Page "Harold Holt" Paragraph 54

In 1967 the Holt government made the historic decision not to depreciate the Australian dollar in line with Britain's depreciation of the pound sterling, a custom that Australia had previously always followed, but this decision created considerable dissent within the Coalition ; Country Party leader John McEwen was particularly angered by the move — he saw it as a threat to Australia's balance of payments and feared that it would lead to increased production costs for primary industry.