Subjects: Petrol prices, roads funding, One Nation, economy
E&OE................................
KIRK:
Prime Minister, your MPs have spent the last couple of months in their electorates. You ventured into regional New South Wales and Victoria last week. Do you accept that despite your best efforts voters are still demanding you take action to knock off last week's automatic excise increase on petrol?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Alexandra, I think everybody would like cheaper petrol. If you had knocked off last week's excise increase, as you put it, that would have potentially, I say potentially, affected the price of petrol by about 1.5 cents a litre.
KIRK:
Well, for some people..
PRIME MINISTER:
And can I say that - if I may finish - can I say that what people would really like is a reduction of 10, 15 cents a litre in the price of petrol and the only way that can be achieved is for the world price to fall. Now, before Christmas we looked at knocking off that increase and we decided instead to put $1.6 billion into a road programme over four years. We thought then and we still believe that that is of more long-term benefit to people.
Now, we would have liked, you know, you'd like to do everything in an ideal world but we literally cannot afford to have $1.6 billion into roads and also knock off excise increases.
KIRK:
Well, you could have said I'll put a billion...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we're talking here about $500 million a year which over a four-year period is a very significant amount of money. And simply by paring back the roads programme you wouldn't - look, I travelled around regional Australia a year ago and the two things that people talked to me about all through last year in regions were road funding and health. We addressed the problem of country doctors in last year's budget.
KIRK:
And now they're talking about petrol.
PRIME MINISTER:
And we addressed the issue of road funding. Well, look, nobody likes expensive petrol but, in the end, when you're in Government, as distinct from being in Opposition, when you can just call for anything, you have the responsibility of trying to take decisions which are both of long-term value and also affordable.
KIRK:
So should your MPs then stop carping and griping about petrol prices?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, they're your descriptions. We're having a Party meeting today in which we're going to talk about quite a number of things including the strategy and policies for the rest of the year because unlike the policy-lazy Opposition we face this is a very policy active Government. And we're going to be governing this year right up to whenever the election is held in the way that we have governed over the last two years and that is in the interests of the Australian people.
KIRK:
But your own political adviser, Arthur Sinodinos, is saying that the voter mood out there is feral. You can't deny that voters are still angry. They're willing to vote for One Nation, for example, irrespective of [inaudible] consequences.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, Alexandra, you can sort of do a political commentary. Party leaders, particularly Prime Ministers, don't appear on radio programmes to do political commentaries. They appear on programmes to answer for their policies, to explain what they intend to do in the future and also to advocate the philosophies of their parties. I mean, it really is, I think, a waste of time for me to be constantly asked questions to deliver political judgements. The voters will do that at the appropriate time. In the meantime, I remain concerned about good policies for the long-term benefit of the Australian people and extra road funding, particularly in regional Australia, is certainly of great long-term benefit to the Australian people.
KIRK:
One Nation is causing problems for your Coalition partners, the Nats, in Queensland with two-thirds of those seats deciding not to put One Nation last. Are you disappointed?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's getting into the very thing - look, that is a matter for you to address to Mr Borbidge. State elections and Federal elections are very different things. If you want some commentary on the Queensland election talk to Mr Borbidge or to Dr Watson or to Mr Beattie. I mean, what I will say about Queensland is that I am delighted at the choice of Bob Tucker as the Liberal Party candidate for the Ryan electorate. There will be a by-election. Everyone knows that John Moore is going to announce his resignation at some time and there will be a by-election. And Bob Tucker has been a very successful businessman. He's lived in the electorate for forty years. He's raised a family in the electorate and I think he's precisely the right kind of Liberal standard bearer in that electorate.
KIRK:
But you do have an election coming up, how concerned are you about the voter pulling power of One Nation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I look at State elections and Federal elections quite separately. I don't believe, and it's an opinion I've expressed on this programme before, I don't believe that the outcome of State elections are a pointer to the outcome of Federal elections. You have very different considerations. And this has historically been particularly so in Queensland and.
KIRK:
But 1998 was a very good indicator about One Nation.
PRIME MINISTER:
And I think what will happen is that people will make separate judgements. It doesn't mean to say that they won't arrive at the same conclusions but their processes will be quite separate.
KIRK:
So how concerned are you about the continuing voter pulling power of One Nation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, at the last Federal election One Nation polled a certain number of votes. I would expect at the next Federal election the One Nation vote to be significantly lower. But the way to address, and this is the attitude I take federally, is you address the issues that are of concern to people in regional Australia, such as road finding and doctors and services. And we're not just doing this for election purposes. I mean, we started addressing these issues two-and-a-half, three years ago and in the long-run people will make judgements on the quality of your government over a period of time not on the basis of some kind of five-week flurry during an election campaign.
KIRK:
Well, the economy, you say, is shaping up as a big election issue. There's been a major survey by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry which shows that business confidence has dipped strongly. They expect the economy to get worse, a big decline in employment and also investment. Last week the Treasurer said that the Australian economy faced its most dire challenge now since the Asian economic crisis, would you agree with that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, certainly the Asian crisis was a big challenge which we overcame. And what the Treasurer said last week was that the slow down in the United States and the potential for world oil prices to surge represented challenges to the Australian economy and they do. And the point I've made is that at a time when economic management is even more important than ever we will argue that a party and a Government that has a proven track of superior economic management is preferable to a policy-lazy Opposition.
KIRK:
So if the economy slows down is it going to be the fault, according to you, of the US slow down?
PRIME MINISTER:
I believe that the American economy's path will always influence what happens in this country. Our belief is that the economy this year will grow slower than it did last year but the extent of the slow down is difficult to predict. I think some of the more alarmist talk in some of the press is unnecessary but it will slow. There is no doubt about that. But I still believe, I mean on the basis of the advice we have, the slow down will still result in a very strong level of sustainable growth. So we're not, we're certainly not looking at a dramatic slow down. We're looking at a slower economy but it will still be according to our best advice and our advisers have a better track record than any over the last few years - that's the Treasury and the Reserve Bank - their predictions are still for quite strong growth.
KIRK:
So a soft landing - still 4 percent growth?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the forecast that was made at the time of the midyear financial and economic review was close to that. There'll be another forecast come out in the not too distant future and I think we'll wait until that comes out. The indications are that it will be lower but not dramatically down.
KIRK:
So is your message to voters then that what we've seen up until now is about as good as it gets?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, that is not - that's your phrase. The message to voters is that more than ever you need people who are good economic managers at a time of economic challenge particularly from external forces. You need people managing the economy who don't run the country into debt and can get a good balance between sensible, political, economic management but also spending money on those things that need support such as science and innovation and defence and salinity and roads.
KIRK:
Just finally, one of your Ministers, John Fahey, is going to hospital shortly for lung surgery to remove a suspected tumour. He's also currently facing a rather messy pre-selection in his bid to shift seats. Do you think there's a chance that he will bow out?
PRIME MINISTER:
What, out of politics?
KIRK:
Or out of the pre-selection.
PRIME MINISTER:
I wouldn't expect so. Can I just say to you, John, all of your colleagues wish you well. We hope everything goes okay and we want to have you back in full health and punching in there as soon as possible.
KIRK:
John Howard, thanks very much.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[Ends]