the fifteen years I have been in this House. We on the Opposition side commend the bill entirely. It is designed to prepare the country against a terrible eventuality. The incidence of foot and mouth disease in Australia would have a tremendous effect on our stock. I commend the Minister for Health **(Dr. Donald Cameron)** and officers of the Department of Health for being so far-sighted as to introduce this legislation to ensure that a trust fund will be established on a £1 for £1 basis between the States and the Commonwealth. As the honorable member for Farrer **(Mr. Fairbairn)** mentioned, provision is made for adequate compensation to be paid for animals and property which have to be destroyed, and for animals that die from the disease, in quarantine areas. This is a very useful and proper provision, as is the further provision that owners will receive market value for stock or property lost. If the owner believes that the amount offered by the Government by way of compensation is inadequate, he may have recourse to arbitration. In giving his second-reading speech, during the last sessional period of this Parliament, the Minister told us that Australia was free of the disease. This had been made possible, he said, only by imposing rigid prohibitions and controls on imports of such things as meat, hides, fertilizers and fodder, and of animals which might bring the disease to this country. He said that precautions were also taken to ensure that rural immigrants do not introduce the disease to Australia in soil adhering to their boots or their clothing. It appears to me that the inspectors policing these rigid controls must have a full-time job. I should say that this would be one of the most difficult controls to handle, because the virus responsible for the disease is unseen, and it must surely be extremely difficult to enforce these rigid controls effectively at every possible point of entry of the disease into the country. The Minister referred to the imposition of prohibitions and controls on imports of, amongst other things, meat. The honorable member for Eden-Monaro **(Mr. Allan Fraser)** has told us that during the last twelve months the amount of canned meat imported into Australia was 3,955,000 lb., of a value of £546,000. He also said that 1,050,000 lb. of meat other than canned meat was imported into this country, of a value of £140,000. The total amount of meat imported, therefore, was 5,000,000 lb., and meat was one of the items specifically mentioned in the Minister's speech as being subject to rigid controls and prohibitions. I think that, in the interests of the safety of Australian primary producers and primary products, there should be an absolute ban on the importation of such meat. The risk is far too great. We cannot play around with a matter involving a disease that could wipe out the bulk of our stock. It is frightening to find that such an enormous amount of canned and other meat is coming here from other countries, including countries in which the disease is prevalent at the present time. I should like to refer now to a very wellwritten publication, entitled " Graziers' Handbook of Diseases", by V. G. Cole, B.V.Sc, veterinary surgeon for Grazcos Cooperative Limited. This book was printed in 1958, and on page 98 we find the following remarks on foot and mouth disease: - >Foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious disease of cattle caused by a virus. It occurs in England, Europe and a number of countries to the north of Australia but, very fortunately, does not occur in Australia or in the United States of America though it was accidentally introduced into Canada in 1951. > >It affects cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and wild rats. Human beings, cats, dogs and rabbits are resistant but may become infected occasionally. Human patients show somewhat similar symptoms to cattle, commencing with initial fever, watery vesicles and later ulcers in the mouth and throat and lesions on the fingers and between the toes. > >When an outbreak occurs among cattle it is spread not only by affected animals but also by hides, meat, hay, straw, implements, clothing, vehicles and so on. The main causes of outbreaks in England have been from introduction of infected animals, importation of chilled or frozen meat, from which infection spreads to pigs fed on meat scraps, and infection carried by migratory birds. I propose to describe some of the symptoms of this terrible disease. It is a virulent, contagious malady of animals, characterized by initial fever, followed by the formation of blisters on the tongue, palate and lips, sometimes in the nostrils, fourth stomach and intestines of cattle, especially where the skin is thin, such as the udder and teats, between the claws and on the heels. It begins suddenly and spreads rapidly. The blisters gradually swell and break, creating a painful raw patch. The animal cannot eat properly, loses condition, and, in a dairy cow, gives less milk. Lameness often occurs and leads to a crippled condition. Sometimes the beast has to be destroyed. It is more often fatal in young animals; 20 per cent, of young calves that contract the disease have to be destroyed, but only 2 per cent, of adult cattle. It is transmitted by the saliva and the blister discharges. A brief history of the disease may be interesting. It was not known to exist in the world until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when it broke out in Germany, Italy and France. During the nineteenth century, due to the extension of commercial relations between countries, it became, like the lung plague, widely dispersed. In 1834 the disease appeared in Hungary, lower Austria, Bohemia, Saxony and Prussia. Cattle in the Vosges and in Switzerland were attacked in 1837, and the disease then spread to France, Belgium and Holland. It reached England in 1839 and quickly infested Ireland and Scotland as well. The importation of animals into England was prohibited. At that time it was supposed that the infection was introduced by surplus ships' stores, probably sheep, which were not consumed during voyages. This critical invasion was followed at intervals by eleven distinct outbreaks in England, but for a period after 1902 Great Britain was free of the disease. After World War I. it appeared again. It was held in check by the restriction of movement of cattle within a radius of 15 miles from the centre of infection, and by the compulsory slaughtering of diseased animals. The disease actually invaded Europe from the East. Denmark fell a victim in 1841, and the United States of America in 1870 saw the introduction of the disease from Canada, to which country it was carried by diseased cattle from England. It was twice introduced into Australia in 1872, but was stamped out on each occasion. It appears to be known in India, Ceylon, Burma and the Straits Settlements. In 1870 the disease first appeared in South America. South Africa has also fallen a victim to foot and mouth disease. In Scotland a disastrous epidemic of the disease occurred in 1926. It was traced to a bacon factory receiving weekly consignments of fresh carcasses of pigs from Europe. In 1928 negotiations were carried out between Great Britain, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, to prevent the export to Great Britain of the carcasses of animals killed during the infective stage of the disease. The Argentine Government passed a decree for this purpose on 1st February, 1928. Although foot and mouth disease is not usually a fatal malady, except in young cattle, when it becomes malignant it is a scourge. For instance, in the year 1892 in Germany, foot and mouth disease attacked 150,929 farms - not cattle, but farms - with an estimated loss to owners of £7,500,000 sterling. On to-day's values, of course, the amount would be colossal. Before we risk importing meat, we should keep these facts in mind. We should realize just how great our losses would be if the disease became widespread in Australia. I want now to deal with the control of the disease and I shall refer again to the " Graziers' Handbook of Diseases " by V. G. Cole. At page 99, the author has this to say - >The method adopted in England is immediate quarantine, with prohibition of movement of all animals within a 30-mile radius. Persons moving off infected properties must wear clean clothes and pass through a foot-bath. All vehicles are disinfected. And, finally, all cloven-footed animals are slaughtered and burned. No re-stocking is allowed for 6 months, in which a thorough disinfection campaign is carried out. ii is far too widespread in Europe for adoption of these measures. Control is by vaccination. This has problems because there are seven strains of the foot and mouth virus and each strain needs a different vaccine. A special Commission operating under the direction of the World Food and Agriculture Organisation has recently taken over control on a world basis with the object of preventing the enormous economic loss it causes at present. I have obtained from the Library the interim report on foot and mouth diseases of the Research Institute, Pirbright, Surrey. At page 5, the report says - >For many years the United States, Canada - with the exception of the recent outbreak - Australia and New Zealand have been free of the disease and carry out no research work. They rely on Pirbright for advice and for the examination of samples of the virus from adjoining countries which present a potential danger, e.g. the United States in their campaign to control the disease in Mexico. > >During the last twelve years the institute has examined over SOO samples of material from field outbreaks in Great Britain, South and Central America, Canada, Africa, Palestine and European countries. > >At page 8, it says - >In the last ten years 135 vaccines have been prepared at Pirbright by eight different methods using strains of virus collected from eight countries. The characteristics of each of the vaccines have been determined. The work on vaccines has involved seventy-five major experiments and has required 5,000 cattle that have never been in contact with the disease. This shows the extensive work being done by this wonderful institute to try to track down the cause of the disease and to find an answer to it. At page 9 of the report, this interesting point is made - >These results are important in demonstrating that boning meat gives no protection against the introduction of the disease. It has also been shown that hanging meat and spraying carcasses with lactic acid gives no effective control. Quick frozen meat and its wrappings were also found to be more dangerous than meat frozen by ordinary methods or chilled. We could, perhaps, draw on this institute for advice and help if the disease should ever break out in Australia, but the greatest need is for all precautions to be taken at the points of entry to Australia to prevent the virus coming into the country. A tremendous responsibility rests on the shoulders of the quarantine officers and officers of the department handling this matter. It is a far bigger responsibility than the responsibility of finding contraband cigarettes and other goods on Chinese seamen. Probably no other work at our ports is as important as the work directed to ensuring that this disease does not enter Australia. This work must be terribly monotonous. Tt involves a tremendous amount of investigation and many hours of experimenting and testing, but the men involved in it are doing work that is vitally important in maintaining our agricultural stability. I hope that the need to use the provisions of the bill will never arise. This is one measure that I hope will never have to be implemented in Australia. In a way. in passing this bill, we are arming ourselves so that we will be ready if we are ever attacked bv this disease. {: #subdebate-33-0-s4 .speaker-KZP} ##### Mr WHEELER:
Mitchell .- I think that honorable members on both sides of the House welcome the introduction of the bill. I accept it as an insurance measure for the future. We often speak of our national heritage, of the blessing with which nature has endowed us. However, of all our national wealth and all our assets, there is one which is perhaps priceless above all others, and that is our isolation. It has been our greatest protection, for it means that we are free from some of the most deadly diseases, both of humans and of animals. But it has also meant that we are vulnerable in other respects. With animals, the position is that, unlike those countries which have been plagued from time to time, our livestock has not developed resistance against these diseases. A disease like foot and mouth may be disastrous enough in overseas countries, but it would mean the end of much of our animal industry here if it obtained entry into Australia, particularly to an area like the Northern Territory. The huge areas and sparse population there would make attempts to control an epidemic of foot and mouth disease if it occurred there useless, both economically and physically. There are other threats almost as serious. New South Wales is at present suffering from an outbreak of swine fever and has suffered great losses indeed. I spoke of this matter on the motion for the adjournment of the House on 10th May last and referred then to the dangers of bringing this disease into the country through the agency of canned meat. Our precautions against the introduction of disease in the past were adequate, but they are based on conditions of long ago. Two things in particular that have rendered them ineffective are the coming of air travel and the introduction of food canning on a wide scale. This means that many new types of food, particularly meat, are coming to Australia. We are literally gambling our whole economic life by not strengthening our present sketchy quarantine precautions. Since I spoke in the House on 10th May last on the thinness of our defences in this matter, and raised the question of the possible outbreak of swine fever in New South Wales. I have been to Darwin and have seen one part of our quarantine precautions in action. Things are worse than I thought. At Darwin airport, I asked to be shown the register of goods taken from planes. Here, we must acknowlege the efficiency of our quarantine officials. Goods from aircraft and ships' stores which were impounded and destroyed included salami and meats as well as condensed milk and tinned milk. All of these, I am told, are quite capable of spreading foot and mouth disease. I asked what happened when Darwin airport was closed by weather conditions, and the answer was that planes are usually diverted to Daly Waters, about 300 miles south-east. In the event of the Darwin airport being closed hurriedly, there would be no chance of officials travelling overland 300 miles to Daly Waters to meet an aircraft on its arrival. Nor is it practicable to station sufficient staff at Daly Waters to cope with such a situation, because the airfield there is only an emergency one. There is only one officer in charge at Daly Waters. He has so many caps to denote his various offices that he does not know which one to put on at any time. First, he is quarantine officer, then he is customs agent, and then he is something else. There is only one officer to control incoming aircraft at Daly Waters, 300 miles from Darwin. We are just taking pot luck, as it were, with any aircraft that are diverted from Darwin to this airfield. In this regard, we have been very lucky, but I think that we are pushing our luck to extreme limits. Some day, luck may turn against us. The honorable member for Farrer **(Mr. Fairbairn)** mentioned earlier the question of the examination of passengers' luggage. At Darwin, the first port of call in this country for passengers from overseas, a check seems at times to be very much a routine one which could be evaded in some circumstances. For instance, higher official circles often feel that the requirements of the tourist trade should override much more important interests. It is true that the introduction of a really thorough inspection would cause some inconvenience to passengers. However, the reasons for a thorough inspection are so compelling, and the consequences of quarantine failure would be so grave for us, that I think passengers would accept the inconvenience if these things were properly explained. Rigid inspections are accepted, for instance, at Honolulu, which surely has one of the biggest concentrations of tourist traffic in the world. I think that we could probably tighten up our inspection of passengers' luggage in order to avoid any possibility of meat and other foodstuffs which come to this country bringing in disease. In affirming my support for the bill, I want to stress, also, that compensation and compensation funds are only last-ditch measures. They are useless without secure front-line defences. The truth is that once a parasite or a disease gets in eradication campaigns are seldom successful. We imported pleuro-pneumonia in 1958, and have been struggling against it ever since, with losses running into many millions of pounds. The cattle tick, which has spread so far since it first migrated from Asia, has not been exterminated even in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales, which represents the limit of its southerly penetration, although vast sums of money have been expended in a concerted campaign extending over 40 years. Our exports are now absolutely vital to our continued solvency as a nation, and they would collapse without our great output of products of animal origin, which supplied .61 per cent, of our total exports in the financial year 1958-59. Foot and mouth disease, and also blue tongue, swine fever, Newcastle disease in poultry and rinderpest, are some of the scourges of the earth which, by magnificent luck, we have so far avoided. Pigs, sheep, cattle and poultry all are dependent for survival on the continuance of this immunity. How foolish we should be to imperil it for the sake of importing a few hundred tons of canned poultry, canned ham and other meats which already are in plentiful supply - in fact, over-supply - from local producers. I have previously asked the Government to place a ban on imported canned meats, but the Government's advisers seem to consider that the precautionary measures which it adopts are sufficient to protect our primary industries against imported diseases. I hope this advice is sound, because the responsibility of meeting this situation is grave enough. We have so far escaped series animal disease infection, but. as I said earlier, the destruction of pigs in New South Wales as a result of the recent outbreak of swine fever is a warning which must not go unheeded. In many respects. Australia and its disease-free record in primary industry are the envy of the farmers of the world. We hope we can keep it that way. The honorable member for Eden-Monaro **(Mr. Allan Fraser)** commented on the disease-free certificates given by other countries which send canned meats to Australia. I spoke on this matter on 10th May last. In many respects, 1 do not think that the certificates given by some exporting countries are worth the paper on which they are written. To the end of November, 1960, we had imported canned meats from 22 countries. In some of these countries, the standards of hygiene are primitive. We import from countries such as China, Hungary and Poland. Since they are Communistcontrolled, we can rely on neither their honesty nor the goodwill of the officials concerned, apart altogether from the question of health standards in those parts of the world. We import from places such as Hong Kong and Singapore, where the population is so dense and economic conditions are so poor that even the utmost efforts of officials might be defeated. I say to the honorable member for Eden-Monaro, although the Minister for Health **(Dr. Donald Cameron),** and his advisers who are immediately on my left here, will probably contradict me, that I and the farmers - particularly the pig-farmers in my electorate - as a result of our experience, view with a great deal of anxiety the continued freedom to import canned meats into this country. Debate (on motion by **Mr. King)** adjourned. Sitting suspended from 5.59 to 8 p.m. {: .page-start } page 33 {:#debate-34} ### ESTIMATES 1961-62 Messages from the Governor-General 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, 1962; and recommending appropriations accordingly. Ordered to be printed, and referred to the Committee of Supply forthwith. {: .page-start } page 33 {:#debate-35} ### BUDGET 1961-62 {:#subdebate-35-0} #### In Committee of Supply: {: #subdebate-35-0-s0 .speaker-009MC} ##### Mr HAROLD HOLT:
Treasurer · Higgins · LP T8. 21. - It is my privilege to lay before the House to-night estimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 1961- 62. These estimates embody various financial proposals which I shall explain; and, as a prelude to that, I propose to outline the view the Government takes as to the present state of our economy, its prospects for this year and the forms of action which seem to be required. {: .page-start } page 33 {:#debate-36} ### CONDITION OF THE ECONOMY The boom, which was running so strongly at the time of our last Budget, and gathered momentum in some directions later in the year, receded some months ago and with it went much unhealthy speculation in land and shares, the over-strong demand for goods, materials and labour, the rapid increase in costs and prices and the threat to our external position, which had been its worst features. Our economy is far healthier for being rid of those things. They were undermining our prosperity and our prospects for future growth. To-day the Australian economy is, I believe, basically stronger than it has ever been. That does not mean that we have no problems. We still have problems such as the implications of the Common Market, the reconciliation of growth with stability, the maintenance of a balance in our external accounts and the problem of a high cost structure. But no major trading nation is without problems of these kinds. We shall be able to face these problems, however, on a much more firmly established base. Inevitably, the down-turn from the boom, which sooner or later had to come, brought a decline in activity in some quarters. Most of the industries so affected, such as motor vehicles, dwelling construction and the production of electrical goods, had expanded far and fast in the boom period. Others, such as textiles, have felt the effects of import competition and all have been the subject of slackening demand. But the decline in activity has not been universal - far from it. Just as the boom was largely sectional, so has the down-turn been sectional. Through this phase of re-adjustment, some major industries have continued to increase both their output and their capacity for further output. There has been a valuable shift of labour and resources to essential branches of production. Other industries have experienced, at the most, a flattening out of activity at. or not much below, the high levels reached last year. Nevertheless, the decline in particular industries has been enough to cause a fall in total employment and a rise in unemployment. The Government sees this as the most urgent feature of our present situation. We have always stood for full employment and it cannot be denied that, through our long term of office and often under difficult circumstances, we have held very close to that goal - very much closer than the 5 per cent, of unemployment which honorable gentlemen opposite saw some years ago as attainable full employment in time of peace. We put full employment foremost now in our immediate economic plans. We share the view, lately expressed by many leading men in trade and industry, that the ebb in production and sales has in the main gone about as far as it is likely to go and that an upturn will occur soon. There are very good grounds for holding that view. Our economy is in a far more promising condition now than it was a year ago when, though prosperity appeared to run high, trouble clearly lay ahead. Externally, our situation has greatly improved. For some months now we have had a surplus of exports over imports, which have fallen to relatively low levels. While it would be optimistic and, indeed, unrealistic to expect the rate of imports to continue at the low levels of June and July, they were running, in those two months, at no more than £865,000,000 a year. The export outlook shows promise in at least some respects. The wool clip will probably be larger than last year and various authorities have spoken optimistically about prices in the new selling season. The next wheat crop could be a very large one. There is no obvious reason for expecting a fall in private overseas investment in Australia, which has continued strongly up to the present time, although there may yet be substantial out-payments for imports obtained last year on credit terms. Our holdings of gold and foreign exchange stand above £570,000,000. Not counting the International Monetary Fund drawing of £78,000,000, these holdings have risen by £115,000,000 since the beginning of 1961. Behind them we have unused drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund amounting to £133.000.000. of which £45,000,000 is covered by a stand-by arrangement; so that, taking frontline and second-line reserves together, we have total external resources of about £700,000,000. At home, as we have seen, investment in basic industry has continued all through and there have lately been announced several large new undertakings in various industries, including aluminium, chemicals, petroleum refining and even motor vehicles. Some of these projects may not get under way for a little time yet; but when they do they could make substantial calls on resources and add to employment opportunities. Meanwhile, the fact that they are being undertaken demonstrates the confidence of the interests concerned in the future of this country. Dwelling construction fell away sharply from the very high point reached last year, but there are signs that it is reviving and we can expect to see construction back to quite a good level in the current quarter. This is important because so many other industries and trades depend upon housing that it has a key place in the general business situation. We had that fact in mind when, in co-operation first with the banking system and later with the State governments, we took steps to make more funds available for housing. Those measures are now bearing fruit and, as I shall relate presently, we have further action in view to sustain and improve the position. Other classes of building, which form a large sector of the industry, have on the whole kept up very well and the indications are that they will continue to keep up in the coming months. Spending by public authorities on both works and current services is certain to rise appreciably in this financial year and that also will add to demand for goods and labour. Financially, the context of business will be very much easier in this half of 1961 than it was in the first half. Practically all the restraints imposed last November have now been removed. They were necessary then but we did not keep them on any longer than they were needed. The trading banks are comparatively liquid for this time of the year and, under current policy, are free to lend for almost any purposes except a few like the financing of speculative operations. It seems likely indeed that monetary conditions will be relatively liquid through most of 1961-62, especially if present expectations about the balance of payments are fulfilled. Furthermore, we have the fact - as important as any in the whole situation - that we are now much closer to price and cost stability than we were a year ago. The index of consumer prices has continued to show some rising tendency which we could well do without; but there has been a general steadying down of the main factors in costs and a pursuit of cost savings throughout industry which should help to stabilize the position as we have always wanted to see it stabilized. Our consistent belief has been that not only are the interests of the community at large best served by stable prices, but that the sounder forms of enterprise find more encouragement in that condition than in one of rising prices. We believe that this holds true for all investors, Australian and overseas alike, who have to take a long-run view of our prospects. Altogether then we have a set of basic conditions which should favour an early and general lift in activity. The immediate problem is to secure a reduction in the number of unemployed people and, beyond that, such an all-round expansion as will provide jobs for the young people and migrants who will join the work force during the coming months. The number of new migrant workers is likely to be smaller in J 961 -62 than in recent years but the number of school-leavers will be greater and the total of additional persons for whom work must be found while welcome as an addition to national strength will be quite formidable. Whilst expansion must be general it is clear that, in the first instance, the strongest emphasis must be placed on manufacturing. It is there that the largest fall in employment has occurred and it is there also that a rise in activity could do most to bring about an early rise in employment. But it is equally clear that a general rise in manufacturing at this stage depends upon a rise in spending on goods by the public. Over the first six months of this year, such spending levelled off and in the June quarter it was slightly lower in aggregate than in the June quarter of 1960. In the meantime stocks accumulated - stocks both of finished goods and of materials and com ponents for manufacture. Production is not likely to rise again in the slack industries until traders have disposed of excess stocks and more orders flow back to manufacturers. As that happens, the manufacturers will be able to use up their stocks or materials and in turn place orders for further supplies. Consumer spending tapered off for a number of reasons. During the boom a good many people ran heavily into debt to buy houses, cars, domestic appliances and the like and they then set about paying off their debts, which restricted the amount they could spend currently. There was some loss of spending power through unemployment and reduced overtime