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PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE MON P J KEATING MWP
DOORSTOP, BATHURSTr RUGBY LEAGUE FOOTBALL CLUB, BATHURST,
FEBRUARY 1996
E& OE PROOF COPY
J: Mr Keating, the Newspoll today shows that the Labor Party Is closing the
gap. Are you confident that you can pick up saeats like Calare, or hold on
to seats like Cala re?
PM; I think so, We think the feeling In Celare Is pretty good. That people,
I think, are now starting to focus on the election campaign Issues. They
have had a look at the policy speeches, they have had a look at the
leaders, they have seen the debate between John Howard and me, and
they are starting now to make their minds up. And, I think, as they make
their minds up, we are starting to see a shift of opinion.
J Mr Keating, what do you know about the privatisation of the Information
Technology Group within Teistra?
PMV: I don't know much about it at all. But I got a question earlier today about
whether some of these things amount to the de facto privatIsation of
Telstra and, of course, they don't. That Is the same proposition that has
been put to me about Foxtel. I mean Teistra is a telephone company, a
communications company. It is not a news producer, it is not a movie
producer, Atis not an entertainment business, It has to do these things
coflaboratively and this Is the way, I think, the business will grow.
It is one of the reasons why phone companies are now buying Into
entertainment companies and why, for instance, MCA has bought into
British Telecom, which has bought into News Corporation, for the same
reasons that entertnment, news and oommunications are all much part of
the one business now.
J: But is it tnue that you asked for the privatisation of that particular unit to be
put off until after the election?
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PM: I don't know anything about it.
J: You didn't speak to the unions about it?
PM: I have not spoken to anyone about ft.
J: You have never heard about that at all?
PM: I have never heard about it.
J: The Coalition Is accusing the Government of politicising the Finance
Department for costing their promises?
PM: Well that is just outrageous. John Howard, In fact, asked us, challenged
Ralph Willis and Kim Beaziey to actually have his policies costed in the
course of this Parliament and when we do it he then cries foul upon his
own invitatlon. And, at any rate, this ought to be a matter of factual
information. What has he got to fear about having the Departments that
he says he wants to operate having them cost his promises? When,
In fact, all Governments have done this right through the period, including
his own back in the 0980s.
J: Can you give the Australian people a guarantee, when the election Is
finished and the books are opened, that the Budget will be in surplus?
PM: Well I have answered that question 20 times.
J: But can you give them a pledge?
PM: I have answered it 20 times. I mean we have put more data out there than
anyone In Australian Federal history. But the key point is that either party
will have to face the starting point. It is a matter of whether we are adding
to the Budget task or subtracting from it.
Labor Is subtracting from the Budget task because we have introduced
measures which have, of course, already been costed by our
Departments, which show that there will be a very big net contribution to
the Budget.
John Howard will have a very big net deficiency and yesterday, when
Ralph Willis and I articulated some commentary on Mr Howard's promises,
what they showed Is that there was a $ 5.8 billion deficiency so far, without
at this point dealing with some of their other things such as Incentives for
savings which we have not yet seen.
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J: Mr Keating, Mr Howard says he will only have a deficiency if your Budget
surplus doesn't emerge?
PM: Well he knows he is facing like, for Instance, he never even costed his
commitment to give the States a fixed share of income tax, which will cost
about $ 3 billion over three years. That was not even in his coatings.
I mean the Liberals have learned nothing and they have forgotten nothing.
This is just Box Hill 1987 all over again. They think to win an election they
have to win it on the basis of some sort of bribe, rather than on their own
Intrinsic merits or their philosophy and these sorts of bribes are expensive.
And what they would do is derail a Budget process, they would derail a
Budget's figuring.
J: But the Opposition says that they are not going to give the States any
more money, that that is not going to cost anything.
PM: Well why make the promise? What does the promise mean? What does
It mean? If it is not going to cost anything, what does it mean? Of course
It Is going to cost something.
J: Does New South Wales need a third international airport at Parkes?
UPM: We are not talking about a third international airport. I think what is being
viewed here is whether, in time sensitive cargoes, perishable goods, there
Is the capacity to have some substantial, you know using the standard
vehicles for freight, which are basically 747 freighters. An international
airport is a horse of another colour that Is all of the facilities that go with
It. But we are prepared here to look and see whether there is a viable
option of essentially covering the cost of the extension of a strip and some
of the ancillary support facilities you would need for freight and whether
that can be paid for by the generation of the business.
J: coatings [ inaudible]?
PM: There are airports built, I think, In this region. Some of the extensions
have been put down to around $ 20 million In some of the preliminary work
that has been done.
J: Have you broached this with the airlines as to whether they are happy to
move their freight operations to areas like Parkes?
PM: They wouldn't necessarily be airlines either, I mean, I think, you see quite
a lot of charter operations as well as airlines. But if they could get some
business, obviously, they would come here, getting caught in the
congestion In Sydney Is not really, I think, in their best interests.
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J, On Sunday, will there be a debate?
PM: Of course there will.
J: Where?
PM: I As we agreed last Sunday week. That was Channel Nine In Sydney next
Sunday night.
J: The same fiormat?
PMV: The same format.
J: Mr Keating, Mr Button said today that whoever wins Government on
March 2nd, is going to have to dishonour some of their election promises
that they can't afford,
PM. No, that is not true of our case. We have got, as I said our spending
commitments are hall the Coslition's and they are funded tWice over and it
is not our claims. 1 mean all of our funding, of course, all of those figures
that we have produced, are produced with Departments they are
Departmental figures. So our commitments are modest compared to the
Opposition's and they are funded twice over. But it Is a very real problemn
for John Howard. I mean the Liberals have made their classic mistake
they think they have got to buy peoples' votes, they have picked the mood
wrong, they now have a set of grab beg promises they can't fund.
