8 OCTOBER 1992
E& OE PROOF COPY
PL: Prime Minister welcomie again to the program.
PM: Thank you Paul, it's good to bc here.
PL. Another 43, 800 Australians lost their jobs in September. Do you think they believe the recession ended a long time ago?
PM: Well the point about my making that point was to signal to Australia that the ncgative growth in the economy was over and that we can now work and look forward to, I hope, a long recovery.
PL: But it sounds callous, too smart by half, uncaring.
PM: I wore the opprobrium for the technical act of thc economy slipping into recession, that was two quarters of negative growth.
PL: You wouldn't wear that until you had no choice at all, would you?
PM: And for daring to note that we are now long, technically out of recession, in the lack of maturity in the debate, to make the point, and to tell the public that Australia can look forward to a low inflationary recovery and that the act of coming out of that negative growth signals a start, I hope, of a loqp, recovery for Australia.
PL: But there is a queue of community leaders Out there over the last 24 hours giving you the messge that it doesn't feel like it is over out there.
PM: And of course it is not, Paul, that is why the Government introduced the Ono
Nation statement, that's why we have expanded fiscal policy in the Budget, that's
why we had the youth summit to produce the outcomes to ameliorate the effects of
unemployment and to -see the economy grow. Thc effects are not over, obviously,
but the economy Is growing again, in the last year we have grown by 1.6 per cent.
By contrast, Britain for instance, has declined, contracted by 1.6 per cent. It is
Important I think that the Australian public know that the economy is growing
again, notwithstanding the fact we are a long way away from ameliorating the
problems of unemployment which we have to continually attend to, but the best
way to attcend to it is growth.
PL: And while we have this considerable human suffering still across the community,
we have this intense and growing bitterness between you and John Hcwson, don't
we? I mcan it is getting worse and worse everyday.
PM: Well you haven't seen the Labor Party run ads against him as he has me, which is
seeking to personalise the debate, designed as some sort of spoof on people with
disabilities. I mean this is the sort of stuff he traffics in, and today I had the
temerity to get up and say that the Government has consulted all the way since
1983 in the Economic Summit, the Tax Summit of 1985, in the One Nation
statement, in the Youth Summit recently, and listcned to criticism and taken it. I
had the temerity to say that when his representatives, he and his representatives,
hopped in to the Catholic Bishop and two Priests for daring to say a tax on food
was Inequitable, and the general way in which he has responded negatively to
every interest group, whether it be BHP or the Reserve Bank, or the Japanese, or
the car makers, or the renters, or the nurses, now the Catholic Church, and then
having hopped into thcm in the most savage way, both by letter and by argument,
thcn evoke an encyclical, the Pope, to support Fightback.
PL: But the Opposition has released thc Catholic Church's reply to Peter Reith talking
about their deep and sincere appreciation for the meeting, saying at the end of the
leitcr that they hope to maintain continuing the good relationship that exists
betwcen the Coalition parties and this Commission, the Catholic Social Welfare
Commission.
PM: They came around saying they were attacked, this is what they said to them, this is
Senator Alston, ' It is understandable that those untrained in the laws of economics
should at times fcel uncomfortable about debating them, the crass attempt at moral
intimidation is surely no substitute for a practical poverty alleviation dialectic', it
goes on this way, Christians who propose schemes for poverty relief have a
commcnsuratc duty to know the laws of economics and do their homework, rather
then childishly dismiss as unfair.
PL: And that's not just robust politics?
PM: No, no. This Government has pursued policies of inclusion, we always listen to
interests groups, in the Tax Summit of 1985 they were all arraigned around me as
Trcasurcr.
PL: But there are 10,000 kids sleeping in the streets of Sydney, that's not inclusion Mr Keating.
PM: There was no savage response by the Government like this to any interest group,
let alone a group of priests who have come to talk about the interests of thc poor
and the low paid and maybe the regressive impact of taxes on the essentials of life.
PL: But how do the nicetics of who writes what to whom in a letter compare with that
enormous suffering that Dr Hewson alluded to in Parliament today? Thcre are
kids sleeping in the streets, that's not including anybody in anything.
