JOURNALIST:
And joining us on the line now, the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr John Howard. Mr Howard good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning John.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, you're about to jump on a plane to come up to Brisbane, why the visit?
PRIME MINISTER:
We're spending a couple of days in Brisbane, I'm going to make a big Tough on Drugs announcement in Aspley this morning and I'll be visiting a number of marginal seats and doing a few things for my colleagues and making a Stronger Families and Communities announcement tomorrow morning. So I have quite a busy programme and I'll also be addressing the annual dinner of Queensland Commerce on Friday night, a very large dinner, at the Convention Centre, it will be an opportunity for me to talk about the Government's economic record.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, Ross here, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
How are you?
JOURNALIST:
Very, very well thank you. A poll on the ninemsn website at the moment asks the question in fact "is it time for a tax cut?" It's a bit of a leading question, I think the question, I mean you're only ever going to get a yes answer to that aren't you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course.
JOURNALIST:
I think the question should have been would you be willing to forgo your tax cuts if the money was sure to go into health and education.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you're saying...
JOURNALIST:
I'm suggesting.
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course you should talk to Kerry Packer about the question his website asks. I think you have to have a balance in these things. We've just signed a Medicare agreement with the states that will increase the Federal Government's contribution to public hospitals by 17 per cent over and above inflation over the next five years, a $10 billion increase. We actually contribute more to the running of the states' public hospitals than the states do, but we have no control over them. We have no control over waiting lists, we have no control over ambulances, we have no control over operating schedules, we have no control over anything at all to do with the public hospitals of this country, although we contribute a bit more to their running than do the states. So my answer to that question is of course you have responsibilities in all of these areas, we have responsibilities in health and education but so do the states and the states of course are getting all of the GST revenue. I wonder how many of your listeners know that every last dollar of the GST goes directly to the states to fund their share of public hospitals and police and roads and all those sorts of things? Most people think the GST goes to the Federal Government, it's collected by the Federal Government but every last dollar of it is handed back to the states.
JOURNALIST:
You were quoted last night in an address to the Business Council of Australia, just moving on here a little bit, as saying we need to have reform of the Senate. Now obviously some key planks of policy for your Government have been blocked by the Senate. You would prefer reform to a double dissolution, according to reports this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
What we would like the community to discuss is an alternative method of the two houses sitting together when legislation is blocked by the Senate repeatedly without the necessity of a double dissolution. At present if a bill is rejected twice by the Senate even though the government of the day may have a mandate for it from the public the only way you can get that bill through is at a joint sitting of the two houses after there has been a double dissolution, in other words an election for the full Representatives and the full Senate and I'm asking the Australian public to look at some alternative proposals whereby you can have a joint sitting at which that legislation which has previously been blocked could be put through without the need to have a double dissolution and I hope the public sees that as a way, not of giving too much power to the Government, but rather a way of providing a method of resolving deadlocks without the cost and complication and the over-reaction of having a double dissolution.
JOURNALIST:
But wouldn't that effectively neuter the state house, the states' house?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it hasn't been a states' house John for decades, people vote in the Senate according to party line. I mean we've put up legislation in the past that's clearly been in the interests of Queensland but Queensland Labor Senators and Queensland Democrats Senators have voted against it.
JOURNALIST:
Fair enough. Now the Cabinet reshuffle seems to have been well received, the AMA for example being cautiously supportive I suppose you could say about the new Federal Health Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'm not surprised at that, he's a very able person, that's not to say Kay Patterson isn't able, I think her skills are better suited now having looked at the thing over the last 20 months in Family and Community Services. Tony Abbott is a very effective, upfront parliamentarian. He is very strong, he gets his point across, he communicates well but he is also highly intelligent and a person with a very deep social conscience. Anybody who imagines that Tony Abbott is some stereotypical toughie who is not interested in the human condition couldn't be more wrong.
JOURNALIST:
I was quite surprised to see Amanda Vanstone inherit the immigration portfolio, I thought Philip Ruddock had done a magnificent job there under fire and I was, I don't know if disappointment was the right word but I was a bit surprised that Philip Ruddock has moved on to Attorney-General.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's hardly a demotion.
JOURNALIST:
No, no, I know. I'm not saying it is.
PRIME MINISTER:
It's just that Philip had had seven and half years and there comes a time no matter how successful you are at something like that when a change is good for you and good for the Government, but Philip of course has done a magnificent job and the policy of the Government on things like asylum seekers is well said, there'll be no change of policy in any of those areas - I want to make that very clear and of course as the Attorney-General and the first law officer he will still be very tied up with broader issues of national security and that's an important emphasis of this Government.
JOURNALIST:
Sure. Prime Minister, we appreciate that you've got to get on a aeroplane in a minute but one final matter for me anyway - you've got an economy that's powering along particularly in Queensland, you've got a very, very high personal approval rating in fact one of the highest in history for a serving Prime Minister. You've got an Opposition leader who's all but invisible and try as they might they can't conceal the fact that his position is still, shall we say tenuous. You've got all of the right signs to go to an election in terms of if you wanted to push a double dissolution. When do you think we are likely, know you're not going to give me a direct answer, but I'm going to pose the question anyway...
PRIME MINISTER:
I'll give you a direct answer but it won't answer the question.
JOURNALIST:
Okay, well all the signs are there and a lot of punters are saying earlier rather than later.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, John, the answer is that unless there's compelling reason in the public interest as distinct from my personal political interest there's no justification for going early. The Australian public is entitled to say we elected you for three years, we'll decide in three years time whether or not you've done enough to be re-elected and we'll decide that, nobody else and if you behave in a selfish way and you pull on an early election for no good reason then we won't be very impressed and I understand that. The Australian people expect their governments to look after their interests for the time that they've been elected. Now, if something comes along that can justify an early election in the public interest then, of course, that's a different matter but I don't see that on the horizon, I really don't. My genuine expectation is that the next election, be it a House of Representatives and half the Senate or a double dissolution then that election will be held in the second half of next year and that's when it's due. Now there would need to be a very significant intervening event which is not horizon at the moment and I don't know what it is that would in the public interest, not John Howard's interest, the public interest justify having an early election and I understand that and I don't intend to depart from that - that is my position. Now as to precisely when it is likely to be within that six month period, end of June through to the, I guess, the end of November or the first Saturday in December these days that's about the last you can conveniently have an election with the onset of Christmas and the like. I don't know and I don't think anybody would expect me to know at the present time. But this next election will be quite hard for us, we might have a good economy, we might have all the advantages you spoke of but it'll be our fourth request to the Australian people to support us and elect us and it won't be easy and I'll be working to win the support and the respect of the Australian public everyday between now and whenever it's held.
JOURNALIST:
Alright, Mr Howard, we realise you've got a plane to catch. Just before you go, we realise big Joe Hockey caused a bit of damage yesterday in the pollies rugby match. We thought we might see you run off the bench as the half-back there?
PRIME MINISTER:
I like the game, but I think I'll stick to early morning power walking.
JOURNALIST:
Fair enough, OK. Prime Minister John Howard, hopefully we'll turn on a better day than it's looking at the moment for you when you arrive in Brisbane later this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
I always enjoy being there.
JOURNALIST:
Good on you. Thank you very much, Mr Howard.
PRIME MINISTER:
Goodbye.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister of Australia, Mr John Howard.
[ends]