JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, question from Laurie Oakes.
PRIME MINISTER:
G'day Laurie.
JOURNALIST:
Did you make a mistake in not retiring last time?
PRIME MINISTER:
What's your next question?
JOURNALIST:
Are you disappointed Peter Costello's reignited leadership debate.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, I wouldn't have given any other answer if I'd had been in his shoes.
JOURNALIST:
What leadership qualities do you think he has?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not getting in to that.
JOURNALIST:
Are you disappointed that Senator Vanstone has already been talking about the arrival of boat people on Ashmore Reef as vindication of the excision policy before you know whether they're asylum seekers or not?
PRIME MINISTER:
I heard Senator Vanstone this morning and I thought everything she said was correct, particularly the comment she made that the most important element in deterring illegal immigrants is to have not only the policy of excision, but also the policy of returning boats.
JOURNALIST:
Labor says though you must be happy to have people arriving in an election year. Is that a fair comment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think most things Labor says are not fair.
JOURNALIST:
Are you worried about Dobell, it is very marginal...?
PRIME MINISTER:
Dobell is a tough seat; we only won it very narrowly at the last election, very narrowly. But it has an outstanding member in Ken Ticehurst and it's an area that he's worked very hard to help and it's an area of growing young communities, they benefit from low interest rates, it's got a lot of small businesses and the good economic conditions help those small businesses. So it benefits a lot from the very good economic policies of the Government.
JOURNALIST:
Were you surprised at all by the leaked Liberal Party research in The Australian this morning that showed up to six Federal seats seriously at risk?
PRIME MINISTER:
I never talk about internal matters.
JOURNALIST:
You're going to Brisbane, I believe, this afternoon. Is that to discuss sugar and...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, I'm going to Brisbane and I'm going to meet the people from the canegrowers and the millers and then I'm going on to Cairns overnight and I'll be going to both Cairns and Mackay tomorrow to talk to people on the ground in the industry. We do want to help and we will provide additional help. I want to hear directly from the people affected before we take final decisions. We have already provided some income support that will stabilise the situation for people who are in a very difficult financial position. As to the medium to longer term, I wish to talk to people before we take final decisions.
JOURNALIST:
Do you have specific ideas you'll be putting to them?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's very much them being given an opportunity to put views to me. I'm going there to listen to their concerns. I obviously have some thoughts. But I think at this stage the best thing to do is to hear what the people most affected have to say and then I'll take that back to my Cabinet colleagues and we'll take some final decisions.
[ends]