Subjects: IRC Decision
E&OE................................
JOURNALIST:
What did you think of the IRC decision this afternoon?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the IRC has a clear legal role in this dispute and I've heard over the last five years that people should listen to the umpire in industrial relations where the umpire has a role and I would hope that the employees do listen to the umpire. I would hope that the Opposition listens to the umpire because they've told us that we should, and I hope they encourage the workers to go back to work because that is clearly what the umpire wants. It's what everybody wants. It's what their families want and it's what the families of other people who are innocently caught up in this dispute want. We can argue other things in other fora but what is happening at the moment is putting at risk a vital industry for our country and it really is not in anybody's interests and I ask the men and women involved to think of that and to hear what the umpire has got to say and act accordingly. I think that would be in everybody's interests and most particularly theirs.
JOURNALIST:
What should happen if they don't go back to work tomorrow after...?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to pre-empt that, I'm not going to speculate about that. Let's take one step at a time. The IRC, the body that the union movement and the Labor Party extols above all other bodies in industrial relations, has said go back to work, men and women. They should listen to the umpire they themselves seek to be injected into every industrial issue.