22 November 1997
E&OE........................................................................................................
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard to start off, news today that one of Australia’s greatest rock stars, Michael Hutchence, has died in a hotel room in Sydney. Your reaction?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well like I’m sure all Australians, those sorts of events are tragic. It takes from the Australian and world rock scene one of our most gifted and talented performers and it really is a very tragic event.
JOURNALIST:
It will be a great loss, I mean he was a great cultural export wasn’t he.
PRIME MINISTER:
He certainly was. He was one of the outstanding Australian products in rock of the past generation and in his late 30s, it is a very tragic event.
JOURNALIST:
Moving on from that, this morning in The Australian an advertisement from one of Australia’s biggest mining companies supporting your Wik legislation. Do you welcome that support?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I welcome expressions of support obviously, but this is a fair Bill and we have taken a long time to get it together, because we’ve consulted everybody and it’s in the interests of Australian jobs, Australian investment and the future of Australian industry that the Bill be passed. The message I want to leave for the Senate is that if you care about jobs, you care about investment, you care about Australian exports, then you’ll pass the Bill and end the uncertainty.
JOURNALIST:
Aboriginal groups have come out today and claimed that that mining company is putting capitalism over morality. Your reaction?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s just completely wrong. That sort of rhetoric is typical of the way in which this debate is being conducted by the government’s critics. My Bill is a fair balance between all the competing interests and it’s in the interests of Australian jobs, Australian investment and Australian exports that the Bill be passed and the uncertainty be ended.
JOURNALIST:
Does it concern you at all that you’ll be away at the time the Wik legislation goes before the Senate?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, because my first duty is to be talking, particularly at a time of currency and economic instability in the Asia-Pacific region, my first responsibility is to discuss that crisis with the Prime Minister of Japan, with President Clinton, with President Soeharto and other leaders of the Asia-Pacific region. It’s absolutely essential that the Australian Prime Minister discuss that issue with the leaders of the Asia-Pacific region.
JOURNALIST:
Is that issue more important that Wik?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the Wik issue is quite capable of being handled by Senator Minchin and by Mr Fischer. My responsibility is to represent Australia’s interests in discussions about the financial instability in our region and I go to those discussions as the leader of a country whose economic foundations are strong enough to withstand the turbulence of the region.
And I take the opportunity of reminding the Australian public that if Mr Beazley’s party had been returned at the last election our position would now would be a lot weaker, and a lot more exposed and a lot more vulnerable. They left us with a huge deficit of $10.5 billion, we’ve cleaned that up- it’s involved some unpopular decisions - but the outcome is that we now have very strong foundations with which to withstand the buffeting and the turmoil in the financial markets in our region. If we hadn’t of cleaned up the mess then we’d be a lot weaker and a lot more vulnerable and the Australian community would have suffered more.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister can I just ask [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m obviously following the thing very closely. I’m not going to respond to speculation about reductions in economic growth, I think it’s altogether too early to be drawing any conclusions. Obviously the Korean government has called in the IMF and that is the right thing to do. Once again it’s a reminder that if you get the foundations strong and right you don’t have these problems and that’s a very relevant message to the Australian public.
JOURNALIST:
It is the third country [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the question of assistance is hypothetical. No request has been received and I’m not going to deal in hypothetical situations. Our credentials in the region are very strong because of what we did in relation to Thailand and Indonesia but at this stage no request has been received so I’m not going to respond. As far as the impact is concerned, obviously there will be some impact but it’s too early to speculate as to how much and it’s very important to remember that if our own economic foundations remain strong, if we continue to grow domestically as we are, and we’re growing at a very strong rate, then that will cushion the impact. If you keep your own house in order then when other houses become out of order, you can withstand the effect a lot more effectively.
JOURNALIST:
Your message [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well my message is that Australia is a strongly performing member of the Asia-Pacific region. Our credentials to speak with confidence and authority have been enhanced through the way in which we have come through the financial turbulence of the past few months a lot stronger than most.
[Ends]