E&OE...............................................
PRIME MINISTER:
The last year has been very good for us internationally. We had
a stunning success at the Kyoto Conference against all predictions,
and all of my critics were proved wrong, and all of the Government's
critics. They said it couldn't be done, the Labor Party wanted
us to capitulate to European pressure. We have got an outcome that
is good for the environment, good for Australian industry, gets
the developing countries in touch with the process. We achieved
what we set out to do against all expectations.
GRANT:
How do you think, now, that most of the candidates are identified,
the Constitutional Convention might pan out? A worthwhile exercise?
PRIME MINISTER:
The Constitutional Convention will be a lot better, a lot more
successful, and it will generate a lot more public interest than
the cynics thought likely. It really will be a great moment in Australia's
history. What the Convention has got to do, above everything else,
is to settle on a republican alternative. Whether you are a republican
or an anti-republican, we all know what the status quo is, we don't
know what the alternative is. And what I want republicans and non-republicans
alike to do at the Convention is to make up their mind what kind
of republic Australia should be if it decides to become a republic.
And then we can have a proper vote, a proper contest, a proper assessment.
GRANT:
What happens though if after two weeks talking in February there
is a nil result, no outcome, no proper alternative is decided upon?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am an optimist Dennis, and I will be prodding, and pushing, and
cajoling and persuading as Prime Minister, the delegates to reach
an agreement. There is no point in having gone to all of this trouble,
staged this Convention, there is no point in walking away from it
without having reached, at least a conclusion on what the alternatives
are. It is not up to the Convention to decide whether or not Australia
will become a republic, it is up to the Convention, sure to talk
about that issue, but above everything else to define the republican
alternative.
GRANT:
Noel Pearson, he has had an interesting week. He is telling friends
that he may stand as an independent right here in your seat, Bennelong,
are you worried about that?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. It is a free country. It would probably split the Labor vote
a bit. But that is up to him, I don't mind. I think what is
interesting about Noel is that, where as the Labor Party rapidly
embraced Mrs Kernot it seems to be running away from him, despite
the fact that he has had quite a close association with the Labor
Party over the years and there is certainly not much doubt in the
minds of most observers that his politics have always been much
more Labor than anything else.
GRANT:
One of the things that I am very curious about is the politics
of the stolen children argument. I mean, we are in a position now
where clerics are going to be thundering from their pulpits calling
for an apology, where reporters are going to be trailing you around
the country saying what about an apology, why is it so hard. Surely,
from a political point of view, wouldn't it be just much easier
dealt with and got out of the road?
PRIME MINISTER:
You have got to do what you believe is right on something like
this, not what is political. I have said on several occasions and
I say it again tonight, that personally I am very sorry for any
ill-treatment or any discrimination against the Aboriginal people
of Australia, no matter when it occurred. I don't have any
personal difficulty at all in saying that. I just believe though
that the proposition that there should be a formal national apology
in relation to events that when occurring were sanctioned by the
law of the time, and were thought at the time by many people, however
ineptly and we now believe, to have been in the best interests of
the community. Now, I think to get
into formal national apologies in circumstances like that is just
not appropriate. That doesn't alter the fact that if you ask
me as an individual, do I feel that things were done wrong by some
people? Of course I do. And am I sorry for the suffering? Of course
I am. I have never had any difficulty saying that, nor have any
of my colleagues. But I think once you get into the area of formal
national apologies it raises all sorts of other implications and
establishes all sorts of other precedents. And I think there are
a lot of people in Australia who understand that my reluctance and
unwillingness to do that does not suggest, in any way, that I am
insensitive and lack compassion. It is just a view as to what is
appropriate.
[Ends]