Subjects: Centenary of Federation; Election 2001; Australian economy; Michael Thawley; East Timor; Philippines President; Cricket
E&OE................................
PRICE:
But first Prime Minister John Howard joins us from Canberra. Thanks for your time Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
How are you Steve?
PRICE:
I am great. Convince me that I should care about the Centenary of Federation.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's a matter of individual choice. This is a free country and the last thing I would ever seek to do is, as prime minister is to force-feed anybody including a radio commentator about a particular version of how we observe history. We of course became a nation not through revolution or bloodshed or war, but through a peaceful transfer of power from the then 'colonial master', if you can put it that way, Great Britain. And as a result it doesn't have quite the same resonance as the American War of Independence or the storming of the Bastille. And inevitably we have to do it differently. I find as I go around Australia a greater interest in our history, people aren't tingling up their spines or the tingling's not in people's spines in relation to Centenary of Federation but there is a growing appreciation of what this country has achieved over the last one hundred years and if that appreciation is further stimulated by the events of the current year that would be a very good thing. But I have never seen this as being some kind of Australian replica of the commemoration of the War of Independence because thankfully we didn't need a war to become an independent country, we were given it with very little objection.
PRICE:
Do you think you'll be able to get young Australians involved?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it depends what you mean by involved. If involved means a greater appreciation of our history I think that's already happened. I was on Gallipoli last Anzac Day and the place was jam-packed with 12,000 to 15,000 young men and women from Australia full of pride about the history of this country. You would not have got 500 people doing that ten years ago. So there is a change. There is a complete change . . .
PRICE:
So it's a generational change?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes it is occurring. Now I was at the parade in Sydney. It was too long. I agree with you. But there were 500,000 people at it and I could have some observations to make about the programme in the evening, but I won't. That was largely organised by a different, by the New South Wales' Committee. But I mean it was an attempt by them to portray things as they saw fit and I am very happy to work with the Victorian Government that will be along with the Commonwealth organising the commemoration in Melbourne of the sitting of the first national parliament on the 9th of May.
PRICE:
See we're having a parade here on March the 6th which is described as 'Our Nation on Parade'. Now I notice today for example, or I notice from reports at the weekend, that there's going to be one of the, one of the contingents to march in that parade is a contingent of gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgendered Australians. Well I just wonder . . .
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Steve I mean if you want, go and talk to the organisers of that parade. The parade's not being organised by the Federal Government.
PRICE:
This is an election year.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
PRICE:
We'll move on.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes you go and talk to them.
PRICE:
I will indeed. I was going to say something about it but you have joined us earlier than we thought, so I will come back to that later. We have an election this year, is an election year frustrating politically? Is it almost a wasted year?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I never really think of whether it's wasted or not. It's part of the democratic process. A prime minister or politician who expresses frustration with democracy is no longer fit to hold the job. I am never frustrated about being accountable to the Australian people. It's my job to explain myself to the Australian people every three years and I accept that responsibility as part of the process. We'll go on making decisions.
PRICE:
Even the tough ones? I mean are there things you won't do in an election year that you would like to have done?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think there's . . . you can criticise this Government like any other government for certain things but the one thing you can't criticise us for is lacking political courage to do things that have a short term detriment to us but have a long term gain for the country. Tax reform is a very good example. Next Monday I will announce a major series of measures, giving more financial support to science and research and innovation. We'll actually be doing something about this vague, ephemeral thing called 'knowledge nation'. We'll actually be putting policies down. We won't be talking in concepts as our opponents have done for five years. We've actually done a lot of things over the last five years and we'll go on doing things in 2001 even though there is an election coming. Sure, we'll seek to present ourselves in a positive light but in the end the Australian people make a judgement about my prime ministership according to what I've done, not according to what I say I'll do.
PRICE:
I think you've said, or on the record of saying that you want this government to go full term which means an election later rather than sooner.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes the full term is around about October of this year, will be three years. Now as things sit at the moment that's my intention. I can't give an iron clad guarantee about the date. All I can say is that all things being equal that would be the intention. But I can't cross my heart and give an iron clad guarantee that under no circumstances will it be other than a particular date, that's unrealistic. I mean we have, we are now already two years and three months into our three year term, relative we've sort of gone after twenty months as Bob Hawke did when he was first elected and there have been other prime ministers who have called early elections too.
PRICE:
Are you a fixed term fan?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. No I believe in the flexibility of the present system. I don't believe in a fixed term no. I think it's really incompatible with the Westminster system.
PRICE:
The economy, do you think the economy is going to be in better shape come November than it is today.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think economic management this year is going to be a lot harder. America is throwing out some uneven signals and as a result the task here will be a lot harder than it was last year or the year before. And that of course means that you need a very experienced group of people to manage the economy here and you don't need a policy lazy opposition coming into government - a group of people who haven't really developed an alternative plan to manage the Australian economy. So it will be tougher this year than last year as to where the economy will be at the end of this year. It will still be, if the right policies are applied, it will still be strong. But the reality is that if America slows down that will have some impact around the world. We can't avoid that because the American economy bulks so very large in the world economy.
PRICE:
It's an unusual year also in the number of State elections starting with Western Australia followed we presume by Queensland, and I think we have the Northern Territory as well. In Western Australia do you think Richard Court can hang on?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes and he deserves to. He's delivered very good government. Western Australia's got the strongest employment growth of any State in Australia, it's got the most vibrant small business sector. He does deserve to win and I believe he will.
PRICE:
Will petrol prices have an effect on his standing in the polls do you think? Do you think that's..
PRIME MINISTER:
It's very hard to know. I think most people will see that petrol prices are high now because they're high around the world, although they are lower now than they were before Christmas. They're significantly lower on a national, lower on the national average than they were before Christmas.
