TRANSCRIPT OF NEWS CONFERENCE, WORLD CONGRESS CENTRE,
MELBOURNE, 141 NOVEMBER 1990
E OE PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, what do you hope to get out of the
population study?
PM: Information. In this whole area of immigration and
the pattern of our population growth there are a lot of
prejudices. There's a lot of lack of knowledge. What we
are about is to try and get the best information we can
about what are the consequences of population growth and
what are the sorts of considerations that governments
should properly therefore be planning for, and thinking
about, to take account of the impact of population
growth. Now, for any area of policy making, the
essential prerequisite is to have as much information as
possible. That's one part of it. That is getting a
basis for good policy making. The other, of course, is
to have the basis for having an informed community
because an informed, knowledgeable community is going to
be a more sensible community.
JOURNALIST: Are you not convinced then of the benefits
of immigration growth, population growth?
PM: You only had to listen to my speech and I hope you
were there. I've made that quite clear.
JOURNALIST: In your opinion, Prime Minister, what is the
cause of pre.-judice in Australia today regarding
immigration? PM: I think if you're looking at any community, whether
it's Australia or elsewhere, if you ask that question,
what is the cause of prejudice, you're asking one of the
most difficult questions about human nature. Causes of
prejudice wi. ll be different for different people. For
some it will be fear. Perhaps an apprehension that more
immigration is going to mean more competition for jobs
and perhaps less security of employment. For others it
may be considerations based on ignorance about the habits
and customs of people. They just may feel that people
are going to behave in a way which is going to upset
them. A whole range of considerations that go to make up
the patterns of prejudice in any society. I think to a
very large eXtent the common elements in prejudice in any
community are ignorance and fear. That's why the sorts
of things that we're about that I was talking about
tonight and work that you asked about in the previous
question of this National Population Council is to try
and disseminate information. A more enlightened, a more
informed community is going to be a less prejudiced
community. JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke you referred to the Business
Migration Program in your speech today and earlier the
Opposition spokesman on immigration has criticised the
administration of that program saying it's basically at
risk because of maladministration and fraud, widespread
fraud. How do you respond to that claim?
PM: Well we have acknowledged in the past that there
have been some shortcomings. As I said in the speech,
this evening, changes have been made in the
administration of the program. We concede because we're
honest in the way we approach the whole question of
government. There have been some shortcomings and we've
moved to rectify them. But overall the concept and the
practice of the Business Migration Program has been of
considerable benefit to this country.
JOURNALIST: Mr Ruddock also says that the Australian
immigration program is selecting the lowest common
denominator because better migrants are opting for Canada
and the USA because the economies in those two countries
are much better.
PM: Well Mr Ruddock doesn't know what he's talking
about. It's a tragedy that this policy-less Opposition
and they are indeed policy-less as we've been
demonstrating day after day in the Parliament. They
haven't got one constructive idea. seem to just go
on day after day trying to knock their country. If he
wants to say that Canada is a better place to go to, then
let him say and he'll be judged by his fellow Australians
for the sort of mindless, prejudice, policy-less sort of
representative of an Opposition that he is.
JOURNALIST: What do you say to his rejections, then,
that it's going to be considerably lower over the next
few years given that there'll be tighter migration
regulations? PM: Mr Ruddock and the Opposition wouldn't know what
they are talking about on this or virtually any other
issue. When we've seen this in the Parliament today.
Just let an example today, you had the Leader of the
Opposition being responsible for putting out a press
release which is acknowledged by his own Party I mean,
they were appalled in the Parliament today, at the total
misrepresentation that they go on with. Now when you
have a situation where the Liberal and Country members of
the Parliament are sitting there blanching in the
Parliament when their misrepresentations of their leaders
3.
are exposed, I mean, what weight, what gravamen is there.
They are people totally lacking in substance. To me this
is a pity. I don't take any pleasure in it. I'd be a
much happier Prime Minister if these people would come up
with policies of substance. Come up with considered
propositions, should say, here this is the way we think
things ought to be done. But as was pointed out in the
Parliament today, for instance, in this whole area of how
to run the economy they say, well we say that there
should be a considerable reduction in public
expenditures. And what do they do? They then go into
the Parliament and knock off 25 million savings in
outlays that we're talking about in the area of assets
tests. I mean, they really are fast developing into the
most pathetic Opposition this country has seen. It's
Leader is fast achieving the impossible. He's starting
to make Andrew Peacock and John Howard look like men of
substance and by God is that an achievement.
ends
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