A
PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATTNG, MP
DOORSTOP PACIFIC DUNLOP HOLEPROOF, MELBOURNE
29 SEPTEMBER 1992
E& OE PROOF COPY
J: ( inaudible) [ BOP]
PM: It is a good figure for the month, it shows that imports are down by 11 per cent so
all the Jereniiahs who were saying a month ago that jmports are rising inexorably
again even as we were coming into recovery, all this proves again is that you can't
put that much store in one month's numbers. And at $ 903 million the , alancc of-
Payments figure for the month is in line with the Budget forecast, which is being
for an improvement over the recent period. A seasonably adjusted figure of 903
million is 39 per cent below a month ago.
J: You can't see any trends emerging then?
PM: Well I think it mcans that those so called trend setters, people who want to chart
us, people who want to draw these things out and graphically illustrate them and
then point a finger of gloom, will have to be les gloomy today.
J Does it raise the potential for interest rate cuts?
PM: No implications for interest cuts.
J: Mr Keating, on industry policy, in your coming here today this is a big
achievement, the sense of a ncw facility, but some months ago we were all out at
Wills and we saw the devastation of TCF industries out there and while your
political opponents are talking greater doom then you are, you bear a lot of
responsibility don't you for pursuing the tariffs d * own to a level where many
thousands of jobs have gone in TCF industries?
PM: If you ask mc to I bear responsibility for creating new industries like this one, thc
answer is yes I do. And it is these Industries which will give people long term
employment, it is these industries which can stand..
J: What do you say to thosc employees who have. lost their jobs, when their
cmployers have gonc off shore because of that?
PM: Well only some. But it proves this point that clothing, textile and footwear in
efficient sectors does have a future as we are seeing in this plant, as we are seeing
in other fibre based industries across the country. And also in the primary areas
like wool where we arc now moving into tops production which will add value
again. So in the whole sector, that is from woollen tops, cotton, spinning which
some from inefficicnt companies that have had no investment for a long time. I
K. mean this plant proves the point.
1: the whole tariff debate.
PM: Well I think it is drawing a long bow on Sir Arvi's part to sy to the car industries,
please face extinction, gladly. That is don't mention it, don't compla7in about it. I
think it is not fair to say that it is politising the debate for a car company about to
invest $ 800 million in Australia, to say they can't survive at zero protection. I am
quite sure that any investments Sir Arvi would be associated with, he wouldn't like
to have it threatened and then have someone say, once you complain about that Sir
Arvi you are politicising. I mean the fact is industries have got a right to speak and
particularly world conmpetitive ones developing world competitive plants in
Australia. So the time for jockeying on cars was in 1988 and 1991 when the plans
were put together. What you are hearing now is basically the genuine views of car
companies that can't survive, they believe, at zero tariffs with a relatively small
Australian economy.
J: Mr Keating there is going to bc an election on Saturday in Victoria..
PM: inaudible
J. inaudible
PM: the answer is produce more products, run the economy at a greater level of GDP
and there's only one way of doing that without inflation spilling over, that's with
an incomes policy the thing the Liberal Party doesn't want. T7hat is an agreement
with the trade unions about where national incomes goes, so if you want to run
Australia at a speed fast enough to-create the employment to take most people up,
ccrtainly people who have been unemployed from industries such as the TCF
industry or others then you've got to run the economy to speed, that can't happen
without an Accord and you can only havc an Acco-rd in some structured cooperation
which of course, Dr Hewson rejects absolutdfy. So his model is a model
for low growth, high unemployment which has been made clear today in fact by a
survey of economists published on the front page of the Melbourne Age.
J: Mr Keating, let me ask you about the election on Saturday. As you know the
Labor Party is not looking..
PM: I've done all these before at Williamstown.
J. No, hut I wasn't at Williamstown, rd like to ask you a question about the election
if I may.
PM: Where are you from?
J: The Agc, my nanmc is Pctcr Ell ingsen. Mr Keating, the whoic financial
mismanagement allegations made about the Labor Party in Victoria are being
rebutted by the Labor Party state politicians and their citing the Tricontential
Royal Comnmission as evidence of their varacity in that. Mrs Kirner is talking
about thec c ulture of the ' 80s as the culpable culprit in this whole problem that
Victoria has had and one key fulcrum in that culture surely was the deregulation
which you pursued as Treasurer.
PM; Let's not draw that..
1: But didn't you crcate a culture which is now come home to roost in Victoria?
PM: What are we into from the Age, Prc-Copemnican obscurantism? Is that what we're
about..
J: I'm reflecting the view of some of your colleagues.
PM: warm hcarted lcfty into obscurantist views. The fact is if you can't have frec
flow of money in this economy, don't blame the problems of Trico management
onto the deregulation of the Australian economy, it is absurd and the only place
that question would be asked today is in a newspaper which still has lingering
good will to the dark cave dweller age of the 1960s and
ends