JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, can I start the thing by asking you what you feel about Malcolm Turnbull's victory?
PRIME MINISTER:
I congratulate Malcolm. He is a very able person who will bring quite an array of talents to the Parliament. I commiserate naturally with Peter King. He will feel a sense of disappointment. Malcolm is a very able person and it's always good when people of great ability win preselection. It was a tough, competitive process, but that's the tradition of our Party and we should never be ashamed of competitive democracy.
JOURNALIST:
You can work with a man who says you broke the nation's heart?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course I can. Look we buried the hatchet on that issue years ago. Remember that the Liberal Party, when the issue was being debated, allowed a free vote. And it's well known that there were a range of views within my Party and that remains the case now. But I have known Malcolm for a long time, I have known his family for a very long time, and I think he will be a very fine addition.
JOURNALIST:
What about his line that opposition suits his temperament?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think what he was saying was that he is a man for all seasons.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think he's Prime Minister material?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look, just as the kiss of death is to say to somebody, as a cricketer, he's another Bradman, you don't start doing that. Look Malcolm's first and only preoccupation now is to win Wentworth. You never take anything for granted. And he will come into the next parliament, hopefully as a member of the Government team, and his sole preoccupation now must be to win Wentworth for the Liberals and win it strongly.
JOURNALIST:
If he does win Wentworth Prime Minister, will you put him on the frontbench?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look I'm not going to start talking about that. It's normal, let me say, for people when they first come into parliament to spend a little bit of time learning the ropes. That applied to me. It applied to Dr Nelson. It applied to a lot of people. It applied to Tony Abbott. It applied to Peter Costello. I mean, you know, it applies to everybody.
JOURNALIST:
The inquiry into (inaudible) will be tabled tomorrow ...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think we ought to let people see what's in the report Peter. My position remains the same as it was a few months ago, and it will be the same in a few months time, and that is that what we did was justified by the intelligence available to us. I certainly didn't exaggerate things. I don't apologise for what the Government did. And those people who criticise what the Government did effectively argued for Saddam Hussein still being in power in Iraq. My view on that will not change one iota no matter what is contained in the report.
JOURNALIST:
And what about the inquiry?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that's something we will address when people have had the opportunity of having a look at the report.
JOURNALIST:
Would you have a second independent inquiry?
PRIME MINISTER:
We'll have a look at what's in the report.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Downer has said that he would support a second inquiry. Would you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let us see what is in the report.
JOURNALIST:
Who would be suitable to head that inquiry should it happen?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let us have a look at the report.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, the Opposition (inaudible) stole your thunder yesterday. There was also of course your turnaround on the issue of superannuation. Is the Government feeling a bit on the defensive at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
I thought the Opposition gave us an extra day's publicity, and I was intrigued to read that Jenny Macklin said this was a panic move. We have been negotiating with the National Catholic Education Commission for months. They can't have it both ways. We can't be negotiating with people for months, and then say it's a panic move.
JOURNALIST:
The $362 million that (inaudible) will be used to, I believe, the 40 per cent of Catholic schools that are most needy. Isn't that similar to Mark Latham's announcement that this sort of funding should be needs based?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't quite know what his position is, but let's leave him out of it. This is extra money going to the Catholic systemic schools, and as Cardinal Pell said a few moments ago, it will be used to help the most needy of those schools. And it's plain for anybody who looks, that there is nothing elite in a financial sense about schools within the Catholic system. They contain some of the most under resourced schools in Australia and I'm delighted that we have now been able to provide this additional funding. But I'm also delighted, importantly, that we have essentially unified under the one set of principles the funding of all non-government schools, and I think that is a very positive move. So what we have brought about today is not only a funding boost for the Catholic systemic schools but also, choosing my words carefully, a system change in relation to the Catholic systemic schools because they will now be treated as other non-government schools are, according to the SES funding model, and that is a very good development.
JOURNALIST:
Are there talks underway with the public system for extra money?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we don't run the public schools. And what happens with the public schools, as you know, is that we give the states a whole lot of money - like all of the GST - and then they fund the bulk of the running costs of government schools. We provide some top up funding. But in addition to that, Dr Nelson will be making further announcements about schools generally in the months ahead. Can I just repeat again that, for those who are interested in funding comparisons, that there are 68 per cent of Australian children in government schools and those schools receive 76 per cent of all government funding. So any argument that government schools are disadvantaged because we give money to non-government schools is quite wrong.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, that comparison is a little disingenuous isn't it though, because government schools only receive money from the government. Private schools and non-government schools receive fees from parents...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes. Well it's not disingenuous because every time a parent sends a child to a non-government school, the taxpayer is saved on average we calculate about $10,000.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, would you agree in principle to spying on the Secretary General of the United Nations?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't have any comment on that. I follow the longstanding practice of my predecessors, both Labor and Liberal, of not commenting on intelligence and security matters - a very sound principle. Thank you.
[ends]