E&OE..........................................................................................
KENNERLEY:
Well Mr Howard it is great to see you again, welcome to Midday.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's good to be back. Hello everybody.
KENNERLEY:
Well Mr Howard, we took the liberty this morning of asking our
audience here to give us a few questions to direct them to you.
So on their behalf...now, I'm sorry, where are you from
again?
[AUDIENCE INTERJECTION]
PRIME MINISTER:
Where from?
KENNERLEY:
Everybody over in the corner...absolutely jam-packed, fun-filled
today. And as I said, the audience has very kindly given us some
questions to pose to you. We have Mrs Betty Pawsy from Emu Plains.
Betty, where are you? She's up on the left there Prime Minister.
Betty tells us she doesn't mind the GST on most things but
not on food or essentials. Well that is sort of a statement, what
is your response to Betty's suggestion?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well my response, Betty, is that if you leave out food then there'll
be pressure to leave out something else. And the best way to accommodate
peoples concerns on that is to make sure that you have adequate
compensation for people on low incomes. I mean pensioners will get
a 4 per cent increase from the 1st of July 2000 when
it comes in and that will always be 1.5 per cent ahead of any increase
in the cost of living. And over and above that there'll be
other changes in relation to self-funded retirees. We are getting
rid of provisional tax. We are introducing a 30 per cent tax deduction
for the cost of private health insurance. And, of course, we are
having right across the range reductions in personal income tax.
The biggest challenge we face is to fix a system that is no longer
working. I know it would be easier for me to go to the election
and just offer you tax cuts and say the system is good and we can
survive with it. But I face the reality that the present tax system
is crumbling and unless we change it and we substitute a new system
we are not going to get enough revenue in the years ahead to support
our education services, our medical services or our police. And
so I have not taken the easy option. The easy option is to offer
a tax cut and not offer any reform or change or any of the hard
bits. But I have come to the people and I have said I have put it
all on the line and I face the reality that we need to change the
present system if we are to have a stable economic base into the
next century. And I think that is the open, honest thing to do.
KENNERLEY:
Betty, all or nothing, does that satisfy you?
BETTY PAWSY:
No, not really.
KENNERLEY:
Okay, well let's move on to Sue Bennett from Penrith. Sue
is asking how will the GST affect the cost of sending children
to school?'
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you have got to look at the family's income, the average
family will be $40 to $50 a week better off. The education fees,
as such, will not be subject to a GST but anything that is outside
the normal provision inside a curriculum would be. The cost of uniforms
would be affected if that's what you are asking but then there
will be tax cuts in the family pocket to more than compensate for
that.
KENNERLEY:
Sue, do you have a specific question there?
SUE BENNETT:
If the child excursions and those sorts of things....
PRIME MINISTER:
I am sorry, I can't hear you.
KENNERLEY:
Child excursions.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well if it's part of the curriculum it is not covered.
KENNERLEY:
Okay. Here we have another question from Bill at Artarmon. Our
cricketers are heading off to Pakistan for a tour after the Commonwealth
Games, is it safe, given the latest rounds of terrorist attacks
and, of course, just on this morning's news we saw Planet
Hollywood in Capetown being bombed in retaliation do you
think it's safe for our cricketers to go to Pakistan?'
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the latest information is yes. It's one of those situations
that can change quite rapidly but the latest information we have
is that it is still safe. If we had any information to the contrary
the Government would naturally advise the Australian Cricket Board.
But at the moment the information is that it is still quite safe
and we don't want to interrupt sporting links. Sporting links
soothe out political tensions and it is always a bad thing to, at
the drop of a hat, interrupt the sporting contact between two countries
and we are very loathe to do that.
KENNERLEY:
When was the last time you talked to Bill Clinton?
PRIME MINISTER:
I spoke to Bill Clinton on the telephone earlier this year when
he rang me to discuss the possible participation of Australians
in the Gulf exercise.
KENNERLEY:
This was like third down, I put it order, this is from Melina.
