PRESS OFFICE TRANSCRIPT SUNDAY, 1, JULY 1979
SUNDAY REPORT
Question: Prime Minister, you've just spent the last couple of days in
negotiations with the Premiers of the various States, what will
be the outcome of these negotiations, do you think, affecting
the people who might be watching this programme tonight?
Prime Minister:
I think it depends on the area you're talking about. In the local
Governing areas there's some good news. I have an election
commitment to move their share of income tax collections up to
Well, we're doing a substantial amount of that in this
particular time, the rest of it will have to come next year. That
will assist local Government. That can have an impact on ratepayers.
They can either get better services or maybe the rise in
rates can be held. Their own people can make decisions about that.
The commitment to local Government is certainly being fulfilled in
a very fair way. When you get into wider areas, a lot of the
payments just go on being made whether it's for roads or other
areas of activity that are important to people. I think at
first sight, some people might be concerned about the apparent
reductions in housing or loans programmes and wonder if that's
going to affect people's home ownership, affect the more needy
people in the community. We're going to have discussions, or
Mr Green's going to have discussions with his State Housing
counterparts because we want more of that housing money to go to
pensioners housing. We want more of it to go to house Aborigines.
These are amongst the neediest groups in the Australian
community..-There's -one point that I think we need to
understand and that is that we had to get to an overall result.
We can't go on as Governments, State and Federal anymore than you
can as a person or families can, go on spending more money than we
earn, year after year. So we have to be restrained and that has
to be shared with State Governments. Now we are commited by law
to -a very large increase in revenue funds to the States, 13%-14%.
The' States can spend that any way they like. If they want t~ o
spend that on housing, or other public works of interest to their
own people, they can and we hope they will., but because we had to
restrain the overall amount of money, it meant we had to reduce in
the areas where we could reduce and that was in the capital
programmes.* In a sense that was unfortunate but the only alternative, in
the way the arrangements have worked out, would be to make the
total payments much too high and more than we can afford. So, if
the States transfer their excess of the revenue funds and housing
and capital works, I believe very strongly that these arrangements
will contribute to economic recovery into the movement forward of
the Australian economy and dire predictions of Premiers, I think,
well, I think they're groundless but they won't have the dire impact
that they're suggesting.
Question: In New South Wales, at least, there was a great deal of concern
because there was a lot of speculation, in fact a State Goverment / 2
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announcement that many small hospitals would have to close down if
the Commonwealth did not come up with more money. Is that going
to happen?
Prime Minister
I don't believe that will happen, it may well be that some
hospital wards will close but if that's so, I think it's something
that ought to happen, because the bed occupancy is, in many
hospitals, under 70%. That means the hospital is staffed as
though patients were in every bed but the average occupancy is such that
only 6 or 7 out of every 10 beds has got a patient in it. In many
countries there are much better rates than that, better utilization
of the facilities and the cost to New South Wales I think is
something like between $ 160 or $ 180 per day. It's one of the
high cost States. We've Just got to restrain this area of
Government expenditure and we want and are going to have, an
inquiry into hospitals that we don't control--the States do, but
we help fund them--to get to a situation where hospital facilities
are going to be used rationally and sensibly. A number of
states have come to me and said good luck to you in that, we think
this is necessary, we think we're all spending more money than is
necessary on hospitals for good health care. Now New South Wales
conducted a scare campaign, they, I think, got in touch with all
hospital managements and said, the terrible Commonwealth, they're
not giving us enough money, you might have to shut. Well, that's
grossly irresponsible, it's scare tactics and I would have thought
that it should be possible for Governments to co-operate in a
matter that is important, where we are spending your dollars and
tax-payers dollars generally and try and seek a way of providing
the best possible service at a reasonable cost, instead of an
exorbitant cost.
Question: On the matter of petrol prices the OPEC Ministers have just put up
the price of petrol and I believe your Government has calculated
that this will put up the price of our petrol by 3 or 4 or 5 cents
per litre. I suppose a lot of people will be wondering now is this
ever going to end?
Prime Minister:
Well, I hope it's going to end, that the OPEC countries are very
unpredictable. I think what-' s happened in the current oil crisis
is most unfortunate because inflation is going to get much worse in
Europe, it will get worse in North America and it certainly won't
help in Australia that our inflation is under theirs and we have a
( inaudible) and control I think for much of Europe and ( inaudible)
control in North America right at this time and it's our intention
to keep it that way. I1 can't predict what the OPEC countries are
going to do. But what we certainly have to do is try and use
alternatives better. If we're using fuel oil, can we use coal? If
we're using petrol cars, can we use gas-fired cars? A lot of taxis
in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne are already on gas and future
purchases of Commonwealth Government cars are going to be gas
except for ones which are going to have to go out into areas where
you can only buy petrol and that'll be a very large market. We've
suggested the States do the same with their car fleets and if private
individuals can also buy gas-fired cars instead of petrol, this will
help to reduce our dependance on fuel oil. We've taken the sales ./ 3
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tax off, so it's a bit cheaper to convert, and we're hoping to be
able to persuade the companies to have a gas production line so you
can buy gas power for new and not have to get it converted.
Question: Did that have a possibility in the near future?
Prime Minister:
I think that is a very real possibility and this is why we made the
decision to go to gas-powered cars, once our current contracts are
wound up, which will be in about 12 month's time and we'll certainly
be seeking consultations with the major companies in Australia to
get them to do just that.
Question: Did you offer them any incentive to do that?
Prime minister:
I think the real incentive for this is the type of gas fuel as
opposed to petrol. I'm told in Melbourne a taxi will work out
the cost, $ 600-$ 700 of conversion in 6-7 months-and after that it's
all pure gain. Now that's a very, very great saving.
Question: So, you think possibly a customer demand will force the big
manufacturers to look at producing gas cars.
Prime Minister:
Well, we've already got one of the largest customers, the
Commonwealth and if the States follow, there are going to be some
very large customers indeed wanting a substantial number of cars each
year and light commercial vehicles, who are going to say, look WE!
want it gas-fired and if we do this and if a number of private
individuals do, then I haven't got the slightest doubt that the
fleet owners, the big companies if they follow our lead, and I
think that in their interest and in Australia' s interest they ought
to, then I've got no doubts that the motor companies will have a
gas production line. 000---