E&OE.............................
(TAPE BEGINS)
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, I thought it was predictable. People are feeling a sense of
vulnerability, a deep sense of hurt and alienation. I understand
that, and I sympathise with it. There are some things that I can
do to help and there are some other things that I can't, and
I endeavoured last night to deal candidly with people, to listen
to their concerns, to point out where we could help as a Government,
but also not to pretend that we had any magical solutions, or that
any political party, Labor, Liberal or One Nation, has a magical
solution because there aren't. Our society is undergoing some
changes, we have to try and ease the impact of that change. We have
to help people where we can, but we must also avoid the cruel deception
of pretending that there are some easy solutions.
JOURNALIST:
Now, your visit to the region Mr Howard, is it damage control?
PRIME MINISTER:
No it's not damage control. I have visited regional Australia
regularly over the 24 years that I have been in politics. There's
nothing in the nature of damage control about it. The Queensland
election result obviously has captured a lot of attention, and I
am the first to acknowledge that people want full accountability
from their leaders, they are entitled to put questions and criticisms
to me.
JOURNALIST:
So would you admit that the One Nation support has attracted this
visit?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the One Nation support has obviously attracted a lot of interest
around the country, but the point I make is that this is not the
first time that I have visited regional Queensland. I was only a
few weeks ago in the Capricornia electorate in the north of the
state and a few weeks after that in Toowoomba, so I'm no stranger
to regional Queensland. I've been coming to regional Queensland
on a very regular basis in all the time that I've been in politics,
and also since I've been Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST:
Now, you've acknowledged that the country, people in the bush
are hurting, what assurances can you give to those people that have
expressed their concerns to you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there are some things that we can help in. Take pork industry.
Late last year we had a $10 million industry reconstruction package,
a few weeks ago we added another $9 to $11 million to that. Now
I know that's not enough in the eyes of many people in the
industry, I guess with these situations it is never quite enough,
but it is evidence that we are responsive to the adjustment problems
the industry has got, and the emphasis with that help has been in
encouraging and supporting exports by the industry.
JOURNALIST:
Are you going to move to put temporary quotas on pigmeat imports
as suggested by the industry? They've obviously researched
it and believe that it's okay to do that.
PRIME MINISTER:
My advice to date is that it's not. But you can't do
that until you've had an independent inquiry which establishes
that there has been severe disruption to the industry. We have commissioned
that independent inquiry. But in the light of what was put to me
last night, I am going to have that advice re-examined to make absolutely
certain that it is correct. But the advice that I have as of now,
is that what was put to me last night is not possible under the
international trading rules, and that if it were implemented it
could produce retaliation against other industries. Now I am going
to check that out, and I'll come back to the pork industry
people who put it to me. But the advice I have at present is that
you must first have an independent inquiry and then if it finds
severe dislocation or damage then you could put a temporary quota
or tariff on, but I've got to check that out. But that's
my advice to date.
JOURNALIST:
So what do you say to those farmers now, those hundreds of farmers
throughout regional Australia on the brink of collapse within the
pork industry?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I say that we have at both, at the end of last year and a
few weeks ago, and we've put assistance in the order of $20
million into the industry, I am looking at the things that were
put to me last night. We believe very strongly that the future of
the industry lies in a greater emphasis on exports, and much of
the assistance package is to that end.
JOURNALIST:
Now there has been a lot of criticism over the lack of discussion
on the GST, when are you going to call for more discussion and inform
the public on what you are intending to do?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we'll be releasing the taxation package soon, I'm
not going to put a date on it. It won't be a GST, it will be
a total reform of the system, including a broad based indirect tax
or GST. We won't be putting a GST on top of the existing taxes.
If we introduce a GST it will be to replace the existing wholesale
sales taxes and perhaps some other indirect taxes. There'll
also be reductions in personal income tax and the package in aggregate
will be very beneficial to the bush and to regional Australia. Though
some of the Government's critics in the bush, and particularly
those who are against taxation reform such as the Labor Party and
One Nation, might wait until they see the package and they will
appreciate that within the package there are benefits for rural
Australia which would not be available under the policies of either
the Labor Party or One Nation, which have formed what I can only
call in political terms an unholy alliance to stop taxation reform
in Australia.
JOURNALIST:
In what way is it going to help people in the bush?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it'll be out in the not too distant future, but one of
the ways in which it will help is that if you have a GST rather
than an existing wholesale tax system, you take a taxation burden
off exporters, and many people in the bush are exporters, and anything
that makes it easy to export from Australia will produce benefits
that flow through to the Australian bush.
JOURNALIST:
Now, just finally, Mr Howard, how do you intend to regain popularity
in the bush?
PRIME MINISTER:
You can never tell precisely the level of popularity or otherwise
of a political party or of a government, it's a volatile thing
to these days. What we intend to do is to keep very close contact
with people, hear what they've got to say, where it's
necessary to adjust policies and where we need, where we believe,
it's desirable to do so, to adjust policies, but on the other
hand not to just throw out all our policies goals just because it's
seen or thought that we've had a political setback, that's
not good government.
The best thing that I can do for the people of rural Australia
is to tell it as it is, to be upfront, to hear their concerns, to
be willing to assist where we can and where it is sensible to do
so, but also to continue the reform push. And also to remind them
of the benefits that have come from the Government. We do have lower
interest rates all around Australia now as a result of the Government's
policies. They are much lower than they've been for 30 or 40
years and that benefits everybody and we have low inflation and
those falls in interests have been worth about $400 million a year
to Australian farmers. Now that has got to mean something and the
situation for many of them if we had not come to power, would have
been a lot worse because it is our policies that have got those
interest rates down.
JOURNALIST:
I apologise, I did say it was my final question, but I do have
one more about the high unemployment within the Wide Bay region
where you are now. It's tipping the scales at the country's
worst and has for some time. What can you guarantee this region
that is hurting with a high jobless rate, which is four times the
national average?
PRIME MINISTER:
We can guarantee to produce policies that help small business,
that where it is possible to do so, that support the local industries.
But we cannot overnight get that high unemployment rate down. There
are some good things on the horizon and one of those is that the
job vacancy survey that came out yesterday is the best for years.
Now that's very good given that we have a bit of worries about
the Asian downturn. The other thing we can do is to do everything
we can to support exports. If we do things that harm exports, if
we invite retaliatory action from countries to whom we export then
that will affect jobs, and reduce jobs all around Australia, including
in areas like Hervey Bay.
JOURNALIST:
Thanks for your time Mr Howard.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ENDS]