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PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW/ TALKMACK WITH PET~ ER KENNEDY/ GERRY
WWkNONI ABC RADIO 8 DECEMBER 1992
Z AND OE PROOF ONLY
KENNEDY; Prime Minister, with regard to yesterday's
meeting of the Council of Australian Government you must have
been disappointed that not even the Labor States aided with
you ont theS issue of industrial relations reforms.
PM: They did on the one part but not another. That
is there are two parts of this, That in that we extend or
make It easier for people to have access to the federal
lurisdiction of the Arbitration Commission where no arbitral
structure exists. Thie is nationwide legislation but for
instance In Victoria, the thing which would trigger it would
be when the awards under the Kennett government expire in
March, Victorian employees can seek coverage and have an award
made to protect them by the Industrial Relations Commission.
Vow it seemed to me the Labor states were not so much worried
about that, they were a bit worried about the legislation
under what we call the external affairs power that was
legislation giving effect to ' International Labour Organisation
conventions on equal pay, minimum rites of pay and
terminations of conditions. But they have got nothing to fear
from that, an4 the other thing is Australia has ratified these
conventions, They were all ratified with the agreement and
consultation of the States and we are legislating to impose
international minima. So I said to them how could you object,
does anyone object to it being equal pay for equal work or
minimumr rates of pay or proper redundancy in termination
axrangemezfts, KENNEDY: You said at the lunchtime news conference that
you wanted to legislate onl some of these-issues before
Christmas. Are you still going to be able to do that?
PM, We have got a very large legislative load and
the drafting task is always, With a thing like this,
considerable. But if we can got it drafted In we will, but we
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2.
PM: ( cont'd) may noat. We certainly will get the extension of
the Arbitration Commission prerogative, that legislation in.
But see the important thing about all this Peter is this, the
States in a sense are worried about their patch.' Mhat I have
got to worry about is the rights and entitlements of
Australian working men and women and what the Victorian
government has done is unconscientable. Come March people
have got no rights at all, no rights. You take the contract,
Individual contract, or you take the sack and there is no
minimums which will protect them. There is no rights to
redundancy arrangements if they don't appear at work it's an
industrial action they can be fined. They have got no rights
whatsoever and that is what I am worried about and that id
what the government sought to protect.
XE4NEDYI How important in your industrial relations
strata g was the need to head off continued Industrial action
especially in Victoria which could have Cost you electoral
support? pXg z think what we have said to the Victorian
community and its workfoarce is, look while the Kennett
government is running the sort of small business
organisation's agenda trying to strip working people of any
roipgphotrst uwnihtyat sotoev ebre, cwoev ewreidll beyx tean df etdoe rayol u aewnahradn. ced I tahcicneks s thanedy
have thought well good enough and therefore the widespread
dispute which we would have had this week with a power strike
in Victoria they have I think quite Wisely but sensibly called
off.
IGANNON a Let's take some callers Prime Minister.
JOHN: In the committee stages of the tax law
amendment file number bill in 1988 on 2 November Paul* Keating
stated the amendments that the government agrees to accept are
designed to guarantee that the tax file number sygtem is
completely voluntary. They ensure that every person when in
all Circumstances retain the right to elect to have tax
witheld at source rather than quote their number. Taking into
account comments reported by yourself in The Australian
newspapar some months ago regarding the WA Royal Commission
and TIN fishing trips, could you please explain the
dragnotting that the Department of Social Security is
indulging in and why my invalid support pension was cut two
months ago because of my refusal to comply with the request
for a TFN7 Is this what is meant by voluntary in your quoted
statement on 2 November 1988?
PM: The voluntary means that you have the right to
get a tax f ile number and to use that or you elect to have
deductions taken at source. That's where the voluntary
quality comes in and most people of course have a tax f lie
number and therefore that witholding at source doesn't Occur.
That's what meant, simple as that. TE: Dec .92 15 : 56 1, o 038 P. 02/ 1-
TEL: Dec .92 115: 6 No .038 P. 03/ C
3. IIIENs What concerne me more than anything is the
health problem that we have, It's all very well f or Xedicare
and all that sort of thing but we here in Kalgoorlie we have a
wonderful hospital, good administrators, nurse., whatever we
need. But not sa long ago the hospital administration had to
close a ward because there wasn't sufficient money to run it.
we are lacking in doctors because we are s0 f ar f rom the
medical centre which is Perth. What is in it and what's going
to happen especially for the pensioners please? That is my
question I am a bit worried about that.
