JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, what';s your reaction to the news today of the “Fair Go Alliance” and suggestions of…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there';s a lot of explaining to be done, I mean here';s a fund that clearly was targeting the Liberal Party and it wasn';t disclosed. They now say that they';ve had a routine letter and they';re going to put their return in but I thought the last Federal election was about 20 months ago. Anyway, the AEC is dealing with the matter, it';s really got nothing to do with the Government.
JOURNALIST:
… the Labor Party is hypocrites?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh you could say that, couldn';t you?
JOURNALIST:
What about there is a Newspoll out today that shows your satisfaction rating (inaudible) dropped. Mr Costello said today that he thought he was to do with several incidents like Pauline Hanson and Wilson Tuckey. Do you agree that those have damaged your government?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I think everybody has to look at polls, but I don';t normally comment on them and I';m not going to change on this occasion. I don';t comment when they';re whizbang, and I don';t comment in other circumstances either.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, economic growth has stalled, are you concerned about the economy?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think what';s happened with the economy is that everything';s going extremely well except the export sector and that';s largely as a result of the drought and as a result of the fall in world economic activity. I think they';re the explanations. But if you look at it you';ve really got two economies, you';ve got the export sector which is quite flat because of the drought, and the rest of the economy, the domestic economy is still growing very very strongly indeed.
Thank you.
[ends]