E&OE...................................................................................................
SATTLER:
Good morning Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, how are you?
SATTLER:
Thanks for joining us. All right, the unemployment figures are just
out and despite the predictions unemployment is down by .1 of one
per cent which when you talk about it that way doesn't sound
much but what does it all mean?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, they are great figures. I am getting a bit of an echo, incidentally,
so your technician should try and fix it up. The unemployment rate
is down to 7.4 per cent. There's been a rise of 33,000 in the
jobs created in February. Youth unemployment is down to 23.5 per cent
and that is the lowest since September of 1991. We have seen about
80,000 jobs created over the summer period and a total of 406,000
jobs created in the three years that the Coalition has been in Government.
Now, these are tremendous figures but we still have a long way to
go. And I appeal to those in the Senate who blocked our Youth Wage
Bill to think of the damage they are doing to the job prospects of
the young people who are still out of work. We could have this unemployment
rate going down even further in the years ahead if we do more to encourage
employers to take on young people. And on two occasions in the last
few weeks in relation to Youth Wage Bill and the unfair dismissal
regulation, the Senate has struck down measures that this Government
designed to give young people a better chance. And I just say to those
people in the Senate again, whether they are Labor, Democrat or Independent,
think of what you are doing, think of the opportunity the buoyant
economy presents to really break the back of unemployment in this
country.
SATTLER:
[sound problems]
I was just saying, are you planning to re-present that Bill now? I
mean, you are saying that you're appealing to them but they have
already knocked it back haven't they?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, of course we are going to re-present that Bill. We will re-present
it again in three months time I am still getting that echo
incidentally we'll re-present that in three months time.
But I am using the opportunity of these really very good figures against
the background of a very strong economy to just appeal directly to
the Labor Party and the Democrats and the Independents in the Senate
to think of what their political gains are doing to the job prospects
of young Australians. I mean, unemployment is still too high. Although
it's a lot better than what it was it could be a lot better still
if we as a community were prepared to take the measures to improve
prospects for people. And there are a lot of things we have got to
do. Two of those things are to remove the threat of unfair dismissal
legislation from small business, and we have tried to do that and
we have been frustrated at every turn. And the other, of course, is
the youth wage measure. Now, on two occasions now the Labor Party
and the Democrats have voted against those measures. And I am just
saying to the leaders of those two parties, think of what you are
doing to the employment prospects of young Australians.
SATTLER:
[commercial break sound problems]
I understand the Defence Minister, John Moore, is going to make a
statement to the House this afternoon. Does that have anything to
do with Australians going to East Timor?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it doesn't. He will be reporting on progress being made with
the defence reform programme that we announced when we came to Government
in our first term. That's what it's about.
SATTLER:
All right. What are the prospects of Australians going to East Timor
in the near future?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we hope that the need for a peacekeeping force will not arise.
We hope that arrangements are worked out between the East Timorese
and the Indonesians for either autonomy followed by independence,
or independence after a reasonable transition period that won't
involve any peacekeeping force. So any talk about committing Australians
in a peacekeeping role at this stage is quite premature.
SATTLER:
Okay. But if East Timorese continue to be threatened or people are
continuing to die up there at the hands of para-military groups we
can't just sit back surely?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Howard, I am very careful what I say on this issue because it's
a very important and sensitive one. We want peace. We want the East
Timorese people to be allowed to determine their own future. We believe
that if that future could involve with their consent a period of autonomy
inside Indonesia that would be better for all concerned. In the end
they should be able to determine matters for themselves. And the stance
I took and the Government took before Christmas was very material
in bringing about a change of heart on the part of the Indonesian
Government.
SATTLER:
Now, you have mentioned what's happened in the Senate with the
youth wages legislation. What have you done to upset Senator Brian
Harradine who seems to have extraordinary power in this country and
is that going to threaten your tax reform package as it torpedoed
the youth wages policy?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Howard, Senator Harradine always makes a judgement on the merits
of each individual piece of legislation as he sees it. I never take
Senator Harradine for granted.
SATTLER:
Well, you can't can you?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. Well, I don't but I have never tried to and he is not a person
who believes in cross-trading on issues. He has very strong, what
I would call, traditional Labor views on industrial relations matters.
