TRANSCRIPT OF COMMENTS, QUEANBEYAN FRIDAY 27 MARCH 1987
E 0 E PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Will you rule out an early election?
PM: You can't put a question like that will I rule out? I've
got nothing to add to what I've said.
JOURNALIST: Well some of your backbench don't think you can win
an early election.
PM: And a lot of them do, so what's that mean?
JOURNALIST: Can you explain to us why Rod Cameron was asked to
interrupt his Japanese trip to return home?
PM: I didn't know held been asked. I read it in the Financial
Review that he'd been asked to interrupt his trip.
JOURNALIST: Care to speculate as to why?
PM: No I don't care to speculate about these things. All I
notice is the rapidly diminishing acceptance of the Liberal Party
under the leadership of John Howard. His performance in the last
couple of days has defied description. They were committed to
supporting the equal employment opportunity legislation and he's
walking around the country saying his foremost responsibility is
to defend the integrity and the independence of the Liberal
Party. That they were not going to be dictated to by outside
forces. So what happens? His first test, the very first test
aftrer he says he's going to defend the independence of the
Liberal Party he gives in, he changes his position, he says they
won't support the bill because it might upset the National Party
in their meeting here this weekend.
JOURNALIST: How important is the National Party, the results of
the meeting, to the prospects of an early election?
PM: I think it has a very great significance just in its own
right. Leave elections aside. What you're witnessing now is the
tearing up of the fabric of the traditional conservative politics
in this country. You have this force from Queensland which is
saying it shall be the determining direction of where the non
Labor forces go. That force in Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen has a
contempt for the Liberal Party, a total contempt as he does for
anyone in the National Party who doesn't agree with him. It's
very important for the whole of Australia to see what happens
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there this weekend at the Lakeside. Are they going to tear up
the Coalition? He says they will. Then what does the Liberal
Party do? Does it continue as it has to just kowtow to the
dictates of the more extreme elements of the National Party, or
is it then going to just concentrate its energies on just
fighting within its own ranks? The bitterness between Mr Peacock
and Mr Howard are fundamental, they won't go away. And so you've
got a disintegrating conservative force in Australia, which is
not surprising. If you're going to analyse this properly you've
got to understand the reason why these things are happening is
because neither Mr Peacock nor Mr Howard, in the four years
they've had the responsibility of leading the conservative forces
in this country, have done any significant work at all about
addressing themselves to the issues of policies, the issues that
are confronting this country. They have nothing. John Howard
has come up with what? Incentivation! When you create, as I
say, that sort of vacuum, that's what opens up the possibilities
of your Joh Bjelke-Petersens.
JOURNALIST: This morning Senator Richardson said the electorate
doesn't traditionally like an early election. You'll have the
Australia Card as a trigger. Do you think you can keep the
electorate on side if you do decide to go early?
PM: It's not a question of keeping them on side if I decide to
go early. The question of the Australia Card has a very great
intrinsic significance. I think people need to understand how
important it is. It's not just a piece of legislation. It is
fundamentally important to do two things, which leads to a third
result. First, to crack down on tax avoiders, the black economy,
people who don't pay their taxes and they can do that in the
absence of an identity card. And also, it's the only efficient
way of totally cracking down on welfare cheats. If we have the
capacity through a card with photo to crack down on tax cheating
and welfare frauds, that in a relatively short period of time
will bring in the best part of an additional $ 1 billion into the
coffers of Commonwealth revenue, which means there are lesser
burdens on the rest of the people. It means there's a greater
capacity to do things that people want. So you can see this
piece of legislation is just no ordinary bill. It is fundamental
to decent government, to proper tax collection, equitable tax
collection so that people have to pay their share. It's also
fundamental to seeing that people don't cheat on the welfare
system. The Liberals and Democrats have got a very serious
decision to take. Not just in terms of whether it will trigger
an election. But they really have to ask themselves are they
going to insult the Australian people by casting their vote in
favour of tax cheats and welfare frauds. It's a very big
decision. JOURNALIST: Is the legislation that crucial you'll take it to
the people though?
Pm: I haven't said that.
JOURNALIST: Just in relation to Mr Howard's comments this
morning. He was saying your credibility would be damaged if you
decide to go early, or if you change your mind and say you're
going to go early. What do you say in response to that?
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PM: Well I say these things in response to Mr Howard. Firstly,
he is in no position to talk about questions of credibility. He
has this week performed the most unbelievable turnaround, saying
at the beginning of the week his first responsibility was to
protect the integrity and the independence of the Liberal Party
from outside forces. First test, within 24 hours he capitulates
to the National Party. So don't let's take any notice of Mr
Howard. You talk about an early election. I think the only
thing you can be certain about in early elections is that
there will be an early election for the leadership of the Liberal
Party. JOURNALIST:........... national implications do you think?
PM: I don't think national implications, no.
JOURNALIST: What about the ABC/ SBS merger. What's the current
state of play?
PM: Well it looks as though there's not going to be support for
that in the Senate and I've made that quite clear that the
Government would not proceed by administrative means to attempt
to make that merger. I think that in those circumstances we'll
have further discussions with the representatives of the ethnic
community because I think they increasingly understand that the
Government is concerned with maintaining and indeed improving the
standard of the services provided by the SBS. I'm making clear
to them that before I agreed to the proposal to merge I wanted a
guarantee in writing, which I received, that there would be an
improvement in the capacity to deliver the SBS type services in a
merge situation because the SBS would have access to the greater
capital facilities of the ABC. But if the Parliament, the
Senate, is not going to pass it then that will give us more time,
the Government and the ethnic community, to talk together and
move to a position where'they could be satisfied that their
legitimate requirements would, in fact, be more than met in such
a situation. I think it's probably in everyone's interests that
we have the opportunity to do that and I think that can be
achieved. ends