P1 As you know Medicare is a national health
insurance system. It covers the provision of medical servi~ ces
with doctors and also access for patients to public hospitals.
Medicare is not the management system for the public hopsital
system they are managed by the States and what the government
has proposed in the new Medicare agreement# which will now run
for 5 years, in the Budget, we proposed in the Budget to pay
the States another $ 300 million a year or $ 1,500 million over
years for enhanced access by public patients to public
hospitals. That is to make the taking of public patients into public
hospitals more 4ttractive and I am pretty confident thoe
agreements will be signed and it will mean I think that those
particularly elderly patient. who may have a need of elective
surgery of some kind, it means that their access should be
speedier through the public hospital system because it will be
more in the inttere8s of the public hospital system to take
them. Now of course some people will wisely insure themselves
as well but the insurance helps In relation to elective
surgery it doesn't matter that much of course for acute. It
you have got an acute condition you are rushed to a hospital
well then if you go in as a Medicare patient you go in
basically the same room and you are treated by the same
doctor. So these are all matters for judgement but we will
make the public system much better by providing to the States
$ 300 million a year for the next 5 years.
GANNONt So will that mean the prevention of the
scenario for isomebody who has got to wait a year oree 2
years for a painful hip replacement?
PM1 It should shorten it, it should shorten it
considerably because I think the States will then and as well
an that we provided yesterday as a matter of fact $ 50 million
to the States to reduce waiting lists by setting up systems,
computer systems, time management sytems in state hospital
administrations where perhaps you might have queuing at one
hospital but not at another where people's desire for surgery
can be accormodated at a range of hospitals within the city
for instance. So that was done yesterday. All this I think
should help very much in improving public patient access for
things like el. ective surgery.
TEL: . Dec .92 15: 56 N. o .0
4. C3ANNON1 So you believe that there is still a lot of
scope in the state management of the hospital system for
improvement? PKI I think that is true of all systems but again I
think if the Commonwealth mAkes it more attractive for the
public hospitals to take public patients they will and by
adoption of this scheme yesterday on waiting lists it should
be that we won't f ind a position where someone has to wait
quite awhile at one hospital but at another there is virtually
no waiting time. We can arrange better the queuing more
effectively, more efficiently. Between the two it should make
a very big change.
TAPFYs What I Wanted to Speak to you about in that I
commend your action you have taken regarding the television
violence for our children. Were you influenced by the good
relations that you have and close knittedness(? with your
wife and your children?
PI The thing that influenced me on this was
exclusively my ownl experience with my children because I think
that when you sit down to watch a movie a 8.30 at night you
should be able to sit there with your family and not be
embarrassed by what you see, not have to go and switch the
dial to another channel or shoo the kids off to somewhere else
and that is why I think that what has been happening in
chasing ratings and revenue the TV stations have been pushing
the limits and the edges out to what was acceptable In terms
of violence for showing it at 8.3Opm.
Now what has happened now we have now developed two
categories. First of all we have developed a sole -single
classification system for video, film and TV aQ that the
commonwealth film censor will determine what classification
goes on a f ilm to go in the theatres. That will be the same
classification that goes in the video shops and it will be the
same classification that goes on TV. Afd essentially what it
will mean is that what used to be called AO or adults only on
Tv will now be split into a category called 24 for mature
audiences which is the softer part of AO and the harder part
will be called & XA and they can only be shown after 9. O0pm. So
what it means is one system, so everyone will know more
accurately what is in the film and at 8.3Opm, for an B. 3Opm
showing which is now nearly every night of the week in most
Australian cities people will not see the violence they would
have seen three months ago.
GANNONt so you were influenced by your own family
situation and your own family viewing habits?
PM1 I watched them, I see what my kids have on and
I watch them like hawks you see to switch of f the things which
are violent and i don't think they want to see them and
children 7 and 11 and 13 they shouldn't be subjected to that 13 F .04/ C
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S1 PXt ( cont'd) sort of etuff and particularly during the school
holidays I think TV stations should use a bit of snose about
what they show and to have kids sitting up obviously a little
bit later in the school holidays watching stuff which is quite
violent is just not a goer. So my children are seeing less
and less TV by virtue of the fact that a lot of it is not
worth watching. I hope this changes.
