L . PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
DOORSTOP, RAAF FAIRBAIRN, CANBERRA, 14 NOVEMBER 1995
E& OE PROOF COPY
PM: A remark on the Lawrence Royal Commission we only have at this
stage Premier Court's summary of the report, and I would like to read
the full report. But I think we have only got to regard the result as very
dubious open to doubt as indeed Commissioner Marks said it would
be in one of his public statements. He also said at that time of that
statement, that the terms of reference had turned out to be fairly
restrictive, he said it was " part of my training not to make assumptions
on half the evidence". In other words, he was saying that it was
restrictive, the evidence and the findings would be open to doubt.
Well, they are open to doubt if what we believe to be the findings are
an accurate reflection of what Mir Court has said, and I just simply
make the point that it was a political Royal Commission set up by the
Opposition, by John Howard and Richard Court for the most base
political motives, it has not a shred of integrity to it in the drawing up of
the Royal Commission's terms of reference, it's been a charade from
front to back, and it was condemned by the Royal Commissioner in
terms of process. And we can only agree with the Royal
Commissioners own observation that it would be open to doubt, and
therefore I regard the whole process as dubious and worthless.
J Do you retain confidence in Dr Lawrence?
PM: I have complete confidence in her, all these claims and counter-claims
it's always seemed to me that her version of these things are fairly
clear anyway, but the key evidence was given by Mr Marquet, the
Clerk of the Upper House, who said it would have been improper for
any Premier or Member of the Executive Government to stop a
Member of Parliament presenting a petition. Like me as Prime Minister
stopping a Member of Parliament presenting a petition in the House of
Representatives or the Senate. That was the knockout evidence, but
of course, it came late and the sequencing of the witnesses was such
that all of the very notable evidence was given by people who are
giving evidence against Carmen Lawrence. So, she has my complete
support and I'm sure the support of everyone in the Government, and
our sympathy for having to go through such a process where we have I
seen the grossest form of personal abuse at the hands of the Liberal
Party. A $ 6 million Royal Commission arrayed against one woman.
J: ( inaudible)...
PM: I haven't seen them the findings in detail.
ends.