JONES:
It's 16 and a half minutes after seven o'clock. The Prime Minister is on the line and before I speak to him, I know he doesn't go in for much of this stuff but my listeners do so I'm telling my listeners that John Howard came to power on the 11th of March 1996. Tomorrow, December 11, Mr Howard will have been in office for eight years and nine months and on Tuesday, December 21 he will overtake Robert James Lee Hawke as our second longest serving Prime Minister. I don't think there are too many who would begrudge him that honour. He's on the line, PM good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Alan.
JONES:
Did you know that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Ah, yes. Yes, I did.
JONES:
Well you've got to get to December 21. Are you fit enough?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I've just come back from my morning walk and I was feeling pretty good when I got back.
JONES:
Good on you. Can I just get a comment from you about this whole Christmas fiasco, the city of Sydney is just dead as a dodo, are we at risk of surrendering to the proclamation of our Christianity?
PRIME MINISTER:
If some people have their way we would. I don't think the public will allow that happen, I've been very critical of the Lord Mayor of Sydney about this and I'll continue to be critical. I regard this idea that in some way it's offensive to minorities to talk about our majority culture as just unacceptable and I have not struck a Jew or a Muslim or a Buddhist or anybody who says I'm offended by your honouring Christmas.
JONES:
They are writing to me saying just that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Exactly. And it is just an absurd thing and I sense that the backlash has been so strong at this political correctness that so far from the Christian heritage being in danger it'll be reinforced.
JONES:
Yes, I mean Tony Stewart, the Labor MP at Bankstown where they've spent a fortune on wonderful Christmas decorations, tells me that Lebanese Muslims out there everywhere are welcoming the hype and the colour and the traditional decorations.
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course. As well as being a celebration of Christ's birth and all of that connotes religiously and spiritually, it is also part of our culture and to surrender it, to apologise for it, to shrink from it is to deny what this country is and what this country means. Now that doesn't mean to say that everybody is compelled to believe in the Christmas story but it's a free country and people have free will in those things, that's part of Christianity. But I regard this cringing and this super-political correctness on issues like that as offensive and so do most Australians.
JONES:
Good on you. Just a couple of things, and we're not going to do anything too heavy here, but just for the benefit of people out there the next year, a lot of people forecasting an economic slowdown that domestic demand and exports could slow leaving the economy in what they're calling the slow lane for 2005, that everything's been unsustainably fast for too long. How do you see it?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think it's been unsustainably fast, we do have a bit of a problem on the export front and that's a combination of the high dollar and the residual effect of the downturn in farm activity because of the drought. I don't think it's unsustainably high and whilst we have very high employment, yesterday's figures indicated we will, and people have strong wages then domestic consumption will be strong. But we shouldn't assume that the economy is risk free.
JONES:
No. Are you worried about the six per cent current account deficit, six per cent of national income?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, yes. I believe that is too high, I do. The answer to that, the way to reduce it is to export more, you can't import less because when you have a strong economy you buy a lot more from overseas, retail stores are buying increases amounts of goods from overseas because their customers want them. The answer is to export more...
JONES:
But having said that of course the Australian dollar is over valued compared with its average over the two decades since it was floated.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yes and that's a product of the slump in the American dollar. A lot of what happens with the Australian dollar is governed by what happens with American dollars. Our dollar has gone up because the American dollar has gone down. In the last few days there's been a bit of a correction because the American dollar has come back. Now the other big issue of course is the price of oil, although oil doesn't bulk as large now in our spending habits as it did 30 years ago it's still very important and if the price of oil continues to fall or even if it stabilises where it is now that is better news, it's better where it is now than being in the middle 50s.
JONES:
You're a great one for order and the public have supported you because of your dignity in difficulty. Do you worry about the chaos in the Parliament in the last couple of weeks, the new Speaker seems unable to handle it, David Hawker. Is that going to create a problem for you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't believe so, it's always difficult to get used to things, I think David will do a good and very conscientious job. Given what happened in the election, the, I guess, the disappointment and frustration of the Opposition, the fact that we needed to come back for three weeks because we wanted to pass legislation to give effect to election commitments that were timed to come into force on the 1st of January next year and we've been able to do all of that, which I'm very pleased about. I don't think Parliament will be other than its usual robust self.
JONES:
Do you think there's a prospect that it might be an election down the track between John Howard and Kim Beazley? Do you have a comment on Mark Latham? You've been in those difficult times.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he's certainly going through a very difficult time, I've avoided becoming a big commentator on the Labor Party. You mentioned Beazley's name, I've always had a respect for him across the political divide, the question of his future in the Labor Party is really a matter for the Labor Party, but certainly he's a person of substance, he's an intelligent man, he thinks about things a little more than some of his colleagues. But far be it for me to start saying who the leader of the Labor Party should be. I think Mark Latham's greatest mistake was to reintroduce class into Australian politics. Australians do not want to think of themselves in class terms. It's contrary to our egalitarian spirit and his constant reference to this or that side of the track and the working class against the others and the insiders against the outsiders, it really rekindled notions of class that most Australians have well and truly behind them.
JONES:
How does John Howard spend Christmas?
PRIME MINISTER:
With my family, my youngest son has returned from overseas and we'll be together as a family and doing it like millions of others. And it's a great time of the year for family and I hope all of your listeners have the same opportunity.
JONES:
Thank you for that and thank you for all your help in relation to the programme, you're always accessible and available, we appreciate that and we wish you good health, a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2005.
PRIME MINISTER:
And to you Alan, Merry Christmas.
JONES:
Thank you Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
And thank you for your courtesies.
[ends]