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MURRAY:
Good morning Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Paul, very nice to talk to you again.
MURRAY:
Nice to talk to you sir. Mr Howard what’s your sense of the effect of the Bali bombings that had on your fellow Australians?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s just not possible to calculate, to assess, at this early stage, but it will be profound, it won’t alter the fundamental character of our people, it won’t stop us travelling, it won’t stop us being the warm-hearted outgoing people we’ve always been. But it will remind people that we live in really a borderless world. Malice is just as global as is economic activity and I believe that it will make us a little more wary about some aspects of travel but it’s not going to fundamentally alter us. But I think the emotional impact will take some time to work its way into our national psyche.
MURRAY:
Is the reality that we are less safe now at home?
PRIME MINISTER:
That has been the reality since the 11th of September last year. The big difference with this is that it has claimed the lives of so many Australians, in a place that although is a foreign country is very close to Australia and some people see almost as an extension of our country, but of course it’s not. We are not as vulnerable in Australia but every country is vulnerable to some degree and the common thread you can see in terrorism around the world of the type we’re now confronting is a hostility to western civilisation and in the process of playing out that hostility they take the lives of a lot of people, all of whom are innocent and in addition to westerners the lives of people who are not westerners. Remember lots of Indonesian people died in Bali, and just as people of the Islamic faith died in the World Trade Centre in September of last year, and just as Kenyans died when al-Qaeda blew up the American consulate or embassy in Nairobi in 1998, there were far more Kenyans killed than Americans. But the common thread appears to be hostility to western civilisation.
MURRAY:
I’m sure you’re getting daily briefings from our investigators in Bali, are you satisfied with the progress of the investigation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I am. I don’t talk myself about operational progress with the investigation, I prefer to leave that to the police. But I am satisfied that the resources that are committed are adequate, there are more than 100 Australian police officers, both Australian Federal Police and state people in Bali and there are of course a lot of Indonesian police officers and also a few people from Scotland Yard, the FBI and the German police. I, at this point, I believe that the investigation is being carried out in a dedicated determined painstaking fashion.
MURRAY:
Prime Minister you called last week for a report from Mr Bill Blick, the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security about our intelligence preparedness leading up to this blast. Has Mr Blick reported to you yet?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh no, he hasn’t reported yet, he’s got to be allowed a little time to carry out his investigation. When I called for that I did it because I believe when you have an event of this magnitude you do have to go back over things and I can understand why people will ask questions and it’s a perfectly proper thing for people to do. But I would expect it would be some weeks at least before I get Mr Blick’s report. The advice I have from the intelligence agencies is that there was no material before then that could have been interpreted as giving advance warning of this outrage.
MURRAY:
Prime Minister I’m sure our 6PR listeners want to talk to about these issues so we’ll just take some calls straight away, I think John’s first up, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning John.
CALLER:
Good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
How are you.
CALLER:
Good thanks. Recently I heard a news reports regarding Indonesia Parliament that they will bring in the death penalty regarding terrorism, including retrospectively to cover October 13. My question to you sir is what penalties does Australia have in place for one who is convicted of a terrorist act such as what took place in Bali?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well at the present time the law provides for life imprisonment, it doesn’t provide for the death penalty but it does provide for life imprisonment. And that is the law that exists in relation to acts of terrorism that are within the reach of Australian law and obviously Australian law extends to things carried out in Australia but it doesn’t extend to things that are carried out in other countries unless there is some particular connection, you know if the person involved is an Australian there can be, the perpetrator that is, there can be some reach of Australian law but generally the rule is that we prosecute people, convict and punish people whether they’re Australians or foreigners who commit crimes in Australia and the same thing applies with the Indonesians. In the main this prosecution and this investigation will be carried out under Indonesian law and they'll be punished according to Indonesian law. The important difference is that the Indonesians have agreed that, because of the involvement of so many Australians, to a joint team and that means that we are in partnership with the Indonesian in investigating a crime in a foreign country - and I think that's very good from Australia's point of view.
MURRAY:
Okay, thanks John. Humphrey’s next Prime Minister, good morning.
CALLER:
Hello.
MURRAY:
Yes, the Prime Minister’s listening.
CALLER:
Mr Howard it seems to me that we have been let down by our intelligence services. Could you explain why groups that have been murdering Indonesian people in their homeland, like Islamic jihad and the new one JI, were not on our list of terrorist organisations?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the law of this country does not allow membership of an organisation to be proscribed by the nomination of the Government. We did…the Government wanted such a provision, but the Senate would not agree to that and that law here is that you can only have an offence committed by somebody who belongs to a terrorist organisation that has been listed by the United Nations. It was the desire of the Government to go further and list organisations by decision of the Attorney General, but the Parliament would not agree to that. But can I quickly say that that's not the reason why this outrage occurred in…I mean, I don't want anybody to suggest that I'm in any way linking the two, I’m just answering your question. This outrage occurred because of the fanaticism of the people who carried it out, not because of any weakness in Australian law.
MURRAY:
Okay, thanks Humphrey. Caroline’s next Prime Minister, good morning.
CALLER:
Good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning.
