PRIME MINISTER: gt; On behalf of every Australian I am sure, I congratulate Ricky Ponting and the boys for a magnificent victory. Winning back the Ashes after only 16 months has really warmed every Australian heart, and they've done a fantastic job in our name. And congratulations and let them celebrate long and hard tonight for a well-deserved victory. And can I just on another matter say how astonished I am that Wayne Swan should be claiming that the impact of the drought on the Australian economy was being exaggerated, that is an outrageous statement. It just demonstrates they don't know anything about the bush and they don't care about the bush because every Australian who cares about the bush knows the terrible pain that rural people are going through and I call on Mr Rudd to say does he agree with Mr Swan and if he doesn't, will he pull Mr Swan into line? gt; JOURNALIST: gt; Mr Howard, did you watch the match this afternoon? gt; PRIME MINISTER: gt; I watched bits of it, I was running around my electorate unfortunately, seeing... I visited a nursing home, I opened an office and it was one of those unfortunate conflicts where I had my job to do as well as listening to it on the radio and watching bits of it on television. gt; JOURNALIST:
And may I ask you about Iraq, the US (inaudible)? gt; PRIME MINISTER: gt; Well we certainly won't be pulling out prematurely, we don't have any proposals at present to increase our commitment. gt; gt;[ends]