Fax from j
PRIME MINISTER
17 August 1996
E&OE....
QUESTION: Mr Howard, welcome to South Australia and I am sure that we all hope that Mrs Howard
is now recovcring well from her operation. I wish to speak to you not as a citizen to the
Prime Minister but because we both belong to the Liberal Party. Liberals uphold the
right of people to control their own lives so long as thcy don't infringe on the riglhls of
others to control theirs, So I feel dismayed and betrayed that another Liberal, Kevin
Andrews, with your support should wish to go against the will of the Australian people.
For 44 years the Morgan Poll has shown majority support for active voluntary euthanasia.
For the past five years it has been an overwhelming 78%. My qucstion is how can you
justify a cruel law that makes criminals of humane doctors. Six surveys show
approximately one quarter of doctors are courageously breaking the law to accede to
requests from their dying, suffering paticnts. And secondly, is the continuation of this
dangcrous situation a good basis for public policy? Would not well supervised rcgulation
be preferable?
PRIME MINISTER:
It is precisely because we believe in individual conscience and personal liberty so
strongly that on matters such as this, we do not have a party view. There is no Liberal
Party view on euthanasia. There is a John Howard personal view, There is a Robert Hill
personal view, an Alexander Downer one and so forth. What Kevin Andrews is doing is
exercising his right as an individual Member of Parliamcnt to introduce a Private
18/ 08/ 96 10: 34 Pg: 1
Fax from 18/ 88/ 96 18: 34 Pg: 2
Member's Bill to give expression to his personal view and, if it attracts majority support,
the aggregate personal views of members of the House of Representatives and members
of the Senate. In no way is he in introducing that bill articulating a collective view of the
Liberal Party. I do not know what will happen to ultimately the legislation. I do not
know. I have indicated myself that personally, as John Howard, as a matter of
conscience I do not support the Northern Territory legislation. That's my personal view.
QUESTION: lIxcuse me Mr Howard but you're not answering my question.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I am, I am trying to treat it seriously and treat it in detail. Now as far as Morgan
Polls are concerned, I have never understood it to be a determinant of what a Party does
that it be instructed by the last poll that it reads or that an individual does. The
legislation that this Private Member's Bill seeks to overturn is not legislation of the
Australian Parliament, it is legislation of the Northern Territory Parliament. We do have
the legitimate constitutional power to do it. We have the right to, the national Parliament
has the right to override a law of the Northern Territory Parliament in this area. We do
not have the right to override a law of a state parliament. So what we are doing is quite
constitutional and quite proper. I don't know what the final outcome will be. I just ask
you to accept that just as you have a strong view on this subject as is evident from your
question, and I respect that view, I ask you to accept that there are other Liberals in good
conscience who have equally strong views and I ask you to accept that and I ask you to
allow the elected Members of Parliament to make their personal decisions on it. I don't
know the outcome but I promise you, if the Australian Parliament, whatever direction the
Australian Parliament votes in I will accept and I hope the majority of Australians will
accept. QUESTION: Diana Hill, Adelaide FEC. Mr Prime Minister, you touched on an area that's close to my
heart. I am involved in the education of overseas or international students in a secondary
setting and you touched upon that within your comments about the education policy. I
wondered whether you or the Minister might like to expand a little bit to reassure people
about places for international students in our tertiary bodies.
PRIME MINISTER:
We don't have any intention of changing current arrangements, none whatsoever. I was
trying to make the point that it's an odd argument that says it's all right to make places
available for people from other countries in our universities but not for Australians, and I
just think what should happen is that they should be made available on the same basis to
Australians, not that they should be taken away from by people overseas. I think it would
Fax from be very myopic of Australia to in any way close its doors to ovcrscas students. I think it's
one of the things that has helpcd build relationships betweeni this country arnd countrics in
the near north for example, that association.
