Fax from 13/ 11/ 96
PRIME MINISTER
13 November 1996 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. JOHN HOWARD MP
MIDDAY SHOW CHANNEL NINE
E O E
KENNERLEY: Welcome to Midday and congratulations. We haven't seen you for nine months.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, and thanks for having me and congratulations to you. The show has been a sensation this
year and I think your personality and presentation is largely responsible.
KENNERLEY: Gee, we'll get rid of all of those dreadful questions then! You've got me right in now.
PRIME MINISTER;
It's true. It's been a great success and congratulations to you and your team, Geoff and all the
others.
KENNERLEY: Thank you very much, Yes, Geoffrey is over there and what a great part.
HARVEY:
How are you?, 15: 21 Pg: 1
if!..
Fax from PRIMIE MINISTER:
I'm very well.
HARVEY:
Good to see you, a handsome man.
PIME MI1NISTER:
Good to see you.
HARVEY: Everybody else is greasy so why shouldn't I?
KENNERLEY:
Well, nine months being the Prime Minister of Australia. How powerfuil is that feeling of
being Prime Minister?
PRIME AMISTER:
It's sort of awe inspiring Father than powerfu~ l. I said on the night of the election that the
greatest emotion I felt was humility and the opportunity after all of those years in politics to
actually be at the pinnacle and do a few very positive and good things for the whole country.
Sometimes you think you're very powerful, other times you feel absolutely impotent because
even though you want to try and change something there are forces that are marshalled against
you but it's intensely rewarding in a personal sense and the best part of it is actually going and
talking to people. I had a wonderfuil
experience on Sunday. I went down to Benalla in Victoria to unveil the Weary Dunlop
Memorial and there mnust, have been eight or ten thousand people at that gathering. They were
all ages and anybody who thinks that there is no identifiable Australian spirit hasn't been to a
gathering like that. I mean, it was just fantastic. The open warmth and basic decency of
people, I'm not suggesting for a moment they all agree with my politics. It would be amazing
if they did. That's not really the issue but the opportunity to relate to people in that kind of
situation is maivellous.
KENNERLEY; Let's look at what you've achieved in the last nine months. Looking at the economic
recovely, I have heard the comment recently that it's been about as slow as molasses. How
do you react to that?
PRIME MINISTER.,
I think the economy is mixed. The growth figures are good, the inflation is low, interest rates
are coming down all of those things are good. Fa oM13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 2
Fax from KFNNERLFY: But I talk to small business people and they just say, if you're talking to John Howard, say
when is it going to happen?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think a lot of things that we've done will make it happen next year. We are finally going to
get the unfair dismissal -removal through the Senate which will help small business a lot.
We've cut the capital gains tax liability, their provisional tax liability, their interest rates are
coming down, although I would like the major banks to bring the small business interest rates
down further.
KENNERLEY: Will they? Can you make them do it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well if we had more competition, Competitive pressure has driven home loan rates down.
They've fallen by $ 145 a month, $ 145 a month over the last eight or nine months for a person
on an average loan. So I think a lot of things that are needed for small business activity are
there. I know the economy is mixed. Some areas are strong, others not so strong. Mining
and services are very strong, manufacturing not so strong, retailing I am hoping will have a
bumper Christmas.
KENNERLEY: A lot of people had expectations of action and movement and feel disappointed. Do you think
they are entitled to be?
PRIME MINISTER:
No because we always had a problem with the Senate.
KENNERLEY: Yes but you said yourself you feel as if these forces are marshalled against you. Are you
winning or losing?
PRIME MINISTER:
We're doing very well, for example, with workplace relations. We've finally got the
agreement of the Democrats to get that through and if I can get the sale of one third of Teistra
through this year we can start spending a lot of money out of the proceeds of that on
improving Australia's environment. Faxro~ i13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 3
Fax from KENNEIILEY: How confident are you of getting that through?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm working on it. I'm not guaranteed it because I don't control the Senate. I may have a
seat majority in the House of Representatives but I don't control the Senate.
