E&OE....................................................................................................
CARLTON:
On the line from Canberra, the nation's number one cricket
fan. Good afternoon.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hello, Mike, how are you?
CARLTON:
Good. Thanks for your time, Prime Minister. You don't often
get introduced like that, do you?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I was scratching my head as to how you might ease into this
and, you know, it was not bad.
CARLTON:
It's all right.
PRIME MINISTER:
Not bad, not bad. I agree with you, he's been a great captain
and the question, I guess, different people would like, in different
ways, to mark his departure from the captaincy and, well, I heard
what you had to say.
CARLTON:
Do you like the idea of a more formal, fitting farewell for Mark
Taylor?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think always with these things you really ought to know
the feelings of the person concerned.
CARLTON:
Well, he tends to be a bit modest about these things. He'll
scratch his head and say oh well'.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think any person, though, would have been chuffed at the send
off he got from the nation's press both on Tuesday evening
and Wednesday morning. It was very, very strong and there's
not much doubt that of all the sporting positions occupied in this
country, the captaincy of the cricket team brings forth a level
of acclaim and accolades that are denied to others that's
not meant ......
CARLTON:
Particularly politicians.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, no, I'll leave us out of it at the present time. I
am but a humble lover and spectator of the game of cricket and,
indeed, many other sports.
CARLTON:
You're a cricket tragic he calls you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, that's right. He's called me that, with a good
sense of humour. And he has endeared himself to the public in a
way that few people have been able to do. I think what people liked
is that he kept his humour and his balance and he didn't get
vindictive and splenetic when he was doing poorly. He didn't
turn around and blame the administrators or his team or the opponents
and so forth. He was quite upfront about it. He kept going on to
press conferences and acknowledging, to use the political parlance,
that the polls were going badly. But he bounced back and he did
it very well and I think people liked that. And he has been very
successful, when you look at the other post war captains, I think
he's been marvellously successful.
CARLTON:
I thought true character showed in a number of ways but particularly
when they said to him, look, you're no longer going to be the
one-day captain and he didn't complain. There was no whinging,
he took it on the chin.
PRIME MINISTER:
Mmm, he did. I mean, he, in a polite but firm way, he made it
known on a number of occasions that he didn't agree with the
decision but he didn't complain about. And he didn't spit
the dummy and throw his bat in the corner and say, well, this is
ridiculous, maybe I won't be the test captain if they don't
want me for the one-day game. And I think he did show it and the
manner of his departure was very nicely done. And I'm sure
he's taken the right decision. There comes a time, when you've
been at the top of sport, to go. And it's always better to
go when you're right at the top and everybody is saying that
you're at the top than to go a year or two later when people
then mutter, well, he should have really gone 12 or 18 months earlier.
And I'm absolutely certain his timing was impeccable.
CARLTON:
The same thing applies to politics, doesn't it?
PRIME MINISTER:
It does indeed.
CARLTON:
It does indeed. Back to cricket. Why not then, perhaps - I don't
know, I'm just floating these ideas the Prime Minister's
testimonial dinner or maybe a Prime Minister's IX versus the
rest of the world? I don't know, just a farewell, are you attracted
to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'm interested to hear that. I'm always attracted
to any event that focuses on cricket. Let me think about your proposal.
I will. I hadn't had something specifically planned of that
kind. You've sprung it on me but as always I take constructive
suggestions from high quality journalists seriously.
CARLTON:
Sometimes, sometimes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I don't get the ball that often.
CARLTON:
Oh, okay, all right. What about, perhaps, I don't know, a
dinner at Parliament House, a game at Manuka Oval, very nice, and
dinner at Parliament House?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we had a game at Manuka Oval, the Prime Minister's
XI, involving him as captain of that just in December. Anyway, look,
Mike, you've made a suggestion and let me think about it.
CARLTON:
One more thing a couple more things, still on the same
subject. He said at his press conference that his wife, Judy, had
told you that politics, a political career, was just not on. Did
you suggest one to him?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I didn't specifically suggest it but I suppose in the
course of conversation - you have all sorts of rambling conversations,
I about my political career and experiences and he about his sporting
career and experiences. And I guess perhaps at some stage in one
of those conversations Judy would have said, heaven's above,
you know, I'll shoot him if he goes into politics or something
like that.
CARLTON:
You never said, look Mark, we could find you a safe seat if you
want it mate.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I haven't done that. I think the captaincy of the Australia
Cricket Team is above party politics. He doesn't just belong...
CARLTON:
Much, much superior. It would be a demotion to become Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I wouldn't agree with that. But clearly there are
the affection for cricket stradles the political divide in this
country as it always has and it always will. So our association
has been very friendly. I admire the man. I think he's been
a great cricketer but if he wants to express his views on politic
issues, that's a matter for him. It's not something that
I've sought to elicit from him.
CARLTON:
One last cricket question. Who would you like to see perhaps as
the next captain Steve Waugh, Shane Warne?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I've got a view on it but I don't think it's
fair to the selectors or to the board for me to express it. I really
don't. I'm not trying to run cricket in this country.
It's run by the cricket board and the selectors. They'll
make their decision and whoever it is, I'll welcome it and
I'll be very happy to, as it were, interact with that successor
in the same way as I have with Mark.
CARLTON:
Moving on, a bit of business if we can and a couple of questions
on the economy, if you don't mind. To coin a phrase, this is
about as good as it gets. These are a beautiful set of numbers.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, these are a beautiful set of numbers. That expression incidentally
was used about some quarterly growth figures which showed that we
were going into negative growth. That's what made the expression
quite remarkable, used all those years ago by my predecessor. But
the Australian economy now is stronger than it's been for 25
or 30 years and it is very strong. It's much stronger than
most people thought, say, five or six months ago and stronger than
most of the advice that we received then. Not that they thought
it would be weak at this time but it really has performed quite
magnificently and we have come through the Asian downturn. And in
some parts of Asia there are tentative signs that countries previously
in recession might have a bit of growth - Korea's an example.
So it does look very good at the present time.
CARLTON:
Say we've come through the Asian crisis I mean, there
are some economists, and I think John Hewson's one of them,
who'd argue we haven't, that the Asian crisis is still
waiting around the corner to give us a big whack as we come past.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that's not my view.