JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister the military commander of Fiji says he's not going to stage a coup. Do you believe him?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the situation has to be followed from day to day. We are still concerned about the possibility of a coup and if you look at the totality of his remarks over the last couple of weeks, we have every reason for that concern. We don't want a coup. I listened very carefully to what the Police Commissioner said this morning. He is behaving in a very sensible, conciliatory, yet firm way. It is a very important issue at stake here. It's fundamental to the way we operate as democracies, that the military is under civilian control and the idea that a military could force a democratically elected government out of office, fundamentally is as undemocratic as you can contemplate.
JOURNALIST:
Had the Kanimbla and the Newcastle been equipped to provide any military support if that's necessary?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look the purpose of them going there is to be ready if evacuation of Australian nationals is needed and resources are available to assist in relation to that.
JOURNALIST:
Would Australia provide military support if requested by the Fijian Government?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there has been no request and I think in situations like this we don't get into hypothetical possibilities. We are a friend of Fiji's. I've spoken to the Prime Minister, I've assured him of our support, we've strongly denounced the possibility of a coup. Our CDF has spoken to Bainimarama to reinforce the views of the Government and Bainimarama has been spoken to by his counterpart from New Zealand. So we've made our position very clear, but we are dealing with a sovereign, independent country and we respect the sovereignty and the independence of Fiji and we of course have to look after our own people if that becomes necessary.
JOURNALIST:
Has the mood turned more positive in the last 24-hours would you say?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we are hopeful that there won't be a coup, I don't want to give a running commentary, and I think it's foolish to give commentaries based on the difference in tone between one interview compared with an earlier one, that's always unwise in these situations. It remains an area of great concern for us; we remain alert to the possibility of a coup. We will look after our own people, we will continue to assure the Fijian Government of our support, we continue to ask that democracy be respected. Fiji's had too many coups already. It will do great damage to the economy, it will hurt the people it will set back the cause of reconciliation between the Indian population and the indigenous Fijian population, for all of those reasons it would be a deplorable outcome for the people of Fiji if there were another coup.
JOURNALIST:
Are you at all worried Prime Minister with the Australian Navy deployed off Fiji that it could just ratchet up the tensions between...?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, I think everybody understands we have lots of Australians in Fiji and when I was there with some of you last week, every second person seemed in the hotel, in the resort seemed to be an Australian. We have a legitimate interest and responsibility to look after our own people and that's what we will do.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard the Mufti has called on his supporters not to turn up at this rally, the planned rally tomorrow; do you welcome that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think the best thing the Mufti could do would be to take on board the concerns expressed by the mainstream of the Australian community. Naturally I don't want any violence of any kind, I am opposed to that very strongly, but there is a broader issue which should not be lost sight of, and that is that unless this issue is resolved in a way that is seen as appropriate by the majority of the Australian community, it could do lasting damage to relations between Islamic Australians and the rest of the community.
JOURNALIST:
Are you worried that he might become a martyr for the more extreme elements within the Islamic community?
PRIME MINISTER:
My worry is not about him; my worry is about the relationship between Islamic Australians and the rest of the community. I want them fully integrated, I want them to feel part of the Australian community, I want them to feel wanted, and that can only happen of course if the rest of the community is of the view that they desire integration and accommodation. I am sure the great majority of them do, and I am sure they are appalled at what has happened and I am sure like me, they want the thing resolved. And everybody knows how it can be resolved, but it's not in my hands. Australian governments, governments generally don't appoint people to religious positions in this country. It is a matter for the flock to decide who its shepherd will be.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Beazley is going to launch a plan today about recasting federalism he's calling it; linking - putting targets on states for Commonwealth funding. Is this something that you agree with him on?
