PM Transcripts

PRESS OFFICE TRANSCRIPT 14 AUGUST 1978_
INTERVIEW WITH LAURIE POWER
Question: Did you know about the Senator Withers' thing
on January 17?
Prime Minister: statement about this at the appropriate
time in Parliament. The Report will be tabled and I have had
very deliberate reasons for not speaking about these particular
matters once they were first raised in the Royal Commission.
The Royal Commission was in progress and once the Royal
Commission wasn't in progress we've been waiting for the
Royal Commission to report. I felt that the appropriate and
proper place for me to say anything is in the Parliament
when I table the Report, and I will be. It will be a very
plain statement.
Quuestion: Do you expect to be able to placate the Senators
this afternoon?
Prime Minister; Oh, I think we will have a good discussion.
I hope it will be a relaxed discussion. I can understand, I
think anyone can understand, people being concerned about
these particular matters. I certainly know all Ministers
were vastly concerned, but against the background of that
Report, the Government believed it had no option but to
accept it. It was a Royal Commission the Government had
itself commissioned to inquire into matters that the
Government believed serious enough to warrant a Royal
Commission's report and Ministers in examining the Report
believed that there was no basis of rejection of the Commission's
findings. Those who argue that the Report ought to be rejected
I can only say to them, read the Report and also look at the
evidence. Question: Have you lost any support as a result of it?
Prime Minister: I would think that outside there is a very
widesprea u-nderstanding that the right course has been aken
by the Government. I really do and I think the reaction from
that is very plain. 000---