Bert Kelly, “Anthony to the rescue,” The Bulletin, June 7, 1983, p. 123.

Kind people often tell me how sorry they are for me because I keep trying to knock a few bricks off the tariff wall. “We know you are right, Bert, but surely you must know that the ignorance and the naked self-interest of those who gain from protection in the short term will always outweigh your superior economic logic. You should resign yourself to never getting anywhere.”

Sometimes I do feel like tossing in the towel. One of my worst spots was when ministers in the Fraser Government, after making splendid speeches about the evils of protectionism while overseas, ran to water as soon as anyone huffed at them when they returned home. The decisions on the textile, clothing and footwear industries come quickly to mind, with the car industry close behind. Indeed, there has been plenty to make me miserable as well as modest.

However, Samuel Johnson once said that, though he had plenty to be miserable about, cheerfulness would break through. For instance, I have been gratified recently by the tariff stances of John Kerin, the new Minister for Primary Industry and of Senator John Button, the new Minister for Industry and Commerce. Both seem to be an improvement on their predecessors as far as tariffs are concerned.

But my most recent cause for cheerfulness is a speech given by Doug Anthony, the leader of the National Party, at the Australian British Trade Association Conference in Canberra on April 20. In his speech, Anthony seemed to see the tariff picture in clearer light than he has before. Indeed, the speech could have been written by Eccles himself though he, when posting it to me, added — with customary meanness — a cautionary note telling me not to get too excited.

But both Fred and I refuse to adopt Eccles’ cynical attitude. Fred thinks that Anthony’s improvement is due to the grass roots pressure from the farmers. But I take a different attitude. I think Anthony essentially is an honest man and he really means what he says this time. So I will stick up for him as long as he behaves as he did at this conference.

Well, what did he say that makes Fred and I so excited? Just listen.

The most important reason for trading is not to export — it is to import. Countries, in fact, engage in trade so that they can import. They sell their goods and services to the world to gain the means of exchange they need to import goods and services they cannot produce, or to give their people greater choice, or to take advantage of the greater efficiency of other exporting nations in certain fields … If a country restricts its imports it is limiting its potential for increasing the standard of living of its people.

Eccles usually puts it another way. He says: “Every barrier to imports is a barrier to exports.” I think Anthony’s way is better because he makes clear that import barriers lower living standards of the countries that erect them.

Later, Anthony quoted with approval comments made by Lydia Dunn, a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, at a recent conference in Hobart. She was discussing the alarming tendency of countries to rush towards protectionism and inflation because of world recession. She said:

The justification for so doing is that governments will thereby bring about a breathing space for economic recovery. This is like giving heroin to a junkie in the hope that with it he will independently achieve a spontaneous cure, so obviating the need for further doses. The result is, quite plainly, agony postponed but death brought nearer.

Now that is a better way of putting it than Eccles uses when he talks about the damage done to industries by keeping them sucking away at the tariff teat when they would be more healthy if they were weaned. I think Eccles is a bit jealous of the way that Anthony expresses himself.

Then Anthony went on to say that we were sitting on the edge of an area that was expanding faster than any other part of the world and this offered us a great opportunity if we would only grasp it. He said:

Australia, for one, if it wants to take its place in this region and gain the benefits that can be achieved, must be prepared to continue the steady lowering of its import barriers that has been begun by the previous government. The process must be steady and the reasons for it must be widely understood. Attempts to bring about a sudden and drastic liberalisation of our trade barriers stand every chance of doing more harm than good. But the barriers must keep coming down. If they don’t, the people being hurt will not be those in other countries; they will be ourselves.

You can surely see now why cheerfulness keeps breaking through.


[That was published in The Bulletin as “Anthony to the rescue”. For “Mavis to the rescue” click here.]