PRIME MINISTER WEDNESDAY 12 MARCH 1980
-From the Press Office SUMMARY OF AM
Later on this morning Sir John Moore will hold meetings with parties
in the oil dispute to try to find a solution. One crucial aspect
is not in fact an'industrial matter but a civil one, the injunction
gained by Mr. Leon Laidley against the TWU in the Federal Court.
This raises the question can Sir John Moore arbitrate above the
authority of the Federal Court. Peter Jefferson spoke to a specialist
in company law from Monash University, Professor Robert Bax. Even if
though the industrial dispute is settled this may not resolve Mr.
Laidley's particular action and if he is intent on proceeding with
that particular action he will be able to do so. Professor Bax says
that ultimately the dispute is in the hands of Mr. Laidley and he
can really continue it indefinitely until the injunction has been
carried through and the court action has been finalised. So despite
the action of Sir John Moore the action could continue indefinitely.
Mr. Laidley refused an interview but said that he still believes
he is right and won't be withdrawing the injunction.
The Prime Minister bought into the TWU dispute last night when he
made it quite clear that he regards it as an issue of union power
versus the law. Addressing the Directors Institute in Sydney, Mr.
Fraser also criticised the role of the NSW Government in industrial
disputes and hinted strongly that a law* and order election is on the cards.
Prime Minister
Current the Transport Workers Union dispute threatens to bring NSW
and maybe Australia to a standstill. This dispute is not about
wages; it's not about a fight between unions, or between Federal
and State branches of a union; it's purely a fight within one State
union. Here we have a citizen of Australia, not trying to deny
anyone business, not trying to say a non unionist should do his work;
not saying that another union should do the work, but merely saying
that his own employee, that a person who is still a member of the
same State union-' should do the work. But the union~ says no
somebody else a member of the union, should do the work. And as a
consequence the State looks like being paralysed. The dispute is
the height of absurdity. Too often I think in this State encouragement
has been given to the belief that some State unions will achieve
support from the State Government if they are tough enough or
militant enough. And there is evidence of this on more than one
occasion. But that leads to another point of great importance
the role of trade unions and the role of law in industrial matters.
Some unions have incomes of millions of dollars a year. They have
great power. Many of them have much more power than any company or
corporation. But nobody suggpests that companies should be allowed
to operate outside the law, however much some companies might like it.
When Mr. Walker prosecutes a director of some company, nobody suggests
that he should not . be fined or at times go to gaol if the verdict is
guilty. The company director must operate within company law and
people expect that the law will be upheld. People don't say that
the problem ought to be resolved merely by reconciliation. They
simply say that the law has been broken and there is a penalty. Why
then when we come to industrial relations, which damages the interests
of a great deal more people than any company ever could, do some
people suggest that there should be no law at all. that laws only
provoke, that the only solution has got to be by negotiation. That
is not a credible position for Australia or for any Government. We
have seen in the history of trade unionism that when unions possess
Prime Minister ( continued)
unrestrained powers often they use those powers to gain what they
want for themselves while ignoring the interests of the wider
Australian community. We need to have law to establish the framework
within which unions operate. We also have to have law that can and
will be upheld. At the moment there is an unhealthy balance between
some people and groups possessing indisputable political, economic
and union power and the bulk of Australians to whom both of those
are denied.
Sean Dorney reports from Port Moresby on the fall of Mr. Somare
and the new government of Sir Julius Chan. Sir Julius Chan said
he wanted to establish first a dialogue between the new government
and the Government of Australia and it was necessary to understand
each other. He said there was no need to change unless there was
a need for change.
Cleaning up after America's worst nuclear accident has created more
controversy in Pennsylvania. This week major steps are being taken
to de-contaminate the crippled reactor. Geoff McMullen reports
from Washington.
Mr. Mugabe has announced his new cabinet. As well as including
members of his own Zanu PF party, he's also appointed 4 Patriotic
Front members and two white ministers. Ken Begg spoke to the
Diplomatic Editor of the Guardian newspaper for his assessment.
When asked if this ship of State was likely to be one that was
acceptable to Mrs. Thatcher but also to Mr. Fraser, the editor of
the Guardian replied that this was a case when Australia was in
the best sense of the word the ' Godfather'. He said" Malcolm Fraser,
the conservative Prime Minister of Australia and Michael Manley
the Socialist Prime Minister of Jamaica talking to each other on
the phone for a period of weeks before the Commonwealth summit in
Lusaka last August. I confirmed this with both men in Lusaka when
the Summit was over. Yes they talked a great deal. Yes they
had in fact plann'ed the operation which then took place for
when Maggie Thatcher arrived as a British Conservative Prime
Minister she found a blueprint prepared for her by these two very
energetic men. So it was a Fraser-Manley plan and they got into
that Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Chairman of the Conference, Dr.
Julius Nyerere, head of the front line states and they... put in
Nigeria. There you have the team that put together the Lusaka
formula. And now we've had in the election and the forming of
this cabinet the testing of that formula. It's stood the test.
