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PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE MION P. J. KEATING MP
DOORSTOP, MARITIM HOTEL, BONN, TUESDAY, 7 MARCH 1995
E& OE PROOF COPY
PMVI Ihis morning I met with the Presidlent of the Federal Republic and, of
course, a meeting and iuflcn with the Chancellor. Perhaps I mnight deal
wih the Chancellor's meetiNg anid lunch first and say I think rarely have I
had a discusiv1 as good as this one, we found substantial common
cause in Germany and Australia doing more things together. This3 is the
third largest economy in the world. Our investments here are reasonably
small so too are they in Australia. There is no cause why this should be
so. They are now interested in the Aoia-Pacific 03 Wc are. They want to
do more things there. I think they are inclined to be doing more with us.
The Chancellor proposed some things and so did 1. One was ho thought
that wc should have a cultural agreement between our two countries. He
couldn't understand why this hadn't happened in the past. I told him that I
thought we should be underpinning investment more strongly between us.
saying that there is going to be an Australian German Rusiness
Association Convention later in the year, which I will be attending and I
asked him wh~ ether one of his senior Ministers mightr attendl and he
concurred inl that
He was surprised nlow much of a common) view uf tha wui Id we had. We
had a long discussion aout Europe, about Germany's role in Europe,
about Itic future of the European monetary system, about how Curope
mlight develop in the future, Germanys historic opportunity and we had a
long discussion about the Asia-Pacific, about the role of thio various
countries, how we saw the Asia-Pacific and thon, of course, how we
might do more together.
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We also had a discussion about Germany and German history which is
one of my interests and German architecture and a few other things which
he was very interested in. He paid me the compliment at the end by
saying sometimes I do these things as a chore, this has been a real
pleasure and it was for Me too.
I met the President this morning and again I had a very good discussion.
one of the paints I made to the Chancellor and the President was that on
this question about the convergence criteria in Europe to join the
European Union, the only three countries in the OECD who fit the
convergence criteria are Germany, Luxenburg and Australia. So, it is a
measure of how competitive Australia is and a measure of the standing of
our economy that in this rigorous convergence criteria in Europe, outside
of Germany and Luxenburg, the only other country in the developed world
that would qualify this year is Australia. I hope my opponents In Australia
might take some note of that.
This was a telling point, I think, with the Chancellor and the President, but
I also asked the President about his role, the role of an appointed
President, in the Federal Republic. He made a couple of telling points
about it being a non-political position, that him not being a member of a
political party, that speaking for the country was something he thought
Germans wished him to do, but doing it in a way which didn't bear upon
the executive prerogatives of the Government. He said these things had
all been thought about in 1949 and he was sure that Germans had
designed their constitution well, looking at past history. 1 told him we
were having a similar debate in Australia and was very interested In his
view of his role here in this constitution and then in this Republic.
I think they were both, the President and the Chancellor, very agreeable
in terms of me telling them the changes In Australia and of our economic
circumstances of our outward external orientation, our commitment to
growth with low inflation, the fact that at CeBIT we will have 200
companies high technology companies that we are no longer just a
producer of coal and iron ore and wool and wheat and tourism, but also of
high technology products and they see. I think, Australia being a really
useful interlocker for them in the Asia-Pacific.
So, I rated both meetings highly successful.
J: Mr Keating, do you think the German model of a non-elected President is
one worth examining more closely in the Australian context?
PM: I think his point was that were It to be an elected * person, the political
parties would operate the election and that a political person would be
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wamwite He thought German's felt more comfortable with somebody who
could speak for the nation but was not partisan,
J: Prime Minister. itituteslingly enough in Singapore now they have gone the
othier way. They nlow have an elected President.
PM: This is the largest republic in Europe and It has got a long history and tho
1949 coflStitution was eY, very well thought over, comprehensively
thought over and thought through. There are all sonls of models of
presidencies around tho world wh'ere there is a lot of executive power in
the Amorican Presidency and the French Presidency, but this is a
parliamentary democracy, with parliamentary reprsentativA Government,
at, we have it. It was just interesting, ttwAr are not too many of these, so
when one Meets the President one at least asks.
J; Do you think our P'arliament couldI ever agree?
PM: I think, this Parliament In Germany agreesj, anid it'Ut Geii Parliament
can, tho Australian Parliament could.
J: What albuut the Australian people, Mr Keeting, there seems to bo a
preference at the moment for an elected prosidcnt ratheir than an
appointed president
PM. We are having a debate on this as a motion wnd there will be 2tages in
this debate end one of tho stages will be whore the Government says
where it stands on this issue and the public will then debate these thing. s
But, I have got no doubt that when one invests the nation in a person, In a
reprosentative sense as it the mae here with the German Presidency, the
fact that that person isn't elected and draws political authority In a
partisan way, a party political way from the constituency of the country,
moans that our system Mf Government doesn't chlange and the systein of
government didn't mnange here and It wouldn't U itnge under those
circumstAneps In Australia. In other words. the representative democracy
we have where members of Parliament are actually relating to their
Constituency know the oirgenisation. know the municipal authority, know
the parents and friends association, know all the representative groups, it
is a very comprehensive represetation process. That is what they have
here and, at least, President Herzog said that he thought that the German
people wished him to speak for them, but not in a partisan way.
J. Prime Minister, what is your reaction to Graham Richardson's suggestion
that ho had spoken to you about dealings with Packer anti r12aiming that
he had tried to convince you there was no deal?