PM Transcripts

PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA WEDNESDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 1982
ALP PLAN TO BUY UP TO 50% OF BHP STEEL
The Labor Party's suggestion that they would solve
the problems of BHP by putting taxpayers' funds into
the company is an example of socialism at its worst.
Many European steel industries have been destroyed by
government money being put into the corporations. As
a consequence, they have failed to take the decisions
necessary to make the industry efficient and competitive.
Billions of dollars of taxpayers' funds have been lost,
and it is not only the steel industry that has
been uncompetitive, it is other industries that have
had to pay much higher prices for steel, leading to less
employment in downstream industries.
The suggestion that the injection of taxpayers' funds
into BHP would solve the problems of Australia is a
nonsense. It is for the BHP Board to set out the
framework for the future. I have every confidence
that they will be able to do so, and they will do much
better if governments keep their sticky fingers out of
it. Let the Board do its job without the kind of
Government interference that would come from Government
investment in the company.
I hope we will never see the day when Australian boards
and directors would have any inclination to want to
co-operate with that kind of Government intrusion.
Governments have rarely if ever managed business
affairs with high distinction, and the record of
involvement in steel industries overseas is one of
pure and utter disaster. I do not believe any
taxpayers want to see any government investing their
funds in BHP or any other company.