E&OE...............................................
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, how valuable is this pension rise for the war widows?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's a full passing on, beyond our election commitment,
of a $6.80 a fortnight increase for all war widows throughout Australia,
of which there are about 100,000. We have linked the pension to 25
per cent of male average weekly ordinary time earnings and we've
decided, although it wasn't part of our commitment to do so,
to go beyond that and to extend this increase to war widows. And it's
a mark of the appreciation that Australia feels towards mainly women,
but not all women. There are some men who are beneficiaries of this
- those people who either died in war or have since died. And it's
an act of national gratitude and a token that we should always remain
very grateful and in debt to those who lost their loved ones in defence
of our country.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, the Premiers would say that these are the sort of people
who would suffer from the Medicare stand-off. Did they express any
concerns about that or nursing homes, topics like that?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, they didn't.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, how do you respond to Donald McDonald's criticism
that the Government hasn't liaised enough with the National Party
on guns and Telstra?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we liaise with everybody. As far as guns are concerned, we had
an agreement and all I'm doing is upholding the agreement that
all the governments made. And I just say again that I will not compromise
in any way on that uniform agreement. The Australian people want it
in force, to the letter, in full, without qualification. That is all
I'm doing. I'm not trying to change it. I'm not the
bloke who's trying to change the agreement. I think others are
trying to nibble away at the edges, but I'm not. And I don't
regard it as a minor matter. I regard it as a very important matter.
The gun culture is something we want to keep out of Australia. We
don't want dangerous weapons easily available to people in this
country. The gun culture is something that is abhorrent to Australians
and I will do all in my power to stop it coming into this country
and I don't care who criticises it.
JOURNALIST:
But does it reflect renewed tensions within the Coalition?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it doesn't. Every so often you get a bit of a salvo like
that. I'm not the least bit concerned about it. I have very good
relations with the National Party and they with me and we're
a very strong Coalition. You couldn't have a better Deputy Prime
Minister than Tim Fischer. He's a great fighter for the bush
and a great fighter for the Nats but he works very closely with me.
And I regard what the President said as the normal from periodic comments,
which you would expect in a Coalition which has a lively relationship.
JOURNALIST:
Could APEC be doing more in Asia? Do you agree with Mr Keating's
view?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I haven't read the speech.
JOURNALIST:
Well, do you think APEC's had a big enough role, I mean...?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think APEC's done a good job. But APEC is an organisation that's
dedicated to expanding trade. It is not an international financial
institution. I think it's a confusion in the former Prime Minister's
mind about the respective roles. It's the role of the IMF to
buttress the financial system. It's the role of APEC to promote
free trade within the region. They are two quite different roles.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, are you tempted to pull the double dissolution trigger?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's a beautiful morning here in Canberra. It's autumn.
Canberra is at its most lovely in autumn and I enjoy the ambience
of the place. An election is a long way from my mind. But what is
not from my mind is the 50,000 jobs that have been prevented - the
50,000 jobs that have been destroyed by the Labor Party's destruction
of this very sensible bill. Once again the Labor Party has set its
face against small business. Small business has told us that if this
law had gone through, 50,000 new jobs in Australia could be created
because the fear in the hearts of small business about the present
law would be removed and they would be embolden to take on new staff.
So it's a simple choice - the Labor Party wants to destroy jobs
in small business, we want to promote them.
Thank you.
[Ends]