earnings. Hire-purchase finance was not as easy to obtain as formerly and people may well have sought less of it. Exaggerated talk of depression probably helped create a disposition to button up. In the current half year, however, conditions should be such as to induce a rise in consumer spending. People have, without doubt, reduced their debts very considerably. Wage increases and tax refunds are putting more money into their pockets. Rising expenditure in the public sector and elsewhere is adding to incomes. The easing of bank credit and a general improvement in liquidity should facilitate livelier public buying. In the meantime, the earlier decline in production of goods in over-supply and the fall in imports should be helping to ease the position as to stocks of finished goods. The main impetus to expansion must, of course, come from the buying public on the one hand and from business firms on the other. Nevertheless, the Government is disposed to assist by whatever means are available to it. We have arranged with the Commonwealth Banking Corporation that a further special allocation of funds will be provided for housing purposes by the Commonweallth Savings Bank over and above its normal provision of such finance. This supplements the quite substantial additional provision made earlier in the year. We have also told the State governments that we would be willing to agree to a furthe increase of £5,000,000 in the borrowing programmes of local authorities and the smaller semi-governmental bodies so that their rates of expenditure on employmentgiving works may be stepped up. We have, as is known, encouraged the States to accelerate works expenditures in the first half of this financial year. Besides these measures, we are including in the Budget several proposals which should help materially to lift consumer spending at an early stage. I shall give details presently; it will, I think, be clear that, taken with earlier action to ease credit conditions and expand works and housing activity, these proposals round out a programme which must have a widely stimulating effect. We feel sure that the business world will be assisted by these varied forms of action and will find in them a lead and a source of renewed confidence. {: .page-start } page 36 {:#debate-37} ### A FARTHER VIEW Economic policy, while always keeping its main objectives in view, cannot fail to be concerned, as it is now, with shortterm problems. We have never lost sight of our great goals of national growth, full employment, high living standards and stable costs and prices. Because conditions change rapidly and unpredictably, there must be an adaptation of measures, a varying of their content and emphasis, to suit them to the circumstances that arise. Even could we foresee, exactly and reliably, the conditions that will rule twelve months or two years hence, what we would do now would have to be related primarily to the needs of the present situation. Later, of course, we would adjust our scheme of action progressively to meet new situations as they occurred. The days are long gone by when governments could lay down policies in rigid terms and stick to them indefinitely, come what may. That old concept, pre-supposed a static economic order that probably never did exist and certainly never will in these dynamic times. Yet this very fact of change and this need for adaptation make it all the more necessary for the chief aims of policy to be clearly identified, firmly accepted and steadily pursued if the trend of affairs is not to fluctuate and drift uncontrollably. What is equally important, there must be foresight - not so much in the sense of pre dicting events in detail as of preparing and providing as far as possible ahead for the basic needs that are certain to occur if our national growth is to take the future courses we want it to take. Thus we all want to see strong and continuous growth, founded upon increasing population, rising productivity and diversity of occupations, skills and culture. We want to see a spread of growth through all States and Territories in our Commonwealth. We want to see that growth achieved through stability, not at the expense of it. I give stability a meaning wide enough to comprehend not only a steady level of prices and costs, but also a balance between demand for goods and the supply of goods, full employment of labour and industrial resources, and a balance over the years in our external receipts and expenditures. We have, as I have said, an immediate problem of getting unemployed people back to work and of ensuring that young people and migrants will find work as they come forward. This is partly a matter of shortterm measures; but it is much more than that. Short-term measures are an illusion and a menace if they cut across the main objects of policy, as I have stated them. They are an illusion if they provide mere temporary relief and then peter out. They are a menace if they sow the seeds of later instability. A case in point is immigration. Because there is at present some unemployment amongst unskilled and semi-skilled workers, the Government has decided to reduce for the time being the flow of assisted migrants in those categories. This is a short-term move and it accords entirely with the flexible approach we have always followed in our migration policy. But behind it is the firmest intention to restore full-scale migration as soon as circumstances permit. Indeed, the present decision is that, while arrivals of unskilled and semi-skilled migrants will be temporarily slowed down, efforts to obtain professional, skilled and other key types of personnel will continue as before and the opportunity will be taken to bring out more of the wives, children, fiancees and other dependants of people already here. The move is thus to be seen as an adjustment of existing policy on migration but not as a retreat from it. We would in fact regard it as a basic mistake at this juncture to cut back the standing target of net migration at the rate of 1 per cent, of population per year because apart from all the other gains from migration, the existence of that continuing programme gives to all forms of enterprise, public and private, the assurance that one of the fundamental elements in growth is to be maintained. Remove that assurance and the foundations of much longer-term planning and investment would inevitably be weakened. On very much the same grounds we believe it necessary to initiate sufficiently in advance of actual need such long-range works projects as will be required to open up key resources for the use of industry or for export some years hence. Too often in the past growth has been hampered and delayed by shortages of fuel and power, transport facilities and the like. We have learnt in recent years of the existence of great new resources, particularly of minerals. We have learnt also that discovery leads to discovery. We know that, before many years are out, industry will have to draw upon these new resources. We know also that, as time goes on, we must have more and more exports to pay for the imports increasingly required by manufacturing and other sections of industry. These new resources can help, directly or indirectly, to provide more exports or to save imports. Over recent years the Commonwealth has taken a large and increasing share in development through various works and projects of its own. The Snowy Mountains scheme is, of course, by far the largest of these, but a great part of what we spend on the Post Office, on civil aviation and in the Territories falls into that category. Then, for the past ten years, we have made huge sums available from our own resources each year to assist the works and housing programmes of the State Governments. By now these contributions, financed principally out of Commonwealth revenues, total no less than £790,142,000 and we expect to have to provide a further large amount in 1961-62. Again, amongst our annual revenue grants to the States, there are several, such as the Commonwealth Aid Roads Grants, which go largely if not wholly towards developmental work. Be sides these forms of assistance, we have from time to time, and in various ways, joined with individual States in financing projects which have a particular value not only for the State concerned but for the whole economy. Of the new proposals put forward by State governments in recent times, we have several under active consideration and on some we are in the course of negotiations with the States concerned. {: .page-start } page 37 {:#debate-38} ### ROADS FOR CATTLE INDUSTRY One such proposal concerns roads in the North of Australia for beef cattle transport. It is clear that improvement of road transport facilities in that region will lead to a significant rise in beef production and thus to an increase in export earnings. Provision is made in the Budget estimates for expenditure of £1,000,000 by the Commonwealth on such road works in 1961-62. Of this amount, £650,000 is for assistance to the Queensland Government, in accordance with arrangements that have been agreed with that Government, in the construction of a road from Normanton, on' the Gulf of Carpentaria, to the railway at Julia Creek. Construction of this road has already started. The other £350,000 is for expenditure in the Northern Territory, over and above the normal programme of road works, where sufficient planning has been done for work to be put in hand quickly. The provision of £1,000,000 is by no means, however, the limit of the expenditure we have in view in this field. Subject to agreement being reached with the Governments of Queensland and Western Australia, we are willing, and indeed we intend, to provide additional funds for roads in these two States in the near future. {: .page-start } page 37 {:#debate-39} ### NEW SOUTH WALES COAL PORTS The Government is in consultation with the Government of New South Wales about improved coal handling facilities at the ports of Newcastle, Port Kembla and Balmain. There are good prospects of a substantial increase in coal exports from New South Wales, but these prospects will be enhanced if improvements are made in existing port facilities for handling coal. The Government of New South Wales, which has a programme of improvements in hand, has indicated that the programme could be greatly speeded up if financial assistance for the purpose were provided by the Commonwealth. The Government has therefore decided to offer financial assistance to the State for this purpose. Under this offer, part of the assistance would take the form of a grant from funds held by the Joint Coal Board and the remainder would take the form of repayable advances. If the offer is accepted, legislation to authorize the provision of financial assistance to the State under section 96 of the Constitution will be introduced as soon as practicable. {: .page-start } page 38 {:#debate-40} ### WESTERN AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY PROPOSALS Another matter under active consideration is the question of providing Commonwealth financial assistance to construct a standard gauge railway from the iron ore deposits at Koolyanobbing in Western Australia to the site of the proposed iron and steel works at Kwinana and for further work to provide a standard gauge service from Perth to Kalgoorlie. This is a very large project and one which calls for very careful study. Our examination of the proposal is proceeding urgently and we hope to engage in further negotiations with the Government of Western Australia in the near future. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth has agreed to provide funds to meet the cost of surveying the proposed route of the railway. An amount of £150,000 is included in the Budget for this purpose. {: .page-start } page 38 {:#debate-41} ### SOUTH AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY PROPOSALS We intend to have discussions wilh the Government of South Australia about a proposal for assistance by the Commonwealth in the purchase and construction of diesel-electric locomotives and associated rolling stock for use on the existing railway between Broken Hill and Port Pirie. I may recall here that the 1949 Railway Standardization Agreement between the Commonwealth and South Australia refers to standardization of the Peterborough division of the South Australian railways as a project under the agreement. In the absence of agreement as to when, and to what extent, the work should be undertaken, South Australia has sought certain declarations from the High Court. {: .page-start } page 38 {:#debate-42} ### COMMONWEALTH DEVELOPMENT BANK The Government has decided to provide £5,000,000 by way of additional capital for the Commonwealth Development Bank. In its eighteen months of operations the Development Bank has shown itself to be a useful supplement to other sources of finance for primary and secondary industry Its charter is to provide finance to assist primary production or to establish or develop industrial undertakings, especially small undertakings, in cases where, in its opinion, finance is desirable but would not otherwise be available on reasonable and suitable terms and conditions. From the time of its establishment up to 30th June, 1961, the Development Bank has approved loans to primary and secondary industry totalling nearly £15,000,000. lt has also provided valuable assistance in the form of hire purchase finance for producers' equipment. The original capital of the Development Bank, including £5,000,000 provided under the legislation, was nearly £16,000,000. Besides this, the bank had substantial reserves. It was realized, however, that the bank could need additional funds as its business grew and the Government said that it would watch the position. It is clear now that the time has come for a moderate increase in the bank's capital. The £5,000,000 to be provided will raise the capita] of the Development Bank to nearly £21,000,000. This, of course, is not the whole of the bank's resources; it also has substantial reserve funds and the use of considerable loan moneys io which v>o expect it to be able to add from time to time. Since the Government wishes the bank to be able to maintain it.i important functions, it will continue to keep the funds position of the bank under close review. Legislation to give effect to the increase in capital will be introduced during this session. {: .page-start } page 38 {:#debate-43} ### OIL SEARCH It is appropriate to mention here also the assistance the Commonwealth is providing for oil search in Australia and New Guinea. The Government has decided to extend for three years, from the 1st July, 1961, the programme of subsidy assistance on an expanded basis, and in 1961-62 the amount of Government expenditures on oil search will be considerably increased. In 1960-61, total expenditure by way of subsidy to the companies engaged on oil search and other exploratory work being carried out by the Department of National Development was £2.300.000. The estimate of such expenditure in 1961-62 is more than 70 per cent, at £4,100,000. Not only will the term of the existing legislation be extended, but the categories of exploration eligible for subsidy will be widened. The specialist services of a mission from the French Petroleum Institute will be used for a further year. Some of these proposals entail expenditures in the current financial year and so will have an impact on the Budget and on the immediate economic situation; others will not; but in all cases the proposals have a present relevance. Just as immigration ensures a continuous flow of labour and an expanding home market for our industry, so these projects envisage a continuance and an enlargement of basic investment, an effort to ensure that key facilities will be at hand when the future calls for them and the prospect that new and larger resources, essential to industry, can be tapped as and when they are required. Much is said about the need for confidence in the future; there could not, to our minds, be a sounder or more practical way of establishing and maintaining such confidence than the launching now of great long-range undertakings such as I have just described. {: .page-start } page 39 {:#debate-44} ### THE BUDGETARY SITUATION I wish now to describe in terms of estimated expenditure and receipts our budgetary prospects for 1961-62, giving details as 1 go along of the various new financial measures the Government has in view. {: .page-start } page 39 {:#debate-45} ### EXPENDITURE ESTIMATES, 1961-62 We estimate that expenditures ordinarily charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund will this year total £1,613.919,000, an amount greater by £118.201.000 than expenditure in 1960-61. The estimates are set out in detail in Statement No. 3 attached to the Budget speech and similar details for 1960-61 expenditure are given in Statement No. 1. With the concurrence of honorable members. I shall have these and other statements referred to in my speech incorporated in " Hansard ". {:#subdebate-45-0} #### The National Welfare Fund Although not unmindful of the growing magnitude of National Welfare Fund expenditure, which last year involved a total of £330,604,000. an increase of £237,800,000 over the year in which this Government took office, the Government has decided again this year to increase various social service benefits. There will be a further increase of 5s. per week in age, invalid and widows' pension rates. The new maximum pension rates will then be - In addition, allowances for the wife and first child under sixteen years of an invalid pensioner will be increased by 12s. 6d. per week and 3s. 6d. per week respectively. An increase of 5s. per week is also to be made in the additional amount payable to a widow with dependent children for each child under sixteen years except the first. The cost of these increases is estimated at £10,450,000 for a full year and £7,850,000 in 1961-62. Unemployment and sickness benefit rates will be increased by 10s. per week for a single adult, 15s. per week for a man and wife and 17s. 6d. per week for a man with a wife and one or more children under sixteen years. {: #subdebate-45-0-s0 .speaker-009MC} ##### Mr HAROLD HOLT:
LP -- I invite the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues to look at the rates of unemployment 'benefit provided when the Labour Government was in office. In all, these increases are estimated to cost an additional £1,000,000 in this financial year. lt is also proposed to increase the allowance payable to persons suffering from tuberculosis by 5s. per week in the case of a single person and by 10s. per week in the case of a man and wife. The additional allowance payable for the first child under sixteen years will be raised by 5s. per week. These increased rates of benefit will become payable on the first pay-day after the necessary legislation has been passed. Their total cost, which is estimated at £11,794,000 in a full year and £8,883,000 in 1961-62, will increase total expenditure from the National Welfare Fund to £358,230,000, or £27,626,000 more than last year. That is the figure that honorable gentlemen opposite should have in mind when they look to see the extent to which this Government is providing for social welfare. Further details of the National Welfare Fund estimates are contained in Statement No. 4. {:#subdebate-45-1} #### War and Repatriation The Government has, further, decided to increase certain war and repatriation benefits. It proposes to raise the special rate war pension by 10s. per week, and the 100 per cent, general rate war pension by 5s. per week, with proportionate increases for pensioners receiving partial pensions. There will be an increase of 5s. per week in the war widows' pension and of 2s. 6d. per week in the domestic allowance payable to war widows with children, and certain other classes. At the same time, the pensions for the first child and each later child of a deceased ex-serviceman will be increased by 7s. 6d. per week and 5s. per week respectively, except where the child's mother is also deceased, when the increase will be 8s. 6d. per week. Service pension for the ex-serviceman himself will be increased by 5s. per week, and increases of 12s. 6d. per week and 3s. 6d. per week respectively will be made in the service pensions for the wife and first child under sixteen years. Increases of up to 15s. per week will also be made in the rates of attendant's allowance. It has also been agreed to pay medical sustenance at a rate equal to the special rate war pension during periods of convalescence ordered on discharge from hospital. I think honorable members will be aware that that is a request that has been pressed for some time by representatives of our ex-servicemen. Increased pensions and allowances will be payable on the first pension pay-day after the necessary legissation has been passed. The cost of these increases in benefits is estimated to be £3,407,000 in a full year and £2,559,000 in 1961-62. Total expenditure on War and Repatriation Services this year is estimated to be £102,377,000, which is £4,330,000 more than in 1960-61. Payments to the States. Payments to the States in 1961-62 are estimated to be £384,868,000, an increase of £31,921,000 on payment in 1960-61. This sum provides for increases of £21,055,000 in financial assistance grants, £4,000,000 in Commonwealth aid roads grants, £2,613,000 in special grants to Western Australia and Tasmania and £2,934,000 for payments to the States for universities. For development in the northern part of Western Australia, we are providing this year £1,800,000, an amount £592,000 greater than our expenditure in that region during 1960-61. I have already mentioned a new item, having a developmental purpose, which will figure this year in payments to the States. It involves an amount of £650,000 for expenditure on roads in Queensland to increase the turn-off of beef cattle from that area. I have also mentioned the possibility of further such expenditures in the course of this year. Total payments to the States in the year in which this Government took office were £101,132,000. This year, as I have mentioned, they have grown to the figure of £384,868,000. {: #subdebate-45-1-s0 .speaker-009MC} ##### Mr HAROLD HOLT:
LP -- I know the honorable gentleman has a printing press of his own, but I think most people would prefer the sort of money this Government is able to provide. The main details of payments to the States this year, compared with 1960-61, are shown in Statement No. 3. I may invite attention here to the White Paper on Commonwealth Payments to or for the States which I will shortly table in the House and which will give a full and up-to-date account of this most important area of Commonwealth expenditure and of the various elements in it. I hope this document, which is strictly factual in character, will be of assistance to honorable members and also to the public. {:#subdebate-45-2} #### Defence Expenditure on defence services in 1961-62 is estimated to be £202,859,000, which will represent an increase of £4,692,000 on expenditure in 1960-61. The additional costs of defence this year attributable to the recent basic wage increase are estimated to be £2,015,000. {:#subdebate-45-3} #### Departmental Departmental expenditure now includes those items which were previously shown in the miscellaneous services section of the Estimates. On this basis, departmental expenditure in 1961-62 is estimated to be £124,468,000, which is an increase of £9,169,000 over comparable expenditure last year Of this increase, £6,932,000 is attributable to salaries and administrative expenses, and of that amount £1,200,000 is estimated to be due to the recent increase in the basic wage. {:#subdebate-45-4} #### Superannuation The provision made by the Commonwealth for retirement benefits to its employees is contained in the terms of the Superannuation Act 1922-1959. Many of the superannuation pensions still current are being paid to persons who retired from the Commonwealth's employ many years ago. The real value of their pensions, which originally were related to their salaries of even thirty and more years ago, has been materially affected by changing conditions. In recognition of this, the Commonwealth has increased the level of the older superannuation pensions on several previous occasions, and this year it has again reviewed them. It is now proposed to increase the earlier superannuation pensions by bringing the Consolidated Revenue component of the pension broadly up to a level comparable with what would have been payable by the Commonwealth had the pension been determined under the 1954 scale of pensions set out in the Superannuation Act. While it is not easy to put a figure on this item, it seems likely to be in the vicinity of £500,000 per annum. Some adjustments will also be made to relieve the position of pensioners under the Defence Forces Retirement Benefits Act. Details of the proposed changes will be set out in an amending bill which the Government will be bringing down, and the increased rates will be paid from the first pay period after the enactment of the legislation. {:#subdebate-45-5} #### Capital Works and Services Expenditure on capital works and services in 1961-62 is estimated to be £152,038,000, or £11,187,000 more than expenditure in 1960-61. Expenditure by the Snowy MountainsHydroelectric Authority is estimated to be £1,940,000 less this year than last and only £150,000 is being provided for airlines capital - a reduction of £3,030,000 on the amount provided in 1960-61. However, as I have said earlier, £5,000,000 is to be provided to the Commonwealth Development Bank by way of increased capital to assist the bank in meeting the calls being made upon it for developmental loans. An amount of £4,000,000 is being provided by the Commonwealth for the standard gauge rail link between Melbourne and Albury. It is expected that construction will be completed during 1961-62. The Commonwealth is also providing up to £150,000 during 1961-62 for survey work on the proposed standardization of the rail link between Kalgoorlie and Kwinana in Western Australia. The £44,979,000 being provided for the Post Office is an increase of £2,834,000 on expenditure in 1960-61. This increase is principally required for technical equipment to meet the growing demand for telephone services. The estimates also include £1,600,000 for expenditure by the Overseas Telecommunications Commission in 1961-62, as portion of Australia's contribution to the cost of the trans-Pacific telephone cable project. The increase of £1,500,000 for broadcasting and television is being sought mainly to provide television services in various regional centres throughout Australia. Capital works and services in the Territories are estimated to cost £2,712,000 more this year than in 1960-61. The increase will be concentrated in the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. The increase for the Australian Capital Territory includes an additional £500,000 for loans to co-operative building societies. {:#subdebate-45-6} #### Territories The total amount to be provided for the Territories in 1961-62 is £30,506,000, which is £3,667,000 greater than expenditure last year. The grant to the Papua and New Guinea Administration will be increased by £2,503,000 to £17,300,000, while the estimate of £4,755,000 for expenditure on general services by the Northern Territory Administration is £656,000 greater than such expenditure in 1960-61. {:#subdebate-45-7} #### Bounties and Subsidies The total estimate for the bounties and subsidies item this year is £30,452,000, or an increase of £12,890,000 on expenditure in 1960-61. The main reason for this increase is to be found in the operation of the Wheat Industry Stabilization Act 1958- 1960. Under this act a contribution of £3,022,000 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund has already been made to supplement the balance which was available in the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund in order to allow guaranteed payments to be made to growers in respect of the 1959-60 crop. On the assumption that a contribution will also be required this year in respect of the 1960-61 crop, the total calls on Consolidated Revenue Fund are estimated to be £13,022,000 in 1961-62. This is the first year in which contributions of this nature have been required from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. Under the existing scheme for subsidies to gold producers, a distinction is drawn between small producers, defined as those having an annual output of not more than 500 ounces of gold, and large producers. To remedy certain inequities, it is proposed to amend the Gold Mining Industry Assistance Act 1954-1959 to provide that a producer whose output in a year falls in the range of 501 to 1,075 ounces of gold may elect to be treated as a small producer, when the rate of subsidy payable to such a producer would be determined at the rate of £2 8s. per ounce less Id. for each ounce by which output exceeds 500 ounces. {:#subdebate-45-8} #### International Development and Relief The estimates for international development and relief cover Australian assistance to countries of South and South-East Asia under the Colombo Plan and Australian contributions to aid and humanitarian programmes of the United Nations and its affiliated bodies. They include for the first time provision for Australian technical assistance to Commonwealth countries in Africa under the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan. They also provide for awards to Koreans for training in Australia. Total estimated expenditure under this Budget heading is £5,413,000, compared with actual expenditure of £5,536,000 in 1960-61. Besides this, however, we have to provide this year the second instalments of our contributions to the International Development Association and to the Indus Basin Development Fund, both of which are appreciably higher than last year, and for a further release in connexion with our 18 per cent, capital subscription to the International Bank for use in its loan operations. These three items total £5,101,000 and are shown as Special Appropriations. Including these, our total contributions to international development and relief in 1961-62 are estimated to be £10,514,000 as against £9,184,000 in 1960-61. Additionally, as I have already mentioned, the grant to the Administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea will be £17,300,000 this year, which is an increase of £2,503,000 on the grant in 1960-61. I think it must be agreed that these are no inconsiderable sums for Australia to be providing for these purposes, especially when it is remembered how great are our own requirements for development in many forms. {: .page-start } page 42 {:#debate-46} ### OTHER COMMITMENTS In June last, the Loan Council approved for 1961-62 a governmental borrowing programme for State works and housing of £240,000,000, which is £10,000,000 greater than the 1960-61 programme. Subject to the normal conditions, the Commonwealth has undertaken to support the programme, if necessary, from its own resources. Again this year a large amount of debt will mature and we have to provide for heavy redemptions. At 30th June last, the loans falling due within Australia in 1961- 62 totalled £290,700,000; in addition, a loan of U.S.