PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW/ TAILKBACK WITH DIANA WARNOCK,
RADIO 6W?, 13 MARCH 1990
E AND 0 E PROOF ONLY
WARNOCK; The polls as well as that big undecided vote also
show disillusionment and cynicism with the major parties and
move to the independents. Why do you think that has
happened, how much blame do you take for the fact that you
seem to be dealing with a cynical electorate this time
around. PM: Well I think this is somewhat overstated, I have said
Diana that I think one of the main reasons for the move to
votes for the non major parties is the issue of the
environment. I think that is a fact not only in Australia
but around the world if you want to find one particular issue
I think that is it.
WARNOCK: You don't think that there is any reason f or them
to be cynical about both major parties.
PM: Certainly there is reason for them to be cynical about
the Liberal and National parties. As I have said they have
manifestly proved themselves incapable of governing
themselves. They are so bitterly internally divided that the
electorate is entitled to be cynical if people can't as I
have said govern themselves, they can't govern the country.
I don't think there is any reason to be cynical about the
gdv-ernment I mean if you want to look at the sorts of things
that are relevant to people's welfare let's look at them, 1.6
million new jobs which is a creation of jobs twice as fast as
the rest of the world and almost two and three of our kids
staying on in school now as against one and three when we
came into office, investment at the highest level that we
have had in history which means we are re-equipping ourselves
to become more competitive so we can export more goods. if
you look at those sorts of things, if you look at the fact
that in the last three years we have had a $ 17 billion
2. PM4: ( cont'd) surplus that I have done there what has never
been done before in the history of this country. Ok we have
had to do some tough things and I don't like that. We have
had to have interest rates high during this last 12 months or
more but that is not for fun. I mean Bob Hawke is not a
person who wants to hurt himself and he certainly doesn't
want to hurt his fellow Australians but we have had to have
high interest rates otherwise we would have Just been
importing more goods than we could sustain, but our interest
rates are going to come down.
WARNOCK(: Sure nonetheless well I will leave that to people
to decide because we have heard almost ad infinitum what both
parties have had to say about those interest rates during the
election campaign. Nonetheless there remain a very large
core of undecided voters, the Democrats too seem to be
polling an awful lot more than they usually do. They can
expect a much higher vote this time I would suggest. Now
there has been some rather bad news for the Labor Party this
time in that the Democrats in Western Australia and I am sure
you would agree it's a very important state for Labor and for
the ' coalition, the Democrats have decided that they will give
their preferences, they will go against sitting members.
Well obviously there are more sitting members who are Labor,
members here in Western Australia that's a bit of a blow
isn't it.
PM: Well you have to ask yourself whether in fact the
Democrats are going to be able to retain their vote because
the simple fact is if that were done what the Democrats in
Western Australia would be asking voters in voting Democrat
to do would be to vote f or more uranium mining, to vote for
uranium enrichment industry, to vote for mining in Kakadu, to
vote for the abolition of Medicare, to vote for the abolition
of the capital gains tax and these things one had understood
the Democrats were passionately opposed to. But the simple
fact is if they give their second preference to the Liberal
and National Party to bring in a government of Liberal and
National Party the Democrats in Western Australia would have
been voting for all those things, for uranium mining, uranium
enrichment, mining in Kakadu, abolition of Medicare. Now how
serious are the Democrats here. I mean the Democrats in the
rest of Australia are furious with them the Green Movement is
furious with them and they have got to ask themselves a
question how dinkum. are they, they have got to ask themselves
do they really believe that people are going to take them
seriously if they are asking people through the Democrats to
vote for mining in Kakadu, uranium enrichment industry.
That's what the West Australian Democrats stand for, is it?
