JOURNALIST:
What do you think of the baton Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think it's fantastic, I think the technology is super and it will involve people, this idea that you can log on at any time of the day or night and find out where it is, I think it's a very clever piece of technology and it's all Australian, isn't that great?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, have you had a chance to have a look at the Jim Lloyd case and are you satisfied that he hasn't breached the code of conduct?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think Jim Lloyd deserves and has my full confidence. There were three allegations made, as I understand it, by Mr Beazley. The first of those allegations was that the $680,000 was announced before it had even been applied for, now that's wrong and Mr Beazley must have known that was wrong if he bothered to read Mr Ticehurst's statement of the 1st of July. The second allegation is that the rain cleared the mouth of the river completely, that's not right, about one-fifteenth according to the engineers has been cleared so plainly the argument that what was it the barrel before the pork or something, I mean that's wrong too, I mean a smart-aleck line but wrong in substance. And thirdly, the email referred to, I don't think well framed, well phrased as the Minister said, but accompanied by a clear explanation as what the real situation is and in any event Wyong Council has made it perfectly clear that they weren't in any way influenced by the words in that email. I have full confidence in Mr Lloyd, I think the Labor Party should understand that this project was actually wanted by the people of the Central Coast, they seem to have lost sight of that fact, their candidate in the last election supported it. I mean this is just a piece of attempted point scoring, I know it's the first week back and all of that but let's preserve a sense of proportion and not go over the top. What's next?
JOURNALIST:
Do you think the problems that have been demonstrated with the programmes such as controversy over Tamworth and now this means that some changes need to be made?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't believe that any problem has been demonstrated with this programme, it was approved, it's a good programme, the local people want it. I mean the people of the Central Coast should understand that the Labor Party is trying to deny them a programme that they wanted.
JOURNALIST:
But didn't that badly worded email, as you conceded was, suggest that the Council should keep quiet so that full money could be made?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look it was accompanied by the advice from the Department which fully explains the situation and therefore it's contextualised.
JOURNALIST:
Are you happy that the ABC is negotiating on the Ashes to get it on free-to-air TV?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I was interested to read that and I'll no doubt have some further discussions. I would like the Ashes to be available free to air for all Australians, it's one of the great iconic sporting events of the year. Whilst I remain very confident about the outcome I think England has a much stronger team, I've been watching some of the tests on television in South Africa and they are presenting a much stronger challenge and I therefore would be very disappointed if one way or another, and I don't quite now how yet, if one way or the other we couldn't have the Ashes on free-to-air television.
JOURNALIST:
Would you be supporting the ABC's bid?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I want to talk to the ABC, I want to find out a little bit more about what they have in mind.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, just on the Commonwealth Games, with the baton relay would it be going through Zimbabwe as well?
PRIME MINISTER:
Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth.
JOURNALIST:
So it won't be going?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you'd have to ask Mr Walker that, I can't answer it but I do know that Zimbabwe has been suspended from the Councils of the Commonwealth, whether the organising committee has decided to include Zimbabwe or not I don't know but at the moment for practical purposes Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, Alby Schultz has complained about the child support system, he says there have been suicides in his electorate, do you have any plans to review the way it currently works?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's fair to say that the operation of the Child Support Agency is under review all the time. I haven't found in my experience as a Member of Parliament an issue that causes more grief, more acrimony, more bitterness, more seemingly intractable argumentation than the Child Support Agency and no review, no system is going to take the rancour and the bitterness out of it, all we can hope to do is improve its operation as best we can. We've had numerous party room discussions and I'm sure the same experience has occurred inside the Opposition. When marriages break down sadly there is a lot of blame, there's a lot of bitterness, it's one of the reasons why we're reforming the family law system to provide for these relationship centres so that we can provide a shock absorber for some of the bitterness and rancour that occurs when a marriage breaks down.
JOURNALIST:
Do you agree with him through that it's too heavily weighed in favour of women?
PRIME MINISTER:
A lot of people hold that view, I don't know that I would talk one way or the other on that, I can understand why some people say it because the more usual outcome of a breakdown is that the mother has custody of the children and the father is paying and the Child Support Agency is essentially about ensuring that people pay what they're meant to pay so therefore the great bulk of the payers are men and it is therefore on the law of probabilities predictable that people complaining about the system would be predominately men. Now that's not to suggest a lot of their complaints aren't justified. It's a very hard issue and I understand the feelings people have, but there's no easy solution, you can't will away or legislate personal bitterness when a marriage or relationship breaks down, sadly that's the main cause of so many of these disputes.
Thank you.
[ends]