GERRYs In the light of this country's desperate need
for foreign currency, tourism and offshore business, how can
the government JustiLy the difficulty being enCOuntered in the
UK in relation to visitors'_ visas? Regular family visitors
now have to renew visas annually and a business friend and
frequent visitor applied to extend a 2 year visa to a 3 year
one and got a 6 month visa instead. ' Why are we making it so
hard for visitors and business to help us make ends meet?
Immigration control is one thing, cutting oft our noses to
spite our face is another don't you agree?
PM: Who could not agree with that but I am not
familiar with what change we have made there but I don't think
that anybody that wants to come to this country as a visitor
has any real problem and countries do run Immigration laws to
suit their national interests and I am sure many Australians,
it wasn't that many years ago when people from so called
commonwealth countries had ease of access into Britain but now
what you find is that when you arrive at Heathrow it is the
Suropean Community queue that has ease of access Into Britain
and all the colonials wait on a long line. Now we don't do
that to anybody no I don't think access Into Australia is a
problem and whatever the visa arrangements might be they are
not onerous.
JOHNI my question relates to the goods and services
tax. I am a self funded retiree and have some distinct
reservations on the GST and I also believe that many of the
initiatives that you undertook in your early years as
Treasurer made a very positive contribution to this country.
However, on the GST maybe the electorate has a short memory
but in 1985 a GST was your special project, your baby, you ran
with it, you fought for it, I think you called it the
Taxcard(? 7 Ok you lost out to the ACTU. NOW in respect of
this and the fact that now is a period of record low inflation
I submit that your credibility in opposing this tax now is
lea than
PM. Let me explain
JOHNs Could I just finish my question. My question
is that in the event that Dr Howson wins the election and a
GST is introduced would you give an undertaking that as
opposition leader that you would campaign Ln the 1996 election
for its abolition? T. Dec. 92 15: 56 No. 038
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PXI Let me just explain things this way. In the
middle 1980o the former government, the Liberal government of
which Dr Hewbon wag a principal adviser to John Howard, left
the tax system in a dreadful state of haemorrhaqe. Very few
people in the Australian tax administration felt, it had been
left in neglect for so long, it was capable of repair. so
perhaps a gloomy view was we want to collect it when they
spend its Let's Put on a consumption tax because we won't fix
the direct side tax system and we have a very large budget
deficit to fund. Two things, 1 when the GS? was denied to me
because the f act I couldn't give the guarantee that the
inflationary effect wouldn't go into wages and I Might say Dr
Hewson certainly can't give that guarantee.
it a Labor Treaeurer under an Accord couldn't give the
guarantee to have the workforce discount the 06T for inflation
certainly a conservative leader could never give such a
guarantee, anyway leave that point to one side. When it was
denied to me I then decided to repair the tax system, coot and
branch on the direct side with things like the fringe benefits
tax, the taxation of capital gains where most tax schemes
relied upon the non taxation of capital gains, Changes to the
tax system in terms of a whole range of concessions. The
abolition of entertainment as a deduction, a whole stack of
things which have now Made the Australian direct tax system
one of the most secure in the world. In the intervening
period we also reduced the site of the public sector
commonwealth spending by about $ 20 billion a year from about
28/ 29% of GDP to 23.
So by the time I finished and that is a couple of years ago we
had A very small public sector, a much smaller level of
spending therefore requiring much loes tax. We had a direct
side tax system which was as tight as Any in the western
world, a tax share to * GDP the second lowest of the 27
countries of the OECD so you ask yourself the question why do
" s need a consumrption tax? The conumption tax's period has
passed and to now take the macro economic risk of pushing
another 6 or 7 percentage points into inflation and then
seeing it go onto wages and then into ongoing inflation and a
6 or 7 percentage point addition to interest rates that will
come with it in now not worth doing.
it's quite wilful, no Liberal leader can give a guarantee that
the price effect of a consumption tax won't go into wages and
into ongoing inflation and interest rate.. And if you can't
give the guarantee it's just vandalism to proceed with it. I
couldn't give the guarantee in the middle 000 and I gave it up
but now we don't need the thing. We have got the second lowest
tax share in CDP in the total economy in the whole of the
OEcD. We have now got a very tight direct side tax system, we
don't need a tax in consumption, we don't need an expenditure
tax and that is the reason why I have opposed it.
