EMBARGO: 7: 00 pmn
PRESS OFFICE TRANSCRIPT MONDAY, 31 MARCH, 1980
PRIME MINISTER INTERVIEWED BY MICHAEL WILLESEE FOR
" WILLESEE AT SEVEN" PROGRAMME
Willesee Prime Minister, thanks for coming in. N''
J
Prime Minister
Thank you very much.
Willesee Well, how do you react to rotten vegetables, eggs and manure?
Prime Minister
And also potatoes.
Willesee And potatoes.
Prime Minister
It is the sort of thing that should not happen in Australia.
People ought to be able to go and express a point of view in
any Australian environment, and I believe, be heard. Now this
is something that makes, obviously, free speech very difficult.
But it also something that causes enormous inconvenience. It
causes danger, and in the case of the old people's home at
Fitzroy where there are a number of frail-aged needing nursing
home care, it caused an enormous amount of concern to the inmates.
Willesee What happened yesterday?
Prime Minister
Well, I was asked to go and open a nursing home in Fitzroy,
from the Melbourne City Mission. They have said, before the
event, that they would have asked whoever was the Prime Minister.
It happens to be the first nursing home that has been built
in Fitzroy that in itself is something of a criticism because
it is an area where that kind of facility is much needed. It
has cost about $ 1 million. There is a large of Government money
in it. Then, the Fitzroy Council said that they were going to
boycott it. A Fitzroy Councillor made some statements about a
large demonstration; that he could not guarantee that the
demonstration would be peaceful. It was boycotted by Mr. Innes,
and State and Federal Labor politicans in effect. There was a
great deal of concern amongst the people running the Melbourne
City Mission, and a great deal of concern amongst people running
that particular nursing home and the patients in the nursing home.
I would have thought it was an apolitical occurrence; a cause
that is not political in itself, but one which all Australians
could support the provision of better facilities for Australia's
elderly people. / 2
2-
Willesee What actually happened when you got there?
Prime Minister
When we got there: or before we g ot there, people had to move
from an open-air environment in a car park and the opening
ceremony was held within the church itself, so it would be secure.
Because people were going to be throwing vegetables and whatever,
it would have been very insecure, and I believe, positively
dangerous, especially for some of the elderly people, if the
opening had-been held on the outside. So, that moved into the
church. Tamie and myself arrived a little later to give them
time for that movement. The police were handling matters well.
We got inside, but not before we had both been pelted by various
missiles. Then, the opening ceremony went on. There was an
inspection of the building. A great deal of noise; more people
gathered; a lot of difficulty for the police. None of that I saw
because I was inside and they were outside. But I understand it
was captured by the television cameras. I also understand there
were some very nasty and unpleasant incidents. A lot of noise,
a lot of shouting, a lot of sloganeering going on, all during the
ceremony. Willesee Do you know who these people are?
Prime Minister
Not in detail. No. A report is being prepared for me, as is
normal in these circumstances: the organisations that might be
involved. But we do know that the Fitzroy City Council passed
a motion deploring the fact that I had been asked to go, and
that it was plain that some members at least or at least one
member of that Council was helping to organ ' ise a meeting and
members of the Australian Labor Party, State and Federal,
boycotted the opening.
Willesee Have you yet seen security reports?
Prime Minister-
Not in relation to it. No, I have not. I have asked for a report
to be prepared; as soon as it is ready. Before the event of
course, there was advice that there was going to be a demonstration
but the advice also was that it would probably be a peaceful
demonstration. Well, that advice was very wrong.
Willesee But they must have known a month in advance to take the people
into the hall, into the church? / 3
-3
Prime Minister
That decision was made about 10 minutes before I was due
to arrive. A large number of people had arrived by that time.
Willesee Would you take Mrs. Fraser again, knowing that was going
to happen?
Prime Minister
I asked my own office to go through my engagements and to
make an assessment about whether or not Mrs. Fraser ought to
be with me on the engagements that have already been accepted.
So far as I am concerned, if I am asked to do something and it
fits into the programme and I think it is something that I
ought to do, then I believe I have got to do it. Because I
do not believe that any Prime Minister of this country should
allow a mob, a riot, violence of that kind, to run him of f the
track. You cannot have some ground in Australia which is
too unsafe for a Prime Minister to walk over, or to visit.
We cannot have that kind of country here.
Willesee And yet there is the danger of violence begetting violence,
isn't there?
Prime Minister
I think there is. But if people have a difference with me on
political matters and I know well enough there are a large
number that have that, as there would be in free society, and
that is to be expected but let them argue it in the Parliament.
Let them argue it with words. Let them argue it with reason. I
believe that violence is the hallmark of those who have no
reason, who have no arguments, who are morally and intellectually
defeated, and therefore can only resort to the tactics of the
thug and the bully. Surely, that Fitzroy City Council should
have deplored violence. Surely, the Australian Labor Party and
Mr. Innes as a person who had been asked to go to the meeting
should have deplored the violence.
Willesee Are you per sonally concerned that what is rotten fruit today
may be something a little harder tomorrow?
Prime Minister
That process has already started. It started off as eggs and
tomatoes. Potatoes did not land on a mark, but potatoes thrown
over 50 or 60 yards could land quite heavily, especially on
somebody who is old and frail. They could land very, very
hard indeed. I think that what has happened does pose a problem
for those who are concerned with the safety of various people and
the safety of organisations in these circumstances. / 4
-4
Willesee Do you have any plans to combat that?
Prime Minister
Let me only say it is being examined right at this moment,
as a result of what happened yesterday.
Willesee
What is your personal reaction?
Prime Minister
One of sadness that this could happen in Australia. Look, I know
we play our politics ruggedly, roughly maybe, if you like. But
I would hoped also, that it can be played in a forthright way,
with people expressing views, ruggedly, but in the proper forum.
Australians ought not to take this kind of politics to the streets.
They really ought to turn their backs upon it and condemn totally
anyone who has anything to do with it. It is un-Australian, in
its origin and in its practice.
Willesee There are those cynical enough to suggest that it is not harmful
to you in an election year. What do you say to that?
Prime Minister
Why is it that violence always seem to be against my side of
politics? Is that an accident, or is it organised? There is
no politics in violence if violence is condemned. The
Australian Labor Party has a capacity to condemn violence if they
wish to. They have a capacity to disassociate themselves from it,
by word and by' deed. Mr. Innes had originally accepted that
invitation to go to that particular opening of that old people's
home yesterday. He refused, presumably, once he heard of the
resolution through the Fitzroy Council, and once he heard there
was going to be a demonstration. He needs to ask, was he happier
to organise, or help in organising a demonstration if that is
what he was doing, or would he have preferred to be at the opening
and see the work and committment of a large number of very fine
Australians. Willesee Mr. Prime Minister, thanks for talking with us.
Prime Minister
Thank you. 000---