KENNERLEY: What happens if you don't get it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think the environment will be the loser and I think the Australian community will be
disappointed. If we don't get it we wvill put it up again and if we don't get it then, well, we'll
consider our options. But I hope that won't be necessary to go further than that.
KENNERLEV: Headlines overseas have been raging Australia's racism, Just last week CNN News have been
pumping around the world television reports about Australia's racism. Even the Chinese
Ambassador has officially expressed concern about tourist in Australia and our racist attitudes.
What about those views of overseas to Australia and our racism?
PRIME MINSTER:
Well, if people think we are a racist country they're wrong. I mean, the strongest feelings I
have about this whole debate is I'm not going to cop the claim that Australia is a racist,
bigoted country it's not. It's one of the most tolerant, open societies in the world and I
don't think people do this country any good by feeding a false view about the character of the
Australian people. We took more Inido-Chinese refugees per capita than any nation in the
world in the late 1970s. We have people from all around the world, we have our own special,
unique identity. We are, by any measure, a very tolerant and open society. And the other
thing I'd say, Kern-Anne, is that only this morning I saw a cable from our Embassy in Tokyo
and the Office of the Australian Tourist Commission in Tokyo reported that there has been no
decline at all in the rate of visa applications by Japanese to come to this country as tourists.
When you bear in mind that Japan is our best source of touri sts...
KENNERLEY: But these headlines are raging. CNN is talking about Australia being racist.
PRIME MINISTER:
People don't always react to headlines you know. Faoxm 13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 4
Fax fram KENNERLEY: Pauline Hanson started this debate and it all comes from Pauline Hanson. What do you say to
people about that?
PRIE MINISTER:
Well what I say is that one speech by a backbencher does not represent the view of a nation.
KENNERLEY:
But how come, then, she got so much overwhelming support?
PRIME MINISTER;
Well I think people reacted, many of them, very foolishly. I mean, my reaction was one of not
overreacting to the speech of an individual and every week that has gone by has confirmed my
view that that was the right reaction and I think those people who chased it were wrong and I
don't think they did Australia a great service.
KENNERLEY: Well tell me what we should do Pauline Hanson was on the programme. We asked Australia
what they thought of Pauline Hanson we had an overwhelming, not a small response, an
overwhelming response of support for her 94 per cent. Now whether the specifics of her
speech they were reacting to or what translating. What do you say to those Australians who
support her?
PRIME NMISTER:
Well what I say to the whole community is that I can understand why, after we've had so
much change...
ENNERLEY:
But what is the why, what do you understand why about?
PRIME MINISTER:
I understand why a lot of people feel that their way of life has changed significantly. I
understand why in a time of still high unemployment a lot of people feel unsettled. What I say
is that we must retain our tolerant credentials, we must retain our reputation for being a very
free and open society. But as the new Prime Minister of Australia I want to involve the
Australian people in debate about these issues. I do not take the attitude that things like the
level of immigration are too hot a subject for the Australian people to handle. I think one of
the faults of the former government was it took an elitist view of these issues and said, look,'
you out there are too uninformed to debate such issues, leave it to the political elite in
Canberra surrounded by some people who appoint themselves as the journalistic elite, we'll
work the decision out and weTl tell you what the decision is'. Now I think a lot of the
Farxom 13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg:
Fax from reaction you're talking about is a reaction against that rather than an intolerant, bigoted
reaction.
KENNERLEY: So that's your translation of what Pauline Hanson's overwhelming support was?
PRIE MINISTER;
Well I'm sceptical about remarks like overwhelming support.
KENNERLEY: I only go from what we did on the programme.
PRIME MINISTER:
I do understand that and it depends very much how you view what was said in that speech. I
think that Australians are tolerant, not all of them, there are bigots in the Australian
community but compared with other nations we have an incredible record of decency and
tolerance, We have black spots our treatment of the Aborigines was appalling. But the
balance sheet of Australian history is a very good one,
KENNERLEY: Why didn't you just, sont of, have a chat in the corridors of Canberra and just say Ms Hanson,
you know, can't you just back off a little this is unhealthy for us?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look I know enough about human nature to know that...
