PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE MON P J KEATING, NP
DOORSTOP, DARLING HARBOUR, SYDNEY, 22 JUNE 1992
E OE PROOF COPY
3: Prime Minister, one criticism of this is that's it nlot
backed up by legislation.
PM: X think this Government has obviously, this is not a
claim it is a fact, a second to none environmental
poiyi Australian politics. We're the people who
have made all of the running on the environment in this
country, preserved great areas for Australians the Wet
Tropics in Queensland, the Southern forests and Gordon
below Franklin Antarctica there's a long list of
things which the Government has chalked up successes and
we will in this. That is3we'll get Australians to change
and know that waste is a huge environmental problem and
that they just can't be putting out the garbage can
thinking it disappears. The land fills are not there
any more and that we're going to have to be more careful
about how we dispose of waste and if we do it carefully
we can have a better society, a cleaner place and a more
profitable place and it just requires some care. 9ut it
involves the whole community. Again it gets back to
this inclusive approach, we say let's get the community
involved. Our friends in the Coalition say let the
Government do it and make decrees from the mount. The
truth is with all of these programs you can only do them
with community support and nothing needs that more than
waste management.
Ji Do you have any recycled paper in your office?
PM: I do, yes. Most of the time.
J: Was the speech on recycled paper?
PM: I don't know, have a look.
J: Prime Minister, what's your response to Premiers Kirner
and oannon's call for a slow down in tariff _ eutin
PM: I haven't seen their document.
J: But what do you think about their call for a slow down?
They are not the only ones, they join the ACTU and
business.
PM: Let's see what they have got to ay?
J: Do you think it's the right time to be talking about the
environent when we've got such high unemployment?
PM: I think this is a very labour intensive industry. with
paper recycling, for example a high proportion of the
newsprint of Australia picked up and recycled, that's a
very labour intensive thing to be doing. It is true,
because it is community based it requires a substantial
amount of labour, so it is a very labour intensive thing
and I think what's going to happen is that the whole
waste management and better environment movement is
going to be, if anything, labour intensive and job
creating.
J: Are the unemployed going to be invited to the youth
summit?
PM: There will be representatives there yeu.
J: What's your reaction to Mr Greiner not accepting the
findings of ICAC?-
PM: Mr Greiner and the NSW Liberals have a political rather
than a criminal matter on their hands. Obviously it
will have to be resolved politically.
J: Will it have an impact federally?
PM: Obviously, I don't think it will.
J: what's your reaction to an ANZ Bank studjy which suggests
that interest rates may be forced up if you persist with
the 4 per cent compulsory?
PM: There are studies and studies aren't there. We've all
seen those.
J: Prime Minister, on another matter there were reports
f rom ENO that Australian helicopters over there are
still being used as 9unehips.
PM: That's a claim, we're investigating that claim. People
who operate those helicopters are entitled to carry
weapons to defend themselves, but they are not entitled
to use the weapons in an offensive manner. So we are
making the appropriate investigations.
3: Prime Minister, consumer confidence in the polls this
morning has slumped in that the poll was taken even
before the high unemployment figure last month came out.
What are you going to do about that?
3
PM: These things have been up and down over the course of
the last twelve months so I think there's no doubt in my
mind the economy in terms of output is recovering. The
problem we are seeing is that the output is leading
employment and we're going to see growth and production
pick up, but not commensurate with employment, not for
the moment that always lags production and it's doing
the same thing now.
ENDS