$38,310.000 matures in New York next February. Last year, redemptions in Australia and abroad were £79,095,000. In the circumstances of this year, redemptions are unlikely to be much less than last year and £79,000,000 is being included on that account amongst our commitments. The amount to be provided by the Commonwealth for war service land settlement this year is estimated at £2,250,000. Details of Loan Council borrowing programmes and estimated loan transactions in 1961-62 are contained in Statement No. 5. {: .page-start } page 43 {:#debate-47} ### ESTIMATED TOTAL EXPENDITURE When the estimates of expenditure ordinarily chargeable to Consolidated Revenue and these further commitments are brought together, the total of expenditure for which we expect to have to provide becomes £1,935.169,000. {: .page-start } page 43 {:#debate-48} ### REVENUE, BORROWINGS AND OTHER RECEIPTS, 1961-62. TAXATION We estimate that, if taxation were to continue at present rates, total revenue from taxation in 1961-62 would be £1,475,750,000, which would be £57,384,000 greater than in 1960-61. This is in strong contrast with the experience of last year when tax revenues increased by no less than £174,768,000 over those of the previous year. In 1960-61 financial conditions in the early part of the year were, of course, exceedingly buoyant and tax was also levied in that year on the very high company incomes of 1959-60. There was moreover an increase of 6d. in the £1 on the rate of company tax and the former ls. in the £1 rebate of tax on individual income tax was discontinued. We could not expect, with steadier economic conditions in this year, to experience anything like the increase in tax revenues that occurred in 1960-61. Indeed, revenue from Customs is expected to be significantly less than that of 1960-61 because of the much lower rate of imports anticipated. Details of revenue estimates for 1961-62 are given in Statement No. 3. Nevertheless, the Government has decided to provide certain tax concessions in this Budget, these chiefly by way of giving a stimulus to consumer buying but also in some instances to correct anomalies or give taxation relief to particular groups where this seems fully warranted. {:#subdebate-48-0} #### Sales Tax It is proposed to reduce to *2i* per cent, the rate of tax on all household furniture and furnishings and appliances of the kinds which are now subject to tax at the present minimum rate of 8J per cent. These include such major household items as refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and other electrical goods, as well as many other kinds of household goods. The Government is taking this step expressly to encourage buying of certain classes of goods which have lately been somewhat in over-supply and, by that means, to assist a number of industries which have had to reduce output and employment. It should also be of considerable value to people - particularly young married couples - setting up homes. The estimated cost to revenue is £11,200,000 in a full year and £8,900,000 in 1961-62. It is proposed to exempt the following goods used by industries engaged in public transport services: - Goods for the use of privately operated railways; and Motor buses with seating for not less than twelve passengers used in the transport of persons for reward. It is also proposed to exempt certain livestock road trains, complete trailers, semitrailers and live-stock carriers where these are used exclusively in areas which for income tax purposes are within Zone A or Zone B and primarily and principally for the transport of live-stock. Further details of these proposed exemptions will be contained in the amending legislation which I shall introduce into the House later to-night. The estimated cost to revenue of the exemptions for transport industries is £375,000 for a full year and £300,000 in 1961-62. Income Tax. primary producers. A deduction for expenditure on purchasing and laying underground pipes conveying water for use in primary production will be allowed against income of the year in which the expenditure takes place, and will commence to apply for the 1961-62 income year. Depreciation allowances in respect of other piping will not be disturbed. The estimated cost to revenue is £300,000 for a full year and £30,000 in 1961-62. A second proposal relates to the taxation of income, including that derived from compensation, on account of live-stock compulsorily destroyed in order to control or eradicate disease. At present any such income would be taxed in the year in which lt is derived, thus increasing the total tax payable at a time when finance may be required for re-stocking. It is proposed that primary producers be entitled to elect that one-fifth only of the taxable amount be included for the year in which the livestock are destroyed, the balance to be included by way of equal instalments in the income of each of the four succeeding years. Primary producers will be entitled to exercise an election in relation to livestock destroyed during the 1960-61 income year, the concession will therefore apply to livestock income arising from the destruction of animals in connexion with the recent outbreak of swine fever. The cost to revenue in 1961-62 is estimated at £125,000. mining. It is proposed to extend the basis ofl which the existing allowance for one-third of calls paid to mining and afforestation companies may operate. The allowance is at present available where calls are paid by a shareholder direct to a mining or afforestation company. The deduction may, however, be ineffective where money paid by one company to meet calls passes through the hands of another company before receipt by an associated company engaged primarily in mining or afforestation operations. To meet this situation, an interposed company owning all the issued shares in -'t mining or afforestation company and having an entitlement to a deduction for one-third of calls paid will be given a right to pass back that deduction to a company owning not Jess than 50 per cent, of the paid up capital in the interposed company. The right to pass back the deduction will be conditional on the interposed company forgoing the deduction to which it would otherwise have been entitled. Further details of the proposal will be given when the necessary legislation is introduced. lt is estimated that the cost for a full year will be £50,000, but there will be no cost to revenue in 1961-62. dental expenses. At present, dental expenses are treated as medical expenses and, subject to a limit of £30, are deductible within the maximum of £150 allowable to the taxpayer in respect of himself and each of his dependants. It is proposed to remove the limit ot £30 within the maximum of £150 at present allowed for medical expenses. The estimated cost to revenue for a full year is £400,000, but there will be no cost in 1961-62. aged persons. To conform with the proposed increase in age pensions, the level of the income tax age allowance to residents of Australia who meet the age qualification will be raised. No tax is at present payable by an aged person whose net income does not exceed £442. In future the exemption will apply to net incomes not exceeding £455. The present exemption level for the combined net incomes of a married couple both qualified by age will be increased from £884 to £910. The cost to revenue of these adjustments will be £385,000 in a full year and £230,000 in 1961-62. gifts. It is proposed to allow a deduction for gifts of £1 and upwards to the Ian Clunies Ross Memorial Foundation. The estimated cost for a full year is £20,000. There will be no cost to revenue in 1961-62. {:#subdebate-48-1} #### Customs and Excise Following an inquiry by the Tariff Board into the Petroleum Refining Industry, the Government proposes to vary rates of customs duty and excise duty on petroleum products to remove the existing protective margin. This variation would accord with the recommendation of the Tariff Board, whose report on the subject will be tabled later this evening. The rate of customs duty on motor spirit will be reduced by id. per gallon and the rate of excise duty on locally produced motor spirit will be increased by *id.* pei gallon. The new rates of customs duty and excise duty on motor spirit will then be identical at 11 3/4d. per gallon. The rates of customs duty on all petroleum products other than motor spirit will be reduced to the level of existing excise duties on these products. These changes will result in a revenue loss of £130,000 in a full year and of £114,000 in 1961-62. {: .page-start } page 45 {:#debate-49} ### TOTAL TAX CONCESSIONS All told, these tax concessions will involve a cost to revenue of £12,920,000 in a full year and £9,699,000 in 1961-62. While not a taxation item, it will interest many members of the House and the public to learn that the Government is increasing by 50 per cent. - from £8,000 to £12,000 in each case - the grants made to the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia and the Royal Life Saving Society, Australia. Whilst the amounts are small, I am glad to pay this public recognition and to offer the thanks of this Parliament to the people in these organizations who give such commendable and public-spirited service to us. {: .page-start } page 45 {:#debate-50} ### OTHER REVENUE We expect revenue from business undertakings to be £7,493,000 greater this year than last and of this increase £6,085,000 is expected to come from the Post Office, £751,000 from the Commonwealth Railways and £656,000 from broadcasting and television services. It is expected that revenue from miscellaneous sources will total £64,285,000 - or £3,695,000 more than in 1960-61. The proportion of profits payable to Consolidated Revenue by the Reserve Bank (including the Note Issue Department) and the Commonwealth Banking Corporation is estimated to be £17,750,000 - an increase of £1,373,000 on last year. Details of the other miscellaneous revenues - mainly interest, fees and charges - are shown in Statement No. 3. {: .page-start } page 45 {:#debate-51} ### TOTAL REVENUE Our total revenue from all sources is expected to be £1,697,198,000 after allowing for the effect in the present year of the proposed tax reductions. {: .page-start } page 45 {:#debate-52} ### LOAN RAISINGS Last year cash proceeds of loan raisings in Australia and overseas amounted to £144,651,000. This year, with more stable financial conditions, we may be able to borrow rather greater sums in Australia; but prospects for borrowings abroad are very uncertain at this stage. We propose to use a figure of £165,000,000 for possible borrowings from all sources in 1961-62. This would be an increase of £20,349,000 over last year. {: .page-start } page 45 {:#debate-53} ### OTHER RECEIPTS It is estimated that some £56,500,000 should be available from the income of the National Debt Sinking Fund to assist in meeting redemptions of maturing debt. {: .page-start } page 45 {:#debate-54} ### TOTAL CASH RECEIPTS Adding together estimated revenues, borrowings and other receipts, we have in sight cash receipts estimated to total £1,918,698,000, an amount greater by £96,067,000 than actual cash receipts in 1960-61. {: .page-start } page 45 {:#debate-55} ### OVERALL POSITION If, as estimated, total cash expenditure in 1961-62 amounts to £1,935,169,000 and total cash receipts amount to £1,918,698,000, there will be a cash deficit for the year of £16,471,000. The Government has decided that, under present circumstances, it is justified in carrying a cash deficit of that dimension. Last year, it will be remembered, there was a cash surplus of £15,791,000 so that, in terms of overall results, this Budget will represent a change of approximately £32,300,000 in the expansionary direction. On our assessment of the position we do not regard it as either necessary or desirable to budget for more than a moderate deficit. Monetary conditions seem likely, in any case, to be fairly liquid this year. On the other hand, in the light of our estimates, we could avoid a cash deficit only by curtailing expenditures which, after full evaluation, we consider to be necessary, or by refusing increases in social service and repatriation benefits, which would be unjust to the people concerned, or by withholding tax concessions which seem to us to be particularly opportune under present economic conditions. There is, of course, a nice question of judgment in all this and we have had very much in mind that the position could change over the year in ways we cannot now foresee. But, on the information we have and on such forecasts as we can make, we believe we are striking about the right balance between the various courses open to us. As a matter of procedure, it will be necessary to seek an appropriation of £83,279,000 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. This is because, on our present estimates, the amount of the Loan Council borrowing programme which, subject to review later in the year, we have undertaken to support, together with some minor items chargeable to Loan Fund, are likely to exceed borrowings. It will also be necessary to seek loan authority for the raising of treasury-bills to finance the cash deficit. {: .page-start } page 46 {:#debate-56} ### CONCLUSION That, **Mr. Chairman,** is an outline of the Budget measures for the year. It is not easy, when one has to deal with a recital of figures in such a narrative, to breathe into it something of the spirit of the growth, expansion and development that we, as we si i in government in this country, see around us throughout Australia; but we believe that this Budget will contribute usefully to those purposes which all sections of this Parliament. I believe, wish to serve in the interests of Australia. This Budget follows upon a year of dramatic events and strenuous experience in the economic field. The Government found it necessary to take sharp measures to remedy conditions which were plainly heading us into danger. Those conditions and those measures are now past. Some people, not all of them markedly unprosperous. resent what was done: but I am "sure that is not true of the great majority of Australians who claim no right to easy prosperity and are always ready to take their part and face their lot in the work and life of this country. Our sympathies are strongly with those who, through the turn of events, find themselves unemployed. On behalf of the Government I assure them, and also those, who have taken up their cause, that we will do everything that can reasonably be done to lift this misfortune from them. Having now emerged to the prospect of a new phase in progress, soundly based, this country needs all its resources on the job. The Government will do its utmost to create the necessary conditions and opportunities; but it is not our job alone. We accept responsibilities for leadership in our own sphere; but we have no monopoly of leadership. We say to all who share that responsibility with us - the times are right again for a further phase of progress. Our tasks are great. Let us get on with them. STATEMENT No. 1. - BUDGET RESULTS. 1960-61. Part A. - Summary of Budget Results, 1960-61. In the financial year 1960-61 the total cash receipts of the Commonwealth Government exceeded its total cash payments by £15,791,000. In terms of cash, the overall Budget result for 1960-61 can be summarized as follows: - Receipts of the Consolidated Revenue Fund were £21,899,000 greater than estimated. Taxation collections totalled £1,418,366,000, which was £16,752,000 greater than the Budget estimate. Other revenues were £5,146,000 greater than estimated. Expenditure charged to Consolidated Revenue Fund, excluding the payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, wbs £1,495,718,000, or £5,081,000 greater than the Budget estimate. As a result, the amount available for payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve was £142,561,000, or £16,818,000 more than the Budget estimate. Details of the Consolidated Revenue Fund results are given in Part B of this Statement. The Loan Council borrowing programme for State works and housing in 1960-61, which the Commonwealth undertook to support, was £230,000,000. Together with the £2,027,000 required to finance advances to the States for War Service Land Settlement, the total borrowing requirements for the year were therefore £232,027,000. Cash proceeds from loans raised in Australia and overseas during the year totalled £144,651,000, compared with the Budget estimate of £150,000,000. As it was necessary to apply £4,981,000 of these proceeds to finance redemptions during the year, £139,670,000 was available towards financing the State works and housing programmes and the advances for War Service Land Settlement. An amount of £2,688,000 was made available from Loan Fund balances and the remaining £89,669,000 required to meet the total borrowing requirements for these purposes was provided by means of a special loan, to which the Commonwealth subscribed from the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. Redemptions of maturing securities, repayments of loans from the International Bank and redemptions of War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates totalled £79,095,000 in 1960-61, compared with the Budget estimate of £80,000,000. As previously mentioned, £4,981,000 of this outlay was financed out of loan proceeds, leaving a balance of £74,114,000 to be met from the National Debt Sinking Fund. Current receipts of the Sinking Fund available for meeting redemptions were £51,599,000. Further details of the various loan transactions of the Commonwealth during 1960-61 are given in Part C of this Statement. The manner in which the various commitments of the Commonwealth were financed in 1960-61 can be summarized as follows: - Of the cash surplus, £15,000,000 was applied to redeem Treasury Bills on issue to the Central Bank and £791,000 was added to the cash balances of the Commonwealth. Revenue. - Total revenue collected in 1960-61 amounted to £1,638,279,000, or £21,899,000 more than the Budget estimate. Taxation revenue exceeded the estimates by £16,733,000, and other revenue by £5,146,000. Customs revenue was £4,123,000 greater than the Budget estimate, reflecting both the high level of imports and the greater proportion of imports subject to higher rates of customs duty. Excise collections were £6,488,000 less than the estimate. Clearances of most items subject to excise duty were lower than had been estimated, with the largest shortfalls occurring in collections from duties on petrol, cigarettes and tobacco, and cathode ray tubes. Sales Tax collections were less than the Budget estimate by £7,364,000. The rate of collections in the first half of the year was above the level estimated. In the second half of the year, sales of taxable goods, except those subject to the " general " rate of tax of 121 per cent., declined, with the result that collections for the full year were lower than had been estimated. Income Tax collections from individuals exceeded the Budget estimate by £8,710,000. Wage and salary incomes, and hence " pay-as-you-earn " collections from those incomes, were slightly higher than had been expected, and refunds in 1960-61 of excess tax instalment deductions made in 1959-60 were lower than had been estimated. Collections of Income Tax from companies exceeded the Budget estimate by £14,962,000. The higher collections were chiefly due to the incomes of companies in 1959-60, on which tax was assessed and collected in 1960-61, being greater than had been anticipated. Collections of Dividend (Withholding) Tax, which first applied from 1st July, 1960, were £1,460,000 higher than had been estimated. Pay-roll Tax collections were £1,260,000 more than had been estimated, due to salary and wage payments in 1960-61 being higher than expected. Estate Duty and Gift Duty collections were much as estimated, being £7,000 and £83,000, respectively, above the Budget estimates. Total revenue from Business Undertakings was £153,867,000, or £537,000 greater than the Budget estimate. Receipts from the Commonwealth Railways and the Post Office were higher than had been estimated, but receipts from Broadcasting and Television were less, mainly due to a smaller increase than had been expected in revenue from television viewers' and broadcast listeners' licence fees. Revenue from Territories was £243,000 less than the Budget estimate, due almost entirely to receipts from premiums on sales of leases in the Australian Capital Territory being £213,000 lower than expected. Miscellaneous Revenue was £4,852,000 greater than the Budget estimate. An amount of £2,500,000, for which no provision had been made in the Budget, was received from the sale of the aluminium plant at Bell Bay. Other items of Miscellaneous Revenue to exceed the estimates were Interior, up £516,000; payments from profits of the Reserve Bank of Australia, up £471,000; and interest from the General Trust Fund, up £297,000. The main items of Miscellaneous Revenue which were less than had been estimated in the Budget were unrequired balances of Trust Accounts, £347,000 less, and interest from War Service Homes, £194,000 less. {:#subdebate-56-0} #### Expenditure Expenditure charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund totalled £1,638,279,000, which was £21,899,000 more than had been estimated. The Payment to the National Welfare Fund was £94,000 less than the Budget estimate. Expenditure on Hospital and Medical Benefits fell short of the estimate by £2,120,000, expenditure on Medical Benefits for Pensioners by £486,000, and Widows' Pensions by £431,000. On the other hand, expenditure on Pharmaceutical Benefits was £1,899,000 greater than estimated, expenditure on Unemployment and Sickness Benefits was £740,000 greater, and a contribution of £352,000 to rental losses under the 1945 Commonwealth and State Housing Agreement was incurred, whereas no provision had been made in the Estimates for this item. Debt Charges were £2,259,000 less than the Budget estimate, principally because redemptions of War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates, which involve the payment of accrued interest from Consolidated Revenue, were not as great as expected. Miscellaneous Special Appropriations were £316,000 less than the Budget estimate. Expenditure on Public Service Pensions and Retiring Allowances was £1,032,000 greater than the Budget estimate, contributions to the Indus Basin Development Fund under the Colombo Plan were £268,000 greater, and expenditure under the Aluminium Industry Act was £494,000 greater than expected. These increases, however, were more than offset by the decreases, as compared with the Budget estimates, that occurred in such items as the International Development Association, £1,622,000; the payment to the Australian Stevedoring Industry Authority, £258.000; and expenditure in connexion with Primary Industry Research and Sales Promotion, £146,000. Departmental Expenditure was £2,450,000 greater than estimated. There were increases in expenditure over the Budget estimates in respect of cattle tick eradication in New South Wales, £269,000; the Australian National University grant, £263,000; the building of homes for the aged, £554,000; and remissions of customs duty in special circumstances, £743,000. A contribution of £335,000 was made to the United Nations Fund for the Congo, for which no provision had been made in the Budget. Expenditure on Defence Services was £198,167,000, or almost precisely as estimated. Expenditure on Bounties and Subsidies was £620,000 more than estimated. This was mainly due to the extension of bounty legislation relating to copper and sulphuric acid beyond the previous expiry dates of 31st December, 1960, a lower world price for copper leading to higher bounty payments and higher payments than had been expected in the case of the tractor bounty. Expenditure on War and Repatriation Services was £520,000 above the Budget estimate. ' Expenditure on Repatriation Benefits exceeded the Budget estimate by £315,000, mainly because of an increase in the cost of medical^ treatment, and expenditure on Reconstruction and" Rehabilitation was £77,000 greater than estimated. Repatriation administrative costs were £110,000 greater than the Budget estimate, and recoverable expenditure on behalf of other Administrations (the United Kingdom Government, &c.) was £480,000 greater than had been estimated. Expenditure on War and Service Pensions and Allowances was £349,000 less than the Budget estimate. Post Office expenditure was £465,000 greater than the Budget estimate, mainly because the volume of overseas mail was greater than expected. Railways expenditure was £20,000 less than estimated, and expenditure on Broadcasting and Television £26,000 greater. Expenditure on Territories exceeded the Budget estimate by £402,000. This was due mainly to an increase of £297,000 above the estimate in the Commonwealth grant to the Administration of Papua and New Guinea. Payments to or for the States exceeded the Budget estimate by £2,340,000, mainly because of an increase of £2,372,000 in the amount of the financial assistance grants finally determined by the Commonwealth Statistician under the formula embodied in the *States Grants Act* 1959, over the estimate included in the Budget. Expenditure on Capital Works and Services exceeded the Budget estimate by £930,000. Expenditure by the Department of Civil Aviation was £1,621,000 greater than estimated, mainly because of the additional provision for Qantas Empire Airways Limited of £1,150,000 as capital and £500,000 as a repayable advance. Expenditure in the Australian Capital Territory was £328,000 greater than estimated. Expenditures in the Northern Territory and Papua and New Guinea were, respectively, £337,000 and £188,000 less than estimated. Expenditure by the Department of the Interior, mainly on the construction of Commonwealth Offices in various States, was £299,000 less than the Budget estimate. The amount of £142,561,000 transferred to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve was £16,818,000 greater than the Budget estimate. Part C. - Loan Transactions, 1960-61. LOAN COMMITMENTS, 1960-61. At its meeting in June, 1960, the Australian Loan Council approved a governmental borrowing programme of £230,000,000 for State works and housing in 1960-61. 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, 1961, the Commonwealth advised the States that it was prepared to continue making advances for the remainder of the financial year at the annual rate of £230,000,000 and to provide sufficient special assistance to enable the borrowing programme to be achieved. A further amount of £2,027,000 was required to finance Commonwealth advances to the States for War Service Land Settlement. The total amount required to finance the Loan Council borrowing programme for State works and housing and to finance advances to the States for War Service Land Settlement was therefore £232,027,000. Loan Council approval was also given at the June, 1960, meeting for the Commonwealth to borrow in the United States $30,000,000 on behalf of Qantas Empire Airways Limited and $2,000,000 on behalf of the Australian National Airlines Commission (T.A.A.). {: .page-start } page 50 {:#debate-57} ### LOAN RAISINGS, 1960-61 During 1960-61 the Commonwealth issued three public cash loans in Australia, two of them being associated with 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, 1960, were £106,966,000. Securities eligible for the two conversion offers amounted to £337,202,000. Of these, £268,791,000 were converted, £67,423,000 were redeemed and £988,000 were outstanding at 30th June, 1961. The issue of Special Bonds - Series C was discontinued in September, 1960, and was followed by the issue of Special Bonds - Series D. In February, 1961, Series D Bonds were replaced by Series E Bonds. Proceeds of sales of Special Bonds during the year were £19,098,000, and redemptions amounted to £7,597,000. Net cash proceeds from Special Bonds during the year were thus £11,501,000. In addition, maturing Commonwealth Bonds and Inscribed Stock totalling £8,194,000 were converted into Special Bonds in 1960-61, of which £8,161,000 related to debt maturing during 1960-61. During the year three cash loans and two cash and conversion loans were raised overseas. Loans in New York (U.S. $25,000,000) and Toronto (Can. $20,000,000) yielded £19,796,000 and a loan in Switzerland (60,000,000 Swiss francs) yielded £6,211,000, making a total of £26,007,000. In addition, two cash and conversion loans totalling £Stg.33,925,000 (£42,532,000) were issued in London to refinance £Stg.34,504,000 (£43,258,000) of maturing debt. After allowing for overseas borrowing expenditures charged during the year, the cash proceeds of overseas loans totalled £25,355,000. Commencing in October, 1960, 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. They were issued daily until March, 1961, in which month the amount outstanding reached a peak of £51,929,000. All the Notes matured and were repaid before the close of the financial year. Details of public cash and conversion loans raised in 1960-61 (other than issues of Seasonal Treasury Notes) are given in the following table: - The amount of £106,966,000 shown in the table j hove as the proceeds of the three public cash loans issued iri Australia in 1960-61 differs from the actual cash receipts from loan raisings during the year. The main reasons are that cash receipts exclude advance subscriptions brought forward from the previous year, but include those received up to 30th June, 1961, in respect of the first loan to be raised in 1961-62. They also take into account outstanding instalments received during the year from loans floated in the previous year, but do not include instalments in respect of 1960-61 loans still outstanding at 30th June, 1961. In the result, cash receipts in 1960-61 from public loan raisings in Australia amounted to £103,435,000. Net expenses of overseas loans charged during the year were £652,000, which reduced cash receipts from overseas loans to £25,355,000. Total cash receipts in 1960-61 from public loan raisings both in Australia and overseas (including net receipts of £11,501,000 from the issue of Special Bonds) were therefore £140,291,000. State domestic raisings yielded £4,360,000, bringing total cash receipts from loans in 1960-61 to £144,651,000. This compares with the Budget estimate of £150,000,000. Since £4,981,000 of the cash receipts from public loans in Australia was required to help finance redemptions of maturing May, 1961, securities, the cash available from loan raisings in Australia and overseas to finance loan commitments in 1960-61 was £139,670,000. Of the amount of £232,027,000 required to finance the Loan Council borrowing programme and advances to the States for War Service Land Settlement, £92,357,000 therefore remained to be provided by the Commonwealth. Of this, £89,669,000 was made available by the Commonwealth subscribing, from the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, to a special loan of £90,000,000 (face value) issued in June, 1961. The remaining £2,688,000 was financed by the use of balances available in Loan Fund. In summary, the sources of finance for the 1960-61 Loan Council borrowing programme and for advances to the States for War Service Land Settlement were as follows: - {: .page-start } page 52 {:#debate-58} ### LOAN REDEMPTIONS, 1960-61 ft was estimated in the Budget that redemptions of securities maturing during 1960-61, redemptions of War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates, redemptions of overdue securities and repayments of loans from the International Bank would in total cost £80,000,000. The actual cost of these commitments was £79,095,000. Securities amounting to £337,202,000 were offered for conversion in public loans in Australia during 1960-61 and of these £67,423,000 were redeemed. Loan proceeds were used to finance £4,981,000 of these redemptions, representing portion of the redemptions of State debt, and the remaining £62,442,000 were financed from the National Debt Sinking Fund. In addition, two cash and conversion loans were issued in London to refinance £Stg.33,925,000 of a total of £Stg.34,504.000 Commonwealth Registered Stock which matured during the year. The remaining £Stg.579,000 was redeemed by the National Debt Sinking Fund, at a cost of £726,000. Redemptions of overdue securities, costing £1,167,000, and of War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates, £2,216,000, together with repayments of loans from the International Bank, costing £7,563,000 (U.S.