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JOURNALIST: Well Mr Hawke, what's you response to the
latest developments in the Gulf?
PM: Well I'm very pleased that there's this move been
made by President Bush. It gives the hope that the
strong signal that's been given by the United Nations,
through its most recent resolution, of the preparedness
to use force If necessary may, however, give rise to a
resolution by diplomatic activity. It's important that
It be understood, as the President clearly has, that the
three conditions of the United Nations and they're not
the conditionsi of President Bush, they are the conditions
of the United Nations are not negotiable. That is the
total withdrawal of the Iraqi forces, the release of all
hostages and the return of the Independence of Kuwait.
Those are non-negotiable. Now if Saddam Hussein is
prepared to hakve discussions within that context there is
hope that conflict can be avoided.
JOURNALIST: If that conflict can't be avoided will
Australian troops be involved?
PM: I'll be making a statement to the Parliament on
Tuesday. I've made It clear that I'm not making any
pre-emptive comments before I speak to the Parliament on
that. JOURNALIST: What about the Palestinian position there
regarding theise talks?
FM: well I don't understand what you mean.
JOURNALIST: ' It's been said that the Palestinian issue
should be discussed at these talks between Mr Bush and
PM: Well the Security Council didn't say that and the
Security Council is right.
-~ JOURNALIST: It's been reported today that the Australian
" vernment's preparing to send or to keep four ships in
fhte GuIf
PM: I read lots of things in the papers about what I'M
going to do. Would you be surprised to know that very
often they're not right?
JOURNALIST: So are you denying that that's going to
happen? PM! No, I'm not making any statement until Tuesday.
JOURNALIST: Are you considering such a move?
PM: I aM considering talking with my colleagues in the
Party and I'll also be having a conversation with the
Leader of the Opposition, consultations in respect of the
Party and the Leader of the Opposition which I've
promised in any situation where we were considering what
would happen in the Gulf. Those things will be done and
I'll make a statement to the Parliament on Tuesday.
JOURNALIST: Is this matter so important that Australians
should be prepared to die in the Gulf?
PM: We don't want anyone to die, either in the Gulf or
anywhere else. We want the matter to be resolved
peaceably but what you have to remember are the facts
that some people tend to forget and that is that one
nation has attempted to destroy the existence of another,
simply by marching in and say; sorry, Kuwait you no
longer exist, you're us. Now if the world allows that
sort of proposal to stand as an acceptable norm of
behaviour then international relations are dead. That
sort of position is not going to be tolerated by the
world as the Security Council has made clear.
JOURNALIST: Just back home for a moment, if I may?
PM: Yes sure.
JOURNALIST: Industry heads and your own industry
Minister this morning said that they believe the
recession will get worse before it gets better. Do you
agree? PM: Well whether you've reached the absolute bottom now,
no-one can be absolutely certain. I think the thing that
I am totally confident about is that the economy will
recover in 1991 but it's impossible when you're in a
recession to say is it this month or that week where
you've actually hit the bottom. There are signs of
recovery but I would just be misleading the Australian
people if I1 said: well we are right at the bottom now.
But what I am confident about, as I say, is that the
recovery will take place next year.
JOURNALIST: inaudible
PM: Just a minute.
JOURNALIST: Nobby Clarke today also warned that the rmF
might be forced to intervene soon in our economy.
PM: Nobby. Good old Nobby. I mean, I think Nobby ought
to, you know, really keep to the business of trying to
run his bank. I don't think Nobby really, from a
Position of how he's run the bank, is in a position of
strength to tell people how to run the economy nlow. I
intend no ill will towards Nobby but I say Nobby you run
your bank and that's your job.
JOURNALIST: indaudible
PM: Just a minute. No you've had a chance.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Mr Keating says we're having
a recession that we had to have. Do you agree with the
Treasurer and do you accept the responsibility for the
recession? PM: What the Treasurer was conveying was this, and I
don't want to, ds I say, engulf you in statistics but
there's a very simple one which is necessary to
understand. That is that 18 months ago our expenditure
as a nation was increasing by 10 1/ 2 per cent and our
production by five per cent. Now the economy could not
be allowed to go on doing that because if we in those
circumstances had not taken action to lower the level of
activity then the world would have done it for us and it
would have done it in a totally devastating way. So we
had to slow the economy down and that was the sense in
which the Treasurer was saying what happened was a
necessary remedy for the situation of the Australian
economy. We've got to go on for some time having a
situation where~ our Increase in outlays, our increase in
expenditures as a total community are less than our
growth in production. In that sense the decisions that
were taken were, unfortunately, necessary. As I've said
recently, I haven't spent 32 years of my life in public
life, that is pursuing a public career rather then
private aggrandlisement, I haven't been doing that to
capriciously inflict hurt upon the Australian community.
I know that I had the responsibility as Prime Minister,
with my Governmfent, to make the decisions which were
going to ensure the future welfare of the Australian
economy. Ok, think
JOURNALIST: you and the Treasurer have consistently
said that all t; he Opposition offers is to solve those
problems by driving the economy into recession and that
you would not do that, this has now happened.
PM: No, what wie've said is that the Opposition has no
recipe, has hatt in the past and has in the present no
recipe for deal. ing with the basic economic challenges of
this country. It's been true in the past, it remains
true. If you look at the situation in 1982-83 when they
unnecessarily created a recession one of the reasons why
that was done is that they had no wages policy allowed
a wages blowout of 17 per cent and the economy was driven
into levels of unemployment that hadn't been seen for
year.. We haven't reached and we will not reach those
sorts of levels of unemployment and a basic reason why
we're going to come out of this recession in a relatively
strong position in because we have got inflation going
down and it's in large part is the result of having an
effective wages policy. While the Opposition is in the
situation where they've got no way of controlling the
level of wages outcome then they would be, as they were
in the past, a disaster for this economy.
JOURNALIST; Can I just ask you one for our Perth
station? PM: For your Perth station, yen.
JOURNALIST: Brian Burke has been named as the " B"
involved in phone tapping in Western Australia. Is there
a possibility that you might recall him from Ireland?
PM: This question arose earlier. I don't make
judgements about the people on the basis of allegations.
People are innocent until they are proven guilty. Now as
far as the situation in Western Australia is concerned a
Royal Commission has been set up and it is for the Royal
Commuission to make decisions as to who they want to Call.
If, for instance, and I do it in no more than a
hypothetical sense in answering your question, if they
felt they wanted to call Mr Burke then of course he would
come back for those purposes.
ends