WARNOCK; I would have thought however, that there were
already bad signs for the Labor Party in Thomastown that byelection
in recent months. I believe that the Democrat vote
went 60/ 40 to the Liberals there instead of as it has in the
past 60/ 40 to the Labor Party. It could be very damaging to
you. PM: Thomastown is history Diana, if you
3. PM: The Liberals took it as a sign though. Tony Eggleton
was saying this morning
PM: If the Liberals want to take it as a sign then what
happened there is the Liberals came last so I am quite happy
if they take it as a sign, quite happy if they take it as a
sign.
WARNOCK: We will " be taking calls in just a moment. There
are one or two other things I do want to ask you about. it's
obviously no accident that you and Andrew Peacock have spent
rather a lot of time in Western Australia during the
campaign. Is WA though still a disaster area, a danger zone
for the Labor Party do you think?
PM: I haven't changed my planning about my campaigning,
Andrew has. I had always intended,, the planning was laid
down to come to WA the number of times that I have. The fact
that Mr Peacock is changing his planning as coming over here
reflects what their researchers told them, and that research
has told them that the easy assumption they made last year
that West Australians were mugs, that was the easy assumption
they made they just said West Australians are mugs they are
just going to, because they have been unhappy with certain
things about the West Australian state government as it was
they are going to vote for Andrew Peacock. That was always a
stupid assumption f or them to make and I am not saying this
now I said this months ago, said it publicly and now they
have come to understand that what Hawks said was right that
West Australians aren't mugs that they are not simply going
to say I a West Australian voter within the Commonwealth of
Australia am going to give myself a kick in the backside by
voting for Andrew Peacock because I may have been unhappy
with something that a previous premier did.
WARNOCK: Well there was some other rather bad news for Labor
concerning Western Australia recently when Graeme Campbell
the member for Kalgoorlie made some very frank comments about
Senator Richardson. That can't have been very helpful.
PM: Well it's been talked about, it's certainly, I mean it
hasn't got'me terribly excited Diana and I have said Graeme
Campbell is a bit of a maverick and got that reputation if
it's a question of the reputation of Graham Richardson being
on the line his achievements are so obvious and outstanding
and recognised here and around Australia. if you look at the
poll and if you look at the Westpoll today on the issue of
Strark Bay which is a thing that got Campbell going look at
the poll what did the poll show, it showed an overwhelming
majority of people in favour for the decision so I am not, I
mean obviously I would rather he hadn't said what he did but
a non event, a non issue.
WARNOCK Well the Greens and the unions have declared
perhaps rather predictably for Labor, but the pilots, the
pharmacists and some tourism industry operators perhaps
WARNOCK: ( cont'd) others as well seem to be against you. How
influential do you think these endorsements and attacks are
during the campaign.
PM: As I said the fact that the remnants of the pilots
federation have set themselves up as Andrew's army is no
minus for me. Don't let's forget what the issue is. These
are the people, these remnants that are blarring around
wherever I go now, these remnants. It's very simple
opposition that they wanted just 12 months ago, they were
going to murder the Australian economy 30% wage increase they
were going to take on the unions, the arbitration system,
their employers, the government, everyone and they were going
to get 30%. Well a great overwhelming majority of Australian
people said not on your nelly, you are not going to destroy
the system and these people are paying the price for their
own silliness in trying to set themselves apart, airline
systems are operating the people are back at work and it was
always going to be the case that they could not, Australians
not just Bob Hawke but Australians were not going to allow
them to win that and the fact that they are now getting up
and saying you know vote f or Andrew and put Labor last is no
WARNOCK: Well the pharmacists are also campaigning against
you very vigorously in some electorates.
PM; In some but the pharmacists have to look at themselves.
I mean the pharmacists through their organisation solemnly
put in writing their commitment to call off this campaign of
duress. Now these people simply Are people whose word means
nothing and they will be judged accordingly. They have got a
full review going on before the tribunal. The tribunal as a
condition of having the review required them to give an
undertaking that this duress would be taken of f. Their
organisation over the signature of their president said that
is what they would do now they are breaking their word. I
don't think Australian people like people who break their
word like that.