KNNNERLEY:
Have you spoken to her or seen her?
PRIME MINISTER:
We exchange courtesies...
KENNERLEY:-Courtesies does it Stop at that?
PRIME MINISTER;
Well thus far, yes. She is an Independent Member of Parliament, I know human nature well
enough to know that if you, the more attention you pay to people in a situation like that the
more likely it is that you'll get fuirther speeches. I mean, some of the people who have been
Farxft 13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 PS: 6
Fax from the loudest in criticism of me, if they had followed my example, some of those headlines
wouldn't have appeared overseas. They've done the damage rather than me.
KENNERLEV: But as a politician, professional politician, are you sure that you have connected with what the
real electorate was feeling and translating their feelings about what Pauline Hanson said.
PRIME MJNJSTER:
I think I have actually, I do. I think I understand what, I understand the explanation for the
surface support and I use that word surface deliberately...
KENNERLEY: Just give me two examples, two examples, of what you think translated and you evaluated as a
politicians. Just two things that the electorate is feeling that John Howard has recognised.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think people feel they're being shut out of debate on these issues. 1 think in the past
whenever anyb~ ody sai d anything about immigration they had the feeling that the Government
slapped them down and said ' that's too nasty for you to talk about, you're not mature enough
to discuss those things'. Now Australians resent that. They resent being condescended to.
The role of a Prime Minister is to both listen and to lead. You don't tell people all the time
what they ought to believe. Sometimes you go out in front and you say ' you follow me
because this is the right thing to do'. On other occasions you listen to what people are saying,
you try and interpret the real meaning, not the surface explanation and I think when you do
that in relation to this issues I think in six months time people will look back and say ' what
was that all about?' And I do think people feet that under this Government you can talk a bit
more about some of these things. But I want it done in a tolerant fashion, I mean, we have
many... KENNERLEY: But many people just think you've ignored it.
PRIME MINISTER:
No I haven't ignored it, I understand it. I. think I understand it better than many of my critics
and I think I'm serving the interests of Australia far better than many of my critics who are
angry with me because I haven't done what they have told me to do.
KENNERLEY: Mlr Howard would you mind staying with us for another few moments. Fa om13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 7
Fax from PRIME MINISTER:
Delighted, ( ad break)
KENNERLEY(;
Welcome back to Midday. My special guest on Midday is Prime Minister-, John Howard. Mr
Howard, on a personal note your wife, Janette, ivent through major surgery recently.
Personally, how does John Howard, the husband, deal with something as dramatic, medically
dramatic, as that?
] PRIME MINISTER.
Well no diffierently than anybody else. I mean, the world stopped for a few days and I'm very
grateflul that she had a good surgeon and she's making a good recovery. She still gets pretty
tired if she does too much, but I am immensely gratefuil for the surgeon and the tremendous
staff at the King George V Hospital. I mean, it's a great hospital and I'm very, very grateful
for the quality of the care that she received, I really am.
KENNERLEY: Must be particularly difficult in anybody's profession, but let alone running a country and
trying to deal with somnething as traumatic as that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, but I mean, we're all the same. I mean, we're no diffierent in a situation like that. It
doesn't matter what you're doing if something like that occurs you just forget everything else
for a while and I did. We're very grateflul that things are looking very positive and I can only
feel very deeply for people who arc in different situations, But we're all humnan and, I guess,
and my position is no different. I mean, everybody has responsibilities and everybody has
loved ones and when something like that comes along it's often been said that illness is a
leveller, illness doesn't discriminate, and of course neither it should.
KENNERLEY:
Does it change your attitude to life?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't know that it changed it but it really does drive home the supreme importance of family
relationships anid the relationships you have with people you love are far more important than
anything else in the world.
KENNERLEY: On to other matters of protocol almost. You were invited to attend a dinner at the Victor
Chang institute where the Princess of Wales then accepted an invitation. The headlines raged
" John Howard shuns Diana PM shuns Diana". Why did you renege on the invitation?