Remember Brian Harradine was originally a member of the Australian
Labor Party. He was a trade union official. He has very traditional
views on industrial relations matters. He believes very strongly in
a more centralised involved system on the part of the Industrial Relations
Commission. I understand that, I don't agree with him. I disagree
with him quite fundamentally on those matters but I respect the strength
with which he holds those views and they are as I say, essentially
traditional Labor views.
SATTLER:
Okay. But is he now irrelevant to this argument given the switch in
policy, or tactics by the Labor Party saying now they probably won't
block your tax reform package and they think that that will now be
a political plus for them at the next election because they think
the GST will be horrendous?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven't heard or read that the Labor Party is going to
vote in favour of the GST package. What I read in the Australian this
morning is that the Labor Party won't try and stop a vote being
taken before the 30th of June. Brian Harradine and Mal
Colston are still quite critical to the outcome of the tax plan because
they hold the balance of power until the 30th of June.
After the 30th of June that changes. Senator Colston will
no longer be in the Senate and the Democrats will have more Senators
and the Democrats will hold the balance of power. So nothing has changed
as I understand it in relation to the Labor Party's attitude
on the substance of our tax plan. All I read is that they will not
try and stop a vote being taken by the 30th of June. And
neither they should. I mean after all we did win an election on this
issue. We did lay ourselves bare policy wise. We provided the Australian
people with a full explanation of what we wanted to do and we won
the election. No Government in history has gone to the Australian
people with a more detailed reform plan on such a central issue of
policy as we did last year.
SATTLER:
Yeah, except the Senators who were voted in are not the ones who are
there now. They're the ones who will take their place after June
30.
PRIME MINISTER:
But Howard, look, this is an endless argument I know. But aren't
elections about parties offering plans for the future and the Australian
people deciding who should be allowed to implement their plans?
SATTLER:
Sure. But also don't you think we should have a system where
whoever is elected, say from October the 3rd, the next
time whatever House sits they're the representatives of the people.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that would involve a Constitutional change.
SATTLER:
I know that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, well look, we didn't have a referendum on it. I mean I
can only deal with the system that I inherited. And I mean in a sense
it's a futile debate at this stage as to whether our system might
be different or better or changed. I've got to deal with the
system that the Australian people [inaudible] have decided I've
got to deal with. And under that system I put a plan to the Australian
people and the Australian people returned me as Prime Minister. And
what I'm saying is that I think my Government should be allowed
to implement that plan.
SATTLER:
Okay. But have you got a better chance now of getting your tax reform
bills through the Upper House before June the 30th or will
you have just as much a chance after June the 30th?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well our prospects after the June the 30th as I read it
at the moment are far less because the Democrats will hold the balance
of power and the Democrats have declared that they won't accept
the plan in its present form, despite the judgement of the Australian
people. So as things stand at the moment it is clearly in the interests
of the plan getting through that we have a vote before the 30th
of June.
SATTLER:
So what are you going to do to get Senator Harradine on side? Are
you going to ban Lolita? Is that what you're going to do?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'll come to that in a minute. The last thing I'm going
to do is to engage in some kind of public discussion about any discussions
I might have with him. I respect him. I've got a lot of regards
for his views. I don't agree with a lot of them and he doesn't
agree with a lot of mine. But that doesn't stop us respecting
each other as public figures. If I have anything to say to Brian Harradine
about taxation or any other matter I'll say it to him first in
private.
SATTLER:
But you will be speaking with him about it personally?
PRIME MINISTER:
I always talk to him about a whole range of matters. We are in fairly
regular contact.
SATTLER:
All right. Can I talk to you about drugs?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
SATTLER:
Isn't the Government, or hasn't the Government been a bit
hypocritical on this? You're now committing a lot of effort to
it, and money. Yours is the same Government that reduced the funding
for our federal police who are really on the front line. They're
at the border of trying to stop drugs getting into this country.
PRIME MINISTER:
Howard, the resources that are now available are the greatest the
federal police have ever had to fight drugs.
SATTLER:
Really?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes. We have strike teams available. Two strike teams now in Western
Australia. We have additional resources and the commissioner of the
federal police told me himself about two weeks ago that some of the
drug hauls that have been in the news recently are a direct result
of the additional resources that have been provided.
SATTLER:
And will there be more?
PRIME MINISTER:
I will be saying something further about drugs in the lead up to,
and at the Premiers' Conference on the 9th of April.
