E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, what are hoping to get from your meeting with Xanana Gusmao this morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it will be an opportunity to meet a very impressive man. I have not met him personally before. I have met Jose Ramos Horta. So it’ll be quite an interesting opportunity to talk about the future because we look forward to working with the East Timorese people in their independent state. And it will be therefore a special occasion and a unique opportunity to look forward.
JOURNALIST:
Will you be talking about the Timor gap treaty?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, it’s too early to be doing that. I mean, the formal act of separation from Indonesia has not yet occurred so it’s very important that we take one thing at a time.
JOURNALIST:
What about the issue of a civil administration, or even a transitional administration?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, I guess that could come up in the discussion, yes.
JOURNALIST:
Would you expect Mr Gusmao to become the first leader of an independent…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that is a matter for the people of East Timor. He certainly seems to have the runs on the board at the moment and most people who understand the area well speak very warmly about him. He is certainly a very impressive man and he has given great leadership to the people of that territory through a very difficult time. But that’s a matter for them. They hope to become an independent nation fairly soon and it’s not for me to start giving them advice, that’s a matter for them to decide.
JOURNALIST:
The President’s also keen that Falantil continue to be armed to form the basis of a new national army. Would you consider discussing that with him?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I’ll discuss anything that he brings up. I am not going to foreshadow what it might be or how I will react but we’ll just wait and see what gets raised.
JOURNALIST:
How realistic are Opposition claims that the typical university course will cost up to $100,000 under your plan?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the Opposition has been engaging in an enormous amount of deliberate calculated scaremongering. Let me just make it very plain that Dr Kemp has put in a submission, that submission contains a range of options to respond to some of the challenges in the higher education area. And we’ll be having a look at that as a Government. We haven’t taken any decisions. It’s a submission from the Minister and it’s got a range of options. But I want to make a couple of things clear. We have no intention – no intention at all – of introducing an American style approach to university funding in this country. It won’t work, it’s not good for Australia and it’s not something that I support or would ever support. I make that very clear. There are certain features of the current system, many features of it that are highly desirable and ahead of anything that exists anywhere else in the world. The other thing I want to make clear is that any decisions the Government takes will fully honour the promises made both at the time of the election and previously in relation to vouchers, in relation to deregulation of university fees and also the commitment we made not to introduce HECS charges for TAFE courses. Now, those commitments were made quite deliberately and quite explicitly after we got the West Review last year. We do not intend to walk away from those commitments. And I just invite people to accept that when we look at the options coming forward, and there are a range of options in the paper, that we will have in mind those commitments and any decisions we take will honour those commitments in full.
JOURNALIST:
So where does that leave this proposal or this submission.…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this submission contains a number of options. One of the options has been dwelt upon and distorted and misrepresented and lied about by the Labor Party. But there are other options in it which are quite different and what I am telling you and what I am making plain to the Australian public is that when as a Cabinet we look at all of the options Dr Kemp has brought forward, all of them, we will take decisions that fully honour the public commitments that have been made.
JOURNALIST:
The option that’s been distorted - that’s the loan scheme…?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, look, there have been…we are not going down the American path and there are ridiculous figures being flung around all designed to create diversion from other matters. Now, we have got to have a capacity in this country to have a sensible discussion about long-term policy issues without everything being distorted and blown out of the water by misrepresentation. Now, we made commitments about vouchers and deregulation and we are going to honour those commitments but also we all have to recognise as a community that encouraging on a proper basis more private resources into universities is a good thing. And there are problems, there are challenges. I would like to see something constructive done in relation to the salaries issue in universities. I think that is a difficult issue. I don’t think academics in this country are well paid, I don’t think they are at all by world standards and by community standards and I think there is a case. But if they are to be better paid then there are other things that will have to be altered in order to assist that process.
JOURNALIST:
And in honouring your commitments, is that only for this term?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I am honouring the commitment. Look, I take one term at a time. Come back at the next election and ask me again. I mean, how much more can I make it plain. If you are saying that what I have in mind is that we have some proposal to walk away from that commitment and it will take effect after the next election, the answer to that is no.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, how vigorously will Michael Lee be pursued over this leak and what…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I mean, it is an extraordinary state of affairs that Michael Lee gets hold of a document, makes claims and he won’t cough up, he won’t provide it. I mean, if it’s what he claims it is why doesn’t he table it? He should table it.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, inside today you said Australia had come out of the Asian economic crisis much better than what you thought…
PRIME MINISTER:
A year ago, yes.
JOURNALIST:
That’s a pretty bullish statement isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don’t think it's bullish at all because it's a retrospective. I am talking about what I said a year ago. What I said a year ago essentially was that although I thought we were doing well I thought we’d get singed. We haven’t been…we have been lightly touched, perhaps slightly darkened but no more.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think Australia can reach full employment again?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think we can have a lower rate of unemployment. The statisticians and the economists will debate for a long time what full employment is. But what has changed is that we have been able to take the speed limits off growth, something that we set out to do back in ’96. We have been able to see the Australian economy grow at a faster rate without it having to slam on the brakes. The thing that has perennially bedevilled the Australian economy in the past is that as soon as we have had a bit of activity something’s blown out somewhere and we have had to slam on the brakes. Now, we don’t have to do that now and that is the new freedom, the higher plateau of economic liberation that Australia is now enjoying and that means that we can run a stronger economy for longer without higher inflation, without a balance of payments crisis and therefore over time generate more jobs. And that’s what’s happening, we are seeing very strong employment growth. Ask me to put a figure on it, no I don’t get into that game. It’s always very dangerous because it’s too hard to predict. You have got to look at participation rates and all sorts of things. But the outlook is a lot better now than it was a year ago for employment, there is no doubt about that.
JOURNALIST:
You say you want to see more private resources in universities, is that going to disadvantage poorer families?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, that can be done in a way that completely protects poorer families. You can have a system that looks after poorer families and at the same time get more private resources in. But we have got to have the courage as a community to address some of these issues, we really do. But we have got to address them in a way that protects the aspirations of middle Australia for their children to be educated in an affordable way at university. It is the right of every Australian if their child has the capacity to go to a university to see that dream fulfilled. But on a basis that if they can afford to do so they make a contribution. And many students now have part-time jobs, they can make some contribution. I mean, we have got to be realistic about this. You can’t expect those who have never been to university and whose children have no aspiration or no capacity to go to a university to feel happy about paying ever higher taxes in order to finance the aspirations of those who do. So you have got to strike a balance. Now, I think this present system is pretty good. We have a HECS system where you get a contribution and I think the present system is pretty good but there are some changes that are needed and the design and the aim of our discussion in the near future will be to determine what those additions and changes might be. But I repeat, it will all occur against the background of those undertakings.
JOURNALIST:
Was Dr Kemp ambushed yesterday, Mr Howard?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, somebody got a document and that always excites you people doesn’t it?
[ends]