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PRIINMIES TE
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON F J KEATING, M?
INTERVIEW WITH KERRY O'BRIEN, LATELINE
19 NOVEMBER 1992
E& OE PROOF COPY
KOB: Welcome to the program. Tonight I am joincd by the Prime Minister, Paul
Kcating, who onc month from now celebrates his first anniversary in Office. That
period has seen his pcrsonal stocks and those of his Government make a
remarkable turn around, in the face of the worst recession since the Great
Depression and still rising unemployment. The polls show the Government in a
position to win an election and Paul Keating is preferred by the majority of voters
as Prime Minister. Yet the polls are more a measure of the unpopularity of the
Oppositions policics, which is masking the Govermcnts own failures to turn the
economy around. On assuming power, Keating sct the Government's vision, One
Nation promised jobs, tax cuts and infrastructure spending, all predicatcd on
growth estimates that now seem hopelessly optimistic. By its own forccast the
Government has not measured up, commodity prices arc down, the international
economy is sick, the Australian dollar is under attack, business confidence is
clearly still very shaky. As we move closer and closer to election mode, where is
the recovery going to come from? All in all, plenty to talk about tonighit. Paul
Keating, welcome to 1at1clinc.
PM: Kcrry.
KOB: After you settled in as Prime Minister you Iahourcd mightily to come up with a
document that would at least match the Opposition's Fightbuck package as a
strategic plan for the next four years. When you presented One Nation on
February 26 you said and I quote, " Tonight the Governmecnt presents a statement
to get Australia moving, a four year stratcgy for growth in the ' 90s". You also
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said, " in 1992 we need recovery and we need jobs." After nine months how many
of the fundamental assumptions of One Nation remain true?
PM: The principal thing. That is, that there is a role for Government, that it is not the
Government's job to withdraw from the problem, that it won't solve isclf by a
policy of withdrawl which was largely, for instance, what President Bush was
putting in the United States, and which Govenor Clinton campaigned against and
secured a mandate. Now, in thc very same way in Australia we are saying, in
respect of One Nation, that there was a job for thc Government to do, there was not
only a job for the Governmient to do, but in the large areas of the -public
infrastucture, some of which long forgotten and underspent in the ' 8S, that this
was a time to renew public infrastructure and that the two very nicely coincided
with the needs of the economy in the short and medium term.
KOB: But what you came through with, loud and clear, with One Nation was a ring of
confidence. And it was a confidence that you were trying to sell to the nation,
which I suppose was part of thc strategy, really, to get the economy going. You
have built just about everything on the corner stone of growth, haven't you? In
February, thc One Nation growth forecast was 4.75 per cent, in June that forecast
was adjusted down to 4 per cent, by the August Budget it was down to 3 per cent,
and now it is about to drop again. That is three wrong estimates in 9 months.
What does that do to the integrity of One Nation, given what else has been built
around it?
PM: I don't think in terms of Onc Nation as a package, that the growth forecast worry
its integrity. Its integrity is about whcthcr wc need in Australia at the moment an
expansionary stance of policy. That is, whether we need an expansionary stance of
fiscal and monetary policy. Now the Government believes we do, the Opposition
believes we do not. 1I'hey say take $ 7 billion out of the Budget deficit, 2 per cent
of GDP, we say that will put Australia back into recession, we also say you should
have an expansionary stance, and the things you should do should be substantial.
That's what One Nation was about. The forecasts were important in signalling to
the country what we thought the growth trajectory would be like, hut not intcgral
to One Nation, to the sense and purpose of One Nation.
KOB: Maybe not to the sense and purpose but to the reality of Onc Nation. The things
that were built around it, jobs for example. You built jobs predicated on growth,
and let's look at jobs. You said in a television interview, the night after One
Nation, that of the 800, 000 new jobs to be created over the next 4 years and I
quote, " we would have about the first 150,000 to 200,000 jobs in the first year".
So, how many jobs has One Nation created so far?
PM: It is very hard to say without actually threading through the spending and seeing
exactly where it has come from.
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KOB: But you would be keeping a very tight monitor on that wouldn't you, given the
critical nature of the wholc thing?
PM: But it was ncver a case of month by month employment off the One Nation
spending, it is the whole impact on the economy and how employment has
responded to that. But I think the most important thing though, Kerry, is that if
you look at the 1980s experience, the cast of policy which the Labor Government
adopted in ' 83-4 and ' 85 induced a recovery. What we arc arguing is the same will
induce a recovery now, and has. We are now growing in the last six months or so
at about 2 per cent a year, or that order, We are back into a recovery phase.
