SAUNDERS:
In our Canberra studio, and he will be in Tasmania later today for the commemorative service, is the Prime Minister John Howard. Mr Howard, good morning and thank you for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning.
SAUNDERS:
There is no unanimity about the need or desire for a commemorative service today at Port Arthur, why do you believe we do need it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course there are a lot of people who feel it will help them. It was an incredibly tragic event, the largest mass murder in Australia's history. Whilst you never get unanimity on things like this, it is in my opinion a very good idea to have such a commemorative service and judging by the remarks of many of the people who lost loved ones, it appears as though it will give them quite a deal of comfort and support and for that reason alone it is worth having.
SAUNDERS:
Do you agree it will be a traumatic day for some of those who do choose to attend?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes it will be, but it will also be a day in which they feel the nation is sharing their remembrance, their recollection and their grief and in the human experience, those things do help.
SAUNDERS:
Should this be the last formal and major commemorative service held for Port Arthur?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that really is a matter for the public. It's a matter for the local community. I cannot imagine there will be one as significant as this, but really it's not for me to ordain whether there should be observances or not by individuals or local communities, that is a matter for them. I imagine that this would be the last major one, but let's not sort of spend endless moments debating whether there should be another one or not. Let's reflect on the significance of the day. Let's mark the remembrance for so many people who lost so many loved ones.
SAUNDERS:
You mentioned the feeling that people of Australia do support those who are affected and continue to be affected by the shooting. Is that main message to put behind today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think the importance of today is to provide comfort and support for those who lost their loved ones and also to mark in an optimistic way the resilience of men and women, that wonderful man who lost his daughter and two grandchildren, he has put his life together. I watched and heard him on television this morning and he is an inspiration to anybody who has suffered a similar tragedy, not many as big a tragedy as that. These days are always a mixture of sadness and hope and so they should be, because they were sad events. Terrible events that we marked, but they are also a symbol of the resilience of man and the capacity of people to go forward.
SAUNDERS:
You raised again the issue of gun control and it has been discussed much over the last few days. This time we are talking about hands guns. Why is now the appropriate time? It does bring back the associations of course, automatically, for people to talk about guns and Port Arthur.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I was asked the question as to whether we could go further and my view is that you can always go further. We have come a long way. Australia is a safer country as a result of the changes that were made in the wake of Port Arthur. There are something like 500,000 long arms, including a lot of semi-automatics that were taken out of the community. There were further changes made in relation to hand guns in 2003. The statistics show undeniably that there are fewer murders involving guns. There are fewer suicides involving guns. Those figures are unarguable so the changes were of great benefit to the community. I am not saying that further major changes are needed. I am really making the point that it is always a work in progress and we can always go further. There are some people who have a legitimate right to guns. Clearly police and security people and farmers have a certain type of gun and they have always been permitted to have them and should and sporting shooters, providing the rules governing their use are effective, I think the rules that we hammered out several years ago in relation to the sporting shooters were pretty good.
My general point is that more can always be done. I am not pointing the finger at anybody, I am just saying that more can always be done because I believe very strongly that the average citizen does not need a gun and ought not to have a gun. I have always felt very strongly indeed that Australia should never allow herself to go down the American path in relation to the possession of guns and we should always remind ourselves of how different we are in that respect. We see so many American crime scenes on television. We see so many situations involving the ready access to guns in that country. It does tend on occasions to permeate our culture and I think that is a bad thing, or that particular permeation is a bad thing, so they are my views.
SAUNDERS:
National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce says that he will oppose any efforts that the States or the Federal Government, to tighten gun control. He speaks of infringement of the rights. I think you addressed that somewhat, but is he being oversensitive of the rights of people to have guns?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think there is no inherent right of people to possess weapons in this country. I don't accept that. My view is that Australia is a society where people should establish the need before they have the right and people do establish the need. If they are a farmer, they obviously need a certain calibre of weapon for their work. There is no argument about that and we have never opposed that. We have always supported that right and if you are in the security business, if you are a police officer, you are a military officer, if you are involved in sporting shooting and if there are other special circumstances where you can establish to the satisfaction of local authorities and police that you are entitled to have it. Beyond that, I would always question the right of people to carry guns because they are lethal weapons in murders. As experts say, a crime of passion, not of reason and people with ready access to guns are more likely to commit murder in a domestic argument than they are to pick up a knife or a hammer or a tomahawk.
