PRIME MINISTER
-E & OE PROOF COPY ONLY
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE MON P. J. KEATING PILJ
PRESS CONFERENCE, SYDNEY 21 JANUARY 1992
PM: Well thank you for coming, look I have got to keep it
brief because I have still got a meeting in progress
which I have to go back to, so just to give you a few
thoughts about processes to date. I think it is fair to
say our discussions with the business community and the
trade union have been exceptionally encouraging. I
think most Australians will be pleased to know, it will
be music to their ears to know, that most business
community' representatives w've met all in fact want to
get Australia moving again. There is not a lot of
ideology in these conversations. If we were having them
a few years ago there would be a lot of ideology being
spoken thats now been almost completely removed and
businesses and their representatives are basically
saying what have we got to do to get the place moving
again,' putting ideas, ideas which we will consider and
which a group of ministers I mentioned to you a week or
two ago will be sitting to consider in the next few
weeks., As I said to you we have been working in a frame
work ourselves, much of what has been said to us have
been complementary to that framework some things
haven't. They have been new and different and we are
going to consider them as well. So it has been a very
refreshing process. Government always believes of
course that they get to hear about it some stage or
another well, sometimes you don't. There are some
things that just don't filter down through the
ministerial system or the bureaucratic system and I have
found, I am sure my colleagues have as well found, the
process very engaging. So I1 would be happy to take
questions.
Can : you clarify with us a wage tax trade
PM: Well nothing is off the agenda, we are looking at
everything and prepared to but nor are we about to try
and, if you like, push funds on the trade union
movement, we are not about to be doing that either.
Fundii are to scarce to be trying to give them away
witho~ ut some results. So again, it is something worthy
of cansideration but it Is not something which the
government at this moment in time plans to do.
J: Mr Keating Westpac today seemed to echo what was said
last week to you that the market could live with fis; cal
stimulus to the value of about $ 2 billion. is that your
view?
PM: Well I don't have a view that precise, I think, about
banks and their economics and their econometrics
departments, they can get down to these nice precise
numbers but, at least they are making it clear that they
believe that as a major institution and representing I
think a lot of market view that some fiscal stimulus is
appropriate beyond simply that coming of f interest
rates..
J: Mr Keating what you were saying before does that mean
that you are unlikely to looking....... the tax deal in
the lead up to the economic statement but you could be
looking at it in the lead up to the Budget?
PM: Yes it could be either, that's right.
Could it be on the agenda at the forthcoming
PM: It could be that the unions are prepared to take their
chances in the market place, or in the longer term with
a comm: Lsison, it is up to them really.
J: PM:. No, I think there was a certain similarity actually in
their demeanor and their content I couldn't assume much
but the one thread running through it was that they all.
want to get the place moving.
J7: Mr Keating what happened to the ideology?
PM: Well T think the ideology was regarded as superfluous
and maybe a luxury for better times, and now they take
the view that times require a close asosement of what
the traffic will bare, you know whats possible and the
ideology has sort of disappeared.
J; Mr Keating there is still talk of a second quarter rate
cut. If the economy hasn't started to recover by then
do you see room for another cut?
PM: I am not speculating about interest rates.
own opinion?
PM: About ideology well I don't think this has been an
ideological Government at any stage in its history. It
was, after all, a Labor Government that introduced a
market economy to Australia. I mean again I think it
has ahown the fact that it is not ideological. It has
intorests and it has probably, in many respects,
permanent iinterests, but it has not been subject to that
sort; of craven ideology, and I think this has been
largely true of the business community in the last
decade. It is certainly true of themi now.
J: Mr Kenting there was a fresh report today
What is your current view on sectoral policy?
PM: The trouble is they all mean different things to
different people. The word ' sectoral' means different
things to different people I think, and I think, in
certainly my view, and I think it is the view of many
meinebers of Government, that Australia does have
particular strengths and we ought to cater for those
strengths. We ought to support those strengths, but not
by way of production subsidies and some of the elements
abounded of protection which in years gone by. So it is
a mfatter of whether you think that some of the general
directions we take are the ones we ought to be taking,
whether we take impediments out of the road, whether we
do things which progress the lot of those industries or
those sectors as destinct from doing much more
particular and direct things which we have turned our
back from.
J: ( inaudible)
PM: Well again, you know if you think minerals and minerals
processing is something for Austraiia to be in, then
generally policy should accommodate it. We generally
have. Generally policy has, for instance. But there
is a whole lot of difference I think between that and
production subsidies or particular, if you like, export
related subsidies and all of the other things which are
generally GATT unfriendly and which are protection of
the! old variety.
J: Mr Keating, Dr Hewson says your comitints on immigration
today relating to the Liberal Party were a slur. He is
calling on you to withdraw them and to apologise. Will
you do that?
PM: Well he shouldn't be running on these Issues if he
doesn't mean them. I mean, he had Mr Howard up the
other day saying we ought to cut the migration program
to pieces. it was Mr Howard who was addressing himself
to this. subject in 1988. 1 mean, they are bacX onto it
now, not in the same vein, but I didn't say they were.
