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PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF NEWS CONFERENCE, PRINCE OF WALES BAY, HOBART,
FEBRUARY 1989
E 0 E PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, the Directors of International
Catamaran Services asked you for a fair hearing I suppose on
the fuel excise rebate?
PM: They have raised the matter with me and they have left
me with a sumbission. I'll have a look at it. I didn't
make them any promises other than that I would read very
carefully their submission.
JOURNALIST: Do they have a valid argument?
PM: They certainly think they have and I've got no more to
say than that I've promised them that I will very carefully
read their submission. They're obviously an enterprise
which deserves the consideration of anything they've put to
you because they've shown that they are a remarkable
enterprise. I'm very proud of them.
JOURNALIST: Do you think a development such as the tourist
ferry on Bass Strait is good for tourism in Australia?
PM: Yes, it's obviously going to be beneficial both in
terms of increased speed, lower cost and what's exciting for
me about it is not just the service they are providing here
across the Bass Strait but the demonstration that they've
already given of their capacity to establish an enormous
export market. I mean they have got orders now for ferries
in the Irish Sea and all over the place, so they've got
something here which at this stage is unique in the world.
There's no-one else like it and so I just have nothing but
praise for them and wish them well.
JOURNALIST: Prime minister, the front page of the
Australian said today that ALP strategists were talking
about a September election.
PM: Were they? They haven't talked to me about it. I
mean, I'll probably have something to do with it.
JOURNALIST: Does it interest you, that date?
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PM4: Look, I've got nothing to add to what I've said, and I
haven't been coy about it, the election will be held
somewhere from the latter part of this year up until May of
next year. Now I haven't been playing funny fellows with
that, it'll be in there sometime and when we have it,
we'll win.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, for the second time you've held out
the hope that pensioners, that they think they might be
better off c me the next poll. Can you elaborate on that
hint a bit?
PM: Yes, what I can say is this. Let me make it clear, we
are not responding to some suggested grey power or anything
like that. I not only reject that suggestion but find it
offensive because I established with Brian Howe some couple
of years ago now, an expert inquiry under Professor Bettina
Cass. She brought down a very very considered and relevant
report on retirement incomes. So what we did then was to
establish, under Brian Howe and officials, a consultative
force which is talking with pensioner organisations and with
the superannuation industry. In addition to that I
establshed a backbench committee which is going around the
country listening to individual pensioners and groups of
them. Now that's been underway for a very very long period
of time and all I can say is that in the relatively near
future I'll be receiving the reports from those two groups
and out of our consideration of those reports certain
advances will be made which will add to the very proud
record we have in this area. I remind you the time has come
in which the Australian community can compare and contrast
the records of the conservatives and Labor over a similar
period of time. Under the conservatives the real value of
the pension declined by that 2 1/ 2 percent and my
Government, it's increased by 7.7 percent. The period when
Mr Howard was Treasurer, real decline in the value of
pensions, 4.1 percent, up 7.7 percent under us and we are
going to do more and they are going to talk.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, if we could just switch to the Wesley
Vale pulp mill. What concerns did the State branch of the
Labor Party raise with you this morning?
PM: obvious ones, obvious ones about the environment and I
listened with interest to what they've got to say and what
they are putting will be part of the whole matrix of
consideration that we take into account when the decision of
the Tasmanian Parliament comes to us.
JOURNALIST: Was the discussed?
PM: No.
ends