CALLER; Iam an immigrant from South Africa, been here 7
years, parents have recently visited us. Now to my knowledge
we used to have an air link to South Africa I know why it was
stopped but this used to be a 12 hour f light f rom here to
Johannesburg. I think we used to have 4 f lights a week.
Mum and Dad had to suddenly go back because my young brother
had a heart attack, they got on a Qantas flight it took them
28-hours to get from Perth to Johannesburg. Now we just felt
that was terrible, now I don't know what we can do about
that. Secondly interest rates and cost of living. To my
calculations, now I am not an economist or anything like that
but just my ordinary working life and home life I feel that
my cost of living has gone up by 19%, how does one work out
the inflation, thanks Mr Hawke.
PM: On the f irst point you are quite right we did have
direct air links before we cut them out, we cut them out for
PM: ( cont'd) a very simple reason it is part of a worldwide
repugnance against the abhorrent system of apartheid, we have
imposed sanctions arnd pressures upon South Africa and I am
proud of the fact that Australia-has been in the forefront of
that move and I am particularly proud of the fact that as a
result of what we in collaboration with the Commonwealth
countries have done and countries outside the Commonwealth
tkt hat frpR FI1ra iS int. v InflfI. d& sLL. L.
Bi n ticant change in South Africa so that the country which
was unique in the world in imposing a ban upon the capacity
of people to participate in government simply on the colour
of their skin is now moving toward negotiation and dialogue
which hopefully will lead to South Africa becoming a multi
racial democracy so you will get no measure, no change out of
me at all on that one. The facts are very very simple that
what we have done in collaboration with others has meant
that at long last fortunately South Africa is moving in a way
which I hope will lead to it being able to rejoin the
international family of nations and no one hopes for that
more fervently than I do and if that happens and of course we
0 whialvle hita veth eamir wliitnhk sa, cwoeu nwtirlyl whhaivceh sips oretnintgit leldin ksto anbde wpea rwt ilolf
the international family of nations. Now second question
about interest rates, facts there very simple. We have since
we have been in government, since 83, we have followed a
economic policy of growth and that growth has given us a
situation where we have created jobs, 1.6 million new jobs
and that is five times faster than it was before, it's twice
as fast as the rest of the world and it's led to record
investment, we are having our industry now re-equipping
itself, we are competing now in manufactured exports around
the world in a way that's never been done before. We are
exporting cars and car parts to Japan and the United States,
ship building industries, exporting ships around the world,
pharmaceutical industry, a whole range of things and that
growth in fact achieved such proportions last year that we
had to tighten monetary policy because if we hadn't we simply
would have been bringing into the country more imports than
we could possibly afford so we had to Blow things down. Now
I haven't liked doing that but the alternative would have
meant the collapse of the Australian economy and the fact is
now that the banking industry of Australia, the banking
industry who sets rates is saying that under these policies
of this government which are now working, interest rates will
be coming down. The opposite of course would happen if the
other crowd got in because there would be a wages explosion
and a busting of the budget surplus that I have created and
boCth those things would mean a massive rise in interest
rates. CALLER: Prime Minister I wish to challenge you to make a
national broadcast not later than the 22 March as follows,
that you will guarantee that your party, if re-elected to
this parliament, the first bill to be brought to parliament
will be a proclamation that all future elections will be held
on the same week and month of the year an this election, ay
the third Saturday in March and each fourth year from now on,
that's from 1990 as it appears that most people agree on a 4
6.
CALLER: ( cont'd) year term.
PM: Well unfortunately you are just way out of kilter with
facts. I put a referendum Tom, I put a referendum to the
people asking for a 4 year term and that referendum was
defeated, why was it defeated Tom, because the opportunisticpeople
sitting opposite me in the parliament, the Liberals
and the National Party opposed it. so I put the proposal for
a 4 year term and because of the opportunism of my political
opponents that was defeated. As to going a full term I have
an outstanding record in that regard. I was elected in 83,
March of 83 1 had an election at the end of 84 to bring the 2
elections into kilter, then I went full term from 84 to 87, I
have gone full term from 87 to
CALLER: My name is Brian Kirk, I am 34 years of age I am
married with 2 young children, one 3. one 5. 1 am' dying of
the disease called
PM: I am sorry Brian what was that?.
