TEL: 9. Dec. 92 11: 39 No. 006 P. 01/ 03
PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF TIIE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP,
DOORSTOP, 9 DECEMBER 1992
E& OE PROOF COPY
PM: I want to make some remarks to you about Dr Ilewson. What we've sccn in the
last 24 hours is, I think, the death of a political leader. Dr ficwson said Australia
needs these policies, I'll give you these policies that Australia needs. He is now
saying we don't need these policies. I say, therefore it follows we don't need Dr
Hcwson. Australia has no use for Dr liewson.
He told us that he would resign, " I'll resign", he said, " if any of these policics
change. I'm said to be inflexible, wcll I am. I'm not going to change. Fightback
will not be amended. It stands firm".
What you're seeing here is basically a politically-induced shift, a poll-induced
shift, yct Dr Hewson had the hide to say this morning on AM, " I came to politics
to do a job, I don't play the political game". Well, he's playing the political game
and the political game is very much at the public's expense.
Dr Ilewson said, " Fightback and I are inseparable". He implied if you fillet
Fightback, you fillet him. Well he's filleted Fightback and he's probably filleted
his backbone away with it.
But the truth of the matter is, like all cynicism the Liberal Party has always
displayed, you can take no notice of them. Whatever he says on the 18th would
not be what they do in government. If there's any lesson out of any of this, it is
whatcver he says it will not be as they would govern. Because in office hc would
do cxactly the sort of things he wantcd to do just as Mr Kcnnett demonstrated he
would do the kind of things which he wanted to do indicate to the public that he
was listening, that he'd taken heed of their concerns, in Mr Kcnnett's case, and then
procccdcd in the dead of night. Dr Hewson would do just the same.
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T'his is only a political exercise on his part to move away from the policy that he's
had. After December 18 we'll still be left with the OST, a draconian industrial relations
policy, zero tariffs and savage cuts to social security spending. Dr Hewson will be
just as nasty and dangerous after the I 8th of December as he is today.
The difference, perhaps, between him and Mr Howard is Mr Howard said very
pointedly this morning, there'll be no changes to the IR policy. Meaning I'm
standing my ground oven if my leader isn't standing his. He is demonstrating what
he thinks leadership is all about.
Dr Hcwson, in the most extravagant of phrases, has committed himself to not
moving his policies. Those policies are going to shift. His commitments were
worth nothing. And his commitments in office would be worth nothing. He
would do to us just what he wanted to do, and cynically disregard commitments
which he gave the public on the way through,
What you are seeing is the Liberal Party and its Leader again in a state of
accelerated decline.
J: In the interests of Australia, why don't you just wait and see what he is proposing?
PM: Because he hasn't had the courage to give you the changes that he is proposing.
He has very weakly told you that he'll change his stance without telling you what
it is. And so he calculates that the change in his position is then, in public terms,
muted whilc you, members of the press, and the public wait to see what the detail
of the changes are. Dr Hcwson's changc is today, it's not on the 18th of December,
it's now.
J. If hc exempts food though, Mr Keating, from the GST, doesn't that make him
harder to beat?
PM: If he exempts food the UJST revenue falls by $ 5 billion, if he zero rates clothing,
fabric and footwear he removes a further $ 1.9 billion, if he zero rates the five
essential household scrvices of gas, electricity, water, postage and telephone bills,
that would reduce the GST by a further $ 1.3 billion. If he zero rates residential
construct ion, that's housing, he would reduce the OST revenue by a further $ 1.8
( billion). If he does those things, basically his policy has fallen to picces. The
whole rationale for the policy is in tatters. So that being the case, I go back to the
point I made earlier, if he's not going to give us the policies he says Australia
needs, why do we need Dr Hewson?
J: Mr Keating, on the basis of changes in circumstances, you changed economic
policy direction in the One Nation Statemcnt. Why can't John Hewson do the
same?
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PM; No, but hc said recently that he thought Australia was going to slip into a
depression. He didn't indicate any need, in fact in thc Parliament he was
reassrting that his policies were utterly correct. What the Government said was
that policy wasn't correct, what I said was that policy wasn't correct, that the
economy was slowing, this was last year, and that we needed a changc to fiscal
policy. The Government was open about that. He was saying, in the context of
this year, that we're actually slipping into a depression but was still standing by his
policy. He shifted because of the polls. He made his arrangements with the Press
Club yesterday, his Deputy Leader didn't even know that he'd made the
arrangements. His front bench don't know of the details. rm quite sure that people
like Mr Howard are seething over this.
J: Are you sorry you didn't go on December 19, Prime Minister?
PM: No, I think I'm not treating the public with the cynicism the Liberal Party has
always treated thc public with, and which they continue in thcir finest traditions to
do today.
J: it was a bit of misjudgment, wasn't it?
PM: Well, I think you better leave the judgements about political timing rve got two
right middle of 1987 and Fcbruary 1990 not bad going.
1: Doesn't this at least show that Dr Howson is now flexible, that he is listening to
people's concerns?
PM: Dr Hewson is looking at his political skin. I think he feared thc Parliament coming
back for two days and wanted to pre-empt his colleagues by not walking into the
Caucuas room without any policy shift, or without any shift in his stance, knowing
that his position in the polls is deteriorating. He's made the pre-emptive move, the
Liberal IParty have got to decide now whether they stick with him. He's promised
to resign. He said if the policies change, I go. Well he ought to make good his
commitment.
1: Will your Government now start looking at some possible policy changes? Ron
Boswell was saying this morning that the Liberals should now look at tariffs. Will
the Government be looking at tariffs?
PM: The point is you sce, that's what I'm saying the Liberal Party is now..
The tight policy stance, all the policies we've been told we needed are all up for
grabs the National Party is now trying to change the tariff policy, the Liberal
Party is shifting on its basic Fightback package, you've got obviously a leadership
tension there with Mr Howard saying ' I'm standing firm on industrial relations'.
All It means is, I go back to my opening words, Dr Hewson is a leader who I think
is now useless to Australia.
ends