PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF NEWS CONFERENCE, FLEMINGTON NEIGHBOURHOOD
HOUSE, MELBOURNE, 5 APRIL 1989
E O E PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke aren't your priorities slightly out of
order in spending this money to have a public relations
campaign when anyone who's ever tried to ring a refuge knows
you can't get on the phone. Someone I know who works
professionally with them said that she rang at 3.00 am
because of this, and when only one in five women can get
into refuges shouldn't you be building more refuges and
providing the escape routes before doing the big public
relations stunt?
PM: I thought we were going to have a press conference not
a public debate. But let me make the point that we have
very substantially increased the funding for refuges in the
period since we've been in office. They were first funded
under the Whitlam Labor Government in ' 74. The funding was
cut out at the Commonwealth Government level in 1981 by the
Fraser Government. We reintroduced funding in 1983 and have
successively increased the amount of funding and have
commited a further substantial amount over the next 3 years.
So it is not a question of what we're doing now, being in
substitution for an increase in funding. The increase in
funding has taken place, there's not a limitless amount of
money available to Government but we have accorded a
significant priority to it and it's a perverse assumption on
your part and it would be rejected by 99.9% of the
community that you shouldn't be undertaking a campaign, as
I say, to break the silence.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke do you support an inquiry into the
NSC? PM: We don't see a need at this stage for a Commonwealth
inquiry, it's essentially a matter at a state level. But
what I have done to try and ensure that at the Commowealth
level we can do everything to be of assistance is that I
wrote on Monday to about 7 or 8 Ministers who could in some
way or another through their Departments or agency's for
which they are responsible, have some connection with the
NSC and have asked them to meet together and their
Departments so that we can have a full understanding of what
involvement there is at the national level with any of the
operations of the NSC. And then I've spoken to Mr Cain and
indicated to him that I'm doing that and that we'll
make all information available that we've got to the
Victorian authorities. Now that's the role that we have
properly discharged, there's no need on any evidence
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( PM cont) available for the Commonwealth to be having an
inquiry.
JOURNALIST: The Democrats are supporting at the very least
a Senate inquiry.
PM: The Democrats by definition will support an inquiry
into anything.
JOURNALIST: On this issue here, does it disappoint you to
learn that the Victorian Government for example has cut
funding for child care workers when refuges like this so
heavily depend on them?
PM: Well I don't accept your assertion that the Victorian
Government has overall cut funding for child care. I mean
that hasn't been brought to my attention. I don't accept
your assertion that it's done that.
JOURNALIST: Workers are now preparing to strike.
PM: Well that's another proposition. I don't accept your
assertion that the Victorian Government has cut funds for
child care. I don't accept your assertion.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke on the NSC are you satisfied that
Australian security has not been compromised?
PM: Yes I've already said that and so has Minister Beazley.
I of course made an inquiry when this issue arose and I'm
informed by the authorities that there is no security
compromise or security connection. The allegations have you
know ranged all over the place that there's a CIA connection
and other connections. Well I am informed that there is no
substance in those allegations. Now over here there was a
question about child care. Let's be quite clear about child
care as far as my Government is concerned. You won't get me
on the back foot about child care, I'll be right
aggressively on the front foot because no Government in the
history of this country has come within a bull's roar of
doing what we've done on child care. Let's get the facts
and let's get them straight. Now since we've been in office
we have created 64,000 new child care places. We have
allocated funds for another 30,000 so that by the beginning
of the 1990s there'll be 94,000 child care places which will
involve what this. It will involve a trebling in our
period of office of child care places. Now as I say that's
the outlay by my Government in regard to child care places.
It does more in our period of office than was ever done in
the whole period of Government before we came of office in
1983. So you won't get me on the back foot about child
care. The rest of the political spectrum, the
conservatives, need to hang their head in shame in terms of
looking at what this Government has done and is committed to
keep on doing in the future in regard to child care.
JOURNALIST: This morning in The Age a Gallup Poll was
published saying that the Liberals would've won the last
federal election had one been held in mid March. What do
you have to say about that?
PM: I'm very happy about where we are at this stage. I
mean if you look what we've been through with high interest
rates, which we've had to bring in, the rather poor balance
of payments figures, and the CPI figures
JOURNALIST: What about the
PM: Are we going to have a debate or are you going to ask
me a question and I can answer it, ok. That's the usual
rule. Now what I'm saying is that for them to be where they
are now they should be very disappointed and if they were
content as to where they are you wouldn't have the position
which is in fact going on now of a determined effort to
displace Mr Howard, which is what's underway at the moment.
Now if they were content about where they were that wouldn't
be what's happening. Now I'm simply saying to you we've had
to do some tough things. No-one likes, no politician in his
right mind likes having a tough, tight monetary policy but
it's necessary. The national account figures which just
came out at the beginning of this week show a very simple
statistic, that there's been a 4% growth in production,
we've had a 4% growth in GDP, but we've had an 8% growth in
consumption. In other words we are importing to fill that
gap and we're importing at a level which we can't sustain so
we've got to bring back the level of activity. Now people
don't like those sorts of things. Now even in that
situation the Opposition is depending upon the preferences
of the minor parties in this hypothetical election. The
fact is that when we go to an election it won't be a
hypothetical one, it will be the real thing and we will win.
* JOURNALIST: The Poll also shows that your own popularity is
slipping. PM: Well if we talk about my popularity against the other
which is I haven't seen the figures today
JOURNALIST: Down to 47.
PM: Down to 47? What's Mr Howard's and what's the prefered
Prime Minister's? Still a 3 to 1 ratio.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke with the situation in Namibia hotting
up will you still be sending the 240 troops?
PM: I will be going there this afternoon to Holsworthy
to farewell them.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke the same question. There are reports
that the Rules of Engagement for the troops in Namibia
aren't sufficient and they could wind up being in danger.
Are you concerned about that?
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PM: We have said and the Minister has said that this is no
Sunday School picnic that our contingent is going to. It's
a dangerous situation, not simply for the reasons you're
referring to, but there are many mines that have been laid
in the region where our fellas will be involved in defusing
that position. So it is a dangerous situation. The
previous Government which made the commitment and which
we're honouring and are pleased to honour understood that
it was a potentially dangerous situation.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke you've spoken gratefully of your
wife's forebearance in your earlier exuberant times. Would
you have been happy to extend to Hazel the same sexual
freedom as you were able to enjoy?
PM: Pass that one.
JOURNALIST: On a local level Mr Hawke, the Greensborough
by-election is coming up. There have been numerous debates
between the two Leaders. The Liberal Party asserts that if
it's a win for the Labor Party here that it's a vote of
confidence in your Government's economic policies. The
Labor Party asserts that if the Liberals win that it'll be a
block of supply next in line. Does it concern you?
PM: I'm not quite sure if I follow all that.
JOURNALIST: The Liberals claim it's a vote of confidence in
your policies if the labor Party wins.
PM: Do they?
JOURNALIST: Would you accept that as a vote of confidence?
PM: Well I would've thought that the issues that are going
to be involved in the Greensborough by-election are quite
complex. I certainly don't take it as a vote of confidence
one way or another in the economic policies of my
Government. I simply believe that Mr Cain will win the
by-election, I think he'll win it for a number of reasons.
I would think that the person who's got to really worry most
about the Greensborough by-election is a bloke called
Kennett. ends