PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KEATING MP
DOORSTOP, REGENT HOTEL, MELBOURNE, 15 JUNE 1994
E& OE PROOF COPY
J: ( inaudible)..
PM; I Well, in the first day of Parliament I said I thought it was a very
disappointing thing that Alexander Downer who said he was going to
make a fresh start, startedhii-s fresh start by flattening the new person
he gave Aboriginal policy to, who dared to say that she would consider
the Liberal party's support for the Government's proposed Aboriginal
Land Fund. And, I would have thought that any Opposition party
looking for a fresh start in society given the obscurantist views which
Dr Hewson held on some of these issues, that Mr Downer would have
taken them up. He didn't. I was interested to see the Anglican church
spokesman today say that they would be critical of an Opposition that
voted against the Land Fund because the point I'd made is " What is
their objection?" it is not a fiscal objection. They know that Aboriginal
people can secure land from Mabo if they have a traditional
connection with the land, but if they have been dispossessed of the
land the only way they can benefit is not by the Mabo Native Title
legislation, but by an acquisition program under the Land Fund. So,
what is the point of objection other than they don't want to give black
people land.
J: Opposition spokesperson Chris Gallus said today that any change
wouldn't come until just before the next federal election.
PMV: Yes, well, I think that is high cynicism for Downer to be around now
saying oh, look, I'm opposed to this, the first thing I did as Opposition
leader was quash the Land Fund, but I might consider it on the day
before the election. We all just should say don't give us that cynical
tripe Alexander, don't give us that.
J: Mr Keating, will there be a loosening up of the community rating at all
in health?
PM: No, I knocked that on the head yesterday, no.
J: Prime Minister, in your speech-inside you said that it was hoped that
by the year 2001, 95 per cent of 19 year olds would have completed
Year 12 or post-school qualification. How many of those do you
expect will have jobs to go to?
PM: Well, I think as the economy what we found in the 1 980s, which is
our last experience of this, if you get strong aggregate employme -nt-.
trained people get jobs. I think the lesson of it is, that we want people
trained and that's why we've invested so much in higher throughput in
education, higher retention rates and a higher transference into tertiary
institutions and now, lately, into TAFE.
J: Can you put a figure on how many..
PM: No, no.
J: ( inaudible)..
PM: Well, more broadly what I'd like to see is a better understanding of the
Australian constitution, of the elements of our democracy, the ethos of
our democracy,-these are things which, I think, should be well and truly
transmitted in school and we are looking at ways now how we can
improve the understanding of these primary things, these primary
instruments of our Governments.
J: Mr Keating, you said in your speech that you'd like to strengthen the
role of ANTA, how important is that change going to be in achieving
the educational goals you set out today?
PM: I think vocational training has been the Cinderella of Australian
education and the Government has now got very substantially
increased retention rates in secondary school. As I've said, we've
created 17 universities since the middle 1980s, but the weak link in
Australian education is vocational education -and.. training. This we
tried to remedy and it's started to remedy in the One Nation statement
of 1992 where we put together the Australian National T raining.
Authorityand committed over $ 1 billion to growth within the sector.
What we want to see is that sector working more closely with
industries so that the training profile of industry better fits the well,
put it this way, that TAFE's training profile better fits the profile of
industry so that we are getting people trained with accredited
certificates which they can use nationally and which really help
business in their skills formation.
J: Prime Minister, are you concerned about the recent rise in the
Australian dollar and do you believe that it is justified?
PM: I'm not here to comment on the exchange rate. I did get asked do
you work for Knight Ridder or something do you? I get all these
weirdos who work for Knight Ridder ask me at doorstops about the
exchange rates and interest rates.
J: Mr Keating, with this actual group you are thinking of going to teach
students more about should that actually involve an education about
the republic and about the implications
PM: I think, learning about the constitution apprises people of the fact that
we've got a constitution which was designed by the British foreign
office to look over the Australian government's shoulder. I mean, that
will become very obvious when anyone goes through it. Now, the
Statute of Westminster changed a lot of that, but it didn't change a lot
of the thinking about the Australian constitution. I don't think a lot of
people know about it. For instance, the Australian Cabinet is not
mentioned in the Constitution yet, it is the central agency of change in
our democratic structures outside of the Parliament. So, just to know
about those things, I think, is important. This, I think, will lead to
people questioning the structure we have. Now, as you know I'm all
for that. That is, I believe that as I said yesterday, I'm sure Australia
will become a republic, it is only a matter of time, but Alexander
Downer along with Malcolm Fraser, along with Menzies, along with the
others of his ilk believe that the Australian nation remodelling itself,
resetting itself in the Asia-Pacific should have the head of state of
another country as our head of state. As I quoted yesterday the
Economist magazine, just in passing in a line which was in a column
last week it said only colonies borrow the monarchies of other
countries. Now, we are not a colony, but we are still borrowing the
monarchy of another country.
J: What about the flag issue?
PM: I've said heaps about that.
ends