J: So why would Mr Button be making that sort of comment?
PMV; John has always been noted for his philosophical approach to public life.
J* On super what is wrong with older workers taking monley [ inaudible)
PM: Lower income workers? I think there is a lot wrong with it. It is,
essentially, playing themn off a break. It Is saying that they can choose to
lose their retirement benefit some choice taking them out of a scheme
that has universality, it busts the principle of universality, it busts the
principle of compulsion and, of course, At removes the obligation of a
Howard Government to pay the tax cuts to match their contributions. All in
all it is a very miserable view and one that, I think, In the senior echelons
of Australian business, would be a very worrying one. And. I think, In the
financial institutions and for anyone who is Interested in seeing a pool of
savings In this country and a set of retirement savings8, to watch the
Coalition willfully dismembering and dismantling a universal
superannuation systemn is, I think, a very silly thing to be doing,
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J: Mr Howard appears to have backed away from' his promise of an
underlying surplus in 1996/ 97. Do you still think you can get an underlying
surplus In 1998/ 971
PMV: Well I got asked that question earlier. Mr Howard Is backing away
because he has made oommitments he can't keep. So he " et given a
choice, doesn't he either keep the commitments or back away from the
underlying surplus. So ho has backed away from the underlying surplue
and, I think, economic journalists and those who write about these things
should take note this is the choice he has made.
JSo, yes, you can get an underlyng surplus in 1996/ 97?
PM: I have made It clear before. We have published three years forward
estimates of outlays and receipts, and three years forward estimates of the
Budget balance In surplus.
J: Mr Howard has released his youth policy today and he has taken a
substantial amount of money out of traineeships and put it towardis
apprenticeships saying that that is the only way to create real jobs.
PM: Oh, what would he know. Really, what would he know. I mean when he
left office only three young people In ton completed secondary school
three In ten. Seven In ten were not even there left to complete years I11
and 12. That is John Howard's regard for our young Australians,
We have now got nearly eight in ten, we have just about doubled tertiary
places, and we have already put, now since One Nation S1t6 billion Into
ANTA, Into TAFE, for vocational education. And we have developed a
system of tralneeships for people and you can see those traineeships
today with Mc~ onald,% in Orange, and with Email in Orange. That is the
sort of support. We regard 15 to 19 years of age Is a period of vocational
preparatin and we don't want young people dropping out of school.
If we do, we try and get them back Into school or back into structured
training and a subsidised job place.
So, you know, we have got that comprehension and we have got that very
large commitment. And I might remind people, again, that when we
introduced Working Nation a $ 1.5 blillion program Mr Howard's
predecessor In office, the man who would be his Foreign Minister,
Mr Downer, said it was a waste of money.
J: But that is not real jobs, that is training, that Is not employing people?
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PRM: No, they are real jobs. Those jobs are one year jobs. it is one year
tratneeship for people...
J: But an apprenticeship Is a real job too, Isn't it?,
PM: Oh, there are apprenticeshipo too. But we have apprenticeships and we
have traineeships.
J: He has offered $ 18 million for youth suicide. What are you offering except
more of the same,
PM: What, more of the same of what?
J: In that area, you haven't exactly been a success.
PM. Well you are a gloomy person, you are. I mean, what, did you take a
gloom tablet this morning?
J: Well Australia does have one of the highest rates of youth sulcide In the
world.
PM: Look, what we are offering Is young Australians a place In the scheme of
arrangements of this country a full place In education, a big Investment
by the nation, a big investment in their secondary education, a big
investment in tertiary education, a big Investment in vocational education,
and support for them In such areas as traineeships, apprenticeship's and
structured training, where they actually walk away with an accreditation.
In other words, we are trying to give young people not just hope, but
prospects and also for those who, for some reason, drop right out of the
system In terms of homelessness, we have got a large package of
funding to support them; and in terms of counselling, we have with the
States a program to deal with some of these problems of moral@ which do
lead to these environments.
J: Are you doing anything specifically to address though the teenage suicide
rate?
PM: Well, I mean, we have..
J: $ 18 million Is quite a lot of money to address to a specific issue?
PM: But this is notsa static picture. We have got programs already out there
and we are already doing those things. The truth is the Liberal Party has
never Invested in our young people never. T Ihey didn't invest In them
when they were in office and what was their attitude at the last eleiOn
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put them on $ 3 an hour wages $ 3 an hour, Now, In Western Australia, It
Is $ 3.77. They have taken the laat three years inflation and topped it up to
$ 3.77, 1 mean that Is where they stand.
J: You said in your campaign launch that there would be an unprecedented
effort on Aboriginal health were you to be re-elected. What would that
involve?
PM: Well we have already made very large commitments, we are transferring
funds from ATSIC to the Commonwealth Department of Health and the
Commonwealth Department of Health wil be settig up and managing
direct health programs In Aboriginal communities across the country. We
will be winding that program up over the course of the next three years.
But we will also be looking to tialking with the States about environmental
health In such things as water, sewerage, housing, etc, because this Is not
just a problem of the Incidence of disease. But, rather, as well, is that the
environment in which all of this Is created with over-crowding in housing,
poor sanitation, and that requires a commitment with the States.
This cannot be dome without the States being Involved and that is why
I said the other day at the regional agreement signed in Cape, York in
respect of land that has the prospect of going to a full regional agreement
under ATSIC, which would then have commitments by the State of
Queensland In that case for say roads, housing, sewerage, etc.
ends