$ 16,940,000), were also met from the Sinking Fund, making £74,114,000 in total financed from that Fund. Current receipts of the Sinking Fund were £73,853,000. After meeting repurchases, minor redemptions and repayments and discounts on conversion loans, £51,599,000 of these receipts were available to meet the redemptions mentioned above. Thiswas supplemented to the extent of £27,643,000 by the sale to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve of securities held as investments by the Sinking Fund. The National Debt Sinking Fund was thereby enabled to meet its commitments for redemptions and for repayments to the International Bank, and to increase its cash balances by £5,128,000, of which £4,848,000 related to the Commonwealth Sinking Fund and £280,000 to the Sinking Funds of the States. In addition to the redemptions of £74,114,000 mentioned above, the Sinking Fund expended £18,945,000 in Australia in 1960-61 on repurchases and miscellaneous repayments, and £2,693,000 on repurchases and repayments overseas (principally repurchases on the New York market, costing £1,933,000). The total amount expended by the Sinking Fund in 1960-61 in reduction of debtwas therefore £95,752,000, made up as follows:- An amount of £225,000 was paid from the Canadian Loan Trust Account for contractual repurchases of Commonwealth Bonds issued in Canada. Securities with a face value of Canadian $556,000 were repurchased and cancelled. A minor amount of £12,000 was also spent from Consolidated Revenue on repayments of Instalment Stock issued by the Commonwealth Government. In addition to the reduction of £90,756,000 (face value) in Commonwealth and State debt in Australia resulting from the operations of the National Debt Sinking Fund and Loan Fund, there was a reduction of £31,245,000 in Commonwealth debt through the operations of the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. The Commonwealth established this Reserve in 19SS to assist in reducing the large amounts of Commonwealth debt, chiefly war debt, that would fall due in subsequent years. Since 19SS, the operations of the Reserve have resulted in the cancellation of Commonwealth debt amounting to £424,790,000, mainly as a result of exchanges of medium and long term securities from its own portfolio for early maturing securities held elsewhere. CHANCES IN AMOUNT OF GOVERNMENT SECURITIES ON ISSUE - 30th JUNE, 1960, TO 30th JUNE, 1961. {:#subdebate-58-0} #### Australia The following table summarizes changes during 1960-61 in the amount of Government securities, other than Treasury Bills, on issue in Australia: - {:#subdebate-58-1} #### Overseas The following table summarizes changes during 1960-61 in the amount of Government securities on issue overseas: - STATEMENT No. 2.- SUMMARY OF BUDGET PROSPECTS, 1961-62. Total cash requirements of the Commonwealth Government in 1961-62 are estimated at ti. 935, 169,000. Total cash receipts are estimated ii £1,918,698,000, leaving a prospective cash deficit of £16,471,000. The main reasons for the estimated increase of £128.329,000 in total cash requirements in 1961-62 ire: - {: type="a" start="a"} 0. Expenditure on war and repatriation ser vices, and on payments from the National Welfare Fund, is estimated to increase by £31,955,000 in 1961-62, of which £11,442,000 is attributable to the additional benefits now proposed. 1. Payments from revenue to the State Governments are estimated to increase in 1961-62 by £31,921,000, of which £23,668,000 is attributable to estimated increases in financial assistance and special grants. {: type="a" start="c"} 0. The approved Loan Council programme for State works and housing in 1961-62 is £10,000,000 greater than in V960-61. 1. Other special factors which are expected to add to Commonwealth commitments this year include the direct salary cost of the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage, esimated at £6,300,000; the payments from Consolidated Revenue to finance guaranteed payments from the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund, estimated at £13,022,000; and the provision of £5,000,000 additional capital for the Commonwealth Development Bank of Australia. Receipts of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, after taking into account the proposed taxation measures, are estimated to be £1,697,198,000, or £58.919,000 greater than in 1960-61. Loan proceeds are expected to be £20,349,000 greater in 1961-62 than in the preceding financial year, and an increase of £4,901,000 is also expected in the income of the National Debt Sinking Fund available to finance redemptions. Total cash receipts in 196N62 are estimated at £1,918,698,000, which is £96,067,000 more than actual receipts in 1960-61. In 1960-61 expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, excluding the transfer payment to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, was £1,495,718,000. The comparable figure for 1961-62 is estimated at £1,613,919,000. As receipts of the Consolidated Revenue Fund are expected to total £1,697,198,000, it is proposed to appropriate £83,279,000 to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, thereby balancing the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The approved Loan Council borrowing programme for State works and housing in 1961-62 is £240,000,000, or £10,000,000 greater than the 1960-61 programme. 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 £240,000,000. For purposes of estimating the Commonwealth's financial requirements, it has been assumed that the borrowing programme will in fact be £240,000,000, and that the gap between this amount and loan proceeds available towards the programme will be filled by Commonwealth assistance from ils own resources. Loan proceeds, which totalled £144,651,000 in 1960-61, are expected to be higher in 1961-62. It is estimated that they will amount to £165,000,000. Loan finance will again be required in 1961-62 for advances to the States for War Service Land Settlement. The amount so required is estimated to be £2,250,000, compared with £2,027,000 in 1960-61. Including repayments of loans from the International Bank, redemptions of matured securities amounted to £79,095,000 in 1960-61. Total redemptions in 1961-62, including redemptions of overdue securities and repayments of loans from the International Bank, are estimated at £79,000,000. In 1960-61 £4,981,000 of redemptions was financed out of loan proceeds and the balance of £74,114,000 was met from the National Debt Sinking Fund. As the current receipts of the Sinking Fund available for that purpose were £51,599,000, the Sinking Fund drew on its balances to supplement these current receipts. This involved the realization of some investments of the Fund by way of sales to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. For 1961-62, current receipt* of the Sinking Fund available to finance redemptions are estimated to amount to £56,500,000 which, if redemptions are £79,000,000, would fall short of that amount by some £22,500,000. No change is expected in Other Balances in 1961-62. The foregoing figures are brought together in the table below, which compares the prospective overall cash result of the Commonwealth in 1961-62 with the actual cash result in 1960-61. The approved borrowing programme for State works and housing in 1961-62 is £240,000,000. If loan raisings available for this programme are £165.000,000, a further amount of £75,000.000 will be required to complete the programme. An estimated £2,250,000 will also be required to finance War Service Land Settlement advances. It is expected that the amount required to complete the borrowing programme for State works and housing and to finance War Service Land Settlement advances will be provided by way of a special loan, and that a subscription to this loan will be made from the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve. As mentioned above, the current receipts of the Sinking Fund in 1961-62 may fall short by some £22,500,000 of the amount required to finance redemptions, including repayments to the International Bank, and it is therefore proposed to utilize some of the balances in that Fund. The manner in which it is proposed to finance the various expenditures comprehended in the 1961-62 Budget may be set out as follows: - {:#subdebate-58-2} #### Transactions Outside Consolidated Revenue Fund Further details of the Consolidated Revenue Fund estimates are given in Statement No. 3 and details of Estimated Loan Transactions, 1961-62. are given in Statement No. 5. STATEMENT No. 3.- CONSOLIDATED REVENUE FUND ESTIMATES, 1961-62. REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ESTIMATES 1961-62, COMPARED WITH ACTUAL RESULTS 1960-61. (Allowing for the effect of Budget proposals.) {: .page-start } page 57 {:#debate-59} ### NOTES ON REVENUE ESTIMATES The estimates of revenue for 1961-62 shown in the foregoing table include the effect of the various revenue proposals announced in the Budget Speech. The effect of those proposals on the revenue estimates is shown in the following table: - Details of these revenue proposals, together with estimates of their effect on revenue in 1961-62 and in a full year, are as follows: - lt is estimated that, if there were no changes in the existing legislation, total revenue in 1961-62 would be £1,706,897,000, or £68,618,000 greater than in 1960-61. Taking into account the net effect of the proposed changes announced in the Budget Speech, total revenue in 1961-62 is estimated at £1,697,198,000, or £58,919,000 greater than in 1960-61. Brief explanations of the estimates for particular items follow. {:#subdebate-59-0} #### Item No. 1. - Customs Revenue Imports are expected to be substantially lowe in 1961-62 than in 1960-61, with the result that Customs collections at present rates of duty are expected to decline by £12,823.000. As the effect of the proposal to adjust rates of duty to remove protection from certain petroleum products would be to reduce Customs revenue by an estimated £1,144,000, it is estimated that Customs revenue will decline, in all, by £13,967,000 to £87,856,000 in 1961-62. In 1960-61 Customs collections rose by £17.442,000. Item No. 2. - Excise Revenue. lt is estimated that, on the basis of existing legislation, Excise collections in 1961-62 would be £264,000,000, compared with £257,412,000 in 1960-61. The estimated increase of £6,588,000 is based on the expectation that consumption of beer and cigarettes will increase in 1961-62, and that there will be a further expansion in the output of local oil refineries. Some increase in collections from other dutiable goods, with the exception of tobacco, is also expected. In 1960-61 Excise collections increased by £5,023,000. The proposed increase in the rate of Excise duty on locally refined petrol, associated with the removal of protection from certain petroleum products, is estimated to result in the collection of a further £1,030,000 of Excise revenue in 1961-62. After allowing for this proposal, the estimated level of collections in 1961-62 is £265,030,000, or an increase of £7,618,000 compared with collections in 1960-61. {:#subdebate-59-1} #### Item No. 3. - Sales Tax On the basis of existing legislation, Sales Tax collections are estimated at £170,000,000 in 1961-62, which is £3,015,000 less than in 1960-61. Mainly as a result of very high collections in the first half of the year, collections of Sales Tax in 1960-61 were £8,830,000 greater than in the preceding financial year. In the second half of 1960- 61 there was a decline in collections, particularly collections from passenger motor vehicles and durable consumer goods. It is expected that in 1961- 62 collections from most goods subject to Sales Tax will increase over the levels of the second half of 1960-61, though not necessarily to the high levels of the first half of that year. This applies particularly in the case of passenger motor vehicles, sales of which reached an abnormally high level in the latter months of 1960. Largely because of this factor, a small decline in Sales Tax collections is expected to occur, on the basis of existing legislation, in 1961-62. The net effect of the changes in Sales Tax now proposed would be to reduce collections in 1961-62 by £9,200,000. It is therefore estimated that Sales Tax collections will total £160,800,000, or £12.215.000 less than in 1960-61. {:#subdebate-59-2} #### Item No. 4. - Income Tax It is estimated that, on the basis of existing legislation, collections of Income Tax from individuals in 1961-62 would be £577,000,000, or £58,255,000 greater than in 1960-61. The increase in 1960-61 of £76,581,000 was due in part to the withdrawal of the 5 per cent, rebate of tax which applied in the preceding year. Net " pay-as-you-earn " collections in 1961-62 are expected to exceed those of 1960-61 as a result of anticipated higher wage and salary incomes. Although the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage will apply for most of 1961-62 and employment is expected to rise, the increase in net " payasyouearn " collections is not expected to be as large as in 1960-61, when the 5 per cent, rebate of tax was withdrawn. There appears to have been a small overall increase in the taxable incomes of other individual taxpayers derived in 1960-61, and assessable this year, so that collections from this source are also expected to be greater than in 1960-61. The level of company incomes in 1960-61 is. estimated to have been slightly lower than in. 1959-60 but, mainly because of a larger carryoverof tax payable by companies on incomes of 1959-60 and previous years, collections of income tax from companies are expected to increase by £8,438,000 in 1961-62. In 1960-61 collections from companies rose by £53,432,000 as a result of the very large increase which occurred in company incomes in 1959- 60 and of the general increase of 6d. in the £1 in the rates of tax payable on the incomes of that year. The 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 £5,750,000- in 1961-62, which is £210,000 less than in 1960-61 Though some increase is expected in 1961-62 in the amount of dividend income subject to the tax, the increased revenue on that account is expected to be more than offset by refunds on assessment of any excess tax withheld in 1960-61. It is estimated that, on the basis of existing legislation, total Income Tax collections in 1961-62 would be £873,750,000, or £66,484,000 greater than in 1960-61. After allowing for the effect of the proposed changes announced in the Budget Speech, the estimated amount of collections in 1961-6? is £873,365,000, and the estimated increase over 1960- 61 is £66,099,000. Item No. 5.- Pay-roll Tax. Partly because of .the extra pay-day which occurred in 1960-61, Pay-roll Tax collections, at £61,260,000, were £6,098,000 greater in 1960-61 than in 1959-60. As a result of the expected increases in the level of employment and in wage and salary payments, it is estimated that Pay-roll Tax will yield £63,250,000 in 1961-62. However, as rebates of Pay-roll Tax under the export incentive scheme this year are estimated to amount to £1,750,000, net collections from Pay-roll Tax in 1961-62 are estimated to be £61,500,000, or £240,000 more than actual collections in 1960-61. Items No. 6 and No. 7. - Estate and Gift Duties. Collections of Estate Duty and Gift Duty in 1961- 62 are estimated to be £14,750,000 and £2,730,000, respectively, compared with actual collections of £14,807,000 and £2,783,000 in 1960-61. Item No. 8. - Business UNDERTAKINGS Revenue. The estimated increase of £751,000 in the revenue of the Commonwealth Railways in 1961-62 is expected to arise from increased traffic, particularly freight, on the Trans-Australian and Central Australia Railways. A small decrease is expected in traffic on the North Australia Railway. Post Office receipts are estimated to increase by £6,085,000 to a total of £142,250,000 in 1961-62, due to the continued growth in postal and telephone traffic. Broadcasting and Television revenue is estimated at £12,210,000, or £656,000 greater than last year, mainly because of an expected increase in the number of new television viewers' licences. {:#subdebate-59-3} #### Item No. 9. - Territories Revenue Territories revenue in 1961-62 is estimated to be £5,502,000, compared with £5,455,000 last financial year. The estimated increase of £47,000 reflects an expected decline in receipts from premiums on sales of leases in the Australian Capital Territory, which will be offset by increased revenue arising from the continued expansion of services in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, and the higher rents for Governmentowned houses in the Australian Capital Territory to be introduced in 1961-62. Defence. - Receipts in 1961-62 are estimated to be £665,000 less than in 1960-61, mainly because disposals of surplus stores and materials are not expected to be as great as in 1960-61. Interior. - Revenue in 1961-62 is estimated to be £123,000 below the amount collected in 1960-61 because receipts from sales of property are expected to decline. Civil Aviation. - The estimated increase of £745,000 in receipts for 1961-62 consists of increases of £344,000 from air navigation charges; £304,000 in the dividend from Qantas Empire Airways Limited (this being for a period of 15 months); £47,000 in the payment in the nature of a dividend from the Australian National Airlines Commission; and £50,000 in miscellaneous receipts. Attorney-General's. - Revenue is estimated to be £179,000 greater in 1961-62 than in 1960-61 because of the full-year effects of a general in crease in charges and fees for patents first effective in 1960-61. Primary Industry. - Revenue is estimated to be £1,381,000 greater in 1961-62 than in 1960-61 because increased collections are expected from the wool promotion levy and the cattle slaughter levy, and because an amount of £250,000 is expected to be received from the United Kingdom Government under the Meat Export Deficiency Payment legislation in 1961-62; there was no corresponding receipt in 1960-61. 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 £1,229,000 greater in 1961-62 than in 1960-61. 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 £144,000 greater in 1961-62 than in 1960-61. War Service Homes - Interest. - The estimated increase of £995,000 in 1961-62 compared with 1960-61 reflects the larger total amount of advances outstanding under the War Service Homes scheme. 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 £1,637,000 in 1961-62 reflects the considerable increase in hydro-electric generating capacity and output expected to follow from the Tumut 1 and Tumut 2 Power Stations reaching full operation. Australian Atomic Energy Commission. - Proceeds from the sale of radio-active isotopes and other materials, and from the hire of space in the reactor at Lucas Heights, are paid to Consolidated Revenue. Receipts from these sources in 1961-62 are estimated to be £130,000 greater than in 1960-61. Australian Aluminium Production Undertaking - Sale. - The Agreement embodied in the Australian Aluminium Industry Act 1960, under which the aluminium undertaking conducted at Bell Bay, Tasmania, by the Australian Aluminium Production Commission was sold to Aluminium Production Corporation Limited, provides that the purchase price of £10,980,000 be paid by a deposit of £2,500,000 on 3rd January, 1961; four annual instalments of £250,000 in the years 1961 to 1964, inclusive; eleven annual instalments of £625,000 in the years 1965 to 1975, inclusive; and a final instalment of £605,000 in 1976. The deposit of £2,500,000 was received in 1960-61, and an instalment of £250,000 is receivable on 31st December, 1961. Repayment of Trust Account Balances. - It is estimated that miscellaneous Trust Account balances amounting to £2,400,000 will be available for transfer to Consolidated Revenue in 1961-62, compared with £2,053,000 in 1960-61. Stevedoring Industry Charge. - The estimated decrease of £94,000 in 1961-62 is due to an expected reduction in the number of man-hours to be worked, partly because of increasing mechanization on the Australian waterfront. {: .page-start } page 60 {:#debate-60} ### NOTES ON EXPENDITURE ESTIMATES {:#subdebate-60-0} #### Item No. 11. - 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 £330,604,000 in 1960-61 and, after taking account of the Budget proposals, is estimated at £358,230,000 in 1961-62. Detailed explanations of the estimated increase of £27,626,000 in expenditure from the Fund in 1961-62 are given in Statement No. 4. - National Welfare Fund Estimates, 1961-62. Total Debt Charges in 1961-62 are estimated to be £71,089,000, or £3,594,000 greater than the corresponding expenditures in 1960-61. Sinking Fund contributions in 1961-62 are estimated to total £24,800,000, compared with £23,104,000 in the previous financial year. The estimated increase of £1,696,000 reflects the normal rate of accumulation in these contributions. Interest payments on debt repayable overseas are estimated to increase by £616,000 in 1961-62 as a result of the additional loans floated in the United States, Canada and Switzerland during 1960-61 and the higher rates of interest payable on the cash and conversion loan floated in London in January, 1961, to refinance maturing debt. The estimated increase of £1,574,000 in interest payments on debt repayable in Australia reflects the increased provision made for the payment of interest on outstanding War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates, all of which mature by the end of 1961, and also the higher rates of interest payable on debt converted. These factors will be offset to some extent by the decline in the amount of Commonwealth debt outstanding. Loan redemption and conversion expenses in 1961-62 are estimated to be £292,000 less than in 1960-61. In previous years these expenses were included in the miscellaneous sections of Special Appropriations and War and Repatriation Services. In previous years expenditure under this item was included in the classification " Miscellaneous Expenditure ". Public Service Pensions and Retiring Allowances. - The estimated increase of £990,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 reflects the normal growth in Commonwealth contributions to the Superannuation Fund and the Defence Forces Retirement Benefits Fund, together with the estimated cost of the proposals referred to in the Budget Speech. Primary Industry Research and Sales Promotion. - Expenditure in 1961-62 is estimated to increase by £1,274,000 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 promotion levy and the cattle slaughter levy. See Item No. 10. - Miscellaneous Revenue. International Bank Subscription. - In August, 1957, Australia agreed to release the then outstanding balance of £14,900,000 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. Because the four earlier instalments amounted in all to slightly more than four-fifths of the total sum it was agreed to release, the final instalment payable in 1961-62 is £129,000 less than that paid in 1960-61. International Development Association. - On 8th November, 1961, the International Development Association will commence its second year of operations. On that date, Australia's second annual instalment of its capital subscription, equivalent to £1,734,000, will fall due 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 lodgement with the Reserve Bank of non-negotiable noninterestbearing demand securities amounting to £1,621,000, which the International Development Association will cash as required for its operations. The estimated expenditure of £800,000 in 1961-62 represents the cash payment of £113,000 plus an estimate of the extent to which the International Development Association will redeem portion of the demand securities. Expenditure for this purpose in 1960-61 was £450,000, or £350,000 less than the estimate for 1961-62. Colombo Plan - Indus Basin Development Fund- The estimated increase of £1,232,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 reflects an expected increase in the rate of disbursements by the Fund as some of the major contracts for works associated with the sharing between India and Pakistan of the waters of the Indus Basin river system get under way. Stevedoring Industry. - The Stevedoring Industry Act 1954-1961 requires the payment to the Australian Stevedoring Industry Authority of amounts equal to revenue raised under the Stevedoring Industry Charge Act 1947-1958. Expenditure in 1961-62 is estimated to be £158,000 greater than in 1960-61. This figure reflects an expected increase of £252,000 due to a change in accounting arrangements and an expected decrease of £94,000 associated with lower revenue from the stevedoring industry charge. See Item No. 10 - Miscellaneous Revenue. Other. - The estimated decrease of £216,000 in 1961-62 reflects a decline of £301,000 in payments to Tasmania under the Australian Aluminium Industry Act 1960. Under that Act the Commonwealth is to pay Tasmania, as its proportion, fifteen one-hundred-and-twelfths of the proceeds the Commonwealth receives in each year from the sale of the aluminium plant at Bell Bay and, as indicated in Item No. 10. - Miscellaneous Revenue, the Commonwealth received £2,500,000 on this account in 1960-61, but expects to receive only £250,000 in 1961-62. In addition, expenditure in 1960-61 included £159,000 paid to the Aluminium Production Corporation Limited for the reserve value of superannuation contributions of transferred employee*. No similar provision is made in 1961-62. Estimated expenditure in 1961-62 includes the payment to primary producers of the sum of £250,000 expected to be received from the United Kingdom Government under the Meat ExporDeficiency Payment legislation (see Item No. 10.