E&OE...
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
2WEB RADIO INTERVIEW
BOURKE, NSW
SUBJECTS: Government services in region; Mission Employment; Telstra, school hours, housing in Bourke.
E&OE.............................................................................................
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister John Howard arrived in Bourke yesterday and myself and Gizelle were lucky enough to meet him at a dinner held in his honour but we're both even luckier today, the man of the moment, Prime Minister John Howard is in the studio in person today. Mr Howard, thank you for joining us in the studio.
PRIME MINISTER:
It's very nice to be here.
JOURNALIST:
Welcome to Bourke.
Ok, we'll take it away. Just a quick interview with Mr Howard. Firstly the word on everyone's lips, why the visit to Bourke so soon after Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson's visit to Bourke last month, end of December last year.
PRIME MINISTER :
Well, John Anderson as not only the Member for Gwydir but the Leader of the National Party visits regional areas on almost a continuous basis. What I've undertaken is a week long visit to regional and rural areas of Australia. I started in Port Lincoln in South Australia on Saturday to a very small community which is doing it fairly tough in the Flinders Rangers area in South Australia on Saturday - Quorn. And I've come to Bourke, I'm going to Nyngan and then to Dubbo and then I'll be heading up in the Tweed area and coming down the far north coast of New South Wales visiting some of the coastal towns. It's designed to allow me to learn even more about some of the different challenges facing the bush or rural Australia. There are a lot of things to be optimistic about, I've found a lot of things in Bourke to be optimistic about. I've found a lot of things in Port Lincoln to be very positive about.
On the other hand, a community like Quorn in South Australia - very heavily dependent on wool, prices are down, very severe drought, really a metaphor in a way for many of the combined difficulties that country people are facing in some parts of Australia. It's the obligation, it's the duty of somebody in my position to come to these areas, talk directly to these people. There's no substitute for actually talking to people or hearing their difficulties but equally hearing the enthusiasm as I did last night from the people of Bourke about the future and their determination to turn things around and the way in which they've reacted to adversity and begun to turn things around. Now both of those experiences have to be had first hand. You can't get that from a document, you can't get that from a Cabinet report or a meeting. You can only get it by actually coming to a community.
JOURNALIST:
Now Mr Howard, speaking of that, turning communities around, you spoke yesterday or recently about the Government's commitment to prevent further withdrawals of government services in the area. People in the area have been concerned about this for some time. They lost Mission Employment last year. Is the Government, or how serious is the Government about this latest commitment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well when you say they've lost Mission Employment, was it not replaced by anything else?
JOURNALIST:
It was replaced by a service through Dubbo but people were fearing that they were losing face to face services and I just wanted to know if the Government....
PRIME MINISTER:
What I've said is really two things. I've said that I fully recognise the desire of country people to maintain basic services and that's the first thing I'd say. And in as many areas we are actually putting more services into the regions. The reason I questioned you about Mission Employment is that the last tender round of the Job Network resulted in a huge increase in services going into Regional Australia. In aggregate, there are now more Job Network facilities in the regions than the were under the first round and one of the advantages of the new Job Network system over the old Commonwealth Employment Service incidentally finding 50% more jobs for the unemployed so that's a pretty important test.
The other great advantage particular under the second round is that more services are going to the regions. So we are not only about putting a floor under the withdrawal of existing government services but we're also in the business of putting services back. Now the rural transaction centres, we're opening 500 of those. They are little clusters of services and small communities of a few hundred people or two or three thousand people providing financial services, Medicare claim facilities, internet services and other basic facilities that rural communities have a perfect right to expect and I want people to know that I believe very strongly that these basic services are an entitlement for people living in the bush.
Now, there are some things with the economies of scale make it more difficult and I'm not making promises in relation to them but certainly in relation to basic services, people have rights. There are gaps, there are still parts if you..., rural doctors and we have made progress and Michael Wooldridge has done a number of things in that area but we still have a distance to go.
JOURNALIST:
And on another issue at the dinner last night you praised Bourke mainly through their commitment to diversify to really make sure the town is sustained economically. While this may be well and good there's a general concern here by irrigators about the effects the cap will have on the river here. Will the Government think cautiously before making a final decision on a cap on the river?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well this is a decision that has to be taken by State Governments and the Federal Government. It's a very competitive issue. I was in South Australia the day before yesterday or early yesterday morning and of course the view there is somewhat different from the view in some parts of New South Wales and Victoria. We will try and get a solution which is fair to everybody. We do have a national responsibility and there has to be a little bit of, on the part of State Governments, there's got to be a willingness to give and take and not just to dig your heels in and say well I'm for New South Wales and I don't care about South Australia or I'm for South Australia and I don't care about New South Wales. I have no patience as Prime Minister for that kind of parochial attitude. We are Australians before we are anything else and we should try and find a national solution.
