Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

As against the intense group consciousness of the Japanese, there is the 'one of our mob' syndrome of the Australians. Scabs are sent to Coventry in Australia or forced to endure nakamahazure. The larrikin ethic in Australian culture equates with amae in Japan, in the name of which adults are permitted to behave like spoiled children. Similarly, the males of both races are disposed to engage in ritual drunkenness, behaving as if drunk when actually basically sober. And finally, there is a similarity, which will be readily understood by some Queenslanders-not, I hope, represented here today. The word in Japanese for 'extra income' or a 'perquisite' is homachi, a thinly disguised version of our 'how much'. So many similarities should help to make communication easier and more effective. Unfortunately, in recent months in Queensland communication has been remarkably ineffective. I think it is a great pity that the question of investment by the Japanese in Australia in general, and in land ownership in particular, has become such an emotional issue. We must face the fact that Australia needs, and will continue to need, injections of Japanese capital just as, in the past, it needed British and American capital. Our population is too small and our desire to save too low to create the capital markets necessary for this country's development. The balance of payments situation and the size of our foreign debt make it clear that, whether we like it or not, we need to persuade foreign investors to sink their money into Australia, not to prevent them from doing so. Where the money comes from should not matter in a free enterprise society. This is the view very sensibly being taken by the Queensland Government and emphasised by the Premier in a speech earlier this year. Ours is now a multi-racial and multi-cultural country and the stereo-type of the tall bronzed Australian is on the way out. We will increasingly have to learn to live with neighbours of another race and of another culture. I would suggest, with respect, that we may well find the Japanese more congenial in most respects than some of the other choices that are now open to us. At the same time I do not think it is too much to expect of Japanese investors that they be sensitive to Australian concerns and selective in their choice of investments, choosing those that are going to add value and create jobs and wealth in Australia as well as in Japan, and rejecting those that are simply going to create over-production and lower prices. In conclusion, I hope I have persuaded you that there are advantages to be had from mentally sitting on the floor. There are also, of course, pleasures to be had from physically sitting there--it is really the only way to appreciate the aesthetics of Japan, but that is another story. How best to sit is indicated in an old waka--a thirty-one syllable poem-telling us in five lines all we really need to know: Negawakuwa Ushiro ni hashira Mae nisalce 140