We'll be putting some more proposals to the Premiers. I want
to work with Richard Court. I want to work with all of the Premiers
and Chief Ministers in order to make further inroads on the drug problem
in this country. I don't pretend for a moment that I have all
of the solutions and I don't pretend that it is easy. And I'm
going to keep trying and I want to work. And you've got to tackle
it through law enforcement. That's customs and police. You've
got to have educational programmes to discourage young people from
starting drugs in the first place. And you've got to have treatment
available for people who want to break the drug habit. I don't
think in the past we've had enough emphasis on treatment and
I'm very keen that there be a greater emphasis at both a State
level where normally these facilities would have been provided, or
should be provided, and with some additional involvement by the Federal
Government. And the tough on drugs' strategy which is providing
about $290 million over four years includes support for those three
elements. It's wrong to see it just in terms of resources you
put into police, although that is a very important element.
SATTLER:
All right. Isn't this also an international issue. You've
got a United Nations that sends peace keeping forces, including Australians,
all over the world to try and stop dictators and people like that.
Isn't this an international issue which almost sort of requires
a war on drugs? I mean shouldn't they be sending in sort of UN
forces into places where they're growing all this stuff?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it is an international problem and there have been some very
good developments in that area. Only last week when Madeline Albright
was in Thailand she visited an area where there had been a planting
programme to replace, I think, poppies with another substance which
would deliver the same earnings to the local community. And this transfer
of investment was very widely welcomed in the community and we would
obviously like to see that kind of approach applied in what used to
be called Burma - now called Myanmar - which is one of the major sources
of drugs in the area.
SATTLER:
I mean do we give aid to that place?
PRIME MINISTER:
Myanmar? We certainly wouldn't be giving any aid at all that
gets to drugs. I don't think we give anything other than bare
humanitarian aid to Burma, if anything.
SATTLER:
The point I'm making is....
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I understand your point but I think I can assure your listeners
that none of our dollars would give any kind of succour or substance
to people involved in the drug traffic. I can absolutely assure you
of that.
SATTLER:
Yeah, all right. Now just to wind up to....so let's talk about
Lolita, the movie. That was brought up at your meeting, your Coalition
meeting the other day. Are you just going to handball it back to the
public and say: well if you've got a problem with it complain
to the censor, appeal about it or what?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well what's going to happen is that some of my colleagues are
going to lodge an appeal. There's a procedure under the censorship
rules which provide that if people are unhappy with the initial decision
of the censor then they can ask that that decision be reviewed by
a review tribunal. Now that is the correct thing to do. I haven't
seen it. I therefore can't make a personal judgement.
SATTLER:
You're going to be seeing it aren't you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I've read in the papers there's going to be some viewing
of it. Well, I mean, I've got, you know, many things to do.
SATTLER:
I don't think Lolita's at the top of the tray.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, no. But I have to say to you that there are a lot of my colleagues
who raised this issue and I said that given the concern right across
the spectrum, and presumably reflecting public concern, that I said
I would have a look at it in the sense of seeing what would be the
appropriate response for people who are concerned. Now the appropriate
response is what I've described. And I think that is correct.
It's a procedure laid down. And everybody's entitled to
have a view on matters relating to public taste and public standards.
This idea that it's just a monopoly of, quote, "experts"
is never right.
SATTLER:
Okay. Just to reiterate on East Timor. We don't have any peacekeeping
forces on standby here at the moment? Is that right? Yes or no.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you wouldn't expect any self-respecting government to be
other than ready for any contingency that might arise in the future.
But if you're asking me, and please, it's a very important
issue, if you're asking me are we contemplating sending any troops
to East Timor at the present time the answer to that is no. If you're
asking me if any contingency in our region arose in the future would
we be able to respond to it, or are we making preparations to be able
to respond to it, well obviously the answer to that is yes. And that
is what any responsible government would do. But this afternoon's
statement is very much about reporting on the progress of the Defence
Review Programme and how that has enabled us to do things that we
wouldn't otherwise have been able to do. You've got to remember
that defence has been the only area of Government expenditure completely
quarantined from budget cuts over the last three years.
SATTLER:
Yeah, and so it should be too.
PRIME MINISTER:
Indeed, so it should be.
SATTLER:
Thank you for joining us on the programme. We'll talk regularly
during 1999. I'm sorry about the glitch at the start.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, and glitchless in future. Okay.
SATTLER:
It will be indeed. See you later.
PRIME MINISTER:
Bye.
[ends]