JOURNALIST:
The Prime Minister John Howard joins us live from Canberra, good morning to you Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Richard and Bob is it?
JOURNALIST:
Yes it's Bob Prime Minister. Headlines around the country at the moment 'John Howard predicts war soon'. Now before we talk further of Iraq and Australia's possible involvement Prime Minister what do you say to the students and the protestors who are saying you are ignoring the will of the public?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not ignoring the will of the public, I would say in relation to school students that, most Australians would agree with me, that they should be in their classes during school hours and I don't think it reflects particularly well on some schools that many of them appeared to be running amuck and causing a lot of inconvenience to motorists, other members of the public and to the police. There is a time and a place for protests, I don't think that time or that place is by school students during school hours, I think they should be at school.
JOURNALIST:
You believe of course they have a right to express their...
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course, I don't dispute that for a moment but I think most Australians take the view that young people at school age, at 13 or 14, ought to be at school during school hours.
JOURNALIST:
Okay. Defence Minister Senator Hill has stated Australia's not committed to war and Parliament would debate any decision for war, not necessarily a vote on the issue. But you will consider at the time any US request to join the coalition of the willing. Just how willing is Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Robert has explained the situation. At the moment there is a discussion going on at the Security Council. Reports indicate that that debate will come to an end and there'll probably be a vote taken some time towards the end of next week, I can't be certain exactly when. And what I have said is that when the question of what is going to be done in the Security Council, if anything, is resolved, it's at that point that it's likely that a decision will need to be taken by the Australian Government as to whether or not we'll be involved militarily. We prefer very strongly that there be another Security Council resolution, not because we need it for legal reasons, there is already enough legal authority contained in all the resolutions that have been passed to authorise the use of force to disarm Iraq. We think however another resolution would gather more international political support and commitment to any action that might need to be taken. The other reason perhaps even more importantly that I would like to see, a second or further resolution passed, it will actually be the 18th resolution, is that the one faint hope of avoiding force being used will be if the international community speaking through the Security Council in a unanimous fashion says to Iraq that it must disarm or face the consequences. There's just the hope that that combined, united 15 to nil opinion of the Security Council will have more impact politically and diplomatically on Iraq than any previous resolution of the Security Council. It's not a big hope but it's at least a faint hope. Everybody would be delighted if Iraq finally caved in and fully disarmed, and for good measure if the regime went, although our prime goal is disarmament. Now if there is to be a peaceful way of resolving this it will only happen if the rest of the world is united and speaks with one voice and it has to speak with the voice of calling on Iraq to disarm or face the consequences.
JOURNALIST:
Cook and Moore talking with the Prime Minister of Australia Mr John Howard live from Canberra, Prime Minister the Medicare levy.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
JOURNALIST:
Or the Medicare situation. The levy itself is what, 1.5 per cent of taxable income, so the more you earn, the more you pay but...
PRIME MINISTER:
That's right.
JOURNALIST:
It seems to be the higher up you are in the salary scale, the less you have restrictions put on you for actually using the services provided.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that's not true. Anybody at any level of income has the same basic entitlement under Medicare. The basic entitlements under Medicare, the universality of Medicare, is twofold. Firstly, the right to free treatment in a public hospital, and secondly the right to the Medicare rebate for GP consultations. Now everybody has an entitlement to that. Now the question of whether you get bulk billing, and bulk billing is the practice whereby the doctor simply sends his bill for 85 per cent of the fees, scheduled fee, to the Government or to Medicare, and they pay him, and there is no money handed over by the patient. Now other doctors... some doctors do that, some doctors don't do that. Most doctors do a combination of that and also directly charging their patients, whereby the patient gets the Medicare rebate and has to pay the rest. Now that is a matter for doctors to discuss and negotiate with their patients. That has always been the case. That was the case when the system was introduced by the Labor Government 20 years ago, and it remains the case today. And we're not going to introduce, as some people have wrongly alleged, we're not going to introduce any kind of means test for bulk billing. But the question of whether you are bulk billed is a matter of discussion and negotiation between you and your doctor. In some parts of Australia, bulk billing rates are as high as 98.5 per cent. In other parts of Australia, the bulk billing rates are down to about 40 per cent. There does appear to be a shortage of doctors in rural and outer metropolitan areas, and that is resulting in bulk billing rates in many of those areas being low and having fallen fairly significantly over the past little while. And they are issues that the Government is addressing at the present time, but nothing that we propose to do will in any way undermine Medicare. Nothing we propose to do will introduce an income or means test on bulk billing.
JOURNALIST:
And that will keep the pledge that you've made this week that any changes would protect the chronically ill.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, well the Government's desire is to make certain that there is in a sense greater encouragement given to the doctors to bulk bill low income people - pensioners, concessional card holders and the chronically ill - quite the reverse of what some people are suggesting.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, finally, the ALP is saying it's ready for an early election over the unfair dismissal laws. You've indicated earlier with the Iraqi crisis, etcetera, you want to see this through, the pundits indicating that you're not planning retirement going to another election. Your comments?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't have anything further to add to what I've said about my own personal future. I don't think the public or I should be focusing on John Howard at the moment. I think I should be focusing on the country's interests. We do have a very challenging issue in relation to Iraq. I just have to remind people that the reason why we are concerned about Iraq is that she continues to have chemical and biological weapons, and if Iraq can hold on to them, other countries will want to do the same. And there is always the danger that those weapons will get into the hands of terrorists and the challenge of terrorism, as we've been brutally reminded, terribly reminded in the last few days, is it certainly hasn't disappeared. So that's the reason why we're concerned about Iraq. Look, the question of early elections always comes up. We're only 14 months, what 15 months into our term. Who wants an early election? We only have three years, unlike State Governments that have four years. I don't think the public has any great patience for early elections called for no particular reason.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, thank you for taking our call this morning. We know you've got commitments and we appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]