PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH BARRY BISSELL~, FOX-FM, MELBOURNE
26 FEBRUARY 1990.
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BISSELL: It's amazing the people you get on the phone here on a
Monday afternoon, I tell you. The Prime Minister of Australia,
Mr Hawke, good afternoon and welcome.
PM: Good afternoon Barry, thank you very much.
BISSELL: You've got some good news f or us about an environmental
issue which FOX-FM in Melbourne has been very concerned about
for some time. We've been very conscious of the environment and
working hard to make people aware of it, but you've come up with
some very good news this afternoon.
PM: I have indeed Barry. Your listeners will know that I've
been taking the lead in trying to save the Antarctic from mining
and to create a wilderness reserve, a land of science and we've
been working very closely with the French in that. The big news
is that today, the Government of New Zealand has decided that it
is going to set aside ratifications of that convention and work
with us here in Australia to achieve our objectives, so that is
an enormous result. It's not only another nation has joined with
us in our objective but the fact that it is New Zealand has a
particular ' significance because it was there, as I say, the
convention was finally drawn up. We know this for instance, it's
not lust a question of the beauty and the pristine nature of the
area down there but increasingly one of the environmental issues
of concern around the world is the depletion of the ozone layer,
the emission of greenhouse gases and the effect that has on our
ocean levels and so on, and the significance of the Antarctic is
that it is the one remaining area of the world untouched by human
activity and industrial activity where you are able to take
tests, make tests of what's happening in a way which is
absolutely untainted by human and industrial activity.
BISSELL: Mr Hawke, thanks for the good news. it's good to hear
from you, I know you're a very busy man at the moment. It must
be a fairly torturous period for you, anybody, doing
campaigning, but you especially, I mean it's there all the time,
isn't it. You can't get away for the next few weeks. o a o/. 2
SV -2-
PM: but when you get news like this it's the sort of thing
that gives you a lift Barry.
BISSELL: Makes it all worthwhile.
PM1 Yes.
BISSELL: Mr Hawke, thank you very much for your time. It's been
great talking to you.
PM: Thank you very much indeed.
ENDS.