TRANSCRIPT OF COMMENTS AT AUSTRALIAN ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF COLLEGE,
MT-E IZ ,-SUNDAY--5-FEBRUA-RY-19 87
E__&_ OEPZO-QF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, Sir Joh saidthi. s mrning that atthe.--
S National Party meeting this week the issue of his-leadership
of that Party would come up. Do you think he has got the
numbers to topple Sinclair?
PM: I don't know, I have got no idea. He doesn't ring me
up and tell me what is happening Ian doesn't. I would be
surprised if he had.
JOURNALIST: You referred to Don Grimes in your speech are
you sad to be losing Don Grimes?
PM: Yes, I am. He has played and enormously constructive
and compassionate role but Don has thought in terms of his
health he had a very severe heart attack, a bypass operation
he came to the conclusion that it was probably appropriate for
him to retire. And if that is his judgement about what is
best for him then, of course, I entirely endorse it. But he
has made an enormous contribution and I think he has left
many memorials to his imagination and great administration
that will last forever.
JOURNALIST: Will Mr Scholes still be in the Ministry tomorrow?
PM: I would think so, as I understand it.
JOURNALIST: So you have resolved your differences with him?
PM: It is clear that I had conversations with him but I don't
conduct those conversations in public. That is a matter between
Mr Scholes and myself.
JOURNALIST: plant variety rights legislation. How important
is that legislation for your Government?
PM: It doesn't loom as number one on our priority list.
JOURNALIST: Do you expect the Left to get a place in the
reshuffle tomorrow?
PM: We will see when tomorrow comes. I don't canvass these things
in public. The Party Room and the Cabinet Room are the appropriate
place for that. We know how to handle ourselves as distinct from
other pecple in politics.
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2.
JOURNALIST: If you were John Howard would you get rid of
Joh the same way that Bob Hawke got rid of Bill Hartley?
PM: I don't want to make odious comparisons but the terror
that is right across the Liberal Party and the National Party
as a result of many things is fpr them to deal with. You might
have noticed I have not spent a great deal of time talking about
-it. Temptation has been put in my way to try and gloat and talk
at length about them. I don't. I think it is a matter for them
to resolve. Conservative politics in this country are in a hopeless
mess-and-it-is--not-jst-because -of Joh. You -have got -to-understand--
that it is not just because of Joh. They have no policies.
-They_ haveno Yvision forthefuture. of.-thiscountry..... They....
are status quo people who have never really had to think about
whereisAustralia__ going'. _ They hate one another,. they are fighting
another. In a sense that is a pity. We would be better off in this
country with a reasonable Opposition. I am reconciled with myself
to the fact that we haven't got that but we will go on doing the
job that people want providing solid, cautious, stable government.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Joh and Andrew Peacock would make a
reasonable Opposition?
PM: I have said I would welcome the double P Petersen and Peacock.
JOURNALIST: plans to get involved in the State by-election?
PM: A State Upper House by-election? No. If there was any
suggestion that that would desirable but I can't remember since I
have been Prime Minister that I have been in an Upper House by-election
anywhere. Why would I do that.
ENDS I