KELLY:
John Howard joins us now from Sydney, Prime Minister good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Fran.
KELLY:
Prime Minister, at some point today you're apparently going to announce a new strategy for attracting new recruits to our defence forces. What's the key ingredient to boosting that number?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there are three elements; one of them is to strengthen the retention bonuses and allowances. One of the great problems of the ADF is that too many people leave it too early. We have a huge problem created by a good development. The huge problem is that unemployment is now so low and the economy is now so strong that it's increasingly hard to attract men and women to join the ADF and even harder to keep them in, and we need to recruit an additional 1800 people a year to meet our targets and we need to reduce the departure rate or the separation rate as the Army calls it, by about another 500 a year. We're going to spend over the next few years, over the next 10 years, we're going to spend an addition $370 odd million to streamline the recruiting. Amazingly, the average processing time for somebody from the moment they apply to when the final decision is made and they're in, is 30 weeks and we're going to reduce that to six. And as Dr Nelson foreshadowed a while ago we're going to revise some of the entry standards, not relax them in any dangerous way, but to recognise, for example, that if somebody's had asthma, that's not necessarily a reason to keep them out of the Army. We are going to have the military gap year scheme whereby up to a thousand 17 to 24 year olds have an opportunity to experience military training and lifestyle for a year and there'll be a few other things I'll announce later this morning. And I ought to say that this is the first instalment, there will be more things decided on and announced next year. We do need to lift our recruitment, we do need to increase the retention rate and we are building two new battalions, I announced that some weeks ago and in order to build them we need the men and women.
KELLY:
PM, it's alright to throw money at this problem, to try and get young recruits in and then try and get people to stay in, but in many cases people aren't leaving because they're going to better jobs, they're leaving because they're unhappy with the culture within the armed services, it's not an attractive culture for many...
PRIME MINISTER:
That is not right...
KELLY:
Well I know many people in that situation Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hang on, hang on. It's not the major reason, it is a reason for some. The dislocation to family life, which is a different thing from a rejection of Army culture, is the biggest problem. I'm not saying that some people don't have a problem on culture, but it is to misread and misrepresent the situation to imply that that is the major reason. The major reasons are related to the dislocation of family life, the fact that wives and husbands want jobs and careers as well and unless both the wife and the husband are members of the military, and there is an increasing incidence of that, then they find the movements around and so forth more difficult. It's of the one things that's always perplexed me about the military, and something we are looking at, is that we do tend to move people around a lot. Now some of that is unavoidable, perhaps we could over the years ahead reduce that. It's going to be a very difficult task getting the people and keeping them because of all of the conflicting pressures including, but not only, a very buoyant labour market.
KELLY:
Prime Minister, overnight the World Meteorological Organisation reported that 2006 has been the sixth warmest year on record, that Australia had the warmest Spring ever. Are the fires now burning across Victoria and Tasmania, are they due to climate change?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't think anybody can prove that either way, we really can't. They could be, I've been asked this before. They could just be a reflection of periodic hot weather and we've had many examples of that over the last century. It's interesting over the past few days people have compared what's happening in Victoria with the infamous Black Friday, that was in December of 1939 which is 67 years ago. And many people I've spoken to in Tasmania said oh these are the worst since 1967, there were very bad fires in Tasmania in 1967. So I think we have to acknowledge that climate change clearly could be an element in it, but I think we also have to remember that this is not the first time we've had bushfires.
KELLY:
No, indeed. This UN report, this WMO report finds that the 10 warmest years have all occurred in the last 12 years, so whether or not that turns out, as you said, to be a permanent pattern, we don't know.
PRIME MINISTER:
Fran, if you're asking me do I think we need to do more, all of us, the world, Australia included, about climate change the answer is, yes. The debate in Australia is not whether we should do more about it, the debate in Australia is how best to respond to it in a way that doesn't damage Australia's competitive advantage and makes certain that if we do things the rest of the world does things as well so that we don't fall behind. There is no argument about whether you need to do something, the argument is how you do it in a way that promotes Australia's interests and not damages them.
KELLY:
What I was actually wanting to ask was if Australia is becoming hotter and dryer and bushfire seasons like this continue, do we need to look at a different response to our bushfire fighting, can we continue to rely on volunteers as much as we do, or do we need a new approach, are you getting policy advice on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think we can always do with looking at the reasons for these bushfires, and certainly I would expect that volunteer fire-fighting will remain an indelible part of dealing with bushfires because you simply need them in order to deal with the surges that occur at anytime with something like bushfires. I think another thing we need to constantly look at is whether we don't close up national parks too much. I was very struck when I was in Victoria by the number of fire-fighters who complained to me that the fire trails had been closed and that when the fires came very abruptly in some of the High Country they couldn't get into the areas in order to fight the fires. I think they're the sort of issues that we also should examine. Now this is not an argument, let me hasten to add, against national parks, but it seems contradictory to me that you have a national park which is designed to preserve the trees and preserve everything to do with the environment, and yet in order to fight a fire which will destroy the very thing you're trying to preserve, you close down the fire tracks. Now if that is the case, I don't know whether it is in every situation, that is also something that needs to be looked at. I think we have to have a very balanced response to these things.
