PM Transcripts

Subjects: Funding for the Esplanade; Warren Entsch; Ansett; illegal immigration; terrorism
MCKENZIE:
Prime Minister John Howard on the line, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hello there.
MCKENZIE:
Good to talk to you and I';ve got to say congratulations on a very wise decision on this money for the Esplanade.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I appreciate how important this is for Cairns and I';m also aware that because it';s a great tourist centre that Cairns has been affected by the fall off in tourism since the terrorist attack in America and also it';s had some backwash from the Ansett problem so we therefore thought that this was all the more necessary in those circumstances and I think it will be very widely welcomed and it will be a cooperative effort with the state government.
MCKENZIE:
You might remember the last time you were in the studio we had a bit of a joke about this. You often go on an early morning walk, I';m just wondering if you are returned on Saturday if you';ll commit yourself to walk along the boardwalk at this time next year.
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly will, that';s a firm promise, if I';m re-elected on Saturday I will because I do like going for early morning walks and I';ll certainly do that. Can I take the opportunity of paying tribute to Warren Entsch';s persistence on this issue, he really has hammered away on this month after and month and I think he';s done an excellent job for the local people in the process of advocating this. The funding will be over four years from next year, it will give Cairns a first class public space and recreational area. It is important, it will provide investment and jobs and it will help the tourist industry and a few of the other things we announced in relation to tourism will help Cairns as well, we';ve given the Australian Tourist Commission $24 million over five years and we';ve given additional funding for the See Australian domestic tourism promotion. So all in all those generic announcements of the tourist industry plus this particular announcement, which will ensure that the foreshore promenade is built, developed, it will be of great benefit to Cairns.
MCKENZIE:
Tell me about your experience of Warren Entsch in Canberra, he in unconventional to say the least, but he niggles away doesn';t he?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he';s certainly very gutsy and that is my experience of him in Canberra. Look he';s got his own style but the world wants characters and people with their own style and he';s representative of his area. He does give a Far North Queensland stamp to our parliamentary party and he advocates the industries and the causes that are very important to the people of Leichhardt and that is really what you want, I mean you want somebody who';s a mixture of support for the general thrust of the party to which be belongs and he';s certainly that but also somebody';s got the capacity to get in there and punch on behalf of his local area and get results. And he';s certainly got results, he';s done it in a whole host of issues and this is but the latest of his ability to get things for the people of Cairns and for the people of his electorate.
MCKENZIE:
Can I just get a clear determination on this Ansett money issue, the ten dollar levy, a lawyer for the government last week suggested the Ansett people might not get the money.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that is not right and there may have been some ambiguity in what he said, I';m told that that was corrected after lunch and the position is that we guarantee the entitlements in relation to the redundancy up to the community standard of eight weeks and we guarantee all the other things, the pay in lieu of notice, the long service leave, the holiday pay, we guarantee that and what that means is that if there';s nothing in the kitty to meet those entitlements well we will meet them and we will fund that obligation, that guarantee out of the proceeds of the ticket levy. Now if in the upshot, depending on who buys Ansett mark II, how much they pay for it, all those sorts of things and other developments, there is money so that the government guarantee';s not required then obviously the ticket levy will be cancelled and if there were any kind of double payment we';d refund the money, we';d find a way of trying to refund the money and I';ve actually said that in the process of refunding it we';d make sure that the tourist industry got a particular share because the Ansett close down has affected the tourist industry. But the ACTU is running a deliberate campaign because we';re four days out from the federal election suggesting that we are going back on our commitment in relation to the guarantee, we';re not. And I know we';re on the eve of an election and the ACTU is aligned to the Labor Party and they';re trying to get all the 16,000 Ansett workers to vote Labor but I mean this is just silly, they';re not really helping the workers, they should be honest about the position. I mean we have guaranteed these entitlements and I did that the day I got back from America, the day that Ansett stopped flying, we had a Cabinet meeting and I came out of that Cabinet meeting late in the afternoon and I said we have decided to guarantee the entitlements and we';ve stuck to that and obviously we can';t afford to pay that out of the budget and that';s why we';re imposing the ticket levy.
MCKENZIE:
To go into the refunds is too much detail now and we';ll run out of time, of course we';re all suffering from information overload this week. The savings and superannuation package, is there a way you can give us an idea of how it will work. Fifteen percent back to ten and a half over three years. What sort of money are we talking about ?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we';re talking here about the surcharge that was put on in 1996 and over three years the rate of that surcharge will go back by one and a half per cent a year. But of equal, perhaps even more importance is we';re going to have a new payment for low income…. to subsidise or complement on a dollar for dollar basis up to the level of $1,000 a year, contributions made to superannuation by low income earners. It means anybody earning less than $20,000 a year will get the full dollar for dollar and then it will phase out until they reach, when they reach $32,000 it will no longer operate. Now this is specifically designed in order to encourage low income people to put money into superannuation. So if you';re a low income earner for every dollar you put in up to $1,000 you';ll get a dollar put into that fund by the Government. And this will encourage low income people and we need to do that and it will encourage a lot of younger people because often the situation is that you start off on a lower wage and you build up as you get a bit older and this will encourage people to start contributing to superannuation earlier in their lives. And for a population that is going to gradually age over the years ahead that';s a very good idea. And we';re also going to allow people to spilt their incomes for the purposes of superannuation contributions so that if you have a couple where they might have young children and the mother or father might be at home not earning their separate income, if they still want to accumulate superannuation and their husband or wife can make a contribution, can spilt for the purposes of contributions to superannuation and it means the person at home gets their own threshold and their own reasonable benefit limit. In other words, establishes their own separate superannuation identity and status even though they may not be in the workforce. I think this is going to be widely welcomed by a lot of women who feel that if they're out of the workforce for a period of years caring for young children they don';t like the idea that they lose financial independence and I agree with them. I don';t think they should and anything that enables them to remain financially independent and to have their own financial and superannuation identity is a very good move.
