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PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THlE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON PJ KEATING MP
DOORSTOP, ACOSS CONGRESS, CANBERRA, I OCTOBER 1992
E OE PROOF COPY
J: Prime Minister, what have you been advised of the implications of
yesterday's High Court decision?
PM: I want to talk about a fcw other things and that is the Reserve Bank, Mr
Fraser said today in the contcxt of Dr Hewson saying that he would delete
the object of full employment from the Reserve Banks charter. IHe says hell
do this after it's been therc for nearly hai-fa century, when it's been part of
the Australian consensus that price stability, that's low inflation or inflation
control coupled with employment were the joint and dual objectives of the
Central Banik and all conservative and Labor Governmcnts of the last half
century. He wants to take it out, yet he has the hide to talk about
unemployment and as the Governor of the Reserve Bank said so eloquently
today, anyone who has opposed interest rate reductions and an expanded
fiscal policy has no right to talk about unemployment. I say that applies to
Dr Hewson and Mr Reith, both of whom have opposed interest rate.
reductions, both who now oppose trenchantly an expansion of fiscal policy,
yet they claim the right to talk about unemployment, yet they wish to
remnove employment as an objective from the Reserve Banks policy.
J: Prime Minister, is the Reserve sufficiently concerned about employment in
the last couple of years, pushing up monetary policy? TE. LO: ct. 92 16: 08 No. 013 P. 01/ 04
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PM: We had three times the rate of employment growth of the western
economies throughout the ' 80s and that is just proof positive of the general
balance in objectives, but again you can't go spending twice what you
produce and that had to be reined in, but the general commitment to
employment has been made so clearly by Mr Fraser speaking on behalf of
the Bank Board now on a number of occasions.
J: So what would be the implications of the..
PM: The implications are that a Liberal Government would ask the Bank to push
inflation below two per cent to zcro, by lifting interest rates and paying no
regard for the employment consequences what so ever. In fact they would
bc plcased probably, in their model to havc some unemployment around
because this would simply reduce pressure on wages and inflation. Can I
say the other thing is the question of the Catholic Social Welfare
Commission, they went to sec Dr Hewson and Mr Reith yesterday, they
were emptied out. They were told, barely politely that thcre would be no
change to their policy and Dr Hewson would right over the heads of the
Bishops to the Catholic community, not changing his policy, insisting that
he should -tax food and saying that he knows best, what's goad for them,
he'll tell them, Dr H-ewson will tell the whole Catholic community, the
whole community of Australia what's good for them and we'll have Mr
Reith doing a Goebel] like impersonation half making the argument that rich
people have got bigger bellies, that rich people actually eat more and
therefore it's goad for them that they tax food because it's fairer to the poor.
This is the sort of callous rubbish you're getting from these ideologues, so
when the Catholic Welfare Commission representing the Bishops of
Australia stand up and say this is unfair and inequitable to Australians to tax
food the ideologues push them to one side and say don't worry we'll right for
the community over your heads and tell the community what's good for
them. Dr Hewson knows what's good for everybody, a tax on everyone's
food is good for them he says.
J: Is the Reserve Bank charter much comfort to the unemployed at the
moment?
PM: It's been of enormous comfort to the unemployed right through the last forty
or fifty years, most particularly in the last decade and we've now had
thirteen one percentage point interest rate reductions, we've got bill rates
around the six odd per cent mark in Australia, under six in fact, in Britain
they're nearly twice that level. We've seen in Britain a celebration of a one
percentage point reduction in interest ratcs, we've had thirteen one
. Oct .92 16 : 08 No 011 3 P. 02/ 0.
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percentage point reductions from the Government and the Reserve Bank
and this is because the Government and the Reserve is committed to the
dual objectives of inflation control with growth in employment,
employment remains, and has remained a key objective and that's why
today, notwithstanding the unemployment wc have we've still got 26 per
cent more people in work than we had in 1982, that is the labour market is
now 7.6 million in size instead of 6 million as it was in 1982.
J: Mr Keating, let's talk about ACOSS, they said to you today that your tax
cuts should be reconsidered because of unemployment, are you just going to
push them to one side?
PM: Thcy've also said to mc a moment ago how regressive and unfair Dr
Hewson's policy is, that the tax cuts are not funded, Dr Hcwson's tax cuts
will only be funded by cuts iniGovernmcnt spending and that is what they
are afraid of; taking 12-13 billion of unfunded money, of tax cuts out of
the social welfare system as we now have today, out of the social welfare
system.
J: ( inaudible)
PM: They believc that you can increase the real incidence of tax, they are a
welfare organisation, they believe tax should rise to pay for more welfare. I
don't believe the real incidence of tax should rise and the Government by it's
tax cuts will not do that. But we're not putting a 15 per cent GST on
people's food and clothing as Dr Hewson is that's the dirence. * We're
reducing, maintaining the real incidence of tax, not letting it rise and I don't
think it's fair that it should rise. Can I make another point about petrol.
Yesterday we had Dr Hewson the bowscr boy, out there pumpinig petrol.
What he didn't tell people is that their registration fees will double or treble,
that they might save it on the tank, but they'll pay it on the front window
when they slap the next rego sticker on there, where they pay twice as
much. He did n't tell every truck driver who pulls up you notice there were
not trucks there that there would be a $ 17,000 registration fee on trucks,
so when he's at Mount Panarama watching the cars go round, the
registration stickers will be flicking through his mind as the millions roll up,
the billions roll up to pay for this squalid sleight of hand in reducing petrol
prices. Again everything he does is basically about helping people who
have got wealth.
1: Mr Keating, do you welcome the High Court's decision yesterday that
effectively guarantees the right.. TEL.: O ct. 92 16: 08 No. 013 P. 03/ 04
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PM: It is a decision they took and announced a couple of weeks ago and I haven't
been through the fine print of the argument.
Do you think this is going to make politicians fair targets of any sort of
attack or criticism?
PM: We've had free advertisements now since time immemorial. So what?
J: Mr Kcating, you said recently that it's unlikely there will be an election this
year
PM: No more talking about that.
ENDS 1.0ct. 92 16: 08 No. 013 P. 04/ 04