T: E; L.: 1 iec. 92 15: 56 No. 038 P. 06/(
7.
GANI4ONs So if there is A Change Of government next
election, in 1996 at the following election what would be yotm
attitude to GS'r?
PM: I am happy to say with today's polls I don't
think there is going to be a change of government and I think
the Australian public understand very clearly that this Means
a very large impost on gill, look the Liberals have got two
very nasty policies. They want to lift tax and cut wages,
they want to lift tax by a consumption tax and they want to
cut wages like Jeff Xennfltt is doing in Victoria with his
single employment contracts. They will drive 8 million
Australians onto single employment contracts which each person
has to then negotiate with themselves without the protections
of awards, without protections as to minimums and I believe
that such a policy prescription will mean that basically the
Coalition is not going to be elected so I am happy to may I
thinkc they are ntot going to arise,
1( KENEDYt You mentioned today's polls Prime Minister, a 7
point lead f or Labor and a 13 point break on Dr Hewson as
preferred Prime Minister, you must be regretting you didn't
take John Dawkinls' advice and go to a poll before Christmas?
LL. 8. Dec. 92 15: 56 No. 038 P. 07
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GGt Well you meatload taft's poib Prim Miulsiar a 7 point lead htr Liabs,
and a 13 point break on Dr Nw.. as pnhmd ? ulue Ministr. You ovat
be. alprvtting you didn't take Jobs Dawkin's advice and go to a poll before
ChristutD
PM: That poll today Is good for us, as I maid sadler In tke year I think the publie
are entitled to see the Parliaments; ran their cooan& This Goverment was
decW three yonarsaIn Mwh of IM amd that thireesyears bjust about
eomins up In so s lon*
G It is coming up for both Dr Lawrence I. Western Australia and youruulf
federally, you must go to the polls earty nhut year, Is It going to be a case ot
ladies before gentdment
PM I don't know# It depends when Caninev wants to put her' toe Wno the pond, so
to speak.
CPO Ru, t you * ould be chaig at the Wit woulnt you, for a poll InF ebruary
Next yoo?
PMO: No. I will see what Is happening lIn the general politkal envir'onment and
when it la opportune hbr the Government and make a decision about It.
GGi Dvi the longer you leave it the greater the chance Dr Rewson and the
Coalition hae of peggin you back.
PM.: I think the longer we are having It, In a sense, the mere opportunity we have
to peg him bedL
MG Hoaw do you momn by that. because the polls show you are clearty in front?
PM: But If you look at that tmte months ago, we wene not as far in front as we are
now. Tb. loer we have gone the better we have gont.
GGi now do you explais the gap that you bave opened uap In these polls with
unemiploymeuat at muth at high level, and possibly likely to go higher?
PM:-I think peopl think that the Liberul Party doesn't have Noy answers. Can I
just make this point what Is their policy? Their policy Is a simple tax switch
M= u Incomet to uemdiurs, thay a" e goig to tax people's food and clothing,
thi evices. and they ane ogo o~ gve thei proeeds to the abolition of
pyrob tax ad thy aftgansto try to cut the price of petroL Does anyone
In Aualla you don't have to be an economic ain. to understand this
point, and that Is this th* at abolishing pay Me tax and cutting the price of
.92 1-0: 1-4 Ho .046 F. 02/ 1
TEL Dec -' 92 I'W: 1-' 10. U40
ps" sethMeSlo to reallmsAVWtIa What Is plg to remkAutrulasb
a Gomeom being hnv* s Ia ad of * ha sctos thAt ane rally poing to
thamp the Onae, th abar machi IMe we wone At the Prems Comfleucte
yesterday In wowu.~ Is the Provisin of power In ustablahiag a prope
*"* rat hor eleteMlitY Eastern Austrlia These ane the things which have
a role for Gaomeut. Now, Pet we aM already growing fliter than any
ote country is the OED9 we are growing a: 2 per cost a yeare Many of
the other countries, Japan lost week went into at recsion I think many
peoplelIn Australia now undertand and know that the sconomy Is growing.
that employment will pick up and that the big structural change, the
reorientation into Asia, the rebuilding or our education system. all of thewe
things areW thinlgs the Government is doing and the thiap Australia needls
to be does that wel't be cured by is simple tax switch.