KOB: It is still well behind what you are projecting.
PM: I know, but a few things have happened since then. Growth In the world has got
much softer, there is no onc tugging Australia along or putting any impetus into
our economy from external growth and we are going through a very enhanced
recovery. A very enhanced recovery a productivity, there is a big blow out in
* productivity. productivity is running at about 2.6 per cent a year and that is
shorthand for saying we arc getting the same or more output from fewer people
employed in the process.
KOB: But you would have understood thc productivity equation when you went into One
Nation.
PM: I think you can only, with those things, see what thc economy's experience is and
what employers themselves think of the economy, its prospects and what they are
prepared to do in terms of productivity changc.
KOB: But fundamental to everything is jobs. You have said that yourself, you have
preached growth for most of this year, you have preached jobs for most of this
year. But according to the latest Bureau of Statistics trend estimates, I think the
most reliable measure available, 30,000 new jobs have been created from February
to October and that includes a big period before One Nation would have even
begun to bite. And at the same time another 65,000 people have become
unemployment statistics. In other words, for every new job Crcatcd Iwo have been
lost. Now that is not exactly a winning battle, is it?
PM: Well Kerry, if you look at the last few months wc think that employment growth Is
on track with the Budget forecast for cmployment growth. So, you can makc a
commcntary over a year.
KOB: How can it be on track when your growth estimates are running at almost half
what you originally predicated your job growth forecasts on?
PM: No, not on the Budy. ct. Are you talking about Onc Nation or the Budget?
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KOB: Yes, One Nation.
pM: No, I am saying if you look at the Budget forecast.
KOB: Which was a fair re-writing of One Nation.
PM: I think the key point is this, Kerry', this party, this Government produced a record
amount of employment growth in the 1980s. That's what we committed ourselves
to, that's what we are best at, that's our long suit. The recession put us off that
game, we arc simply going back to it.
KGB: But it is much tougher this time, much tougher, much slower.
PM: But you can make a point of discussion about what quarter it is happening in,
where the ping picks up. But pick up it will because the Government's cast of
policy is for growth and employment, The Opposition's isn't, that's thc key point.
So what the levels are or the rutes, thc fact is we had through the ' 80s phenomenal
employment growth, two or three times thc OECD average. It was our long suit, is
our long suit, will remain our long suit.
K013: 8crnie Fraser, last Thursday or Friday in New York, said that unemployment
would stay around 10 to 1.1 per cent for some time to come. That doesn't sit with
your unemployment projections which I think in One Nation said, page 120 of
One Nation, you projected an avcrage rate of unemployment for 1992-93 of
per cent and to around 9.5 per cent by mid 1993, that's by the middle of next year.
What Bernie Fraser says puts the lie to that.
PM: Well that's One Nation, we adjusted all of that in the Budgct. You can't put me
through the same discussion twice. We had all that at Budget time.
KOB: You sold One Nation very hard at the time, are you saying One Nation no longer
applies?
PM: The kcy question is which party is going to induce a recovery in Australia? That's
the key qucstion.
KOB:-Alr-ight. I will keep playing on with One Nation at this stage.
PM: But there is only one, isn't there? It's only the Government because we are saying
that economic policy should be committed to growth and employment growth, we
shouldn't be holding back.
KOB: Let's look at your detailed credibility. One Nation spending on infrastructure,
$ 283 million I think you allocated for railways this financial year. You have now
had to divert $ 150 million of that to other short term job creation because you can't
get the railway programs up on time.
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PM: But what's incredible about that? The question is..
KOB:. But what do we believe about what you project?
PM: The question is will the One Nation package of funds be spent by 30 June 1993?
Answer, yes.
KOHI: But it won't be spent on infrastructure to the degree that you had planned, which is
all about micro reform quite apart from job creation.
PM: In the main it will. But you se, In the tail systems wc had courtesy of 30 years of
indolent Conservative Government, these dinosaur..
KOB: But didn't you..
PM: Hang on, don't be too zealous now, Thes dinosaur public authorities for which
we presumed, and they said, they had enginccring egxp pkqis. r. iady to spend
these monies. In fact, thcse outfits were so run down they didn't have engineering
planning together, and because the Commonwealth was never In the railway
business outside of AN, there is no Commowealth bureaucracy that has any
specialisation in the NSW or Victorian rail systcems. So, what will happen is those
changcs will be made, they will be made in the following financial year, but the
expenditure..
