E&OE.............................................................................................
LYNEHAM:
Prime Minister, welcome again to Nightline.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good evening Paul.
LYNEHAM:
What's wrong with the Democrats' idea of means testing
the health insurance rebate so that it cuts out after families earn
$50,000 and singles $30,000?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, a hell of a lot of Australian families now Mum and Dad both
working, where the total family income is nearly $50,000.
LYNEHAM:
They say you'd get 68% of families...
PRIME MINISTER:
But you've got to be out of touch with reality. You only need
Dad earning $30,000 and Mum earning $25,000 and you are chopped
out. That is leaving out half of middle Australia and if you want
to get coverage you've got to, in my view, have a non-means
tested rebate so that you get as many people as possible taking
out private health insurance. The name of the game is to get volume,
to get large numbers of people taking out private health insurance
to take the load off the public hospital system.
LYNEHAM:
And I'll bet you'd have private health insurance whether
you got the rebate or not. I would and a lot of people would.
PRIME MINISTER:
But I'm earning, by community standards, a very high income.
LYNEHAM:
So are you going to knock back the cheque?
PRIME MINISTER:
No...
LYNEHAM:
Why should you get it? Why should I get it?
PRIME MINISTER:
But that's not the point, because we represent a very small...
you and I earn incomes which are amongst sort of one or two per
cent of the community, and there is an enormous number of families
now who have combined incomes with both partners working, $60,000
- $70,000 a year. That is an increasingly common thing. Now, if
you had the Democrat approach, you knock them out.
LYNEHAM:
They say it would also free up about $800 million for things like
a real push on waiting lists, the dental scheme, all sorts of potentially
very useful...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you fix the waiting list, or you reduce them, if you get more
people into private health insurance because you take the strain
off the public hospitals. You cannot begin to reduce the waiting
lists until you arrest the drift of people out of private health
insurance. Even Graham Richardson, a former Labor health minister
agrees with that.
LYNEHAM:
And after a couple of years of premium price rises, don't
you end up back at square one, but with a huge annual bill to pay?
PRIME MINISTER:
No because you'll always be paying far less if you have a
rebate. Always.
LYNEHAM:
So the incentive is still there to keep in it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Absolutely.
LYNEHAM:
So your tax reform package went through the House of Reps today.
PRIME MINISTER:
A great day. I mean this is the biggest tax reform package ever
since federation and I am very proud of what the Government has
been able to do. We've now got to get it through the Senate,
which obviously will be harder, but we go to Christmas full of positive
thoughts about the future of tax reform.
LYNEHAM:
And when it gets to the Senate, those inquiries, isn't there
the danger they'll get all these experts pulling us to pieces
and public support will start to fall away?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't believe so. I think the public is awake up to the
fact that the Labor Party goes into those inquiries with a prejudiced
position. I mean, they've said that no matter what comes out
they are saying no, and I think the public will discount some of
the gloom and doom that will come out of the inquiry.
LYNEHAM:
But what about the independent experts who came in?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there are a lot of independent experts that will come in and
tell the Australian people how terrific the plan is. I've taken
this plan through the fire of an election campaign.
LYNEHAM:
On the jobs front, how can we have strong growth at around five
per cent yet unemployment bouncing back to eight per cent? Isn't
that a worry?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, unemployment is still too high and I didn't get overly
excited about the 7.7 per cent figure. I thought it was nice and
it will keep jumping around but the trend is certainly better, the
trend unemployment level is 7.9% which is a good deal better than
what we inherited, but it is a slow process and we won't make
further steps without things like unfair dismissal laws being passed
by the Parliament and some other reforms that will over time produce
a better outcome, but it is still a slog. And you need to have sustained
periods at that level of economic growth to get the benefit.
LYNEHAM:
But can we just wait for growth to provide jobs Prime Minister
because... (inaudible).. economy, it doesn't look like it
has been happening really...
PRIME MINISTER:
But Paul, there is no artificial way of generating jobs, and given
the quite proper Australian ethos of not having unacceptably low
wages, we need to be patient.
LYNEHAM:
Do you think it was also the era in which One Nation's bubble
finally burst?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yes I do, I think that was a very significant development. One
Nation came and started to go in 1998. I don't think it has
gone altogether, but it has certainly started to go. It's on
the way out but I don't think people can assume that it is
finished.
LYNEHAM:
And holidays again this year, same place?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think I may break the habit of a generation and not go to the
same place?
LYNEHAM:
Oh God, why?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'm not changing political parties or anything Paul.
LYNEHAM:
This is deeply significant ...
PRIME MINISTER:
It is, yes, it's writ large with meaning. I don't quite
know where we are going but I think it may well be for a combination
of reasons, including, I'm sorry to say, the intrusiveness,
not of Channel Nine I hasten to add, but some other media outlets
earlier this year...
LYNEHAM:
So you are not going to tell us where you are going?
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
LYNEHAM:
Well, wherever it is enjoy it.
PRIME MINISTER:
And you thank you. And merry Christmas to all of your listeners.
[ends]