PRM MIISE
TRANSCRIPT OF DOORSTOP, ROYAL CANBERRA GOLF COURSE,
CANBERRA, 23 N4OVEMBER 1990
E OE PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister were you surprised, as the rest
of us were, with Mrs Thatcher's decision?
PM: No, I wasn't surprised. I was talking to my people
yesterday and I thought that that was the most likely
outcome. Either that or they would support her for this
immediate election and seek her resignation a little bit
later on. I think the events of the past week, particularly
starting with the speech of Sir Geoffrey Howe, that fairly
mortally wounded her.
JOURNALIST: What will be the impact of her departure, do
you think?
PM: Well it will change the prospects of politics in
Britain. All -the polling and one's intuition suggested that
the conservatives had virtually no chance of winning with
her. Equally -they seem to suggest that they have got a
reasonable chance with a new leader. I would have thought
that Neil Kinnock probably had his tongue reasonably
substantially iLn his cheek when he said he thought it was
good news.
JOURNALIST: Do) you think it will make the Commonwealth a
less abrasive organisation?
PM: Well let's; be fair to Mrs Thatcher in some respects in
regard to the Commonwealth. I mean when you talked about
the Commonwealth and Mrs Thatcher it all was through the
prism of South Africa and on that she certainly was a force
for divisiveness that's true. But she was a very, very
positive contributor to the good works of the Commonwealth
in many other respects and it would be churlish not to
acknowledge that.
JOURNALIST: You've had the odd angry word with her. What
conversation sticks in your memory?
PM: I suppose generally the arguments about South Africa
are the ones that stay in one's mind. But again to be fair
to Mrs Thatcher and I think it is appropriate through
their period in office and afterwards to be fair to peopleshe
did take very constructive views about assistance to the
South African siLtuation via the help that she thought ought
to be given to the frontline states and so on. So my
memories of Margaret Thatcher are mixed. Certainly the
incorrect position I think she had all the way through on
South Africa I remember that. But I also remember the
great courage of the woman. I mean, on South Africa she was
always one out and she was never intimidated by the odds.
She had the courage of her convictions and she would fight
to see that they were put, even if we all thought that she
was terribly wrong on them.
JOURNALIST: She's left her own country though a much more
divided society?
PM: Yes she has. That's true. It's for her country really
to make the judgement about her impact on that country. I
would be hypocritical if I just, now that's she's finished,
spoke simply in glowing terms of her because I think she was
a force for backwardness on certain issues. But again in
regard to the relations between Australia and Britain she
must be given credit. I mean when she came out here in 88
she was committed to strengthening the relationship. She
went out of her way in 1989 when we were over there to
marshall all t: he forces to ensure, not just that that was a
successful visit but that all Ministers and Departments of
the British Government were directed to ensuring into the
future the best possible relations. So that's the picture
of Margaret.
JOURNALIST: Can you be enticed into a tip as to the
replacement? PM: No. Speaking from afar I think that the one that I
know best and for whom I have a very high regard is Geoffrey
Howe. ends
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