Subjects: Olympic Games; Cathy Freeman; Reconciliation; Sports funding
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister thanks for joining us. Have you come down from that Olympic cloud yet?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I think it will take everybody a few days but it was a great event for Australia. It has shown the world what a modern, sophisticated, competent, friendly, capable country and people we are. It was a combination of superb technology and achievement in the modern sense of the word but it was also a triumph of human decency. The fact that we were able to have so many people in our country and everybody behaving in such a friendly, courteous way and in many ways the great memory I will have of these games is the friendliness of the volunteers. I think everybody was just overpowered by the infectious enthusiasm of Australians doing something they wanted to do for the good of their country and to be with each other and that was tremendously inspiring I found.
JOURNALIST:
They were fantastic. What was it like as Prime Minister of this country to here Australia described as putting on the best Olympic Games ever?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh tremendous and I think that’s right. People said that to me. People from olympic committees around the world from Asia, Africa, Europe even some of the Americans who are naturally perhaps more loathe, because their own history of staging what, three Olympic Games, to say so, but they really were fantastic. And I think that description has been well earned because everything seemed to go well. The infrastructure was very good, it was held in what I think is scenically the most beautiful big city in the world and the arrangements during the games, underpinned by the infectious energy of the volunteers, helped make it really a very memorable event.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think that our games, the Sydney games, have let the IOC off the hook a little and restored the reputation of the Olympics generally was looking pretty tarnished a year or two ago wasn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m not going to get judgmental at this moment but people, Australians will make their own judgements about those things. People will remember certain things, equally they will give credit where it is due. When you have a very successful games you have to give credit to the local organising committee. SOCOG is entitled to credit, there are a lot of people entitled to credit and something like this, no one person or no one group of people are entitled to say well it was because of me. And don’t forget for a moment that one of the, I suppose the overwhelming reason why so many people enjoyed the games is that our athletes did extremely well and we don’t want to lose sight of that fact. If we hadn’t done as well at the games, if our competitors had not done as well, I doubt that the sense of national euphoria would have been nearly as high.
It was one of those rare occasions in life and in the history of a country when everything really comes together. It would have demonstrated to the world that we are a country that is pretty much at peace with itself, a country which is very confident of its place in the world. I think it probably drove home to those people who have a rather frightened view and a rather negative view about this country that, like all others, it’s got its flaws and faults and it’s made its mistakes and it’s got its problems and challenges but it is a country that can rise to the occasion. And I was, as Prime Minister, I was tremendously struck by the number of foreign guests who said to me what a magnificent country we had and we had a special quality of friendliness and even treatment of people which they were most impressed by.
JOURNALIST:
I think you’re absolutely right though that winning helped. Now you obviously had the best time. I know you saw a lot of events, there are obviously a lot of highlights at the games for Australians. What was your golden moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have been asked that before, I have to honestly say that it was a blend. Cathy Freeman’s race was, that was a fantastic moment and the fact that you had an Aboriginal girl winning a gold medal and a recently arrived Russian pole vaulter - Russian descendant pole vaulter - winning a silver medal on the same night, there was a nice symbolism about that which I think touched a lot of people.
The victory by the water polo team, the woman’s water polo team, more unexpected – it was the first time it had been an event, right on the bell, after the bell, that was a fantastically exciting thing and I also very much enjoyed Michael Diamond’s win in the shooting. You could go on because I really do think it was a blend of memories. I can’t honestly say well there was one thing that transcended all else but they are some of the examples.
But what was good about our team’s performance was that it was right across a range of sports. It wasn’t just swimming, it wasn’t just focusing in one area. If you look right across we were very strong in the team sports, our women’s basketball team did extraordinarily well, as well of course our women’s hockey team – it has got to be the greatest team probably that this country’s produced in 20, 30, 40 years. Those comparisons are always hard to make and perhaps shouldn’t be attempted but gee if you look at its performance record, I can’t think of any better.
JOURNALIST:
And Prime Minister, most people would say and agree that a lot of that success, a lot of the success of these games is because of the level of funding Australia’s dedicated to our elite athletes. There has been talk that that’s going to be wound back now the games is over. John Coates says he has spoken to you in the last few weeks and you are inclined to increase funding for sport not cut it, is that true?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there won’t be any cuts.
JOURNALIST:
Will there be any increases?
PRIME MINSTER:
Well, there will be some more over and above what was allocated in the last budget, yes.
JOURNALIST:
And what about this idea of a HECS type scheme for our athletes, the ones who get sports scholarships, go to the AIS, should they be paying it back like our university students do? Do you like that idea?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it was recommended by the committee of inquiry, the former head of the AFL Ross Oakley ran for us. We haven’t considered that. I haven’t really thought about that. It was one of his recommendations so all I can say is that it has not really been considered by the Cabinet.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister you mentioned obviously the significance of Cathy Freeman’s win, there has been a lot written about it, you’ve said the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the win is proof that Australia is a lot more reconciled than we sometimes allow for, yet aboriginal leaders still insist that a sorry from the Government is still a major stumbling block to reconciliation. Cathy Freeman herself says the Government should say sorry, our political leaders. Do you except that issue still needs to be dealt with?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, what I accept Fran is that that is an issue like 101 other political issues that will go on being debated. The fact that we have tremendously positive feelings as a result of the games doesn’t alter the fact and should not alter the fact that proper debate about these sorts of issues will resume and will continue. The point I was making when I said that it demonstrated that we were probably a lot more reconciled than some people had allowed for was that I felt it demonstrated a cohesion and inclusion and acceptance and spontaneous affection for a talented, young Australian athlete whose win had a special quality because she was aboriginal and that’s the point I was making.
