BEAUMONT: The Prime Minister of Australia is in Perth and he joins me on the program now. Mr Rudd, good morning.
PM: Good morning Simon. Thanks for having me on your program.
BEAUMONT: Kevin, can I ask have you looked at the paper this morning? Have you seen the community reaction to these acquittals?
PM: I must admit, I got into Perth at one o'clock this morning local time, coming from Canberra, and the first thing I read this morning was the front page of The West Australian. I had to read this article twice. I mean, I'm stunned by it all. I'm reluctant to comment on the individual details of the case because I'm simply not familiar with them because I've been in Canberra.
But can I just say this about police? I mean, our police including here in WA put themselves in the front line every day in very difficult and dangerous circumstances, most of which are never reported. I think it's high time the community just got absolutely behind the police in everything they do.
I mean, it's time we had a new attitude of respect for the police because they are dealing with problems of violence, of domestic violence, of alcohol-induced violence, of binge drinking. Every police commissioner I've spoken to in the eastern states has told me how hard things are getting in central business district areas in particular.
And I think what we have here is a wake-up call for the community to rally behind our police. They are doing a first class job in the community, and I think it is absolutely important that we, you know, use this event to, as a focal point to rally behind our police.
BEAUMONT: Prime Minister, do you support in broad terms the jury system in Australia?
PM: Yes, I've been a longstanding supporter of the jury system. And these matters concerning overall law reform are dealt with from time to time by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General between the various states and territories. But that does not mean from time to time errors don't occur in the administration of justice. That's not a comment I make in particular reference to any particular case.
But these laws are defined in every state and territory to the Commonwealth, and they have been around for a long time. But we need to focus again on this extraordinary event and as I said, let's use it to focus again on what we can do more to protect our police on the beat.
BEAUMONT: Prime Minister, on matters federal. The $900 payment that has started turning up in people's bank accounts. Tell us today, give my listeners some advice on what they should use it for.
PM: Well Simon, I've never been in the business of directing consumers how to spend. That's a matter for them. Some will save some of it. Others will spend most of it. And these will be individual decisions.
But let me put it into the framework of why we've actually done it. There's a global economic recession out there. It's like a cyclone. It started in America. It's worked its way through Europe. It's now across the rest of the world.
Responsible governments cannot say to their people that we can stop a cyclone from crossing our shores. What you can say is you can reduce the damage.
The question of how do you do that? And what we've done is three specific things. One, stabilise our financial institutions by providing guarantees for every deposit holder in the country. Secondly, short term stimulus to provide in payments to pensioners, to carers, to families, to veterans, as well as to farmers in hardship, and the reason there is to provide support to them in the midst of a global recession.
But in particular this, we have one and a half million Australians employed in the retail sector including in WA, and the health of our retail sector is critically dependent on keeping consumption up. Otherwise the unemployment consequences would be much worse.
The third thing we're doing, of course, is our own infrastructure package which is going to hit schools right across West Australia soon, every primary school in West Australia and every primary school in Australia being the beneficiaries of the $15 billion school modernisation program to provide local jobs for local tradies as well as modernise our schools.
That's our strategy to reduce the impact of the recession on Australians and West Australians, and these payments are one part of it.
BEAUMONT: Mr Rudd, if some of the payments are a portion to families based on the number of children that they have, does it not necessarily follow that the expenses should be outgoing based on bringing up kids for education, books, uniforms, kids' sport, doesn't it logically follow you expect families to spend that money on their kids?
PM: Well we have entitled this set of payments of course, back to school payments, to assist families with the extra costs that they face at the beginning of each year in getting their kids back to school. And certainly in my discussions with mums and dads across the country, wrestling with the very practical expenses of uniforms and books and all those other things, I think they appreciate the support. But could I say Simon, the other part -
BEAUMONT: You don't expect them to spend, it's called correctly, it's titled back to school, but you don't expect people who receive it may just spend it on education.
PM: Well Simon, I cannot as I said at the beginning of our interview put out a directive on what people can and can't spend this money on. The key thing is that we want to provide support for families who are doing it tough. Families have been helped by a four percentage point cut in interest rates since last September. We're providing additional support as well.
