E&OE...............................................
LEIBMANN:
Yesterday Prime Minister John Howard delivered his first major speech
of this year, his Federation Address in Adelaide, in which he discussed
an expanded work for the dole scheme, tax reform and the Australian
economy. But the focus in national affairs has shifted somewhat
overnight after rowdy scenes in Melbourne's dockland as a non-union
alternative was being set up, backed by the National Farmers Federation.
And later in the programme we will speak with Maritime Union leader,
John Coombs. Now though the Prime Minister joins us from our studios
in Adelaide, Prime Minister good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hello Steve, good morning.
LEIBMANN:
In your Federation Address yesterday you said, among other things,
that Australia has to accelerate the pace of economic reform, including
waterfront reform and this morning we are hearing about waterfront
war as the National Farmers Federation moves into a new dock venture.
Is this the sort of reform on the waterfront you were talking about?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Steve, the only people who are talking war and speaking belligerently
are the wharfies. All the NFF is doing is going into business, going
into the stevedoring business, they are taking advantage of the
new laws that my Government passed. And we have never disguised,
and I want to make this very clear to the Australian people, we
have never disguised the fact that we need reform in the Australian
waterfront. The Australian waterfront is hopelessly inefficient
by world standards. We need it to be more productive and that will
benefit Australia, it will build a stronger Australia, if we have
a more efficient waterfront. And all we have done is to change the
law to break the legal monopoly on the supply of labour on the Australian
waterfront. And if companies owned by the NFF or indeed anybody
else take advantage of that and provide competition, good on them.
Because it is in the Australian national interest, I repeat, the
Australian national interest, that we have the most competitive
wharves in the world and that we encourage the maximum degree of
competition.
We have never disguised our support for that. I mean, this idea
that there is some kind of conspiracy and there is something sinister
about the Government wanting more productive Australian wharves
that is bunkum. I have never disguised that. I am proud of the fact
that my Government is in favour of more productive wharves and the
only people who are talking trouble, the only people who are talking
confrontation, the only people who are behaving like bullies are
the MUA. We are not, all we have done is to change the law and to
say that it is lawful for somebody to use non-union labour on the
Australian waterfront.
LEIBMANN:
Well now the MUA is threatening this morning a massive industrial
campaign, the ACTU is backing it, will your Government do everything
in it's power to keep the Australian waterfront open?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will support the law of this country, the Government can do no
less and ought to do no less. And people who are lawfully going
about their business, whatever that business may be, are entitled
to the support of the law. And those who seek to use intimidatory
tactics. I mean nobody is trying to smash the MUA, nobody is trying
to destroy any jobs, what we are trying to do is get a more productive
waterfront, what we are trying to do is to build a stronger Australia.
Heavens above, after what has happened in our near north and the
economic turmoil in South East Asia surely every Australian understands
that we have got to have the most productive, the most efficient
and the most competitive economy we can possibly achieve. And you
won't achieve that unless you allow people in open competition
in all areas of the economy.
And I say to the members of the MUA, we have no argument with you,
we are not trying to smash your union all we have done is to change
the law to allow people to recruit and use non-union labour on the
waterfront, and for new stevedores to come into the business and
to operate in competition with existing ones. And as far as I am
concerned while anybody, whether it be the NFF or any other organisation
or group of Australians wants to do that they will have the full
support and understanding of my Government. And I would hope they
would have the full support and the understanding of the Australian
Labor Party. It is very interesting, is Kim Beazley going to allow
Mr Coombs to lead him by the nose on this or is he going to stand
up for the Australian national interest?
LEIBMANN:
Alright. Prime Minister you began the New Year with a trip to Perth
and you announced an $80 million grant to Western Australian infrastructure
projects. Yesterday in Adelaide the Federation Address, you announced
an extra $340 million to extend government training programmes,
an extra $42 million to assist students to stay at school or go
back. You announced a tightening of your work for the dole scheme,
and you talked again of a better, fairer tax system. Let me ask
you a wasted question, because it seems to me you are setting the
stage for an election, are you now in full election mode, are you
thinking of an early poll?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. I am getting on with the business of being Prime Minister. What
I did yesterday was to lay out my plans for the next year. And those
plans include making Australia an even stronger economy and further
insulating it against the ravages of what is happening in our region.
That plan includes a fairer and better more modern taxation system.
Those plans include an extension of the mutual obligation principle
and it is a very important principle of a civilised society. We
will look after people who need help, but where it is reasonable
to do so we will say to those people, in return for that help you
should give something back to society. And that is the principle,
the mutual obligation principle which lies behind our work for the
dole approach.