SAUNDERS:
As you say, you were asked the questions and you expressed a hope that it is something that the States will address. Not something that you wish to [inaudible].
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, but I don't want to be heard to be saying that I think everybody is dragging their feet on the issue. I think we have together come a long way, but I would hope that the States and none of us ever regard it as a finished task. It is still a work in progress and there is always further steps that can be taken and that is the point I am making.
SAUNDERS:
Does it also go into the area of controlling the illegal guns markets? There has been a lot of shootings in some of our major cities.
PRIME MINISTER:
That is obviously part of the process and that is really part of what I am getting at. Now I am not so naive as to believe that there won't always be some criminal elements who won't, no matter what the laws are, have access to guns, but the fewer guns there are in general circulation, the further will be the decline in the murder rate involving weapons. That is the point I make.
SAUNDERS:
Prime Minister, it's been a difficult week in Tasmania. We had three fishermen killed...
PRIME MINISTER:
A terrible week.
SAUNDERS:
In the Tasman Peninsula. It is still two miners missing. Have you been briefed on the situation that has been happening?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have. I have followed that very, very closely and it is a terrible time for the families, for the local community, I can't imagine anything any more agonising than to wait outside a mine shaft and the awful trauma of knowing that your husband, or father, or son is down there, beneath all of that rubble, it must be an awful experience and I do feel very much for the men, for their families, tragically one person has already, his body has been discovered, Larry Paul Knight. We can only hope and pray that the others are alive. Of course as time goes by it gets more difficult to sustain that hope, but we do think of their families and the local community. It is a small community, small communities come together in a remarkable fashion at a time like this, but it has been a tough week for Tasmania and I feel for them.
SAUNDERS:
Prime Minster, it has also been a tough week for the Kovco family, there has been over the last 24 hours some public disquiet about the varying versions that have been discussed as to how the Private may have died. Are you able to clarify any of those circumstances?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I am not in any position to say how he died. There is an inquiry and everybody should hold further comment until that inquiry has been held and its findings are known. I have no way of knowing what happened, obviously I wasn't there. I haven't spoken to anybody who was there, I don't intend to, the important thing is for a proper legal inquiry to be conducted into the cause of his death. It is tragic. He apparently did not, it is fair to say that he did not die as a result of enemy fire, but he died on service for his country. He died in Iraq, he died as part of a military mission for which the Government and me, I in particular, accept full responsibility. It was our decision to commit military forces to Iraq and I am very conscious of that. I am also very conscious of the need for there to be a full and proper inquiry and until that has been held and the findings are in, it is better that further observations on what happened and how and what sequence be withheld.
SAUNDERS:
His mother has spoken of her concerns that there may be an Army and a Government cover-up. Can you address those concerns of hers this morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can give her, I can give her an assurance, there will be no cover-up. There has never been any intention on the part of anybody to cover anything up. That is why we are having a full and open inquiry. But it will take time. You can't get to the bottom of something like this within 24 hours. You do have to talk to people. There does have to be a coronial investigation. All these things are very sad, but it can't be done overnight, it will take a while but I can assure Private Kovco's mother and all the other members of the family, there will be no cover-up. There has never been, on the part of the Government, and I am sure on the part of the leadership of the Army, to have any cover-up.
SAUNDERS:
Just finally, has the ADF let, or is it letting down the families of Australian Defence Force personnel overseas by not having proper protocols in place for the repatriation of Australian bodies.
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think it is fair to make any general observation. I am sure that the terrible mistake that was made in relation to the body would have caused an enormous amount of anguish to everybody in the Army, especially to Private Kovco's friends in the Army. The practice of using private contractors, I am told, has been in use for quite a long time and as to whether it should be altered in the future, well that is something that will be looked at. The Defence Minister has already indicated that. Once again in relation to what precisely happened concerning Private Kovco's body, that is also the subject of an inquiry and until I have the results of that I am not going to offer any further comments.
SAUNDERS:
Prime Minister, thank you for your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]