But the overall benefit is in addition as follows - to provide support for the retail sector because it employs one and a half million Australians and that's about 14 per cent of the entire Australian workforce. It's a very big sector and if I look around the world at what's happening with unemployment levels in other countries going through the absolute roof, and I look at the collapse in retail sales in all those countries to have gone through the floor, there is a direct relation between the two of them and the importance therefore of supporting jobs in our retail sector.
BEAUMONT: Do we need warnings on bottles of packaged alcohol. Do we need a health warning on alcohol do you think?
PM: Well our overall approach through the Health Minister in working on proper health warnings for alcoholic drinks is we believe that consumers need as much knowledge as possible in terms of what they're drinking and the impact on their health. Often this is detailed and specific to different categories of drinks, and these are things obviously to be worked out between the relevant health ministers and the health professionals. But overall I'm always on the side of proper consumer protection and knowledge.
BEAUMONT: So you do support warnings on bottles?
PM: Well it depends on the category of drinks we're talking about. As a general principle, I'm in full support of ensuring that we've got full knowledge out there for consumers in terms of what they are drinking or what they are eating, in terms of its potential impact on their health. But as I said, I'm sure there are technical debates between the health experts in different categories of drinks, and what works most effectively in different cases.
BEAUMONT: Do you think alcohol advertising should be banned during sports broadcasts before 8.30 at night?
PM: Look on the overall question of advertising, my general approach has been that consumers have the ultimate right of choice on these matters. They can be informed about what's available out there in the product market but at the same time there are public advertising campaigns in most of the states to be warning people also the impact of excessive drinking on their health. I think it's important to get this balance right and that's certainly been our approach.
We also have a view that it's important to ensure that consumers have as much information as possible about the impact of drinking and young people in particular the impact of binge drinking. Because the evidence that we've been presented with as the Federal Government on excessive alcohol consumption by kids as low as 17, 15, 13 on their subsequent brain development, not to mention the problems of foetal alcohol syndrome for young girls in particular who become pregnant when they are intoxicated, is a grave and emerging problem. Problems by the way I've discussed at some length with Dr Fiona Stanley here in Western Australia.
BEAUMONT: Alright PM, I'm not really sure what you think about either of those issues, about alcohol labels on bottles or -
PM: Well as I said my general principle Simon is that I believe that we're going to have proper consumer knowledge, but what I'm not prepared to say here and now is that we have a blanket approach to the question of labelling of every category. I would much rather take the advice of the health experts on that rather than simply you know, issue a general directive. But I would like to see much more consumer information available to people by way of appropriate labelling and warning than is currently the case.
On the question of television advertising you were asking about before, I believe it's important to get the balance right. Consumers should know what's available for them. There are also responsible drinking (inaudible) out there by parts of the alcohol industry.
I also believe governments have the responsibility to warn young people in particular, up front and direct, that the impact of binge drinking on their lives and the evidence I've seen is that it's all bad.
BEAUMONT: Alright. PM we're running out of time. The oil spill in Queensland, off your home state of Queensland, off the coast. They're now saying it could be up to a hundred tonnes of oil, 40 kilometres of damaged beaches. Can you commit federally to any cleanup or any resourcing?
PM: We will, as of today, we'll work very closely with the Queensland Government and authorities on a maximum pitch-in by the Commonwealth to assist the state authorities in dealing with this potential environmental tragedy. We're still working our way through the details of it.
But on, I've got to say, when you're looking at such treasured assets as we have along the Queensland coast, it's important for all governments to pitch in. And we'll certainly be doing that with the Queensland Government notwithstanding the fact that they're in the middle of an election.
BEAUMONT: Alright, Mr Rudd thanks for your time today. We appreciate talking to you as always. You're in Perth for sadly for Bev Gallop's funeral. Is that right?
PM: Yes Simon I am. And whatever people's politics are, listening to your program, I think most West Australians hold Geoff Gallop in high respect as I certainly do. He's a longstanding friend, and this has been a real tragedy for Geoff and his family. And it's an important day for us all to pay respect to her contributions to the state of West Australia and through her, his great contribution to the state and the nation as well.
BEAUMONT: Alright. Mr Rudd thanks for your time this morning.
PM: Thanks Simon.
[ends]