Subject:
Budget 2007; Tony Blair
E&OE...
SANDERS:
Joining us to discuss Mr Rudd's Budget reply is Prime Minister John Howard. Good morning to you, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Anne
SANDERS:
Like your Government, Kevin Rudd has delivered a Budget with a focus on education, but targeting blue-collar workers. Is this the platform on which the next election will be fought?
PRIME MINISTER:
The next election will be fought overwhelmingly on which side of politics is better able to guarantee Australia's prosperity into the future and the best demonstration of what you can do in the future is what you have achieved to date and yesterday's unemployment figures, which showed a 32-year low in unemployment, and, of course, low unemployment is the best human dividend of all and the thing that matters most is giving people the chance of a job from good economic management. On that basis, the Government has very strong credentials. Mr Rudd says he is an economic conservative, the problem is he hasn't behaved like one and actions always speak louder than words. He opposed us getting the Budget back into surplus, he opposed tax reform, he opposed industrial relations reform, he opposed the sale of Telstra, he opposed waterfront reform; all of those things the Labor Party opposed. Now they are pretending that that's in the past, forget about it, cancel it out, blot it out of your mind, the reality is that when it comes to keeping the country prosperous, we are the only side of politics that can be trusted.
SANDERS:
Well as you mentioned Kevin Rudd unashamedly admits he is an economic conservative, but do you think that voters will see through all the big spending in Peter Costello's Budget?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there is no big spending in a profligate sense, all the spending in the Budget is desirable. The Labor Party hasn't attacked any of the spending. One of the most fascinating things about Mr Rudd's speech last night was that he didn't offer any criticism of the Budget. That must mean he agrees with everything in it. Well that's the first time in 11 years that I have seen that and that must mean it's a pretty good Budget and it also means that all of the spending items in the Budget are not regarded as anything other than good for the country. You've got to have a balance, Anne. If you have a strong economy, you've got to give the current generation a dividend out of it through spending in important areas, lower taxation and also lay something aside for the future and we've done that with this wonderful endowment fund for our universities.
SANDERS:
He hasn't criticised the Budget you are right, but he has gone off on another direction talking about teaching trades at high schools, to lift retention rates in years 10 and 12, what's your government doing about addressing vocational training?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we started a long time ago. We have special Australian Technical Colleges which I announced in the last election campaign. We've invested almost $900 million in vouchers for people, who, already in the workforce, who have very poor skills and they have been enormously successful. In the last campaign we had an $800 per head grant for tool kits. In the Budget on Tuesday night we had a $1000 tax-free grant for apprentices in their first and second years, and on top of that a voucher of $500 to help with the fees at TAFE colleges. So we have already done an enormous amount and I, in fact, put technical education back on the political map at the time of the last election when I announced that Australian Technical Colleges, and these are dedicated colleges dealing only with technical training and a necessary complement of english and mathematics, I put them on the table. So we are already doing a great deal and I am not criticising the spirit of what Mr Rudd said on that issue last night, but I do think there is a genuine debate as to whether it is better to have dedicated schools and colleges for technical education rather than trying to have tech bit in each school. I think there is a genuine debate and I would be interested in what the educationists say about that.
SANDERS:
...now have you odds on to win the next election, do you feel the Government is gaining momentum?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh we are behind and I don't expect there to be any big turnaround in the polls for quite some time. I think we are behind, we have been office for 11 years and people are always a bit interested in an alternative, but I think the problem Mr Rudd has is that people more and more are suspicious about his capacity to handle the economy and when you've got run advertisements, paid advertisements, saying that you are economically conservative, it means that the public think quite the opposite and actually when they examine Mr Rudd's record, I mean, he opposed getting the Budget back into surplus. His party voted against all of those measures, I mean how on earth with that background can you now say oh look, forget about that, I am an economic conservative, I mean that is a bit hard to swallow.
SANDERS:
Prime Minister, just moving on for a moment leaving the Budget aside, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has formally retired, what do you think his legacy will be?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the courageous part he has played in the international fight against terrorism. Tony Blair has been very courageous on this issue. Some of the things he has done have not been popular in Britain, not been popular within his own party, but he has displayed enormous courage in participating in difficult circumstances in the international fight against terrorism and he deserves to be well and favourably remembered for that.
SANDERS:
Prime Minister thank you very much for your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[Ends]