Subjects: Receptions for both the Australian Womens' Hockey
Team and the Australian Cricket Team, Jelena Dokic, GST legislation,
ACT Chief Minister
E&OE....................................................................................................
GILBERT:
It's a great delight to welcome to the programme the Prime Minister
of Australia, John Howard, good morning, sir.
PRIME MINISTER:
How are you? Very nice to be on your programme.
GILBERT:
It's been a good night for you the cricketers, Hockeyroos
yesterday.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, we had a great reception for the Australian Womens' Hockey
Team which, having been world champions for six years in a row, has
probably done something in that sense that no other Australian team
in any sport has done. And as the President of Womens' Hockey
pointed out to me yesterday, they have 127 countries against which
to compete, so it was an incredible performance on their part. And
we had a great reception for Steve Waugh and the Cricket Team last
night which was a tremendous opportunity for us all, as members of
the National Parliament, to honour them. And I think they're
now receptioned out.
GILBERT:
That's a nice way to put it.
PRIME MINISTER:
And are now going to go away and have a bit of a break which they
certainly deserve. Now that's the sport but, of course...
GILBERT:
Well, I was also going to say very quickly, Jelena Dokic overnight,
into the quarter finals, terrific.
PRIME MINISTER:
She did very well too and proved that first round win was no flash
in the pan.
GILBERT:
Certainly wasn't.
PRIME MINISTER:
The other really big news of long-term importance to Australian community
is the new tax system is now just a vote in the House of Representatives
away from reality. It's now cleared through the Senate. It will
go through the House of Representatives, we expect, tonight. It will
then become law. And in a year's time the Australian public will
have the best tax system it's had for 40 years. It will have
big personal tax cuts, $12 billion of them, particularly big cuts
for middle income families, a far more efficient taxation system,
a fairer system, one that helps our exporters, cuts the cost of fuel,
will be seen as a far simpler system. And over the next year we'll
be putting a lot of resources into explaining the workings of the
tax system and how people will benefit so that when it comes into
operation, I'm sure after a few weeks, people will say what was
all the fuss about.
GILBERT:
Yeah, but as you know, Prime Minister, Gail has taught me to always
read the fine print. As I haven't got into all the fine print
now I'll put it to you, who are going to be disadvantaged? There
always has to be losers.
PRIME MINISTER:
The crooks will be disadvantaged.
GILBERT:
Simple as that.
PRIME MINISTER:
They will be heavily disadvantaged because a system that taxes what
you spend more than what you earn is always harder to dodge.
GILBERT:
And also can we lay another furphy to rest. A lot of people say, oh
but look at New Zealand.' New Zealand didn't take out the
wholesales tax. They just top-loaded a GST, didn't they?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it was Canada, Canada. That was a mistake Canada made. Quite different
from Canada, we are getting rid of the wholesale sales tax, lock stock
and barrel. So all that 12 per cent, 22 per cent, 32 per cent, 45
per cent, all of that goes out the window simultaneously with the
introduction of the GST.
GILBERT:
And fresh food, GST free.
PRIME MINISTER:
Fresh food, GST free.
GILBERT:
Health, education.
PRIME MINISTER:
Health, education, yes.
GILBERT:
So, it's been a long battle.
PRIME MINISTER:
It has been a long battle.
GILBERT:
Were there nights where you thought, oh blow this, let's just
stick with what we've got?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no. Once I started on the campaign just on two years ago I was
determined to get it and I never gave up.
GILBERT:
Now, your Opposition appeared to give up. Have they become irrelevant?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the problem with the Opposition is that the only thing they
can do is say no and in Opposition you've got to learn to put
forward alternative policies. The public is tired of automatic adversarial
politics. I think the public is fed up with that. What the public
wants from both sides of politics are ideas. Now, of course an Opposition
has got to oppose a lot of things, I understand that. When I was in
Opposition I opposed a lot of things the Labor Party did. And I'm
not pretending that I didn't but I also put forward alternatives.
And in Opposition people knew me more for what I was in favour of
than for what I was against. They knew that I was in favour of industrial
relations reform. They knew that I was in favour of privatisation.
They knew that I was in favour of tax reform. Now, I was better known
for those things than I was for the things that I was against. But
I'm afraid the Labor Party at the moment is only known for the
fact that it disagrees with the Government on everything.
GILBERT:
Yeah, polls earlier this week indicated the young voter is turning
away from Labor and a caller on our open line, Prime Minister, suggested
that perhaps the youngsters are seeing Labor at the moment as a bit
like mum and dad who are forever saying, no, no, no, you can't
do this, you can't do that and this constant bleeding in Opposition
is perhaps turning away some of the younger voters who traditionally
used to be Labor supporters.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I saw those polls. They were encouraging but I never get too
carried away with polls. I work very hard to earn the support of all
sections of the Australian community. There are some signs that younger
people are particularly attracted to the fact that we are willing
to do things and we are willing to change things that need changing.
I'm very much of the view that you should follow an approach
where you change things that need reform but you don't change
just for the sake of change.
GILBERT:
Now, talking of change, there's a possibility that there could
be a change in the Chief Minister here in the ACT inside the next
48 hours. Now, you don't always get along with Kate Carnell.
Drug reform is a good public example. So would you be all that concerned
to see her go, if she was to go?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think it would be a great shame for the ACT if Kate were to be removed
as Chief Minister. It is true that we don't always agree on some
social issues. We have our disagreements. I don't pretend that
we have identical opinions on a number of issues. But taking a broader
view, she has been a very good Chief Minister for Canberra, for the
ACT. She has turned the economy of this Territory around. She has
overseen the transfer of activity from the Government to the private
sector. The economy of the ACT is now performing very strongly. And
she has shown a capacity, an innovative capacity, to attract new investment
to the ACT. She's got the service industries coming in here in
a big way. And the manner in which I've seen her in three-and-a-quarter
years that I've been Prime Minister alter the structure of the
economy of the ACT in response to the shift away from a bigger public
sector has really been quite admirable. And there's nobody on
the horizon that can touch her as a Chief Minister in the Territory.
And, as I say, we're not going to agree on everything, we haven't
in the past, we won't in the future, but I think it would be
crazy and I think it would be a huge step backwards for her to be
removed. I mean, I just don't think any of the alternatives
well, the only alternative is to have a Labor government. And I can't
see, with great respect - and I don't now the Opposition Leader
at all well and I'm not denigrating him personally - but I just
can't see the point in her removal. And I think she's given
an explanation of what happened in relation to the stadium and I hope
that the Assembly rejects the vote of no confidence. I certainly think
Canberra will be the loser is she is removed.
GILBERT:
Now, last time we spoke, Prime Minister, I asked you and I know you
have been so I'll put it to you again, every opportunity can
you keep hammering for international status of our airport because
it could be so good?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, well that is something that Mrs Carnell...
GILBERT:
I know she's at you all the time.
PRIME MINISTER:
...whenever she talks to me she's at me and we are, over the
next few weeks, going to be examining the whole question of airport
capacity in eastern Australian, particularly in New South Wales and
the ACT. So, that is something...
GILBERT:
The Capital region want it, sir. Sir, I thank you for your time this
morning. Great delight. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Nice talking to you. Bye, bye.
[ends]