SATTLER:
Are you there, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, how are you?
SATTLER:
Thanks for joining us. Well, how accurately does The Australian
newspaper report that story today?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can't help you on that, Howard. All I can say is that it's
a great plan that will give Australia a much better economic future.
SATTLER:
Okay, but where is it at at the moment? Can you tell us that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, we're well down the track and it will be released soon.
It's involved a lot of work. There are a few more internal
government processes to be gone through. But I am very enthusiastic.
It is a great plan for Australia's economic future. It's
a new tax system. That's what we're offering the Australian
public, a better one, one that will make us more competitive, one
that will lift our living standards, one that will generate jobs
and one that will attract investment.
SATTLER:
Okay, but it has been approved by Cabinet now, has it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we've gone through Cabinet. And, Howard, I'm not
going to go through the details of the processes. I will talk...
SATTLER:
No, but don't you think we're entitled to know when we're
going to see it.
PRIME MINISTER:
You will have it out quite soon. I'm not going to tell you
when because I'm not absolutely certain of the precise day
but it is very close. And I can't help you any more than that
and I think that's perfectly reasonable because I do have to
respect the processes of the party. It has to be approved by my
colleagues and I respect their views and I intend to consult them
and until that has taken place, I can't say any more.
SATTLER:
But how much of a say will they have in it? When you say your colleagues,
I take it...
PRIME MINISTER:
My colleagues have been involved a great deal in this and...
SATTLER:
This is the backbench as well.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the backbench have been expressing views about taxation now
for a long time. Howard, this package tackles something that should
have been done years ago. Labor had 13...
SATTLER:
Well, no one was game to do it. I mean...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, of course they're not. Nobody's been game to do
it. Labor had 13 years to fix the tax system and all we're
getting now from Mr Beazley is blind, negative opposition. Mr Beazley
is against a lot of things, he stands for nothing. He doesn't
believe in reforming our tax system. He'd abolish our work-for-the-dole
system. He'd abolish our youth allowance system. Both of those
schemes have instilled a work ethic in young Australians. Mr Beazley
is great at destroying and spoiling and opposing but he doesn't
stand for any change and reform for Australia's future.
SATTLER:
Yeah, okay. But, again, you say it's coming soon. Is it days
or is it weeks or is it months? Can you tell us that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's certainly not months.
SATTLER:
Right.
PRIME MINISTER:
It's somewhere between days and weeks. Well, you asked me
Howard, I mean...
SATTLER:
Well, we feel as though we're being treated like mushrooms.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, we're not. No, with great respect, people are not
being treated like mushrooms. I'm telling you the truth. There
are certain further processes to be gone through and when they've
been gone through the package, the plan, will be announced. I can't
be any more forthright than that.
SATTLER:
Now, there's something that really worried me when I looked
at that report today.
PRIME MINISTER:
Which report?
SATTLER:
In The Australian. Something worried me and would worry
most Australians and that's if our mortgages were subject to
a GST, our mortgage repayments. Will they, can you just tell me
that?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, Howard, I'm not going to say yes or no to any individual
items. I'm not going to say that. But as you mentioned mortgages,
as you mention mortgages let me remind you that under the present
Government housing interest rates are lower than they have been
for 30 years.
SATTLER:
We know that, but we don't want them to go up again. We don't
want our repayments to go up again.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Howard, do you think that I would want to undo all of that
good work?
SATTLER:
Unless you wanted to be voted out of office.
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't want to be voted out of office. Nobody who believes
that he's got something to contribute to the country wants
that to happen. But we have delivered the lowest housing interest
rates for 30 years - $300 a month off the average loan in Australia.
Now, that is a fantastic economic achievement and it's because
we got rid of Mr Beazley's $10.5 billion deficit. That made
quite a contribution towards achieving that goal.
SATTLER:
Now, have you made provision for quarantining people on fixed incomes
like pensioners and those on the dole?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can assure you that there will be adequate protection, adequate
protection, for low-income people, including people on benefits
and people on low fixed incomes from private sources.
SATTLER:
Can you guarantee they won't be worse off?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will guarantee them full protection.
SATTLER:
They won't be worse off?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's right.
SATTLER:
All right. Now, what about that guarantee - I think which you first
gave on this programme that whatever the GST rate's
going to be, or whatever you call it, that it won't go up?
I mean, how can you guarantee that for all time?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Howard, you just wait and have a look at what's in the
plan. And I believe that when people see what we are providing in
relation to that, they will believe that the rate I've announced
is the rate they will experience.
