PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KEATING MP
INTERVIEW WITH FRAN KELLY, ABC ' WORLD TODAY, MONDAY,
18 APRIL 1994
E& OE PROOF COPY
FK: Prime Minister, you have accused the Liberal party of now being bereft
of policies, but isn't it truer to say that they are-just moving closer to
yours?
PM: No, their strategy is to have no policy. This is a very strange political
party which has actually had a weekend meeting to develop a strategy
to have no policies. ' Fightback' the policy which they said was too
good to be changed, which Dr Hewson said he would resign over if it
was changed is now, he said, dead and buried and had they won the
1993 election he would be putting it into place. So, the policies which
he said were critical to Australia and Australians he would have, had
he won the election, be now implementing, he has now said are dead
and buried, they were wrong and they don't need them. So, basically
what's happened to the Liberal party is it's now given up on policy and
is picking up themes. Whenever you hear a conservative party
running on law and order, the Queen, the monarchy, the flag, all that's
happened to the Liberal party is it's getting further and further back
towards 1954.
FK: But what they spent their time yesterday saying was that the time has
moved on now for the economic stuff, that the recovery is in place and
now it is time to focus on the social implications of high unemployment,
building bridges with the minority groups. Now, you and your voters
would have to support that as a focus wouldn't you, that's the way you
go?
PM: We don't have to support that as a focus. We are the focus. I was the
person who introducing ' One Nation' said this was a policy of social
inclusion. I used the wora-' Tnclusion' there, I used the word ' inclusion'
in the speech on election night and right through the course of the
eighteen months up to the election when I was Prime Minister and
since. When John Hewson talks about inclusion he is thinking of
something which will include him. When he talks about consensus he
is thinking of a consensus about his leadership. The consensus is, as
you and I know Fran, that he should go so, he has changed his
identity. If he came out in a toupee and a moustache he couldn't be
more obvious. This is just simply the most hollow change.
FK: But you couldn't be recommending that he hang on to ' Fightback'. You
must welcome the change that the conservative party is now focussing
on the socially bereft?
PM: But, this is the party of inclusion he says now. He is going to use the
word ' inclusion' except for the unemployed, except for the low paid.
He says he is interested in the welfare of Aboriginals except he
wouldn't support Mabo. He is now going to focus on immigration, but
he is down on migrants. This is the same fellow who attacked renters,
school teachers, churches, nurses. He says, for instance, they talk
about family values, but they want to take away the material supports
for the family. The fact is, these people when they talk about law and
order they are at the same time talking about inequality, lower wages,
a weaker safety net, they want all the conditions in place that actually
lead to a break down of law and order. This policy statement or this
strategy statement of theirs is the most comprehensive twaddle I've
heard since John Howard came up with incentivation a few years ago.
FK: They have done extensive research and their research shows that
middle Australia is upset about the changes caused under your
Government, changes caused by high unemployment, the
hopelessness amongst the young, the rising' crime rate, the
disintegration of families as the poverty levels rise. These are all
problems that have risen under you.
PM: But these are people who say they don't want to support families.
They say when we increased the Family Allowance Supplement in
' One Nation' it was bankrupting the-country. These are people who
want to tug away at lower end wages. These are people who want to
attack someone on $ 360 a week and say they should be exposed to
peasant wages under individual wage contracts. People who should
be dragged down from $ 360 a week while at the same time they're out
there talking about the family. You've never heard them say anything
either about Medicare, where they stand on that. They say that they
have junked ' Fightback', but where do they stand on Medicare and
health? And are they still supporting South-east Asian wage rates?
Are they still supporting individual wage contracts? I'll bet they are.
FK: But, politically, aren't they smarter to fight you without a detailed
economic policy document, fight you on your ground if you like, so they
can't now be accused of being heartless econocrats as they were last
time round?
3
PM: Well, they are a party now officially without a policy. This is going to
be a novel experience in Australian political life. They are going to go
to an election without a policy and I don't believe that this community,
conscientious as it is for change and prodding the political system all
the time for change economic. -change, change in our social
environment, change in the region we live in, integration, exports,
research and development all of those things, will take a party that
has got no policies or a party which said our policy which we would
now be implementing had we won the last election was all wrong and it
is now dead and buried. I mean, where does it leave them? Where
does it leave John Hewson who said he would resign over the policy if
he had to change it, that it was too good to be changed where does it
leave him now'? A person who was elected on the basis that he had
some economic credentials? Fran, what they have said, is they have
given up on the economy, the economy is doing too well. They have
said the economy is growing too well, we can give up by it. This was
their principal focus of attack not a year ago. So, where are they left
now? They are now saying we are now for inclusion, just forget the
fact we attacked the renters and the school teachers and the churches
and the nurses and we are going to attack the low paid, we don't
support the long-term unemployed, we tried to knock over Mabo, I
mean, as I say, if he came out with a toupee and a moustache he
would be no more obvious.
FK: Prime Minister, thank you.
PM: Thank you, Fran.
ends