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A
PRIME MINISTER
STATEMENT BY THE PRIE MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MIP
HOWARD'S POLICY VACUUM
Mr Howard's declaration after the Liberal Party's federal executive meeting on Friday that
he would not release any policies before the next election campaign was a declaration of
contempt for the Australian electorate.
He will not tell Australians what he thinks or intends to do,. or what if anything he stands
for. He tries to deny them by arguing that he will not respond to my agenda a lame
excuse for having no agenda himself.
This is the same tactic adopted by his most immediate predecessor, Mr Downer. It did not
wash for Mr Downer, and it won'& w ash for Mr Howard.
The Australian people may now conclude that Mr Howard has no policies. Alternatively,
they may suspect that Mr Howard is attempting to invoke a policy " fifth amendment" he
will not say what he will do on the grounds that it might incriminate him. His recent GST
slip made this clear.
His call over the weekend for an inquiry into the Hindmarsh Island bridge controversy
firther illustrates his cynicism. This is nothing more than a transparent attempt to
rehabilitate Ian McLachlan, when the unalterable truth is that McLachlan had to resign
because he misled the Australian people and the Parliament. Whether the confidential
parcel contained sacred documents, or somebody's gas bill the fact remains it was not his
property, and he should not have tampered with it and tried to misuse it in Parliament. In
the circumstances, John Howard's call for an inquiry is merely the latest refuge of a policy
flake. In the meantime, the Coalition last week made more explicit how the it intends to
camouflage its giant policy hole. Apparently, they think it is clever to campaign
principally on a " get rid of Keating" platform.
What they are trying to do is assume legitimacy for a campaign of personality politics with
no policy content at all. In other words, to the incessant talking down of the economy, the
Coalition will add the abandonment of policy.
The Liberal Party believes that from now until the next election they can survive on a hate
campaign. This means that after 12 years in Opposition, they are not only bereft of
policies for Australia, they have learned nothing about the political values of Australians.
CANBERRA 21 MAY 1995