JOURNALIST:
Now on to Telstra. Hot topic the week, the further sell off of Telstra. People in the bush felt panicky about the initial sell off. There were promises that untimed calls etcetera would be abolished with the last part sale. This hasn't happened, surely the Government will assess the proposal with care [inaudible]...
PRIME MINISTER:
The Government has said a number of things about the sale of the rest of Telstra. It's not going to happen until the performance benchmarks that have been laid down have been met. It's not going to happen until we have a full inquiry into the adequacies of those community service commitments, the delivery of them by Telstra.
Now that's the first thing. Providing that comes up okay, the policy is to sell the rest and it makes a lot of sense because at the moment the rest of Telstra is worth tens of billions of dollars and to me it makes no sense to tie up tens of billions of dollars in a telecommunications company, rather than allow it to be spent on basic national infrastructure. There's a lot more you could do in areas like road and rail and other infrastructure facilities. Now we're going to do a lot anyway and we are doing a lot anyway. Roads of National Importance made the Kidman Way construction possible under a program we introduced as an illustration of what we're doing but you can do more if you could release the billions of dollars now tied up in Telstra and let that flow towards more infrastructure.
Our view is rather than investing tens of billions of dollars in a telecommunications company, you should sell the rest of it to the private sector, use the proceeds of sale first of all to get rid of the rest of our Commonwealth net debt and then the surplus over and above that can go towards accelerating expenditure on infrastructure.
Now I think people in the bush asking themselves calmly what is a better investment, leaving it tied up in a telecommunications company or using it to pay off our debt and then the proceeds going towards accelerated expenditure on infrastructure. I ask people to ponder those alternatives because the reality is although we can spend a certain amount of money on infrastructure if we hang on to Telstra, we can do more if we get rid of it.
JOURNALIST:
On to another issue, education. Parents and teachers in the area are concerned about the recent proposal, a school day nine-to-five. A lot of people have already felt a little put out by the extended daylight saving etc. The hot weather out here makes it harder to concentrate. How practical is a nine-to-five school day for children out in the bush.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think it's one of those things that needs a lot of discussion. What I'm proposing is that we should have more flexibility in hours including having in some cases, where it's appropriate, a longer period. The current school hours were devised at a time when it was almost always the case that married women with children were not in the workforce and they were available to collect their children - be at home when they arrived home or from the school gate. Now it varies around the country. There are not collections from school gates in the country, the school bus picks children up but I'm talking about the whole nation and it obviously has to be looked at from a national point of view.
What I'm saying is that in an era where two income families, two parents working is a lot more common now than it used to be. I'm saying that there ought to be flexibility in the hours. There ought to be facilities and it has to be arranged on an area by area basis. I'm not suggesting it be mandated throughout the whole country and if doesn't work in the outback, well you don't do it. It's not something that I'm suggesting be made compulsory but in many parts of Australia I believe it would be welcomed, particularly by parents. I'm not asking that teachers necessarily work longer, I'm asking for more flexibility. It may in fact enable the recruitment of more teachers, it may be possible for shifts to be worked, it may be possible for children to do a certain amount of light homework or some music or dance or other sporting activities in the period between 3 o'clock and 5 o'clock.
It would depend on the circumstances but we are living under school hours that were established at a time when the working structure of Australian families was fundamentally quite different from what it increasingly is now. I'm not asking that we replace the uniform 3 o'clock or 3.30 finish with a uniform 5 o'clock finish, what I'm saying is that we should introduce more flexibility and where such an alternative arrangement would make sense, I believe it ought to be adopted. Now I expect it will be criticised by some groups but I know that there are many parents in Australia who think it will be a very good idea and would make common sense.
JOURNALIST:
So as far as the implementing, surely you would have to work closely with...
PRIME MINISTER:
It's entirely a matter for the States. I can't make it happen. I can raise it. I've noticed that it's part of the political landscape in Australia that from time to time Premiers float ideas that they think Federal Government should pick up so I am going to return the compliment and every so often I am going to float some ideas that I think State governments should adopt. I think it's only fair that I display an interest in these matters.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Prime Minister, you spoke once again of the commitment to ensure economic prosperity in the bush. For some time in Bourke, the Back O'Bourke Exhibition Centre, Bourke has been trying to get off the ground. The local community members put their money where there mouth is, $1.3 million. Will the Government now put their money where their mouth is and make sure projects like this get...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we get applications for a lot of projects like this and we have a cultural heritage fund, we've had a federation fund and I can't at this stage give a commitment. I am very interested in the exhibition, it was a very impressive presentation. It is something that will be considered but when I've spoke of spreading the benefits of economic prosperity I was talking particularly of ensuring as far as possible that the general affluence of the country was reasonably shared. Now, that is in a sense separate from the question of whether you support or don't support particular projects. But the application will be carefully considered. It's a very impressive exhibition, it certainly is.
