PRIME MINISTER:
It’s good to be here with Connie Fierravanti-Wells to help acknowledge and celebrate Harmony Day. Harmony Day was an initiative of the Howard Government. It embodies our aspiration to be an open, welcoming and accepting society. I think Australia has been a very welcoming country, really for decades, for generations. We can always rededicate ourselves to this very important task, we can always recommit ourselves to our best values. I think one of the great things about our country is the way that we have welcomed people from the four corners of the Earth and they have become absolutely first class Australians.
So, well done Connie. That was a lovely speech and thank you so much for your contribution to Harmony Day today.
QUESTION:
PM, this morning Chris Bowen says that you pre-judged potentially the ICAC hearings by suggesting that Arthur Sinodinos would be returned to the Ministry.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, no, Arthur for the good of the Government made the decision to step aside until this matter is resolved at least as far as he is concerned. He did the right and the honourable thing. He’ll be fully cooperating with the inquiry and I am confident that he will come back. Obviously, it is important that that inquiry run its course and make whatever investigations it thinks are necessary and then come to whatever conclusions it thinks are appropriate.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, how have you satisfied yourself that you think you are in a position where you are confident that Arthur Sinodinos will return to the frontbench?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I know Arthur Sinodinos very well. Most people around this building know Arthur Sinodinos very well. He is a fundamentally decent man. I am confident that he will be able to return to his duties, his ministerial duties soon but in the meantime he has done the right and the honourable thing. There has been a lot of talk over the years about parliamentary standards and a lot of talk over the years about having a government that people can respect and if there are questions that need to be answered it’s appropriate that people step aside until those matters have been resolved. I think a lot of Australians would have breathed a sigh of relief yesterday and thought, “well, it is good that the politics of this term of Parliament will be rather different from the politics of the last term of Parliament”.
QUESTION:
Did you push him or did he jump?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think Arthur did the absolute right thing and as I said yesterday in the Parliament: he is a good man, he is a brave man, he is a friend and colleague of whom I am proud.
QUESTION:
This morning you met with some of the Qantas unions, can you tell us about the tone of the discussions? How did they feel about the Sale Act and so forth?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously, there are some concerns by senior union officials about repealing the Sale Act. It was a good meeting, it was conducted in a good spirit. Obviously over the years I have met people like Tony Sheldon and Dave Oliver before. They are good decent people. Sometimes we disagree, on some aspects of this whole issue we don’t quite see eye to eye but I respect their good will. I think that they want Qantas to not just survive but to flourish and the best way for Qantas to flourish is for a new spirit of partnership to exist. I think that now that we do know that the market situation that Qantas faces is much tougher than it might have been a few years ago we will get that new spirit of partnership.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, on Tuesday you said you had full confidence in Arthur Sinodinos, twenty-four hours later he stood aside. What happened in between?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, he made the decision that it would be good for the Government that our Budget preparations could go on without the distraction of this particular issue. As I said it was a brave, decent, an honourable thing to do and I admire him all the more for his actions yesterday.
[ends]