E&OE.................................................................................................
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, what do you make of Peter Costello's remarks
(inaudible) about taking over the leadership?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, I guess with a big party when you have done a lot of things
and you are pursuing a very active reform agenda you will always
get a few rumblings.
JOURNALIST:
But Mr Costello hasn't outrightly denied that that's
the case. Is that a concern to you?
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
JOURNALIST:
........there are some in your party who may have done that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Glenn, in any political party you'll always have, particularly
if it's big and a big majority, you'll always have a few
people who are a bit unhappy with the boss, that's always the
case. Bob Menzies had it, every Prime Minister's had it. I
am not concerned by it at all.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, has the Treasurer passed on any of those rumblings
to you?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have a lot of discussions. The Treasurer has been a very good
Treasurer and a very good Deputy, and a very good friend.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, what came out of the Cabinet meetings with regards
to Telstra?
PRIME MINISTER:
We are still part heard. We are still going on, the meeting, that
is.
JOURNALIST:
Will you go to the next election seeking a mandate for the full
sale of Telstra?
PRIME MINISTER:
Didn't you hear my speech, Michael?
JOURNALIST:
Yes. Same question.
PRIME MINISTER:
Really? I have lost my powers of advocacy, the answer is yes.
JOURNALIST:
Is it more likely now the Government will sell Telstra in stages
and the next tranche will take it up to 49 per cent?
PRIME MINISTER:
Fleur, that was always going to be on the cards. It was never going
to be possible to sort of do it all at once. Never.
JOURNALIST:
Is 49 per cent a good figure to take it up to?
PRIME MINISTER:
I like 51, particularly when it comes to elections.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, how is it in any way helpful for your Deputy to
publicly acknowledge that there are people after your job?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think people are always after the top job in politics. There's
nothing unusual about that. I mean, I'd be the last person
in Australian political life to decry ambition.
JOURNALIST:
So have you spoken to the Treasurer about his remarks this morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't see any particular need as of now to have done
so.
JOURNALIST:
Won't those rumblings increase though while the polls stay
so low?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look, the polls are no good at the moment. I understand that
but they'll get better and we'll win the election but
it was inevitable in the wake of what happened in Queensland that
some people were going to get disoriented and some people were going
to run around a little bit in disorder but that'll settle down,
and particularly when the tax package is released.
JOURNALIST:
But the polls aren't a short-term thing though, your Government
has been showing up badly in the polls for quite some time now.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't want to have a long debate about the polls but
I seem to recall two months ago in the wake of the budget in Newspoll,
which some people take more notice of than others, we were back
to where we were straight after the 1996 election.
JOURNALIST:
So the tax policy will be the circuit breaker you think?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't use terms like circuit breaker but what you have
at the moment is people expectantly waiting for the policy and it's
obviously a very big event in the life of the Government and it
will obviously help shape people's attitudes towards the Government
and they'll see that the Coalition stands for tax reform. And
there's Kim Beazley and Pauline Hanson holding hands against
tax reform. I think it will fix their mind on who is for progress
and who is for regression and who is for the future and who is for
the past.
JOURNALIST:
Are you disappointed you didn't get a boost out of the passage
of the Wik legislation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well everything is relative when it comes to boosts, Michael.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, have you felt coming to Bendigo just a slight apprehension
knowing that Pauline Hanson is speaking on the same day?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, should I?
JOURNALIST:
Has there been any, knowing that there's a protest reaction...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't know what other people are doing in relation
to her visit. Let me take the opportunity of saying, however, that
violent demonstrations against Mrs Hanson are undemocratic, they
are not in the pattern of Australian politics and you could almost
believe that those demonstrators were being paid by One Nation because
what those demonstrators are doing is attracting sympathy towards
Mrs Hanson. Those people are very foolish if they imagine that those
sorts of demonstrations are going to drive people away.
People don't want violence. I find the sight of an 85 year
old man with his face bleeding, staggering into a meeting, disgusting
absolutely disgusting. And the people who are responsible
for that kind of behaviour are the enemies of democracy and free
speech in this country. I think that sort of behaviour is absolutely
disgusting and so far from that helping expose the futility of the
Hanson agenda, and it is a futile agenda, it will in fact attract
sympathy to the person and that is regrettable because I think people
should just stand back and have a look at what she is saying and
what the solutions are and then the support will peel away. But
if you think by yelling abuse, throwing punches, shouting obscenities
and engaging in mindless chants, you are going to change anybody's
mind you don't understand the mood and the temper of the Australian
people.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, can I ask one thing about this morning's ceremony.
You said it was one of the highlights of your Prime Ministership.
Was it all the more important because of the family connection?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes it was, I did feel...my as you know, my father and grandfather
fought together on the Western Front. My father was 20 and my grandfather
was 45 and I have always felt because of that an emotional identification.
I think he was just a wonderful old man. I think, he's 107,
he's our oldest digger and I just thought it was a terrific
occasion. I mean that man embodies so much of what we believe in
ourselves as Australians - his youth, his sense of adventure, his
commitment, his reckless sort of indifference to too much authority,
all of those things we love about Australia, he embodied and I thought
it was a fantastic ceremony. I was very moved by it.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't know how you can be in Coalition with a party whose
economic policies are virtually indistinguishable from those of
the Labor Party.
JOURNALIST:
So you rule out (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have already ruled it out, full stop, kaput, finished. Thank
you.
[ENDS]