Should Bill Clinton resign from the Presidency because of
the Monica Lewinsky case and sex scandal?' I am only asking
the questions here.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it is not...I am not an American citizen. I am an Australian
Prime Minister and it is a matter for the American people. But can
I say, I think President Clinton has been a very good President,
I think he has been. And I think he has been a good friend of Australia's.
In my own dealings with him I have found him direct and I have found
him very positive. His own political situation is in the hands of
the American Congress and the American people just as my political
future is in the hands of you. That's how the system operates.
KENNERLEY:
She does go on to ask, what would you do if you were in his
shoes?'
PRIME MINISTER:
There are some questions that are just too hard!
KENNERLEY:
Now we were talking about cricket Mr Prime Minister, in fact, I
am sure you are aware it is Don Bradman's birthday. He turns
90 tomorrow. Is there something you would like to say or a tribute
like.....
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I would like to say to you Don: you are the greatest living
Australian without any argument. You are not only the greatest cricketer
Australia has produced and the world has seen but you are also an
Australian legend and an Australian icon. You brought hope and inspiration
to a depression weary Australian nation in the 1930s and the extraordinary
thing about you is that although it's almost 50 years since
you stopped playing cricket your name is still the greatest name
in world cricket. It is said that the two best known Australian
names on the Indian sub-continent are Don Bradman and Allan Border
by a country mile. And what is so marvellous about Don Bradman is
his values, his love of sport for the sake of the game and not just
the dollar, the fact that he is a modest understated man, a person
who has shunned publicity but has without doubt been, I think, the
most properly celebrated Australian of this century.
KENNERLEY:
Very well said. And I think we should all sing Happy Birthday
for Mr Don Bradman tomorrow. [Sings Happy Birthday] Gee you
are in fine voice at the moment Mr Howard.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's very, very easy. It's a labour of love to participate
in the singing of that for such a man.
KENNERLEY:
Fantastic. Okay, we move on to more questions. From M Keen from
Oberon. Hello M Keen. Hi, nice to have you with us. Will the levy
come off petrol before the GST is added?
PRIME MINISTER:
The price of petrol at the bowser will not go up so the answer
to your question is that it will happen simultaneously. The excise
will come down by the amount that's equivalent to the GST and
the price will not go up 1 cent at the bowser. But better than that,
in the bush the price of diesel, it's going to fall dramatically
all over Australia but what that's going to mean particularly
in the bush is that the cost of transporting goods is going to fall
quite sharply because we're going to reduce the excise on diesel
from 43 cents a litre to 18 on trucks...heavy trucks and rail.
But on top of that if you are in business anywhere in Australia
the price of your petrol used for business will fall by 7 cents
a litre because the GST, you'll be able to reclaim it if you
use the petrol for business. So for the ordinary motorist, no increase
at all at the bowser. For somebody in business, 7 cents a litre
cheaper because you get the GST back because it's a tax on
your business inputs. And for the bush generally a big reduction
in the cost of transport. About $3.5 billion off the cost of transport
and that is very significant for a country as big as Australia.
KENNERLEY:
Terrific. Margaret Mooring from South Penrith. Margaret. Now here's
one everybody in Australia has been asking. Margaret wants to know
what date is the election. Margaret, come on you try and encourage
the Prime Minister. I'd love him to tell you. It would be terrific
for us if he told us now.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Margaret, I haven't decided, I really haven't. It's
not that I'm indecisive it's just that you always assess
a lot of things. I mean we are due to have an election sometime
between now and March of next year. It won't be this weekend
and it won't be the weekend of the football Grand Finals I
can promise all you, and that it definitely won't be. That
would be sacrilegious to do that. But I honestly haven't made
up my mind. Obviously I'm thinking about it and I'm talking
to some of my colleagues and as soon as I've made up my mind,
naturally I'll speak to the Governor-General and make an announcement
if I get his permission. So that's how the system works. But
at the moment I haven't. I've gone around Australia explaining
the value of the proposals we're putting forward and the fact
that we think it is time for this country to have a new tax system
for the new century but also talking about other things. This election
won't only be about taxation. It will be about a number of
other things as well.