QUESTION:
To the Honourable the Prime Minister. Firstly I would like to thank you for a
tremendous address and also on this occasion I take the opportunity on behalf of the
primary producers of South Australia to sincerely thank your Coalition Governmcnt for
leaving in place the fuel excise on diesel. Without that rebate, Mr Prime Minister, John
Howard, it would have bcri a catastrophe for South Australian farmers on top of
everything else to have that taken away and I'd like you to carry those thoughts back to
your Coalition Members. As a person who Is very interested in the cnvironmcnt, I ask
you the question, will the third of Telstra sale be stalled in the Senate and if' it is, where
will the environmental issucs and the environmcntal concerns that face South Australia,
whcre will they be placed?
PRINIE MINISTIER:
That rcally depends on the Senate, well more particularly it depends on the Labor Party
and the minor parties in the Scriate. There is no doubt that if you want to improve the
environmental circumstances of South Australia, if you want to vote in favour of cleaning
up the Murray Darling. you will vote in favour of a third sale of Testra, and any South
Australian Member of Parliamecnt who votes against a third sale of Teistra is voting
against thecenvironmental future. of this state. So I mcan I think that is unquestionably...
I hope we can get it through. I don't know yet. Robert may want to add somuthing. Ple
may know something that I don't. If he does, I'd love to hear it but on this subject it's a
secret. They run their own show, thcse Soniators, but I hope, we're working on it and will
try very hard but it's certainly in the interests of South Australia that it go through.
IlLL
It is so legitimate to sell a part of one asset to rebuild the capital into another which is
what we're seeking to do sell one third of a telecommunications company which is
owned by the Government, in order to reinvest part of that capital in another asset which
is our natural environment, and an environment that badly needs a major influx of
capital. That's why we've headed down this path and I give credit to John Howard
because many of you won't know but basically, it was John that came to the rcalisation
that we would not be able to fund the environment in the way that was necessary to
restore that natural capital, that we had to ind a new capital sourec and therefore there
were two things we were wanting to do if we cver sold assets. One was to repay de: bt so
we could keep pressure off interust rates. and so forth for the benefit of small business.
but he bclicvcd that there was one other legitimate purpose for which we could use that
capital and that was the reinviestmrcnt of our natural heritage. So the purpose is sound,
the methodology is sound and it is just so crazy that minority parties who claim to have
Fa raN18/ 08/ 96 10: 34 Pg: 3
Fax from been elected on an environmecnt constituency are going to block that capacity to reinvest
S1 billion in our enivironmont. So if you've got any influcnicc on those Grectns or those
Democrats, now is the time because it's an opportunity that simply must not be lost.
QU T: ST ION:-
My question is addressed to the Prime Minister, and firstly If I could say how joyous it is
to bo able to address a Liberal Prime Minister. The last time Nve had one I think I was
eleven so it's certainly a good thing to,.
PR IN1E N11I NISTE R:
H ow old are you now?
QI. ESTION:
24. It's certainly a good thing to be able to do but my question, I have been away for
several weeks so if the Prime Minister could bring me up to date as to the Governmennt's
position, will you be meeting with the Dallai Larna when he visits in the near future?
