PRIME MINISTER 2q3 25/ 9
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON PJ KEATING MP
ERRORS IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
The Federal Government has no plans to introduce a permanent honour
guard to officiate at ceremonial welcomes and no such plan has been
considered by me.
The story in today's Sydney Morning Herald suggesting that I asked the
Defence Department to consider forming such a permanent honour
guard is riddled with errors and omits a specific denial issued by my
office last night.
My office told the newspaper such a guard would be " out of the
question" due to the high cost of establishing such a unit.
I understand that the newspaper made no effort to contact Senator Ray
or his office about the story.
I have not suggested to the Department of Defence that it consider
forming a " permanent honour guard" for visiting dignitaries.
Last year I asked PM& C officials to look at the question of welcoming
ceremonies to see if their form was still relevant to contemporary
Australia.
As a result, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet had some
official level discussions, including with the Department of Defence,
about these matters.
The Defence Department advised PM& C officials that the ADF is finding
it increasingly difficult to meet the traditional requirements for honour
guards to greet high-level civilian and military visitors as growing
numbers of uniformed defence personnel are now located out of
Canberra.
Defence advised that one option to meet this need would be the
formation of a permanent ceremonial guard unit, but that this would be
costly. This Defence proposal was not taken up by my Department and I was
not made aware of it.
I have not been " highly impressed" with " French ceremonial welcomes"
because I have never had a French ceremonial welcome. I have not
made a state visit to France.
No RAAF VIP fleet Boeing 707 has " had a $ 14 million refit", nor is any
$ 14 million refit underway. The newspaper did not ask my office about
this matter. I have in fact specifically ruled out the construction of a
permanent VIP suite in the aircraft.
The only work currently being looked at is on noise mitigation for the VIP
fleet. CANBERRA 29 March 1995