SATTLER:
Are you going to call it a goods and services tax?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think most people will call it that no matter what we might choose
to call it.
SATTLER:
Yeah, I mean, but...ridiculous to change the name, surely. We
know what it is.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, the truth is that this is not a plan to introduce a
new tax. It is a plan to change Australia's tax system forever
in favour of a tax system that will deliver us a more prosperous
21st Century. It is about the future, this tax system.
It is about tackling something that should have been done years
ago. The Labor Party, of course, they'll oppose it. They'll
just say, no. They'll spoil. They'll run a fear-mongering
campaign. They'll invent stories.
SATTLER:
Well, it worked last time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, but are we a better country as a result?
SATTLER:
No.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, of course we're not a better country as a result. In the
end you've got a responsibility in public life to argue for
what you believe is right, not what you might believe is politically
popular and expedient in the short-term. Now, I know there are people
saying to me that it's unwise to be going down the course that
I'm going. I think the course I've adopted is good for
Australia and that's why I'm following it. And I don't
care how much of a fear campaign Mr Beazley and Mrs Hanson and other
people run against it. I expect that and we've factored that
in.
SATTLER:
Would you agree that last time around, when John Hewson was trying
to sell it, that his sales team let him down his sales team
being the members of Parliament, they didn't understand it
properly?
PRIME MINISTER:
Howard, what happened then is interesting history. I'm interested
in what is going to happen over the next few weeks and months.
SATTLER:
Yeah, but I want to know what you've learnt from that.
PRIME MINISTER:
I've learnt a lot. And I think the best way that you'll
find out what I've learnt is how I handle the explanation of
this plan that will give Australia a far more secure and a far more
competitive economic future.
SATTLER:
But is it going to be only you selling it? I mean, what confidence
do you have in the other members of your team to sell it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, a lot, a lot. Peter Costello will obviously be very heavily
involved, as will John Fahey, as will Peter Reith, Tim Fischer,
John Anderson, all members of the Cabinet, naturally the Treasurer,
after myself, more so than others. But everybody will be involved.
The backbench will be involved. I believe there'll be...
SATTLER:
Does that worry you?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it enthuses me. Because when all of the details are known to
everybody in the party they will all see the wisdom and the strength
and the foresight that is involved in this plan. This plan is about
setting up Australia for the 21st Century. I mean, we
cannot go on forever with a taxation system locked in the 1930s,
40s or 50s. We have got to have enough faith and confidence in our
own ability to know what is good for our country to embrace a reform
like this. And I believe the Australian people will listen to what
is in the plan. They'll hear our explanations. They'll
give it a fair go. The Labor Party, of course, will blind them with
fear. I mean, the fear-mongering campaign's already started.
But in the end the Australian people have enormous commonsense.
SATTLER:
Well, the polls out today say it's about 50/50 at the moment.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there are polls all the time. If it's 50/50 at the moment,
that's not a bad start because that's not a bad
start because all the people have had so far is a diet of fear and
negative reaction from Mr Beazley.
SATTLER:
But don't you get the impression that Australia in 1998 has
lost a bit of that sort of get up and go pioneering spirit that
we haven't embraced something like this
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, one of the reasons why it has is that we have a backward
tax system. We have a tax system that doesn't encourage people
to work hard. We have a tax system that slugs exporters. We have
a tax system which is confusing and illogical. We have a tax system
that discourages savings. In a word, our tax system is holding us
back.
SATTLER:
We have a pretty greedy government in Canberra these days too,
would you agree?
PRIME MINISTER:
Less greedy than the one it replaced, far less greedy. I mean,
we are spending less. We've kept taxes down. We've honoured
in full our commitment not to raise any taxes, honoured that in
full. We've delivered on all of our own taxation promises and
we've cut Mr Beazley's deficit. I mean, Mr Beazley left
us with a deficit of $10.5 billion a year - $95 billion in aggregate
over the previous seven or eight years. We have turned that into
a prospective surplus this current year of about $2.5 billion. Now,
that is a fantastic achievement and one of the results of that is
that we have much lower housing interest rates. Mr Beazley would
change all of that if he got back. He'd go back into a big
deficit, big spending approach.
SATTLER:
Well, the other issue to talk about then too in this regard is
tax sharing arrangements between the Federal Government and the
States. And Richard Court, who runs a regular segment on my programme,
as you know, he promised me, he said: when I get the Prime Minister,
John Howard, here, for last weekend, I'm going to get into
his ear over the Federal/State tax sharing arrangement. And that's
got to be part of this new package. Is it going to be?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I said, when I laid down the five principles, that one of
them would be to address the imbalance in Commonwealth/State financial
relations. And I believe that what we are proposing in that area
is fair and forward-looking.
