MCGRATH:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning.
MCGRATH:
First to your reaction to the killing of Izzedin Salim.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'm horrified at it, it's a reminder to everybody that the terrorists in Iraq, and there's not much doubt at all that this was an act of terrorism, a brutal act of terrorism, their goal is to stop the emergence of a free democratic Iraq. I mean what is at stake here is whether this nation of 25 million people is to have the chance of a democratic future and as we approach the next step along that path which is the handover date on the 30th of June this year there will be increased attempts by those who want continued bloodshed and anarchy in Iraq to stop that occurring. It is a plain case of people trying to prevent the emergence of a democratic free Iraq and that is what is at stake and what is why those who say we should leave come what may on the 30th of June could not be more wrong and could not be more out of step with what the Middle East needs into the future.
MCGRATH:
So do you believe that the deadline is achievable, six weeks until the handover of power?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I do, it's difficult but there's certainly a continuing commitment by the coalition to meet that deadline.
MCGRATH:
You heard there Prime Minister Blair saying that Britain will stay until the job is done, what does that mean, when will the job be done?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you can't put an exact date on it and people keep asking when will it be done, I think with respect knowing that it's impossible to say exactly when. What I can say is that the next step and a very important step along the path to completing the job is that the handover on the 30th of June and it's therefore very important that that date be adhered to and it's also very important that those who are attempting to prevent it happening be resisted.
MCGRATH:
Well what sort of conditions though Prime Minister would you see being in place before the job is done? I mean for example violence against civilians or violence against members of the interim government, what sort of things?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the only thing I can say of a general character about that Catherine is to say I would like to see conditions of reasonable stability and you ask me what does that mean, I can only repeat certainly more stability than we have at the moment but you can't have a situation where you could guarantee there'd be no further acts of terrorism, there are plenty of countries around the world that have acts of terrorism committed within their borders, which nonetheless have fully functioning and effective governments, so you have to have a reasonable measure of what is needed, we are some distance away from that at the present time but amidst all of the concern and the negative stories progress is being made and I'll be spending a bit of time tomorrow night detailing the progress that has been made, the hospital system is a lot better, the schools are open, the universities are a lot better, there is a positive story to be told but the critical thing is that those who want to prevent any democratic experiment in Iraq succeeding are the people who are responsible for this callous and brutal and absolutely terrible murder of this man.
MCGRATH:
Well what do you think Colin Powell meant last week when he said that if the new Iraqi interim government asked the coalition to go after the handover they would?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think he's just stating the obvious and that is that...
MCGRATH:
But isn't that the starting of an exit strategy?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no he was stating the obvious, I mean there has always be an exit strategy in the sense that nobody wants to stay there indefinitely, I'm not hung up about that expression. What Colin Powell was stating by that remark was the obvious, that after the 30th of June we are there at the will of the Iraqi people. Now I don't believe for a moment that it is anything other than a hypothetical question because I don't believe that the majority of the Iraqi people would want the coalition to go on the 30th of June, in fact I'm sure they wouldn't.
MCGRATH:
Wasn't he however setting up circumstances whereby the new interim Iraqi government can negotiate with the coalition conditions under which they'll stay?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I think he was just stating the obvious Catherine.
MCGRATH:
Prime Minister, there are reports this morning that a nerve gas shell has exploded after being discovered by coalition forces in Iraq. What's your reaction to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't know anything other than what's been reported and whilst it's interesting and I will naturally want to know further detail about it, it could well be nothing other than a very old shell which is greatly degraded. It is to be hoped for the sake of the soldiers who discovered it that that is the case because therefore the effect of the agent would not be anywhere near as severe, but I'll be interested to know more information at this stage, I'm not reading anything too much into it except that it obviously raises interesting questions.
MCGRATH:
Do you think the polls here in Australia have been influenced by your Iraq stance?
PRIME MINISTER:
Catherine I don't know, I doubt it, I doubt it very much, I think the polls in Australia are broadly influenced by a range of factors, and as I've said repeatedly including on this programme it's quite a tough ask for the Government to win the next election and the polls indicate that but of course we still have some time to go before the election is held.
MCGRATH:
But $37 billion is a large spending spree at any time, you'd expect some sort of bounce wouldn't you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh Catherine, I said at the weekend and I repeated it yesterday and it is the case that if governments are to get any poll bounce out of budgets, that normally doesn't occur until some weeks after the budget is brought down, that was certainly the case back in 2001 and it's certainly the case now. But I'm not saying we will get a poll bounce. The budget was just part of a continuing process that was started in 1996 when we inherited a very debt laden economy and we set about in that budget in putting the finances of the Commonwealth back on the path towards surpluses and in a way the budget delivered last week were the fruits of that successful economic management and it's because we had managed the economy well that we were able to return money to the Australian people who gave it to us in the first place through taxation.
MCGRATH:
But have you considered that what's happening here is perhaps not necessarily a reaction to the tax cuts but possibly that the Australian public are reacting to Mark Latham and feeling that he's hitting the mark, particularly last week on pneumococcal and the youth guarantee?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well different people will read different things into it Catherine and we'll all know on election day won't we? I mean we can spend endless hours saying what it might mean or it what it could mean or what it mightn't mean but in the end what you do in politics is to argue your case, remind the public of the alternative, I mean in our case the public will be asked to decide whether the Howard/Costello team in managing the economy is better than the Latham/Crean team in managing the economy. They'll be asked to decide who they want to speak for this country in international forums, all of these things will be taken into account and the Australian people will make a judgement about that, you and I can talk endlessly but in the end the Australian people will make that judgement.
MCGRATH:
Prime Minister, thanks for joining AM this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
You're welcome.
[ends]