CALLER: I am dying of the disease of the lungs due to
asbestos, I was exposed when I was working for Westrail and
the government. In your policy speech you said that no
Australian under Labor government is expendable. I and
thousands of my fellow Australians who are now dying of this
avoidable asbestos disease will probably disagree with
you. The government has refused point blank to assist in
funding any research into this disease and up until funding
stopped they have had actually three people benefitted from
the treatment that we were under. Unfortunately I wasn't one
of them, I was on injections that didn't work for me.
WARNOCK: Brian you are asking the Prime Minister whether the
federal government will fund asbestos diseases research, are
you, because we did have a question from another caller who
rang us before the program began to ask us whether the
federal government would fund asbestos diseases research and
the Asbestos Diseases Society.
CALLER: Right. Well I don't know who the caller was.
WARNOCK: Dave Hall was his name, he rang us before the
program began.
CALLER: That's right, actually Dave Hall was the president
of the combined unions of the South West.
WARNOCK: And that's what you are asking the Prime minister
about Brian?
CALLER: Yea.
PM: Let me say of course, first of all my sorrow at the
situation you are in and no words can help you I know, but I
nevertheless extend them to you. On the question of research
of funding for research in medical area there has been an
enormous increase in funding under my government for research
7. PM: ( cont'd) generally but also in regard to medical
research in particular and indeed the relevant body, the
medical research body has had a greater proportion of the
increase in funding than any other section of research in
this country. Now as to what is done with the allocation of
the increased funding that we have made that is not our
decision. I mean we have increased the funds very
substantially for medical research in this country but if you
like Brian, what I certainly undertake to do would be to have
an enquiry made as to what the factual situation is in regard
to allocation of funds, whether it's true that there has been
a cut back in actual research done, that would surprise me if
it is the case. But all I can say Brian is the actual
financial resources for medical research have been
increased, how they have been allocated I don't know, but I
will find out and if you would like to give this station your
address privately I would see that you get a detailed
response because you are entitled to it.
CALLERs I would like to ask the question why is your policy,
your party policy giving so much to the young families of
today. What about the senior citizens, the over 65s who
fought for their country.
PM: Ok now let me answer that question very simply and just
let my preface my answer by saying that yesterday T was up at
Gosnells and talking to a large number of elderly citizens up
there and I talked to them about the issues that you asked
about which I will answer you in a moment and after I had
done that I said to them but I take the view which I hope is
right that the elderly citizens of this country are not only
concerned about the things that are directly relevant to them
like pensions and so on, but I guess you are also concerned
about your children and your grandchildren and I talked to
them about the things I was doing in education and allowances
for young families and they just exploded into applause which
reflected what I thought and that is that elderly people
don't put the sort of dichotomy that you do, that it's one or
the other that they are concerned about their kids and their
grandchildren. But now let me talk about the pension and I
will give you the facts. The facts are very simple. When we
came to office the pension as a proportion of average weekly
earnings was 22.7% and in fact in their 7 years in
government before 1983, the conservatives with all their talk
about their concern for old people they had deliberately
allowed the real purchasing power of the pension to go down
by 2.5% A decline of 2.5% in purchasing power and walked out
of-off ice with the pensioners at 22.7% of average weekly
earning. I reversed that, we have increased the real value
the purchasing power of the pension by over 7% and in f act
next month now within a matter of weeks as a result of
legislation already passed the pension will go to over 25% of
average weekly earnings which will be the highest proportion,
the highest proportion that a pensioner has had of average
weekly earnings for more than 40 years. So there is the
direct answer to your question, facts, not prejudices. I
would make the further point that one of the areas of concern
that have
PM: ( cont'd) been put to us properly by the pensioners
organisations has been that pensioners paying tax on their
non pension income. As a result of those representations we
have made the decisions now which will mean by next year
of all pensioners# part pensioners, will not be paying tax
and by 1995 no pensioner or part pensioner will be paying any
tax at all. So those are the facts.