SATTLER:
It doesn't sound like you give them much ground.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I've had a discussion with the Premier about it, in
general terms - he hasn't had a full briefing on the details,
that will come later. But I believe what we are proposing is very
fair and it will be seen by people who want a reinvigoration of
Commonwealth/State financial relations, who want genuine reform
in that area, those people will see what we are proposing as very
fair indeed, very fair.
SATTLER:
I'm talking with the Prime Minister now. The United Stated
Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright's due, is it today in
Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Mrs Albright, I understand, she is arriving late tonight, yes.
SATTLER:
Okay. Now, she's had a shot, before she got here, about One
Nation's isolationist policies, and you won't mind that,
but given the level of protection her government affords the rural
sector against our imports, isn't that a bit hypocritical?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I don't know that I would interpret what she said as
being an intervention in Australian domestic politics. I don't
think...
SATTLER:
The question was thrown at her, she had to answer it.
PRIME MINISTER:
But put that aside. We are obviously unhappy about some of the
protectionist policies of the Americans, in agriculture.
SATTLER:
Are you going to tackle her over that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that issue will come up, yes, it will come up. I will go
to the discussions in a constructive way. But I want to make it
very plain for all Australians to hear that we remain very unhappy
with the way in which agricultural exports are discriminated against
by the major trading blocks and that's the United State and
the Europeans. Now, the Europeans are worse in this respect than
the United States but the United States are not reluctant to use
their enormous muscle to sell, at very low prices, into markets
that have been the possession of Australia for a long time.
SATTLER:
It's nice to have friends like that, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I mean, you can speak plainly to your friends the
United States has no better ally than Australia. Australia has been
a very strong, but at times critical, but always reliable and candid
ally of the United States and that gives us the right to speak bluntly
and plainly when Australian interests are being hurt. And Australian
farmers are the least subsidised, most efficient in the world and
it is an insult to them when, despite that efficiency and lack of
subsidy, they find other countries with enormous financial muscle
pushing them out of third world markets. And I won't be reluctant
to raise that issue. I've raised it before in personal discussions
with President Clinton and I received certain assurances from President
Clinton in response to those earlier discussions and I will naturally
remind my American friends, in a courteous way, of those assurances
in our discussions.
SATTLER:
All right. Just before you go, too, were you disappointed to leave
our State with no commitment from the State branch to put One Nation
last on the How to Vote' cards for the Federal election?
PRIME MINISTER:
I believe that the Western Australian division will make the right
decision and do the right thing in relation to that. I discussed
the matter with both the Party President, David Johnston and also
the Premier.
SATTLER:
Why won't they commit?
PRIME MINISTER:
Howard, well, I think the Liberal Party should decide these things
in its time, in the right way and not when nominated by the Labor
Party. The people who are running around Australia saying you've
got to say now, you've got to say now what you're going
to do, is the Labor Party.
SATTLER:
Yeah but you said now, you made your decision.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Howard, the decision was always one for each State Division.
And I said all along that it would be a matter for each State Division.
And I know the Liberal Party well enough to know that the way the
organisation gets the right result is to be allowed to do it in
its own way, in its own time. Public lectures from Federal leaders
to State organisations are often counterproductive. Now, you've
seen all the other State Divisions make a decision in a particular
direction. I have every confidence that the decision taken by the
Western Australian branch will be in the best interests of the Liberal
Party and also in the best interest of Australia. And, frankly,
they will take that decision, as they should, in their own time,
not when Mr Beazley and the members of the Labor Party say they
should take...
SATTLER:
Well, I think they're just waiting for you to announce the
election, aren't they?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, what you've got to...
SATTLER:
Do it now!
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, I don't know when the election will be except some
time between now and when it's due and that's not until
March or April of next year. I am in no hurry. Let me make it plain.
I mean, I haven't said that I want to have an election by a
particular date. I have said that the tax plan will be on view for
inspection, examination, explanation and debate for an adequate
amount of time before there's an election. Now, that remains
my intention. I do not intend to announce the plan and then go to
the Governor General the following day. That would be an insult
to my fellow Australians and I've got no intention of doing
that.
SATTLER:
Must leave you there, Prime Minister, but thanks for joining us
and we'll talk to you again in about three weeks time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
SATTLER:
There's no election between now and then, is there?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can guarantee you that.
SATTLER:
Talk to you again later.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]
.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]