- Miscellaneous Revenue). Departmental Expenditure now includes a considerable part of expenditure which hitherto has been classified as Miscellaneous Expenditure: the balance of the expenditure previously included in that classification is now included under Item No. 13. - Miscellaneous Special Appropriations. Departmental Expenditure comprises the annual running costs of Civil Departments (excluding War and Repatriation Services, Business Undertakings, 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: - The estimated increase of £6,932,000 in salaries and administrative expenses (running costs) includes an amount of £1,200,000 to meet the cost in 1961-62 of the higher salaries and wages payable as a result of the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage. Some of the more important factors affecting the estimated expenditure of individual Departments in 1961-62 are: - Prime Minister's. - The estimated increase in expenditure of £1,597,000 in 1961-62 reflects an increase of £1.645,000 in expenditure on other services and a decline of £48,000 in running costs. Since it has become a separate statutory authority, the provision of £415,000 for the National Library in 1961-62 has been included in other services: expenditure of £353,000 on the National Library in 1960-61 is included in salaries and administrative expenses for that year. Largely offsetting the decline in running costs on this account are estimated increases in running costs of £74,000 for the Audit Office, of £60,000 for the Archives, of £117,000 for the High Commissioner's Office in London, and of £52,000 for the Public Service Board. The estimated increase in expenditure on other services is due mainly to an increase of £811,000 in the grant to the Australian National University (which now comprehends, as its School of General Studies, the Canberra University College on which expenditure of £140,000 was incurred in 1960-61 under the votes for the Australian Capital Territory. See Item No. 19. - Territories). Expenditure in connexion with the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme is estimated to be £342,000 greater than in 1960-61, and payments to Western Australia for cyclone relief, £167,000 greater. Provision has been made for a Commonwealth contribution of £160,000 towards the cost of the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia. External Affairs. - Of the estimated increase of £1,204,000 in 1961-62. £436,000 is attributable to an expected increase in running costs. The estimated increase of £768,000 in expenditure on other services reflects increases of £796,000 on account of the United Nations' Forces in the Congo Republic and £188,000 in Colombo Plan Technical Assistance. On the other hand, no contribution is proposed in 1961-62 for the Unite ! Nations' fund for special assistance to the Congo, in respect of which £335,000 was provided in 1960-61. Treasury. - An estimated increase of £1,584,000 in running costs is mainly responsible for the estimated increase in expenditure of £1,645,000 in 1961-62. Expenditure on other services is estimated to. be £61,000 greater than in 1960-61. The largest element in the estimated increase in running costs is £1,215,000 in respect of the Bureau of Census and Statistics, principally on account of the 1961 Population Census. Administrative costs of the Taxation Branch are also estimated to rise by £354,000, of which £208,000 is in respect of the basic wage increase. Attorney-General's. - It is estimated that expenditure in 1961-62 will be £133,000 greater than in 1960-61. Of this increase, £121,000 is attributable to an estimated increase in running costs, mainly as a result of the provision made for additional staff for the Bankruptcy Administration and the Patent Office. Expenditure on other services is estimated to increase by £12,000 on account of an increase in the grants to approved marriage guidance organizations. Interior. - The estimated increase in expenditure of £811,000 in 1961-62 results from an expected increase in running costs. The principal increases in running costs are £449,000 on account of the Electoral Branch, primarily in connexion with the Federal Elections to be held during 1961-62: £127,000 for the Meteorological Bureau: and £65,000 on account of the basic wage increase. Works. - Expenditure is estimated to increase by £865,000 in 1961-62 as a result of an increase in running costs. The components of the increase are £562,000 for wage and salary payments, including £116,000 on account of the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage; £125,000 for administrative expenses; and £178,000 on account of the cost of repairs and maintenance. Civil Aviation. - It is estimated that expenditure will increase by £746,000 in 1961-62, of which £659,000 is attributable to an expected increase in running costs. This increase is expected to arise mainly as a result of increases of £430,000 in expenditure on maintenance and operation of aerodromes and airways facilities and £170,000 in the administrative costs of the Department, including £123,000 attributable to the basic wage increase. Expenditure on other services is estimated to rise by £87,000, mainly as a result of an estimated increase of £104,000 in the Aerodromes Development Grant, partly offset by an estimated reduction of £49,000 in the contribution to ground facilities in the Pacific area. Customs and Excise. - A decline of £565,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 is expected to arise from an increase of £177,000 in running costs and a reduction of £742,000 in expenditure on other services. The estimated reduction in expenditure on other services is mainly attributable to an expected decline in remissions of duty under special circumstances in 1961-62. Health. - Expenditure in 1961-62 is estimated to be £25,000 greater than in 1960-61, reflecting an estimated increase of £204,000 in running costs. Expenditure on other services is estimated to be £179,000 less than in 1960-61, mainly because payments to New South Wales for cattle tick eradication and control are expected to decline by £192,000. Provision has been made for expenditure on the Lady Gowrie Child Health Centres to be increased to £50,000, and the grant to the National Health and Medical Research Council to be increased to £298,000. Trade. - Of the estimated increase in expenditure of £477,000 in 1961-62, £443,000 represents an estimated increase in running costs, due primarily to expected increases of £66,000 in the cost of staff in Australia, of £146,000 in expenditure on trade publicity, of £34,000 in the grant to the Australian National Travel Association, and of £131,000 in expenditure on the Trade Commissioner Service, including the costs of establishing new trade posts in Iran, Lebanon, Peru, and Venezuela. Primary Industry. - Expenditure is expected to increase in 1961-62 by £136,000, of which £93,000 is attributable to running costs and £43,000 to other services. Shipping and Transport. - It is estimated that expenditure will be £1,440,000 less than in 1960- 61. No overall change is expected in running costs. Expenditure on other services is expected to decline by £1,440,000 in 1961-62, mainly as a result of an expected decline of £1,454,000 in the subsidy payments for ship construction. following the abnormally high level of payments in 1960-61. Labour and National Service. - Expenditure is expected to increase by £138,000 in 1961-62 as a result of increased running costs, due partly to the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage. National Development. - It is estimated that expenditure in 1961-62 will be £2,400,000 greater than in 1960-61. Running costs are expected to increase by £636,000, including increases of £193,000 for the Division of National Mapping and £416,000 for the Bureau of Mineral Resources, both of which increases result mainly from additional activity associated with the search for oil in Australia and Papua and New Guinea. Mainly as a result of an increase of £483,000 in the provision for the Atomic Energy Commission and an estimated increase of £1,301,000 in the payment of oil search subsidies. expenditure on other services is estimated to increase by £1,764,000 in 1961-62. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. - lt is estimated that expenditure by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization will increase by £862,000 in 1961-62. Running costs are estimated to increase by £843,000, of which £310,000 is attributable to the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage, automatic increments and other administrative expenses, and £225,000 to an increase in staff; the balance of £308,000 relates to an intensified programme of fruit fly research, increased payments to the Department of Air for use of aircraft and crews in connexion with rainmaking experiments, and increased costs of laboratory supplies and maintenance. Expenditure on other services is estimated to increase by £19,000 in 1961-62. Defence expenditure in 1961-62 is estimated to be £202,859,000, or £4,692,000 greater than actual expenditure in 1960-61. The estimate for 1961-62 includes an amount of £2,015.000 to meet the cost of higher civilian salaries and pay of the Forces arising from the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage. The main items contributing to the variations shown in the above table are: - Defence. - The estimated increase of £393,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 includes £267.000 towards a building, plant and administrative expenses for an Electronic Data Processing Centre. The remainder of the increase is mainly in respect of salaries and administrative expenses for other Branches of the Department. Navy. - The estimated additional expenditure of £2,902.000 is mainly due to increased provisions for the purchase of aircraft, £2,235,000; for repair of ships and aircraft, £793,000: for machinery and plant, £207,000; and for pay of Navy personnel, £584.000, and civilian salaries, £313,000. These increases are partly offset by estimated reductions of £1,265,000 for equip ment and stores and of £112,000 for ship construction. Army. - It is estimated that expenditure by the Army will be £1,113,000 less than in 1960-61. Administrative expenses and general services are estimated to decline by £126,000. costs of maintenance of Forces overseas by £355,000, expenditure on purchase of equipment by £547,000, costs of acquisition of sites and buildings by £442.000, maintenance costs of buildings by £149,000, and payments under Commonwealth and State Housing Agreements by £204.000. Increased amounts of £661.000 and £76,000, respectively, are being provided for pay of the Forces and civilian salaries. Air.- The estimated increase of £2,229,000 for this item in 1961-62 is mainly due to estimated increases in the pay of the Forces, £574.000, and of civilian staffs. £77.000: and to increased provisions for expenditure on equipment and stores, £1,075,000, and purchase of aircraft, £722,000. The provision for new works is being reduced by £330,000 and that for the maintenance of units overseas by £247,000. Supply. - The estimated increase of £537,000 in 1961-62 is mainly attributable to increases in the estimates for salaries, £288,000, administrative expenses, £63,000, development of production techniques, £64,000, and maintenance of buildings, £139,000. S.E.A.T.O. - Economic Assistance. - Expenditure in 1961-62 is expected to fall below that for 1960-61 by £226,000 because of the completion last year of certain projects which had been planned for 1961-62. Civil Defence.- The amount of £300,000 provided for a Civil Defence Programme includes £116,000 for the Civil Defence School. Construction of Jetty for Handling of Explosives. - The amount provided is estimated to cover the balance of the cost of the project, which is to be completed in 1961-62. Dairy Products Bounty. - The Dairying Industry Act 1957 provides for the payment of a bounty on butter and cheese produced during the five-year period ending 30th June, 1962. Expenditure on the bounty in 1960-61 was £13,500,000. The same provision is made for 1961-62. Cellulose Acetate Flake Bounty. - The Cellulose Acetate Flake Bounty Act 1956-1961 authorizes payment of a bounty of lOd. per lb., subject to an annual limit of £142.000, on cellulose acetate flake produced in Australia and sold for use in the local manufacture of rayon yarn up to 31st December, 1961. The estimated expenditure of £75,000 in 1961-62 represents provision for payment of bounty on only nine months' sales (including the last quarter of 1960-61). The question of future assistance to the industry is under consideration, following receipt of a report by the Tariff Board on the matter. Copper Bounty. - Under the Copper Bounty Act 1958-1960 a bounty of up to £35 per ton is payable, subject to certain conditions, on copper produced and sold for domestic consumption up to 31st December, 1963. Expenditure in 1961-62 is expected to be at approximately the same level as in 1960-61. * 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 lower estimate for 1961-62 allows for a reduction in the level of final payments in respect of the 1961 crop, offset to some extent by an expected increase in payments in respect of the 1962 crop. Gold-Mining Industry Assistance. - The GoldMining Industry Assistance Act 1954-1959 provides for payment of a subsidy, under certain conditions, on gold produced up to 30th June, 1962. The rate of bounty payable to small producers (those with an annual output of not more than 500 ounces) is £2 8s. per ounce. The rate for large producers is an amount per ounce equal to three-quarters of the amount by which average cost of production exceeds £13 10s. per ounce, subject to a maximum rate of £3 5s. per ounce. It is proposed to amend the Act to provide that a producer whose output in a year falls in the range of 501 to 1,075 ounces of gold may elect to be treated as a small producer, and for the rate of subsidy payable to such a producer, on election, to be determined at the rate of £2 8s. per ounce less Id. for each ounce by which output exceeds 500 ounces. A smaller amount of advance payments in 1961-62 is expected to reduce expenditure in that year from the level of 1960-61. Pyrites Bounty. - Under the Pyrites Bounty Act 1960 a bounty is payable, subject to certain conditions, on locally produced iron-pyrites delivered to sulphuric acid manufacturers in Australia for use in the manufacture of sulphuric acid during the period commencing on 1st January, 1961, and ending on 30th June, 1965. Bounty is payable on the sulphur content of the pyrites and the rate of bounty varies with the landed cost of imported crude brimstone. Payments in 1960-61 related to only one quarter's sales. The 1961-62 estimate allows for payments on a full year's sales. Rayon Yarn Bounty. - The Rayon Yarn Bounty Act 1954-1959 authorizes payment of a bounty Of 6d. per lb., subject to an annual limit of £100,000, on continuous filament acetate rayon yarn produced and sold in Australia up to 30th June, 1962. Expenditure in 1961-62 is expected to be less than in 1960-61 because of reduced sales. 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 reduction Of £353,000 in estimated expenditure in 1961-62 is attributable mainly to a lower rate of bounty following amendments to the bounty provisions which became operative from January, 1961. 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 estimated expenditure in 1961- 62 is only slightly less than expenditure in 1960-61 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 Wheal Prices Stabilization Fund. When t!.e 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. A contribution of £3,022,000 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund has already been made to supplement the balance which was available in the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund in order to allow guaranteed payments to be made to growers in respect of the 1959-60 crop. Provision has also been made for the whole of the estimated payment of £10,000,000 in respect of the 1-960-61 crop to be met from Consolidated Revenue in 1961-62. Total payments from Consolidated Revenue in 1961-62 for this purpose are therefore estimated to be £13,022,000. War and Service Pensions and Allowances. - The estimated increase of £2,368,000 is attributable to the proposed increases in pensions and allowances, which are estimated to cost an additional £2,384,000 in 1961-62. In the absence of any liberalization of benefits, it is estimated that there would have been a slight decline in expenditure in 1961-62 because there was a fifth twelve-weekly bank payment of pensions, costing £3,650,000, in 1960-61. This more than offsets the estimated additional expenditure of £2,701,000 due to increases in the number of pensioners and rates of pension through re-assessment of incapacity; the full-year effects of the liberalization of benefits granted in 1960-61, which are estimated to cost an additional £455,000 in 1961-62; and there were recoveries of £478,000 in respect of Imperial Pensions' in 1960-61 which will not recur in 1961-62. Repatriation - Administrative. - The estimated increase of £130,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 is mainly attributable to the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage and to the full-year cost of additional staff appointed during 1960-61. Provision has also been made for an increase in expenditure in connexion with the extension to all States, except Tasmania, during 1961-62 of the punched card cheque system for payment of pensions. Repatriation - Medical and Hospital Treatment and Other Benefits. - Practically the whole of the expenditure under this item relates to the maintenance of Repatriation institutions, the provision of medical treatment for ex-servicemen with warcaused injuries and the Soldiers' Children's Education Scheme. The estimated increase of £2,246,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 includes increases of £142,000 in respect of the proposal to pay medical sustenance at a higher rate during convalescence; of £33,000 for an increase in medical sustenance payments consequent on the proposed increases in pensions; and of £140,000 for increases in the fees payable to Repatriation local medical officers. The main factor accounting for the balance of the increase is an estimated increase of £1,894,000 in the cost of hospital and medical treatment. Of this increase, an amount of £1,100,000 is attributable to an expected rise in the average price and num ber of prescriptions, and £363,000 to an expected increase in the cost of maintaining Repatriation hospitals, including £144,000 as a result of the increase in the Commonwealth basic wage. Provision has also been made for an increase in expenditure on the Soldiers' Children's Education Scheme. Repatriation - Rent and Maintenance, &c. - The estimated increase in expenditure of £111,000 is almost entirely due to the increased provisions made for the maintenance and operation of Repatriation establishments and equipment used therein. Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. - Expenditure in 1961-62 is estimated to be £172,000 less than in 1960-61, mainly because of an expected decline in the amount of the Commonwealth contribution to the States towards meeting certain losses incurred under the War Service Land Settlement scheme. Miscellaneous. - The main reason for the estimated decrease of £422,000 in expenditure is that expenditures on supplies and services for Other Administrations are expected to exceed recoveries from them by £117,000 in 1961-62, whereas the excess of expenditure over recoveries in 1960-61 was £613,000. Railways. - The estimated increase in expenditure of £470,000 allows for additional costs associated with an expected increase in the volume of traffic and with maintenance of the permanent way and rolling stock. Post Office. - Of the estimated increase of £3,374,000 in expenditure in 1961-62, £2,374,000 is due to the recent increase in the Commonwealth basic wage. Payment for a full year of additional staff recruited in 1960-61 and the engagement of new staff during 1961-62 is estimated to cost an additional £292,000 this year. Provision has been made for an increase of £296,000 in administrative expenses, which include fuel, light and power, and the costs of printing telephone directories and postal guides. Expenditure on stores and materials is expected to decrease by £108,000. Payments to mail contractors are expected to increase by £364,000, mainly due to an increasing volume of overseas airmail, and expenditure on engineering services for the operation and maintenance of facilities is expected to increase by £434,000, excluding the effect of the basic wage increase. Broadcasting and Television. - Expenditure in 1961-62- is estimated to increase by £1,549,000, of which £540,000 relates to the Australian Broadcasting Commission and £545,000 to the PostmasterGeneral's Department. Of this latter sum, £348,000 results from the inclusion under this head in 1961-62 of administration and other expenses which were formerly charged to Post Office Appropriations. The costs of the Postmaster-General's Department for technical and other services are estimated to increase by £147,000, and an additional £50,000 has been provided for the basic wage increase. In the case of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, increased provisions have been made for a greater production of live television programmes in 1961-62; for the cost of the basic wage increase, £105,000; and the for the cost of additional staff, some of whom were engaged towards the end of 1960-61. Northern Territory. - The requirements of the Northern Territory Administration account for £656,000 of the total estimated increase of £1,087,000 in expenditure in 1961-62. The operation of public utility services will require increased expenditure of £113,000, and repairs and maintenance and development services an additional £67,000. Provision has also been made in 1961-62 for expenditure of £28,000 on forestry on reserves for wards (aborigines). Expenditure on health services is estimated to increase by £252,000, of which £125,000 is attributable to the fact that receipts from health services in 1961-62 will be paid to Consolidated Revenue. In previous years these receipts were treated as an offset to expenditure on health services. Australian Capital Territory. - The estimated increase of £200,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 reflects the demands of continuing population growth in, and development of, the National Capital. Provision has been made for additional expenditures of £80,000 for general services, £61,000 for health services, and £59,000 for the operation of water supply and sewerage services. Excluding the grant of £140,000 in 1960-61 to the Canberra University College (which, now that it has become the School of General Studies of the Australian National University, has provision made for it in the votes of the Prime Minister's Department. See Item No. 14. - Departmental Expenditure), expenditure on educational services in 1961-62 is estimated to increase by £162,000. Papua and New Guinea. - The estimated expenditure of £17,465,000 in 1961-62 relates almost entirely to the grant of £17,300,000 by the Commonwealth to the Administration of the Territory to meet the difference between proposed expenditure and local revenue in the Territory. Expenditure by the Administration in 1961-62 is estimated to be approximately £3,000,000 greater than in 1960-61, most of which will be financed by an increase of £2,503,000 in the grant from the Commonwealth. This will enable the high level of activity reached by the Administration in 1960-61 to be maintained. It will also permit the recruitment of additional staff and increased expenditure on capital works and services, particularly in respect of residential accommodation, schools, hospitals and agriculture. Full details of Commonwealth payments to or for the States are given in the White Paper on that subject issued this year 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, are also contained in the White Paper. Financial Assistance Grants. - Under the provisions of the States Grants Act 19S9 the financial assistance grant payable to each State in 1961-62 is to be determined by adjusting the grant paid to that State in 1960-61 in accordance with a formula based on movements in the population of that State between 1st July, 1960 and 1st July, 1961, and the increase (adjusted by a " betterment factor " of one-tenth) in the level of average wages for Australia as a whole between 19S9-60 and 1960-61. Preliminary estimates made by the Commonwealth Statistician indicate that the financial assistance grants payable to the States in 1961-62 under the States Grants Act 1959 will total £291,049,000, or £21,055,000 more than the grants paid in 1960-61. The final determination of the grant payable to each State will be made by the Statistician as the necessary statistics become available later in the year, and in any case, as required by the legislation, not later than 31st December, 1961. Special Grants. - The Commonwealth Grants Commission has recommended special grants for the claimant States totalling £11,231,000 in 1961-62, compared with £8,618,000 in 1960-61. Of the total amount recommended for payment in 1961- 62, the Commission has recommended that Western Australia be paid £6,156,000 and Tasmania, £5,075,000. The special grant paid to each of these States in 1960-61 amounted to £4,309,000. Payments under the Financial Agreement. - The Financial Agreement provides that the Commonwealth will, in each year during the period of 58 years commencing on 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 £464,000 in these contributions in 1961-62 reflects the growth in State debts. Commonwealth Aid Roads Grants. - The Commonwealth Aid Roads Act 1959 provides for the payment of a total amount of £50,000,000 to the States in 1961-62, £44,000,000 as basic grants and £6,000,000 as matching assistance. In 1960-61 road grants to the States totalled £46,000,000, of which £42,000,000 represented basic grants and £4,000,000 matching assistance. The amounts payable in 1961-62 are subject to adjustment if it is subsequently found that a State has not qualified in full for the matching assistance paid to it in 1960-61. Financial Assistance to States for Universities. - The first report of the Australian Universities Commission recommended that the Commonwealth provide financial assistance to the States for universities of up to £42,000,000 over the three calendar years 1961, 1962 and 1963. The main financial recommendations of the Commission were incorporated in the States Grants (Universities) Act 1960. As a result of the operation of this legislation, payments to the States for universities are expected to increase from £11,227,000 in 1960-61 to £14,161,000 in 1961-62. Tuberculosis Hospitals - Reimbursement of Capital Expenditure. - Under the Tuberculosis Act 1948 the Commonwealth provides assistance to the States in reimbursement of their capital expenditures or buildings, furnishings, equipment and plant for the diagnosis, treatment and control of tuberculosis. It is estimated that expenditure in 1961-62 will be £400,000, which is the amount it is expected the States will claim during the year. Expenditure in 1960-61 was £410,000. Mental Institutions - Contribution to Capital Expenditure. - The States Grants (Mental Institutions) Act 1955 provides for Commonwealth grants of up to £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 1960-61 amounted to £727,000, and it is estimated that £885,000 will be required for this purpose in 1961-62. Coal Mining Industry - Long Service Leave. - In accordance with an arrangement with the States, the Commonwealth provides financial assistance to the States in reimbursement of their expenditures in respect of costs incurred by employers in granting long service leave to coalminers. Funds for this purpose are provided from an excise imposed on coal under the Coal Excise Act 1949-1961. It is estimated that an amount of £300,000, equal to the proceeds of the excise, wilt be appropriated to a Trust Account in 1961-62 for payment to the States. The appropriation in 1960-61 was £380,000. Western Australia Water Supply. - Since 1949-50 the Commonwealth has been providing assistance to Western Australia towards the cost of constructing a comprehensive water supply scheme. During 1960-61 payments to Western Australia for this purpose amounted to £517,000, bringing total payments by the Commonwealth in respect of the scheme to £4,939,000. It is estimated that final payments of £61,000 will be made under the arrangements in 1961-62. 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 1960-61 amounted to £1,208,000, bringing total payments by the Commonwealth in respect of the scheme to £1,863,000. It is estimated that expenditure in 1961-62 will be £1,800,000. Encouragement of Meat Production. - Since 1950-51 the Commonwealth has made available to the States of Queensland and Western Australia grants for the construction of new and improved facilities for the movement of cattle by road. Commonwealth payments under this scheme to the end of 1960-61 amounted to £2,156,000, and it is estimated that further payments of £8,000 will be made in 1961-62. Cattle Roads - Queensland. - Under an arrangement entered into between the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments, the Commonwealth has agreed to contribute towards the cost of construction of the Julia Creek-Normanton road in the Gulf Country of Queensland. A sum of £630,000 is provided for this purpose in the Estimates for 1961-62. Total expenditure on Capital Works and Services is estimated to be £132,038,000 in 1961-62, compared with £140,851,000 in 1960-61. Of the estimated increase of £11,187,000 in expenditure in 1961-62. £6,153,000 relates to Business Undertakings. £2,712,000 to expenditures in the Territories, and £2,320,000 to other expenditures on Capital Works and Services. The reasons for the significant variations in the estimates for some items compared with actual expenditure in 1960-61 are: - Prime Minister's - Australian National University. - The estimated increase of £1,041,000 relates to the programme of capital works and services recommended by the Australian Universities Commission for the 1961-1963 triennium. Treasury - Capital for Commonwealth Development Bank. - An amount of £5,000,000 is being provided to increase the capital of the Commonwealth Development Bank of Australia in 1961-62. Treasury - Other Items. - Practically all the estimated increase of £1,094,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 is attributable to the increased provision made for expenditure on the new Government Printing Office, now under construction in Canberra. Interior. - Provision has been made for an increase of £363,000 in expenditure outside the Australian Capital Territory, including an additional £107,000 for the erection of Commonwealth offices and other buildings and an additional £211,000 for the purchase of plant and equipment required by the Bureau of Meteorology. Works. - The estimated increase of £967,000 in expenditure, which relates only to the six States and to Papua and New Guinea, includes an additional provision of £840,000 for the purchase of replacements for existing plant and equipment which were previously financed from the Works Suspense Trust *Account.