PRESS OFFICE TRANSCRIPT 1 UE17
INTERVIEW ON WESTERN AUSTRALIAN DISPUTE AND NSW OIL DISPUTE
Question Mr. Fraser, the ads in the national press today are said by
the Acting Premier of Western Australia to have been suggested
by you. Is that a fact?
Prime Minister
What I told Mr. O'Neil when he spoke to me some-time ago and
gave the facts as he understood it, I said " well, look that's not
understood in the Eastern States. I don't know if you are making
any effort to try and make sure that what you believe to be the
situation is understood and if that's your story I think you
should -trv and tell it" l. It didn't go any further than that.
But I think we need to understand that in re. lation to Thursday's
national stoppage and the Kurnell refinery dispute which we will both
be discussing in a short while, that the AMSWU and one or two
other major unions had already made up their own minds to have
a national stoppage of their own unions in support of what I
am advised was a $ 40 a week wage claim. Now, that is obviously
totally destructive and totally irresponsible. W4e have
an arbitration system and the Government has said on a number
of occasions it's necessary and important that that arbitration
system be accepted and supported. Individual trade unionists
do not need to lose wages. They do not need to penalise their
families and damage their own industries and destroy the
prospects of increasing jobs by going on strike in an utterly
destructive and irresponsible manner. The point I am making is
that a large part of the prospective national stoppage on
Thursday is going to take place straigh-t out in support wage claims,
and we need to have that clearly in mind. 19 JUNE 1979
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Prime Minister
I think that says something about the mood of some of the
trade union leaders in relation to it.
Question ( Peter Harvey)
On the immediate petrol issue though
Prime Minister
Could I just stay on Western Australia for a moment. It might
be better if we deal with the issues separately because they
are quite different.
I said a couple of days ago that whatLever the nature of the
dispute_ we need to understand that the damage done to Australia,
to Aus'ralian industry, is just no way justified by the nature
of the dispute itself. Tens of thousands of people in hardship
and difficulty, and industry is damaged. WNhen there were major
dispu-tes in Victoria a year or two ago a number of private
firms, small firms, were just not able to re-employ the numbers
they had employed earlier because they had been so damaged by
-that major dispute.
One of the matters that I understand the ACTU Executive is
considering is the prospect of continuing bans on the State of
Western Australia. I also understand that one or two Labor Party
Conferences have supported continuing bans on the State of
Western Australia sea, rail and air, and transport. Quite
plainly, the idea of a continuing ban on any particular State would
be something new in industrial anarchy within Australia and for
any State Labor Party convention or council to support that is
pr ttv much beyond my comprehension. I am reasonably hopeful
after the discussions which I think you know that I have had
with Ithe Secretary, Peter Nolan, that that additional step of
a destructive and damaging kind will not be supported by the ACTU.
That's what a good deal of the discussions over the weekend between
Peter Nolan, Ian Viner, and Doug Anthony and myself was involved
in trying to achieve a realisation that whatever happens on
Thurxsday.-1 ought to be the end of it. I don't think
I've 9-crt a.. yt1-ing more to say about the national strike, until
we have a discussion about the matter...
Quest-( Laurie Wilson)
Just one question the ' legislation at the centre of this. Do
you feel it should be repealed or do you support it?
Prime.' Minister
Sir Charles Court has said that the legislation will be reviewed.
Now that's been a commitment given and I think that commitment
ought to be accepted. But it will be reviewed. There are many
different stories about what actually happened at Karratha and
I find it difficult we didn't have our own direct observers
there and there are different stories. But the Western Australian
/ 3
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Prime Minister ( continued).
Government has indicated that legislation will be up for review
and again, against that background, against the fact that on
Thursday it is most unlikely that thos e court cases would be
brought to finality, if the normal course of events is followed,
they would be adjourned for quite some time. Now, that would be
the normal course of events. Now, against those two contingencies
it seems to me all the more unreal to seek to de-mobilise the
whole nation for a while as a result.
Question ( Laurie Power)
Mr. Fraser, Mr. O'Neil said that he thought he had your support
after talking with you on Saturday morning. Does the Commonwealth
still adopt an impartial view in this national dispute?
