E 0 E PROOF ONLY
TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE IN SYDNEY 2 JULY 1986
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, would you like to see a national
superannuation scheme?
PM: Well, what I would like to see is this sort of situation
emerge. First of all let's take the fact. The fact is that about
of the Australian workforce currently enjoys superannuation.
So it is an inevitable fact of life, whatever political
persuasion or wherever you are, it is the fact of life that in
the coming years it will be natural that the people who haven't
got superannuation will aspire to get it. And that is a
legitimate aspiration. So what I want to see happen is under the
control and regulation of the Arbitration Com ' mission the gradual,
and I emphasise the gradual, extension of that to the rest of the
workforce. And it should be done in a way which matches the
capacity of industry. There are some sections of industry which
today would not have the capacity to extend that benefit. But
over the next two or three years as productiv-ity increases that
improvement in productivity I think should in part be applied to
extending that benefit. And if at the end of that process of what
I hope will be peaceable negotiation under the control of the
Commission, if at the end of that process there is a very small
proportion of the workforce not being covered then that would be
appropriate at that point for the national government to have
some sort of safety net which picks up the rest of the workforce.
That is how I would like to see it happen and essentially after a
few of these initial little bubbles get worked out I think that's
what will happen.
JOURNALIST: How do you think the Arbitration Commission can
introduce a normal scheme with so many breakaways now occurring?
PM: Your in the media and you know that prominence tends to be
given to the most dramatic but we are here in a scientific
institution and it is very important to try and get the
statistics right. I mean you are seeing a couple of dramatic
outbreaks at the moment but overwhelmingly, in statistical terms,
overwhelmingly the process will be as I have said. The Commission
I understand is going to be meeting under the Chairmanship of the
President, Justice Maddern, on Monday and it is my hope and
expectation that out of that meeting the sort of orderliness that
I am talking about will brought into the process.
JOURNALIST: And what have you got to say to the wharfies who are
out on strike at the moment?
PM: I hope that as I say that that will quickly come back into
the orderly process following that meeting on Monday. That is
my hope. Again it fascinates me that the headlines have been
given to the fact that the wharfies are out now and there is a
bit more strife, strife that I would rather not see. But to be
fair again to the workforce, you have had in this last year and
the last three years a dramatic diminution of industrial
disputation. We now have the lowest level of industrial
disputation for about 20 years. So let's give credit where it is
due and where they deserve a little bit of a rap across the
knuckles. If they do well let's give it but let's be fair about
it.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, in the light of today's opinion poll in
the Bulletin, perhaps you might be using
PM: No. You just have a look at who is the preferred Prime
Minister. I know who would want to do the swapping in the polls.
That is said modestly.
JOURNALIST: Do you think employers will be willing to negotiate
under a national scheme?
PM: Well, I don't want to pre-empt the meeting, the very
important meeting that Mr Justice Maddern will chair next week. I
believe that out of that meeting their should come a willingness
to negotiate. But I repeat it has got to be a staged process and
where there is not the capacity then there shouldn't be a pushing
for that in those areas where there isn't a capacity. It should
be spread over a period of two or three years.
JOURNALIST: Prime Ministe r, a question on politicians salaries.
The Government hasn't accepted the full recommendation of the
Remuneration Tribunal but accepted the 9.2% increase in
allowances. Do you think that is economically responsible?
PM: It certainly is. It is merely in line with what has happened
in costs in those allowances. And it is minor compared to what
the major recommendation of the Tribunal was. They wanted us to
take an 11.7% increase in salaries and there is no doubt that
historically that is justified. The private sector workforce, the
public sector workforce, the people that Ministers and Members of
Parliament are dealing with in the public service, they have had
that 11.7%. members of Parliament haven't and I don't think that
people should just jump on the bandwagon of saying that
politicians salaries should be forever pushed down and down and
that they shouldn't recognise that the community has a value in
trying to attract people of calibre into the Parliament. And you
won't do that if you continuously press down their remuneration.
The anomaly is there, it is justifiable if you look at it of
itself but it should rectified and the Tribunal has said that it
should. However, having said that I said to the Cabinet that we
are saying to the community that there must be restraint and I
don't believe that I could expect the rest of the community to
3
exercise restraint if I agree to that 11.7% increase beyond the
national wage increase in salary. I said to the Cabinet that I
think that shouldn't happen. To its credit the Cabinet agreed
with me and so that will be the position. So we won't be taking
that 11.7% that has been recommended and I hope that others in
the community will, in those circumstances where they are not
under the constraints of arbitration tribunals, people who are
able to set their own salaries, will take a lead from what we are
doing so that that restraint will be exercised. It goes back to
the sort of thing I was saying before. All of us would like to
grab what we can I suppose now and say well that's beaut, that
will give us some satisfaction. It is much more intelligent to
have a longer time scale in your thinking and there is no doubt
that present restraint exercised will now will pay great
dividends for us all in the years ahead.
ENDS