* An additional £166,000, mainly for the improvement of works depot facilities, has also been provided in the works programme for 1961-62. Civil Aviation - Works, Sites and Buildings and Technical Equipment. - Estimated expenditure in 1961-62 consists of £2,351,000 for the works programme, or £164,000 more than expenditure in 1960-61, and £555,000 for the acquisition of sites and buildings, which is £1,517,000 less than in 1960- 61, when there were large expenditures on the acquisition of Land at Tullamarine and at the Brisbane and Perth Airports. The increase of £140,000 in the provision for technical equipment relates to the installation of additional varied items of plant and equipment used in the provision of aerodromes and airways facilities. Civil Aviation - Capital for Qantas and T.A.A. - In 1960-61 Qantas received £2,050,000, including a repayable advance of £500,000. The provision of £150,000 for additional capital for Qantas in 1961- 62 represents the final instalment of an amount of £1,770,000 provided over several years for expenditure on development of the company's site at Sydney Airport. No provision has been made for additional capital for the Australian National Airlines Commission (T.A.A.) in 1961-62; £1,130,000 was provided in 1960-61. Health. - Expenditure in 1961-62 on the purchase and installation of laboratory equipment for the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories is estimated to be £149,000 less than in 1960-61. Repatriation. - The provision of an additional £126,000 in 1961-62 covers increased expenditure on the new ward and kitchen being constructed at the Repatriation General Hospital in Hobart, and the commencement of a new psychiatric block at the Repatriation General Hospital at Springbank, South Australia. Shipping and Transport - Railway Standardization. - Under the Railway Standardization (New South Wales and Victoria) Agreement Act 1958 the Commonwealth is providing all the finance foi the construction of a standard gauge rail link between Albury and Melbourne. Each of the two States is to repay 15 per cent, of the cost by instalments over a period of 50 years, plus interest on outstanding balances. Expenditure to 30th June, 1961, on the new line amounted to £10,485,000. Provision has been made for expenditure of £4,000,000 in 1961-62, subject to revised estimates of the cost of the project being accepted under the agreement. The line is expected to be open for traffic early in 1962. The Commonwealth has also agreed to provide funds of up to £150,000 during 1961-62 to enable survey work to proceed on the proposed standardization of the rail link between Kalgoorlie and Kwinana in Western Australia. Shipping and Transport - Other Items. - The main reason for the estimated increase of £781,000 in this item is that £950,000 has been provided for the replacement of lighthouse supply vessels is 1961-62, compared with expenditure of £200,000 for this purpose in 1960-61. Immigration. - The increased provision of £111,000 for 1961-62 includes £96,000 for the transfer from other Commonwealth Departments of properties at Benalla, Colmslie and Smithfield. National Development - Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. - Following the virtual completion of the Upper Tumut section of the scheme, provision is being made for the commencement of projects in the Snowy-Murray section. Expenditure in 1961-62 is estimated to be . £16,560,000, or £1,940,000 less than in 1960-61, and relates to payments to contractors commencing construction of the Eucumbene-Snowy tunnel, as well as to the normal activities of the Authority in administration, planning and minor construction work. National Development - Australian Atomic Energy Commission. - Expenditure in 1961-62 is estimated to be £233,000 less than in 1960-61 because many important installations at the Lucas Heights Research Establishment have now been completed. The provision for buildings and works in 1961-62 is £600,000 compared with £781,000 in the previous year, and the provision for scientific plant and equipment, at £432,000, is £16,000 less than in 1960-61. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. - With the near completion of three large projects - the Soils Laboratory at Adelaide, the Food Preservation Laboratory at Ryde and the Biochemistry and Genetics Laboratories at Canberra- on which heavy expenditure was incurred last year, expenditure on the works programme in 1961-62 is estimated to be £533,000 less than in 1960-61. Provision has been made for an increase of £233,000 in expenditure on the phytotron in 1961-62. Railways. - The estimated increase in expenditure of £222,000 in 1961-62 is due mainly to the provision made for the purchase of additional dieselelectric locomotives. Post Office. - The major part of the estimated increase of £2,834,000 in expenditure in 1961-62 relates to the cost of additional technical equipment required to meet the demand for telephone services. The provision for expenditure on the installation of the co-axial cable between Sydney and Melbourne in 1961-62 is £1,600,000, compared with expenditure of £2,400,000 in 1960-61. A new provision of £400,000 has been made for television relay facilities in 1961-62. The provisions for works and acquisitions programmes are, respectively, £369,000 and £262,000 greater than actual expenditures last year. Overseas Telecommunications Commission. - An amount of £1,600,000 is being provided in 1961-62 as portion of Australia's contribution towards the cost of the trans-Pacific telephone cable project. Broadcasting and Television. - The increase of £1,300,000 in estimated expenditure during 1961-62 is mainly attributable to the provisions for buildings, services and equipment for television transmission in provincial and country centres. Northern Territory.- The increase of £1,942,000 in the provision for the Northern Territory in 1961-62 includes estimated increases of £438,000 for buildings, engineering works and developmental services; of £94,000 for the provision, of health services; of £308,000 and £560,000, respectively, for plant and equipment for the Northern Territory Administration and the Department of Works; of £110,000 for loans to primary producers for water development; and of £34,000 for a forestry programme on reserves for wards (aborigines). The provision for the Northern Territory Housing Commission is £114,000 greater than in 1960-61, but this is more than offset by a reduction of £140,000 in the provision for loans for the construction and purchase of private dwellings. An amount of £350,000 has been provided in 1961-62 for the construction of roads to increase the turn-off of beef cattle for export. Australian Capital Territory. - The main factors in the estimated net increase of £772,000 for the Australian Capital Territory are increases of £500,000 in the provision for loans to co-operative building societies, and of £262,000 and £136,000, respectively, for plant and equipment for the Departments of the Interior and Works. The cost of electrical engineering works and loans for housing are expected to be £104,000 and £150,000, respectively, less than in 1960-61. {:#subdebate-60-1} #### Item No. 22. - Loan Consolidation and {:#subdebate-60-2} #### Investment Reserve In 1960-61 an amount of £142,561,000 was appropriated from Consolidated Revenue to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve, which also received interest on investments amounting to £8,700,000. An amount of £89,669,000 was invested in a special loan on 30th June, 1961. Earlier in the year, £27,643,000 was expended on the purchase of securities held by the National Debt Sinking Fund to augment the cash .available in that Fund for redemption of maturing securities and repayments to the International Bank. Provision has been made in the Estimates for the appropriation of £83,279,000 from Consolidated Revenue to the Reserve in 1961-62, whence it can be used, as necessary, to assist in meeting commitments in respect of the State works and housing programmes, War Service Land Settlement and other requirements outside the Consolidated Revenue Fund. {: .page-start } page 73 {:#debate-61} ### STATEMENT No. 4. - NATIONAL WELFARE FUND ESTIMATES, 1961-62 In -the following table, the estimated transactions of the National Welfare Fund in 1961-62 are compared with actual transactions in 1960-61 : - {:#subdebate-61-0} #### Receipts The National Welfare Fund Act 1932 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 1961-62 is estimated to increase by £27,626,000, a corresponding increase is expected in the moneys received by the Fund from Consolidated Revenue. After taking 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 1961-62 are estimated at £360,270,000, or £27,648,000 more than in 1960-61. {:#subdebate-61-1} #### Expenditure It is estimated that expenditure from the National Welfare Fund will rise by £27,626,000 to £358,230,000 in 1961-62. Of this increase of £27,626,000, -some £8,883,000 represents the -estimated -cost in 1961-62 of the proposed increases in -the following benefits- age, invalid and widows' pensions, including the increment to -widows' pension for each child under 16 years, except the first; unemployment and sickness benefits; allowances for the wife .and first child under sixteen years of age of an invalid pensioner; and tuberculosis allowances. An amount of £337,000 is -also included for an increase -in fees payable to .medical practitioners under the Pensioner Medical Service. The remaining increase of £18,406,000 in expenditure 'for 1961-62 largely reflects the growth in the number of 'beneficiaries, together with the fullyear effect of the 1960 increases in age, invalid and widows' pensions and tuberculosis allowances, and the introduction from March, 1961, of the merged means test Comments on particular items of expenditure, where the estimate for 1961-62 varies substantially from actual expenditure in 1960-61, are set out below: - Age and Invalid Pensions. - It is estimated that in 1961-62 there will be an increase in expenditure on age and invalid pensions of £20,074,000. Of this, the proposals to increase pensions, and also the allowances for the wife and first child of an invalid pensioner, account for £7,000,000. Of the balance of £13,074,000, an amount of £7,900,000 is due to the increased number of pensioners and £5,174,000 to the full-year effect of the 1960 amending legislation. That legislation increased pension rates and introduced the merged means test on income and property, the latter taking effect from March, 1961. Widows' Pensions.- The increase in gross expenditure on widows' pensions in 1961-62 is expected to be £2,183,000. Of this, £850,000 represents the estimated cost of the proposed increases in the rates of widows' pensions and in the additional amount payable to a widow for each child under 16 years, except the first A further £950,000 of the increase is due to the increased number of beneficiaries, and the balance of £383,000 represents the full-year effect of the 1960 Budget provision. Partly offsetting these increases in 1961-62 is a reduction in expenditure of £202,000 resulting from an advance made to post offices in 1960-61 for the pension pay-day on 4th July, 1961. Thus the net increase in expenditure on this item in 1961-62 is estimated at £1,981,000. Maternity Allowances. - A continued growth in the number of births is expected to result in an increase in expenditure of £102,000 in 1961-62. Child Endowment. - There were advances to banks and post offices on 29th and 30th June, 1961, for child endowment payments, including a twelve-weekly payment, on 4th July, 1961. Expenditure in 1961-62 has been relieved accordingly, to the extent of £9,800,000. However, an additional amount of £2,297,000 is estimated to be required in 1961-62 owing to the increase in the number of endowed children. It is estimated, therefore, that there will be a net decrease in expenditure of £7,503.000 in 1961-62. Unemployment and Sickness Benefits. - Provision is made under this head for expenditure of £5,780,000 on unemployment benefit and £2,850,000 on sickness and special benefits. Together, these estimates include £1,000,000 to meet the cost of the proposed increases in the rates of benefits. Expenditure in 1960-61 was £4,469,000 on unemployment benefit and £2,671,000 on sickness and special benefits. Hospital Benefits. - Expenditure on hospital benefits is expected to increase by £2,518,000 in 1961-62, mainly through greater bed occupancy as more beds become available, the continued growth in the membership of hospital insurance organizations, and through more people qualifying for the higher rate of " additional hospital benefit ". Pharmaceutical Benefits. - It is estimated that the outlay on pharmaceutical benefits in 1961-62 will be £4,785,000 more than in 1960-61. The factors primarily responsible are the higher cost of drugs, additions to the list of approved drugs, greater utilization of the benefits under the scheme, population increase, and an increase in professional fees payable to chemists. 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 £1,926,000 under this item in 1961-62. Medical Benefits. - The cost of medical benefits is estimated to rise by £1,229,000 in 1961-62. 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 1961-62 the cost of this service will rise by £568,000, of which £337,000 is attributable to 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. Nutrition of Children. - For nutrition of children - the free milk to school children scheme- expenditure of £3,728,000 is estimated for 1961-62, being an increase of £168,000 on expenditure for 1960- 61. 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 £464,000 to £5,589,000 in 1961- 62, the main reason for the increase being increased maintenance costs of State tuberculosis institutions. Commonwealth and State Housing Agreement 1945 - Contribution to Rental Losses. - During 1960-61 the Commonwealth settled claims from Western Australia and made payments in respect of claims from Queensland for losses incurred in past financial years in the administration of dwellings erected under the 1945 Commonwealth and State Housing Agreement. Total expenditure amounted to £352,000. Whether any further payment is due to Queensland will depend upon the outcome of further Investigations. form or another, practically every drug in the British Pharmacopeia and a substantial number of other drugs recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. (0 The Commonwealth subsidizes the cost of medical treatment incurred by individual members of approved medical insurance organizations and their dependants. {: type="A" start="J"} 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. (AO 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 for persons in receipt of the tuberculosis allowance, and their dependants. (/) 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 capital expenditure) on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis exceeds their expenditure for these purposes in 1947-48. A composite tuberculosis allowance is 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. {: type="a" start="m"} 0. 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. 1. This item covers the cost of district laboratory services, the free supply of prophylactic materials and biological products (e.g., poliomyelitis and diphtheria prophylactic), the supply and maintenance of nearing aids for children, subsidies to voluntary organizations conducting home nursing services, and certain costs associated with the blood transfusion services of the Australian Red Cross Society. 2. 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. {: .page-start } page 76 {:#debate-62} ### STATEMENT No. 5.- ESTIMATED LOAN TRANSACTIONS, 1961-62, {: .page-start } page 76 {:#debate-63} ### LOAN COUNCIL BORROWING PROGRAMMES, 1961-62 At its meeting In June, 1961, the Loan Council approved a governmental borrowing programme for State works and housing of £240,000,000 in 1961-62, which is £10,000,000 greater than the programme approved for 1960-61. The Loan Council also approved total borrowing programmes Of £111,000,000 for State semi-governmental and local authorities in 1961-62, compared with £106,000,000 in the previous financial year, and a programme of £1,200,000 for Commonwealth authorities in the Territories, compared with £1,100,000 in 1960-61. The allocation of the approved governmental programme for State works and housing in 1961-62 is compared below with the allocation of the actual programme for 1960-61. The resolution approving the above-mentioned programme of £240,000,000 was supported by the Commonwealth on the understanding that the State Governments would fulfil certain conditions designed to promote governmental loan raisings in 1961-62. For its part, the Commonwealth undertook - {: .page-start } page 77 {:#debate-64} ### WAR SERVICE LAND SETTLEMENT, 1961-62 It is estimated that advances to the States for War Service Land Settlement, which will again be financed from loan moneys in 1961-62, will amount to £2,230,000, compared with £2,027,000 in 1960-61. The composition of these amounts is as follows: - Although the scheme is gradually drawing to its close in all three States, there are certain large scale developmental programmes still to be completed in Tasmania. The estimated increase in advances to South Australia in 1961-62 relates to the provision of a comprehensive drainage scheme at Loxton. {: .page-start } page 77 {:#debate-65} ### FINANCING OF TOTAL BORROWING COMMITMENTS, 1961-62 As indicated in Statement No. 2, it is estimated that the total borrowing commitments in respect of State works and housing programmes and War Service Land Settlement in 1961-62 will be financed as follows: - The Consolidated Revenue Fund estimates provide for an appropriation of £83,279,000 to the Loan Consolidation and Investment Reserve in 1961-62, and it is envisaged that a subscription to the special loan will be made from that 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 White Paper "Commonwealth Payments to or for the States " issued for the information of the Parliament in connexion with the Budget. {: .page-start } page 77 {:#debate-66} ### REDEMPTIONS OF MATURING SECURITIES, 1961-62 At 30th June, 1961, Commonwealth Inscribed Stock and Bonds maturing in Australia in 1961-62 totalled £290,700,000. Details are as follows:- Commonwealth Bonds maturing in New York in 1961-62 totalled £17,103,000 (U.S. $38,310,000) at 30th June, 1961, and consist of 3j per cent. Bonds issued in 1947 and due to mature on 1st February, 1962. In addition to redemptions of any of the abovementioned maturing securities, redemptions of overdue securities and War Savings Certificates and Savings Certificates will have to be financed in 1961-62. There will also be repayments of £7,914,000 (U.S. $17,727,000) to the International Bank. The amount required to meet all these commitments is estimated at £79,000,000. It is estimated that an amount of up to £56,500,000 will be available from the current receipts of the National Debt Sinking Fund towards meeting these commitments. To meet the balance of £22,500,000, it is proposed to utilize some of the balances in that Fund. For this purpose it will be necessary to realize some of the investments held by it. I move - >That the first item in the Estimates under Division No. 101- The' Senate- namely, "Salaries and allowances £34,250", be agreed to. Progress reported. {: .page-start } page 78 {:#debate-67} ### BUDGET PAPERS The following papers were presented:- - >The Budget 1961-62 - Papers presented by the Right Honorable Harold Holt, M.P., for the information of honorable members on the occasion of the Budget of 1961-62. {:#subdebate-67-0} #### National Income and Expenditure 1960-61 Commonwealth Payments to or for the States. Ordered to be printed. {: .page-start } page 78 {:#debate-68} ### LOAN (HOUSING) BILL 1961 Message recommending appropriation reported. In committee (Consideration of GovernorGeneral's message): Motion (by **Sir Garfield** Barwick) agreed to- >That it is expedient that an appropriation of moneys be made for the purposes of a bill for an act to authorize the raising and expending of moneys for the purposes of housing. Resolution reported. Standing Orders suspended; resolution adopted. Ordered - >That **Sir Garfield** Barwick and **Mr. Freeth** do prepare and bring in a bill to carry out the foregoing resolution. Bill presented by **Sir Garfield** Barwick, and read a first time. {:#subdebate-68-0} #### Second Reading {: #subdebate-68-0-s0 .speaker-126} ##### Sir GARFIELD BARWICK:
Attorney-General · Parramatta · LP -- I move - >That the bill be now read a second time. As honorable members will be aware, the Housing Agreement Act 1961 authorizes the Commonwealth to enter into an agreement with the States under which advances will be made to the States for housing for a further period of five years from 1st July, 1961. Pending the entry into force of the agreement, the act permits the Treasurer to make such advances to the States as would be made if the agreement were in force. This bill seeks authority for the Treasurer to raise loan moneys totalling £42,900,000 to be advanced to the States in 1961-62 in accordance with the provisions of the Housing Agreement Act 1961. This amount is £5,700,000 greater than the aggregate amount of £37,200,000 advanced *<o* the States in 1960-61. The composition of the sum of £42,900,000 is as follows:- In each case the amount is the part of the State's share of the overall borrowing programme approved by the Australian Loan Council for 1961-62 that the State wished to receive as an advance under the Housing Agreement. The form of agreement authorized by the Housing Agreement Act requires that not less than 30 per cent, of the total advances in 1961-62, that is, a minimum of £12,870,000, shall be allocated to private home-builders, mainly through building societies. The remaining £30,030,000 will be available for the erection of dwellings by the States. The corresponding amounts in 1960-61 were £11,170,000 for private and £26,030,000 for government housing. The Commonwealth has already made a significant contribution towards the erection of dwellings in the States under the 1945 and 1956 housing agreements. Up to 30th June, 1961, a total amount of £415,000,000 had been advanced from loan funds for this purpose. The amount of £42,900,000 to be provided in 1961-62 is a record contribution and demonstrates the Commonwealth's continuing interest in, and practical assistance to, the housing programmes of the States. I commend the bill to the House. Debate (on motion by **Mr. Barnard)** adjourned. {: .page-start } page 78 {:#debate-69} ### SALES TAX (EXEMPTIONS AND CLASSIFICATIONS) BILL (No. 2) 1961 Motion (by **Mr. Harold** Holt) - by leave - agreed to - >That leave be given to bring in a bill for an act to provide for exemption from sales tax on certain goods for use in connexion with transport Bill presented, and read a first time. {:#subdebate-69-0} #### Second Reading {: #subdebate-69-0-s0 .speaker-009MC} ##### Mr HAROLD HOLT:
HigginsTreasurer · LP -- by leave - I moves - >That the bill be now read a second time. This bill and the sales tax resolution which will follow are designed to give effect to the sales tax concessions outlined in the Budget speech. The purpose of this bill is to authorize the exemption of certain goods used by industries engaged in public transport services and certain motor trucks and other vehicles used in the transport of livestock in the more remote and sparsely settled areas of Australia. The terms of the new exemptions are specified in detail in the explanatory statement which is being circulated for the information of honorable members. In the case of industries engaged in public transport services, the exemptions will cover goods for use exclusively in the establishment, operation or maintenance of privately owned railways which provide transport services for the use of the public. Exemption is also proposed in respect of omnibuses providing seating accommodation for not fewer than twelve adult passengers, for use exclusively or principally in the transport of passengers for reward. In some instances, proprietors of omnibus services who desire to obtain a new vehicle follow the practice of purchasing a chassis from a manufacturer of motor vehicles and having it delivered to a body builder for the construction of an omnibus body on it. In order to provide exemption in such cases, the relevant provision covers chassis purchased for such use, as well as the omnibus body. It will be appreciated that sales tax exemptions already apply in respect of State-owned railways and in respect of omnibuses operated by State instrumentalities or other public authorities. The proposed exemptions in favour of private operators who conduct transport services for the public place them on a comparable footing. In order to assist pastoral production in the more remote areas of Australia, it is also proposed to exempt motor vehicles and other vehicles commonly described as livestock road trains used in the transport of live-stock in these regions. The continued expansion of the cattle industry in particular will depend to a substantial degree on efficient transport for live-stock from pastoral properties. In recent times, this need has increasingly been met by the use of cattle road trains. Large and powerful units are generally required, and the Government proposes to allow sales tax exemption of these units, within the limits which I will later explain, in order to encourage this development. The exemption will be available in respect of motor vehicles and prime movers of the prescribed power and weight, in respect of trailers, and in respect of stock crates or live-stock carriers of a kind designed to be carried on vehicles. The exemption will be conditional upon the equipment being for use primarily and principally for the transport of livestock, and also upon it being for use exclusively in the areas which comprise Zones A and B for the purposes of section 79a of the Income Tax and Social Services Contribution Assessment Act 1936-1961. Full details of the terms of the exemption are shown in the statement which has been circulated. At this stage, I desire to refer also to the further measure of sales tax relief which is the subject of the associated sales tax resolution which I will move at a later stage. It is proposed to reduce to *2i* per cent, the rate of tax on all household furniture and equipment of the kinds which now bear tax at the rate of 8J per cent. These goods, which are listed in the Third Schedule to the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Act, include items such as floor coverings, refrigerators, washing machines and vacuum cleaners. There is evidence that sales of these goods have recently declined, with the result that the manufacturing industries concerned have been adversely affected. We believe that this step should encourage the buying of these classes of goods and so assist the industries producing them, as well as those supplying materials and parts for their manufacture. Further details of this proposal, also, are given in the explanatory statement which has been circulated. The total cost of revenue of these amendments is estimated at £9,200,000 for 1961-62 and £11,575,000 for a full year. In accordance with the usual practice, the amendments will come into operation on and from to-morrow, 16th August, 1961. I commend the bill to honorable members. Debate (on motion by **Mr. Barnard)** adjourned. SALES TAX BILLS (Nos. 1 to 9) 1961. In Committee of Ways and Means: {: #subdebate-69-0-s1 .speaker-009MC} ##### Mr HAROLD HOLT:
Treasurer · Higgins · LP -- I move - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. That, from and including the sixteenth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, the rate of sales tax in respect of goods covered by the Third Schedule to the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Act be 2i per centum. 1. That, for the purposes of this resolution, " the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Act " mean the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Act 1935-1961, as proposed to be amended by the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Bill (No. 2) 1961. This resolution is a machinery measure which is designed solely to give effect, on and from to-morrow, 16th August, to the proposed reduction from 8i per cent, to 2i per cent, in the rate of sales tax on certain household furniture and requisites. Details of the goods affected are set out in the explanatory statement which has been circulated. The purpose of the reduction has already been explained, and this action, I have no doubt, will commend itself to honorable members. Progress reported. {: .page-start } page 80 {:#debate-70} ### TARIFF PROPOSALS 1961 {:#subdebate-70-0} #### Customs Tariff Amendment (No. 13); Customs Tariff Amendment (No. 14); Customs Tariff (Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Preference) Amendment (No. 2); Excise Tariff Amendment (No. 2) {:#subdebate-70-1} #### In Committee of Ways and Means: {: #subdebate-70-1-s0 .speaker-KMD} ##### Mr OSBORNE:
