PM Transcripts

Subjects: unemployment figures; boat people; property tax
PRIME MINISTER:
Well ladies and gentlemen do you have any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Can you shed some light on the big fall in the unemployment rate…?
PRIME MINISTER:
The unemployment rate has fallen from 6.8 to 6.7. I welcome that. There has been a rise in a full time jobs. So I suppose in the light of what he said on the AM Programme this morning Mr Beazley should unconditionally welcome these figures. Once again there';s been some volatility between part time jobs which happened last month and I drew attention to that and commented at the time when last months figures came out where I think there was a decline in full time employment I said that there was volatility and this is exactly what has been demonstrated. I make the point that in the 13 years of Labor Government unemployment averaged 8.7. It now stands at 6.7 which is a full two percentage points lower than the average that we inherited in March of 1996. So whilst I never draw any comfort from unemployment figures that show any Australians who want work out of work, there';s no doubt given the circumstances through which we';ve passed and are passing that these are encouraging figures. They give the lie to the talking down of the job market and the labour market that Mr Beazley has engaged in. What Australia wants from her political leaders at the moment is positive constructive talk, not desperately grabbing for some election traction on some economic statistic that might provide comfort for the line that the Labor Party';s been running without a great deal of success over the last five and a half years.
JOURNALIST:
… do you still expect unemployment to come down more?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Louise what I said yesterday that one of the mitigating factors was that the labour market impact of the housing recovery is yet to be fully reflected. Now there may be some offsetting factors to that and I';m careful in what I say about future trends because the economy is going into a more difficult period. But the labour market is showing a lot of resilience, despite the attempts of the Labor Party to talk it down.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister are you feeling particularly lucky at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I';m feeling like the Prime Minister in a very difficult election campaign and I am aware of the vagaries of politics. Can I just say Dennis that over the last five and a half years we haven';t been reluctant to take the hard decisions. We';ve done the heavy lifting in policy and the Labor Party has tried to slide in on the inevitable adversity that a government has when it takes difficult decisions. And I frankly have political contempt, not personal contempt, but I have political contempt for a party and a leader who is willing to play the negative game, ruthlessly and cynically to the detriment of the national interest for five and a half years and then just start running around and talking about his opponent having luck and so forth. I mean you make your own fortune and so forth in politics as in life. We have put ourselves through a steady course. I hope in a political sense it is successful but if it';s not then I will have no regrets because I';ve tried to do what I believe was right for Australia.
JOURNALIST:
What';s your reaction to Mr Lightfoot calling boat people repulsive?
PRIME MINISTER:
What?
JOURNALIST:
Repulsive?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don';t agree with that language and I condemn it.
JOURNALIST:
Should he be representing the Liberal Party?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you have a variety of people but I make it clear that is not my view and I condemn language of that kind.
JOURNALIST:
What';s your reaction to the Gallop Government dropping the new property tax because it was polling so badly in Labor electorates?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I hadn';t heard that that was the reason why he dropped it. I thought it was a principled decision of economy policy. I think one of my reactions is that to remind you of what Mr Beazley said about it on Perth radio, he said it was not an unreasonable proposition.
JOURNALIST:
You don';t see it as a big backdown?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well clearly it';s a backdown, a pretty quick backdown. It';s a rapid fire retreat but it is after all a state tax but it';s interesting isn';t it. Didn';t he go to Oxford University with somebody?
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard the participation rate has dropped from 64 to 63.5 per cent. Total employment is down by 48,500. Doesn';t this suggest despite a positive headline figure if you like that the underlying labour market is very weak and there are some very…
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don';t think Steve it suggests it';s very weak. What it suggests is that it';s nowhere near as bad as the Labor Party would want us to believe for their own short-term political purposes. It indicates as I';ve said earlier in this news conference as I said last month, there';s a lot of volatility between full and part time unemployment, or full and part time employment, and therefore this case that the Labor Party';s tried to construct in relation to full time employment has really fallen to the ground. Look there are challenges in the labour market. I';m not pretending that we';re about to abolish unemployment. But I';m encouraged that the labour market is showing the resilience that it so clearly is, that';s what I';m saying.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, you announced the other day a package to help stimulate the housing sector. Will you be announcing further measures through this campaign to further stimulate the economy?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well any measure that you announce which goes to good economic management stimulates the economy. I don';t think I at this stage want to speculate about different things that we';re going to announce except to remind you that we have already taken a lot of measures that have stimulated the economy and put a floor under economic activity precisely at the right time. The decision we took in relation to the first homeowners'; scheme was, may I say, a very well timed and well executed piece of fiscal stimulus that was well targeted and has produced very good results.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister when will you detail the costs of the operation of moving these asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';m seeking some more advice on that. I';m not going to make a commitment as to when but I';m seeking more advice on that and I';m hope either I or Mr Ruddock will have something further to say. But I';m not going to commit myself to a particular…..[inaudible] obviously be some additional expense but it will be very manageable and quite affordable.