CALLER:
Yes, Mr Howard, I would just like to express my frustration every time I hear a political figure mention the term war on terrorism, I think that is quite ridiculous, you can’t have a war on terrorism, you can only have a war on ignorance and I think there should be pressure put on the UN to influence the Muslim schools not to teach the young boys that their destiny is to fight a holy war against non-Muslims. This would cut the terrorists off at the (inaudible) to shoot or bomb them in adulthood is to just to reinforce what these young boys are learning. And the other war that needs to be fought is the war on inequality in the world, if the billions of dollars that were spent on arms could be spend to address the inequality in the world it would make the difference that we need to have peace in the world. And that is really all I have to say to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't disagree with your remarks about the teaching of hatred in schools. I agree 100% with that. Any schools that teach hatred and teach the virtue of hurting or killing people according to their religious belief, or their ideology, or their race, or their civilisation is something that I'm totally opposed to and every effort should be made to stop it. In fairness to Islamic people, the great bulk of Islamic schools don't do that and the overwhelming bulk of the Islamic people are as appalled by what happened in Bali as you or I are. I mean, it's very important that we separate out our understandable anger and feeling towards extremism from the generality of the Islamic world which as I understand the faith to be one of tolerance and fairness.
MURRAY:
Prime Minister the final caller is Beverly, good morning Beverly.
CALLER:
Yes, good morning Paul, how are you?
MURRAY:
Well thanks. The Prime Minister’s listening.
CALLER:
Good morning Mr Prime Minister. Listen in all my years of studying politics on a tertiary level I have never had the urge to ring politicians and to question or raise any kind of issue. But this morning I felt concerned to give you a call and to have a lend of your ear, not to entrap into some academic question but just to say to you quite frankly that I’m currently pregnant and I’m very concerned in the wake of global terrorism and the security of this country. So I’m going to ask you quite simply that can you please make sure that my children are safe.
PRIME MINISTER:
Beverley, I can do my best. I can do my best, I can't guarantee that some kind of act of terrorism or violence won't occur in Australia. Your understandable plea would be the prayer of every mother or father, current or expectant.
CALLER:
I have no confidence, I’ll be quite honest with you now.
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
CALLER:
I’ll be quite honest with you now, in all the years I have seen across this political spectrum there has no-one who has done what you have done in our darkest hour of peacetime. I have no confidence in somebody else, or else I would have said to you many months ago stand aside and let somebody take over, but I’m asking you as a person don’t you promise me .. I want you to keep my children safe.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I can promise you that I will do everything I humanly can.
CALLER:
You really need to stay sir.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
CALLER:
You need to get out and walk in the morning and keep yourself healthy for us because we need to rely on you as our Prime Minister, as our leader.
MURRAY:
I think you’re certainly living up to that part of it Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you. Well, I will do my level best.
MURRAY:
Prime Minister, tomorrow you meet with the state premiers, already Premier Geoff Gallop has said that he will be asking you to look at boosting the naval presence in Western Australia. Are they the sort of issues you’re prepared to consider?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we’ll consider any proposition that is put forward. Obviously we won’t be able to agree with them all. And in the end you have to make your own judgment about where you might commit the defence or security dollars. I will hear all the things the Premiers have got to put to me. I can’t promise in advance that we’re going to agree to everything but I want tomorrow to be an opportunity to sign the inter-Government agreement on counter-terrorism. I would like to have a security briefing provided to all of the Premiers and there will be an opportunity perhaps to briefly discuss one of two other matters. I have tried, and I intend to keep on doing this, ensuring that this matter is dealt with on a very bipartisan basis. I think the community has a right to expect that and all of us, and this applies to the Premiers as well as to me, all of us have a responsibility to deliver that.
MURRAY:
The man accused of the rampage at Monash University yesterday owned legally seven handguns, one of them was a .357 magnum revolver, he had four semi-automatic pistols, he had five of his handguns with him when he started shooting, allegedly started shooting at the university. Will handguns be on the agenda tomorrow?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have said that I will raise the matter. I can go any further than that at this stage, but I do think it’s a matter that ought to be discussed tomorrow and I do intend to raise it. I can’t talk for obvious legal reasons about the individual case in Melbourne except to express my horror about it. But it is an occasion that requires all of us to look again as to whether the hand gun laws of this country are adequate and I think a lot of Australians will be feeling that that is a responsibility that we all have.
MURRAY:
I should have raised it with you in the earlier in the context on the discussion on Bali, when you go to APEC will you be having separate meetings with President Bush?
PRIME MINISTER:
I will be talking to President Bush, I think he’s only there for a few hours, we will be having a separate discussion – not a formal bilateral but a separate discussion – because he’s coming in and out for only a few hours, but we will be having a separate private discussion.
MURRAY:
And just finally Prime Minister on a domestic, a really domestic issue, have you made any progress with the package you’ve been putting together on medical idemnity?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes. I have made a lot of progress and I will be announcing the details of that later this morning. We will provide for an extension of the guarantee until the end of next year. It will provide a subsidy of the premium costs of people in high risk specialties such as obstetricians. We will provide a subsidy for the liability that people have for high claims, claims that successfully result in the award of very large amounts. It will be encouraging the continuation of tort law reform. It will be providing that the levy on doctors belonging to medical defence organisations with unfunded liabilities will be spread over a period of years to stabilise the impact on doctors. So overall I think it will turn out to be a very fair and very welcome package and I’ll be announcing and releasing all the details of it later this morning.
MURRAY:
Very good to talk to you, thanks for your time today.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]