N
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW, SYDNEY WITH MIKE GIBSON,
CHANNEL 10, SYDNEY, 22 MARCH 1990
E 0 E PROOF ONLY
GIBSON: Welcome back. In two days time the Federal
elections of 1990 will be over and with me, the man who
may well be Labor Prime Minister for a record fourth
term, Mr Hawke, good evening.
PM: Thanks Mike.
GIBSON: A couple of days to go, how do you feel?
PM: I feel good, Mike. I feel well and I feel relaxed,
not cocky or complacent but I believe I've given it my
best shot and I hope I've done what the people want me to
do, that's two things, to talk about my policies and
explain what I think the weaknesses are on the other
side.
GIBSON: You're a lot more relaxed than you seemed to be
when you kicked off.
PM: Well I was relaxed at the beginning. I think I
remember that people tried to run a story about the fact
that I complained about a whole lot of microphones on a
podium as though that was some real issue. They just
misunderstood it completely. I was very relaxed and
joking with people about that but apart from that I don't
think there's been any real hiccups. I've felt good.
GIBSON: Andrew Peacock was very relaxed earlier on.
He's looking lately, particularly that outburst with
Paul Kelly the other day.
PM: Well it wasn't good. I think we've had a paradox in
this campaign. The Liberals started off, the whole
concept has been there are questions that must be
answered. But the whole campaign has been a
contradiction when he with me in the debate he
couldn't ask me any questions and he spent the whole of
the campaign dodging the Press in terms of facing up to
the questions they want to ask. I don't think that's
wise on their part. I mean if they really say they've
got the answers then he should be prepared to face up to
questions from the people who are there on behalf of the
Australian people to ask those questions.
GIBSON: You've had a few Liberal adversaries now, John
Howard and going back to Malcolm Fraser. How does Andrew
shape up against those two?
PM: I think you'll agree that in this campaign I haven't
got into personalities against Peacock. I've tried as
hard as I can to concentrate on the issues.
GIBSON: Would you like to have?
PM: No. I don't like it. I'd rather talk about issues
but let me say this. The comparison, of course,
Fraser and Howard, I've got to say that I think honestly
that both Mr Fraser and Mr Howard applied themselves much
more vigorously to getting on top of economic matters.
Whether you agreed with Malcolm Fraser, which I didn't,
or John Howard, which I didn't basically on their concept
of the Australian economy of what should be done, at
least they did work. They could talk about it and
respond to questions put to them in a way which revealed
that they knew what they were talking about, even if you
didn't agree with their final judgement. Andrew
Peacock's been in public life for over a generation. He
was Shadow Treasurer when he was there before he knocked
Mr Howard off again and he quite clearly hasn't applied
himself to understanding the fundamentals about the
Australian economy and that's the difference I find
between Mr Peacock and his two predecessors.
GIBSON: You became Prime Minister fairly quickly. Has
it been all you expected?
PM: Just about. I think the one thing, Mike, that's
been a little bit different is I hadn't really
appreciated the way in which it's virtually impossible to
have a private life and I don't complain about that. I
think that this is the greatest country in the world and
to be its leader is just an indescribable honour. It
does mean that particularly if you're serious about the
job, that you've virtually got no private life, had to
realise just how much that was true but that's not a
complaint. GIBSON: Has it changed you at all, the job?
3.
PM: Yes, it's made me a lot wiser. I mean I work very
hard. I read an enormous amount of information which I'm
privileged to get about our own economy, about our own
society and particularly also about world events and our
regional events and I'm just very much better informed
and a wiser person than I was when I became Prime
Minister. GIBSON: Whatever the outcome Saturday, I guess the one
certainty would seem to be that we're going to get a
record number of people voting for the alternative
parties. What's that say about you guys?
PM: Well I think the major element that it says is about
the world. I mean if you wanted to look at the world
over the last five to ten years, the most striking
feature Mike, has been the rapid increase in interest in
the environment. It goes right across age barriers, it
goes right across income barriers, right across social
barriers and in Australia it's true too of people, more
people saying our major interest is the environment and
they are going to cast a lot of primary votes for the
Democrats or Green candidates because they want to say
that's the issue which mainly concerns them. Now my
responsibility is to say to them if you're really are
concerned about the environment your first vote but
on the 25th its either going to be Bob Hawke or Andrew
Peacock and Bob Hawke's record on the environment leaves
Peacock and the National Party for dead. I mean we've
saved the Franklin. The Liberals and the National Party
opposed. I saved the Daintree Rainforest from logging.
They opposed that. I saved the Kakadu from mining. They
opposed it. I saved the Tall Forests of Tasmania. They
opposed it. So these people that are going to be voting
one environment as it were, they must cast their second
preference for Labor.
GIBSON: Are these the people who in fact are going to
get you in though, I mean these preferences.
PM: Well, I think preferences are going to be important.
I mean we're going to get a lot of primary votes, yes,
preferences are going to be important, Mike.
GIBSON: How are you going to sleep tomorrow night. I
mean I know I'd have a few beers on the eve of a big one.
You don't do that anymore.
PM: No, I haven't had a drink for a decade but I sleep
well, I mean once my head hits the pillow I go to sleep.
GIBSON: And then once this minor interruption's over you
go on with the more serious business of
PM: Well, I must say that during the campaign I haven't
been able to think on Saturdays about the horses in the
way I normally do. I try and put a couple of hours in on
a Friday night but I've certainly been interrupted.
GIBSON: Before we go, on a sporting note you've had
quite a victory today with Greg Norman?
PM: Well Greg, talking about Greg, he's a mate of mine
but more importantly than that he's a great Australian.
He really is a great Australian, he loves this country
and he willingly agreed, proudly agreed, to provide his
services free and you know what fee he could command if
he wanted to. He's agreed to provide his services to
Australia through the Australian Tourist Commission to
promote Australia as a tourist destination overseas and
you know I just, I love him for it.
GIBSON: These last minute polls, any butterflies for
you? PM: No, this last minute poll shows us winning closely
but I do not think about polls even if they, as they all
do, basically show us winning. I don't take anything for
granted and I'll be working right up until tomorrow night
and then rely on the good sense of the Australian people.
GIBSON: Thanks for your time.
PM: It's been a pleasure Mike, thank you.
ends