CALLER: Do you know what the poverty line is?
PM: The poverty line, that's the one the Henderson Poverty
Line? CALLER: I guess so.
PM: Well no, but it's no good, with respect saying I guess
so because my question to you is a very important one because
there is a great deal of argument and discussion within the
welfare industry as to what is the poverty line, so when you
ask me what is the poverty line I want to know what you mean
because historically there has been a use of the Henderson
Poverty Line. Now that Henderson Poverty Line is now may I
say, basically not accepted within the welfare industry
itself. What the welfare industry has rather said to us
when we are talking about poverty, we should have benchmarks
so I know what the benchmarks are in regard to poverty that
we agreed upon with the welfare sector when we were talking
about what we would do in regard to payments for children
from low income families and I will tell you what those
benchmarks are. They are for a kid up to aged 13, 15% of the
married pension rate and for a kid between 13 and 15, 20% and
it's-on the basis of accepting those measures in consultation
with the welfare industry in this country that we are now
paying over $ 2 billion per annum into low income families for
kids. Now those that are benchmarks which the welfare sector
itself accepted as being relevant.
CALLER: Yes well the pensioners and you have just been
speaking to the previous lady, Mr Keating gave them a very
O small rise and of course the cost of living in WA appears to
be higher than anywhere else in Australia and I know
of pensioners who are selling clothing and jewellery,
anything to try and cope with the cost of living here.
PM: You heard the answer I gave before as to, and this
community of ours in Australia has a choice, a very simple
choice to make and the choice is one in which they can Judge
tI" previous people who deliberately allowed the real
purchasing power of the pension to decline, deliberately
allowed it and walked out of office with the pension at 22.7%
of average weekly earnings or they can choose a government
which will have taken the pension to the highest proportion
of average weekly earnings in 40 years and has legislated to
remove pension income, any pensioners getting income out of
the tax area. Now it's a very simple choice and they can
also make the choice between a party, that is ours, which has
imposed the capital gains tax which will bring in billions of
9. P14: ( cont'd) dollars to ensure that we are able to keep on
looking after pensioners or vote for the alternative who will
take those billions of dollars out of the Commonwealth
revenue which can be used for pensions and pay those billions
of dollars into the pockets of less than 1% of the wealthiest
taxpayers in the country. That's the sort of choice that's
there. CALLER: I have a question for you about the problems of the
pharmaceutical industry. Given that the pharmaceutical
industry in Australia is demonstrably one of the most
efficient in the world, one of the most effective in the
world P14: Could I just interrupt you. When you talk about the
Pharmaceutical industry are you talking about at the retail
level or the manufacturing.
CALLER: Retail level.
PM: The retail level, is demonstrably the most, what did you
say, what was the description of it? Demonstrably the what?
CALLER: Efficient, effective and dynamic in the world.
PM; How's that demonstrated?
CALLER: As far as productivity goes there has been enormous
increases in productivity.
PM: What's the proof of that?
CALLER: The proof of that is in the cost of pharmaceuticals
per head of population and by many other
PM: What are those f igures because I am not trying to be
difficult, but my friend I have spent months with the
representatvies of the pharmaceutical industry and asked them
to produce the figures which they refused to produce before
the inquiry. You see where this becomes very difficult for
0 you is that if these claims were right, these claims that you
just trot out, if they were right why did not the
representatives of the retail pharmacists agree to go before
the Remuneration Tribunal, a tribunal not set up by me, not
set up by me, set up by our conservative predecessors, they
deliberately set it up to handle these matters. When we
couldn't get an agreement with the pharmacists we said
al-Yight we will go to the tribunal set up by the
conservatives and there if all these marvellous things are
right that you are Valking about then one would have expected
that the guild and the pharmacists would have bought out all
these statistics and put them to the tribunal to establish
their case. instead they refused to cooperate. Now that
Just tends to make a person looking at it objectively believe
that they must have had some doubt about their position if
what you assert, you just come on a program and assert that
you are the best in the world. If you are the best in the
PM: ( cont'd) world why did not your representatives and your
guild and your organisation go before the tribunal and put
the figures, they refused to do it.
