Subject:
Burma; Health system; Federal Election; government advertising.
E&OE...
BENSON:
Prime Minister good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning.
BENSON:
Thanks very much for joining us. Before I go to local election issues, can I ask you about the main story of the morning which is Burma? The latest news, four killed, hundreds arrested, scores beaten, but there doesn't seem to be much Australia in particular can do apart from watch from the sidelines?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we are going to do a number of things. We are going to tighten the existing very tight visa restrictions on regime officials and we're also examining the adoption of some targeted financial sanctions on regime officials. You always have a conflict in these situations between demonstrating your position by some kind of sanction, but making sure that those sanctions don't hurt the people who we are really trying to help. Now this is a thoroughly loathsome regime, and the repression in appalling. I am glad that the United Nations is saying something about it and I hope that it can take some concerted action through the Security Council. But it's a closed country. It's a very unforgiving regime and it's very resistant to outside pressure. The country that can exert most pressure on Burma is China and we will be encouraging, and we are doing it already, encouraging China to exert a positive influence on the regime to encourage it to hold back on the repression and to adopt a more accommodating attitude towards the people.
BENSON:
Do you see any evidence that this might be a moment of genuine change in Burma, or do you share Alexander Downer's view, which is he's watched Burma for a long time and nothing changes?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well nothing changes in the minds of the regime. Equally, the people are resilient and there's a real spark of freedom there and there is a desire to enjoy that freedom. But it's very difficult because it's a very repressive regime.
BENSON:
Can I bring you back to domestic issues? Health care is very much in the news this morning, particularly with a story out of Sydney of a woman who lost a child while she was reduced to sitting in a public toilet in a Sydney hospital. Is there any grounds for Federal Government action in response to issues like that? Apparently that one report has sparked a number of complaints of similar action.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's a very distressing story. I think we have to recognise that it's a product of poor administration as much as anything and it is the sort of thing that seems unbelievable that it could happen. I have to be careful what I say. There is an inquiry and I don't want to be unfair to the nursing staff at the hospital. Nursing staff do a terrific job in very difficult circumstances, no matter where they are and what hospital they work for. But no matter what government runs a hospital, no matter what funding arrangements you have, what adequacy of resources there is, there can be administrative mistakes and in the end, human error occurs. Now that inquiry will have to get to the bottom of it and I don't want to pre-judge that inquiry. I don't think it is fair to the people who have been working in the hospital.
BENSON:
Does it put you in mind that greater federal intervention is needed because you have been very critical of state level administration of health?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I have generally taken the view that with all its faults, the Australian health system is better than the health system of other comparable countries. Its obviously got flaws and it makes mistakes and this would appear to be a very serious mistake, but I think we should be careful to understand that compared with the health systems of other countries, our system is good. And no matter who runs a hospital, mistakes are going to be made, and that seems to me to be very much a failure of the way the hospital was run, rather than anything else.
BENSON:
Prime Minister, how concerned are you by the reports of the number of unqualified or underqualified doctors who have come into Australia? Kevin Andrews, the Immigration Minister, has been critical of this, but its happened on your watch. There is obviously a mix of responsibilities about how doctors reach our hospitals, but at the Federal Government level, is that a failure on your level?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well no look I don't, I'm not trying to blame people. But we have to recognise that the admission of doctors is predominantly, and the qualifications of doctors is predominantly something which is handled at a state level. Now I think foreign doctors...
BENSON:
Should that change?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we've been talking to the states in relation to a more national approach and we are making some progress. But like anything that involves agreement between different levels of government it always takes time. But the standards required in hospitals are quite uniform. I mean we have very high standards. The suggestion that you would have a miraculously different standard if it were run at a federal level compared with a state level suggests that somehow or other people who run state hospital systems and state medical systems don't care about the quality of doctors coming into this country. Well that's ridiculous. I mean people are educated at universities around the country. I think the standard is quite uniform and quite strong.