KENNERLEY:
Margaret, he's not going to tell you.
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't know. I'm sorry Margaret.
KENNERLEY:
John Singleton was on the program last week. I, in fact, asked
him what he thought of the tax package and this what he had to say.
SINGLETON:
As far as John Howard's tax package is concerned I think
it's an improvement but it's a long way for me from being
the answer. I would have started it and saying: hey! How come the
Government spends so much money and do they really need to spend
this? Do we really need all these departments in Canberra that are
duplicated in the States.
KENNERLEY:
Why do we?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't think there's as much duplication as John
suggests. Can I say to have the former Labor Party advertising man
saying it's an improvement on the present system is a fantastic
rap. That's all I can say. I mean it is....I mean remember
John's background.
KENNERLEY:
Yes, he use to do the Labor Party commercials. But has he not got
a point saying why is the Government spending all this money and
there's duplication. You don't believe that?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't believe that, given the level of services that
we've got to promote. You take something like education. I
mean there's a federal education department but the Federal
Government has responsibility for universities. We have responsibility
for independent schools and we provide the State government with
a lot of money for State schools. So the idea....
KENNERLEY:
Is there room for tightening up?
PRIME MINISTER:
There's always room for tightening up. I mean...
KENNERLEY:
Then why hasn't it been done?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there has been. Welfare cheats, we've clocked them back
to the tune of $46 million a week since we've been in Government
and one of the elements of the taxation plan I announced 10 days
ago is a crackdown on tax avoidance through the abuse of trusts.
And one of the great benefits of a GST is that it spreads the net
more widely and you'll pick up a lot of money from the cash
economy. A GST is harder to dodge than any other tax on Earth and
that is one of it's great advantages because when people dodge
their tax all of us pay more because we're the honest tax payers
who are part of the PAYE tax system.
KENNERLEY:
Very quick ones to finish. You've been asked the worst political
mistake you've ever made.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think, I suppose one of the worst political mistakes I've
made was to assume that because we won the last election with a
huge majority that the parties who we defeated would allow the legislation
we wanted to put through to go through the Senate without opposition.
I assumed that because we'd won the last election with a majority
of 44 seats then the Labor Party and the Democrats in the Senate
would take their cue from what the public said and let our legislation
through. Instead of that they delayed and in some cases obstructed
outright. So that was a miscalculation on my part.
KENNERLEY:
You misjudged them. You're politicians.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, no I just assumed that if the public had something then they
would have agreed.
KENNERLEY:
And what will your address be in the year 2000?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that will be in the hands of the Australian people. Like any
other Prime Minister of this country I would like to be re-elected
but I don't take you or any of your fellow country men and
women for granted. It's a matter for the Australian people
to decide. I've tried to do my best. I think I've made
some great improvements. I've got the country out of the red
and back into the black. We've got very low interest rates,
the lowest in 30 or 40 years. And I'm very proud of the fact
that this country's now got a surplus rather than a deficit
of $10.5 billion. I've displayed the courage to say to the
Australian people you can't have tax reform and tax goodies
and income tax cuts without fixing the system. I mean that's
fairies at the bottom of the garden stuff to believe you can have
all the goodies without the harder bits.
KENNERLEY:
Our dollar, if I may just as we finish, our dollar hitting a real
low last night. When do you take action when our dollar's so
bad.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Kerri-Anne, I'm sorry to be difficult but Prime Ministers
and Treasurers should never, and I never have and never will, as
a Prime Minister, talk about the level of the dollar. It's
just one of those things that...it is not in the interest of
our country that I answer questions like that because some of those
people who make their money out of speculation and who don't
really worry much about the national interest might try and interpret
my remarks in a particular way and I don't want that to happen
because that might damage our country.
KENNERLEY:
I accept that.
Thank you very much Prime Minister for joining us today.
[ENDS]