subjects: CJC inquiry; education policy; floods in NSW; Kerry Packer.
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
JOURNALIST:
…….CJC inquiry in Queensland…..?
PRIME MINISTER:
There’s plenty of debate going on in Queensland about that and I think we’ll just leave it at that for the moment. The facts speak for themselves.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, it’s really important to be here today, Muslim Australians you’ve spent a fair amount of time here and they are really chuffed that you came here….
PRIME MINISTER:
Well this is a very diverse country and I’m particularly supportive of what our education policy does for communities like this. Our education policy, the changes we made when we came to government made it easier for a school like this, which services a low-income area, to be established. If we hadn’t changed our policy, if we’d have not thrown out Labor’s new schools policy it would have been harder for this school to have been established.
JOURNALIST:
A big day tomorrow with a huge meeting about the floods. Obviously the Commonwealth and the States working together on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look it’s very important that the Commonwealth and the States work together. You put politics completely aside when you have a natural disaster. And that’s the approach that John Anderson, who’s been in daily contact with me about this, brings to it. Any cooperation that is needed between Mr Carr and myself will be forthcoming. I intend to visit the flood devastated areas probably on Saturday. And as far as I’m concerned you suspend politics when something like this happens and you work together to help our fellow Australians who have lost so much.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister the Labor Party suggests that the low Australian dollar means that the half-a-billion dollars to be spent on the defence upgrade will not be as effective as if it was good times for the currency. Is that a reasonable theory?
PRIME MINISTER:
The something that always distinguishes the Australian Labor Party is that they never generate an idea of their own. They always pick up the paper and whatever is on the front page they echo it. I don’t think that’s very impressive for an alternative government. Somebody asked me a question about Mr Packer?
JOURNALIST:
Mr Packer. He just undergone kidney transplant surgery, do you wish him well?
PRIME MINISTER:
I do. I know Kerry Packer well. I wish him well. Anybody who is going into an operation like that, it’s a hazardous experience and naturally I wish him well.
[ends]