PRIME MINISTER
E 0 E PROOF ONLY
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW ON ABC 7.30 REPORT 11 JUNE 1986
GOWARD: Mr Hawke, thank you very much for joining us this
evening. PM: My pleasure Pru.
GOWARD: How quickly do you believe your policy outline tonight
will start correcting our balance of payment difficulties and
heading us away from bananahood.
PM: I think that in many respects it can start immediately if
the Australian people, as I believe they will, respond with the
changes of attitudes that you rightly referred to Pru, then that
starts to have its impact. As to when you see it in the
statistics, of course, that is further down the track. But what I
am trying to say is we have got both an immediate problem and, in
what I am saying about wages and so on that is addressed to those
immediate problems, we have got the longer term problem and
challenge which we can meet of realising that we have got to
broaden our export base. Now as I said..
GOWARD: Have we got time?
PM: We have got as much time in a sense as we give ourselves. If
we accept the challenge immediately and the world sees that we
are accepting the challenge then the reactions will be right.
GOWARD: Would you say that your speech will be welcomed by
international finance markets?
PM: I don't know, but let me say this Pru, I think what I have
done is to make it clear that we'll do everything within our
direct power to create the best macro-economic environment. We
want a lower wages outcome. We are, as Governments, going to
exercise very severe budgetary restraint. So I think if they look
dispassionately at what I have said they will say yes, well, this
Government, and I think the people of Australia, are dinkum in
the right areas.
GOWARD: Is your speech weighted against wage earners, salary
earners, and perhaps a little bit too, employers?
PM: No, it is not weighted against them. I mean the fact is that
wage and salary earners constitute b far the greatest proportion
of our national income and our national expenditure therefore you
have got to talk about them. But if we are going to get the
co-operation of the wage and salary earners business has a
corresponding responsibility. In three areas particularly, i.,
their pricing policy, their own remuneration policies, and
in investment policies.
GOWARD: Well, your speech tonight had Simon Crean reacting
already, and we will come to him in a moment, that the unions had
already done their bit in terms of wage restraint. Do you believe
they can be made to accept any more?
PM: Well let me go to the first point. The trade unions have
exercised considerable restraint. The outcome in 1985 in wages
was 6% against 5.5% of the OECD our major trading partners.
That was good. Certainly if you hadn't had a centralised wage
fixing system with which they co-operated the wages outcome would
have been much more. Now as to the future part of your question
Pru, the actual decisions as to what the wage outcome should be
must be made under our system by the Arbitration Commission. I
believe the trade union movement will co-operate with the
decisions of the Commission.
GOWARD: Would you be prepared to forgo the Accord if they
weren't prepared to co-operate?
PM: I don't want to forgo the Accord. As Prime Minister I have a
responsibility in this country to make the decisions which are
necessary. As we see it, looking at the economic situation, we
need a further discount in the next case. That's what we will be
putting to the Commission.
GOWARD: You don't want to forgo the Accord?
PM: No I don't want to forgo the Accord.
GOWARD: You seem to be suggesting in the national interest you
would accept that you might have to.
PM: No, I don't think it will happen because I do believe Pru,
that the trade unions will say well, we want to see what the
outcome of this wages case is. And I think they will abide by
that decision and then face up to the realities whatever they are
when we come to the next case which will be the end of this year.
But there should be no further decision before the 1st of January
1987.
GOWARD: Now back to you Mr Hawke, I suppose you heard all of
that. Are you encouraged by Simon Crean?
PM: Well I think that Simon has said the Accord is still alive.
He recognises the right under the Accord of the Government to put
its position. We'll be putting that position. I think that the
rank and file of the trade union movement are going to give
support to responsible leadership because it is my firm belief
that the ordinary rank and file trade unionist, that's the
ordinary Australia, knows that we have a challenge and will want
to respond to it.
GOWARD: I also asked Mr Crean about the dole, the young people,
and making people work for it. He, like a lot of us, is a little
bit puzzled by what you mean. Would you like to expand on it.
Does it mean having to work for the dole.
PM: What it means is this, I have had the opportunity Pru, of
talking intimately with large numbers of young people in
Australia now. I did that during the Priority One campaign.
Almost universally the young people told me that they wanted to
do something for the benefit. I'm terribly encouraged by that.
Correspondingly, I think, the community wants to see something
done. So what we're going to be about, this is not trying to
impose something upon a reluctant unemployed constituency, what
it is is co-operating with a constituency that wants to do
something. In talking with the voluntary organisations, the
State and local governments and the trade unions, I'm sure we're
going to be able to create a situation of a fairly large number
of worthwhile community activities which will involve the
opportunity for young people to do something for the community
for the benefit they get.
GOWARD: And if they choose not to do they lose the dole?
PM: Well that situation doesn't arise. At this stage, and later
on, if you had a position where the community saw that you had
large numbers of people who just didn't want to do anything, then
I think the community would want to address that, but that's
entirely hypothetical. We've got to understand those unemployed
people the overwhelming majority, there are some you might call
bludgers, but the overwhelming majority of those kids and the
unemployed out there want to do something. We want to help them.
GOWARD: Mr white, just finally, referred to some disappointment
with your package. He felt that we were a bit soft on work
practices in Australia?
PM: well he referred to soft on the productivity case. Bob I
hope you're still watching. Remember I said a prolongation of
this over two years, now if as a community, including you in the
business community you've got a great responsibility don't put
it all on the trade union movement management in this country
has got to get off its butt in a lot of areas and invest and use
its entrepreneurial spirit as so many of you are doing. The rest
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of you have got to do it too. Now if together, over those two
years, we lift our productivity performance we'll be able to
absorb this productivity superannuation decision, which I hope
will come within the context of a significant improvement in our
own productivity performance.
GOWARD: Mr Hawke, thank you very much for your time.
ends