CALLER: You are avoiding the question that I am trying to
put to you.
WARNOCK: Go ahead.
CALLER: Irrespective of what you are saying and there is
great argument, what I am trying to say to you is the
industry is at least effective and you must agree with that.
PM: I'll agree that it's effective in that it provides a
service which I recognise and applaude to the community. i
have no question about that, I respect the industry.
CALLER: Thank you. Now what I would like to say to you is
why is there always the confrontational approach through your
Minister for Aged Care with pharmacy, why can't we work
together to improve health care for Australians as a general
and particularly the elderly Australians which are an
increasing proportion of our population and a section of the
community which needs better pharmaceutical care to avoid
preventable illness and hospitalisation and why are you going
to cut $ 250 million out of pharmaceutical benefits to
Australians when we are at a stage in
PM: Let me interrupt there. Your assertion of cutting $ 250
million out in terms of services to Australians is simply
unfounded and I think you know it. You assert that we have
confrontation I wish you would instead of being and
emotional you would stick to the facts and even your industry
will accept that what you are saying is not true. we have in
fact tried at considerable length including with
reprsentatives here from WA. You ask your representatives
from WA I met with them here they came over, they came over
to Canberra, they agreed to when I sat and met with them here
psaini dm y gohoodt, e l coimn e Peorvtehr , thyeoyu rs ariedp rleosoekn twaet ivceans wforrokm thWiAs coaumte. toI
Canberra we sat down, I worked out an agreement with them and
they went off saying to us yes we can sell that and they went
off to the rest of the industry and the rest of the industry
in Australia said to your WA representatives who told me they
had a dealI sorry can't do it. Why, because they wanted a
confrontation, your WA representatives sat down with me,
worked out an arrangement and then the reason it couldn't be
soTd because the rest of your people in the rest of Australia
wanted the confrontation. We wanted it settled so what did
they do then, you say I wanted confrotnation, I amended the
legislation, I amended the legislation to put on the
Remuneration Tribunal directly a representative who had been
involved in retail pharmacy. It hadn't been done before but
I did that to meet your concerns I said alright we will
agree to going back to the position before the decision of
the tribunal, agreed to do that and agreed then to allow the
Remuneration Tribunal to have a total rehearing on the matter
and we said we would accept the decision and you talk about
PM: ( cont'd) confrontation. There is only one side in this
that wants confrontation and that is your guild who
repudiated the attempt by your WA representations to get an
agreement. Now those are the facts on record and as
acknowledged by the tribunal itself.
CALLER: What I am very concerned about, I am a small
businessman myself.
PM: What sort of business are you in?
CALLER: Marine cargo surveying and insurance life assessing.
PM: What's that, marine-
CALLER: Marine cargo.
PM: Yes.
CALLER: Surveying.
PM: Yes.
CALLER: And insurance life assessing.
PM: How long you been in that?
CALLER: Two years. Now naturally I am concerned like other
small businesses on the high interest rates and how best
PH: Sure, sure.
CALLER: a working
PM: I can understand that, yes.
CALLER: Now what I have is a suggestion, we obviously have
to improve our balance of payments to achieve a surplus. Now
what I recognise and see myself is what I believe anyhow. We
need to have a government sponsored export centralised system
for information and assistance in each major city to
coordinate those small businesses that may wish to export.
The problem we now have at this stage appears to be that a
high number of small businesses would be frightened to death
just at the thought or the prospects of the problems involved
in exporting.