Faxom 13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 PS: 8
Fax from PRIME NMSTER:
Well, at the time I was invited, I didn't know Diana had been invited and I just took the view
that it wasn't appropriate for the Prime Minister of this country and her to be sort of be
present at the occasion. I'm sorry in a sense that I couldn't be there because I have an
enormous respect for Victor Chang and for the people organising but..
KENNERLEY: Why wouldn't it be appropriate for you to be at the same dinner because it is a fuandraiser, it is
a charity. They ended up raising a million dollars. Why wouldn't it be appropriate for you to
be there?
] PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it is just a judgmnent I took about the office, not the person. I mean, the office of Prime
Minister of Australia. I think it was the right decision. I have no personal view either way, it
wasn't done out of deference to anybody. It was just a view I took about the, I guess the
protocol or the dignity of the office of Prime Minister as distinct from John Howard...
KENNERLEY:
Because you weren't number one on the billing?
PRIM MINISTER:
Well, it's just a question of the appropriateness of the office,
KCENNERLEY.: Politics and image go hand in hand and I think that's where you are going; the image of Prime
Minister might have been diminished because she was a guest there as well. How closely do
you guard that image, because you know that's something a lot of people don't really have to
ever think about in their day to day business life. How....
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think, I think, the office belongs the entire community. I mean I don't take a
personalised view of the office. I mean, it is the most responsible position in the country, It's
an immense privilege to occupy the position and I have a great sense of the history of it and
people on both sides of politics, have made a contribution to that history and I always think of
how it what, I do, whether it reflects favourably on Australia and on Australia's interests. I
mean, that is my overwhelming, total preoccupation. Faxam 13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 9
Fax from KENNERLEY: But that whole image making aid politics being, politicians want to be as popular as possible.
And the photo opportunity always goes a long way. And there have been politicians who have
done some very interesting fun human side of things. Just have a look at these things.
( Video played)
KENNERLEY: Well, there you have the human face of politics. Peter Costello, your Treasurer dancing the
Macarena. Did that damage his credibility?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no it didn't. I think it is a question of doing things that you are comfortable with. And I
think there is nothing worse then, just for the sake of a picture, do somiething that you feel
awkward about and I've made it a habit never to do something that I feel awkward or
unnatural in doing, Because I think it looks phoney, it looks contrived and people are entitled
to say, there is Howard trying to get his photo on the front page of the newspaper. Now, I
don't need to do that, it's foolish and it's not that I think that I think I'm any cleverer than the
next bloke it's just that if you don't feel comfortable with something, don't do it.
KENNERLEY:
What did you say to your Treasurer after you ? 9
PRIME MINISTER:
I said it was pretty sharp. I said " that was pretty sharp". I really did. I mean, but when I saw
Boris there, I mean, he's the last head of Government I've seen dancing in public and you see
what happened to him! I mean, you've got to be a bit car efuil! I believe in pacing myself and
it's just a question really of not looking a goose in public and some people have more
flamboyant personalities and they can carry off the dancing and so forth. Others can't. They
look strained, they look aritificial, they look silly, and it is really just a question of knowing
what sort of person you are and always behaving in that fashion.
IKENNERLEY: So I guess a quick dance of the limbo is out of the question?
PRIME MINISTER.
Definitely. I mean, I may have tried that 30 years ago, but
KENNERLEY:
When was the last time you did the limbo? Faxroii13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg:
Fax from: PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I would have done it in the 1960s at a few parties.
KENNERLEY: Were you all right?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, passable, passable.
KENNERLEY: How low did you go?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's a trade secret. I did, it's a long time ago, but I did. But I'm not, that's a far while ago
Kerri-Anne.
KENNERLEY:
You don't want to try it again?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, I feel, I'll just remember it.
KENNERLEY: So I guess a quick version of Hound-dog is out of the question as well? And Geoff does do
requests if you care to indulge in a little karaoke today?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, look, I am definitely not a good sort of actor in that sense. I just don't think I look.... I
look awkward and I think that's just silly.
