PRIME MINISTER:
Could I just start by saying that given the Labor Party won't tell the business community what its industrial relations policy is, let me fill the void, and I can tell the business community in Australia that we know for certain that Labor's industrial relations policy has three very negative elements. Firstly, Labor will bring back the job-destroying unfair dismissal laws and that will hurt hundreds of thousands of Australian small businesses. Secondly, we know that Labor will abolish Australian Workplace Agreements which could undermine the living standards of up to a million Australians and thirdly, we know that Labor will take the secondary boycott provisions out of the Trade Practices Act and that will re-expose many firms in this country to predatory union behaviour which can go by without real rebuke. Now that's just for openers and they are three of the things that the business community of Australia should know about Labor's industrial relations policy, the policy that dare not speak its name or breathe its existence at the business forum today. Any questions?
JOURNALIST:
On the skills issues, you've raised the issue of apprenticeship completion rates The ALP's got a policy of completion bonuses, is that a policy that you would consider adopting now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we have a policy in relation to rewarding people who stay in the system and we continue to look at all aspects of that.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, you're also talking about the need for higher level skills, would you consider the proposal from the Australian Industry Group to redirect to the employer subsidies towards those sort of skills rather than having them concentrated on lower level sort of traineeships in services and retail?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'm quite interested in what the AIG has had to say today, it obviously, like so many of these things, does call for the expenditure of more government money but it's an issue that the Government and the business community have to work together in solving, but it also involves the participation of state governments and a recognition by the trade union movement that many of the rigidities of the award system in the past have contributed to some of the problems we have. It's something that everybody has got to be involved in and I'm very keen to have a look at what the Australian Industry Group has had to say.
JOURNALIST:
There is a call for a billion dollars to be invested over three years, will the Government consider that?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's easy for other people to call on the Government for an expenditure of money, but I think they're trying to make a contribution and we'll examine the paper that's been put out by the AIG.
JOURNALIST:
You've also mentioned...set a challenge to state governments to do a couple of things this morning including, say, employability skills in school curriculum, can the Federal Government have a role in forcing them to do that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the state governments essentially run the TAFE system and they run the schools and major reforms in these areas can only be carried out by state governments. While ever we have state governments they have certain responsibilities and they've got to live up to them. But we're trying to work together with state governments but some of them have been very slow, for example New South Wales has only just finally, I think, acknowledged the need to allow school-based apprenticeships in this state. New South Wales and Western Australia have lagged behind the rest of the Commonwealth in allowing school-based apprenticeships which are really no-brainers in my view in the modern world when its comes to skills flexibility.
JOURNALIST:
And on mature-age apprenticeships, does there need to be a cultural change among employers to think about hiring older Australians for some of those roles?
PRIME MINSITER:
Yes, I think there needs to be continuation of the cultural change which has already begun. A lot of employers have done some great things in this area, I think of the lead shown by a couple of the major banks, the ANZ and Westpac in particular, who are offering a lot more opportunities for older workers to remain in the workforce on a part time basis. But it is a deeper issue than that, you've got to help older people who want to change their skills capacity and upgrade into higher skills whilst remaining in the workforce. We've got to get away from this idea that skills preparation and skills training is all about what happens at the beginning of your working life and get to a situation where it includes what happens halfway through your working life.
JOURNALIST:
And Prime Minister, what's your reaction to the revelations about some of these soldiers in Iraq and the material that has been put on the Internet?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well my reaction is to leave it to the military to deal with it in accordance with military procedures and for the rest of the community not to overreact.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, is it a sacking offence do you think?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think that we should overreact on this. I think we have to understand that soldiers work, particularly in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, they work in very stressful environments and soldiers through the ages have let of a bit of steam when they are working in stressful environments, but having said that I will leave it to the military but I'm not going to tell the military and I don't think anybody else should tell the military how to handle this. They have their own procedures and I respect that and I'm not going to give them any gratuitous advice. They will deal with it in the manner they think appropriate, but generally can I just take the opportunity of saying I think our serving men and women do a fantastic job and as far as their general contribution to the country is concerned I think they're outstanding.
JOURNALIST:
But the image of an Australian soldier pointing a weapon at someone wearing an Arab head-dress, do you think that could send the wrong message about our...
PRIME MINISTER:
I just don't think we should overreact.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, on another matter the Muslim clerics preaching in English, would you support that move?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I do and I think generally the statements that have come out of that meeting have been very positive and I want to compliment the reaction of many of the spokesmen - not all of them, but most of them - for the Islamic community. I think they are understanding the need to respond to concerns the broader community has and I think we should give credit where it is due. It's a slow process and our whole aim is to have every section of Australia's community fully integrated into the broader community. That's the name of the game, that's what we hope to achieve and I believe the reaction of the Imams and what I heard this morning, particularly from Dr Ali was very encouraging.
JOURNALIST:
You've just said that the 457 visa scheme is of particular importance to the economy, do you acknowledge that changes are needed to ensure that it's not abused by some rogue employers?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I always acknowledge that in any system anywhere in the economy on anything, there will be some people who might abuse it. The point I was making this morning was that there's massive hypocrisy from the Labor Party on these visas, and the State Labor Governments are all up to their armpits in using it, the New South Wales Health Department is the biggest single user of 457s, yet their Federal mates are up in Parliament everyday saying it's outrageous. Give us a break.
JOURNALIST:
The Solomon Islands Government has cancelled the appointment of Marcus Einfeld (inaudible) and the Prime Minister has criticised the way Australia's carried out its peace-keeping mission there. What's your response to that?
PRIME MINSITER:
What they do about Mr Einfeld is a matter for them, in relation to the issue more broadly there was no justification for the declaration made in relation to Mr Cole, he'd done his job and we continue to very strongly support him and we'll work through these issues. But let's make it clear, we are still very concerned about issues of governance and corruption in the Solomon Islands and we owe it to the Australian people to remain concerned about those matters.
Thank you.
[Ends]