PMf-Sure. Because I am getting the indication that we are
just about out of time do you mind if I just interrupt you
because I want to say thank you very much for your call and
you have hit right on the note that we tried to address in
the decision we have just made at the beginning of this year
which I announced the other day and that is we have had a
system called the export market development grant scheme and
we have decided to supplement that with a new scheme and
together the two schemes will involve an increase in outlays
over the next three years. But one of the particular points
in the new scheme goes directly to what you said because we
12.
P14: ( cont'd) recognise that for individual small businesses
there is exactly the sort of# the apprehension that's
involved in just one small business thinking what can I do by
Myself and so part of this new grant scheme is going to be
involved in assisting associations in this area to bring
small groups together and small individual businesses
together in the hope that by making grants available in that
way we will be able to overcome what I do understand can be
the apprehension for one small business in trying to tackle
something like this itself so your concept is 1000% right and
if again you would like to let Diana have your name and
address I would be more than happy to see that you get
personally sent to you the full details of that scheme
because it's exactly in line with what you have suggested.
CALLERs Just observations virtually. One thing that does
make me feel cross about the opposition proposal in respect
of interest rates. Now I retired in 1980, ton years ago I
invested prudently I thought by investing in SEC and Telecom
P at 10.9% and 12.3% and 2 years later when the Liberal
government was still in power I could have got 17.5% from
both those bodies for 10 years. Now you know to me when I
hear Andrew Peacock talking about reducing interest rates
there was a tremendous escalation and I would like to know
where I can get 17.5% guaranteed by the government for
years at the present time. The other I would like to mention
is the foreign debt overseas, I don't think a lot of people,
certainly people that I associate with understand that the
majority of that is private enterprise. I believe that Paul
Keating said that the Commonwealth Government has not
borrowed overseas in the last 2 years and the third point if
I may
PM: You are going alright so far.
CALLER: Beg your pardon.
P14: You are going alright so far mate.
S CALLER: Well I always believe in two pluses and then one
minus. P14: Ok, here comes the minus for me.
CALLER: With the policies that you have adopted is the
negative gearing. Now this seems to me to f avour the two
income families, as a matter of fact I have had approaches
from financial advisers suggesting that I should borrow
against my investments and invest in property etc at high
interest rates so that I can reduce my income tax. Now you
know to me that is ludicrous.
PM: Firstly in regard to interest rates it is the case that
interest rates in fact reached a higher level under the
conservatives than it did under us. The 90 day bill rate
peaked at 22% in April of 1982 and it's inevitable that
M14 ( cont'd) interest rates would have to explode under a
coalition government for two reasons. one there would be a
wages explosion which they don't really deny and they blow
the budget surplus, again what we have got to understand
there in that the Opposition is trying a straight out bribe
of the electorate, a $ 6 billion bribe of the electorate, $ 6
billion of promises which are unfunded, that means you blow
the surplus and or, that or a combination of massive spending
cuts and they will not come clean with the electorate and to
the extent that they blow the budget surplus and have a wages
explosion that means interest rates go up. On foreign debt
you are right there, 65% of foreign debt is owned by the
private sector. We have made decisions that they can service
that debt and of course are using a lot of that debt to build
up our infrastructure in this country. I mean for instance
if you just look at it when you talk about the debt, a lot of
that debt has gone into the investment for instance of the
North West shelf which is now earning us export income and it
is true that as a result of getting the $ 17 billion surplus
and the Commonwealth budget over the last 3 years we have
paid off our overseas debt, we are indeed net international
creditors to the tune of about $ 4 billion and on negative
gearing just let me say there that the policies that have
been adopted there were adopted with a view to trying to
assist in regard to the whole housing and accommodation
area. WARNOCK: Just one final question from me however, before we
go. What will you do if Labor loses?
PM: Well I don't believe that Labor is going to lose Diana.
I simply say that because I believe the Australian people are
not going to be bribed and I have always taken the view that
they won't buy that sort of proposition so I don't
contemplate,, I don't contemplate losing because I have got
greater faith in the Australian people than that.
ENDS