KOB:. So it is delaycd for a year, regardless of why, pardon the pun, it has gone off the
tails?
PM: Not the stimulus, the whole point of the thing was the stimulus.
KOB: Well part of the point.
PM:. The point was to stimulate the economy with a set lcvel of spending over 1 per
cent of GDP. That we will have done, we will havc spent it.
KOB: OK. Let's look at One Nation's promise to return to Budgct surplus in 4 years. In
February you projected a starting point for this year's Budget defcit of $ 8 billion,
in May you revised that to $ 10.5 billion, the Budget in August calculated $ 13.4
billion. Now the ABS, the Bureau of Statistics says it is up to $ 14.5 billion. Given
all the evidence can you honestly stand by the Budget forecast with any
confidence at all as far as the deficit is concerncd?
PM: We had in about a month between June and July a decline in collections of about
billion upon what was expected in the last financial year and coming into this
financial year. Now that reflects just realities in the economy, that is the actual
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result. So what is the point of us saying this is not in line with what we thought.
All you have got to do is adjust the cost accordingly.
KOS: I suppose what I am asking is, how can you in all of the instabilities and
uncertainties about this economy, given the Governmient's the Treasury's, the
Reserve Bank's, everybody's incapacity to properly forecast trends, how can you
possibly project anything for 4 years ahead with any confidence?
PM: Kerry, you are becoming a forecasting nlutter. I anm just making this point to you,
the key point, I make it again, is the cast of policy. That is, interest rates
KOB; But what do we evaluate your cast of policy on? What do we judge it on? Results.
PM: Interest rates, fiscal policy, the recovery which is already under way in the
economy clearly from National Accounts data. I mean actual results. If the
revenuec collections are under forecast for this year and they have been dealt with
in subsequent years, so what. The main point is are we going to recover, I say we
will recovcr under a Labor Government because Labor Governments arc about
growth and expansion and thc Liberal Party is about contraction.
KOB: Alright. But can you still say with any credibility, with any certainty that you will
return to surplus in 4 years? Ycs or no?
PM: What did we say in thc Budget? We said that we had a short fall which we needed
to addrcss.
But you would still be targetting for the surplus?
PM: The Treasurer addressed that, but we probably will be nearer surplus.
KOB: Nearer surplus, probably?
PM: But so what? Look, Kerry, let me tell this to you old boy. I was the first Treasurer
in Commonwealth history to post a surplus.
KOM: Alright, I will grant you that, I will grant you that, but that is history now.
PM: Four massive surpluses.
KOB: That is the past wc are now looking about the present and the future.
PM: -But since when do wc have to go back to surpluses? Since when are they holy
writ? None of you cver heard of a surplus, the mcdia could barely spell surplus
before this Government produced them.
KOB: Because the markets now regard them as holy writ. Because the value of the
dollar, for one thing, Is predicated on issues like that.
PM: Let's say, this is not a forecast projectioa, it has no intelligence to it, but let's say
we were $ 2 billion short of balance.
KOB: But you made your reputation on those policies in the ' 80s. You made your
reputation on the achievements of things like surplus.
PM: Half a per cent of GDP, so what?
KOB: So what is your reputation going to be on the first half of the ' 90s on that score?
Changed circumstances mean..
PM: No Western Government has a tighter fiscal policy than the Labor Government of
the ' 80s. We put away in the savings account of thc nation about $ 20-25 billion of
surplus funds. That is why now we can use them to expand thc economy. That is
why the United States can't expand the economy.
KOB: But you're not using surplus funds to expand the economy, you're in deficit to
somewhere between $ 13-14.5 billion.
PM: But we ran down Commonwealth debt to GDP from about 25 per cent to about 14
per cent by putting surpluses away, we are now running it out to 18 per cent. So,
we have got one of the smallest Government debt to GDP ratios in the world, at 18
per cent of GDP wc arc now using dcfecits for a slow economy by virtue of the
fact that we put away surpluses in a strong economy.
KOB: And foreign debt is getting up close to 40 per cent of GDP.
PM: And here's our Liberal Party friends, the slowest learners in the business, wanting
to say to us, oh no, let's cut $ 7 billion or 2 per cent of GDP out of spending. Let's
push us right back into recesion so we can have a surplus. Surplus at thc wrong
time.
