MARTIN:
Mr Howard, thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ray.
MARTIN:
Obviously upset, are you embarrassed?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, because this is a completely trivial allegation. The directorship
of which he speaks is a directorship in the Menzies' Research
Centre, not a public company in the ordinary sense of the word.
MARTIN:
But it is a public company.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, not in the ordinary sense of the word because it doesn't
trade, it doesn't make any money. I wasn't paid anything.
I had no personal private interest. And my directorship of that
company flowed, as it were, automatically from my being Leader of
the Party. If I had not been Leader of the Party, I would not have
been a director. I never went...
MARTIN:
[Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER:
...can I finish, because I never went to any of the meetings. I
had absolutely no private financial interest of any kind. It was
a non-profit organisation, a company limited by guarantee. They
got nothing out of it. And my total obligation, if it had gone belly-up,
was $10.00.
MARTIN:
But wasn't this the same argument that Graham Richardson used
back in 1992 when you and the opposition parties attacked him in
Parliament for being a member of the Labor-owned radio station in
Newcastle?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, my understanding was that that was a commercial operation.
MARTIN:
But he got no money out of it. The things you've just said
were the same.
PRIME MINISTER:
But it was a commercial operation. I mean, this is a completely
trivial attempt to embarrass me. And the guidelines require disclosure
so as to avoid a conflict of public duty and private interest. Now,
I don't have any private interests. I had no personal financial
interest in this company of any kind. It was something that automatically
attached to me because I was the Leader of the Liberal Party.
MARTIN:
You've said that, but why then did your Health Minister, Mr
Wooldridge, declare his membership, directorship of that same company?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, one of the reasons could be - and I haven't spoken to
him - is that he's not automatically a member, automatically
a director. Under the articles of association, he can only be so
if I appoint him. But in any event, the rules don't say that
you can't over-declare things. It's a question of whether
you are required to.
MARTIN:
Laurie Oakes says that, in fact, you had a hidden motive, hidden
agenda in that, the fact that you've realised...the reason
why you're protecting Senator Parer is that you've now
realised that you've breached your own code of ethics.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that's completely wrong. I mean, it wasn't until
I learnt this afternoon that this story was being run that this
whole issue has ever come into my mind.
MARTIN:
So no one raised it.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, nobody, incidentally, from your network gave me an opportunity
of commenting on this before the story went to air, which I think
it unusual, but that's a decision of your network. But can
I just say again, that that claim that I had some hidden motive
is absolute nonsense. Look, I don't have, at no stage I had
any financial interest. I mean, conflict of interest arises where
you have a collision between your public duty and your private interest.
If you don't have a private interest, how can you have a collision?
MARTIN:
We're almost out of time but I need to say it again, that
you, in fact, led the campaign against Graham Richardson back in
1992, almost on the same argument. Richo said that he had no money
out of this, it was a Labor owned thing, as the Menzies is in your
case and yet you attacked him.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, one of them was a commercial operation and the Menzies...
MARTIN:
But he got no money out of it.
PRIME MINISTER:
But the other is a commercial operation and, in any event, he was
minister for communications and responsible...
MARTIN:
But you're the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, but responsible for radio stations.
MARTIN:
But you're responsible for everything. You're the Prime
Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
But I don't have any personal interest in this - none whatsoever.
And it's a completely non-profit company. And I held the directorship
not because I wanted to be a director of it or because I put any
money into the company, but I held it, as it were, automatically
because I was the Leader in the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party.
Now, in those circumstances I don't believe there's any
collision at all with the ministerial guidelines and I reject the
claim made by Mr Oakes completely.
MARTIN:
All right. Prime Minister, thank you so much for your time.
for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Pleasure.
[Ends]