PM: And who's done more about the homeless policythan this Government? No other
govermecnt, in terms of the policies now abo-tyouth, to get all those young
people back into work. I had Dr Hcwson telling me I don't see anybody, I don't
listen to anybody I go around this country all thc time.
PL: But you only talk to businessmen and people with suits on don't you?
PM: Hc's trying to tell me, as a life long member of the Labor Party which has its heart
and soul in social policy, he's trying to tell me that I don't get around. He gets
around on the yacht on Sydney Harbour, up at the Panorama 500, they're the sort
of occasions. My occasions are with working people and people with businesses
who arc trying to employ people.
PL. But there does seem to be a lot of political point scoring now, it's just going to get worse and worse as we go to the cletion.
PM: The Opposition has tried to focus on me and yet what we see, Dr Hewson's now
presiding over the most spiteful Opposition party we've ever scen. Every single
interest group is named and attacked. That is, whether they are nurses or teaches
or renters or whoever they might be and as well as that they're taking their names
down. He has told everybody there's a list of the Fightback supporters and
antagonists. T" his is the sort of low morality to our politics which the Opposition
seems now to be trafficking In; taking the names of the dissenters to what? In
governmcnt? Have retribution against them? Is this the way our leadership in our
nation should be? I believe that you take the criticism on the chin and you respond
and change your policy accordingly. T'hey believe what you do is you hop into
people and particularly a couple of Catholic priests locked away in a room, hop in
to them with all the political toughs and at the same time go and evoke the name
of the Pope in support of your policy.
PL: But doesn't an Opposition leader have a responsibility to oppose the Government and to offcr new alternatives and to be critical?
PM: Yes, but not to slap down any legitimate interest group which has problems with his policies which is what his stock and trade is.
Pl.. You don't like him do you? This really is personal this stuff now isn't it?
PM: I couldn't care less about him in an individual sense. But the fact of the matter is almost everyday in the Senate they're attacking me, almost every day he has his henchmen over in the Senate hopping about.
PL: About your pig farm?
PM: Everyday for the last two and a half months that's been on, he never leaves me alone personally, hc's got his ads on tclevision against me personally.
PL: While we're on this subject, how come thc book value of this pig farm increased ten times in six..
PM; Don't get up to his stunts Paul.
PL: Did it or didn't it? There's a lot of people curious about how this all works.
PM: The thing is you've got to know how to read a set of company accounts. Ile fact
of the mattcr is I've been in Parliament for twenty three years and to have an
Opposition leader getting stoolies up in the Senate, hopping into me every day
while going out as though he's pristine pure with all the understated comment at
doorstops, the understated voice, where in fact what we scc in the Parliament is
vicious behaviour by him and his henchmen. Whether it's against me or the
Catholic church or the representatives or the nurses or the teachers whoever it
might be. All rm saying is that this country is in a recovery, we have got a lot of
our problems; just this very day we've got Cathay Pacific announcing that it will
ccntre its computer operations, one of the largest airlines in south-east Asia, Centre
them in Sydney; Air New Zealand. saying they will put 10,000 jobs into Australia
flying out of Brisbane. Is this the country on a slippery slope to nowhere? Is this
the country which has now doubled its exports to GDP, which is now integrating
with Indonesia and Japan on a slippery slope to nowhere? Is this the country we
should berate? I say no and I'm not going to see it disparaged in this way and the
efforts of Australians disparaged in this way.
PL: Given the innocence ot this business venture of yours, why don't you prove it by opening the books then?
PM: What are you suggesting now? Don't tell me you'rc picking up this muck Paul.
PL: I'm suggesting that there have been qucstionis asked in the Parliament..
PM: I made a simple investment in a piggery, an income producing business which employs Australians. Dr Hcwson's spcnt twice that much on a weekender which he says he's visited twice, he's spent twice that much on a weekender. In other words I've gone and practiced what I've preached, invest in income producing, value adding exporting industries, I haven't gone out and bought a building, an office block, a weekender, I've gone and done the things I've preached for a decade; that is back Australians in in doing what they can do best, that's selling it to the world, innovative products, good things, valuable things, wholesome things.
PL-Thanks for your time.
PM: Good, thanks.