GG: But you need a growth rate of) 3 per cent, don't you, to prevent
Unemployment from rising?
PM:. Around 3, yes that to true. But we are already over 2, we hove had fiblu
quarters of growth to 2.1 pop' ent and our tbrecast is fbr that to accelerat.
That being the case, we wED start to see employment rising. having then Its
impact on neemployment, a fkvourable Impact on unemployment, I think the
Gommetumt hasm structmr Is piece It has changed Australia, It is stil
changing Autratl I think that many people think the sterile policies of
Dr Huwsoe's onth. OST and cutting wages to not a solution.
Cro: I anderstand you have a temple 0kmist to sped with metropolitan listeners
after the news, we wIB be happ to a" i of that, Pime Minister, in the mean
time It Is new, time. 9 O'clock.
Thank you Gerry.
GG: The Prime Minister' is still with os, Prime Minister, on the 19th of December
you mark one year in the job as Prime Minister, bow would you look back
and how would you charaCterl.. that year?
i'M: it h" s been a year . f quit substantial1 change. We put togethe the One
N atioa package emullr In the year to Isoulat, the economy and to'get It
moving and I thick we succeeded In that because In the oAtional accounts
whicb came out last week, the firs bit of objective evidence for the year, on#
of the large contributors, the largest contributor to Vvwth is what Is called In
the jargon, public demand, which means the public sector has been pulling
the economy Along. So the strategy, I think, has worked and Is working. As
weln a that we have baen able to cntinu. the enormous Changes which the
Government introduced I the'Sb, we did so much this year. For instance,
we established a national training authoriy In the One Nation package to
TEL : De Cj. Z I. . VZ4 IAremtode
tot* alor TAfl ad iaoeai eodmetsa s01em noa wil be
dw greatgat ehangsl probxWly of te yea W" ic w# wig an or thu net So
or 30 years ad will SMk a h~ zp differele to the educstlu of AWMatala
kids The deglt. of the * 11w system. eidt" Quite take over
Australian sadbecome sit Integrated ntioiiI And interqational canter,
Anseft MOW appleg $ 0 11eC IN! the eftod 1tersathaal carnior wheom
fbrrnally we only had ats. So we are poing to have real competition is
AWiation which we have never reekl bad bofsva A mew depredation S& heule
for moxtion fbr busle.. which I thisk b is ng a difeatcen to the eco" omy.
It has bees a lowr of very substantial changes and the Government is to
getting those chan". lfte plume At y. eody's Pumiders Conference, we
teade a lot of deciuloe, & n apon power generton end dlatribution, water
quality, x range of those sort of national hate which years ago you woUlnst
baet" touched one Ina des" dorone Iul20yer. We an doing four and five
Major things Ilk this In our waery yea.
GMi Ut160shave beesdeierfWa the " d f t Aof coaity, doyou apect
this rapid chapg to continue throughs the ' 9fs' lit a reform program that
has to be drivn sloWg
It JhostbutltIlak we arenow qute wellWup, Asias thefastut gwing
part of the werldo we mr better placed now is the Asian ame than we have
over boos. Ina terms of doe ecoamy yaw we exported aswiy 15 per cent
of ad we Produce. Pearly a quxrtr of everyting we produced we exportsd.
A decade ago that was 14 per cent. You cAu just Imagine where we would be
now if we were only expartlag 14 per cent of whao we prodiume No thu
pVth of As Ould tq Austra lMu providing we aire set up to ciploit
1te and we are.
O; G: Thattrade debt tog, I man t tilgrowing. i s stilla mansiv
problef. flow ton It be reigne lot
PMN: But the debt servicing ratio, our capacity to pay for ht has been coming down,
and that ham been coming dows as our trade peuftrinamce, improves. There is
only out way out of any these problem that Is bazisicl Srwjwth and trade.