JOURNALIST:
Onto housing, I know you went for a walk this morning, I don't know if you have seen the state of some of the dwellings. The concern here in Bourke, aboriginal housing in particular, people are under the impression money is being injected into that area but they...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it certainly is, I mean, there are very large amounts of money going into aboriginal housing and those programmes are very important to the aboriginal community and we certainly don't intend to eliminate them.
JOURNALIST:
Well, while they are important, people are fearing that they are seeing little results, the housing...the state of some of the dwellings in towns like Bourke, is it a case, Prime Minister, where the Government often feels that they are not getting value for money, they are not seeing results as far as...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I don't want to, sort of, put it in those sharp economic terms. There are social, difficult social reasons why some of the concerns that you have mentioned arise and I don't want to just see it in some kind of black and white accounting value for money. We have a commitment in the aboriginal affairs area to try and help in the basic, on the ground service provision area. We want to improve employment opportunities and we want to improve housing, we want to improve health. And we have put an emphasis on that and we believe that progress in improving relations within the whole community and between aboriginals and other Australians really rests in improvements in this area. Now, you get frustrated sometimes and there's not a lot a federal government, because it doesn't provide the on the ground facilities. What you have got to do is improve the communitarian spirit, the attitude of cooperation that was so evident last night when I attended that gathering in Bourke. And you have got to look at these things as community challenges, you mustn't look at them in terms of two separate communities - an aboriginal community and the rest. That's a mistake. We have to move towards looking at it as a community problem and see it as a situation where a section of the community is having a problem and if there are ways in which cooperation can be improved, and I know that's occurring here, it ought to improve. If there are changes in service delivery, changes in attitudes on the part of community leaders, both aboriginal and non-aboriginal are needed, well those attitudes should change and there's got to be a willingness to accept that there can be fault on both sides.
JOURNALIST:
And when John Anderson was here he expressed concerns about a lost generation within aboriginal communities, this is the certain problem I've stressed now. These sentiments have been echoed by our local member, member for Parkes, Tony Lawler, who has said time and time again, he sees children in his electorate going hungry, family incomes etc, not being wasted as such, but often spent not on food. Some suggestions put forward by Mr Lawler included part payments of social security payments, such things as food vouchers. Is this an option for the Government at this stage?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's not something that is being considered but can I...and I choose my words carefully because in this kind of area anything you say can be seized upon and blown out of all proportion. But we are seeking solutions and when you seek solutions you are willing to look at people's proposals. Now, I think the notion of vouchers is not something that's, it's not on the Government's agenda whether it were considered in the future, well, I can't say. But I think you have to have an open mind about ways in which you consider things. There is parental irresponsibility in sections of the Australian community both aboriginal and non-aboriginal. I know irresponsible parents who aren't aboriginal, I know some who are. So I mean it's not something that is confined to the aboriginal community and there are a lot of aboriginal parents who are just as responsible as parents in the rest of the community. So once again you have to see it I think as a community problem. Now, I've talked to John Anderson about this and I have talked to Tony and it's a very difficult problem. Now, I think the concern is [inaudible] about it by people in the aboriginal community as well and it's not a concern that's just expressed by politicians. And you have to be willing to sometimes say things that people seize upon in order to get your point across. And that's what John was doing and he's spoken to me on a number of occasions and he feels it very keenly and he does have a great concern about the future welfare of particularly children in these families.
JOURNALIST:
And just to finish off, I guess being here, as you said, it's important to get amongst the community, and you haven't been to Bourke. Now that you have got a feel about the place do you think it will be easier to get back to Canberra and really make some of those difficulties...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I do think, Gizelle, that the advantage of this whole week is that I am willing to concentrate a reasonable period of time of being exposed to a cross-section of problems and opportunities. It's very important not to, sort of, look at the bush in perpetual negatives. There are a lot of good news stories in the bush. There are a lot of good news stories in the region. There's a lot of enthusiasm, there's a lot of willingness to fight adversity and to find new ways. Now, that is to be applauded and encouraged but equally there is some painful difficulty, there are real pockets of underprivilege compared with the national wealth that the country is experiencing in an aggregate way at the moment. And I will have a better understanding but it won't be a perfect understanding and I'll be undertaking more of week long visits or certainly substantial chunks of time involving visits in regional areas over the next year or 18 months.
JOURNALIST:
Okay. Mr Prime Minister, thanks very much for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you, nice to meet you.
[ends]
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