PRIME MINISTER:
My position on that is that if I did rcccive a reqyuest I would consider such a meeting
subject to my being in the country. it is quite possible that I will be in Japan and
lndoncsia for theparticular week that he is here. So if I did have such mceting it would
bc on the basis that Irn meeting him as the spiritual leader of his people, of which he is a
very significant one. And he is a man who's been to this country on a number of
occasions in the past. Trherc is no argumcnt about the character of our policy toward
Chiria. It is a one China policy. I don't see anything at all inconsistent in having a one
China policy and everybody knows what that mcans and certainly the Chincse
Government knows what is meant by a one China policy. Thcre is nothing inconsistcIt
in having a one China policy and meeting the Dalai Lama as the spiritual leader of his
pcoplc. I think it is an utterly sensible and consistent thing to do and it would hc a little
strange if the icircumnstances allowed it for the Prime Minister of this country if it were
mutually convenient for such a meeting to tnke place for him to participate in it. But it
should be understood by verybody as to the basis on which such a rmting would takc
place. QUESTION: Thank you Mr Chairman. Prime Minister I am a young farmer and the trouble is with the
banks at the moment they charge us one hell of a margin when we want to borrow
money. You can borrow the same amount of moncy to borrow a house and get a
considerably less margin. I just wonder what the Federal Govcrment is going to do,
F fom18/ 88/ 96 18: 34 PS: 4
Fax from well it's the samc for small business as well and just wonder what the Fzderal
Govcrnmen are going to do to the banks to try and address this imbalance bcnvwern
busincss and home loans. It is anything up To a 5 per cent margin and it is really is an
impost on jobs because on a Sl/ 2 million borrowing on a 5 per cent margin is S25.000
and that's a fair wage.
PRIMEMNISTER I don't have a magic wand solution to that but I can say this much, but the reason interest
rates for housing are lower now than what thcy might othcrwisc have bccn is that we
have a lot more competition in the provision of bank lending for housing. Indeed to
those who believe, and there may even be a few of them in the Liberal Party, I don't
know, who believe that competition is not always the right way to go. We'vc had a
classic demonstration in tht past few months of just how valuable competition can be
and that is in the area of housing loans. You would ncvcr have had the falls in housing
interest rates that occurred before the last downward niovcmcnt in the Reserve Bank
interest rate if it hadn't been for the competition injcctcd. into the systcrm by outfits like
Aussie Home Loans and RAMS and all those other org-anisations that are lending in
competition with the banks. Commonwealth Bank moved its interest rate down a few
months ago because it was losing markct share to thc small new entrants who arc
gobbling up loans at a very very rapid rate.
Now I suppose the answer to your question is that if the same circumstances of
competition in making money available to business existed in relation to making money
available for housing then you might start to sce some contraction of that margin, It's
interesting you asked me the question, that was one of the questions I did get at Winton
in Qucensland yesterday. I was asked that self-same question and I think that it is a very
legitimate qucstion to be asked and I think it ought to be discussd. and debated and! I
think the banks ought to be asked it. And I hope the Wallace Inquiry has a look at why it
is and I think it is about competition and I can't smrss too strongly that, I know people get
a bit suspicious of conmpetition on occasions but at the end of the day the consumer
normally benerits from more comnpetition. We're seeing it with telephone charges, we're
going to have Optus providing 20 cent telephone calls and who would have thought that
was likely. I mean, I can remember a rew years ago where we had a pretty spectacular
by-election result here in Adcaidc but everybody thought it would go in the other
direction, Now what you have got in the telecommnunications industry is you've got technology
which should compress price and then you add a bit of competition to that and presto.
you get a better deal for the consumer. Now in housing interest rates you have got a
better deal for the consumecr because thure is more competition. Now in my sort of
rcuble way I would think that if' you got more competition in relation to business loans
you mig~ ht 6vt a repeat of that, I don't know. And some of the economists might tell tre
thcre is complicated reason why it can't occur but I'nm not absolutely certain. But I don't
know the full answer to it but I think pcople in the rural sctor should talk about it as
Faxro'~ 18/ 08/ 96 10: 34 Pg:
Fax from loudly and as long as they can and I think that will start to have an influence because I
can sympaihise with you and I can understand why you get so cranky but there is such a
margin between loans, housing loans. W's not just all related to risk and sccurity bccause
that it part of the explanation but it's not the sole explanation for it.
STATE PRESIDENT
Prime Minister on behalf of the South Australian Division I want to thank you vcrv much
Fbr the time you've spent with us this afternoon and the manncr in which you've
addressed us and answered qucstions and I ak delegated to show their apprcciation.
end 18/ 88/ 96 10: 34 Pg: 6