The fact that we’ve had a fantastic games and everything doesn’t alter the fact that it will continue to debate about issues and people put particular points of view and everybody’s entitled to a point of view and just because I’m euphoric about the games doesn’t mean that everybody can agree with me on every political issue. I mean, let’s be realistic. We will continue to have debate about these things but I do think that the sense of cohesion and exhilaration that people felt during these games. There we were represented by a team that was I suppose redolent of every strand in Australian society - different ethnic backgrounds, aboriginal and other different backgrounds. I think it just demonstrated what a cohesive country we were and that doesn’t alter the fact that you are going to have debates about whether you should have formal apologies and what is the best way, whether we should be trying to get less emphasis on welfare dependency, a theme taken up again in a newspaper this morning by Noel Pearson, something incidentally that I agree with very strongly.
JOURNALIST:
Well also revealed this morning is that in an interview with French magazine Le Monde recently, your Minister for reconciliation Philip Ruddock when asked why Aboriginal people remain the most disadvantaged minority in Australia, said it was because of all the indigenous peoples on the planet, they came into contact with developed civilisations last, they were not familiar with the wheel. Now do you accept that’s the reason for why Aboriginal Australians are the most disadvantaged?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven’t seen that interview so to be fair to Philip I don’t want to…
JOURNALIST:
The Minister’s confirmed it and says that was just simply factual.
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
The Minister on the radio this morning has confirmed it and said it was just simply factual.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think that kind of, I mean, I am sorry I have not heard it. You are the first contact I have had with the media this morning. I didn’t hear that interview so I don’t want to comment except to say that there are a number of reasons why people are disadvantaged. What we have to do I think is to move on. I think overwhelmingly what we have to do in all of these things is to try and focus on practical solutions and once again if I can make the point about practical reconciliation I think we need to focus on ways of diminishing disadvantage not perpetually debate the why of the past.
JOURNALSIT:
Alright Minister, Prime Minister sorry lets move on because that’s what you’ll be having to do this week when everyone arrives back in Canberra, you’ll face a lobbying campaign by farmers to freeze the excise on petrol until the impact of the GST has subsided. How can you say no to farmers and the truck drivers who are struggling under the impact of high petrol prices when you have just announced an extra $5 billion to the surplus you weren’t expecting?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the $5 billion was last year.
JOURNALIST:
But it’s money we didn’t think we had?
PRIME MINSITER:
Well you can’t assume that we’ve got it all either because some of that $5 billion represents money that we thought was going to be spent last year but now will be spent this year, so it doesn’t represent, it really is just a timing change.
Can I just go back again and say in relation to petrol, Fran, people are concerned about the price of petrol now because of the high price of crude oil around the world it’s not the GST that’s lifted the world price of crude oil from $12 US a barrel to over $30 US a barrel in the last 18 months. That’s got nothing to do with the GST. Please people should not blame the GST for that. I know it has been blamed for just about everything else but it can’t be blamed for that.
JOURNALIST:
No that’s true, but never the less it can be blamed for an extra few cents a litre. Would it be a good symbol from the Government to agree to freezing the excise just until the GST impacts wash through.
PRIME MINISTER:
Fran, the evidence immediately after the introduction of the GST was that the price of petrol was either the same or went down a little. It was only when you had another surge from increased world prices that it started to rise and quite sharply.
Our position in relation to excise is that if you were to make any impact at all in relation to excise you would have to cut it by what up five cents. People wouldn’t notice anything less than five cents a litre. When you do what you are talking about and that would make no noticeable impact on the price of petrol. That thing that really drives the price of petrol is the world price and if you want to make a big impact on the price at the pump you would have to cut it by 5 cents a litre at least and that’s $1.7 billion a year.
JOURNALIST:
And Prime Minister, just finally, the price of the Aussie dollar isn’t helping. The Treasurer has told us in the past our failing dollar is a lot about perceptions and less about the realities of our strong economy. If that’s true, will the positive image of Australia exuded through the games boost the dollar?
PRIME MINISTER:
I hesitate to make connections either way about that. I think we have to be realistic. I think the benefit of the games is the human psychological thing. Predominantly it will have some economic benefits, it will make Australia more attractive as a tourist destination.
You have to take a long view of the dollar. If you live in a world of floating exchange rates you have to allow for the fact that sometimes the dollar will be weaker against the other major currencies or other times it will be stronger. You have got to remember that the weakness of the Australian dollar is a reflection of the strength of the American dollar. We have gone down against the American dollar because the American dollar is so very strong at the moment now. You have to remember that two years ago our flexible exchange rate guided Australia though that economic collapse in our region and if we hadn’t had a flexible exchange rate we would now be a lot worse off than what we are.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time.
PRIME MINSTER:
Thank you Fran.
[ends]