PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF JOINT NEWS CONFERENCE WITH WAYNE GOSS, MOUNT
ISA CIVIC CENTRE, B NOVEMBER 1989
E 0 E PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, were you embarrassed by the actions of
the Mount Isa TLC?
PM: No.
JOURNALIST: for supporting the pilots?
PM: If I'd thought that the Mount Isa TLC had come out in
support of the pilots I would be eabarrassed to some extent,
but as the Mount Isa TLC hasn't cone out in such support then
I'm not embarrassed. What has happened is that you've had a
ass eeting of six people and that decision has been
repudiated by everyone that's spoken to me as being totally
unrepresentative of the view of the unions and workers here
in Mount Isa and I so regard it.
JOURNALISTt The
meeting, are you
it incorrect? President says there were
saying that the President 13 people at the
of the TLC has got
PM: I'm saying the Secretary told me last night there were
six.
JOURNALIST: President. So you believe the Secretary but not the
PM: I haven't spoken to the President.
JOURNALIST: Would you expect him to go after that?
PM: Beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST: Would you expect him to
PR: Well, that's a matter for the TLC. I didn't, Wayne and
I didn't come here to tell the TLC how to run their internal
affairs. That's for them.
0
JOURNALIST: Mr Goss, do you agree with the Prime Minister's
industrial relations action On the pilots?
GOSS: Well, I mean, let's face the facto. The pilots'
strike put the Prime Minister and the Federal Government in a
no win situation. I think people would have been ripping
the Government apart and the economy would have been falling
apart if we'd had a 30 percent wage jump for the pilots, it
would have been followed right around the country. I can't
see that that could have been good for the country.
JOURNALIST: Have the TLC embarrassed you by that action?
GOSS: No, not at all. The coments that I've had from
people in Mount Isa since I got here is exactly the same am
what people have said to Bob. That is that at a meeting of
half a dozen, or at the most 13, people and from what I
understand Mr Byrne is right out of step with his own Union,
the Metal Worker. Union. I understand that the Metal Worker.
union put up the original proposition to the ? CTU and they
have stated their position. Mr Byrne is a metal worker and
he is way out of step with his own Union. I think he's
pretty such out on his own.
JOURNALIST: There's a split in the TLC though and that
doesn't augur well for the Labor Party in this
GOSS: Anybody wants to put money on MoGrady, money against
Mcorady rather, I'll see them after Look a. I understand
it, if there'. halt a dozen or, at most, a dozen people at a
meeting it's not representative. The person who put it up is
out of step with his own Union. It's not a matter of concern
or embarrassment to me in the slightest.
JOURNLIST: Would you endorse him being rolled by the TLC
tomorrow? GOSS: I have no interest in the matter. It's up to the TLC
however they resolve it privately.
JOURNALIST: Are you disappointed at all that on this trip to
Mount Isa where you're campaigning the focus remains on
State issues, that a Federal issue like this dominated your
visit? GOSS: No, not at all. The state campaign is going very
well, this tour is going very yell. We had a tremendous
response in North Queensland yesterday the response today so
far has been great and I think we're right on track and we'll
stay on track.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, will you be doing any campaigning for
Kr Goes in Queensland during the election campaign?
PM: That's what I've been doing in the last 24 hours and as
far as I can 5eeg it's boen pretty effective. If there's
another chance of getting up here I will. We've got a tight
program, I've got to travel all around Australia and there's
Federal Parliament, but if there's a chance of getting up
again I will.
JOURNALISTt ( inaudible)
PM: Welli I didn't say at the time he warn down there
and I had breakfast at the Lodge with Wayne, we had a very
congenial discussion there. We share one thing absolutely in
coon that this is an issue about politics in Queensland,
about State politics. You're not going to divert, in my
judgement, the people's attention in Queensland away friom the
fact that they have now suffered for a generation and more
from the worst Government in Australia, the most corruapt
Government. The Government with diverse resources from the
many to the fewv, to the cronies. Those are the overwhelming
S issues in this campaign and Wayne Goss is absolutely right in
wanting to ensure that the concentration of the peo pIs of
Queensland is honed in on those things. In the period that
I've been here, in the last 24 hours, that's what I've been
talking about. The simple issue. That is there is only one
way, only one way the people of Queensland are going to clean
Government in Queensland and that's by electing a Goes Labor
Government because what they must never forget is that for
the overwhelming majority of this period of darkness in
Queensland politics, the Liberals have been part of it. You
can't cleanse Government in Queesiland other than by the
election of Goss and Labor and Wayne is absolutely right to
be concentrating on that.
