E&OE...................................................................................................
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, there was some surprise in the audience, you'd
been searching for a long time for an alternative word to multiculturalism.
It seems that you weren't able to find one, you used it and....
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I have used it on occasion and I'll continue to use
it. It's what's involved in tolerance and diversity that
counts rather than a particular word. I notice you have on this
van an expression that I once used and got into trouble for, One
Australia. And you've actually now got it on the van.
JOURNALIST:
Well, at least it's not One Nation.
PRIME MINISTER:
No exactly. I know but it's very interesting, isn't it.
With the passage of time the expressions and words can acquire different
meanings.
JOURNALIST:
The theme of the conference has been inclusiveness. What's
your understanding of inclusiveness?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, my understanding of inclusiveness is that everybody should
feel comfortable and part of the Australian community no matter
what their ethnicity is, no matter whether they were born in this
country, as I was, but as many in the audience were doesn't
really matter. This country is as much theirs as it is mine and
that people should feel that they have as they work hard the opportunity
of achieving of what they want to achieve and achieving of what
they want to achieve for their families. That's what I regard
as inclusiveness. I don't think it's a set of rigid rules,
and I don't think it's a sort of politically correct checklist
of whether you use the right expressions, it's a question of
how you relate to one another and how you treat each other that
really matters. I mean, tolerance is something that is an attitude
of mind and is part of the spirit. It's not a question of whether
you use the right buzz words or not. I think that is somewhat artificial
and somewhat peripheral.
JOURNALIST:
Responding to that, Ita Buttrose mentioned, raised, in her keynote
address that tolerance is something that should be replaced by value
because tolerance suggests that you're simply putting up with
migrants. Valuing their contribution is probably more important.
Would you agree?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I prefer to look at value on an individual basis. I value
a person because of who he or she might be irrespective of what
their background is. So I suppose everybody has a different way
of expressing these things. I think tolerance is a marvellous expression.
I don't think it's a begrudging expression. I think it's
a very Australian expression because we are a tolerant people but
we're also a very proud people and we have every reason to
be proud. Everybody has a different way of expressing these things.
I think we should be tolerant and understanding enough of those
differences. You should never be too prescriptive about the national
identity, it is always a mistake. It was always a mistake to say
that the Australian identity represented this and this and this
in the 1940s and it is now a mistake to say the Australian identity
represents something else. I think there are a lot of things that
we all agree on about the Australian identity and there are probably
a few things that the margin that we disagree on and we shouldn't
get too obsessive about listing these things, otherwise we spend
our time with endless naval gazing seminars about what expressions
we should use and really that's pointless.
JOURNALIST:
On an issue of disagreement there was obvious reaction in the audience
during your speech to your suggestion that the translator and interpreter
service should be commercialised, to be run on a commercial basis.
Is that on a pay as you go type service.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the exact detail of it is still in the process of being worked
out but the principle is no different from what we've applied
to other government services. We're not singling it out but
I defend that, I think it's the right way to go, just as I
defend the government's decision on the two year waiting period.
I know many people in the audience don't agree with that decision
but there are a lot of people in the broader community including
a lot of people who came to this country as migrants a few years
ago who agree with it very strongly. But they're the sort of
things where we're going to disagree. But there is no broad
disagreement between the government and most of the groups represented
in the community on major issues but we're going to have differences
at the margin and we're going to have differences of emphasis
and people will want me to go further than I will and I'll
disagree with them and they'll disagree with me and some of
them will support me and some of them won't. But that's
Australian democracy.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister thanks for cramming in the van.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you Andrew. I hope it is a great source of further contact
between SBS and the communities that its reaching and the facilities
are marvellous and I hope I have the opportunity of talking on your
programmes in the future.
JOURNALIST:
Well we'll certainly invite you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.