E&OE...........................................................
SATCHELL:
Prime Minister, welcome this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, nice to talk to you again, Phillip. How are you keeping?
SATCHELL:
Prime Minister, I gather that you just, well, your car was just
behind a spot of trouble on the road to Para Hills.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, yes, there was an accident and a car had been overturned and
fortunately, apart from the shock that people have, nobody seemed
to have been hurt and I spoke to the driver and inquired of him,
and whatever, and thankfully nobody had been hurt. I can't
comment any more than that because the police came and investigated
it and it's not for me to make any observation about what had
happened.
SATCHELL:
One of my colleagues was interested to know what your first aid
skills were like?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, they weren't needed.
SATCHELL:
They weren't needed.
PRIME MINISTER:
They weren't needed. Fortunately and I'm, you know, it's
always extraordinary, a car turned over on its side and another
one smashed in and nobody was hurt, and yet you can get relatively
minor bumps and people can sustain serious injury. It just shows
how unpredictable life is.
SATCHELL:
Always shakes you up a bit, though, doesn't it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, anything does, that's true but fortunately...
SATCHELL:
This one's okay.
PRIME MINISTER:
...there was no blood spilt and that's terrific.
SATCHELL:
Prime Minister, I had the privilege this morning, I must say, of
speaking to Colin Cooper, who was the Commander of the Cessnock
that the ship got away from, the Indonesian fishing ship got away
from. It's quite interesting because he did everything according
to the guidelines that he could do, short of blasting it out of
the water, and he said: That's really all I can do now,
I just have to hand it back to the politicians,' and I suppose
ultimately that means hand it back to you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can understand that and like all of these incidents you have
to assess what happens against the rules that apply and what can
and can't be done. I don't have, I will naturally get
a report on precisely what happened and some advice on whether there
should be any changed procedures. You will understand that it is
no light thing to engage in hostilities in a situation like this
and I will naturally be talking to the Defence Minister and my other
colleagues about it.
SATCHELL:
What would you say to the Indonesians though, in terms of what
they should do to keep their own ships out because clearly you can't
shoot them out of the water, can you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, of course, I don't mean we...that would be seen as a
hostile act. Well, we would say, certainly, and we will be conveying
as we have in the past our concern about this activity, and they,
I guess in the past have responded to the effect, well they don't
approve of it and they deplore it and they don't want it to
happen. But, no country can be held ultimately, perhaps, well, can't
be regarded as being able to control it, let me put it that way,
the activities of all of its nationals. It might in some way be
held accountable for it but we can't control or be responsible
directly for the misbehaviour of some Australians in other circumstances
and I guess that applies to other countries. But, it's just
one of those difficult issues where we have a clear national interest
in curtailing this activity. There are limits to what we can do
consistent with our friendly relations with other countries when
we are dealing with the nationals of those countries that are violating
our legitimate interest.
SATCHELL:
Prime Minister, with the news, and it is very positive news I would
have to say from the Government on Australia Post, keeping it pretty
much...in spite of the advice that you received from the competition
people but, to keep things very much in place, particularly in the
country. Is that in effect Pauline Hanson and One Nation starting
to bite a bit?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it's just a sensible decision. It's got nothing to
do with Pauline Hanson. We've got to stop looking at decisions
of the Government in the context of Pauline Hanson. I mean, we were
going to take that sort of balanced decision anyway. We have had
a long standing policy that Australia Post should remain in public
ownership. We in fact have reversed the closure of post offices
in the country. There were a lot of post offices closed in the country
under the Labor Government and we've reversed that and that
process started long before Pauline Hanson formed One Nation. It's
got nothing to do with her, it's just got everything to do
with having a balance in policy making. We are a reformist Government,
but we don't believe in change for its own sake. We believe
in change where there is a public benefit. We support the sale of
Telstra because it will help halve Australia's Federal Government
debt and the interest saving on that debt can be spent on roads
and schools and hospitals.
