E&OE..........................................................
JOURNALIST:
What more could we, or should we, be doing about India and Pakistan?
PRIME MINISTER:
We just must continue to express the disgust, the outrage and the
genuine worry about the future that I'm sure that all Australians
hold. I thought a few years ago that one of the things we could look
forward to in the next century was a freedom from the worry about
nuclear war that had hung over so many Australians who grew up between
the end of World War II and the late 1980s. Unfortunately, what has
happened in India and Pakistan in recent days has put real doubt on
that.
I think all of the countries of the earth have to mobilise the greatest
diplomatic effort we have seen in decades to drive home the folly,
the danger, the crazy path down which these two countries have gone.
I worry that other countries will try to imitate them. There is no
place in the modern world for copy cat nuclear behaviour and unfortunately
when countries such as India and Pakistan do what they've done
there is always a danger of that.
JOURNALIST:
Is there a case for complete cessation of all aid?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's always a problem, Peter, because in doing so you hurt
the most vulnerable and you perhaps drive them inwards on themselves
and they seek more comfort in the self congratulation of the people
who cheer in the streets often in ignorance of the real consequences
of what they're cheering for.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard are you disappointed with your Government's slump in
the recent Morgan Poll?
PRIME MINISTER:
Polls go all over the place.
Thank you.