KELLY:
Prime Minister, let's turn now to the business story of the week, the $11 billion-plus bid for Qantas. As the national carrier, Qantas has enjoyed considerable government support, if not protection, with overseas competitors like Singapore Airlines shut out of one of the most profitable routes. Should that protection end if it becomes, if Qantas becomes, privately owned?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's privately owned in a sense, it's not government owned now. (inaudible) private company...
KELLY:
A private company.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, well it depends on the national interest, it depends on what best serves Australia. We haven't excessively protected Qantas.
KELLY:
Well...
PRIME MINISTER:
One of the reasons why we are sceptical of Singapore Airlines is that it has a level of protection from the Singapore Government which far exceeds the level of protection that Qantas enjoys, and it's very important that we don't needlessly bargain away the interests that our national carrier has. Now I, like everybody else, expect the law to be applied in relation to the takeover of Qantas. There is a Sale Act; there's a Foreign Takeovers Act, but those two laws have to be complied with and I said yesterday and I repeat it, that I hope that the Qantas we have is the Qantas we keep because it's a very popular airline and it's quite an icon, and I think its new owners will be very conscious of that. But as to what we do with things like the Pacific route in the future, well that will depend on the circumstances. I am not giving guarantees years into the future about that, it will depend on circumstances from year to year.
KELLY:
Prime Minister, speaking of expanding our defence forces' capacity, this week Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told a Washington audience that defeat in Iraq is not an option. From amongst the 79 recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton Report, which I am sure you have had a pretty close look at, what do you think is the most effective move for stabilising the country, the most effective strategy to take now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the most important thing that can happen in Iraq is that there can be a domestic, political accommodation. In the end, the Iraqis hold the key to their own future. Our role is to give them an opportunity of consolidating the democratic choice that they have made. And I would expect, and I know that great pressure is being placed on them to reach some domestic political accommodation and horrific situations like this are always in the end resolved by some kind of domestic, political accommodation between the different Shia sections and between the Shia and Sunni. And there was some welcome news on that front a few days ago when agreement was reached between the various parties for the federal government to have the final say in relation to the distribution of oil revenues. Now that, although it hasn't received a lot of coverage in the media, that was a very significant step forward, and one that I found through all the violence that is still occurring, very encouraging.
KELLY:
Prime Minister, let's go back to domestic politics now, another year and another Labor leader it seems. Has Kevin Rudd got you worried?
PRIME MINISTER:
I take him seriously as I did Mr Beazley and Mr Latham and Mr Crean and Mr Beazley before Mr Crean. I take all Labor leaders seriously. I do not regard the next election as an easy one and I have been, as you know, saying that for 18 months. And he will continue to enjoy a honeymoon with the electorate for some time. The electorate wants a tough Opposition. Now whether they get one, we'll wait and see over the months ahead, but...
KELLY:
As we mentioned with Michelle a little earlier though, there was your Athens declaration where it was reported that you said you did fancy your chances of beating Kim Beazley for a third time. Do you feel so confident of Kevin Rudd?
PRIME MINISTER:
Fran, I always treated Mr Beazley seriously and you can single out that particular interview and the reporting of it, but that doesn't gainsay the fact that I treat all leaders seriously. This will be the fifth election in a row that we are seeking to win and that will be very hard, very hard indeed. And I expect over the next 12 months or so, whatever the time is to the next election, to be a very tough contest.
KELLY:
And do you expect you'll need to freshen up your frontbench to compete, reshuffle before Christmas?
PRIME MINISTER:
I never speculate about those things either way.
KELLY:
Alright. Any advice for a new Opposition leader, what de-rails....
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't give any advice, I make observations on policy. The one, the theme that's come through strongly in what he's said over the past few weeks is that in some way I am an economic fanatic. He says I'm a market fundamentalist. Nothing could be further from the truth. I believe in the market, I believe in private enterprise very passionately, and I also believe in a strong social security safety-net, and one of the features of the last 10 and a half years is that I have constantly demonstrated that whilst I am a great believer in markets and in competitive capitalism, I also believe that you should protect the vulnerable. And I am very proud of the fact that through our Family Tax Benefits system we've given more assistance to low and middle income families proportionately than most western countries. And if you look at the international comparisons you see that we have been very fair and compassionate in our redistributive policies in relation to families and that is very deliberate, and it's a policy that we are going to maintain.
KELLY:
On that note Prime Minister thanks very much for joining us on breakfast and all the best for the Christmas season.
PRIME MINISTER:
And merry Christmas to you and Michelle, and all of your crew.
KELLY:
And hopefully we'll talk to you in the New Year, John Howard.
PRIME MINISTER:
I am sure you will.
KELLY:
Thank you very much for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]