JOURNALIST:
Will you release the video footage that….?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that is a matter to discuss…..are you talking about the Adelaide?
JOURNALIST:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that';s a matter for Mr Reith to respond to. He';ll talk to the Navy about it. But there';s no doubt that this attempt that was made by some people yesterday to suggest that in some way the people went overboard because of the shots that were fired when there was a two hour ten minute gap between the firing of a quite inoffensive warning volley and the people going overboard that was a lot of nonsense and I again say that I resent the slurs that some people endeavour to cast on the behaviour of the men and women of the Royal Australian Navy. I think they';ve done a fantastic job in difficult circumstances.
JOURNALIST:
Do you have a view about what is a likely minimum level of unemployment that sound economic management can produce in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
I never embrace those sorts of figures Ian. I just have a philosophy of trying to get it as low as possible.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, one of the challenges in the labour market, you talk about the need to institute further industrial relations reform?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have no doubt that if you had further industrial relations reform, particularly in the area of unfair dismissals legislation, you';d have lower unemployment, you';d have more jobs in small business and it remains our goal to achieve that. But we will need to get that legislation through the Senate.
JOURNALIST:
Is that the only thing that…..
PRIME MINISTER:
I don';t rule out other things but certainly that would make a very big contribution and I';m certain that the changes that we have already implemented have helped to provide an underpinning to the labour market.
JOURNALIST:
What';s your reaction to the ALP ad featuring the smirk of Mr Costello and have you spoken to Mr Costello about it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Mr Costello and I participated in a phone discussion this morning. He';s a pretty resilient tough bloke. I think he can sort of take that in his stride. Can I say I don';t think that';s going to work for the Labor Party. I think that';s sort of personal stuff. I mean we can all be disadvantageously photographed on occasions. I can think some of the photographs that have been taken of me, of all of us. I mean really I think that is pretty silly stuff. But I said this on radio this morning and I very happily repeat it – Peter Costello has done a terrific job as Treasurer and one of the reasons why this country can face this, you know, new, uncertain difficult world with great confidence in the resilience and strength of her economy is because of the work Peter';s put in over the last five-and-a-half years as Treasurer. And I believe that there are millions of Australians that recognise that and see John Howard and Peter Costello as being a very good team that have worked together and will work together in the future if we are re-elected in order to deal with the challenges that Australia faces. I mean let the Labor Party engage in the politics of personality. I don';t think the Australian people like that at the best of times. They certainly don';t like it at the moment. They';re interested in advocacy and argument and solutions. They';re not interested in cheap jibes.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, the Labor Party says that Bronwyn Bishop could be our next Defence Minister in a Coalition Government. Would that be the case?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';m not going to speculate about who does what. Can I tell you I';m not focused on that. I';m focused on the next four and a half weeks. I can tell you right now I';m not going to be talking at all about the possible shape of a future Coalition Government. It is presumptuous. I have to earn the support of the Australian people before I have the right to start talking about that. I';ll be very happy to talk about it if I win the election. Until then you';ll get nothing out of me on that subject at all.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, do you know anything on the international situation, ground forces going in? Do you have the latest information on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well my information is essentially to the effect of what has been in the press this morning. I can';t really take it much further than that. The indications are that the American and British air and missile attacks have been quite successful. But we should always react cautiously to these things because it';s very difficult terrain and we are dealing with people who have survived bombardment and attack in the past. So it';s going to be difficult but I think the indications are that this is certainly supported by the additional intelligence briefings that I';ve had that they have been quite successful.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister HMAS Sydney sailed out of Sydney Harbour this morning. Is that part…..
PRIME MINISTER:
No it';s just on a routine re-positioning. It didn';t have any SAS on it.
JOURNALIST:
Yesterday you told the girls at Loreto College that you should find something nice to say about your adversaries. In that light what can you say about Mr Beazley?
PRIME MINISTER:
I share with him an interest in history.
[ends]