Minister for Repatriation · Evans · LP -- I move- [Customs Tariff Amendment (No. 13).] That the Schedule to the Customs Tariff 1933-1961, as proposed to be amended by Customs Tariff Proposals introduced into the House of Representatives on the eleventh day of May, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, be further amended as set out in the Schedule to these Proposals and that on and after the sixteenth day -of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one. Duties of Customs be collected accordingly. [Customs Tariff Amendment (No. 14).] {: type="1" start="1"} 0. That the Schedule to the Customs Tariff 1933-1961, as proposed to be amended by Customs Tariff Proposals, be further amended as set out in the Schedule to these Proposals and that on and after the sixteenth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, Duties of Customs be collected accordingly. 1. That in these Proposals, " Customs Tariff Proposals " mean the Customs Tariff Proposals introduced into the House of Representatives on the following date: - 11th May, 1961. [Customs Tariff (Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Preference) Amendment (No. 2).] That the Schedule to the Customs Tariffs (Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Preference) I960,jas proposed to be amended by Customs Tariff (Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Preference) Proposals introduced into the House of Representatives on the eleventh day of May, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, be further amended as set out in the Schedule to these Proposals and that, on and from the sixteenth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, Duties of Customs be collected accordingly. {: .page-start } page 86 {:#debate-71} ### THE SCHEDULE Omit from column 2 the figures " 224 ", insert the figures and letter " 223 (a) ". [Excise Tariff Amendment (No. 2).] That the Schedule to the Excise Tariff 1921-1961 be amended as set out in the Schedule to these Proposals and that on and after the sixteenth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, Duties of Excise be collected in pursuance of the Excise Tariff 1 92 1- 1 96 i as so amended. The Customs Tariff Proposals No. 13 and Excise Tariff Proposals No. 2, which 1 have just introduced, were foreshadowed earlier this evening by my colleague the Treasurer **(Mr. Harold Holt)** during his speech on the Budget. The tariff changes, which come into operation to-morrow morning, give effect to the Government's decision to remove the protection against imports accorded to locally refined petroleum products other than lubricating oils. The decision is based on recommendations by the Tariff Board. At the present time, there is a margin of Id. a gallon between the duties on Australian and imported gasoline and other similar petroleum spirit. The Government chose to remove this margin by reducing the import duty by id. a gallon and by increasing excise by id. a gallon. This will involve practically no variation in the revenue derived from the goods. There is a margin of lid. a gallon between the duties on local and imported aviation kerosene and this is being removed by reducing import duties by lid. a gallon. In addition, on most of the other petroleum products, the British Preferential Tariff duties are being removed and the mostfavourednation rates are being adjusted at the lowest level consistent with Australia's international commitments. Customs Tariff Proposals No. 14 provide for temporary duties on certain manmade fibre piece goods and on certain sizes of non-folding knives made from strip steel. The temporary duties are at rates of 25 per cent, ad valorem on the piece goods and 10 per cent, ad valorem on the knives and. in each case, are in addition to the existing duties. The introduction of temporary duties on these two products follows inquiries by deputy chairmen of the Tariff Board on whether it is necessary to take urgent action to protect the relevant Australian industries. The duties are as recommended by the deputy chairmen. They will apply as from to-morrow morning, except in respect of man-made fibre piece goods and strip cutlery which were in direct transit to Australia on 1 1th and 14th July, 1961. respectively. As required by the legislation, the question of long-term protection for the two Australian industries has been referred to the Tariff Board for full inquiry and report. The temporary duties will remain in effect until the board's reports on its full inquiries are received and considered by the Government, but not for more than three months after the receipt of those reports. 1 shall table the Tariff Board's report ou refined petroleum products and the deputy chairmen's reports on man-made fibre piece goods and strip cutlery at a later hour. At the same time, I will also table a report by a deputy chairman of the board on pile floor coverings. The finding in this report, which has been accepted by the Government, is that a temporary duty should not be imposed on pile floor coverings. I commend the proposals to honorable members. Progress reported. {: .page-start } page 87 {:#debate-72} ### TARIFF BOARD {:#subdebate-72-0} #### Reports {: #subdebate-72-0-s0 .speaker-KMD} ##### Mr OSBORNE:
LP -- I lay on the table the report of the Tariff Board on the following subject: - >Refined petroleum products. I also lay on the table reports by deputy chairmen of the Tariff Board on the question of whether temporary duties should be imposed on imports of pile floor coverings man-made fibre piece goods and cutlery. Ordered to be printed. {: .page-start } page 87 {:#debate-73} ### FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE BILL 1961 {:#subdebate-73-0} #### Second Reading Debate resumed (vide page 33). {: #subdebate-73-0-s0 .speaker-KET} ##### Mr KING:
Wimmera .- This evening we have listened to the mosimportant statement of the year. While the Opposition is getting over the shock of the introduction of such a successful Budget, we shall go on with the consideration of this bill. It seems that we are passing from one extreme to another. Yet this bill, although it appears to be a minor measure, could be classed by the Australian stock industry as a major bill. It deals with the allocation of funds only to the Australian Capita1 Territory and the Northern Territory, which makes the bill seem to be a minoissue. At the same time, one must not overlook the importance of the bill to & cattle, sheep and pig industries. In other words, one must bear in mind the com.munity of the disease as it affects those industries. Only last May, in answer to my question, the Minister for Health **(Dr. Donald Cameron)** released quite an informative reply in relation to the various countries that suffer from this dreaded disease and the precautions that our authorities have taken to exclude it from Australia. This afternoon, several honorable members covered the ground fairly well and it is not my desire to traverse that ground again. However, I wish to direct attention to the importance of the various stock industries and the relation of foot and mouth disease to them. We have 160,000,000 sheep, valued at about £600,000,000, and 16,000,000 cattle valued at £250,000,000. These are very conservative estimates, which do not take into consideration the value of various important studs in the cattle and sheep industries. The sheep industry is our most important industry, because the sale of wool alone in the year just concluded returned £311,000,000. This amount, of course, does not include the return to this industry from the sale of meat. The sheep industry is certainly our largest income earner. Last year 6,000,000 head of cattle, valued at a considerable figure, were slaughtered for human consumption. So one can see that if we were to import foot and mouth disease into Australia the effect on these two industries would be very serious. Over a long period we have heard references, which I support, to the importance of the development of the north. I think all honorable members will agree that apart from mining, the beef cattle industry has the biggest future there. When one considers the number of cattle in outback areas which are accessible or contacted only occasionally over a period of years, one realizes that it would be absolutely impossible to eradicate foot and mouth disease if it became established. In other words, it would be a calamity to the beef cattle industry. I do not intend to speak at any length but I want to congratulate the Minister on bringing forward this matter which T believe warrants urgent consideration. I should like to make three recommendations. The honorable member for Farrer **(Mr. Fairbairn),** I think, mentioned this afternoon the precautions that are taken by the department in relation to immigrants from rural countries. However, I suggest that precautions should be taken not only in relation to those migrants but also in relation to Australians who travel overseas. I know many stock breeders who, during trips overseas, visit properties where they may pick up the virus. I suggest that the Minister should consider this aspect because we could find ourselves in a situation where our own stock breeders could introduce the disease. My second suggestion is that there should be a complete ban on the import of meat into this country. In my opinion there is no need for us to import any meat whether it be canned, chilled or frozen. As a primary producing country, we can produce all the meat we need. I think it was the honorable member for Eden-Monaro **(Mr. Allan Fraser)** who mentioned this afternoon that some hams had entered Melbourne unchecked. If that has happened in the past there is always the possibility that it will happen in the future. I urge the Minister to consider carefully the question of banning imports of meat. My third suggestion relates to the import of green salted hides from the Argentine. I have been informed by reliable sources that these hides are imported into Australia, and I believe that no reliable check can be made to see whether the hides are carriers of the foot and mouth disease virus. I urge the Minister to consider the three recommendations I have made. I congratulate him again on introducing this bill. Although it may appear to be a minor measure I believe that it is a very urgent one because as a nation we cannot afford to allow a disease such as foot and mouth disease to get into our outback stations. It would result in the complete ruination of our rural industries. I support the bill. **Mr. TURNBULL** (Mallee) (9.44]. - I wish to express support of this bill because I agree with the honorable member for Wimmera **(Mr. King)** that it is of vital importance. We are spending a good deal of money in trying to find ways by which we can produce more cattle and other stock and fatten them and bring them on to the market. That is all being done in the best interests of this country, but it all could be lost completely if a disease such as foot and mouth disease got into Australia. The bill provides for the establishment of a trust fund through which the cost of the steps that are being taken to prevent foot and mouth disease shall be borne by the Commonwealth and the States in the following proportions: The Commonwealth will bear 50 per cent, of the cost, New South Wales 14.5 per cent., Victoria 9.125 per cent., Queensland 10.25 per cent., South Australia 5 per cent., Western Australia 5 per cent., Tasmania 3.125 per cent., and the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory combined, 3 per cent. We are becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that primary production is of vital importance to Australia. Over the last five or six years it has become transparently clear to honorable members of all parties that this country cannot continue to function unless it fosters primary production to the utmost. I do not desire to go too deeply into this aspect, but honorable members must remember that there is cause and effect. The prosperous retail trade and secondary industries in Australia are the effect of a stable economy, but the cause of that stable economy is primary production. The Country Party, realizing the vital importance of this bill, supports it. We compliment the Government and the Minister for introducing it. We are sure that it is in the best interests of this country both as regards primary production and the economy as a whole, and that it is designed for the welfare of Australia. {: #subdebate-73-0-s1 .speaker-JU8} ##### Dr Donald Cameron:
OXLEY, QUEENSLAND · LP -- in replyMr. Speaker, this bill does not deal really with quarantine measures; it deals with a proposal to set up a fund. However, as the Deputy Speaker who occupied the chair earlier in the proceedings allowed a good deal of debate in relation to quarantine measures with which this bill is concerned only indirectly, and as honorable members who have participated in the debate have asked certain questions, I shall reply very briefly to as many of them as I can. But before doing so, let me make one general observation - the Commonwealth quarantine regulations which have been subjected to considerable criticism during this debate are drawn up by doctors, veterinary surgeons and scientists acting together in consultation, and they are embodied in a mass of quarantine laws and regulations which are not fixed and static but are altered from time to time to meet the circumstances. It is rather unreal, in that case, that people should be so willing, as some honorable members were this afternoon, to criticize these quarantine measures very trenchantly and, I must say, without adducing very good reasons for their criticism. I shall deal now with the matters that were raised by the honorable member for Wimmera **(Mr. King).** He urged the total exclusion of all imports of meat on the ground that we produce sufficient to meet our own requirements. I do not know whether it is true that we do produce sufficient to meet our own requirements, but it is certainly wrong to suggest that meat or other substances should be excluded from Australia on that ground under quarantine regulations. If they are to be excluded for quarantine reasons, well and good; but unless those reasons exist they certainly should not be excluded by legislation relating to quarantine. I believe that the quarantine regulations cover amply the importation of hides into Australia. Hides can only be imported into approved tanneries, and all such tanneries are situated adjacent to the wharfs where the hides enter the country. The hides must be removed by sealed vans to those tanneries and the vans must be disinfected. The hides may not leave the tanneries until they have been processed, and the tanneries must enter into a bond in respect of each hide. The most elaborate precautions have to be taken. No evidence has been adduced to prove that these quarantine measures, which have now operated for very many years, are insufficient. {: .speaker-KET} ##### Mr King: -- The first point I raised related to a check on Australian overseas travellers similar to that which is applicable to migrants. {: .speaker-JU8} ##### Dr Donald Cameron:
OXLEY, QUEENSLAND · LP -- I shall deal with that when I come to the matter of migrants. The honorable member for Eden-Monaro **(Mr. Allan Fraser)** raised, amongst other things, two main objections. He said there was evidence thai it was possible for the virus of foot and mouth disease to survive heating to 100 degrees centigrade. There is no such evidence. Such an event can occur only in most unusual circumstances which can exist only in a laboratory and not in nature. For all practical purposes, the virus is quite unable to exist after heating to 100 degrees centigrade. The honorable member also questioned whether certificates furnished by officers in other countries were adequate to establish that food had been properly inspected and that the heating and sterilizing processes had been carried out. I do not know where we would get to if we refused to recognize the certificates furnished by the scientific people of other countries. In any case, tests on sample imports are made from time to time by the Division of Food Preservation and Transport of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, and in other places, to ensure that sterilization has been effected. Those tests have been quite satisfactory. The honorable member went on to say that cans marked " Non-sterile " had been discovered. That is quite true. But it is also true that they were not imported cans; they were prepared in Australia. So whatever defects those canned commodities may have had, they were not vehicles for the introduction of foot and mouth disease. The honorable member for Farrer **(Mr. Fairbairn)** referred to the introduction of blue tongue in meat imported from New Zealand. Blue tongue is a disease which cannot be introduced in that way; there is no danger of its being introduced in meat imported from New Zealand or, indeed, anywhere else. Of course, there would bc a grave danger of its introduction if live, ruminant animals were imported; but, as honorable members know, the importation of such animals to Australia is completely banned. The honorable member for Mitchell **(Mr. Wheeler)** raised quite a number of complaints about what he described as the sketchy quarantine arrangements of the Commonwealth. That an honorable gentleman should speak about the Commonwealth's quaranine arrangements in such terms really amazes me. I suppose no other country in the world has so effectively prevented the entry of disease as has Australia. That is the result not of sketchy quarantine arrangements but of extremely efficient quarantine arrangements. The honorable member spoke about aircraft being unable to land at Darwin and having to go on to Daly Waters. Strangely enough. Commonwealth quarantine officers have thought of this eventuality and have arranged that when Darwin airport is closed and an aircraft proceeds to Daly Waters, an officer shall be there to meet it. The aircraft is sealed and nothing is allowed to be taken off i.. When it is refuelled it proceeds to its next port, where there are major quarantine facilities. It is there dealt with in a proper and most effective manner. The honorable member for Mitchel! had a good deal to say about the dangers of canned meat. I am prepared to say, **Sir, in** reply to the honorable member that if there is one article imported into Australia which poses no danger of the introduction of foot and mouth disease, it is canned meat. The precautions that are taken before it enters Australia, the certificates which have to be obtained, and the quarantine regulations which are enforced are so effective that 1 am quite prepared to say that, if foot and mouth disease ever enters Australia, it will certainly not be because it came in in canned meat. {: .speaker-KDA} ##### Mr Duthie: -- What about hams? {: .speaker-JU8} ##### Dr Donald Cameron:
OXLEY, QUEENSLAND · LP -- Ham cannot come in unless it is canned. Adequate precautions are taken also with passengers' luggage. It is taken off aircraft under the strictest supervision and is carefully examined at ports of disembarkation. Whilst it is possible that occasionally something will escape observation, this is most unlikely. No matter how stringent the quarantine laws are, it is possible that now and then in passengers' luggage or in the pockets of a passenger something will be introduced. When all is said and done, **Mr. Speaker,** there are laws which prohibit the importation of opium and other undesirable drugs in o Australia, but every now and then somebody gets them in. That is not because the laws are inadequate but because human ingenuity occasionally defeats the best of laws. I want to assure the House that my department has every confidence in Australia's quarantine legislation. Honorable members have said that some of the certificates furnished by veterinary or other officers of other countries are worthless. What evidence have honorable members for such a statement? Actually, they have none whatever. No one can produce any evidence of such a state of affairs. May I finish what I have to say by making one other general observation? There has been a good deal of criticism to-day of the quarantine procedures of the Commonwealth. Because this bill deals with foot and mouth disease, honorable members, in criticizing the Commonwealth's quarantine regulations, have referred particularly to their efficacy in regard to foot and mouth disease. **Sir, the** proof of the pudding is in the eating. For more than 50 years there has not been a single case of foot and mouth disease in Australia. If we had had inadequate quarantine regulations or inefficient quarantine officers, surely there would have been cases of this disease. I do not say that with any complacency. As I said earlier, it is possible that every now and then some one will evade even the strictest laws, either wilfully or through ignorance. But the solution lies not in imposing total bans, except in the case of blue tongue which is a disease that is carried from country to country by living animals and not by killed animals. I believe it can be truthfully said that Australia's quarantine measures have, for more than 50 years, been proved to be highly efficient and have been most efficiently policed by the officers who administer them. Question resolved in the affirmative. Bill read a second time. In committee: The bill. {: .speaker-JU8} ##### Dr Donald Cameron:
OXLEY, QUEENSLAND · LP -- I ask for leave to move all the amendments standing in my name. The **CHAIRMAN (Mr. Lucock).There** being no objection, leave isgranted. Clause 5. Moneys standing to the credit of the Trust Account may be applied in the payment or recoupment of - {: type="a" start="a"} 0. compensation payable under this Act; 1. expenses (other than salaries or wages; incurred by the Commonwealth - 2. in connexion with claims for compensation under this Act: or Clause 7. Subject to this Act, compensation is payable in respect of - {: type="a" start="a"} 0. any animal or other property that is destroyed, in accordance with the law of a Territory relating to diseases in stock, for the purpose of eradicating or preventing the spread of foot and mouth disease; or 1. any animal that dies while on land that has, because of the presence or suspected presence on the land of foot and mouth disease, been declared to be, and is at the time of the death, an infected area, quarantine area or similar area for the purposes of the law of a Territory relating to diseases in stock, being an animal whose death is certified, by a person authorized by the Minister for the purpose, to have been due to foot and mouth disease. Clause 10. Where- {: type="a" start="a"} 0. a person has, after the commencement of this Act, been convicted of an offence against the law of a Territory relating to diseases in stock by reason of an act or omission as a result of which any animal has been infected, or exposed to the risk of infection, with foot and mouth disease or any other property has been contaminated,or exposed to the risk of contamination. with that disease; and the Minister may, by instrument under his hand, direct that the whole, or such part as the Minister thinks fit, of that amount be not paid. Clause 11. Where section seven of this Act applies in relation to any animal or other property, compensation is not payable in respect of the animal or other property under the law of a Territory relating to diseases in stock. Clause 13. (1.) Compensation payable under this Act may be recovered by action against the Commonwealth in a court of the Territory in which the claim arose, being a court having jurisdiction in actions for the recovery of debts equal to the amount of compensation claimed. (2.) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prevent the making or operation of an agreement between the Commonwealth and an owner claiming compensation under this Act for submission to arbitration in accordance with the law of the Territory in which the claim arose of the question of the amount of compensation payable to the owner under this Act. Clause 15. Except as provided in section eleven of this Act, nothing in this Act or the regulations shall be taken to affect the operation of the law of a Territory relating to diseases in stock. Amendments (by **Dr. Donald** Cameron) agreed to - >In clause 5 - > >After paragraph (a) insert the following paragraph: - " (aa) compensation payable under the law of the Northern Territory of Australia in respect of losses occasioned by foot and mouth disease;". > >In paragraph (b) (ii), omit " under this Act ", insert " referred to in paragraph (a) or (aa) of this section ". > >In clause 7 - > >In paragraph (a), omit " a Territory ", insert " the Australian Capital Territory ". > >In paragraph (b), omit " a Territory ", insert " the Australian Capital Territory ". > >In clause 10, paragraph (a), omit "a Territory", insert " the Australian Capital Territory ". > >In clause 11, omit "a Territory", insert "the Australian Capital Territory". > >In clause 13 - > >In sub-clause (1), omit "the Territory in which the claim arose ", insert " the Australian Capital Territory ". > >In sub-clause (2), omit " the Territory in which the claim arose ", insert " the Australian Capital Territory ". > >In clause 15, omit "a Territory", insert "the Australian Capital Territory". Bill, as amended agreed to. Bill reported with amendments; report - by leave - adopted. Bill - by leave - read a third time {: .page-start } page 92 {:#debate-74} ### QUESTION {:#subdebate-74-0} #### POSTMASTER-GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT Debate resumed from 19th April (vide page 982), on motion by **Mr. Davidson** - >That the following papers: - > >Reports of the Ad hoc Committee of Inquiry into the Commercial Accounts of the Post Office together with an addendum to the Report of the majority of the committee and comments on the addendum by the minority - be printed. {: #subdebate-74-0-s0 .speaker-JAG} ##### Mr CREAN:
Melbourne Ports .- On behalf of the Opposition I would like to say something on this matter, which is the subject of a motion that was placed on the notice-paper during the sessional period which ended some months ago. I am sorry that the matter has to be discussed in the sort of atmosphere that we have at the moment. We heard the Treasurer **(Mr. Harold Holt)** present the Budget this evening and most honorable members, having heard the contents of the Budget, have gone elsewhere. I suggest that the matter that is under contemplation now is one of considerable significance to the people of Australia. It arises from a decision made by the Government nearly two years ago - I think it was two Budgets ago - that a special committee would be set up to examine the finances of the Post Office. After that examination had been made, the House was presented with this very compendious document - the reports of the ad hoc committee of inquiry into the commercial accounts of the Post Office. The document, consisting of some hundreds of pages, contains two reports, a majority report and a minority report. The fact that there are substantial differences between the approach of the majority report and that of the minority report suggests that this matter is fraught with a considerable amount of difficulty. Honorable members will probably recall that in the Budget of two years ago the Government announced increases in postal charges which would bring in £16,000,000 or £17,000,000 additional revenue in a full year. Those increases were made despite the fact that at that stage the Post Office was doing what it had done for the nearly 60 years of its existence as a federal institution. Broadly, its revenues, treated on what is called a commercial basis, roughly approximated to its expenditures. At that time it was suggested from this side of the House that, by increasing charges to such an extent as to bring in another £16.000.000 or £17,000.000 in a year, the Government was, in fact, changing the Post Office from a public utility to a taxing machine. More was being collected from the services of the Post Office than the expenditures warranted, and to the amount of that difference the Post Office was being used to tax the people. The Government, at that stage, had not made up its mind about one or two bright ideas which had been thrown up to it by the back room boys. One suggestion was to the effect that the Post Office should be asked to pay something in the nature of notional interest upon the capital that had been put into it over a long period of years. I do not think the Government had faced up to the very sound proposition that the Post Office is, after all, primarily a public utility. The provision of postal services is not, in essence, very much different from the provision of other services in the community, such as roads. The community needs postal services and they ought to be provided at the lowest possible cost. During the life of the Post Office, governments of various political colours have been satisfied if Post Office revenue each year was approximately equal to the expenditure for that year. {: .speaker-K5L} ##### Mr Cope: -- Why do they not apply the same principle to civil aviation? {: .speaker-JAG} ##### Mr CREAN: -- That is an interesting question. Why is the Government adopting this novel course only with regard to the Post Office? There are a number of other undertakings where, if the Government was consistent, it could more logically have done what it is doing to the Post Office. I emphasize that, although some people say that the Post Office is a business undertaking, it is more than a business undertaking. We regard it basically as a public utility. We regard postal facilities as being just as necessary in the community as facilities for health, education, roads and the like. But because some people are obsessed with the idea that it is a business undertaking, the suggestion has been made that the Post Office should be made to do what private business have to do - that is, to earn a profit. I suggest that when we apply that sort of test to a public utility, we are not applying a very rational test. That has been pointed out over the years and the details are to be found in the report. It is estimated that over a period of years, if the Post Office were valued as a going concern, its capitalization would be of the order of £300,000,000. The members of the committee differed among themselves about whether the sum would be nearer £400,000,000 than £300,000,000. Considerable difference of opinion existed on the methods to be employed in order to arrive at the capitalization; and I am not haggling at this stage about whether the figure should be £340,000,000 or £400,000,000. However, I want to point out that in accordance with the concept adopted by the majority of the members in their report the capitalization is in the region of £340,000,000. If honorable members look at the tables provided in the report they will find that the major part of the capital has come from sums allocated by governments from revenues derived from taxation. Although most of the capital has been provided from moneys raised by taxation, some of the capita] has been provided out of loan moneys, and interest has been charged on the capital that has been borrowed. On the capital provided out of revenue no sum has been set aside for interest charges, and we on this side of the House think that that is as it should be. After all, the Government makes a decision about the Post Office in much the same way as it makes decisions about other things. The Government considers the various commitments it has to meet and decides that a certain sum should be set aside for the operation of the Post Office, just as other sums should be set aside for the Snowy Mountains scheme and for other loan works. These are all conscious decisions of the Government and it is to be hoped they are decisions made by a responsible government. Having made such a decision wisely, why then should the Government resort to the subterfuge of making the assumption that interest be paid? Attention is directed to this assumption in the majority report. I quote from paragraph 65 of the report, which reads as follows: - >If the Post Office- I ask the House to note the word " if " - had obtained its finance from some financier other than the Treasury, it would unquestionably have been required to pay interest. Nobody can cavil at that hypothetical assumption. If the Post Office had to borrow from a source other than the Government it would, like any other borrower, have to pay interest. That is a truism. However, if that assumption is carried much further it can become an absurdity because in fact the Post Office has not been in that position. Its capital has been provided as a result of conscious decisions of governments made in the light of other requirements of government. Governments have allocated certain sums to the Post Office. Why, then, resort to the subterfuge of saying, in effect, "We will charge interest on this money as though it had been obtained from a private lender "? I think that is the situation, and when such a situation is reached we have to consider the consequences. When people put money into private businesses they hope, since they are not philanthropists, to secure certain earnings over and above the outgoings of the concerns. Such earnings are called profits. In other words, profit is the sum which is diverted from the users of the business to the shareholders. The same argument cannot be applied to an organization like the Post Office which serves the whole community. Where do you get if you suggest that out of one pocket the people should pay 4 per cent., 5 per cent, or 6 per cent, interest and at the same time the same people should pay out of the other pocket as users of the Post Office? {: .speaker-K7J} ##### Mr Cramer: -- Not necessarily the same people. {: .speaker-JAG} ##### Mr CREAN: -- Well, pretty well the same people. I suggest that is the only fine objection you can take to this argument. It is like the straw that breaks the camel's back. {: .speaker-K7J} ##### Mr Cramer: -- It is sheer nonsense. {: .speaker-JAG} ##### Mr CREAN: -- It is nonsense when that principle is applied to the Post Office as a whole. Everybody uses the Post Office. The position I have described is the absurdity which is reached when the Government, in order to offset the interest Charge of £16,000,000 or £17,000,000 - which is simply a book-keeping entry - increases the ordinary letter rate from 4d. to 5d. After all, who has to pay the 5d. letter rate, which is the rate that brings the greatest profit to the Post Office? If the Minister for the Army **(Mr. Cramer)** were to look occasionally at departments other than his own, and if he were to examine the analysis that was made of the Post Office operations by the Public Accounts Committee some six or seven years ago, and more recently by the ad hoc committee whose report we are now considering, he would find that the activities of the Post Office could be separated into those activities which yield a profit and those which show a loss. The activity which has shown the greatest profit over the years is that concerned with the normal letter service which is one of the best profit-makers for the Post Office and which has carried the losses of other sections. The activity of the Post Office which results in prolific losses, because revenue does not match expenditure, is the carrying of what is called second-class mail - such items as newspapers which circulate in the electorate of the honorable member for Mallee **(Mr. Turnbull).