KOB: OK. Let's look at tax cuts. Speaking of the right time and the wrong time, the
promised tax cuts from One Nation. Those tax cuts were calculated on growth,
inflation and bracket creep. Since most of that has gone out the window I am sure
inflation is good news as a component of that, but that effects bracket creep, since
most of that has gone out the window you have had to try to anticipate funding in
advance with other tax increases. The thing is in all the circumstances how can
you possibly justify those massive tax cuts this far out for anything other than
straight political purposes, winning the next election?
PM: Because I don't think the incidence of tax should ris~ e. I don't think that we ought
to be having surplus fetishes years from now and try to cover them with tax
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collections brought about by a higher incidence of taxation. I just don't think we
need.
KOB: But you have acknowledged for example the need for infrastructure spending.
Thcrc arc some who would say the need for infrastructure spending is even much
greater than you're anticipating. There is a limited purse within which to do that,
but you are promising with a very uncertain economy, very uncertain recovery,
very uncertain international economy, you are promising a massive tax cut, two
years from now, three years from now, four years from now.
PM: To maintain the tax to GD) P ratios we roughly have at the moment. In other words,
what I'm promising is not to put up tax.
KOB: It's got nothing to do with the Opposition's tax cut promises, nothing to do with a
desire to go to the next election campaign with a tax cut.
PM: It makes a very intrecsting political point that we reduce the 38 rate, at the range of
$ 20,500 of Income from 38 to 30 without a consumption tax and that is the point
that thc Liberals are now pondering. That is all the tax cuts that Australians were
likely to gct from Dr Hcwson's Fightback package under a consumption tax, they
will get from the Labor Government and we are legislating them now from 38 to
no consumiption tax.
KOB: OK lct's come back to a final word about ' One Nation' a final measure of what
' One Nation' was supposed to achieve, what it has achieved, what it may achieve
and the extent to which it has been revised. Growth forecasts badly wrong,
unemployment forecasts wrong, job growth wrong, deficit forecast looking sick,
infrastructure spending revised, tax cuts as many would say barely credible.
Surely that all says that ' One Nation!
PM: Legislated.
KOB: Legislatcd, but harcly crcdiblc in tcrmns of thc original basis on which they were
predicated, strong growth amongst other things and in the end surely you've got to
say that ' One Nation' today has become a very shaky, it not discredited document.
PM: No, cut it out Kerry, cut it out. ' One Nation' was a psychological boost for the
country.
K013: It was a blueprint.
PM: No, hang on it said let's go and expand fiscal policy when it needs expansion, let's
do it in all the things that nccd doing rebuilding the rail highway, accelerating
the road highways and the ring roads, the electricity grid, the spending for the
National Training Authority for vocational education all going ahead.
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KOB: OK it was designed to boost confidence apart from anything cise.
PM: That's right.
KOB: H-ow many business people, business leaders in this community today do you
believe could stand up, would be prepared to stand up tomorrow and say ' One
Nation' has the answers, ' Onc Nation' has the capacity to deliver the goods?
PM: ' One Nation' was designed not as a panacea for all thc nation's problemns.
KOB: No, build confidence. How many business leaders today would still havc
confidence in ' One Nation'?
PM: But to say there was a role for Government in kick starting the economy and
getting it cracking.
K013: But it hasn't.
PM: We are growing at 2 pcr cent a year, what do you mean?
KOB: You were going to grow much more than that.
PM: But how do you say it hasn't? We are not in recession, we are growing.
KOB; How many business leaders in Australia today would stand up and endorse ' One
Nation' as a document that still inspires confidence?
PM: Well, how many would stand up and say it has not had a significant influence on
activity? And remember at the time, we had the chief executive officers of a
numbhcr of major companies supporting its stance and do today.
KOB: At the time, in ecbruary. How many would do it today?
PM: We can't go on spending Kerry, you can't go on and have another one and anothcr
one. T1he ' One Nation' expenditure will be spent by 30 June 1993, it will do the
macro economic task it's called for and most of its spending will go as it was
planned to go. Sure the railways were underspent, but they will be spent in the
following ycar and we will spend that money by diverting it to other purposes this
year.
