JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, firstly what is your reaction to Labor';s move to push any free trade agreement with the United States off to a Senate Committee?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they don';t seem to understand how the system works. We already have a Standing Committee to which all treaties are automatically referred. We set that up. This sounds like a piece of political gamesmanship and the Labor Party should not play political games with what could be one of the most important economic agreements that Australia ever makes. This is about our future. You don';t play political games with Australia';s economic future.
JOURNALIST:
Would you like to see them wait and actually see what sort of agreement…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well at least… I mean we don';t even know what the final form is. I don';t because the negotiations have not finished. And it smacks of political opportunism to say you';re going to ram it off to a Senate Committee when you don';t know what is in it, and completely ignoring the fact that there is already a Standing Committee, an all-party Standing Committee on Treaties. I mean this is a bit rich for a Labor Party that negotiated in secret the security treaty with Indonesia, and now they';re saying to us that we';re being secretive.
JOURNALIST:
You said yesterday this FTA has never been a certainty. Are you losing faith that we might strike or get some agreement this week?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I';m just stating the facts, and that is that it';s difficult. There was a long negotiating session last night and I spoke to Mr Vaile a few hours ago, and there will be further discussions this week. I';m still hopeful, but as I said from the very beginning, it';s difficult. If we can pull it off, it will be of enormous long-term benefit to Australia, and that just underlines the fact. I say to Labor – don';t play political games with our economic future.
JOURNALIST:
Was Mr Vaile upbeat? You mentioned yesterday that in trade, friendships often don';t bring about an end result. Will you get involved at the end if needs be?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I am very confident of the job that Mr Vaile is doing. There is a lot of talking yet to be done and you always get the activity at the very end in these things. That';s how they work. And I have every confidence that Mark Vaile will do an excellent job.
JOURNALIST:
Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]