PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PR"% ME MINISTER. 711EE HON P. J. KEATING, MOP
DOORSTOP, BOTANIC GARDENS, ADELAIDE, 21 DECEMBER 1992
E OE PROOF COPY
J: Prime AMister, the newspapers this morning have got a poll which shows that thc
Coalition's Fightback Mark II seems to havc been well received. Do you believe
that that poil will be sustained?
PM: No, those polls are, I mean wel see what the polls say. That will take a while, a
poll over the -weekend on a mautter like this is just next to worthless. We knew
News limited were doing this polL we told thL-rn dial last week, that they apparently
wanted a story for today. I don't think this is the one to take much notice of.
J: Are you concerned that it has turned the corner a bit for the Opposition?
PM: Dr Hewson, is running on a policy he doesn't believe, ti~ s is the biggest con job in
Australian history. This guy was telling me, Iwo weeks ago, the stimulatoty policies
were wrong. He said One Nation was a mistake and now he is trying to emulate
the Government's policies. What rve said in the House is that if Australia wants
stimulatory policies delivered, let the people who actually believe in them do them
and thafs the Government. He is running on policies he doesn't believe, on money
he doesn't have. I notice this morning he's trying to back away now from Telecom,
Owa is the centre piec-e of his funding on Friday, is this morning, he's ninning back
away from it. people have got to understand this about Telecom either Dr
Hewson drives a competitor out, that is Optus, to lif the profitability of Telecom to
sell it or he lets Telecom do the Qomrnercial thing and put in timed local phone
calls. You notice in his statermt there was no talk what so ever of declines in
prices or phone prices which the Governmnent has, that is, inflation minus five per
cent which we have as the guidelines for Telecom charting none of dial. To makec
Telecom a profitable show to sell it, you've got to let it do the totally commercial
thing and the totally commercial thing is timed local phone calls. There is no way
Tclcom could be floated to private institutions without it being able to charge
market prices for its product and that is, timned local calls. So, Dr Iifewson today in
a quite startling display of back pedalling, is running off the Telecon thing which
last Friday was the centre piece of his funding.
J: You said One Nation is ten months old, is it time for a face lift beforc the next
federal election.-
PM: You say that, but look, the Liberal party has come to our policy, we haven't come
to theirs. They are the ones who now say stimulator. policies, they are the ones
saying One Nation was right. Remember John Hcwson said, look I took a year to
put this policy together, he said this last year, he took a year to put this together, he
said we thought about this, we've dotted every we've crossed every' t, what he
told us last Friday was that Fightback was wrong and what was right was the One
Nation policy of a stimulus and basically a policy of inclusion tbr the community.
He is the one who has had to shift ground, not the Govcmcnt. So, it's not a
matter of giving One Nation a facelili, One Nation is tiding on supremely as I said
as an idea. The thing that has had it is old Fightback Mark I, she's in the garbage
bin.
J: So we can't expect any more givc-a-ways before the next before the next
PM: I think it is very intcresting in Australian politics, after a decade of abstemious
economics, the media of Australia arc now inviting the parties to spend their heads
off.
J: Would you say if* th e trends in these early polls are sustained, that makes a
February election very unlikely'?
PM: Why should I debate election dates with you jokers.
J: Is today's cnironmental story the start of an election campaign?
PM: That was there anyway, that's been there for months, after months of work and
planning, this was on. We set this date three or four months ago. The thing is polls
taken over Saturday after look, you don't have to be a political sciCntist to know
this fact a poll taken on Saturday after a statement released on Friday is rubbish.
J: Prime Minister, last wcck Senator Richardson said that although the environmental
movement wasn't exactly in love with the Labor party that Labor could still depend
on the votes because the alternative was even more unattractive. Is this what today
is all about?.
