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PRIME MINISTER
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
HOWARD DODGING AND WEAVING
The Opposition Leader was at his most slippery on Meet the Press today
sending a clear signal that he intends to conceal his true policies from the
public until after the election.
Mr Howard has very little to say on a range of important national issues, and
what he does say simply cannot be believed. Whether it be pensions,
Medicare, industrial relations, media ownership, or economic management,
Mr Howard cannot be trusted.
He refused this morning to match the Government's undertaking to maintain
pensions at 25 per cent of average weekly earnings. If the Labor
Government had adopted the Howard approach to pensions, single
pensioners would be $ 20 a week worse off, and couples $ 34 a week worse
off. Mr Howard wants to dump an important social commitment of this
Government, but he won't admit it.
On Medicare, Mr Howard made the extraordinary claim that the changes
made by the Fraser Government to the then universal Medibank scheme did
not amount to " dismantling."
The Fraser Government, of which Mr Howard was a senior member,
produced five separate health systems in seven years each one more
complicated, discriminatory, expensive and confusing than the last.
Now Mr Howard says he won't " dismantle" Medicare or bulk-billing. Don't
believe him. This is the man who once described bulk-billing as " an absolute
rort." On industrial relations, Mr Howard dishonestly tried to deny he intended to
abolish the role of the Industrial Relations Commission.
He doesn't deny saying of the Commission: " We'll stab them in the stomach."
And he cannot deny saying in May 1991: " There will be nobody in this room
happier than I will be when the role of the Industrial Relations Commission in
the wage fixing processes of this country is reduced to nothing more than an
optional extra."
For Mr Howard now to play with words, as he did on television this morning,
is simply not credible.
On media ownership, Mr Howard will throw diversity to the wolves. Put
simply, he is prepared to allow a single proprietor to own a major television
network and a metropolitan newspaper in the same city. He is prepared to
sacrifice diversity of media ownership to buy the support of influential media
proprietors. He confirmed this last week when he and the Coalition voted
against the Government's legislation tightening the cross media ownership
provisions. CANBERRA 26 November, 1995