PRICE:
How important would it be for Kim Beazley for Labor to win in WA?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I, with respect Steve, I am the Prime Minister and the leader of the Liberal Party. I'm not a political commentator and I'm not going to start sort of pretending to sit on the sideline and evaluate how something will effect Mr Beazley or effect me. I mean that's for others to say. I am in the business of persuading the Australian people to support to government and it's very hard when you're going for a third term. It will be a tough election for us and I want to spend my time governing well and trying to persuade people to support us. I don't think I can set myself up as a political commentator.
PRICE:
George W Bush was inaugurated as the US President at the weekend. What does that mean for us in foreign policy terms? What changes?
PRIME MINISTER:
I expect the Bush administration to be more interested in our part of the world than the previous administration. I expect a more positive attitude on certain trade matters, although all American administrations bat for their own when it comes to trade. We will have very good relations with the new administration. I personally know a number of its senior members very well, as indeed do a number of my colleagues. I'm pretty optimistic about the links that we can forge between our government and the new administration above and beyond the normal closeness of the relationship between any Australian government and the American administration.
PRICE:
Our ambassador there, are you happy with the job our ambassador's doing..?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have an excellent ambassador there - Michael Thawley. He's a Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Before going to America he worked as my foreign policy advisor for three-and-a-half years. He worked very closely with me and he was very closely involved in the development of our policy in relation to East Timor as one of my principal advisers. I can't think of a better person to represent Australia in Washington at the moment.
PRICE:
In our region, turmoil in the Philippines, with President Joseph Estrada toppled. What's your interpretation of what's happened there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well clearly a change became inevitable when the impeachment proceedings commenced and then they were as it were deferred as a result of a very partisan intervention by some of the pro-Estrada Senators. It became then only a matter of time before it unravelled. It's not really for me to comment too much on the constitutional processes of a friendly country. I wish the new president well. She's very experienced. Her father was the President of the Philippines immediately before Marcos. I don't envy her her job. The country has a lot of deep economic problems. But we have a lot of goodwill towards the Philippines. We have very close relations and I wish her well. It's going to be very tough for her.
PRICE:
East Timor, we've still got troops there..
PRIME MINISTER:
And likely to have troops there for sometime yet.
PRICE:
I was going to say have you had an update on how long our involvement is going to continue?
PRIME MINISTER:
Not recently Steve but my guess is that you're looking at another 18 months to two years at least.
PRICE:
On the issue of defence at home, the big issue last year was illegal immigrants coming to this country and the numbers coming. There was a report this morning that there may have been a break through in cracking one of these people smuggling rackets operating out of Indonesia. That's a real problem for us isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it is a problem and we're not helped by the fact that we had an opposition who for a long time in our early years in government made it harder for us to change the law making it less attractive to people who want to come to this country. We are an attractive country. We are stable, we have a high standard of living. Traditionally we've extended a welcome hand to refugees and we continue to do that. And what we don't like about illegal immigration is that people who engage in it try and jump the queue and thereby disadvantage the genuine refugees who we are only too happy to have and who are selected in accordance with internationally accepted criteria. This is a problem that's going to be with us for a while. It won't go away easily. And no matter who is in government you're going to have the problem. The question really is I think is bipartisan cooperation.
PRICE:
Do you sometimes feel for Philip Ruddock when you..?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think Philip Ruddock is one of the most sensitive humanitarian people you could find. But he's got a job to do and he doesn't like to see humanitarian immigration program or refugee program undermined. You see what we've got to remember is that on a per capita basis this country takes more refugees than any country other than Canada. We took more Indo Chinese refugees per capita than any other nation on earth in the late 1970s. We have a very good record when it comes to refugees, and it's therefore quite irksome for me to hear criticism made that we're harsh and lacking in human feeling and sympathy. We're not. We're very welcoming to people but we insist quite rightly that those who are playing by the rules and lining up and having their applications dealt with in accordance with internationally accepted criteria, they then get barged out of the way by illegal immigrants and that's what Mr Ruddock in the name of the government and I believe in the name of the overwhelming majority of the Australian people is doing.
PRICE:
It's tough though when you see people locked in camps...
PRIME MINISTER:
It's very tough but the alternative is to allow them to disappear into the community without any legal status or right to be in Australia. I don't believe that is what the Australian people want.
PRICE:
Just finally you didn't want to be a political commentator but you love being a part time cricket commentator Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
That's different.
PRICE:
Are you a little concerned about how one sided the game has become? I mean we're sitting in for a summer, I had to remind myself yesterday that Australia was even playing Zimbabwe. I mean obviously Melbourne's a bit obsessed with Tennis at the moment. But it's just become so one sided there is a bit of interest dropping away I would think.
PRIME MINISTER:
There doesn't seem to be any interest dropping away as far as the crowd is concerned. Okay it may not have been quite as big for Zimbabwe as it has been for the West Indies but there's nothing new about that. The crowds actually have been very good. The disappointing thing is that the aggregate match attendances were down in those games where only two or three days were taken up. Steve, I take a long view about sporting competition. Times come and go and I'm very proud of how well the Australian team is going but we shouldn't get complacent. It can turn around quite quickly. There was a time when we were bucketed and pushed around by the West Indies and it's in the living memory of many people still playing cricket. I tend to take a long view and I think it's altogether too early for people to say hasn't this become permanently one sided. I don't think cricket will ever become permanently one sided but it will have to be a pretty good team from somewhere else in the world that bests the current team and Steve Waugh and his colleagues deserve a lot of credit for what they've done.
PRICE:
Prime Minister, thanks for talking to us. Good luck for the year.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[Ends]