But we have gone further. We have said to those people who leave
school without adequate literacy and numeracy skills that that is
one of the reasons why often you can't get a job and if you
are assessed as having those inadequate skills, after you have failed
to get a job for six months, we will provide you with professional
help to lift your numeracy and literacy skills. And we are going
to pay for that and we are going to work in partnership with the
State Governments to do so.
LEIBMANN:
But Prime Minister can I suggest to you, you have got a bit of a
problem here, what with all this early election speculation, perhaps
a double dissolution poll, media driven or driven by Ministers or
both. Because it gets to a point where it begins to gather its own
momentum and you can't stop it and you have all this political
uncertainty which could force you to go to an early poll just to
end all of that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Steve, the next election will be held at the right time. And
we are a long way away from it. It is normal in Australia in the
12 months before an election is due for speculation to start. Now
it has been heightened on this occasion because of the stubborn
refusal of the Senate to pass our Native Title Amendment Bill. And
I would say to those people, including people in the Labor Party
and the Democrats who everyday criticise the fact that there is
election speculation, if they let the Native Title Bill through
in March a lot of that would disappear overnight.
LEIBMANN:
In your address yesterday, and indeed it was mentioned by your Treasurer
Peter Costello yesterday, the good economic numbers just keep coming,
reflected as recently as yesterday with the lower inflation figures.
But why isn't all this being translated into good numbers for
you and your Government in the opinion polls?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the good numbers electorally Steve, are those that are delivered
on election day. And polls come and go but I think the message is
getting through even more strongly to the Australian people, that
if it hadn't been for the action taken by my Government to
fix up Mr Beazley's $10.5 billion deficit that he left us and
denied, if it hadn't been for our action in repairing the economy
we would now be a more frightened, vulnerable, weakened country
in the face of what has happened in the Asia-Pacific region. And
because of what we have done Australia stands as strong in this
part of the world, indeed stronger than it has ever stood in the
past. And I am immensely proud of the decisions that I, in company
with my Treasurer in particular, have taken at the Head of the Government
to waterproof the Australian economy against those impacts.
LEIBMANN:
You also said yesterday in that speech that under your Government
we had become a more civil society with a stronger sense of community
and a more united nation. And I wonder whether you really believe
that when you look at the monarchy vs the republic debate, the impact
Pauline Hanson has had, the Wik debate, the growing gap between
rich and poor, do you think we really are a more civil, united society?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think given the immensity of some of those issues the debate
is being, by and large, conducted in a fairly civil fashion. I mean,
there are outbursts when people fling around descriptions like racist
scum and so forth, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
And I think some of the abuse has disappeared from the political
stage, I am not suggesting for a moment that we should become colourlessly
polite in all of our
exchanges, but I do think it is possible to debate these issues
without us lapsing into too much lack of civility. And I think the
other point I made in that same context was that, I don't think
Australian politics is as dominated now as it was a couple of years
ago before my Government came to power, by noisy pressure groups.
We are governing far more in the interests of the mainstream of
the Australian community.
LEIBMANN:
Earlier this week you condemned Pauline Hanson's comments on
the choice of the Australian and the Young Australian of the Year
and former Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser is now saying it is becoming
harder for the Liberals to give Pauline Hanson their preferences
at the next election. Why won't you end all that speculation
now and simply say it is not on, she, The One Nation Party, are
not going to get our preferences?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that will be dealt with by the organisations.
LEIBMANN:
But you could show some form of leadership here.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Steve I have shown a lot of leadership on just about every
issue that is around at the present time. Take the Constitutional
Convention. The weather-vane that is represented by the Leader of
the Opposition is just because he has read the opinion poll that
says a lot of people support a directly elected presidency he has
shifted his position. As far as I am concerned on all of those issues
I am stating my own views, the Australian people know where I stand.
And even though on that issue I may be articulating what, according
to the opinion polls is a minority view, I am going to go on doing
it. Now that is, I think, doing the sort of thing that any political
party leader with a decent backbone would be willing to do.
LEIBMANN:
Just finally, while all this goes on and we talk about these issues
some 9,000 people in Katherine are rebuilding their lives after
those devastating floods, they are going to need all the help they
can get, are you going to give it?
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly am. And indeed on Friday, tomorrow, my wife and I will
be going to Katherine to meet and to talk to the people who have
been left devastated by those floods. I have been in constant contact
with the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory over the last
36 hours and I have assured him that all of the resources of the
Commonwealth which are properly needed in these circumstances will
be available. It is a major natural disaster and it is an immense
human trauma for all of those Australians who have been affected
by it. And Janette and I will be going to Katherine tomorrow morning
to talk to them and to personally express to them our concern and
the concern of their fellow Australians.
LEIBMANN:
Ok, thanks for your time, good to talk with you again.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[Ends]