PRESS OFFICE TRANSCRIPT 24 MARCH 1979
INTERVIEWV WITH CHANNEL NINE AT LITTLE ATHLETICS ASSOCATION
Question:
Mr. Wran has chosen to ignore the threats of a cut in State
funds in connection with the 37 1/ 2 hour week. How do you
feel about that?
Prime Minister:
Mr. Wran has got a commitment, obviously, to the power workers
and I suppose to the extreme left in his own Party. He was
an advocate, on an earlier occasion. Hie lost before the
Industrial Commission and now, as Premier, he is not prepared
to allow that Industrial Commission to make a judgement again.
The Commonwealth sought to intervene in the case because of
the flow-through effects and Mr. Wran said ' no, we are not going
to have the Commonwealth intervening we are not even going
to let our own Industrial Commission make a judgement. The
State Government is going to legislate.' It's 37 1/ 2 hours
reviewed inthe year, and then he is talking about a 35 hour
week. Now if there are productivity gains that are so great
that enables this to happen without putting up the cost of
power, and I would doubt that, clearly what Mr. Wran ought to
do is to give all housewives in NSW cheaper power and industry
in the State cheaper power and that would help in the fight
against inflation and help in getting more people back into jobs.
Question: Don't you think, though, that it is a little drastic to
threaten to cut State funds?
Prime Minister:
There are arrangements which involve, automatically, to a degree,
increased payments from the Commonwealth to the State if State
wages go up and if wages generally go up. When Mr. Wran pursues
policies that encourage wages and the costs in this way to go
up quite unreasonably and totally irresponsibly, then he can't
expect the Commonwealth to subsidise him for it. We are just
not going to. I think that what Mr. Wran is doing is he
tries to say that it won't flow through. Mr. Hawke says it has
got to flow through. Quite clearly he has given in on a particular
industrial dispute. It will create additional industrial
disputes as other people argue for the same terms and conditions.
The Commonwealth is committed to doing everything it can to achieve
full economic recovery. We are seeing the first signs of that
in an optimism throughout Australia which just hasn't been there
for many many years. This sort of action by the State Government
is virtually a deliberate act of sabotage and Mr. Wran needn't
think that wc are going to co-operate. There will be nothing
to argue about in relation to this. If he pursues this course
the Commonwealth will decide for itself what action it thinks
it ought to take and it will take that action. It is not a
question of negotiation really. It is not anything to fight about.
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Prime Minister: ( continued)
He's stated the position. We will have to respond
to it.
Question: But he says that any reaction from you in the way of cutting
funds will indirectly affect a third of Australia's population.
Prime Minister:
That's nonsense. What he has done has affected New South Wales
by taking this action instead of reducing power charges and
reducing the weekly gas bill and power bills to the people of
this State. If it leads to increased costs in this State, as it
would, it will mean that it will be harder to get people back
into employment. It is Mr. Wran's action that is putting
the charges and the difficulties on the people of New South Wales.
It is a very old game for the State Premiers to say they have
not responsibility; the responsibility rests in Canberra.
Mr. Wran is going to have to take responsibility for this.
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