PM Transcripts

( 9~
PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
DOORSTOP ON ARRIVAL AT RAAF FAIRBAIRN, CAN BERUA
MARCH 1995
E& OE PROOF COPY
PM.: I might just say a couple of things about the trip it was, for me, as
successful as I could have had, this visit to Germany the third largest
economy in the world and then to Holland where we have a good bilateral
trade and investment relationship, but where the relatior; hip
needed to be w-armed up, and I think that has happened too. The visit
I had with Chancellor Kohl couldn't have been better the policy
discussions couldn't have been better I think there is a wider
appreciation now of the policy innovations in Australia, the grow-th wye
are having with low inflation which most Europeans could only dream
about the high employment in Australia, how we have done it, and
what we might do with Germany and with Europe. At the same time, of
course, I went to the CeBIT Fair, which is the largest information,
technology and telecommunications fair in the world, and we
Australian companies are already writing tens of millions of dollars of
business. We had 170 companies there ten years ago in this
country, before this Government came to office, we would have been
lucky to have had ten companies there. So it's an indication of the
huge technological chE nge and product innovation which Australians
have been able have been capable of and we had very warm praise
for the quality of the exhibits we had there.
J: Should you have raised domestic issues while you were over there?
PM: There are always domestic issues being raised there, on overseas
visits, and so we will be dealing with those as we come ho) me. But as
far as Mr Howard is concerned, I will be just leaving him to his
conscience.
ends.