MITCHELL:
Mr Howard good morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Neil.
MITCHELL:
Welcome back from holidays.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you. Welcome back to you. Good to talk to you again.
MITCHELL:
Fully refreshed? Ready for another five years?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm certainly fully refreshed and I'm ready for as many years as my party wants me to; and it continues in my party's interests that I be there.
MITCHELL:
I thought you might just be relaxed enough to get to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good try.
MITCHELL:
Important though isn't it, the baton arriving?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh very important day and this is a big event for Melbourne. And as always the people of Melbourne and Victoria will do us proud. They're great followers of sport. The Melbourne Cricket Ground has a special place in the sporting life of this country and it will be a superb event and the interest will grow. It's been very well organised, and I'm sure it will be a great occasion for people to cheer on the Australian team-as we always do.
MITCHELL:
Will we see a lot of you through the Games?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I'll spend quite a bit of time there. I have a number of other things to do, but as far as possible, I'll work out of the Treasury Place office I have in Melbourne, which is a very good office to work out of, in many respects, the best one in the country, and it's always a great delight to work out of that office in Melbourne. I won't obviously be spending the whole time at the Games, I'll have other things to do but I'll be wanting to cheer the Australian team on. I see that as what the Australian people would want me to do.
MITCHELL:
A serious point about your holiday, it is a time for contemplation, we talked about that before you went away. What did you think about? What did you decide during your holidays?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I thought about a re-structuring of the Cabinet and I'll be announcing something on that very soon, I can't say exactly when, how can I put it, I'm right in the process of doing that at present. I thought about some of the things for the year ahead, about what some of the goals should be for the Government, the emphasis we should place on things other than, or in addition to rather, not other than, in addition to managing the economy well and national security, because they're still the centre pieces of what we do. I think we as a country have to try and tackle the level of business regulation, I think there's too much business regulation in this country. I would like the Premiers conference, which is being held early next month to be a cooperative one. I'm very hopeful that coming out of that conference we can reach agreement on a number of things. I hope we can address a few areas in health that can be made more cooperative. I hope that we can get rid of this absurd situation where a trade qualification obtained in Western Australia is not automatically valid in New South Wales or Queensland, although it maybe in London-I mean that is ridiculous in 2006. I would hope that the Commonwealth and the states can work together to tackle the problem of mental health. It'll require a contribution from both levels. I think it will also require a recognition that a generation ago this country probably made a mistake in a too rapid deinstitutionalisation of its approach to mental health. Now I'm not saying you can turn the clock back on that but we have to recognise some of the mistakes that have been made. I think we have to recognise as a society that those who thought that recreational drug taking, such as marijuana was harmless, were wrong, terribly wrong, tragically wrong in the case of many people and....
MITCHELL:
Do you see a hardening of the legal attitude on marijuana?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I certainly would encourage the states not to make it any easier and those that feel their way clear to make it harder, they should do so. I'm not suggesting that that's going to solve it overnight. But this idea that marijuana is a safe, harmless, recreational drug was always wrong and the evidence is now mounting and the change in community attitude; I can remember a few years ago I had an argument with, I think, some of my Victorian Liberal Party colleagues when they were in power about this issue, about the decriminalisation of marijuana and I was very strongly opposed to it. I don't think anybody, well I hope nobody in the Victorian Government or Liberal Party would be arguing that now because the evidence is very, very strong.
MITCHELL:
And that's linked to the issue you were mentioning, mental health?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course it is, it's very directly linked to mental health. And the impact it has on depression, the incidence of depression, I mean we all know people who have indulged in too much and they've paid a terrible price.
MITCHELL:
When did you discover Julian McGauran was going to defect?
PRIME MINISTER:
About two minutes past seven on Sunday night when he rang me. And I had no idea until then that this was going to happen.
MITCHELL:
Did Peter Costello play a role in it or not?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't believe that Peter encouraged him to defect. No Peter and Julian, and I think Michael Kroger and a number of them, they're all roughly around the same age and I think they were probably at university together; know each other and it goes back a long time. But there's nothing odd about that and after all the Liberal Party and the National Party are at the very least first cousins politically, so it's not surprising they should share similar views. Could I say that I understand the feelings of the National Party about this and it's a sensitive issue for them and if a Liberal said he or she was going to join the National Party, there'd be a few people in the Liberal Party complaining and spitting chips about that. But we have to keep a perspective, he's a member of the Coalition and the important thing is to retain him within the Coalition family.
MITCHELL:
But isn't it fair that he should resign?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, well, could I just make it clear, this is his decision. I mean he didn't ask me and the Liberal Party did not poach him, they certainly didn't. I'm satisfied having spoken to Peter Costello and having spoken to Helen Kroger, the Victorian President of the Liberal Party, that he was not poached. Now in those circumstances, difficult though it is for the National Party and I am sympathetic to their feelings, I understand that. On the other hand we've got to remember the main game and the main game is that he's a member of the Coalition and the Coalition has with him a very slender majority in the Senate. And if he were having resigned from the National Party not to join the Liberal Party, he'd be politically sort of stateless and that wouldn't be very good, and it wouldn't be very sensible.
