Subjects: Electorate of Farrer; agreement with National Party; Albury bypass and New South Wales Government; small business; the economy; United States farm Bill.
E&OE...........
BLOCK:
Day two of the Prime Ministerial visit to the region today. We';re lucky enough to have John Howard on the phone this morning. Good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Steve.
BLOCK:
How do we find you this morning? Have you had your walk?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have, I walked by the river. There was some fog coming off it and the sun came through and it was a beautiful morning.
BLOCK:
Terrific, you couldn';t pick a better spot to do it.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it';s a glorious spot for a walk. Great autumn leaves, everything.
BLOCK:
What we have this year is the Liberal Party has picked up the seat of Farrer.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yes, I responded to an invitation from presumably if the Liberal Party hadn';t have won, it would have been won by the National Party. I';ve responded to an invitation from a National Party member and indeed a member of the Labor Party. I don';t just visit areas according to who holds them. I';m for example I';m a regular visitor to Newcastle. Newcastle has never been held and not been the city area proper, I don';t think it';s ever been held by Liberal.
BLOCK:
Why do you think the Nat's lost Farrer?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, look I';m not going to be critical of the Nats, they';re my coalition colleagues. Under our coalition arrangement when a seat becomes vacant, when the sitting member retires we each contest the vacancy and whoever wins then holds the seat unchallenged from our side of politics until there is another retirement. And that';s what happened, Tim Fisher went and under our arrangement, the Liberal Party put a very good candidate in Sussan Ley and the Nationals put up a candidate and Sussan won. Let me say we did exchange preferences, it was a keen contest. Sussan is an outstandingly energetic person. I do believe that her personal commitment to the area and her understanding of it, her great energy and intelligence, I think they were important positive factors in her favour.
BLOCK:
The number one issue that you';ve no doubt been briefed on that may have affected the election outcome and also will still be on the agenda today, is the Albury bypass. I';m not sure if you had a chance to read the Border Mail State today, their editorial says quite frankly, this is from your trip yesterday, we expected more than the same tired old political gamesmanship from a national leader, clearly our hopes are that Mr Howard might actually provided some leadership and offer a solution to this nonsensical impass. Surely that';s not the reflection that you want on this trip?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don';t accept that that';s a fair reflection. What I';ve said is that we have put our money on the table. We have offered to contribute our share of the cost and we';re calling on the NSW Government to contribute its. Now I don';t think that';s a failure of leadership, I think that is stating the obvious. We would like the project to go ahead. We are willing to support it, we have indicated that and we would like the NSW Government to support it. If you got to a situation where every time a Federal Government and a State Government had a joint responsibility to fund something, if the State Government could escape its responsibility merely by refusing to put its share of the money on the table and the Commonwealth came along and filled the gap, well you';d pretty quickly have an imbalance. I think as far as leadership is concerned it is up to the NSW Government.
BLOCK:
But in talking of leadership of which your government (inaudible) … is it not still incumbent on John Anderson as the Federal Transport Minister to dominate and take an interest in this issue.
PRIME MINISTER:
When you say to dominate, I mean in representing the Federal Government he';s committed money.
BLOCK:
He hasn';t got a solution?
PRIME MINISTER:
When you say he hasn';t got a solution, he hasn';t got a solution because the NSW Government won';t contribute it';s share. Now to blame Mr Anderson for that, with great respect to you and the Border Mail, is very unfair.
BLOCK:
I think you take us wrong. We';re not blaming John Anderson.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it sounds as though, no you said a moment ago his failure to dominate and find a solution.
BLOCK:
We feel left on the shelf.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes but we';re not leaving you on the shelf. I mean what do you believe in leaving aside rhetoric and general expressions like dominate and take charge. I mean what specifically are you saying the Federal Government should do, which it';s not now doing?
BLOCK:
What the States are also saying is that until there is an external freeway built the Hume Highway through Albury remains a Federal responsibility…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that with great respect to them is just a way of evading their responsibility. I suspect that the NSW Government has little interest in this part of Australia because it doesn';t think it supports it politically.
