Subjects: Petrol prices, Qld election, competition policy, dairy deregulation, preferences
E&OE................................
KIRK:
Mr Howard, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, Alexandra.
KIRK:
You understand, you say, that the GST related petrol excise hike is probably the biggest gripe that people have, so will you finally do something about it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, of course people are very unhappy about the high price of petrol. But the high price of petrol has been driven, overwhelmingly, by the high world crude oil price. I mean, I understand. I listened to Larry Acton who I know well and I understand many other people around the community who are very unhappy about the high price of petrol. But I'm sure no matter how strongly they may feel about our role and responsibilities of government, I'm sure none of them are seriously arguing that the overwhelming reason why the price of petrol is high is because the world price of crude oil is very high. And I just think it's very important - I've listened carefully to the two stories that you've just had, I think it's very important to remember that it was overwhelmingly state reasons that determined the result in Queensland.
Now, I'm a political realist, I've been in Parliament 27 years, I don't have my head in the sand and there are always messages out of election results like last Saturday for all of us but it would just be departing from all reason and logic to pretend that the main reason the Coalition was routed in Queensland on Saturday was Federal issues. It wasn't. The Coalition was heading for a train wreck in Queensland for months before the election occurred. I knew that. The people I spoke to in Queensland in both Coalition parties knew that. And of course when the rort thing came along many thought that we might have a chance but I have to acknowledge that Peter Beattie handled that very well. And I give credit where credit is due and as a political exercise he handled that quite brilliantly. And then our campaign starts and unfortunately our own alternative Premier, the National Party Leader, Rob Borbidge, is humiliated by his own party. Now, you have a recipe there for a political train wreck at a State level.
Now, you can say there are areas of Federal concern and quite separately I acknowledge that people are unhappy with some policies but let's, if we are to react properly to these things we've got to have a sense of reason and a sense of proportion. Now, I think the thing you've got to acknowledge is that overwhelmingly they were State issues. Okay, having said that, of course people are unhappy about some things, but there are some things Federal Governments can change and there are some things we can't.
KIRK:
So what are you willing to change then?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, for example, people are very concerned about the Business Activity Statement. Last Friday the Treasurer and I and Mr Macfarlane, the Small Business Minister, had an extensive meeting with all of the representatives of small business and other organisations and I would hope that we can make some announcements on that. Now this won't be because of Queensland. It will be something that we put in train some weeks ago because people are unhappy.
KIRK:
What about Competition Policy? Your own colleague, John Moore, who's just retired says that social dislocation caused by years of structural change is the main reason for the voter backlash there, do you agree and are you willing to do something about it?
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly agree that social dislocation caused by economic change is the main reason why people are attracted to simplistic solutions. And I have frequently said and I'd say again that managing the impact of change is the biggest challenge that governments have in a liberal democratic society such as Australia. There are some changes you can stop. There are other changes you can't stop. Now, we cannot stop, the Labor Party cannot stop, One Nation cannot stop, nobody on God's earth can stop the impact on a community in Australia of a long-term decline in world commodity prices because we don't have the power to do that. But we do have the power to help people who are affected by it.
KIRK:
But John Moore says that compensation is not the answer, that's the Government's response so far on a whole lot of things. He says people want to stay in their towns. Do you accept that you have to do something to stop the competition policy train?
PRIME MINISTER:
People do want to stay in their towns, but let's take something like the dairy industry. Some people are arguing in Queensland and New South Wales that we could have had no deregulation at all, now that frankly is impossible. What was the problem, what was faced with the dairy industry was that Victorian dairy farmers decided, which is their constitutional right in Australia, to sell milk into other states. In other words to smash through the regulated dairy industries in New South Wales and Queensland. And governments around Australia, state governments as well as federal governments, were faced with the choice, do you allow deregulation to happen in a chaotic fashion or do you try and manage it with compensation which we have done. Now I understand the pain that is being experienced by people. My comment is that deregulation was going happen whether we liked it or not.
KIRK:
But this issue of inevitability - voters are clearly not buying that argument any more are they?
PRIME MINISTER:
Can I just, I mean look Alexandra these are very serious issues and they can't really be properly addressed and properly solved if we just have, if we just sort of take debating points on each other. They do have to be carefully considered. Now what we did with the dairy industry was implement a package worth $1.7 billion which means that many people are leaving the industry at least with some financial help. If we hadn't done that they'd have still been forced out of the industry, but they'd have had no financial help at all. Now sure they're saying they'd like more, I understand that. They're saying they would like things to remain exactly as they are. Well they could have perhaps remained as they were if their dairy farmer colleagues in Victoria had not wanted to exercise their right to sell milk all over Australia. But there was, in the end we acted as we did there because we were asked by the industry to do so. Now I would be the first to acknowledge that these are very difficult issues and we as a government, all governments, no matter who is in power, we all have to find better ways of helping people adjust to change, better ways of cushioning the social dislocation, better ways of understanding the impact on a remote community of a decision that looks as though it's been made in a distant federal capital in Canberra. I think we've all got to be better at that.
KIRK:
Just on the issue of One Nation, just as some Nationals are now pledging to do in Queensland, some of your Liberal colleagues particularly in Western Australia are flirting with the idea of doing preference deals with One Nation. Can you understand that temptation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well can I say about One Nation, everybody's forgotten that in the last federal election there were preference exchanges between quite a number of National Party members around Australia, particularly in Queensland and One Nation. There's nothing new about it. You keep talking as if it's some kind of new revolt by sections of the National Party. Look, the two parties will determine these matters separately, we're in Coalition but we're both separate parties. The Liberal Party's position I've stated and nothing's changed and in the end the preferences are decided by state divisions but I would expect the position they took last time to be exactly the same position that's taken this time. But this obsession with where our preferences go and National Party preferences go is really in the end a bit irrelevant. Our preferences don't get distributed. The thing that really matters is where the preferences of minor parties go and in the end it's that that could well determine the outcome of the next federal election and that is how minor party people decide between on the one hand the strength and stability offered by the Coalition and the potential of 17% interest rates, 11% unemployment and back to the $80/90 billion of national government debt which were hallmarks of the last time Kim Beazley was in federal government..
KIRK:
Prime Minister thank you very much for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
.preferences of people who will be voting One Nation, voting for these other parties. That is the choice, the next election is a choice between our strength and stability and 17% interest rates, 11% unemployment and billions of dollars of national debt. That is the choice that people will face at the next federal election.
KIRK:
Prime Minister thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[Ends]