The Goverauent is committed to growth antd It Ib committed to malting
Autralia a competitive society and I beiieve that our greatest comparitive
advantage Is going to be In edueationg That biwhy now nearly children in
comsplete secondar schooL Whes I became Treasurer it was onliy3 In
44) per cent ot thosu are now streamed through aniveretles and the big
weakness, voc~ ational education, TAM! only 29 per centi of' kis tw art
TAFE or vocationaki educated, we hope that will be " 0 per cent by about the
year 2000.20& 5
GGi But there haven't bee johe for young pooe hi th lad w yu ad t
has bee . me argument put ftrward for the hiher retutio rate. When wiN
thos jobs steel 1 aper
PMs I don't tkink that Is quito gt Ptev. In 0 thO we Wa piety of jobe thee
for young people whon the economy w" s groing strongly, It has sowed up
lately, but apis a lit of young people art finding jobs, partlularly these
Who raiNed so We eDWtOtWaut them, ButtW bitpointis that in a
much more " opletel educat4d R* tl educated societ wheun tho edued.. o
lievels are higher yovag people ake their owe Job apportuuites. They winl
be the cmployere they will be the people who are Actually out thene creating
the sew businessca Tbo Idea, tht we have got to have trained M& d sitn
waetds# ftr someone, to tome along to employ thet%, every other country
which has Investd in educato wil MW that it Is the traed kide that
actually end tup empleyig theoiselves and others. The spring In the step of
the country will come from the education systeda and Labor ba totally
traosforoWeducation Inthieommty. Now efhd you tor claim tobe A
smart country or at capable coustry, or a country to esploit the opportuitIs
we have In the Aula-Paelftc with only 3 WinI 10 completing secondary
sthoolt Tut iswhat sWs 6Ies soni
GGO: But Mea'te Miniter, what do you say to the almost one afton who are
unemployed tWay, asaotfW hom feed that they will never work again? The
changes that you talk about, that you have preakdad of this pant year, they
lon nothing to thoue peowle to Pol* shtin BEolc om and uep today
that havec been out of work for two yeahs, how do you transate all of that
dowa to their level?
IPM:. Gerry, * hat happened to the ' llf ther was a bape amount oftpowth and
expenditure and a big growth in credit, not just In Avowtalla, in the Unitedi
Sates, Japas Dritain, Germany, all reod the would. When the credit
Stowtt stopped, whon the music tpped we fbund our companies and our
Industries very heavily Indebted, or as they s highly leverailed. It bas
taken About it wonths to 2 yeas' longer than I think ay of as expected to
deleirerass those cmpanies, that's what is happening Io the United States
today, that Is what is happening In Japan today. Bat I am happy to jay In
Australia we ar. reaching the point now whene the balance between equity
and debt ina bose isb ow getting back to a proper balance and we are
starting to see Australian companies look around for opportunities, and as
that happens the growth will Isa" spin. If yOu look at our unemploymnt
rate, roughly halt of it comes brm the down cycle in the economy and half of
it coon. from the strctura change of the churanig of different Industries. It
Is called cydleal and structural unemploymentL If we can pull the first one
down, the cycle, as the economy pick$ up to get that I11 per Met
unzeiplymtst rate, heading back towaid 5 and 6 we then bav. to work on
TEL
the Wag run change to get it belo that. Tha Is the StUVtural ehange So
peopie shoWl not be % ae * war about Is. We bad huge esu seat in the
' 0 mwe 110p40Osf t) b. tIhlAk& a0t 4490010hhvptweuftebd
with Aa or market f 6mlon in 33, Xtoday that is Gilliw seit
quarter baw, we have kept mauty all of thee JAolaSre we have get it
per eent unwuploymeat and we had nearly 11ia IM, but we had 1I pea otea
in ' 83 off a level of6 aifli. we have lot IIper ceat loyof Or levelof
miloto. It's she old rates and levels eamparisoaso So# Austrabl Is a am~
tfll employed couatry today and most of the jobs or the ' S8s we have kept.
what ehave now got to do toetbee is A" dto them We we UM to,
the with pw~ s. got You win OnlIy gr owt In a cooperative
giwlronwent* you wonu't Pet It by bauke* l cowering People This Is die Pela
that I make about the Liberal ? artys they want to cower people, knmoff9
their minimum rataes condltlas reduades rogb of appeals, the paJ
award protections The way we are SAMn to get Australia work iIs by
everybody workisig togotber to a sot of sational objuefvae jult a Japan ha.
done, Kome bas der. Sinapor boo doe% Germany bad don%, United
States is now, under Clinton, starting to do. I think that Is what we have got
to do, $ o It haspgt to be aa eatlveefforto and thatlIswhy the big
community things lik we were dealing with yeeterday at the Prosion
comference Are the thkog which are $ Wng to Matter.
