Subjects: petrol
E&OE................................
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister you've taken the excise off, do you think the announcement (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
That's a matter for the public. I don't look at things in those terms. We took that decision because we knew there was a level of public concern. The question of how the electorate reacts is a matter for the electorate. I never take it for granted.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think though you've got credit for acknowledging an error?
PRIME MINISTER:
John, your asking me again to be a political commentator and that's something I won't do. We took the decision after a lot of thought because we believed there was great community concern and it was a decision that the community wanted, that's why we took the decision. The question of what the political consequences are is not something I'm going to comment on.
JOURNALIST:
You won't give us a political report, how about a bowser report? Can you see it being passed on?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it looks to me as though it's been passed on in almost all of the service stations I've gone past. The ACCC is a better authority on that than I and the ACCC was reporting yesterday that it had been. But that's the ACCC's prerogative, it has the power and I know it will exercise that power very conscientiously.
JOURNALIST:
There has been a lot of anger in the community which you've reacted to do you think that (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
That is a matter for the community and for the public. I never tell the Australian public how it ought to react to things the Government does. I try and do the right thing and it's up to the public to decide how it reacts. It's not for me to presume that it should act in a particular fashion.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
I've seen that poll, I mean, let me say again that we didn't take this decision thinking it was some sort of clever quick fix. We didn't see it as a clever quick political fix. We did it because we thought it was what the public wanted and was in the interests of good policy to respond to very strong community concern. Now the question of it's political impact, that's a matter for the Australian public and I'm not going to try and measure that or comment on it.
JOURNALIST:
But it wouldn't hurt your re-election prospects.
PRIME MINISTER:
John your asking me to be a commentator, now come on.
[ends]