It's come through. The right man in my view has won because he's a
strong man and what he says goes and from what I saw of the Australian
team in operation, not only in Lusaka then but more recently they
have been on the spot * for ei4ht weeks a very top team, an able
team the eyes and ears of Malcolm Fraser in Salisbury monitoring
the whole thing.-I would say Australia has given them a fair wind
and they will respond. Australia has made a powerful friend in
Southern Africa. Australia has taken a calculated risk in launching
something but at the same time it's delivered the thing that the
Queen in her message in the same week a message for Commonwealth
Day, has said, which is the finest gift we could Southern Africa,
which is peace with dignity". Patrick Keatley.
From Moscow David Willis reports that the Soviet Union apart from
stepping up its military activities in Afghanistan has issued a
flurry of statements on Asian affairs, warning the Philippines and
Indonesia not to rove closer to China and professing to be pleased with
t~ ho developments here in Australia. The Kremlin is watching with
great suspicion the current tour of ASEAN countries by the Chinese
Foreign Minister. Tass has also pounced with considerable delight
on two news stories coming from Australia. One appeared in the
Australian Financial Review saying, according to Tass that the
Fraser Government had rejected an American proposal to reconstruct
the naval base at Cockburn Sound in Western Australia to allow US
nuclear powered aircraft carriers to call there. Tass says that
this showed the impact of mounting protests by the Australian public
saying that Canberra was simply a lackey of the United States.
The Fraser Government's denial of the Financial Review story has not
been mentioned by Tass. Tass has also released a re port . on a
statement issued by a group of Australian sportsmen which opposes a
boycott of the Moscow Olympics in July. According to Tass the
statement said that boycotting the Olympics was something akin to
boycotting the. United Nations. Tass quoted marathon runner, Bill
Scott as saying that he would defy any Australian Government boycott.
The statement itself Tass claimed, indicated that the Fraser
Government's solidarity with the US in supporting a boycott is not
agreed to inside the country.
There is to be two Labor Parties in Queensland operating out of
separate offices with neither recognising the other at least
until the question of intervention can be finalised one way or the
other. Mr.-. Hayden flew into Brisbane yesterday after suspended
administrative committee members led by Mr. Hauenschild had gone
back on a compromise agreement reached over the weekend. Mr. Hayden
said alternative offices were to be set up and they'd run in%
opposition to the suspended committee, which is still in control of
the Breakfast Creek party headquarters. Even Ed Casey who has been
closely aligned with the ' old guard' or junta is surprised by Mr.
Hauenschild's rejection and he has called for a complete reconsideration.
In Brisbane Mr. Hayden is speaking with Jane
Singleton.
Mr. Hayden
Mr. Casey is absolutely stunned at the decision of the junta to
reject the negotiated understandings -* hat arose at a meeting in
Sydney on Saturday.
Question Mr. Casey was there.
Mr. Hayden
Like me. Like everyone else he went away under the clear impression
that the representatives of the Queensland ruling group or ( inaud)
previously ruling the . party.. were happy with the decisions. And with
good reason they achieved some substantial concessions. Some I
wasn't too happy about.
Question
Their compromising is unstulck. So what happens now?
Mr. Hayden
Well we have no recourse now but to follow the determination of the
Federal Executive in its resolution that provides for a number of
things the setting up of an interim committee, that if people
iAvited to serve on it don't accept appointments the appointment
16f other people to talk with people who will serve on that committee
to take steps to set up an office for the official structure of the
Australian Labor Party and in fact get things going. We have the
support of the Branches, the junta doesn't have the support of the
Branches. Question Mr. Hauenschild still claims however that his branch of the Party
is the one and only branch. What is to be done about it?
Mr. Hayden
Well I'm not going to waste time as to who is the good, the pure
and the virtuous, we are the official structure of the Partythat's
well established and we'll set up offices in Brisbane. We've
had offers. We have quite sufficient money to run the Party. We
have the support of the Branches. That's the important thing.
Question So you're going to have what amounts to two groups claiming they
are the ALP in Queensland.
Mr. Hayden
Oh there'll be a significance difference between the two groups.
One, that is the one that is recognised by the National Executive
and affiliated to it. We'll be the one which will prosper and
they'll have public respect. It will be the one which will have
the support of the branches and a growing number of trade unions
The other will be the one that has brought so much discredit and
you know that so much dissatisfaction within the Labor Party.
Question Do you think Mr Hauenschild might be waiting for Mr. Hawke to
return in the hope that he might sort it out as he is against
intervention?
Mr. Hayden
Well I have no idea. But I don't think that Mr. Hawke would be
keen to become involved. Mr. Hawke is purely identified with the junta
people in. Queensland and therefore t * o talk about any outsider -becoming
involved * in the problem here would imply that it would have to
be someone mutually acceptable and someone not recognised as being
committed to one side or the other. Now that would rule Mr. Hawke
out and a lot of other -people.
Talks are to'be held in Perth between aboriginals and the Western
Australian Government to try to resolve-the Noonkanbah dispute.
Jim Bonner reports from Perth. 000-