TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISrER, THE HON P J KEATING, MP
DOORSTOP, MELBOURNE, 23 JUNE 1992
E OE PROOF COPY
J: Prime Minister, what are the details of the youth summit?
PM: We've given you the date and it will be a private meeting, one where we are
trying to I think, do something material and substantial about youth
unemployment and provide opportunities for young people. A large part of
the initiatives in these respects have been led by my colleague Kim Beazley
who has had the responsibility of picking up the Carmichael Report on
training and entry level wages and all of those very complex issues, and
putting together a discussion with business and with community groups and
with young people to see what we can do in terms of a permanent change to
the employment of young people in Australia. Can I say that I think the
meeting can be a very useful one and Kim's leadership on the issue has been
quite profound.
J: Prime Minister, many of the people going to the job summit will be going to
the Opposition's jobs forum three weeks before, have you been pre-empted?
PM: It will be all there, all shadow and no substance. There is nothing in the
Fightba k proposals. This was originally going to be a jamboree for
Fightback. There is nothing in the Fightback proposals which would give
anyone either money or confidence about labour market programs or training.
In fact the great training initiatives the Government had in ' One Nation' for a
new national TAFE system are not even comprehended under Dr Hewson's
GST Fightback proposal. Now they were supposed to have a fair, a jamboree
where they were to sell the consumption tax. They now realise that the going
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on that is going to be very tough so now they're going to try and move into the
youth unemployment issue an issue which they have to date shown not the
slightest interest. The difference between that and what we're proposing is
this is real. This is about a real change in the way the labour market works
and about trying to take young people up in employment and to give them
training so that they can find jobs in the economy, particularly as the economy
recovers which do have those skills which they just won't be able to get
without them.
J: Will young jobless people be invited?
PM: They will be represented by the Australian Youth Policy and Action Coalition
which is the premier group representing young people.
J: So they won't be there?
PM: They will be there yes.
J: How many unemployed people are you going to have?
PM: That group which will have its own consultations over the next couple of
weeks prior to the summit and will have some young people also included in
their own delegation.
J: How many full-time jobs do you think the Carmichael Report can actually
achieve?
PM: The Carmichael Report is a report about the long-term and the long-termi is
portending a change for access to young people and the opportunities for them
to get on-the-job training and to be employed on an affordable basis for onthe-
job-training and to moving into the economy then with some skills. Now
this has not been the case in the past so it's a very long run policy.
J: How many sustainable jobs?
PM: I will see what we can do, but we'll have substantial businesses represented. It
will be many thousands.
J: Kim Beazlcy seems to think that young jobless people aren't needed at the
summit.
PM: No, you asked Kim about organisational arrangements, some of you, for the
summit and you should have asked me because I'm the one putting the
arrangements together. Kim's role has been the policy role. Kim has, as you
know, come from an educational background to public life and he regards the
Carmichael Report and its implementation as being a path breaking and an
important area of policy and to date he has done very well in getting, in a
practical way, the debate to this stage and we're all going to try and move it
along a bit further.
J: Were Premiers Kirner and Bannon grandstanding if they say the 50,000 jobs
in the TCF could go in the next five years?
PM: I'm not sure.
J: Prime Minister, on South Africa, Arch Bishop Tutu today called for the
reimposition of s qn~ cions. Does Australia support that call?
PM: I haven't seen what Arch Bishop Tutu has said. We can only hope that the
CODESA process continues, that the parties there can see their way clear to
resolve the current problems and get back to the discussions for a democratic
South Africa.
J: Do you believe the All Blacks should continue with their tour?
PM: Look, we have lifted sporting sanctions and I'm not going to pre-empt or prejudge
the situation at this distance. We'll see what the future holds and there
are still some other sanctions which are applying and they will continue to
apply.
J: Do we need another cut in interest rates to help employment.
PM: Again, I'm not going to give forecasts about interest rates at doorstops.
J: Prime Minister, are you at all inclined to link the ' One Nation' statement with
tariff changes in the way that Premiers Bannon and Kirner suggested on
Sunday?
PM: You always ask the hard questions. You always come at us about
employment and the gloomy aspects of economic life and because I know you
are a supporter of the Liberal Party. But the fact of the matter is..
J: That's an absurd proposition.
PM: It's not absurd, you are a supporter of the Liberal Party. The fact is that the
Government has over the 1980s sought to make Australia a newer country, a
country which can trade its way in the world and where jobs are real and
sustainable. And that's what is happening in Australia now. There has been a
great fundamental transition to exports, the country is exporting its head off, it
has been since the 1980s and it's still doing it. What we need is more growth
because as people are displaced, and they have been displaced as the
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efficiencies of certain companies and industries have changed, we need to take
them up with higher levels of aggregate growth and aggregate employment.
J: What about the tariff changes suggested by the Premiers?
PM: Like everything else, they will be considered.
J: Prime Minister, why if Kim Beazley as Employment Minister, why wasn't he
let known that you were going to have youth unemployed?
PM: There is a process, and the process is that the arrangements were being settled
and have been settled over the last couple of days. The summit has been
organised by me and my Department and not by Mr Beazley and his.
J: Why didn't you notify him?
PM: Don't concentrate on the negative. It's always a problem with you people,
we're about to make a break through on youth unemployment and some of you
just harp on pointless negatives.
ENDS