PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'm, as you know, going back to Australia immediately. It's been a short, intensive, highly successful working visit. Not only the symbolic receiving of the first shipment of LNG but a very valuable hour long meeting with the Premier and then further intensive discussions over lunch. The relationship between the two countries is in very good shape. It goes from strength to strength economically and our discussions about issues like North Korea and Iran are very valuable. We come from a somewhat different perspective than the Chinese in relation to some of these issues and that makes the relationship all the more valuable. Any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister there is progress, it seems, on a prison transfer deal with Indonesia. Are you confident that this could be signed sooner rather than later?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to commit myself to a time. I understand from my Ministers, who are taking part in the Ministerial in Denpasar that progress is being made, but really the Justice Minister and the Immigration Minister would be across the detail more than I am. I welcome any progress but I don't want to set target dates because they may not be realised.
JOURNALIST:
Can you say Prime Minister, whether there was some conjecture about whether it was retrospective and whether someone like Schapelle Corby or the Bali Nine...
PRIME MINISTER:
I think you should ask the people on the ground who are involved in the discussions. I'm not advised on that.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, you said yesterday that countries like Australia needed to redouble their efforts to get the multilateral trade negotiations to some sort of positive conclusion if possible. At the same time there's speculation that Mark Vaile may move in the next few weeks. Can you rule out a reshuffle over the recess?
PRIME MINISTER:
Michelle, you know I never rule those things in or out.
JOURNALIST:
Well you do sometimes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Michelle, I don't get badgered into timelines in relation to those things, even by eminent interlocutors such as you.
JOURNALIST:
Is it your intention that Mark Vaile will be Trade Minister at the time of the next election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think Mark Vaile will continue to serve the Government magnificently.
JOURNALIST:
Is he overstretched with his....
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't think he's overstretched. I think he does a very good job. Obviously there are a lot of things on at the moment and he's overseas again at the present time. But we talked about this issue when we had the reshuffle following John Anderson's retirement and we talked at length about it, and the understanding was that certainly whilst the Doha Round and the WTO negotiations were in their intensive phase, it was very important that Mark stay there for the sake of continuity and we have no understanding about any changes by a particular date. But he's the Deputy Prime Minister and obviously within the range of portfolios normally held by the National Party in a Coalition, he's entitled to nominate what he wants.
JOURNALIST:
But he would see out this round?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh absolutely.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, do you support Helen Clark's comments saying that she would like a speedy resolution with the United Nations with peace keepers for East Timor?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't seen the full context of those remarks so I'm not going to comment.
JOURNALIST:
Are you concerned, though, about the safety of the overseas troops in Dili now that the violence has once more escalated, that we're seeing this east-west tension emerging again?
PRIME MINISTER
I always worry about the safety of Australian troops overseas wherever they are. If it's in Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor, the Solomons; obviously East Timor and the Solomons aren't as dangerous as Afghanistan and Iraq, but I'm equally sure that they're capable of looking after themselves.
JOURNALIST:
Have you received any further information in relation to developments in relation to North Korea?
PRIME MINISTER
No. What I can say about North Korea is that I went to some length yesterday to make it very clear that in our view, the test firing of a missile by the North Koreans would be extremely provocative.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, what about the shipping of interceptor missiles to Japan. Would that be equally provocative?
PRIME MINISTER
I think the potential provocation is overwhelmingly on the North Korean side and not on any other side. I mean this is an issue because North Korea breached her obligations under the international protocols covering nuclear weapons and nuclear capacity. It started with that, so let's keep that in the back of our minds when we assess the behaviour of others.
JOURNALIST:
Was Premier Wen right when he said that all sides should avoid provocative behaviour?
PRIME MINISTER
Premier Wen's main objective is to make the six-party talks work and to get the whole dispute back within the context of the six-party talks.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, on AWAs in the resources sector, I understand the Opposition has said that in relation to the 43 per cent of workers who are covered by AWAs, that they would be AWAs formulated pre-WorkChoices, that is with a no-disadvantage test.
PRIME MINISTER
I haven't seen everything the Opposition has said on this, but I don't alter in any way my criticism of the commitment to get rid of AWAs. And bear in mind that the boss of Unions Western Australia said that there was no guarantee that existing AWAs, and they would certainly include a lot of the ones you're talking about, there's no guarantee that all of them would continue under a future Labor Government. He made it clear that the union movement, consistent with its desire to run the country again, would simply grab hold of all the AWAs and have a look at them, tick some and trash others. So there's no guarantee under a Beazley Government that AWAs negotiated before WorkChoices started would be allowed to continue.
JOURNALIST:
Kim Beazley says that the miners would be no worse off on a common law contract. Now you indicated yesterday that perhaps...
PRIME MINISTER
I don't agree with Mr Beazley. Look, Mr Beazley has a problem on this issue. I noticed in this morning's press that even the Western Australian Premier was saying that there would need to be some adjustment of the federal Labor policy in order to accommodate the particular needs of Western Australia. Mr Carpenter is alive to the value of AWAs to the resource sector in Western Australia and splits are now emerging in the Labor Party's policy on this issue. AWAs are essential to the competitive edge that we have in the resource industry and no attempts by Mr Beazley to say common law contracts are as good; they're not as good, they're not as flexible.
JOURNALIST:
Why not?
PRIME MINISTER
Because they do not allow employers and employees to negotiate in the way that AWAs do and why do I say that? I say it based on talking to people in the resource sector over a number of years and they've made it very clear, the Minerals Council, the industry in Western Australia's made it very clear that take AWAs away and you remove an enormous amount of flexibility.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, last one, the one I tried to get to you yesterday. A few days ago there was a murder of an eight year old girl in a shopping centre in Perth and there was a suggestion that the person who did it was one of the murderers of Jamie Bulger, who was the little boy in Britain, a little toddler killed by...
PRIME MINISTER
I know who you mean.
JOURNALIST:
Is it possible that someone like that could be resettled in Australia under a scheme where they're given a new identity?
PRIME MINISTER
That is an unbelievably hypothetical question and I am not even going to try and answer it. In relation to the particular circumstances of the matter, the appalling murder of a little girl, I understand the Western Australian Police have responded to rumours and I direct you to that response. Thank you.
[ends]