PRICE:
[Tape begins]...the people who manage your image might be better
off making sure that that did happen.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'll pass on what you've said to them. It's
a question of striking a balance. If you look, as a politician,
that you're only doing something for the publicity then the
Australian public's pretty smart you know, they can see through
it and it's a question of striking a balance.
PRICE:
You were on the air commenting when Graeme Wood dropped the magic
word when he dropped that catch. That must have been interesting.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, but it was a spontaneous human reaction. Very, very spontaneous.
PRICE:
Melbourne seems to have been chosen to get a bit serious as the
front for a challenge to the waterfront labour monopolies. Why Melbourne?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that's something you would have to ask the National
Farmers Federation and Patricks. What is occurring is a result of
the law changes that we introduced when we changed the Industrial
Relations Act and we made it possible for there to be more competition
on the Australian waterfront. And what the NFF is doing is to exercise
the right of any group of Australians and that is to start a new
business and to offer a better service to the public. And if it
can do that then good luck to it and it will have the total support
of the Government and it ought to have the total support and the
total sympathy of the business community in Australia because we
do need a more efficient waterfront.
The inefficiency of the Australian waterfront is legend. It is
effecting our trade performance. And nobody can expect to have a
monopoly whether it's in business or as a trade union. And
what the MUA is arguing for is a maintenance of its monopoly. I
mean, people should understand that. But what the MUA wants is the
preservation of a monopoly which no other section of the Australian
community would be allowed to get away with.
PRICE:
When did you first become aware of the NFF plan?
PRIME MINISTER:
I heard generally about it a reasonably short while ago. I can't
remember exactly when. But you've got to remember that we have
never disguised our desire for there to be more competition on the
Australian waterfront. And over the years I've talked to innumerable
business men and women about the need for change and reform on the
Australian waterfront. I've lost count of the number of discussions
I've had with that, not only the Farmers Federation, but miners,
manufacturers, other people in business. I don't disguise the
fact that I welcome a challenge to the monopoly position of the
MUA because monopolies are bad. They're bad when they're
enjoyed by companies and they are bad when they're enjoyed
by governments and they are bad when they're enjoyed by trade
unions. And it puzzles me that some of the people who most vigorously
attack monopolies in the hands of companies, when it comes to a
trade union thing it's perfectly okay to shut non-union labour
out of a particular commercial activity.
PRICE:
Had a couple of wharfies on the phones this afternoon saying it's
a bit hypocritical of the farmers to be doing this when they're
one of the greatest protected species in Australia.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that is just wrong. The Australian farmer has less protection
than any other section of the Australian business community. The
Australian farmer is one of the least protected in the world. I
mean, I'm sorry, they are just completely ignorant of the facts
when they make those assertions. The farmers have progressively
lost all of their protection. And one of the problems of the Australian
farmer is that he is struggling in a world where the farmers against
which he competes get a lot of protection. The Japanese, the American
and the European farmers get massive subsidies. The Australian farmers
don't. And Australian farmers not only have to compete against
their subsidised brethren in other countries, but they also have
to often put up with the additional domestic costs brought about
by monopoly trade union practises. So for wharfies to assert that
is to assert something that is simply not true.
PRICE:
Michael O'Leary is a national organiser with the Maritime
Union of Australia. He says this is about Peter Reith showing that
he's got a hairy chest.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, the Australian public will want a better argument than
that to be sympathetic to the MUA. I mean, I just take you back
to what is happening. What is happening is that a group of people
are exercising their democratic right within the law to start a
new business venture which will provide competition to existing
stevedores and will use non-union labour. And the MUA is complaining
because the monopoly held by the MUA could be threatened. Now, that's
what's at stake. It's got nothing to do with hairy chests
or protected farmers or anything else.
PRICE:
Does it concern you though when you see riot shields being pulled
out of the back of buses down there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, what concerns me is the belligerent language, the threats
of intimidation and the resort to the language of confrontation
employed by, thus far, by the MUA. That's what disturbs me.
The farmers aren't talking the language of confrontation.
They're not. The people who are talking the language of confrontation
are the members of the Maritime Union of Australia.
PRICE:
Will this be an election year, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't know. There could be an election this year. It's
not constitutionally due until March of next year. Whether it's
some time this year or some time early next year, I don't know.
I've said before that it will be at the right time. I haven't
decided what that time is. In the meantime, as I indicated yesterday
in the plans I laid out for the year, we're getting on with
the job of governing. And we have a number of major things we want
to do this year. We want to reform taxation system or lay out our
plans for that. And I announced yesterday a number of initiatives
that extend the principle of mutual obligation. We're putting
resources into generating another 25,000 Work for the Dole places.
We're going to help unemployed people whose literacy and numeracy
skills, or lack of those skills, are preventing them getting work.
And we're going to pilot a number of other schemes to help
the unemployed. And all up we're putting an additional $380
million over four years into helping tackle the problem of youth
unemployment. So, we have a lot ahead of us and a lot of things
that we want to do. We want to see the tax system fixed.
PRICE:
When will I know the change to my personal income tax rate?
PRIME MINISTER:
Before the election.
PRICE:
How...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you will have a good opportunity to assess what we are offering
the Australian public before the election. Unlike the Labor Party
we are prepared to tackle taxation reform. The Labor Party is telling
the Australian public that we don't have to do anything more
to reform the economy despite the fact that the Asian region is
experiencing this huge meltdown and despite the fact that that really
means we have to run even faster and become even more competitive.