SATCHELL:
But the, interestingly Rob Borbidge in Queensland is saying really,
you are just playing into their hands. He's in fact taking
them seriously and saying that you are playing into their hands
by not, by trying to sell it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I haven't heard what Rob Borbidge has said but leaving
that aside....
SATCHELL:
Well, what he actually said was that Richard Alston's determination
to sell all of Telstra shows that he's not listening to the
message from the voters.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you've got to remember, Phillip, that the Queensland
election was about the State Government, it wasn't about the
Federal Government and the response that I have is that what you've
got to do is always take decisions in the interests of Australia.
If you believe that something is good for Australia, is for Australia's
benefit, then you do it. If you don't think it's in Australia's
interest, then you don't do it. If you take decisions based
on how it will be seen in reaction to another political party, you'll
end up making some very bad policy decisions. I think the worst
thing that any Government could do in current circumstances is to
say now, I've got a decision I've got to take, how will
that be seen in the light of what another political party thinks?
I think the Australian public would regard a Government with contempt
if it did that. I think what the public wants us to do is to listen
to them, make up our minds as to what we believe is the best for
Australia and then go ahead and do it and I honestly believe that
if we sell the whole of Telstra, we will be able to use about $40
billion as the proceeds and that will cut in half the total Federal
Government debt of Australia. We'll have all of the interest
saved on that $40 billion and that can be spent in some years into
the future. It can be spent on roads and health and education and
all the things that the Government is required to support.
SATCHELL:
Prime Minister, we understand there's been a breakdown in
the negotiations with the Northern Land Council over the rail corridor
from the Alice Springs to Darwin. Is this, you're obviously
going to have to come into this presumably?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we guaranteed that we would act if agreement could not be
achieved and that was part of the commitment that I gave to Mr Olsen
and Mr Stone. Mr Stone came to see me in Sydney last weekend to
give me details of what had happened and he's since written
to me requesting that legislation be introduced. I'm getting
advice on that and I'll be responding to him next week. I did
tell him that we would honour in full the commitment we made to
South Australia and the Northern Territory. Obviously if there could
be an agreement reached with the Land Council and the Northern Territory
Government, that would be good. But, if it can't be reached
then obviously we will have to step in and do what we can because
we are determined to see that railway go ahead. We are not only
willing to provide money, we are also willing to provide legislative
backing. We're not seeking to have the indigenous councils
treated unfairly, but apparently, according to Mr Stone, some unreasonable
demands have been made and he feels that the negotiations have reached
a point where some intervention will be necessary, but it will be
on fair terms and proper grounds.
SATCHELL:
Prime Minister, just one other thing. The Centrelink question,
we've picked up that there is just a tremendous load on the
telephone system. In fact, the director was telling us that it is
a million calls a day that they're getting and it's exponential
growth. Again, are you going to have to in fact help them in some
way?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we'll do that if it is necessary. It's an interesting
thing that there's been such an increase. I think the Centrelink
concept has worked extraordinarily well. People now see it as the
one focal point for getting assistance....
SATCHELL:
But, you can't get through to them....
PRIME MINISTER:
....information. Well, if there's a problem, we'll obviously
fix it.
SATCHELL:
I mean it is a terrible problem and it is just growing, just people
just can't get there.
PRIME MINISTER:
If there is a significant problem then we'll obviously fix
it. I'll talk to the Minister for Social Security who's
responsible for....(inaudible) ...about that.
SATCHELL:
Prime Minister, can I just ask you one other thing and that's,
I've often wondered whether you've ever regretted cancelling
Pauline Hanson's preselection?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I haven't. Well, that was the decision that was taken
by the Party organisation in Queensland. I was consulted about the
decision.
SATCHELL:
None of this would have happened though.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that is the equivalent of saying that principle doesn't
count, isn't it?
SATCHELL:
Prime Minister thank you for taking the time to talk to us this
morning.
[ENDS]