PM Transcripts

For Media May 29 1983
The Government of course would have liked to have won the
Bruce by-election.
However the Australian Labor Party has never won tne seat
since its creation in 1955.
A number of other factors including the-lack of aniy measurable
personal vote for Sir Billy Snedden the Liberal candidate
holdirng first place on the ballot paper and the tradit-ional
anti-Governmenit swing in by-elections combined to influence the
resul-t.
Some comument has been made on the impact of the Economic
Statement brought down by the Treasurer on May 19.
It should be not. ed that the Statement was framed on the basis
that Australia needs a Government prepared , where necessary,
to take hard decisions.
if the short-term impact of the Statement , which has been
widely acclaimed as responsible and necessary i . s some
political unpopularity then the Government will have to accept
that. But as I said at the opening of the Bruce by-election campaign
it would have been very simple for the Government to hold off
on the Statement in the hope of securing some political
advantage. The interests of Australia and particularl-y the many thousands
without jobs would not have been best served by such a cynical
approach. Finally I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and
commitment of the ALP candidate , Heather O'Connor , and the
campaign team.