TEL.: Mar. 94 13: 23 No. 019 P. 01/ 03
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KIZATINQ MP
RADIO SWP, RIUCHARD UTTING I MARCH 1II4
E AND OE PROOF ONLY
= T~ NO: Will her resignation finish this affair clo you think?
PM; I think so, If' s sntlally a Canberra poitical dust storm Which I think
Ros Kelly graclousiy hosed down yesterday and I think It More Is any lesson to be
loorned out of this the House of Representatives Cgmmlttee sold In its report that In
.11 future grants programs, this Is a grant progiram, there ought to be a sort of
schedule of appicatins that evaluates such projects and contains
recommendations to guide the ministes decisions. Now I think that I& probably
right and that some good Will come from It
UTTING; But Paul that should have been obvious some weelks ago and No
been a running sore as far as the Government Is oonoerned, hasn't it
PM. Well except thet things of course were z0 dsAffbuted last year and
the year before that so Whot'l dlStubut$ 4 can't be undistilbuted but essentilly tee
were relatvely small grants to amateur sporting organisations and you know there
has got to be some basis of evaluation. Now the evaluation was done by the
minister herself, whet the committee looking at this taid, well she should do It may
be but the administration should largely be Vith the department and well I think
tat' something we can take note of from this episode. The main thing Is that there
was no fraud involved In tttl. no Impropriety because these monies had to be
expended -befbre they woerahibursed. Oet a lot of programs, monies are
expanded to the U1mit and they are not then fully spent, well spent This one, the
local people had to spend the money and only after it was spent were they
reirnbursed by the Commonwealth so therefore Mie oceoson at fr~ ud was very
diminished, There IS no Indication, no hint of fraud or Impropdety Just In a sernse
dIssatisfact~ on with the way In which, with the ministees choice.
UTTI NG: It does appear that Labor. marginal -Labo electorates were favoured
by the allocation of gnnmts.
PM: I Well mostly Labor marginal electorates have a dearth of these sort of
fucilitie6, rietball courts and basketall courts end what have you whereas
established areas, you know your sort of Peppemnt Grove& and Dalkeiths, and
these sort of areas have got these things and they don't need them.
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2. LrrTING; It surely means that there should be Proper guldelind3 for the
allocation of thiese grants s0 that there Is no perception of poflica Wias-.
PM: Yes well thats a point I think In a sense I was making a moment ago
In refenlng to what the House of Rpreentatves Commite, said was this. in all
fMure grants programs there ought to provide a schedule of application that
evaluates the proposed pruJects and contains recommendations to guide the
ministers decuisone, In other words the minister Is just not sittng there himself or
herself saying yea or may to this one or that one.
IJTTING; But as Prime Minister Paul, you should have been aware of the
problems In this program some time ago and doneO something to remedy ft.
PM: Well the program lhes had great popular support Richard, You take
any of the sporting dlubs. I mean I sad the other day the way the Liberal Party haed
beaten up this thing you would mwar blind It was a terrlble thing to give money to
amsaur spairting dlubs. How does on amateu ' r sporting club that is looking for a
notball court or a basketball court or a bowling groen or call It what you like, raise
that sort of money, under what programs do ty get ft? Now as I said this thing
has a lot of virtue this program, a tremeindous amount of virtue. So It's really only
with t process of evaluation end not the program of t essence. The Liberal
Party put no money Into sport, never, they put peanuts In the 70s, they had two and
three million, we have got sort of sixty, eighty Million dollars a year going Into sport
now, that's both into elit, sport and Into amateur sport. They have attacked all
these programs as If ther Is something terribl, about giving funds to amateur
sporting themes whic I think are the salt of the earth type orgmnisations to give
funds to and therefore they don't really cam about areas which have been deprived
or groups who ara financlally strapped who have had these programs made
available to them. I think you have always got to keep an eye on what Is basically a
decet policy mnollvaton.
UTTING: Now you stood by Roo Kelly for a long Orme ever this. ' Met was the
straw that broke the earners back?
PM: The likelihood Is that she would have probably faced continuing
questioning about this and the House of Represetatives Committee cAine down
end sald there was adminIstrtve deficiencies In t way In which these wore
Issued but they made ft quite clear there was no frud or no Impropriety, so she
would have had that to deal with and of eourse we had t Opposifion with their
Piinka in the Senate. so It may have gone on for much longer at her expense. I
think that was her decision but Richard I thinK its worth concentrating on this point.
The real story in today's papers I* the penl of The Austalin and this Is what Is
running the Liberal Pa" t. I wAl just read you the first paragraph It says, despite the
Coalition's politeal success In forebig the resignation of the cabinet miniser over " i
so called spoats torts afar, voter dIssaifacton with the Leader of the Oppositon
Dr Hewson has reached an all time highi.----
LifTING: This Is the whole point Isn't kt you nlow can take the attack up to the
Opposition rather than having t1he hoomorrtaging 0f tne & pan& s rtn thing distrctng
evelytIng. TEL:
TEL
3, PM: That's right I spenlt last Friday in Hobart w" t? the Premiers putting
together what was a lanidmark~ change In the adoption of competon policy within
ths great Overnment buisiness enterprises of this country, that Is the electricity
authorities, the water authorities, the ports, all of thees orgaisatione. Now tais.
huge change, they have always been cosattad these organlsatloris. They charge
mostly monopoly prices, you could sM whom the Commonwealth Imtrouced
competition Into telecommunications West Australians would nodie most particuany
how STD prices have come down to the rst of Australia because of competition to
Telecom. We In the Federal Government have been tyilng to got t States to
agree to competitin within those Mtate authorifies. This was agreed In prl~ pie last
Friday In Hobart Now it Is these matters of substance Richard, like the other thing
we are doing now, looking at the Wog term unemployed which maters and The
Australian poll Is basicall right Wile ever the Oppositon wants to basically get
Involved In Canberra dust storms of this variety thiey have not been able to translatel
it Into any political success and the poll published this morning basicaly would mean
that If we went to an election this week the Government would win.
LITTING: Now talkIng about peraps not long term unemployed but someone
who Is taking it a bit easy I guess, whers Ros Kellys political future now?
PM: she win remin a member of the House of -Representative. for
Canbeirr which Is the prImary role a person In Paiament has and she can just
make het own mind up then about what she thinks, what she wants her career
prospects to be. But she has been a very aignificlant Minister for the Envirnment
ane of the core matters agreed upon lost Friday was lhe adoption at the Council of
Austral Ian Qlovermmnt tt Is the Commonwealt and the States of standards for'
air and water uality and nwo pollution which ame care environmental mattr.. The
quality of water and th. quality of alt and national standards, This It one of the
things that thi country needed, this is someth'ing, a milestone thing she negotiated
as environment minister so silo has haed a very Important career In public life had
four year* as Ministeir for the Environment In Cabinet and chalked up great
succeuses and most particlarly last Friday the very day she was under attack,
ENDS i mar 4 16 5 10 U I J UD/