E&OE....................................................................................................
Well I'd like to, first of all, thank the people of Bennelong
for returning me for the eleventh time. I've now represented
this division, although the composition of it has changed quite
a bit over the years, since 1974. And I want to thank the people
of Bennelong for voting me back again and I promise to work very
hard as a local member as well as Prime Minister over the next three
years.
I'd like to thank the returning officer, Mr Lee, for the immaculately
fair and highly efficient way in which the election was conducted.
I would like to compliment the Australian Labor Party candidate
on the tough campaign that she waged and acknowledge her presence
here today.
There were a lot of candidates in Bennelong, including a One Nation
candidate, including a Unity Party candidate and an Independent.
And all of them directed their preferences against me, which is
hardly surprising. Prime Ministers of whatever political persuasion
are fair game for that sort of activity.
I want to take the opportunity, especially today, of thanking all
of the members of my campaign team; Stephen Peoples, the Campaign
Director, who's here today; to the members of my personal electorate
staff, Kay Long, Jenny Stearn and Tim James and Anthony Roberts,
all of whom did an absolutely superb job in keeping the Bennelong
fires burning while I was racing around the country in the broader
interests of the Liberal Party. It's very important that your
home base be secured and I'm very grateful for the support
that all of my friends and supporters in the Liberal Party, a number
of whom are here today, have given me over the years.
Could I just say one or two more general things beyond what I've
said about the local scene and that is that one of the interesting
features of this election is that the primary vote of the Australian
Labor Party, although there was a two-party preferred swing against
the Coalition, the primary vote of the Australian Labor Party virtually
didn't rise at all. And I think it can roughly be said of this
election throughout the country that the One Nation Party took in
the order of 7% to 9% away from the Coalition and handed at least
half of that via its preferences to the Labor Party. And there's
no doubt that One Nation did the Coalition a lot of damage and there's
equally no doubt that the Coalition's decision to place One
Nation last in political terms was more costly to it because it
held far more marginal seats and the decision of the Labor Party
to place One Nation last.
I don't regard the One Nation Party has being finished as
a political force and it will be the responsibility of the Coalition
as well as other parties who are similarly minded to work to retrieve
the support of people who deserted it to vote One Nation at the
last election. The great bulk of One Nation voters in 1998 were
former Coalition supporters and therefore One Nation did far more
damage to the Coalition than it did to the Australian Labor Party.
The other observation I would make is to repeat something that
I said to my colleagues at the first Ministry meeting yesterday
and that is being re-elected, in other words, getting a second term
as a government and as a Prime Minister, gives one a much greater
opportunity to re-make the political map of the country. After 13
years of Labor one term is not enough to change things. Two terms
gives you a much greater opportunity to do so. And I am very grateful
and very proud that the people of Australia and the people of Bennelong
have given me another opportunity as Prime Minister and therefore,
through that opportunity, the chance in history of being the head
of a government at the time of some momentous events in Australia's
history including, most importantly, the Centenary of Federation.
We took a very bold and forward-looking tax reform plan to the
Australian people. We defied conventional wisdom in doing so. We
won that election and we will be pushing ahead in a quite determined
fashion to get that package through the Parliament. We think we
have a right, having put our political life on the line, to get
that package accepted by the Australian people, we think we have
a moral and political right to have it accepted by the Parliament.
I don't know what else a political party can do other than
to place itself before the people, risk its political future, its
very survival as a government in order to get a reform endorsed.
Having done that, I don't know what more a party can be expected
to do in order to implement a reform package in which it devoutly
believes.
I've believed in the cause of tax reform for a very long time.
We took our courage in our hands. We took the risks. We won the
majority of seats and we feel we are, by any criterion or any canon
of fair judgement and behaviour, we believe we are entitled to have
that plan accepted by the Australian Parliament and that is the
attitude that we'll be taking to the Parliament when it reconvenes
on the 10th of November.
QUESTION:
But Brian Harradine has a very different view to you. He says that
no inquiry then basically you won't get the GST up as you want
it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we'll put it up and we'll just see what happens.
QUESTION:
His argument, though, is that the Senate should, you know, be the
Senate that passes it because that's the Senate that was voted
in on the GST issue.
PRIME MINISTER:
It's very funny, Brian Harradine was elected in 1996
the term he's serving commenced, I'm sorry, in 1993 and
in 1993 the then leader of the Australian Labor Party said that
if the Liberal Party were elected on a platform of a GST, let it
go through. And so was Senator Colston. Look, we can spend all day
to-ing and fro-ing but nothing can alter the fact, is that we went
to the election with a GST, we took our courage in our hands, we
put our political bodies on the line and we won. And on that basis,
if parliamentary democracy means anything, we're entitled to
have the plan that we took to the Australian people put through
and those who would frustrate that plan are really challenging the
verdict of the Australian people.
