JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, Geoff Cousins, are you likely to withdraw his nomination for the Telstra board following criticism from them?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. Mr Cousins has outstanding qualifications to be a Director of Telstra. He's a very experienced businessmen, he knows telecommunications in Australia very intimately. He will bring to the position of Telstra Director a deep understanding of the industry and that's very important. It can only be a plus.
JOURNALIST:
Are you disappointed by the display of defiance by the Telstra Board?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I don't react to those things. Our position's very clear, we will be voting the Commonwealth's shares in favour of Mr Cousins because he is eminently well qualified for the job, that's the reason we're putting it up, there's no other reason. He is the right man for the job.
JOURNALIST:
Is he a current consultant to the Government?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I'm told he resigned about a month ago but it wouldn't matter if he were, that's no disqualification.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister will you reconsider Australia's ban or exporting uranium to India?
PRIME MINISTER:
There would need to be a change of policy if we were to export uranium to India and we are examining all of the implications of the Indian request and the desire of India to be a part of the nuclear system, so to speak, and to get access to uranium for peaceful purposes, but it would require a change of policy. The issue is being considered, certainly our policy to date has been to prohibit sales to countries that are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and that's why, at the moment, we couldn't, without changing policy, sell to India , but we can to China. But as time goes by if India were to meet safeguard obligations some Australians would see it as anomalous that we would sell uranium to China but not to India. But at the moment it would be against policy and there would need to be good reasons to change that policy. But the issue is obviously under consideration.
JOURNALIST:
Are you any closer to doing that now than, for instance, when you visited India?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't think there's anything that's happened to justify the re-emphasis on the issue except that India has repeated her interest in buying Australian uranium, but that was communicated to me in March of this year. But there's nothing that's happened since that has altered the issues that were on the table then.
JOURNALIST:
There's been some pressure on Greg Smith to stand down as the Deputy DPP in New South Wales now that he's a political candidate for the Liberal Party, do you think there's any pressure on Pru Goward to step down as Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner now she's a candidate for Goulburn?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well she has indicated that she'll do what is proper in these circumstances and I think all of this pressure, now let me talk about Mr Smith for a moment, it is all just entirely political. Mr Smith has behaved properly, appropriately, he's an outstanding candidate and I look forward to having him as a colleague because his electorate is 40 per cent in my electorate, so we'll be parliamentary colleagues and I think he's an outstanding addition, as is Pru, and I'm sure both of them will do the right thing and the attacks on them are just puerile politics.
JOURNALIST:
Is the right thing to do to stand down....
PRIME MINISTER:
The right thing to do is to obey the law and the law requires you to resign your position when the writs for election are issued. If she chooses to resign before then, well that's her decision.
JOURNALIST:
So you're happy for her to stay in that position?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I am happy for her to obey the law and I am sure she will.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, you spoke on finger printing migrants. I was wondering whether you could elaborate....
PRIME MINISTER:
Finger printing migrants?
JOURNALIST:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
When did I speak on that?
JOURNALIST:
I read that yesterday.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven't said anything about that recently. I'm not quite sure what you're referring to.
JOURNALIST:
Would you consider...
PRIME MINISTER:
No, we're not proposing anything new in that area. I think what I have said in relation to citizenship is well known, but I haven't spoken recently about finger printing. But whatever is necessary we do, but I haven't said anything new about that.
JOURNALIST:
Can you tell us what your reaction was to the news that the 43 Papuan asylum seekers were put together as a political movement to establish an independence movement?
PRIME MINISTER:
I did read that story; you're talking about the story in the Australian?
JOURNALIST:
Precisely.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah I did read that. It did not entirely surprise me, some aspects of that story, but a decision has been taken in relation to those people. But I think it is a reminder to critics of the Government, and particularly to critics of the Government in relation to the legislation that we put to one side, that there was perhaps a little more to that whole issue than met the eye. Thank you.
JOURNALIST:
With the portfolio swap of...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
JOURNALIST:
With Mark Vaile now taking over Transport, can you just tell us, there's allegations now this could be a chance for him to spend a lot of money in rural electorates coming up to....
PRIME MINISTER:
Spend a lot of money? Well the Government...
JOURNALIST:
Could this be an allegation of pork barrelling in regional electorates?
PRIME MINISTER:
No you won't have any of that. What we will do is see Mr Vaile concentrating as Leader of the National Party on some of the core responsibilities of that position. He's done a great job as a Trade Minister and I think his decision is very sensible, and it will be good for the National Party and good for the Government. But where there is need, and there will be great need if the drought doesn't break, for the Federal Government and the state governments to provide drought assistance to our farmers; our farmers are facing one of the most difficult seasons in living memory, the drought has not broken in many parts of the country, in fact it's intensified, and there will be a very heavy responsibility on both levels of government, and I don't allow the state governments to escape their responsibility, to look after the farmers as they work their way through this drought. That's the biggest challenge facing rural Australia at the present time, the drought. That's far more important than anything else, and I've had recent discussions with the National Farmers' Federation and they are bracing for a terrible summer. Unless there is some rain in the next few weeks large parts of Australia will be in crisis as far as the drought is concerned. I'm very aware of that and I will be working very closely with Mr Vaile and I will expect the state governments to shoulder their share of the burden in relation to this as well.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, have you seen what Mark Latham had to say about Australian males today and did you have a response to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't responded to Mr Latham for some time and I don't intend to break that drought.
JOURNALIST:
There's a US national intelligence report in the New York Times and it says the Iraq war gave birth to a new generation of Islamic radicals and the terrorist threat has grown since September 11. Look, what's your response to this new report?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well my response is that there are many theories about the origins of terrorism and the factors that bear on terrorism. One fact is absolutely certain and that is that Australia and the United States and many other countries were terrorist targets long before the military operation in Iraq. I remind you that the 88 Australians who were killed in Bali were murdered before the invasion of Iraq, and I remind you that the first attack on the World Trade Centre took place in 1993, 10 years before the military operation in Iraq.
JOURNALIST:
Does this back up what Mick Keelty said previously?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think it's just another contribution to a debate that will go on for a long period of time. It's another view, you've asked me my view, I've given you my view.
Thank you.
[ends]