KOB: OK let's look now at some of the other elements that arc going on in the
community. Wc are running up to Christmas, the biggest pcriod for the retail
trade; retail trade are running scared aren't they in the lead up to Christmas in the
main? The' HiA, the Housing Industry Association, the Master Builders
Association are saying that the ousin cqpyiry. has peaked or near peaked, the
Bureau of Statistics says the recovery in ncw home approvals has ended, bleak
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prospects for the international economny, zero growth projected for Germany for
the next twelve months, we, did a program on the state of the British economy a
couple of weeks ago where senior and respected economists were saying 14 per
cent unemployment quite possible In Britain over the next couplc of years, Japan,
their plan for recovery stalled because of problems in the Japanese administration,
the United States economy, thcy are talking about stimulating but an unknown
quantity. I suppose in the end where are the signs for optimism? Commodity
prices, Max Walsh's column the other clay, commodity prices he says are nearly
down as low as they were across the board in 1986 when they were a disaster for
this economy.
PM: The thing is it is a tough world out there.
KOB: Sure is.
PM: The world is in a very slow phase of growth and it is true commodity prices are
down, it's tough going for Australia. All the more reason why the growth we are
swing and the structural changes is taking Place and the links into Asia and the
productivity shift and the shift down inflation and the competitive exchange rate
are all ball points for Australia. I think all that commentary of yours as just said, is
how hard it is to govern these days and to engineer a recovery.
KOB: And how hard it's going to be for you to go to an election at some point in the first
half of next year with unemnploymecnt somewhere between 10.5 and I1I per cent or
higher.
PM: It's a lot easier than going and saying I will actually push the cconomy back into
recession, I'll contract fiscal policy, I'll put interest rates..
KOB: You'll be saying that though, it's not what John Hcwson says.
PM: No, yes he is, let's be clear about this. HeI says we should cut 7 billion out of
outlays, 2 per cent of GDP.
KOB: Yes, but he's also saying other things, he's talking about $ 20 billion to build
business confidence.
PM: No, that $ 20 billion Is passed onto consumers, if it's not you have a massive
inflation surge. Look Kerry..
KOB: You've got all of these cecemcnts, you've got a shaky dollar, you're on an absolute
knife edge.
PM: Kerry, I heard the question thc first time, I'm just making this point to you that it's
only this Government's policy of expansion and of seeing growth of our
positioning of mionctary policy, the general expansionary phase and thc pick up we
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arc seeing now we've seen right through the last year in exports. The fact that the
economiy is growing and that thcre are things in our domestic economy which give
us cause to belicvc that that growth will continuc.
KOB: Bill Kclty has said twice in the last twelve months, he is a man you respect.
PM: Very much so.
KOB: A friend of yours, he said twice in thc past twelve months that Labor could not win
the next election with uinenlploymcnt over 10 per cent. You arc going to have to
go to the election with unemployment over 10 per cent, therc is no two ways about
that.
PM. We say the alternative will push unemployment much higher, that the Liber-als will
basically grind the place into the dust and in the middle of it have an industrial war
a la Kennett and Victoria. Which ever way you look at it Kerry, Labor has been
the growth party, it's been the employment growth party, sure we've been off our
game with the recession, but wc arc back on our game at the point.
KOB: Yes, you said in the Parliament that you would honour thc electorates mandate on
the. OST Hewson wins the next election. Will you honour a similar mandate on
their findustrial relations policies? Provided they stick to the policies they've
outlined.
PM: T'hey don't even know what their policy is to stick too. They don't know what their
policy is to stick to, they are shift and shimmer around every day about it. They
are saying Kennett is right 100 per cent one day then he's on he's 70 per cent the
next.
KOB: Forget Kennett, if they stick to the policies they hiave outlined and continue to
outline, do you acknowledge that thcy will have a mandate on industrial relations
as they will on the GST?
PM: Kerry let me just make this clear to you, I may be old fashioned in this, but the
power of the. House of Representatives is a money power, the money bills, the
budget bills, the big tax bills and the GST is over half the income tax, it's half thc
Budget, it's a tax shift of $ 50 billion, it's half the Budget.
KOB: But it's not just money bills Paul?
PM: If a Coalition Government wcrc to sccure a vcry clear miandate for that, what group
of Opposition parties could with any integrity or any strength sit in Senate and say
oh no, wc won't have that.
KOB: But it's not just money bills. You've said again quote, quitc clearly " I don't believe
it Is legitimate for an Opposition in the Senate to deny the principal element of
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what is a clcarly articulated mandate". Now, if they stick to the policies they have
articulated on industrial relations
PM. Hang on, let me tell you this, John Howard said he would produce the legislation,
then he said last week no he wouldn't because he couldn't get it drafted propcrly. I
offered himi the services of thc Parliament Counsel to draft it.