MITCHELL:
Does he have the potential to join your Ministry?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I wouldn't be considering him for a Ministry.
MITCHELL:
I don't mean now, I mean in future.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look, I wouldn't offer a view on that. There's a lot of people of talent and unfortunately in the current changes there are a number of people that I would like to promote that I won't be able to promote.
MITCHELL:
When will that be announced?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, very soon.
MITCHELL:
The Bali Nine. You would've seen that one of the so-called mules, or several of the so-called mules, that it's unlikely the death sentence will be sought. What's your reaction to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think I will wait Neil until the verdicts have all been handed down because if there is anything constructive that the Government can do, it's better to do it in a way that is respectful of the Indonesian legal system. I don't think it's helpful for the Prime Minister to be giving a running commentary and I feel sorry for the families. I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who carry drugs. I don't think any of your listeners do and I can understand why, because drugs are destructive and they cause death and life-long misery to families who lose loved ones. I have a very hard view about drugs. I don't believe in the death penalty and if the death penalty is not imposed, well I'm pleased about that. But I think we have to understand that anybody who gets caught up with carrying drugs has got to expect a very severe punishment.
MITCHELL:
What about the recommendation from the judge in Australia that the Federal Police should review their rules in dealing with countries where the death penalty is operational?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the police have handled themselves correctly and I defend what they did in this case completely.
MITCHELL:
So it was appropriate to hand, effectively hand, these people over to a country with the death penalty?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it was appropriate to try and cooperate with their fellow law enforcement agencies in South East Asia to apprehend people who were breaking the law.
MITCHELL:
There's been some criticism today of the state funeral for Kerry Packer, what's your reaction to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the reason that I decided, and it was my decision alone and I made the offer to the Packer family, was as a mark of respect for the enormous contribution he's made to the country. I mean it obviously wasn't to provide them, the family with financial assistance, clearly that wasn't it. And the basic contribution, the basic cost that's involved to the tax payer, in these things is not very high. But I think it is appropriate on occasions that people other than former Ministers of the Crown be honoured with state funerals. The Federal Government in the time I've been Prime Minister; we gave Nugget Coombs a state funeral, we gave Charlie Perkins a state funeral, I gave BA Santamaria a state funeral, we cooperated with the South Australian Government in giving Don Bradman a state funeral, and a number of State Government's have given figures outside the normal ambit of people, state funerals. I think Kerry Packer, like him or not, and a lot of people like him and a lot of people didn't, I think Kerry Packer was a remarkable business and media figure in this country, and if we are to have a broad view of the life of this country, we ought to honour business figures from time to time as well as sporting, political and military figures.
MITCHELL:
Just a couple of quick ones finally. Are you concerned by the credibility, or lack of credibility surrounding the Australian Wheat Board at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the best thing I can do Neil is to say that I have followed the evidence before the Cole Inquiry with mounting concern, but it's not right that I pre-empt the deliberations of the inquiry. Mr Cole is a very competent lawyer and I just hope that he gets to the bottom of it all. I'm sure he will and I'm sure he will talk to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and I'm sure that if any people from the Department of Foreign Affairs need to be called, they will. And I'm sure if he wants any further assistance from the Government he'll ask for it and it will be provided.
MITCHELL:
Are you confident thought the Government is not culpable here?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am. All the information I have supports that view. But I want to emphasise from the very beginning the council assisting the inquiry said that they had been looking at the role of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and this idea that's emanating from Mr Rudd that the Government is being protected is quite wrong. The Department is being questioned. The Department has made all its documents available and if people from the Department must be called, they will be called and they will be expected to go.
MITCHELL:
Are you, just finally, are you taken by Senator Minchin's idea of removing the tax on superannuation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I think we're all taken by the idea of having as few taxes as possible. It's a question of priorities and that's an idea that'll be considered along with all the other ideas in the mix. I believe it is important that we don't get, at this time, we don't imagine because we have a surplus we have unlimited capacities to do things in the taxation area, and we want to make sure that we keep a good surplus and we don't put any upward pressure on interest rates. $10 a week tax cut is not much good if your interest rate goes up by half a percent.
MITCHELL:
It strikes me that the Minister's raising this, sort of increasing the level of expectations. Have you advised him to hose it down?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think it would be a good idea if everybody had a return to normalcy as far as ideas in relation to the budget. It's not easy being Treasurer and I think Peter will be greatly aided by everybody understanding the difficult balancing act that he must perform. And that's the message I would send to all of my colleagues. Warmly, sincerely and with New Year greetings.
MITCHELL:
And unequivocally.
PRIME MINISTER:
And unequivocally, yes.
MITCHELL:
Prime Minister, thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Great pleasure.
[ends]