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TRANSCRIPT OF DOORSTOP, IMPERIAL HOTEL, TOKYO
18 SEPTEMBER 1990
E OE PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, what's your final message to the
delegates you are going to meet this morning?
PM: That Melbourne is the best equipped city to stage
the Centenary Games because of the excellence and
preparedness of its facilities; its infrastructure; the
dedication and the sports fanaticism of the people of
Melbourne and of Australia; the security of Australia;
the environment of Australia. All these things plus the
fact that it will mean that if Melbourne gets the 1996
Games that will be only the second time in the centenary
of the modern games that they've been held in the
southern hemisphere.
JOURNALIST: Realistically though what are our chances
tonight? PM: Well, if everyone means what they are saying to us
during the last day or so, they seem pretty good.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've been focusing some of
your lobbying effort on the black Africans as I
understand it. To what effect?
PM: I think we'll get good support from them.
JOURNALIST: But what about the Atlanta bid?
PM: They are a serious bid. I mean we are in the
situation where all the other competitors are serious
competitors. Our campaign has not been knocking the
others. We recognise their merits, their virtues, the
arguments for them. We simply believe honestly that ours
in the best.
JOURNALIST: If we do lose tonight there'll be a lot of
disappointed people in Melbourne surely.
PM: Sure there will. Sure there will. They would know,
if that is the case, and I hope and believe we will win,
but they can be certain that if Melbourne is not
successful that they ought to be terribly proud of the
great group in the team that has been working I exclude
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myself from this because I have been doing my bit but
the great organisation under the leadership of John Ralph
has been doing a magnificent job. If I could put it this
way, certainly no stone has been left unturned.
JOURNALIST: Would a second or third put Melbourne in
line for say the 2000 Games?
PM: People have been saying you ought to get this one.
If you don't well then you're in with a very good chance
for the next one. But we're about 1996.
JOURNALIST: Are you encouraged by the firming odds?
PM: I'd rather be getting firming than going out.
JOURNALIST: Were you aware of this alleged death threat
in 1988?
PM: London.
ends