Subject:
Indigenous emergency; CFMEU; workplace relations.
E&OE...
HUTCHISON:
The Prime Minister joins me from Sydney. Good morning to you Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Geoff.
HUTCHISON:
Prime Minister, Federal Police officers are arriving in the Territory this morning. I know you want 10 from each state. Victoria and New South Wales say yes. But it seems you won't be getting them from Alan Carpenter.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I'm disappointed about that but that's his decision. I'm very disappointed because his colleagues in New South Wales and Victoria have responded and...in a very positive way, and I thank Mr Bracks and Mr Iemma, and in anticipation I thank other Premiers who might be willing to do the same thing. This is a genuine special case, it's a one off, there are thousands of police around Australia and let me make the point that ordinary community policing is not generally the responsibility of the Australian Federal Police. In our system of government enforcing the criminal law and providing community law and order is overwhelmingly, on a day to day basis, the responsibility of state and territory governments and the reason we are intervening in the Northern Territory is that the Northern Territory Government hasn't matched its responsibilities and we find it necessary to do so. So naturally we have to ask the states to provide a bit of help with the police. We'll be providing additional Federal Police, and we'll obviously have to get by with the resources that we have. But the point shouldn't be forgotten that this policing, the ordinary task of protecting people from attack and investigating alleged crimes, is never the responsibility of the Australian Federal Police except in the ACT. It's not the responsibility of the Australian Federal Police to investigate rapes in Perth or remote areas of Western Australia or indeed remote areas of New South Wales or in Sydney, that's the responsibility of the state police. I mean we do have a sharp division of responsibilities there and clearly you have a special case, an emergency, and the first thing we have to do in these remote communities is to establish law and order because unless you have law and order the women and children are scared to death that if they complain they'll bashed or further molested.
HUTCHISON:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
And because the whole thing has become so broken down and chaotic that we first of all have got to provide a breathing space to these communities (inaudible) he's made his decision , I regret that, I do....
HUTCHISON:
Can I just play you some comments that Mr Carpenter made on this program on Friday?
PRIME MINISTER:
Sure.
[Premier Carpenter's comments]
HUTCHISON:
Mr Howard a lot of people are asking that question, similarly the police deployment for six months, how do you respond to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well let me start with the six months. We're not proposing an alcohol ban only for six months, we're imposing it at a federal level for six months in the first instance to give the Northern Territory Government an opportunity to get its own liquor laws in order and if they haven't done so we'll extend the six month period. So I'd say to both Mr Carpenter and Mr Beattie who've raised that point that it's not just for six months. He says what have we done for 11 years, what we've done for 11 years has been to persevere with the belief that state and territory governments would discharge their responsibilities for maintaining law and order. I mean under our system of government it's the responsibility of state and territory governments to provide community policing and it's only when we're being presented with compelling evidence that the Northern Territory Government has not adequately discharged that responsibility that we're moving in. We don't have any power to move into remote communities in Western Australia because states have roles and responsibilities and rights that territories don't have, and we're acting where we can, and Mr Carpenter says what have I done for 11 years-well I point out that just after Mr Brough became the Minister, about 18 months ago, he started talking about this problem, he convened a meeting of Ministers, at a state and federal level, responsible and out of that meeting came initiatives of where the Federal Government expended an additional $120 million, in many cases providing additional money for responsibilities that ought have been discharged by the states. Now look, I'm not interested in having a tit for tat argument with Mr Carpenter. I make the point that the Labor Party's response to this issue is beginning to puzzle me. On the one hand Mr Rudd says he supports it, yet you have Mr Carpenter making these outlandish statements and Mr Beattie not quite as bad as Mr Carpenter but basically trying to run interference on the issue. Now look, I'm not interested in that, the time for talking and the time for reports is over, the Australian public wants something done about the chronic problem in the Northern Territory. We can do something about the Northern Territory because we have the power and that is why we're doing it. In relation to Western Australia and Queensland and New South Wales I simply ask that the state governments who are charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order in those communities to make absolutely certain that the problems that exist in the Northern Territory don't exist to the same degree in their respective jurisdictions. So Mr Carpenter would be better employed looking at this own responsibilities than trying to cast aspersions on my motives or intervening.
HUTCHISON:
Prime Minister Peter Beattie says there should now be an urgent meeting of state Premiers; will you do that?
PRIME MINISTER:
No well I don't think we need another meeting. We know what the problem is, everybody knows what the problem is, everybody. Mr Beattie knows what the problem is. The problem is that there is not enough law and order in these communities. I mean let me, there is a community in the Territory, Galiwinku, which was the first - it's on the Gulf - it's the first community that Mal Brough visited 18 months ago; 3000 people, not one police officer. Now that is the sort of problem you've got. And we've had reports, there have been reports in New South Wales, there have been reports in Western Australia. Alan Carpenter mentioned the Gordon Report. Sue Gordon is a marvellous person. She is going to join our taskforce, she's Chairman of the National Indigenous Council, a highly respected indigenous leader, very talented woman. We all know what the problem is. We don't need more meetings, we actually want something done. Now I am not saying the states haven't done anything. I am not going to make the sort of allegations against the states that Mr Carpenter has made against me. I mean what you just played me was the most political comment that has been made by anybody since this whole thing started.
HUTCHISON:
The problem Mr Howard, of course, is that these events do become very politicised.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well who is politicising them? I am not; I mean I didn't start off by attacking Mr Carpenter. I mean look, I am not trying to politicise this.
HUTCHISON:
No, but the criticism of you sir is that in the six months before the run up to an election after 11 years we are hearing of a national emergency in Aboriginal...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, but hang on, there's a reason for that. We have a report about conditions in the Northern Territory. A report that was provoked by the concern of my Minister, but an inquiry established by the Northern Territory Government called