Subjects: Budget youth allowance, unemployment, private health
insurance, medical research
E&OE................................................................................................
LYNEHAM:
Prime Minister, welcome to the programme.
PRIME MINISTER:
Pleasure.
LYNEHAM:
Well you could hardly complain about the headlines today. You couldn't
have written them better yourself.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they were good, but they were deserved. This is a good budget
but we're not complacent.
LYNEHAM:
Brian Harradine didn't think you were too clever. He says the
compensation for the youth allowance in the budget was too little
too late, and improperly tied to his vote for the GST.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'm not going to conduct any public dialogue with Senator
Harradine on your programme, or any other programme. When I have things
to say to Senator Harradine I always pay him the courtesy of saying
them to him privately intervening public comment.
LYNEHAM:
But we have the political reality that the man who's so essential
to getting this tax plan thorough the Senate is now very bitter. Says
he's ashamed, says he had a deal with you and you welshed on
it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven't welshed on a deal with anybody. But beyond saying
that I'm not going to get into any commentary about any discussions
I have had or might have with Brian Harradine.
LYNEHAM:
On unemployment, ACOSS says the budget has failed to take decisive
action to tackle our top national problem. Your own forecasts suggest
the best you can hope for next financial year is to stabalise the
problem of around 7.5%.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think ACOSS is quite wrong. Unemployment now is lower than
it's been for ten years. There are two ways that you reduce unemployment:
you maintain strong economic growth and we've certainly done
that, and you also make changes to the way the labour market operates
to remove disincentives to the employment of people. We're trying
to do that and we're being stopped by the Labor Party and the
Democrats in the Senate. If they pass our laws on unfair dismissals
and youth wages, and Mr Reith's foreshadowed industrial relations
reforms we'll see further cuts in unemployment.
LYNEHAM:
But aren't the critics right when they say where was the plan
for jobs here?
PRIME MINISTER:
But Paul they're not right because the greatest plan you can
have for jobs is to run a strong economy.
LYNEHAM:
The number of unemployed people getting intensive assistance is to
be reduced by 25,000 a year. The same number is going to added onto
work for the dole which may be popular but no one could argue it's
very effective in putting people into work.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't agree with that. No scheme is 100% effective from
getting people.....
LYNEHAM:
[inaudible] 32%.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that's a damn sight more effective than many of the old
Working Nation programmes. And the contact with work skills, and the
work ethic that work for the dole provides is extremely valuable.
There are of course many more apprenticeships under this government.
There are 70,000 more apprenticeships under this government than under
the former government. And if anything provides people with skills
it's apprenticeships.
LYNEHAM:
The health insurance measures Prime Minister, aren't you forcing
people to buy a product that they think is poor value? Too expensive,
the gap's still there. They've walked away from it and now
you're sort of herding them back to the funds.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we're not herding them back but we are, I suppose encouraging
them to see whether their priorities might be wrong by saying to them:
okay, you can put off joining a private health fund until you need
it, but you may find then that it's dearer than it would otherwise
be. And if that results in more people joining private health funds
when they're young and healthy, all for the better. And that
will take pressure off Medicare, it will take pressure off the public
hospital system, and it will boost private health insurance. And we
don't make any apologies for doing that. We think it will underpin
the 30% tax rebate.
LYNEHAM:
But as you deliver the funds with ever increasing captive market,
how much responsibility are you reminding them that they would have
to offer better products, better service, and more price restraint?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there will be obviously, with other changes there'll be
increased competition for the funds. The very nature of lifetime health
cover is that it sets up a more competitive market. Of course they
carry responsibilities. They continue to be tightly regulated and
so they should be.
LYNEHAM:
But look, inflation, I mean haven't you ever thought how come
inflation has been so low for so long, every time I turn around there's
another fund knocking on the door wanting to crank up its prices.
PRIME MINISTER:
I understand that, but you've also got to understand that until
we brought in the 30% there had been an almost continuous haemorrhaging
of people out of the funds over the period of 8 or 10 years. A lot
of the premium rises of the last few years have been a direct consequence
of people simply deserting the funds, and something had to be done
to reverse that. And we've done it with our 30% rebate and now
lifetime health cover.
LYNEHAM:
And finally, with all this talk of a decade of prosperity, plus this
big boost for medical research, you're not planning to stay in
the Lodge forever are you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I certainly am concerned to ensure that the next decade is a
decade where the intellectual and the resources of our nation are
used wisely and in a visionary way. And we have wonderful doctors,
we have great scientists and I think the first part of the 21st
Century is going to be very much about the nation that does best in
using its intellectual capital and I'm very keen to be part of
that.
LYNEHAM:
Thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Pleasure.
[Ends]