MCKENZIE:
Just quickly to the refugee policy, it';s very big news as you could imagine in northern Australia. [inaudible] this conference I presume is going to be held in Jakarta, is that going to be a problem for you, is that a big setback?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don';t regard it as a big set back. It was a welcome proposal from the Indonesians, the date originally proposed was a date nominated by the Indonesians, it wasn';t a date that we had negotiated with them and we will continue to talk to them, if we are re-elected we will resume discussions with the Indonesian Government, we';ll continue to advocate that we have an agreement whereby they stop the people smugglers taking people out of Indonesia. But it won';t be easy, it doesn';t matter who wins the election, that doesn';t make any difference, trying to negotiate an arrangement. Uur position is that we do not want illegal immigrants coming to the Australian mainland. The opposition of course is now starting to fray on this issue, you';re getting members attacking Mr Beazley or disagreeing with him and I would say to your listeners that if Labor wins on Saturday I don';t think anybody can be very confident that the present policy will be maintained, they might say so during the election campaign but I think if Mr Beazley were to win on Saturday it would come under enormous and immediate pressure from people in his own ranks to change the policy.
MCKENZIE:
You';d be very much aware that NQEA is a big employer up here. The replacement of the Fremantle class patrol boats is therefore a very big issue. With this situation developing with the refugees do we now need a bigger patrol boat? What';s your thinking on this?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don';t think there';s a need for that at present but we of course want to go along with the, want to continue with the current proposal which is very important to your area, to Far North Queensland. But right at the moment our assessment, and we';ve done one recently, is that we don';t but that';s something one has to keep under assessment.
MCKENZIE:
Just want to move onto the war issue for a moment. The question of the bombing stopping in Ramadan, and I';m surprised in fact yesterday you might have heard of course the Pakistani Prime Minister pleading with America to ease off during Ramadan, I don';t think that';s going to sit too well with many of the families of the victims in the United States.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don';t think it will either. And the northern alliance don';t support a pause during Ramadam because they make the point that the Taliban have never observed such pauses in the past and I think to expect the Americans to unilaterally observe such a pause without any guarantee of anything in return is unrealistic. I understand Islamic sensitivities but they were Islamic people who died in the World Trade Centre, this is not a fight between Islam and the rest of the and the people who try and turn it into that are the terrorists and the terrorists'; sympathisers
MCKENZIE:
Just one final point on the Australia forces because there is a little of confusion in discussion on this programme about the command structure, the command control if you like. Are we controlling our own forces, to what level will our forces respond to directions from the United States?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well in the end they, we have a separate national command. What happens in practice is that our commander will talk to the Americans and agree on activities, operations, if it is something that we are not prepared to be involved in then we won';t. But obviously within the general objectives of the mission we';re not going to sort of have a situation where a particular operation is going to done one way by the Americans and another way by the Australians or the British. I mean that would be dangerous and unworkable but we do have an independence to the extent that if the Americans want to go outside a theatre of operation we previously contemplated and we don';t think that';s appropriate then we would obviously say no. But we';ve worked with these joint arrangements before and on the ground people get together and work it out but Australians will be ultimately answerable to an Australian commander and they';ll have their own Australian rules of engagement and if the Americans want us to do something that is clearly beyond that well we won';t do it. But I don';t think that';s going to happen.
MCKENZIE:
Just quickly, a listener on the line, why, owner operators of taxi cabs, why can';t they claim GST for the first three years on their rego?
PRIME MINISTER:
Why can';t they claim GST for the…
MCKENZIE:
I just don';t understand this question…
PRIME MINISTER:
No I';m afraid I don';t either, it may have something to do with the state registration requirements. He';s talking about the registration what for motor vehicle purposes in Queensland.
MCKENZIE:
I';m not sure I';m just reading this off the screen….so let';s move onto the next one, Noel';s on the line….this is a bit cheeky, when is the Federal Government going to give the rest of Australia the same superannuation scheme as enjoyed by federal politicians?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well can I say to Noel that we';ve begun to cut back the generosity of the federal scheme. We passed some legislation a couple of months ago that meant that for people elected on Saturday, their vesting age will be the same as the rest of the community. And that is a very significant change. So I understand the sensitivity Noel but we have done something about that and we are the first Government to have done something about that.
MCKENZIE:
You don';t talk about polls, during an election, but briefly how do you feel about this coming Saturday?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think it will be quite tight John because the preference deal that the Labor Party has stitched up with the Greens and the Democrats is of great benefit to Labor. We will need to get as a Coalition a very high primary vote in order to win because, if the Democrat and Green voters follow preference recommendations then Labor';s going to do very well out of it. They paid a very big price, the commitment to close down the Lucas Heights reactor is a terrible commitment and extracted by the Greens in return for preferences because that';s going to deal a body blow to radioisotopes and therefore cancer treatment in this country. We need radioisotopes in order to treat people who';ve got cancer and Lucas Heights produces them and it';s very difficult to bring them in from overseas because they have such a short life and what we';re looking at here is a commitment that will dismantle a wonderful research facility. I can';t understand how somebody who claims to be a knowledge nation devotee and somebody who';s in favour of science and research and all of those things could possibly have agreed to such a backward step so far as medical research and medical treatment, the treatment of cancer. I think it';s an extraordinary decision.
MCKENZIE:
Prime Minister thank you for your time this morning.Good luck Saturday and I';ll hold you to that promise about the walk on the Esplanade.
PRIME MINISTER:
I';d besplanade.
PRIME MINISTER:
I';d be delighted to honour it.
MCKENZIE:
In about 12 months time if it';s finished then and if you are Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]