PM Transcripts

Subjects: hoax defence; APEC; charter of budget honesty.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] do it that way rather than get agreement from the Labor Party and then….?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well if the Labor Party supports this I';ll be very happy. It will apply whoever wins the election. So I mean that really is an academic question because if they support it then if they win it will apply, if we win it will apply and it will apply if we win from today';s date.
JOURNALIST:
But it sounds a little bit like it was being made a political issue.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh no no.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, Mr Beazley';s asked to allow [inaudible] to travel to APEC because it';s as caretaker government. Are you prepared to consider that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s a leaders'; meeting. There';s no role for anybody other than the leader at this meeting so it';s just not appropriate. Anyway I';ll be replying to Mr Beazley';s letter and I';ll be pointing out the nature of the caretaker arrangements.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard what do you think about Mr Beazley';s apparent decision to announce his GST rollback plan while you';re in APEC. Do you think that';s an advantage [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
I thought Mr Beazley was arguing that I shouldn';t be going to APEC so maybe he';s trying to be a bit clever. But I';m not really concerned. I';m quite certain that Mr Costello will be able to deal with anything that Mr Beazley rolls up on Rollback.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, have you organised bilaterals yet with George Bush and Megawati Soekarnoputri?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look the question of bilaterals is something that we';ll just have to see what emerges. I';m only going to be there for a short period of time and I think he's only going to be there for a short period of time. I don';t know who I';ll be having bilaterals with. But the APEC leader meeting is one where you end up spending a lot of time with the leaders anyway so they';re not quite as important as bilaterals at other sorts of meetings.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard are you releasing the midyear economic review figures tomorrow to get the jump on the charter of budget honesty?
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
JOURNALIST:
No?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, we';re doing what we did last year.
JOURNALIST:
Is the timing of it…
PRIME MINISTER:
A bit what Tom?
JOURNALIST:
The timings a bit close to the release of the…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well no it';s exactly what we did last time and I thought everybody wanted to see the figures. Well the figures are coming out tomorrow, Mr Costello will be releasing them and everybody will be able to see and then the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Department of Finance will have a release the following day. Now that';s apparently what happened last time, I don';t know whether there was only a day between them but that is clearly what happened last time.
JOURNALIST:
Did you consult Mr Beazley about the hoax offence?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I didn';t because it';s an announcement that is contingent on our re-election but the change applies with effect from today. Now if Mr Beazley agrees with it then he will say so. But there's nothing in the caretaker conventions that says you';ve got to consult the Opposition Leader before you say anything during an election campaign.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard does releasing this new law as an election promise politicise terrorism?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh &#823se terrorism?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh …really.
[ends]