KENNERLEY: Well, one of your passions I do know is cricket and I in fact was hoping for a bit of a helping
hand. Now I have come into so much stick in the past week, where in Melbourne Shane
Warne joined me in the studio and look there is my bowling. Now, every man I have spoken
to since then has accused me of chucking.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, yes, and you did! 13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 11
Fax from KENNERLEY: Well, okay, time for a little instruction. Would the Prime Minister instruct Kerni-Anne as to
how to throw a cricket ball properly?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no not to when you are bowling.
KENNERLEY:
How not to or how?
PRIME MINISTER:
Not like that no.
KENNERLEY: Well, we have got the amazing batsman, the amazing Geoffrey Harvey. Would you care to
give me some instruction. Because my husband said to me, how could you throw a cricket
ball.. you guys take this cricket seriously...
PRIME MINISTER;
Yes we do.
KENNERLEY: He said, how could you throw, or don't you know how to in fact do this properly?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think you do.
KENNERLEY: Well, i honestly... what's the difference between chucking and throwing?
PRIME MINISTER:
You just do that.
KENNERLEY: It's the arm movement, it's the rotation? 13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 12
13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 13
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, you just don't bend the elbow.
KENNERLEY: You just don't bend the elbow?
PRIME MINISTER:
You just go over like that?
KENNERLEY: See these are the Shane Warne cricket balls.
( Prime Minister bowls cricket ball)
KENNERLEY: So now I've got the movement down pat, shall I try it. The action I start like that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you don't have to. It depends on what your style is?
KENNERLEY: What about this run up I see the chaps do?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it depends whether you want to bowl fast. I wouldn't try it, it's too big a run up, in
those high heels if I were you.
KENNERLEY:
It's the rotation of the arm.
PRIME MINISTER:
You just take it back like that. I mean, I'm not an expert at it.
KENNERLEY: But cricket's your passion isn't it?
Fax from
Fa rom13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg: 14
PRIME MINISTER:
Cricket is my passion but I'm no good at it.
KENNERLEY: Tell me, when Bill Clinton comes out here, this is quite a coup for you to get Bill Clinton.
You haven't been to the White House, he officially is coming to Australia. That's pretty good
isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER;
Yes, I'm quite impressed that he's coming. And I think he'll enjoy it. He's looking forward
to it, he's never been to Australia before.
KENNERLEY: Do you play golf?
] PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, but not as well as Greg Norman. I think he'll be playing with Gr-eg. Bill Clinton plays...
look, it is Norman, Clinton, pause, Howard, as far as the quality of the golf is concerned. So
as far as the quality of the golf is concerned. So I think Norman and Clinton will play and I'll
sort of see what the result is.
KENNERLEY: Because the agendas of the world are set on a golf course.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ah yes..
KENNERLEY:
You wouldn't disagree with that?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, some of them are. JefflKennett and I sorted out a few things at the AFL grandfinal this
year and I've made a few political decisions at test matches too, but I agree with you golf
KENNERLEY: What was the most important thing you decided at the AFL with Jeff Kennett.?
Fax from
Farxft 13/ 11/ 96 15: 21 Pg:
PRIME MINISTER:
How to finance the remaining bit of the national guns campaign and I think banning those
weapons is the best thing I've done as Prime Minister. I really do. And one of the little things
that we wanted to do is how to tidy up the payment and I made a suggestion, I said to Jeff,
we'll keep that under our hat and he announced it on the Sunday programme the next day!
( To Geoff Harvey) Are you waiting are you Geoff?
KENNERLEY: This has got to be the most expensive lesson in Australia, the most expensive cricket lesson in
Australia. So it's behind here....
PRIME MINISTER:
You've got to look over your shoulder. No no, you look at him!
KENNERLEY: So here I go. ( KK bowls)
PRIME MINISTER.,
Very good. ( PM catches)
( Applause)
KENNERLEY: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Howard thanks for joining us.
Fax from