G you have lot about 2 atlnutesleft witht us, let's see It wee oqau emivns ne
ortwo callso This Is 7usd
Caller. Good mor* Prim* Mainr I would like to Ask a questin of you It I may
about superuxuatiosn and the GB?. I wanted to aske Mr Chaney lass we* l
but I could't aed on. 1 retred In M InV1 ictortsand I rofletl over a lamp
sum In the State supersionuatiod ftmd of Victoria. Now that Is payable In
September of 1994 and It will be about $ 300000 payout. Now recenty Ini
Paullament t beard you may tht I WOWl haVe to pay 54000 tax on that
5300,000 under the GST and at present I am told It will be less then $ 15,00.
Isthatgo?
pm, Well what it iseants kthis, that any block of savings. a of the day of the
introduction of the GST, are stomadully diftinished by the price effkct of
the GST because they simpl buy less Ini t eonoray. go there I& a one oft
loss to savings which will never be replenished, that was the point I was
muakinig. Could I just duke thh associated point, there will also be a
continuing Ins" to savings In the desig of Skit GST uander the Liberals. So
tuere is an unavoidable, one off los Wo anyone who is Iblvn off their savings,
someone who Is eaperemuuated as yous are or anyone living from the Income
off a block of savings, those savings ' wM simply buy teso and eamn lae day one
upon the lutroductios of a GBT.
TEL: D c. 3 4 Iq
GG: u i Ist it~ t aut is pw CM Igs, Igi Itm s6m 1b ae 20pm e." I
IF 1 Pke effet wil be Aaot & T Per eat.
GQ 4.7 per est sftqilag to the Ijbsmb.
PM: YOsN but tha dowa't 1* 0lud Medicare thir aboliion of Medicare and the
fact that you W# v to prmvtel timp. -no T euyes estiMAte is that wfyou
Pal the health changes ' a the 092 effect Or the so0eaLW PlghtSc Ppag Is
6-7 per ceuftp polns, whih is sabesmuua
GO:-RaVe YOU got t1i0e for oue more? Let's Nake ft Peter fom DtUaCraig he Wel
be our last caler. Good morgig t$ you Pete,.
Cafler: Kelo
G; Peter you aire on.
Callmr Thank yoo very much
GGL, Your question to the Prime MIGISte piDase he Is unstiug oPut Of tiMLs
CAlley' Prime Minister I Would Ilk. to sMY tha I Am WerON that would im to po
into busins. Now I havea hous worth abWet $ 150,000 I can misn
$ 100,000 On thil house and to Into it busioess, but It I do that mwd them latw
or within two years your Goveusseot Inraes inttendts" ls not onl
would I lose the business but I would los the houue U tbgft Ay poulblflt,
ever, that you could put say a two year moratorium an lateral rates?
PM: One Or the t0Ovenslf feacrl In intereut rates is the Underlying rate of
Inflation, so obviously It Inflation were to rise it would have a Imupact upon
Interest ftts, ButI think At this 09tag we are at A stag in the cycle Where
inflation Is down, and I think will stay down, so it is probably the beut lons
run, low interest rat&, low nominal laterest rate horimo we have0 seen for
some time. Rlat I think the beet thing for you to do would be to thy to securt
some 00dium sesm fimRAmee YOU Could4 tak IQs some debt now an a five year
basis taking admapg of the prevalil ioteaeat rates, which will give you
quite ssabstlmtWa Protcto 600a145t somse Iovement Ina Margins over the
Period. Now It may cost youm a ts premium to Pick up A five year fkinal
medWIu tgrm finance package, but you could do it rather than be left to the
vagaries of fletiuug rate debt.
GG; Ok, thARIks fbr your tall Petr And to the Print* Minister thank you for your
generosity With your time this moming,