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PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING, MP
DOORSTOP, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
I NOVEMBER 1992
E& OE PROOF COPY
PM: I just want to make this point to you, that in a most revealing admission today Mr
Reith has said that the Victorian Premier, Mr Kennett, and his Govenment, have
broken their election promise and have no mandate for the industrial relations
_ policies they are now implementing. He said this, I quote him, he said when asked
about whether the promise was given that no worker would be worse off by $ 1.00
Mr Reith said: ' Well it may arguably be put that they have brought down a policy
which was different to what they said before the election'. And when pressed he
went on to say, on the Sunday Program this morning: ' I think it is a fair argument
that they' Kennett and the Government ' made a promise bcfore the election and
in some circumstances that promise will not bc met'.
In other words, they followed a policy which deceives the Victorian electorate into
believing that the industrial rclations policy of the Kennett Government would be
far more sympathetic then it is, and therefore in the full context of Mr Reith's
remarks he has made it clear that there is no mandate for Mr Kennett and his
Government for the industrial relations policies he is now following.
Now, Victoria is the Liberal Party's social laboratory. Victoria is the place where
they are trying out their industrial relations tricks, where they are giving vent to all
their ideological obsessions and they are now slipping and sliding and backing
away from the kind of policies which we would see under John tlewson, John
Howard and Peter Rcith.
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1: Mr Keating does this justify, therefore, the Federal Government legislating to
allow Victorians to leave the Victorian Jurisdiction and move into Federal
jurisdiction under Federal awards?
PM: Well that could be a matter any Government could do in the normal course of
events.
J. How?
PM: There is no problem, there is no reason in policy why if a union wants to be
Federally registered that it shouldn't be able to be. But in the event that people are
going to wear penalties that they didn't bol ieve they were going to wear when this
election was taken in Victoria, having that opportunity, at least gives the Victorian
workforce some option to escape these policies.
J: ( inaudible)
PM: Well that is a matter that is yet to be discussed.
J: Are you confident that you have adequate constitutional power to do that?
PM: Well again, that is a matter that has got to be propcrly heard by Cabinet.
J: ( inaudible)
PM. Again, these arc mattcrs that Senator Cook would need to bring before the Cabinet.
But the primary matter here is, the Liberal party have gone along as thoughi they
have just finished their port and cigars, their cognac and cigars down at the
Melbourne Club, and decided that the workers are really all the problem, and they
dashed out and hopped into them. In fact we have had a breakout of industrial
peace in this country now for nearly a decade. We are now collecting data, we
think probably our industrial scene has never been as peaceful from the time the'-
statistics have been taken. We have got an inflation rate last wcek which puts us at
the world's best, and on what basis do the laboratory workers of thc Liberal party
believe thcy can then run out into an clectorate and engage in these sort of
disruptive policies?
J: ( inaudible)
PM: Well I will see what Mr Kennett has to say when he comes.
J: Mr Keatinig..
PM. There are a couple of things in the conduct of public affairs that should be above
the silliness of politics and the management of financial affairs between the
Commonwealth of States and the management of financial assets ought to be one
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of them. It ought to be one place where even Mr Reith knows that his silliness
causes damage. Now the Commonwealth has acted here with total propriety and
free of political favour. All that has happened here is that a matter akin to matters
which I as Treasurer dealt with over the years, and other Treasurers have dealt with
between States, and with the Commonwealth and States, has perhaps for the first
time in a long time becomne a public matter, and there is a lot of interest in it. But
States have been accommodated on all sorts of problems, or we have worked
through all sorts of financial problems, not taking this sort of wrecking approach of
throwing things into the public domain, which has just seen all the bond reels rise
for the Commonwealth and the States making the whole carriage of public in
this country much mnore expensive.
1: So you blame thc Keninett Government?
PM: Let me just give you this example. How would it havc been if I had said at the
time when I knew the State Bank of Victoria was insolvent, for me to have said,
' well I must blurt this out, the public must know; despite the financial problems,
which my making it public will reveal, I shall make it all a public matter'. Of
course I didn't, I got it solved with Premier Kirner and the result was that the
Victorian public wcrc spared the greatest anguish that could have ever been visited
upon thcm in a State which held a quarter of all savings banks deposits. Now
that's what conscientious Ministers do, and I think the Victorian Government now
realise that they have made a mistake in seeking to make any capital out of this,
and that's probably why Mr Stockdale has now taken a back seat on the issue and
wants to discuss it sensibly, I might say, reasonably.
PM; The Treasurer is doing a press conference right this minute on all those matters and
you are wclcome anyone to look at his transcripts and he will take all the questions
that matter.
J: Mr Keating how concerned are you that industrial disruption in Victoria might
jeopardisc national economic rccovery?
PM: Very concerned. Who is going to invest in Victoria in this climate? And what is
the point of it? in a place which was virtually brimming over with industrial
cooperation, where we arc seeing all sorts of enterprise agreements being written
for all the flexibility in the world, to be talking about police, police on picket lines,
about a non-negotiated legislating away of important components of wages and
salaries and bencfits: there is just no point to this. What I suggest to Mr Kennett is,
that he sit down in a cooperative modc, as all of us in Australia have been obliged
to do for a decade, and make Victoria work better.
J: What is your advice to workers about the proposed strie?
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PM: That is up to Mr Kennett, any confrontation here is being generated by him, I can
only advise him this, that he should sit down with representatives of the workforce
and try and get his State back onto the road to recovery. Thank you.
ENDS