JOURNALIST:
.... briefing plan for a republic. Do you think it's going to be an election issue in your mind?
PRIME MINISTER:
We had a referendum on this issue four years ago and I don't think the Australian people was to regressively revisited it in the near future. But it's a free country, people can argue what they want. I just think it's a waste of focus. There are a lot of other issues that are more important. It's a waste of focus so soon after the last referendum. If people want to revisit it they can but we won't be re-visiting it in this coming election. We're more focussed on things that are of direct relevance to people's lives.
JOURNALIST:
Geoff Clark and his supporters (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I don't think Mr Clark speaks for indigenous Australia.
JOURNALIST:
How do you feel about being under a curse up to the next election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I will deal with the matter calmly.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, why won't the Government investigate the claims (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
The claims based on what?
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) Rand ....
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we had a look at it and based on a couple of flawed propositions. I mean, an American think tank, with great respect, can hardly be held as an expert on the day to day cooperation between ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. I had the opportunity, as perhaps no Prime Minister for a while has had because of the focus on intelligence issues to see these two bodies working together. They cooperate, they don't have turf warfare and for a foreign think tank to suggest that there's a turf war between those two bodies when I know the opposite to be the case. I know the level of personal rapport between Mick Keelty and Dennis Richardson who are the heads of the two organisations - it is a ridiculous proposition.
JOURNALIST:
Are you frustrated to see Mark Latham's popularity on the rise again in the latest Newspoll?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the latest Newspoll has an encouraging sign for the coalition and that is our primary vote is up. But we're still behind. We're still behind, but our primary vote is up ahead of Labor's. That's encouraging, but it's still going to be very tough for us to win.
JOURNALIST:
We've heard a wide-ranging speech inside, would you suggest that we were in throes of an early election campaign?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I like giving wide-ranging speeches. I think it's important that when you come to a community that you talk about a range of issues. You don't just talk about local issues, but that audience, they're Australians before anything else and they want to know about the strength of the economy. They want to know about these international issues. They're passionate Australians, but they also want quite properly an acknowledgment of issues that are important to their local community and I think wide-ranging speeches from a Prime Minister at these gatherings are precisely what people want.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) Geelong bypass or ring road is a big issue in this seat. What are your thoughts?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we have a lot of requests for roads funding, we did put $120 million into the Melbourne/Geelong road, we do have other requests from Victoria, we have a $400 million plus commitment to the Scoresby Freeway, we've put $1.2 billion extra into local roads, bypassing the state government and going direct to local government which is warmly applauded by local government. We'll look at all of the requests from Victoria and there'll be decisions made but I'm not going to deal with individual ones at this stage, Stewart McArthur has raised the Ring Road with me on a number of occasions, I'm aware of community feeling, I'm also aware of community feeling in every part of Australia about road funding and the responsibilities of state and federal governments. It is, under the existing funding arrangements, it is a state government responsibility, it is not a national highway and it's not a 'Road of National Importance', and it's not a local road.
JOURNALIST:
On the poll, it's effectively status quo from the last poll, but there's an observation there that despite your attempts to portray Mark Latham's weak on foreign policy in a sense, (inaudible) Labor Party is still ahead, does that concern you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look I'm not going to give a running commentary on this, really I'm not.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, Colonel Collins last night accused the Government of releasing information to discredit him and renewed his calls for a royal commission. What was your reaction?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we're not trying to discredit Colonel Collins, nobody's trying to do that. There's a difference of opinion within the defence intelligence community between Colonel Collins and some assessments that were made by the Defence Intelligence Organisation. It's really an argument between different people in the defence intelligence community, it's not an argument between Colonel Collins and the Government. I respect what he's done, he's written to me and I will give the Colonel a detailed, courteous reply, I'm having a reply prepared and I will give that to him soon, I'm not going to nominate a date, I will give it to him soon and he will get a comprehensive courteous reply. But be it understood, this is a difference of opinion within the intelligence community, it's not a fight between Colonel Collins and the Government.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) to local dairy farmers?
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
What kind of consolation have you been able to give to local dairy farmers for their (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there are a number of reasons why they're suffering, the drought has affected them, the corrupted world market has affected them. There are some things no government can provide against, we can help with drought assistance, and we help very generously, unlike the Victorian Government that basically as fast as we put money in they pulled out their support, it was quite disgraceful. But I've talked to a number of the dairy farmers, I believe that efficiently run dairies of reasonable size have a future, I think it's more difficult for the smaller ones but it's a difficult industry and we need to get into exports, the future of the Australian dairy industry lies in larger exports because of the relatively small size of our domestic market and the very large supplies of product that are available. Just one more question.
JOURNALIST:
... looking at a whole range of indeces for indigenous people which is under your government they haven't advanced.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't, I haven't seen that particular report but I do know this, that under the Howard Government the infantile mortality rate for aborigines has continued to fall, but there has been an increase in school retention levels, that there has been an increase in tertiary participation, and there have been significant improvements in employment opportunities. Now they are the facts as I know them, I haven't seen that particular report.
Thank you.
[ends]