The Labor Party is trying to spin the yarn that we can just go to
sleep and do absolutely nothing.
PRICE:
So you will give us the time to debate those tax changes?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course you will have the time to debate them, of course.
PRICE:
And there will be meaningful changes to the personal income tax
breaks?
PRIME MINISTER:
There certainly will be.
PRICE:
Have you written your Constitutional Convention speech yet?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, but I have got the elements of what I will be saying I have
been talking about over the past few weeks. I support the present
system, not because I have any sort of nostalgic attachment to the
present system, I support it because it works very well. But I am
saying that what the Convention should do is to produce an alternative
to the present system so that the Australian public can make a choice.
We all know that one of the choices, when the referendum comes,
will be the maintenance of the present system, that will be one
option. But we don't really know what the republican option
is. And there are a lot of people I know who say, look if the republic
involves a president chosen in a particular fashion then I will
vote for a republic, but if it involves a president chosen in another
fashion I won't vote for a republic.
So you really have to define and clarify what the alternatives
to the present system is so that people can make a sensible choice.
And that is what I have been arguing for, and I have indicated that
for my own part I support the present system. But if I were forced
to nominate a choice amongst the republican alternatives, I think
that advocated by the former Victorian Governor Mr McGarvie is preferable
to the direct election of the president which would be the worst
of the alternatives. Direct election of a president would fundamentally
alter the present system, it would create a rival political power
centre. You could have a Liberal Prime Minister, a Labor President,
who has been popularly elected and you could have the Senate controlled
by the Australian Democrats. I don't think you could get anything
done in those circumstances.
PRICE:
How long will you spend at the Convention over the 10 days it's
operating?
PRIME MINISTER:
I will participate in the Convention each of the days that it is
on. I will spend a lot of time there. I am required, because of
my other responsibilities to do other things and I will probably
have to pay a visit or two out of Canberra during that period of
time. But at some stage of each of the days that the Convention
is sitting I expect to be there. So I won't be a part-time
casual participant. I intend to take this Convention very seriously.
PRICE:
Does it disappoint you that the Victorian Premier only intends
to spend half a day there of the ten days it on and didn't
bother to vote?
PRIME MINISTER:
That is a matter for him. It is a free country and it was a voluntary
vote. And one of the things that we have to find out about this
issue is how passionately people feel about change. I don't
detect a sense of urgency in the Australian community about changing
our Head of State. I detect a lot of people who, when they are asked
say, oh yeah that is not a bad idea we probably should do it, but
they don't have any sense of passion or urgency. And I think
what they want to do is to be told what exactly is on offer and
what is the alternative to the present system. And when they know
that they will make their decision.
PRICE:
Were the changes to nursing homes last year, is your private polling
showing that that has hurt you across Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't talk about private polling because that is a contradiction
in terms, it is no longer private if I talk about it. And in any
event we don't adjust our policies according to polling. We,
obviously made some errors in that area, I acknowledged those and
I have fixed it. And I made it very plain that we had made some
errors and I think it is always important that governments fix things
that they are responsible for. And I am not a person who pretends
that from time to time errors aren't made and where they are
made they should be fixed and acknowledged. And that is exactly
what we have done and we have got the nursing home situation on
a proper footing. We do have to get more capital into nursing homes
because many of them are dilapidated and run down and in need of
a big capital injection. And it either must come from the ordinary
taxpayer, through the budget, or it has got to come from people
who can afford to do so who need to use nursing homes.
Now I don't think it is unreasonable to say to people who
can afford to do so that they should make a contribution, or their
families should make a contribution towards their care. Because
if that doesn't happen it has got to come out of the budget
and that means your tax will be higher.
PRICE:
Are you concerned about a potential breakdown in civil law in Indonesia?
PRIME MINISTER:
I am concerned about Indonesia generally. It is facing a very difficult
economic situation, the increases in the price of food will be very
severe for a large part of the population which is still quite poor.
And it is Australia's responsibility to be concerned about,
and to be involved as we have been. We have participated very, very
extensively in helping in the restructure of the Indonesian economy
and also that of Thailand and Korea. I don't want to be alarmist
and I respect, of course, the domestic right of the Indonesian people
to deal with their own political problems. But it is a major area
of concern.
PRICE:
Just finally. Do you think, and I am not referring to you in anyway
here, do you think an Australian politician, a leading Australian
politician, could survive the sort of scandal that is whirling around
the ears of the US President, Bill Clinton at the present time?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there is no way that I can answer that without making an observation
on what is happening in the United States concerning the President
and I respect his office, I respect him and I am not going to buy
into that. That is a matter for him to deal with, it is not appropriate
for an Australian Prime Minister to comment on that sort of thing
because there is no way that a comment on that can be, or ought
to be made in isolation. I have found in my dealings with President
Clinton that he is a highly intelligent, competent person with whom
to deal. He has been an effective President, his dealings with Australia
have always been very fair and very open and I have had quite a
lot of personal dealing with him since I've become Prime Minister
and I have found him a good listener and somebody who is interested
in the Australian point of view.
Now what is happening in the United States concerning his Presidency
is a matter for him to deal with and it is
is a matter for him to deal with and it is just not appropriate
for me in anyway to make a comment that could be put in the context
of that situation.
PRICE:
Prime Minister I appreciate very much you giving us so much of
your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much.
[Ends]