So there is nothing to apologise over.
J: But you did accuse them of a sub plot, a racist sub
plot?
PM: No what I said was, there is a sub debate, there was a
sub debate in Australia. Whether it is quite in
evidence that it was in 1988, 1 don't know. But the
fact of the matter is the program, governments have got
to make a judgement of what is in the best interests of
Australia as a nation in the short and medium term.
AndT-that is where the right judgements and how the
judgements should be made in relation to migration.
J: But isn't there room for a debate on immigration given
the recession?
PM: I think there is. Yes there is. But a debate and
Jingoism are two different things. And craven appeals
by Mr Howard to rip the program to shreds is jingoism.
J: Mr X'eating, just getting back to tax cuts. Do you
think that tax cuts ( inaudible) in terms of a wage
incr~ ease would La~ a good idea and direct the
( inaudible)
PM: Well anything which reduces fiscal surplus or increases
the deficit as the case may be is stimulatory of the
economy, that is true. but whether that is the path we
choose will depend, or whether it is one of the chosen
paths, let me put it that way,. will depend upon what
attitude we have to the Budget, what attitude the trade
unions have to those arrangements etc. And right now
we don't intend to have one.
J: Do you think that the
implemented over the next financial year that you will
be stimulating import . following our
picking up
PM: I dLon't know that is right. Because there is not a lot
of evidence from anybody that says that there is a pick
up going on out there. No evidence in reality. And
therefore I think that there is therefore not a great
attendant risk that we will over-stimulate it. So,
even in the terms which have been spoken about in the
public debate. These are not things I think which are
going to over-stimulate the economy. But the lag point
is right, anything happens with the lag of course.
J: ( inaudible)
PM: Well we are not being deluged with evidence that there
is a recovery under way.
J: Mr Keating, you are going to meet Mr Greiner. A few
days ago he attacked you for, he said, for rewarding
Victoria which he described as an economic basket case,
how do you react to that?
PM: Oh--well that was a bit of State chauvinism. That is
all. that is. We are not going to reward Victoria but
it has to be borne in mind that Victoria has carried a
large part of the burden ot structural change in
Australia by virtue of the character of the city of
Melbourne and its manufacturing base. So I don't think
that that is, it certainly won't be my intention to
reward one state, to use his word reward any State
above another but to look at Australia as a nation and
say what can we do which in the short term is
sensible and for the long term, structural.
j; How would you treat his request for $ 100 million for
capital projects?
Well he hasn't made them yet, but he probably will. He
can make them for himself rather than you.
J; Any ideas from the business leaders so far that have
grabbed your attention?
PM: Yes. Quite a few, but I don't want to run acorss them
here.
J; How do you enjoy exposing yourself so much as Prime
Minister, it must have different when you were
Treasurer.
PM: did a lot of this when I was Treasurer. I did a lot
of these sorts of meetings. In fact, for eight years.
It is just that I didn't normally have four television
crews accompanying me and this great phalanx of
journalists. But I still did them.
J: What other differences are there apart from increased
television crews?
PM: Well I think one is required to listen to as broad a
range of views as you can avail yourself of. Which we
have tried to do. we have had representatives or
small, medium, large business, unions, all sorts of
organisations, and it is very good.
J: Mr Keating, where would you expect the Special
Premiers' Conference to and and
what sort of measures do you
PM: Well there are obviously on-going issues between the
Commonwealth and the States, particularly about
national efficiency. And they were not either seeking
or swimming, so to speak, on the fiscal question, even
though that is important to the States. so I should
believe that much more can still be achieved in those
areas and we will take that process up.
J: And when will that be?
PM: Probably, it will be well after the Statement and it
will be probably before the middle of the year.
J: Mr Keating, the latest Morgan Poll taken in November,
shows that the majority of Australians blame the
. overnment for unemployment. 75 per cent complained
saying the u. overnment was not doing enough to relieve
unemployment. Does that justify the decision taken by
caucus to dump Bob Hawke for you as leader?
PM: That is a judgement for you to make. Public
perceptions about the recession are important. But the
mnost important thing is to get out of recession and
have the conversation about a recovery.
J; Are you concerned about the prospect ot a brawl with Mr
Hawke?
PM: Well look, in a change of public office of this
dimension, there is always the interview that is done
where the hard questions are asked and I tried to
answer them honestly and sensibly and I can only repay
Bob again, the compliment I paid him last night. That
its to say, by any measure he was a good Prime Minister.
He had eight years of office. I have had, sort of
eight minutes of office. And I think therefore, his
record is in that sense very free trom any swipe by
anybody, but, better than that, subject to much
compliment which I am very happy to pay him.
J: HaS he contacted you about last night's interview?
PM: No. I think you are all more interested than he is.
Now, look, I have got to go now really,
J: One m~ ore question. what is it like to tell your son
about how to handle media?
PM: Oh I haven't got time for that.
J: Is there ( inaudible)
PM: I don't normally qive daily commuentaries on the
exchange rate. Do you work for a financial
J: Yes. Dow Jones.
PM: Oh do you. Good on you.
ENDS