Fax from PRIME MINISTER]
1 May 1997 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. JOHN HOWARD MP
PRESS CONFERENCE SYDNEY
FOLLOWING GOVERNMENT BACKBENCH ABORIGINAL
AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETING
E OE
Good afternoon. Well, ladies and gentlemen we've had a very lengthy meeting of the
Government Members' Backbench Committee on the Wik issue. I am at the moment
arranging for the release of the 10 point plan. What will happen now is that I will have
fuirther discussion with my Cabinet colleagues. Legislation will be drafted to give
expression to the 10 point plan and that legislation will of course be submitted to the
Party Room for approval and I will have firther discussions with the Party Room as
well on general issue.
I thought we made a lot of progress today and I thought it was a very productive,
although lengthy meeting on a very complex issue. The great thing about my plan is
that it guarantees farmers the right to run their properties without interference from
anybody and it also respects native title. It restores to farmers the uncertainty created
by the Wik decision. It removes, I'm sorry, the uncertainty for farmers created by the
Wk decision. It empowers farmers to run and manage their properties and it provides
a fair basis of dealing with any claims for compensation. It delivers certainty to
pastoralists but respects native title. It is the one fair, sensible, practicable way of
resolving an extraordinarily difficult issue which if allowed to drag on for months of
disputation and argument will paralyse mining dovelopment in parts of Australia, create
tension between different sections of the Australian community and firther depress
rural and regional areas of Australia.
Anybody who believes that the interests of rural Australia lie in fiurther delay on this
issue misunderstand the problems that face rural Austalia. Those who say to niral
Australia that their best bet lies in Ambrter delay and further disputation are doing a
disservice to rural Australia. What the farmers of Australia want is certainty, this will
give it to them. What the Aborigines of Australia want is respect for native title, this
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Fax from will give it to them. And what all the Australian people want is a solution that we can
all honourably accept and live with and this will deliver that solution.
JRNLST: Prime Minister, so when you talk about delay are you suggesting that one line
extinguishment would be the cause?
PUM MINISTER:
One line extinguishment could create months and months, perhaps several years of'
additional delay, of course it could. One line ex ' tinguishment would at the very least
have little chance of passing through the Federal Parliament. One line extinguishment
could be subject to major constitutional challenge. One line extinguishment could
result in a huge compensation bill. One line extinguishment would be seen as inflaming
this issue, not soothing it.
JIRNLST: On the basis of today's reaction to the backbenich committee meeting are you confident
of overwhelming support of your 10 point plan, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I believe that as people come to understand the certainty that this plan delivers
to Australia's farmers and that it respects native title, they will embrace it. I thought I
made a lot of progress today when I had the detail of it explained and people were
impressed at the way in which the plan did provide certainty in management. I can
understand the superficial appeal, the simplistic appeal of one line extinguishment, I
understand that and I understand the anger of the farmers but can I say to the farmers
of Australia, this will give you what you want in a way that can be achieved without
unnecessary pain and delay.
JRNLST: Bob Katter and Hill O'Chee seem unconvinced today.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I didn't really expect to convince either of them.
JRNLST: Are they speaking on behalf of the National Party W~ s or Farxfft0 1/ 85/ 97 18: 06 Pg: 2
Fax from PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't think so. There were a lot of other National Party M~ s there today that
didn't say the same things as they did. I mean, Bob and Bill have gone out on a limb
on this and they can hardly change their minds.
JRNLST: Prime Minister how hard initially do you think this has been and is going to prove, to
continue to prove given people like Bill O'Chee and Bob Katter?
PRIME AMISTER:
I mean this is a difficult issue. It is a difficult issue for the whole country. And
Government is not a bed of roses. I won't lapse into one of my predecessor's
immortal expressions on this subject but it's part of the territory. You have to expect
difficult issues and none is more difficult because what you're dealing with is an
unprecedented clash, I suppose, of the interests of a group of Australians who for
generations have believed that they were deprived and dispossessed, and as a group are
the least well endowed of all Australians and that's the Aborigines and they have rights
and interests and they are entitled to be treated with respect. And on the other hand
you have a group of people, the farmers, who have really done it hard and then
suddenly had cast over them this great pall of uncertainty. Now, what my plan does is
to cater for both concerns. It respects the rights of the Aborigines but it also redeliver.,
security to farmers. The great message out of my package is that farmers can run their
properties without interference from anybody.