BENSON:
Okay now it is a moment of relative calm in the political cycle...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't think it's entirely calm. I think the most extraordinary thing we have is the revelation that if Labor wins this election we don't know who the Treasurer is going to be. I mean I can tell your listeners that if I am re-elected Prime Minister Peter Costello will be the Treasurer in my new Government and Peter Costello has guided the Australian economy so well over the last 11 and a half years will therefore carry on that good work. But weeks away from an election, and if there is a change of Government; I am working of course to stop that happening, but if there is a change of Government Australia will have a new Treasurer before Christmas. And we do not know who he or she will be. Now that injects an extraordinary element of instability and risk and doubt into economic management in this country. There is no job in the Government more important, apart from that of the Prime Minister of course, than that of Treasurer. And the Australian people are entitled to certainty. And what's happened of course is that there must have been some understanding reached between Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard regarding this and he's kept open the possibility that Julia Gillard will become the Treasurer, and maybe we'll end up with one of the new trade union officials that are coming in at the next election as Minister for Industrial Relations. Perhaps it will be Bill Shorten or Greg Combet. I don't think small business will like that.
BENSON:
Kevin Rudd I think would say that he simply didn't want to be presumptuous, that nothing was guaranteed before the election. He was saying that his own position as leader wasn't guaranteed?
PRIME MINISTER:
Nobody believes that. I mean come on. That argument is not going to fly. Its not being presumptuous of him to say if I am elected, then Mr Swan will be the Treasurer. He's quite capable of doing that and I think what it illustrates is that the most important area of government administration is under a real cloud and is subject to real risk and real doubt. I mean it is extraordinary that he can't say who his Treasurer is going to be. I can tell the Australian people that if I am re-elected, Peter Costello will be the Treasurer. And so he should be, because he's done a fantastic job with the economy. Mr Rudd can't do that. Now why can't he do it? Does he have some secret understanding with Julia Gillard; was that really the deal they made before they agreed to run as a leadership team? If she is the Treasurer, who is going to be the Industrial Relations Minister? Is it going to be a former trade union official? What kind of balance, and its very hard for it not to be because just about everybody on the front bench is a former trade union official. And it injects a real element of doubt and risk into economic management?
BENSON:
One element of doubt in politics at the moment is when the election is going to be. You won't call it this weekend? Can we at least assume that much?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think you can assume that Australians are watching football this weekend and I am one of them.
BENSON:
No election this weekend?
PRIME MINISTER:
I will be watching the football Marius. We will have an election some time between now and early December, there is no doubt about that.
BENSON:
There's about four weekends in fact. Its down to about four Saturdays. Have you made up your own mind?
PRIME MINISTER:
Marius, I am not entering into any dialogue on the subject beyond saying that there will be an election some time between now and early December.
BENSON:
It's a bit academic really because the campaign is well and truly on. Now there is this blizzard of Government advertising paid by taxpayers that's going to air now before the formal campaign period. A lot of criticism of that Mr Howard still going on.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I defend it. I defend all of those campaigns. They do provide information. The guidelines under which they are being conducted are the same guidelines that the former Government had. I think it is perfectly legitimate to provide information about the new superannuation arrangements. There are many older Australians unaware of the easing of the assets test. The fact that you can have a lot more assets other than your family home from the 20th September and still qualify for all or part of a pension. Now that's new information. People are entitled to have that information. The announcement was made in the 2006 Budget. Many people will have forgotten it or not be aware of it and the suggestion that there is something wrong in telling people what they're entitled to is absurd.
BENSON:
But it is the general view, why the acceleration of the distribution of information?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am sorry, I don't understand that question.
BENSON:
Why so many ads now?
PRIME MINISTER:
There are a lot of things occurring at the present time. The critical date for the relaxation of the assets test was the 20th of September. That's only a week ago. From that time people are entitled to get a pension or part of a pension whilst owning more assets then they were previously entitled to own to get that pension or part pension. And we have an obligation to inform people of that and its quite unfair to criticise that as political advertising when that particular change was announced in the Budget in 2006. That is the Budget before last and it comes into operation on the 20th of September.
BENSON:
Okay Mr Howard, a final question. You're off to Victoria today to regional Victoria. Victoria according to the polls, not a particularly happy hunting ground in prospect for you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we have a fight on our hands. I am very positive. I believe we can win this election, but we are the underdog and we have a fight on our hands. And we have tough battles in many seats and we have no false illusions about the challenge. But at least there is a certainty and a clarity about economic management. If we win the election, Peter Costello will be the Treasurer in the Government. If Labor wins the election, we don't know who the Treasurer will be and we don't know which former trade union official will be in charge of industrial relations.
BENSON:
Mr Howard I will leave it there. Many thanks for your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]