PRIME MINISTER, DC) ORSTOP BRISBANE, 3 FEBRUARY 1992.
E OE PROOF ONLY
PM: I might just begin by saying that I've just
completed the last of a national round of discussions. I've
got to see one or two more peak industry groups but by and
large that completes, today's discussions, completes the round
of national talks; and now the Government will sit down and
largely from here on construct this economic statement which
we expect to deliver on 26 February. So the real fightback
for Australia, not as I said earlier the phoney one, the
pretend one, il1 begin when the Government announces its
statement of economic changes on 26 February.
QUESTIONs Mr Keating why bring the statement forward, it
was anticipated it was going to be March?
PM: No, no, it's not coming forward, no there'e
been no, the Government's been thinking about this, presenting
it in it's initial week of sittings and that's what we're
going to do.
QUESTION: Prime Minister what particular case did
Queensland make today? was there anything that particularly
grabbed your attention?
PM: A number of things but they are again, there
is, the Premier had, well firstly I had discussion with the
Premier about the State, the State's needs, about
infrastructure and other issues in particular, and then he
convened a meeting of the various sectors of industry and of
course they addressed things which were sector specific.
Some of them Queensland in general, in the main sector
specific, and like all such industry discussions some of it
we'd heard before, some of it new and it's the new bits that
matter. QUESTION: Were you impressed with what you heard up
there? PM: Oh I thought it was a very good discussion... I
couldn't have hoped for more, I couldn't have hoped for a
better discussion.
QUESTION; So it was worthwhile coming?
PM: Absolutely.
QUESTIONs what do you mean sector specific?
PM:. Well they were talking about tourism, farmingf
manufacturing, mining, these sorts of things.
QUESTION: inaudible
PM: Well they are things to note, things for us to
note and think about....,. no, no, because you might talk about
them when we might not in the end decide on things but it in
important for us to get a frame of reference, a framework of
reference which you can only get from discussions. I might
add by the way Dr Heweon said we shouldn't have been doing any
of this. He said businessmen and business women are only
looking for a handout and that we shouldn't talk to them.
Well that's not been my view. The process of consultation was
conducted quite ambitiously through the 1980s and I think
Australia has advanced accordingly much faster as a result of
the fact that the Government did keep contact with the
community in general.
QUESTION: Mr Keating the balance of payments figures
today does thet latest figure give you greater room to move
in this looming statement of February 26?
PM: Like I said last month, last month's figures
didn't contract our room to move and this month's figure
doesn't improve it. This is a good number by any measure,
imports have fallen away quite sharply and the result is the
current account for the month is down. One of the again,
good factors, good things there was manufactured exports
continued to grow strongly which has been the trend of the
last half dozen ears and that's of course our saving grace
getting that balance between the primary export sector,
manufacturing and services.
QUESTION: Well today's figure won't see you loosening the
purse strings any more than you've been prepared to do up
until now?
PM: No, no because it'Isa, again we make the point
about balancel of payments figures monthly, they're up one
monthI down the next, if you average them it's where, it's the
three and six month averages where you see the trends and the
trend in this one has been the right way.
QUESTION: Spending about two billion in the package?
PM.& Well that's for us you'll have to wait and
see what we spend.
QUESTION: Prime Minister are you talking about one-off
measures as weill as policy changes or..... inaudible...
PM: well the package will be measures aimed at
inducing a recovery and lifting employment, getting back to
creating jobs which is the principal thing it's about. But
it's about also having a structural and productive focus as
well as having an effect on the cycle. In other words we
want to do something more clever than simply have a budget
bang that costs money and doesn't do much in the long term.
We want these changes to be productive and structural as well.
QUESTION: Are you still of the view that some States
deserve a leg up over others, such as Victoria?
PM: No, but each States have different problemi,
Victoria carried the great ballast of manufacturing industry
and manufacturing protection and the fallout from a lot of the
economic changes have been greater in Victoria t~ an they have
in other places. Similarly other States have been affected by
downturns in other sectors, obviously what happens in rural
commodities affects Queensland more than it affects Victoria.
QUESTION: The Queensland Government is of the view that a
leg up say to Victoria would be rewarding them for bad
economic managament. what's your reaction to that?
PM: Well they didn't put that view to me today.
QUESTION: a Mr Keating are you sympathetic to the plight of
the farmers for urgent land finance or special assistance in
order to assis~ t them to plant a winter crop in the coming
weeks?
PM: Well I'm not here to debate specific measures
about QUESTION: You did mention the rural downturn in
Queens land.
PM: Yets I know, but you must also remember that in
terms of commodities, the Government has got a guarantee
of three billion in there under wool, we spent a couple, we've
got a couple of billion of cover on wheat, and I think, you
know, in the face of these international difficulties the
Government's done about as much as you can possibly do to
generally insulate the various sectors of rural Australia from
international declining prices. But fortunately wheat prices
are picking up, and that's the most important thing.
QUESTION: A lot of these f armers are still going to need
pretty easy access to plant a crop.
PM:* But part of it was uncertainty about prices and
wheat prices have picked up.
QUESTION: Prime Minister Mr Goss said this morning if any
State deserves special attention it should be the big growth
States like Queensland and Western Australia because of their
capacity to lead Australia out of recession through the
resource and tourism sectors. Have you got any sympathy f or
that view?
PM: I have, I have, but other Premiers will say
they have got the big populations and the big problems and
what do you say to that?
QUESTION: Wel~ l what do you say?
PM:* Well I think they've both got a case and that's
why I think one has to have a decent balance in one'Is view
about things and do things which are to the national good,
that have national effects and that have a commion thread
running through them.
QUESTION: Queensland will be happy though do you think
when you bringr the statement down?
PM4, Well I should hope so, I mean as Treasurer I
often defended the fact against the Premier of NSW and the
premiers of victoria of my support for federal funding for
Queensland -the adoption of Grants Commission formulae which
they always regarded as a travesty. I still defended it and
Queensland got the money.
QUESTION; Should these measures you are looking at be
population driven or should they be industry driven?
PM:. Oh that's too simplistic a question.
QUESTION: But were you criticised today for giving
Queensland too little priority, in fact getting here too late
in the exercise?
PM Not at all I mean I arranged this weeks ago
and it's just a matter of sticking to an itinerary. No I
think, look, this notion about which I noticed in some of
the newspapers about Queensland not getting attention, is
really not on. I mean I notice the Courier Mail today is
attacking us because there are not enough company directors on
company board~ s in Queensland. This is a Federal Government
sin apparently and then it said also it was not getting enough
super fund money, so apparently this is a F'ederal Government
problem. The fact is this sort of State-centric view of the
world I think does not do Queensland justice, Queensland is
better than that, it's doing better than that and the fact is
obvious in the fact it's got so much growth which has occurred
in the State.
QUESTION: Mr Keating can you assure Queensland electors
that they an. not going to suffer as a result of Queensland's
ALP largely firm backing for ex-Prime Minister Hawke?
PM: Oh well I, look, you know, I'm here to talk
about jobs, recovery, the future of the economy, not the
Queensland Labor Party's view about particular things
including that.
QUESTION., QUESaIrOeN : wYooruk ing with the Premier Closely?