JOURNALIST: so you didn't take it as a personal snub-
PH: There was no personal snub, there wasn't any.
JOURNALIST: Mfr Hawke, how much emphasis do you put on the
0 State election with a Federal election looming?
PM: I would put it this way, I would obviously as far as you
want to talk about the Federal scene, I would obviously
prefer a Goens Labor Government in Queensland and some
continuation of the darkness of the conservatives. That
would be better for the people of Queensland to have Goss
Labor in. It would be better for us federally, but that's
not the way in which I'm viewing it. I mean, this is about
the Government of Queensland.
JOURNALIST: Is the Labor opposition here in Queensland going
to be hampered by your interest rates J
PM: The people Of Queen. 1& fd would be hampered if we'd had a
position where we'd said we'll just slacken policy and have a
situation where demand would just go through the roof. If
you'd had that the economy would have collapsed. I mean,
I'm a very, very attuned politician. I haven't got interest
rates high because I like it. They're there because they are
necessary to keep the level of activity down. But that's not
basically the issue of concern here because-State Governments
don't set the level of interest rates they can set their
views and so on, they will and obviously when Wayne Goan
become the Premier of Queensland we'll listen very closely
to what he has to say about the issues of Queensland
generally. But however much you or anyone else in the
conservative parties may want to have diversionary tactics,
the simple fact in thisf that it'. had the Nationals and the
Liberal Party running Queensland in this corrupt, unclean
manner for over a generation. If you're going to change
that, then you've got to change the Government and elect Goes
Labor. That's the issue, there's no other.
JOURXALIST: It was maid in a newspaper yesterday, I think
the Australian, that South Australia and perhaps even
Queensland do you put that sort of weight on most
elections? As far as you're concerned, must Labor take those
two elections for the safety of your Government?
PM% No, no, not at all. I mean, what will decide the
election federally, when we have it, will be the
consideration by the Australian people of our policies
against the policie, of the conservatives. We'll. win that
election and win it comfortably. Now, as I said qite
honestly, I mean, I don't muck around on these things. I'll
be much happier from the general political point of view when
Bannon is re-elected, as he will be, and when Goes gets
elected.
JOURNALIST: ( inaudible)
PN: Just a minute, let me finish. I mean, obviously that's
the outcome that we would prefer. It's the one I think we'll
get. JOURNALIST: But were you saying at the start of your answer
that you could afford to lose those
PM: No. I mean, I'm fascinated by this Press conference.
The tortured way, I mean, I really an fascinated. You ought
to read the transcript. The tortured way in which so many of
you are trying to avoid what the issue is. I mean, let's
understand out there what ordinary Queenslanders are about.
They are about a question of whether they are going to have
any more of the corrupt, unclean State Government of
Queensland provided by the National Party and the Libs. You
can torture yourself not for very much longer because, you
know, I'm not going to put up with it much longer, I've got
to go to catch a plans to Xelbourne you can torture this
issue an much a. you like about other issues. About whether
a bloke here at the Trades and Labour Council of mount Isa
has upset this campaign remarkable, we've had ten
minutes of that. Go for your life. The simple issue is the
one I've put and it's the one I think which will mean that
Wayne Goes will be elected as the Labor Premier in
Queensland. JOURNALIST: Country Task Force submission since July,
when can we expect
PM: These things will be, obviously, looked at in the Budget
context. I've had the opportunity of representations from my
friend Tony NcGrady here on that and others. I've given then
a straightforward answer. We'll look at those things in the
Budget context. You don't come up and make an announcement
here about those sorts of things.
JOURNALIST: Mr Mawke, the raising of homosexuality has been
raised in the state election. Do you see that as a sign of
desperation or a real issue?
PM: A sign of massive desperation. I mean, I've been in
public life now for 30 year. and in public life you get used
to it. It's hypocrisy. But I wrack my brain as sku h as
I can. I can't think of a greater exaple of hypocrisy in
the post War history of pol itics in this country in that this
mob, the Nationals, are talking about public morality. They
have debased and debauched moral standards in public life in
a way never before seen in the history of politics in this
country. For those people to be talking about moral issues
is laughable in the extreme and will be so regarded by the
electors of Queensland, in my judgement.
ends