BLOCK:
No, I don';t think you';d have a lot of argument there.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think that is the explanation. I mean you can see in relation to the hospital. Now I don';t think that is the right (inaudible) … I mean I can only say that we are prepared to put our share of the money up for the bypass. I';ll be meeting people again this morning and I';ll hear what they';ve got to say, and I will continue to press the NSW Government. I intend writing again to Mr Carr when I get back to Canberra on Monday, to press again the obligation of the NSW Government. I don';t like arguments between Commonwealth and State Governments. I think they';re wearisome to the public. The public';s expectation is that we solve problems for them not try to portion blame between each other, I think that';s, and I';m happiest when I get cooperation from states and we often do get cooperation across political boundaries as we did with stem cell research a few weeks ago where there was a historic agreement between the Commonwealth Government and eight state and territory governments, all of which have Labor premiers or chief ministers.
BLOCK:
We';ll move on because I know we have limited time. You mentioned at your meeting in Albury last night the Coalition has done backing small businesses, and small country towns. What are we going to see in the budget next week to facilitate, to continue that, to continue the positive growth that is pretty slow in this part of the world.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s a bit hard to get too specific about the budget but I can say it';ll continue to contribute to a very low interest rate climate. We did have a very small lift in interest rates yesterday, on Wednesday rather. But historically interest rates now are much lower than they';ve been for decades. When I talk to small businessmen and women that more than anything else is the thing that makes the big difference between how they feel and how they think they';re going. They are worried about unfair dismissal laws, particularly the very small businesses that employ two or three people. We will continue to push the legislation on that and we';ll keep talking to the Democrats in the hope that we may be able to induce a change of heart on that issue because if you could free up the unfair dismissal laws further that would encourage small business to take on more staff and it would give them a greater sense of confidence that if somebody doesn';t work out they can let that person go.
BLOCK:
I think you hit the money on the head there, but we';re also concerned in the bush of the previous boom-bust sort of cycle, there';s just no need for it…
PRIME MINISTER:
I agree with that and one of the advantages of having low interest rates is that you do eliminate that boom-bust. And it';s true to say that over the last six or seven years the Australian economy has been on a fairly steady growth path, the remarkable thing is that over the last few years the Australian economy has been able to grow without becoming overheated, we have in the past, in the 70';s and 80';s, had that boom-bust and that has been damaging. I';m not saying that we';ve the abolished business cycle, or abolished booms and busts, but certainly over the last few years we have experienced a far better situation.
BLOCK:
One final question, overnight you';ve obviously been monitoring or your advisers would be monitoring the situation in the Middle East and Pakistan. It must be a very vexed position you';re in when you have to balance national interests with defence and then you have this farm Bill which the US Senate has passed overnight, which is detrimental to Australia';s interests.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the farm Bill is very detrimental to Australia';s interests and we are a close political and historically military ally of the United States. But that won';t stop us complaining and campaigning in the strongest terms.
BLOCK:
(inaudible) because you won';t give your defence allies…
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes but my first responsibility is to the interests of the Australian people and the interests of the Australian people are not going to be served by this farm bill nor indeed are the interests of the Australian people served by the trading policies of the European Union which do just as much if not more damage to Australian farm exporters than do the subsides from the United States. But we will keep plugging away, we were able to get a positive reaction from the United States on steel tariffs, you remember they were going to slap a steel tariff on all Australian steel exports, as a result of our representations we did get a special arrangement which meant that 85 per cent of BHP';s exports to the United States were left unaffected by the steel tariff. Now I can';t remember an occasion in the last few years when Australia';s been able to get an exemption of that benefit from a restrictive American trade measure. Now I';m not saying that I can get the same in relation to the farm Bill, I';m not optimistic that I can. But I will be expressing in the strongest possible terms our views about this issue and we';ll be arguing in every legitimate way to put Australia';s point of view on this because Australian farmers in the last few years have thankfully had slightly better seasons, better returns, better prices and the things are a little better in the bush than they have been for a long time and they don';t deserve this, it';s a kick in the teeth and they don';t deserve it.
BLOCK:
(inaudible) last night, we could use some more ….
PRIME MINISTER:
I';ll keep working on it.
[ends]