KOB: I bet you did.
PM: I did, he's now running backwards being very tricky because he says now he
doesn't believe the Opposition should show the electorate the colour of the
legislation. They are going to be all over the shop on industrial relations..
KOB: Just like you've been all over the place on ' One Nation'.
PM: and trying to secure from me any support for that absolute grab bag of that
hodge podge of intellectual quackery and ideology is asking too much.
KOB: But you can't rely again, for the next election there is no way that you are going to
be able to rely totally on a negative canmpaigni against the Opposition to win that
election.
PM: We don't need to.
KOU: Well what would you describe here as the fundamental elcments of Paul Keating's
agenda for your first full term as Prime Minister, for Labor's fifth term in office?
An agenda that will persuade Australians that you arc not a tired government, you
are a rejuvenated government, you've got the energy and thc vision to do it, despite
the fact that thc cconomiy Is going to allow you very little room.
PM: Kerry, this is the Government that has made the big changc in Australia, the big
change from basically an inward looking society and economy to an outward
looking society and economy. This is the Goverment that has made the big
trading switch, we are now exporting 25 per cent of all wc produce. This is the
Government which is making now the tightest fit into the Asia-Pacific of any
government in our history, that's what is going to save Australia.
KOB: So more of the same?
PM: It will never be more of the same, it will always be changing. The great micro
reform agenda which we are still working on, most of it completed
telecommunications, ports and wharves,
KOB: Most of it complctcd?
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PM: Telecommunications, ports and wharves, thc labour market, airlines, what else do
you want me to do?
KOB: The Metal Trades Industry Association which has been an employer organisation
that your governiment has time after time, counted as a friend, you've identified
themi as friends in effect, you've called them up to back your case on more than one
occasion, the MTIA..
PM: They believe in a co-operative structure.
KOB: OK, the MTIA has just released a survey of 140 of their member companies across
19 sectors of industry and they say that they have yet to receive across the board,
they say they arc yet to receive the benefits of your micro reform package, where
are the benefits, when are they going to start to flow? You've been doing this,
you'vc been endeavouring to imiplcment your micro rcforrn package since 1987
and y'ou say you've virtually complcted it.
PM: Kerry, we arc going to have a telecommunications operator, thc price of phone
calls has fallen by what, half for long distance calls. Look it's happened in airfares
and travel around Australia with the -dcregulation , of the airline industry. We are
going to set up a free market for electricity in the eastern states of Australia. The
waterfront, waterfront productivity has risen 50 per cent this year. What do you
want mc to do? Put it on a black board.
KOB: we did a program on the waterfront the other night where the bulk of the users of
the waterfront are saying that they haven't got any benefits of it either.
PM: OK, tile users have got to put some pressure on the stevedoring companies, do they
want us to do out their business for them? We can set the change up, what do they
want us to do? Actually make the orders for them? Look Kerry, this place was an
Industrial museum ten years ago, it is now a country locked into the fastest
growing part of the world, open, it's set the tariff wall largely down, removed
exchange controls, a floating exchange rate, a free financial market, a better tax
system, a relatively small public sector, we arc off and running, all we've got to do
is get that recovery phase moving and Australia's position in the ' 90s from a low
inflationary base is going to be a very, very attractive one.
KOB: I image that there is one reason well beyond any other that you have not called a
pre-Christmas election and that is that up until this time you don't believe that
you'd get across the line in that election. The public polls say you would,
prcsumably your own private polling and your own political instincts tell you that
its not yet, you're not yet there.
PM: I think the more time we have to articulate our policy position, our general
philosophic position, the more time we have to articulate our belief about the
Coalition's, the more time we have to see the economy run on the better.
TEL: 20. Nov. 92 15: 2? NO. UU( 14/ 1
14
KOB: Well then that says a May election.
PM: No, it says that any election after Christmas is basically full time.
KOB: But if you want maximum time to expose their policies.
PM: Look, rve bcn in this Parliament now for 23 years, I think the average length of
Australian Parliaments is about 27-28 months, it's 36 months in March so let's say
this, it's on the starting blocks any time in the new year because as far as rm
concerned any time between then and the technical end of the Parliament is the
end of the Parliament.
KOB: And the average length of Lateline interviews is much shorter than this one, we'll
have to end it there. Paul Keating thanks for joining us tonight.
PM: Good on you Kerry, have a good Christmas.
KOB: You too.
ENDS