BENSON:
Good morning, Mr Howard.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning.
BENSON:
Thanks very much for joining us here on News Radio. Mr Howard, can I get your reaction to that death sentence, do you welcome the death sentence for Saddam Hussein?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I welcome the fact that Iraq has conducted a transparent and open trial. There is something heroic in my mind for a country that is suffering all that Iraq is suffering, yet it still strove to conduct the trial, to have an embrace of the rule of law which is so fundamental to the establishment of a democracy. The significance of this cannot be underestimated. This is a country that is prepared to persevere in the face of the most appalling difficulties to make sure that there is a proper trial; that is a country that wants to embrace democracy and that is a country that is worth helping and worth supporting.
BENSON:
Mr Howard could I bring you back home to the issue which has been dominating a lot of the national consciousness in recent times which is obviously the drought. You have your water summit tomorrow with the Premiers of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, today, a Cabinet meeting. Kim Beazley is being dismissive, he says John Howard discovers water about 12 months before every election.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Mr Beazley is wrong and negative once again. At the last election I announced a $2 billion water fund, $2 billion. That was at the last election. The Government has been assessing and approving projects to be supported out of that fund over the last two years, so that puts pay to Mr Beazley's very flippant and negative argument. The other thing the Government has done is with the states, we have worked out a national water plan, the National Water Initiative, and that was hammered out about three-and-a-half years ago, is being implemented. The progress with it is too slow. One of the things I will raise with the Premiers tomorrow is accelerating the implementation of the plan that we all agreed on some years ago. We are not cobbling something together tomorrow, we are going to, amongst other things, talk about ways of dealing with the severity of the drought in the Murray-Darling, but also ways of accelerating the implementation of the plan that we all agreed on some years ago.
BENSON:
Mr Howard some might criticise that as more words on the topic, will something specific, will specific measures result from the summit meeting on water?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think there will be a number of specific things, I am not at this stage going to promise that we've got some magical formula to make it rain. I think we need to accelerate the implementation plan we already have; we need to understand the detail and the depth of the problem that we face; we need to commit to further collaborative action and there could be some other things that will come out of it which I am not canvassing at this stage.
BENSON:
Mr Howard we've been running a series here on News Radio on the drought as you've been travelling through the drought-hit areas. On your travels there, were there farmers you saw who you would honestly advise to leave the land, would you tell them this land is no longer farm land?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't know that there were any particular people who I could identify as coming within that category. I am sure, like any other activity, there are some for whom farming is becoming extremely difficult to say the least. But you can't blame farmers for having no money and not having a lot of hope when (inaudible). Our responsibility is to help people through the drought. As always has happened in the past, and will happen in the future, not everybody will stay in farming, but it is in the interests of this country to maintain a critical mass of farmers and if we lose them, we not only lose their contribution to the country, but we lose some of the character of our nation.
BENSON:
Mr Howard you are holding your summit on Melbourne Cup Day which some people think is ill-advised?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's necessary. It was the most convenient day from a number of points of view. It will be on in the morning, Mr Bracks has got plenty of time to get back for the Melbourne Cup.
BENSON:
Do you think, as some do, that the Melbourne Cup Day should be a national holiday?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't, I think the arrangements we have at the present time are fine, I don't think we need to make it a national holiday. The way things have worked for all the time I can remember have not prevented people enjoying the day whilst still going to work. A lot of the enjoyment out of Melbourne Cup is the way in which people participate in office and factory sweeps and I just think we should leave it as it is and let's not get into a silly debate about whether it should be made a national holiday, I don't think that's necessary. I think it's always worked very well in the past, people have been able to enjoy it, we will again tomorrow, but I don't think we need a national holiday.
BENSON:
Okay, before you go, the only thing to ask you is have you decided where you are putting your money?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I told Channel Nine this morning that I had to get some final advice from the racing gurus in the office and Tawqeet is looking pretty good, but I've got to get some final advice from people who know these matters much better than I.
BENSON:
Okay we'll keep an eye on Tawqeet. Prime Minister thanks very much for talking to News Radio this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]