Prime :% linister
I don't think I want to say anymore than I have at the present time.
I do say, in the strongest and most categoric terms, that th~ e proposed
strike on Thursday or the nature of a dispute which has given rise
to this in no way condones a dispute, a stoppage, of the kind that
is contemp~ lated for Thursday and whatever view one takes of the
nature of the dispute, that can't be justified. And continuing
bans on the State of Western Australia all the more seriously
cannot be justified because that would establish a new precedent
I thiz::_ in industrial anarchy in this country and if that were to
be the decision, it's a matter that I think all Governments would
have to take with the utmost seriousness and would have to consult
with each other as to what should be done in relation to it.
If I could turn now to the Kurnell Refinery. Here we have a long
history of industrial disputation as you know. There are many
people who believe that the only possibility to end that industrial
disputation is to get under one award, and obviously if its to be
one aw,, ard it has to be the Federal award because it is an industry
that extends beyond the boundaries of one State.
I think well I am glad now to see the more forthright statements
by the Premier, but I really believe that this dispute has
simmered and has broken out in this way because the State Branch
of the A11U, which has its own internecine fight
with the.-Federal Branch of the AWU, which it is not really affiliated
with, has believed that up to know it has had the support of the
State Government. That just isn't good enough. Quite plainly, if
there is a separate jurisdiction for the Kurnell Refinery, there is
gcknz zbe the prospect of leap-lfrogging and playing off one award
agaizzz zhe other and that was-the circumstance before it came under
a Federal Award. And what the State AWU are fighting for is the
right to play that game again on a continuing basis down into the
future. Now, the Commonwealth Government has said on many occasions
that in these matters we've got an umpire. We don't always like
the umpire's verdict but we ought to accept that verdict when we
like it and when we don't like it. That applies very much in the
Kurnell Refinery case. The judgement has been made; it's under
the Federal Award and it is just as much up to Mr. Neville Wran, / 4
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Prime Minister ( continued)
Premier of to accept that umpire's verdict, as he should
have done weeks and weeks aao make it perfectly plain that
he offers no semfblance of moral or material support to the State
Branch of the AWU. I believe that if he'd done that, the prospects
aid hope for victory through industrial turmoil and industrial
anarchy in N. S. W. would have faded, and the chances of this
dispute would have been very much less. But now, as a result of
walking down the centre of that particular fence instead of being
firmly on the side of arbitration, firmly on the side of the umpire,
we have a dispute which is potentially much much more damaging
than the national one-day stoppage on Thursday, because we all
know the seriousness of the world oil situation; we know that
our supplies are stretched thin; it is difficult to keep
refineries going; if oil can't be passed through those refineries
it's going to be very difficult to get the additional oil to make
up the backlog at a later point. And the people of N. S. W. are
going to start feeling the very real difficulties and problems
that are coming out the Kurnell dispute virtually forthwith.
Question: ( Peter Harvey)
Prime inister, it's not only the people of N. S. J.. it is starting
to spread to the other States as well. Mr. t-ran has already taken
emergency measures. The Federal Government has powers to look
after the rest of Australia. Are you going to start exercising those?
Prime Minister
In many of these emergency areas it is State powers that you have
to rest on the Co._ nonwealth's major emergency powers come under
a Defence Act and they don't apply under current circumstances
as you would understand, but you are right when you say that some
of this will start to be felt by other States because plainly
N. S. W. would be seeking additional supplies from other States as
they would believe, for a more equal sharing of the burden. Now,
I strongly believe that if Mr. WIran is to expect that to occur,
he should come down fairly and squarely on the side of the Federal
Arbitration Commission and support the one-award situation throughout
the oil industry. Quite plainly, the Commonwealth will have to
be doing what it can to see that hardship is minimised, to see that
difficulties are faced in an equal and reasonable manner.
Question So you will use the measures under the Defence...
Prime Minister
You are, I thinkrunning down a very odd street. The Defence Act
is there for defence purposes.
Question power to transport.
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Prime Minister
Yes, but whether I think you would find
difficulty with those powers in the current circumstances. The
States have total emergency powers in civil circumstances.
To talk of the Defence Act in these circumstances is not really
relevant. 000---