PM: No, what today is about just continuing to build on the job. The soil and water
issues, the larger role on Murray Darling river system, which the Commonwealth
can play because it is a trans-state national issue, is, I think, another important
thing to be doing in the environment agenda. As is a lot of the measures today, to
deal with feral animals, to deal with nimosa pigra, to deal with locking up some of
these pastoral lease areas which have been part of contiguous envirownent
protection tones. Thiese are all item~ s on the agenda, the study into Shoalwater Bay,
one of the last great virgin areas of the Australian east coast. Thcsw arc things
which come from a party that is interested in the environment again it is the same
point in terms of stimnulatory policy, the Government believes in it and delivers
those policies. In terms of having a decent saiety net and including the Australian
community in the policy,, the Governmient. believes it and deliver-, the policies. The
same as the-envirornent, the Government delivers it and belheves the policies. The
Opposition don't believe it and they% a re out there now tryin to say that the hard
hearted view of last week is now all off. There was a Richard Nixon phrase. I can't
remember it, it was inoperative, I think. It has all the sincerity of that sort of
treatmnent and I just think the public are much too sharp for Dr Hewson, they'll sce
right through him and his cynical Federal Director, NMr Robb and his poll driven
research and his poll driven policies.
J: Would you see any special flood relief for South Australia?
PM: Thurc is a permanent Commonwealth-State regime for flood and drought relief and
any problems in South Australia will come up under that regime.
J: How important is South Australia in the reckoning for the next election, Will it be
an important decider -for yo-u'?
PM: The thing is this. Dr Howson has a South Australian policy, it's a zero tariffs, zero
Adelaide policy. That's his policy. Zero L-anfi; zero Adelaide. On Friday he never
shifted that policy, he stuc; k to Lzfl) tariffs for the motor vehicle industry and that
will see and in mainy other areas of the manufacturing industry the largest base of
South Australian employment decimated by imports. H~ e had a chance to consider
his position, he took it, but didn't change.
J: Melbourne's Northland College is due to be closed do you have any comment on
Mr Kennett's actions there?
PM: Dr Hewsons says IMr Kennelt'. s problemn policies are the cause of my problems. Mr
Kennett doesn't have a OST. Mr Kennett is running on Dr Hcwson's industrial
relations policy. Thle only thing is he put it into place first because he got elected.
Now Dr Hewson is disparaging in rhctoric Mr Kcrneit, but still adoping,
absolutely, all of his policies. The main thrust, that is to put eight million
Australians onto commron law contracts. What we are seeing from D r Hcwson is
no change. I Iis policy is basically this, prices up and wages down. Prices up under
a consumption tax. wages down under an indi~ itrial relations policy where eight
million Australians award conditions and pay are destroyed and where he pushes
people onto comnion law contracts. All that Jeff Kennett had done for the rest of
us is show us in action what John Ilfewson's policy had in the print and it is pretty
c; ynical of himnfow to disparage Mr Kennett when he, Dr I lewson, is the author of
Mr Kenniett's policy.
J; The Northland Clege is an AIboriginal College, the Melbourne people are pretty
upset.
PM: Mr Kennett is closing schools all ovur Victoria and again he's got to deal with his
own community on these things. but what he has done is introduce the first leg of'
John Illewson's and John Howard's Industrial relations policy and in doing that he's
done in a sense some serneie to the nation in alerting Australians to what they can
expect from a Hewson Governmcni because Dr Hewson again had the opportunity
lWt Friday to ditch this crazy industrial relations policy. All he did was reassert it.
J: Prime Minister, how confident are you that Labor will pick up green preferences at
the next fecderal Clection?
PM: Anyone who is genuinely interested in the environmecnt has got to look at the
environmental record of the Government and its obvious, the whole Party's obvious
concern and commitment to the environmncnt. Not just the Government, but the
Party. And if it is a two party choice, if you left it to the likes of M~ r Reith and Dr
Hewson they'd mine Hyde Park.
J: Mr Keating, Standard and Poors don't seem tot) % concernedth at Coalition policies
would be that negative tbr Australia's credit rating, how do you react to thar.
PM: And we are not too concerned about what they think.
J: But they have just reaffirmed the..
PM: In political terms, what's that matter.
Premier Arnold ha.-asked you to break the nexus between Commonwcalth public
servants and politicians pay, have you considered that yet?
PM: Understand ths, there's nothing about the I iherals, you see them when they are
unfetteredA, at their natural worst. Thu night that Nkfr Kennett was putting through
the cuts to peoples pay, he was putting through a wage increase for State ministers.
And of course would be, they think, horn to rule squad think the world could never
pay them enough. " o in a totalty phoney display of contrition for this, Dr I lewson
said on Friday, yes he'd cut Ml's' pay back. Ml's' pays have been caught up under
a now long standing series of arrangements where they are treated the sa1me
basically as members of the public service, he knows that.
ends.