QUESTION:
Do you think you can make a deal with him, Mr Harradine?
PRIME MINISTER:
We'll be putting the plan up and I never talk about making
deals with Senator Harradine. You never know until the last minute
what Senator Harradine is going to do and that is his right. Senator
Harradine is there as an Independent and he's got a perfect
right to have an independent view. I have a lot of regard for Senator
Harradine. He's certainly served the national interest far
better on Wik than did the Labor Party or the Australian Democrats
or the Australian Greens and I am glad that he defeated the Green
candidate to win the last spot in the Senate from Tasmania.
QUESTION:
So would you go in one-on-one discussions with Senator Harradine
in the same way you did over Wik?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm always happy to talk to Senator Harradine, let us put
it that way.
QUESTION:
Mr Howard, you do face a more hostile Senate, though. I mean, what
is the danger that if the Senate does reject your package that you'll
seek a fresh mandate?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we've just got one. Let's not start talking about
other ones, for heaven's sake. I think we're all a bit
weary of elections.
QUESTION:
Well, what do you do, though, if there are major...?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I deal with things as they unfold. But I just want to make
it very clear, as the Treasurer did yesterday, that having gone
through the fire to get the Australian people to support this plan
we're not going to just walk away from it because of a few
utterances from people who, after all, lost the election.
QUESTION:
But isn't your best bet to strike a deal with Senator Harradine
now and give...?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't intend to give a running political commentary.
QUESTION:
So are you disappointed that you didn't get a majority of
votes in your own seat for the first time?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I didn't expect to because I only got 53% or 53.8% or
2% of the primary vote in 1996. And I knew that once there was a
One Nation candidate I wouldn't get a majority of the primary
vote because One Nation essentially came straight off our pile and
they got over 4%, it was inevitable.
QUESTION:
So would you like to make a comment about the Australian Cricket
Team's result?
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly would. I'd like to congratulate Mark Taylor and
the team on a really stunning performance. They've broken a
39-year Australian cricket drought. It's the first team to
win in Pakistan since Richie Benaud's team back in the 1960s.
Mark Taylor has been an extraordinarily successful Australian Captain.
He's won in Pakistan. He's won in the West Indies, and
that broke a 20-year drought. And on a personal level he's
repudiated, in the most convincing way imaginable, those people
of which I'm very pleased to say I was not one who, a year
or two ago, were saying that he was passed his peak. There were
a lot of us who didn't believe he was passed his peak. There
were a lot of us that retained a great deal of faith in him and
he's vindicated that faith in a remarkably fighting and characteristic
way. He's proved to be not only a tenacious captain but also
a very modest captain. And I think he's reminded people that
sport is more than just about winning and about money. He's
reminded people that there are some traditions of sportsmanship,
there is a respect for some of the traditions of the game. And his
gesture in relation to his triple century and sharing that spot
of Australian cricket immortality with Sir Donald Bradman was characteristic
of the man and said a lot for the values that he brings to the game
and is a reminder, particularly to young players, that sport is
still about playing hard to win but also accepting that you don't
always win and accepting that there are some values in the game
that are just as important, indeed, more important than winning
and more important than making a lot of money. But he's a champion
batsman, a great captain and it's a terrific team, to think
that we've achieved that without Shane Warne, think what we
can do in the Ashes if we have Shane Warne. I can't wait.
QUESTION:
Now that you've won two elections would you rather be Prime
Minister or Captain of the Australian Cricket Team?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, it's all a bit academic I think. I think my chances of
transferring at this stage in life are fairly academic but as you
know I've always had a fondness for that other position. But
fate did not ordain it to be so and I think Mark Taylor has done
it well. But I can say one very, very emphatic thing, we both have
a connection with Bennelong, I represent it and he lives here and
he certainly is one of my more famous constituents.
QUESTION:
Sir, you mentioned the One Nation Party, what's your advice
to New South Wales branch executive members of the National Party
who are looking at preferencing that party in the upcoming State
election?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't give gratuitous advice to State political executives.
I'll leave it to them. That's a matter for the State Party
to work out. The National Party's a separate party. The National
Party decides its preferences. I don't intend to get into that.
The Liberal Party, federally, put One Nation last in every seat
and in the Senate. And it's fair to observe that had it not
been for One Nation, the Democrats would not have won the sixth
position in the Senate from New South Wales. Aden Ridgeway will
take his place in the Senate, ironically enough, in the middle of
next year by reason of One Nation having taken votes from the Coalition
and then having, effectively, preferenced against the Coalition.
So, once again, it's a reminder that the Coalition paid more
dearly, in political terms, through preferencing One Nation last
than did the Labor Party. Thank you.
[ends]