JRNLST: So what happens from here, Prime Minister? When will this become legislation?
PREIE MIN~ ISTER:
As soon as possible. I mean, the overwhelming desire of people in that room today
was to get this thing behind them.
JBNLST: Can you get legislation in in the Budget session?
PRIME NMISTER:
I will give instructions for legislation to be drafted immediately and I've got to go back
and talk to the Cabinet but the States are anxious to see the legislation and I have
agreed in the drafting of the legislation to heavily involve the officials of the States
because this is very much a land management issue and the states are entitled to be
involved and I will be having further discussions with the Aborigina leaders and I will
have some further discussions with the mining industry and the National Farmers'
Federation. I can understand the circumspection of some of the rural groups because
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Fax from they were dudded in 1993 and they don't want to be dudded again but can I tell you,
this is the, the least duddable piece of legislation that the rural community of Australia
has ever seen.
JRNLST: You mentioned the Aboriginal leadership a moment ago. As you know, the
negotiators, including Gatjil Djei-rkura, accused you of not negotiating in good faith on
this issue among other things. What can you do, do you think, to bring them back into
the ( inaudible) as it were?
PRJME MINIS'TR:
Look, there are a lot of things said in the heat of the moment on these issues. .1
thought the Chairman of the Council for Reconciliation said on Anzac Day that I was
fair dinkum. and I am and I've always been fair dinkuni with the Aborigines and I've
never disguised the fact that Wik could not remain undiminished. I've never disguised
that fact, I've always said to the Aboriginal community that in the eyes of the
Australian public and in reality the pendulum had swung a little too far and it had to
come back to the centre and what my legislation does is to bring it back to the centre
where most people want it to be. They don't want the Aborigines ignored. They want
the concept of native title preserved but they do not want pastoralists to be left unable
to manage their properties without complete certainty and this package will say to the
farmers of Australia, you've got your properties, you can do what you want to do
without having to get the permission of anybody,
JRNLST: The other day you took on notice as it were the question of whether or not you would
consider using the land fund as a basis for compensation for your ten point plan. Have
you had any further thoughts on that since you... have you taken advice?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, beyond what I said the other day, I mean anything is a possibility, but I haven't
really, I have not really had any time to give thought to that. I have been too busy
talldng to people about the detail of the plan. I will have a look at that. You've got to
remember that one of the bases on which the land fund was established, my
recollection is that this was mentioned in the second reading speech or it may have
been referred to at the time by the former Prime Minister was that pastoral leases had
extinguished native title.
JRNLST: But wasn't the reasons that the land fund, or one of the underpinnings of the land fund
was for people who had no hope of making, provide for the most dispossessed, those
who had no hope? Fa om01/ 05/ 97 18: 06 PS: 4
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PR1M MINISTER:
You can rest assured that, you know, 1 am not going to rule anything out but we're
obviously not going to be unfair.
JRNLST: Can you brief us on any changes or anything you firmed up today, any fine tuning of
the ten point plan?
PRIME MINISTER:
There was really virtually no fine tuning today. I think the great advantage of today
was that people, some people for the first time really understood it and when they
understood it they realised the enormous steps that the Government has taken to
enable farmers to run their affairs.
JLRNLST: Prime Minister, Bob Katter spoke about modifications that you would consider. Can
you give us some information about modifications?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, they're not areas, there are a few what I would call procedural things that we've
been willing to look at but the main tenets of the plan remain the same.
JEINLST: As far as you're concerned, is the hardest part of selling this plan now behind you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I never make those sort of rash predictions. I have always, I have believed for some
time that this was the fair way of handling this problem and I knew it would bhe
difficult-I can understand why some people in rural Australia are concerned. They
were let down I think in 1993. They were misled by a lot of people in 1993 and they're
a little suspicious at the moment and I happen to have the opportunity of reassuring
them that farmers of Australia can rely on John Howard. John Howard will never
desert the farmers of Australia. They are the last group in the Australian community I
would ever desert.
Thank you.