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TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE MON P J KEATING MP,
DOORSTOP, SOUTHERN CROSS HOTEL, SYDNEY 29 MAY 1992
E& OE PROOF ONLY
J: Mr Keating, two and a half years jail for Alan Bond
any sympathy for him?
PM; I'm not here to comment about Mr Bond, that's for
the appropriate authorities to make 8 judgemnent
about.
J; Do you have any concerns, as Treasurer, about the
closeness to the Prime Minister at the time to Mr
Bond?
PM: I've got no discussion. Mr Bond ñ 81 obviously
subject to these proceedings in We~ tern Australia
and that's a matter for the authdrities involved.
J; Could you elaborate a bit more on the pamphlet
released by the Coalition?
PM:, I think this pamphlet shows just how desperate John
Hewson is and it will also reveal to the Australian
people that while he's pretended he's been thinking
about thoughtfu' policy, that when it gets down to
the bottom line it is just 8 bit of shabby politics
that he's on about. The notion that he's going to
first of all ascribe to the Commonwealth Labor Party
the violence in AuStralia and the Australian states
since 1983 and say this has happened under Labor,
and then to make the unbelievable leap and
distortion that a consumption tax can do any-thing
about it, must reveal to all Australians that this
man is bereft of any decent strands of serious
policy and he ought to be dismissed by serious
people of having any answers to Australia. This is
a very shabby piece of politico.
0
J: Mr Keating, what are you going to do about the NSW
factional fight that's going on at the moment?
Pm: we've just been watching the Liberal Party factional
fight last week. Mr Fife, the Leader of opposition
business in the House of Representatives was in a
position of being defeated in his seat and he's had
to stand down as had Senator Durack in Western
Australia, the Shadow Attorney-General. Dr Hewson
has had to replace both of them in the last week.
obviously pre-selection battles are not something
which the Labor Party alone has a problem with, so
does the Coalition. For my part, the best thing my
party can do is resolve these quickly.
J; Is it about time the Labor Party in fact changed the
nature of its factional politics?
PM; You may as easily direct the question to the Liberal
Party, why is the Leader of Opposition business in
the House of Representatives now required to stand
down and not contest his seat? Mr Fife, who was a
serious and senior person, Is now obviously on the
back bench. Senator Durack will be a Senator for
not much longer. There are factions he was a
victim of the Crichton-Browne faction of the Western
Australia Liberal Party. There are points of view
in all parties and one of the healthy things about
Australian-democracy and Australian politics is
there are such views and that people can actually
get their opinion heard and can secure public office
as a result. The important thinq I think for us as
a Party, for the Labor Party as a party, is to get
these selections over with.
J: Are you going to stand by and watch Mr West go, when
he says he has worked very hard for your party?
PM. it's not a matter of me Standing by any one person.
The best thing in all of this for us is to have them
resolved quickly. But I just make the paint to you
that pre-selection battles are obviously always a
matter for both major parties whenever an election
is within some proximity.
J; Could his boycott undermine the ' One Nation'
Statement?
PM: Come on now, don't be absurd.
J: It's being claimed it can.
PM; Oh well yes, yes.
I juñ iHu uu-r~ v)
J; What about the question of Ministerial
responsibilities Mr Keating. What are you going to
do about, in particular, Roo Kelly?
PM: It's a matter of the orders and gravity of things,
that's the thing that matters. These are the sorts
of things which hardly get a line some weeks, but in
other weeks do. I've spent my week on the big
issues including, as I've just come from the tourism
industry looking at, at the Cabinet level, a
national strategy for touriam. So the Government
was in its Cabinet room looking at serious policy
while the opposition was throwing silly questions in
the Senate.
ENDS