** They enable the people in his electorate who do not have the advantage of receiving " Hansard " to read what he has said. I am not cavilling at this service, but the position really is that his constituents become enlightened at the expense of other users of postal services that are more lucrative. That has been the pattern over the years; but we now find that suddenly a new theory is being intruded and I find it difficult to 'believe that it can be seriously countenanced. It can be countenanced only if we adopt in relation to the conduct of a public utility, arguments that are applicable to private businesses. But the Post Office is not a private business; it is everybody's business. lt is a public utility. As I said at the outset, **Mr. Speaker,** the committee was not evenly divided, but it certainly was widely divided in its views on this matter. The majority report - and presumably it is on the majority report that the Government is hanging its case - suggested that the Post Office ought to be made to pay some rate of interest on the capital that is employed in it, despite the fact that the major part of this capital has been provided out of the revenues of the day and not out of loan moneys. The minority report took the other point of view. Those who subscribed to it felt that it had been the conscious decision of governments to allocate money out of revenues to the Post Offices, and that certainly common sense was not served by charging interest on that money in the way that interest is charged on moneys borrowed from outside. In the finish those who subscribed to the minority report came down with the wishy washy suggestion that an interest commitment might act as a kind of stimulus to the efficiency of the Post Office. I think that in essence that is rather a reflection upon the efficiency of the Post Office. I have always found the Post Office to be a highly efficient organization that does not need a stimulus of that kind to make it efficient. But the minority report suggested that perhaps a nominal sum of £5,000,000 or £6,000,000 could be charged to the Post Office, and that that might be a spur to the Post Office to be efficient enough in its operations to be able to meet this new commitment. There is no getting away from the fact that the Government is using the Post Office as a taxing machine which produces something of the order of £20,000.000 a year in revenue which makes the Budget problems of the Treasurer so much easier. This revenue produced for the Government by the Post Office is an indirect tax which does not appear as such, but inflates the revenue and makes the budgetary position of the Treasurer so much easier. {: #subdebate-74-0-s1 .speaker-10000} ##### Mr SPEAKER: -- Order! The honorable gentleman's time has expired. {: #subdebate-74-0-s2 .speaker-JYO} ##### Mr CLEAVER:
Swan .- I feel that the hour is rather late for me to make a contribution to this debate on the important statement made by the PostmasterGeneral on the Post Office's financial and commercial accounts, and. therefore. I ask for leave to continue my remarks at a later stage. Leave granted; debate adjourned. House adjourned at 10.24 p.m. {: .page-start } page 95 {:#debate-75} ### ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS The following answers to questions were circulated: - {:#subdebate-75-0} #### Tapping of Telephones {: #subdebate-75-0-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Attorney-General, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. How many people have been charged by the Commonwealth with offences endangering national security since telephone tapping was introduced by the present Government? 1. In how many instances were convictions recorded? {: #subdebate-75-0-s1 .speaker-126} ##### Sir Garfield Barwick:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. The honorable member appears still to cherish the illusion that the present Government introduced telephone tapping. In fact telephone tapping was not introduced by the present Government. 1. Does not arise. {:#subdebate-75-1} #### Immigration {: #subdebate-75-1-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Minister for Immigration, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Has he stated that the intake of immigrants was regulated according to employment opportunities? 1. If so, in view of the substantial increase in recent months in the number of unemployed registered with the Commonwealth Department of Labour and National Service, will he state what effect this situation will have on the Government's immigration plans? {: #subdebate-75-1-s1 .speaker-KCK} ##### Mr Downer:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. I have stated on various occasions that the migrant intake is carefully planned in accordance with Australia's absorptive capacity. This, of course, involves consideration of many aspects including current and anticipated employment opportunities. 1. The Government has always recognized the importance of immigration to Australia's development, and the sound expansion of our domestic markets and employment opportunities. It is, therefore, consistently pursuing its broad immigration objectives. As I announced some time ago, steps have been taken to meet the short term situation without prejudice to the plans of industry for further expansion. Priority is being given to wives, children, fiancees and other dependants nominated by migrants already in Australia, and to professional and other key workers whose services are needed here. The effect of these measures will be temporarily to reduce the proportion of workers in the migrant intake and, where appropriate, to slow down or defer arrivals of certain types of workers, particularly unskilled, during the first half of this financial year. As in the past, flexibility will continue to be a feature of the immigration programme, and, with the resurgence of the economy, suitable changes will be effected in the migrant flow. {: #subdebate-75-1-s2 .speaker-6U4} ##### Mr Whitlam:
WERRIWA, NEW SOUTH WALES m asked the Minister for Immigration, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. In what circumstances are seamen who desert British or foreign ships permitted to - (a) remain in Australia, and (b) nominate relatives or fiancees for admission to Australia? 1. What are the dates and terms of arrangements with other countries for the repatriation of their deserting seamen? {: #subdebate-75-1-s3 .speaker-KCK} ##### Mr Downer:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - 1 (a). Under legislation not administered by this department, the master, owner or agent of a ship from which a seaman has deserted may obtain an order from a court enforcing the return of that seaman to his ship. It is only in respect of seamen deserters against whom this action is not taken that any question of remaining for residence arises. The essential immigration question in this regard is whether or not a deserter would have been eligible to enter Australia as a migrant, and if so, whether he can meet our normal immigration requirements with regard to health and character. All deserters are " prohibited immigrants " under the provisions of the Migration Aa, 19S8, and are liable for deportation. Normally, however, deportation action is taken only against those deserters who would have been ineligible to enter Australia as migrants and those who, although they would have qualified, are found unable to meet our requirements with regard to health and character. {: type="a" start="b"} 0. A seaman deserter who is permitted to remain in Australia for residence may nominate relatives or a fianc£e for admission to Australia in the same way as any other permanent resident of Australia. {: type="1" start="2"} 0. The only arrangement in operation is in respect of crew members who have deserted from ships on which they were serving as engineers or as skilled technicians, where, to permit them to stay could occasion serious difficulty in the operation of ships. Under the Migration Act, 1938, the shipping companies concerned are responsible for taking deserters from their ships away from Australia. {:#subdebate-75-2} #### Wheat {: #subdebate-75-2-s0 .speaker-6U4} ##### Mr Whitlam: m asked the Minister for Primary Industry, upon notice - >To what countries and on what dates has the Australian Wheat Board made overseas sales on deferred terms in the last ten years? {: #subdebate-75-2-s1 .speaker-JLR} ##### Mr Adermann:
CP -- The answer to the honorable member's question is - >The Australian Wheat Board has made overseas sales of wheat on deferred terms in the last ten years as follows: - 1955 to Poland, 1956 to Roumania, 1961 to Egypt, and 1961 to Mainland China. {:#subdebate-75-3} #### Housing {: #subdebate-75-3-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Minister representing the Minister for National Development, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Has his attention been drawn to the statement by **Mr. H.** Gorman, president, Real Estate Institute of New South Wales, that the Government's plans to deal with the economic situation, which were announced late last year, will retard progress in overtaking the housing lag but that the diversion of substantial funds into the hands of the Federal Government should allow the Government to make a greater contribution to housing finance at reasonable rates of interest? 1. Is it expected that **Mr. Gorman's** assessment of the position will be borne out? 2. If so, and in view of the demand for housing resulting from the Government's immigration policy, is it intended to make more money available for the construction of homes? {: #subdebate-75-3-s1 .speaker-126} ##### Sir Garfield Barwick:
LP -- The Minister for National Development has supplied the following answers: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Yes. 1. and 3. No. One of the results of the economic measures announced in November was that the level of housing activity in Australia was reduced to some extent below the peak levels of last year. The Government has already taken some measures to promote recovery in the rate of housing and is currently considering what further measures may be necessary. It is not expected that the effect of the economic measures upon the finances of the Commonwealth will be to divert substantial funds, or indeed any additional funds, for the use of the Government. {:#subdebate-75-4} #### Department of Works {: #subdebate-75-4-s0 .speaker-JWX} ##### Mr J R Fraser:
ALP ser asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Were several officers of the Department of Works at Canberra charged several months ago, with negligence or neglect of duty following the financial failure of a Canberra building contractor engaged on government contracts in Canberra? 1. Were these officers punished by being downgraded in the Service, and did they suffer loss of pay as a result? 2. Was there a possibility of impairment of their professional standing in the community as a result of the departmental action and newspaper reports referring to the disciplinary action taken? 3. Did a Public Service Board committee of appeal review the cases? 4. Were the officers then found to be not guilty of the charges and were they exonerated? 5. Can the findings of the committee of appeal be published, or can some statement be made as to the findings of the committee so that the officers concerned may be cleared of any stigma attaching to their professional reputations? 6. Will the officers concerned be reimbursed for their expenditures in presenting their cases to the committee of appeal? {: #subdebate-75-4-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - i to 7. Certain officers of the Department of Works at Canberra were recently charged with negligence or neglect of duty following the financial failure of a Canberra building contractor engaged on government contracts in Canberra, and various punishments were imposed. All (he officers concerned appealed against the department's decisions and, in the event, the appeals boards dismissed all but one of the charges. In respect of the one charge upheld against one officer, the punishment originally imposed was reduced. In the latter case, the appeal board, acting under statutory authority, decided to hold its proceedings in private. Recommendations have been made for reimbursement to the officers concerned of certain reasonable expenses incurred by them in presenting their cases to the appeal boards. {:#subdebate-75-5} #### International Relations {: #subdebate-75-5-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Has he stated that the existence of armaments in the world is not the cause of international tension, but that international tension is the cause of armaments? 1. If so, does be regard all disarmament discussions as being foredoomed to failure unless they are preceded by a settlement of all outstanding matters of international disputation which have been the cause of world tension? {: #subdebate-75-5-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - 1 and 2. I express my views on this matter to the United Nations General Assembly, on 5th October, 1960, in the following terms: - "I cannot honestly accept the view that armaments are the major cause of world tension. That view seems to be a serious oversimplification. True, if any power or combination of powers has shown that it is aggressively-minded and seeks to extend its boundaries of control wider and wider, by force if necessary, then the possession by that power or group of *powers of* vast armaments will be a cause of tension. But if the non-aggressive powers are in the result driven into maintaining and developing great defensive armaments, it is proper to say that their armaments are the result of tension and not its cause. " In effect, what we need in the world, just as much as the vastly important disarmament talks, is a serious attempt by negotiation to encourage freedom and understanding, to remove the causes of friction and to persuade nations that aggressive policies and proselytizing political religions are the enemies of peace." {:#subdebate-75-6} #### Disarmament {: #subdebate-75-6-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Can he say whether it is possible to secure an effective agreement for world disarmament without the participation of the Government of mainland China? 1. Would an essential preliminary to any agreement be the recognition of the Government of mainland China and its admission to membership of the United Nations organization? 2. If so, what steps have been taken by the Government in an endeavour to have discussions on world disarmament conducted on a realistic basis? {: #subdebate-75-6-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. As I have indicated on several occasions, it is difficult to see how an effective world arrangement about armaments could be made unless Communist China were a party to such arrangements. Of course, this is not necessarily to say that Communist China should be invited to participate straight away in disarmament negotiations when they are shortly resumed - we have yet to make any progress at all with the Soviet Union and the introduction of further complications at this stage would not be helpful. 1. As I have suggested before, it is not necessarily true that the recognition of the Communist Government of China would be an essential technical preliminary to China becoming a- party to a disarmament agreement. This is also probably true of United Nations representation. 2. I have had private discussions with the world's leaders, including the Commonwealth Prime Ministers, on the question of eventually associating Communist China with any disarmament or nuclear tests agreement {:#subdebate-75-7} #### Food Surpluses {: #subdebate-75-7-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Did the United Nations approve of a proposal, sponsored by six member nations, which called for surplus food to be distributed to underdeveloped countries? 1. Has Australia agreed to co-operate in the implementation of this plan? 2. If so, will he take steps to have the practice of destroying surplus sugar cane discontinued and make any surplus production in the sugar industry available to those who need it but who are without the means to purchase it? {: #subdebate-75-7-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. The General Assembly of the United Nations on 27th October, 1960, unanimously adopted a resolution (1496 XV.) on food surpluses for hungry peoples sponsored by Canada, Haiti, Liberia, Pakistan, Venezuela and the United States. The purpose of this resolution was twofold: (a) to urge all member states to support the Freedom From Hunger Campaign launched in 1959 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.) of the United Nations and (b) to have the F.A.O. establish procedures for making available as much surplus food as possible to relieve hunger. This is to be done with due regard to the development of agriculture in underdeveloped countries, without prejudice to existing bilateral arrangements for disposal of food surpluses and in a manner compatible with the F.A.O. Principles of Surplus Disposals. The DirectorGeneral of F.A.O., in consultation with a group of experts and an ad hoc inter-governmental committee, has prepared a report on procedures for surplus food disposals. It is expected that the F.A.O. Council, of which Australia is a member, will discuss the question at its session in June. 1. Australia supported the resolution in the General Assembly. In his statement, the Australian representative wholeheartedly supported the humanitarian objectives of the resolution, but was concerned that the disposal of surpluses did not harm the export programmes of primaryproducing countries like Australia. 2. The question of the part which Australia will play in any arrangements arising out of the resolution is yet to be decided. Consideration of the resolution is still in its early stages. No clear idea of the way in which members of the United Nations or F.A.O. might be expected to participate will be known at least until after the F.A.O. Council meets in June and more probably until the United Nations General Assembly and the F.A.O. Conference meet at the end of the year. As far as the disposal of sugar is concerned, I should point out that Australia, with the full support of the Queensland Sugar Board and of the Australian sugar industry, is a member of the International Sugar Agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Australia is committed to limit annual exports of sugar to a fixed figure. All exports, whether commercial sales or charitable gifts, are debited against the fixed export limit. It follows that, while the International Sugar Agreement continues in operation and while Australia remains a member, any gifts of sugar that Australia may make would require a corresponding reduction in commercial sales. {:#subdebate-75-8} #### Radiation and Radioactive Substances {: #subdebate-75-8-s0 .speaker-6U4} ##### Mr WHITLAM:
WERRIWA, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP m asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - >What action has he taken on (a) the recommendation by the National Radiation Advisory Committee in July, 1959, that the Commonwealth Government should seek the necessary powers to bring all uses of ionizing radiation in Australia under Federal legislative control as soon as possible and (b) the detailed statement of its reasons which the committee gave him at his request in July, 1960? {: #subdebate-75-8-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answer to the honorable member's question is as follows: - >As I indicated in reply to a similar question on 28th September, 1960, the recommendation gives rise to a number of complex problems. This matter is still being examined by the authorities concerned. {:#subdebate-75-9} #### Education {: #subdebate-75-9-s0 .speaker-6U4} ##### Mr Whitlam: m asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - >Has he taken steps to institute an investigation of the problems of technical education, as suggested by the Murray committee in September, 1957, and to appoint a committee on technological education at the tertiary level, as suggested by the Universities Commission in October, 1960? {: #subdebate-75-9-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr Menzies:
LP -- The answer to the honorable member's question is as follows: - >As I informed Parliament in my second-reading speech on the States Grants Universities Bill 1960 the Government has agreed upon the suggestion of the Australian Universities Commission that an advisory committee be established to assist the commission in an investigation of the future pattern of tertiary education in Australia. It was envisaged of course that this committee should look, amongst other things, into aspects of technological education at the tertiary level. I am glad to be able to inform the honorable member that this committee is about to be formed and that I expect it will begin its work shortly after the return of the chairman of the Universities Commission from overseas next month. {:#subdebate-75-10} #### Royal Australian Navy {: #subdebate-75-10-s0 .speaker-6U4} ##### Mr Whitlam: m asked the Minister representing the Minister for the Navy, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. How many personnel (a) sought, and (b) were allotted married quarters in the last financial year? 1. How many personnel were waiting for married quarters at 30th June, last? {: #subdebate-75-10-s1 .speaker-JXI} ##### Mr Freeth:
Minister for the Interior · FORREST, WESTERN AUSTRALIA · LP -- The Minister for the Navy has supplied the following information: - 1. (a) 1172. (b) 735. {: type="1" start="2"} 0. 564. {:#subdebate-75-11} #### Civil Defence {: #subdebate-75-11-s0 .speaker-JYJ} ##### Mr Clay:
ST GEORGE, NEW SOUTH WALES y asked the Minister for the Interior, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Is civil defence a federal responsibility comparable with the overall defence of the Commonwealth? 1. If so, will he ensure that municipal councils are reimbursed for all reasonable expenses incurred as a result of their co-operation with the Commonwealth in the matter of civil defence? {: #subdebate-75-11-s1 .speaker-JXI} ##### Mr Freeth:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - 1 and 2. As I pointed out in my statement to the House on 29th September, 1959, under our federal system State governments exercise control over most of those functions which are essential to survival in major catastrophes, for example, maintenance of law and order, medical and hospital services, fire-fighting, transport, public utilities, including water, gas and electricity supplies, and so on. Control over these functions is the very essence of an adequate civil defence programme. I stated then that the Commonwealth's view was that, as a basic principle, the States should be responsible for the development of their own civil defence planning and programmes, with the Commonwealth providing national guidance and co-ordination as necessary. {:#subdebate-75-12} #### Audit Act {: #subdebate-75-12-s0 .speaker-6U4} ##### Mr Whitlam: m asked the Treasurer, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. What amendments to the Audit Act have been suggested by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts or the Auditor-General but have not been incorporated in the Audit Bill at present before the House? 1. When were these amendments suggested? {: #subdebate-75-12-s1 .speaker-009MC} ##### Mr Harold Holt:
LP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - 1 and 2. All amendments to the Audit Act which have been suggested by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts have been included in the bill. Since 1955, many suggestions for amendment to the Audit Act have been made by Auditors-General. As the honorable member has been informed on previous occasions, consideration of these has proceeded within the limit of the staff available for the purpose. The more important proposed amendments, as specified by the Auditor-General, have been discussed between the Treasury and the Audit Office and, as reported by the Auditor-General in his annual report of the year ended 30th June, 1960, "Conclusions having been reached on a number of items " these have been incorporated in the bill. The AuditorGeneral went on -to report that " Other suggested amendments of a less urgent nature or requiring more detailed investigation are receiving consideration by Treasury ". These investigations are proceeding. {:#subdebate-75-13} #### Social Services {: #subdebate-75-13-s0 .speaker-1V4} ##### Mr Cairns: s asked the Minister for Social Services, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. How many age pensions were terminated In 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960, respectively, because the pensioner entered a mental hospital? 1. How many (a) males and (b) females have received unemployment benefit for a period of three or more successive weeks since 1st July, 1960? 2. How many men with dependent spouse and child or children have received unemployment benefit plus allowance for dependants for three or more successive weeks since 1st July, 1960? {: #subdebate-75-13-s1 .speaker-KZE} ##### Mr Roberton:
CP -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. No figures are available for 1957 or before. For 1958, 1959 and 1960 the figures are respectively 866, 618 and 658. These figures represent the number of pensions cancelled and not the number of individuals involved. For example, a pensioner whose pension was cancelled on his admission to a mental hospital might have had it regranted on his discharge but it may subsequently have been cancelled on his readmission to the hospital. 2 and 3. The information is not available, and could not be obtained without an unreasonable amount of work. {:#subdebate-75-14} #### Company Law {: #subdebate-75-14-s0 .speaker-KX7} ##### Mr Ward: d asked the Prime Minister, upon notice - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Is he able to say whether some companies operating in Australia have adopted the practice of issuing non-voting ordinary shares? 1. If so, has the Government any intention of doing anything to ensure, either by action on a Commonwealth level or in conjunction with the States, that all ordinary shareholders are given a voice in the control of the undertaking in which they have risked their capital? 2. If the Government proposes any action, will its plan include provision for court controlled ballots, including postal voting, to ensure that decisions are in accordance with the wishes of a majority of the shareholders? {: #subdebate-75-14-s1 .speaker-N76} ##### Mr MENZIES:
KOOYONG, VICTORIA · UAP; LP from 1944 -- The answers to the honorable member's questions are as follows: - {: type="1" start="1"} 0. Yes. 1. and 3. I suggest that the honorable member peruse the draft Companies Bill prepared by the Committee of Commonwealth and State Ministers, a copy of which will be made available to him.

Cite as: Australia, House of Representatives, Debates, 15 August 1961, viewed 22 October 2017, <http://historichansard.net/hofreps/1961/19610815_reps_23_hor32/>.

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