PRIME MINISTER:
A lot of this occurs already of course, it happens all the time. I mean for example we make it a condition, a lot of the education funding that we provide that states meet targets, we attach conditions to the money we provide under the hospital agreements for public hospitals. I am a great believer and always have been in states being required to meet benchmarks and meet conditions in relation to federal money that's provided. We have been doing that for ten years and we'll go on doing it.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry gave a very interesting speech last night warning that the economic prosperity that Australia has at the moment wouldn't go on forever and could be particularly affected when the minerals boom ends and with the drought. Do you agree with that assessment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think what he was saying was that we should always be careful to use the proceeds of a boom and the proceeds of good economic times in a wise and prudent long term fashion and I agree with that very much. That's one of the reasons why we've established a Future Fund to look after the future liabilities of the Federal Government in relation to superannuation. It's why we are investing a lot of money in clean coal technology. It's why we're investing a lot of money in water projects, I think all of those things are very much for the long term and I agree with him that you have to use the proceeds of the boom very wisely. I think we have to keep in mind that in the last budget there were very large tax cuts and that should be borne in mind, and of course from the first of July next year a massive change to superannuation in this country will come into operation and there will be no taxation after the age of 60 on your pension or your lump sum super payments. Now that is an enormous change, a huge change and that was announced in the last budget so we have already done a great deal in the area of taxation. Now as to what happens in the future I have absolutely no comment except to say that the budget will be kept strongly in surplus. We must always err on the side of caution and conservatism when it comes to budget planning. We must never stretch to the limit the possibility that we'll have 'x' amount of revenue available, we should always err on the side of caution and finally and particularly and appropriately given where I am this morning we have to recognise that we'll have to go on spending increasing amounts of money on defence. I do not see a future where, I do not see a foreseeable future in which we won't have to spend large amounts and increasing amounts on defence because our responsibilities in this rather unsettled region are not going to diminish, they're going to grow and as a good ally and coalition partner we will also from time to time be required to be involved in coalition operations in different parts of the world. All of that means continued and increasing expenditure on defence. So when you put all of that together the message is that we need to have a very balanced and responsible approach. We are doing well, we are lucky It's as well we are in surplus, we can afford to do something about things like the drought. Heaven forbid if we were in deficit and we were arguing about how much we could help our battling farmers and fortunately we don't have that challenge.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, are you trying to dampen prospects of pre-election tax cuts.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I'm just talking commonsense.
JOURNALIST:
You mentioned clean coal technology. The Labor Party has said that the Government has spent more in the last decade on advertising than it has on combating climate change. Are you a bit late to the party on this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's not late in the party to have announced two and a half years ago the fund that we are now allocating money from. I mean, if you go back to the energy whitepaper it was laid out very clearly then that the best thing this country could do would be to invest in technology to clean up the use of fossil fuel, mainly coal but also gas and other fuels. We laid that out two and a half years ago. We said then that given the comparative advantage we had in coal and gas that was the most sensible way to go. What people have got to understand about this whole climate change debate is that in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions you have to adjust the use of all of those things where we have comparative advantage; that is fossil fuels, because they're the basis of a lot of our wealth. Now we've got to be very careful that the adjustment process doesn't unfairly disadvantage Australia and I am determined that it will happen in a way where our comparative advantage is protected, but those people who criticise me are indifferent to that comparative advantage. I mean the cost to this country of losing our comparative advantage in things like gas and coal would be enormous. It would be jobs and investment lost and it's my responsibility to see that in our balanced response to this issue we do not make that mistake.
JOURNALIST
But we're a wealthy country. Isn't there some scope for leadership on this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we're a wealthy country but we'll loose that wealth if our good productive industries which underpin that wealth are unfairly disadvantaged, that's the point I'm making. Our wealth is in part based on fossil fuels where we have an advantage and we have to be careful that we do not lose that advantage. I mean that will mean no inheritance for our children, in our response to this issue to overreact and burden those industries that give us such wealth with unreasonable costs. So our imperative for two and a half or more years now has been to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from using coal and other fossil fuels. We laid that out two and a half years ago. Now it happens that a lot of the things that we have announced in the last few weeks are the product of those decisions and they coincide with the Stern report, but they certainly haven't been cobbled together in the last couple of weeks. They were mandated two and a half years ago and there'll be more of those projects laid out in the months ahead, but they all flow from that energy whitepaper that decisively said the way forward for Australia was to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions coming out of the use of fossil fuel. So this is not a latter day conversion, it's the product of a long term commitment. Thank you.
[Ends]