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On December 9, though you will be voting for individual candidates, the end result will be that you choose a Government for the nation. I do not propose to put before you a long list of promises. After 12 years the A.L.P. can easily make a series of brand new offers without saying where the new hundreds of millions are to come from; though they will, of course, come from you. For governments have no money to spend except that which has been earned and paid over, by tax or loan, by the men and...

Good evening listeners, The Commonwealth Labor Government brings to you, the electors of Australia, an account of its administration during the three years since you returned it to office; a review of how it has sustained the trust you gave to it when the call for national leadership went out in 1941; and its plans for the future, greater Australia. You will recall that in 1941 – after two years of war – the Liberal Party and Country Party coalition Government led by Mr. Menzies came to an...

Tonight, I place before you Labor’s Programme for the next three years. It is a positive Programme. It is practical. It can and will be given full effect to by a Labor Government. Specific mandate asked for We ask you for a mandate to carry out this Programme. We shall carry out the mandate. Unlike the Menzies/Fadden Government we shall carry out all the promises we make to you. Security is the basis of Labor’s programme The primary aim of Labor will be to provide a government that will give the...

The failure of the Government This is a vital election. The Menzies Government knows that, if it waits until next year, it will be defeated. The result of its mismanagement of the economy cannot be avoided for much longer. So, this Government had decided that the people will be pit to the expense of an early election– the fifth Federal election in six years. The Menzies-Fadden Government was re-elected only last year. It had more than eighteen months of office to serve. Yet it abdicated. Why...

Since its recent and calamitous Budget, the Menzies Government has finally forfeited the respect and lost the confidence of the Australian people. It has broken every major pledge with which it won office in 1949. I name only a few to put value back in the £; to abolish all restrictive controls; that taxation could and would be reduced. Its complete inefficiency and reckless expenditure in the vital matter of the nation’s defences have brought protests even from some of its own supporters in the...

I speak to you tonight as the Leader of the Labor Party in the Commonwealth of Australia. I present the Labor Party’s Policy at this election of the 24th Parliament of the Commonwealth with the firm conviction that it contains practical, down-to-earth, well-considered and feasible proposals which will restore the nation to prosperity and promote its safety. It is important that the issues on which the election will be decided should be clearly stated and clearly understood. The sad thing about...

The dissolution of the 24th Parliament of the Commonwealth was brought about one year ahead of time for reasons other than the false and spurious ones stated by the Prime Minister. There was no pressing national need for the Prime Minister and the Treasurer to precipitate this election and throw the House of Representatives and the Senate out of electoral alignment; and there can be no justification for the waste o£ £500,000 in having two elections where one alone next year would suffice. But...

Men and Women of Australia! The decision we will make for our country on 2 December is a choice between the past and the future, between the habits and fears of the past, and the demands and opportunities of the future. There are moments in history when the whole fate and future of nations can be decided by a single decision. For Australia, this is such a time. It’s time for a new team, a new program, a new drive for equality of opportunities: it’s time to create new opportunities for...

Men and women of Australia, Just 17 months ago, I stood here, and from this place and from this city I asked you to choose for Australia a new team, a new program, a new drive for equality of opportunities. You gave us a clear mandate to go ahead with our program for the next three years. For 17 months we have driven ourselves to carry out your mandate, to carry out the program I placed before you. Now the government you elected for three years has been interrupted in mid-career. Our program has...

Men and women of Australia, The whole future of Australian democracy is in your hands. The decision you make on 13 December goes far beyond who shall govern Australia for a few months or a few years. It goes to the heart of how Australia is to be governed into the Twenty-first Century. Above all, Australia must be re-united about our basic faith in the value of Parliamentary democracy; as a means for change, and as a means for good government. The shame of the past six weeks must be wiped away...

The task before us is to get Australia back to work, to give our young people, our unemployed, our small business people, our migrants a new hope – hope for decent jobs, hope in their future and the future of their country. The deepening economic crisis, the deliberately created unemployment call for bold, decisive measures. I shall be putting forward proposals to cut through, once and for all, the knot which ties unemployment and inflation. We reject the defeatism and despair which says to...

As Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Party, I want to talk to you about the issues on which we will fight this election. Basically, it is an election about policies… Policies that will directly affect you and your families and for many, many years to come. They will be years of changing values and expanding opportunities, especially for the young. It is also an election about two fundamentally different ways of governing. The Liberal way which seeks to encourage the freedom, the talents...