E&OE.......................................................................................
JOURNALIST:
Is this the end of the GST?
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
JOURNALIST:
Will you make a revised offer to Senator Harradine?
PRIME MINISTER:
No there's no point in us making a revised offer to Senator Harradine.
We had a very lengthy and focussed discussion yesterday and again
today. Senator Harradine made it very plain to me that his objection
is a fundamental one, it's not a question of quantum of compensation.
He acknowledges that the changes we propose to make are significant,
are generous, so it is not a question of further bargaining with him,
and in any event we have to preserve a sense of balance and proportion
about the additional compensation. We want to protect the surplus
and there are other calls on a budget surplus, and our position is
that this country needs taxation reform. We had the courage and the
honesty to take a plan to the people at the last election. We didn't
hold anything back. I mean you can't accuse us of that. We didn't
say in general terms look if you put it back we'll slip in a
few tax cuts. We actually spelt out in detail both the good and the
not so attractive elements of taxation reform and we made an honest
pitch and we won the election and we're persevering with this
because we think it is good for Australia, that's why we are
persevering with it.
JOURNALIST:
Can I just take you back, just a day or so. You made an offer to Senator
Harradine that you would increase the compensation for people at the
bottom of the ladder. How much was that offer? It was about what $1.5
billion?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, yes. The offer that was put yesterday was ... it has four
or five pieces. One of these was that we'd increase the overall
compensation from 4% to 5% for pensioners. We'd increase from
25% to 26% the average weekly earnings guarantee. Now, those two things
together on a full year basis cost about $800 or $900 million dollars
and they represent the permanent guarantee of compensation. The argument
that came up in the Senate hearings that in some way the compensation
might be eroded, we never thought that was a very good argument, but
this change ends that for all time because pensioners will always
be at least 26% of male average weekly earnings, and up front, the
4% becomes the 5%. In addition to that, we intend to increase the
family allowance payments for large families, we are going to double
them for the fourth and subsequent children and in future it will
be for the third and subsequent children.
JOURNALIST:
And you will still put those amendments to Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yes. Having told Senator Harradine that we thought they were appropriate,
it would be quite improper to say well, they are only available if
Senator Harradine votes for the package. I mean we don't operate
that kind of Government, and every single proposal I put to Senator
Harradine will be moved as an amendment to the legislation in the
Senate. We will keep complete faith with everything we put up.
JOURNALIST:
But Harradine won't vote for it, won't go along with it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, well he won't. He put it plain to me that he will vote
against the third reading, in other words, the final decision on the
bill as it comes out of the committee, that he will vote against.
Now if he and the Democrats and the Labor Party vote against it, then
it will go down, and the Greens as they've all said, it will
go down. Now I think that will be a tragedy for the economic future
of Australia and I think it will be a denial of the political process.
I mean, what more can you do Mike, whether you agree with me or disagree
with me on things, that's not the point, anybody can do that.
But I mean, how else are we meant to operate in this country. I mean,
people are always saying politicians don't keep their promises
and they mislead them at election time. Well, I didn't mislead
the Australian people at the election about the GST, and I want to
keep my promise, and I'm being prevented from doing so by a Senate
that will not accept the verdict of the Australian people.
JOURNALIST:
Is that your last offer on the GST. Would you at any stage now consider
exempting food from the GST...
PRIME MINISTER:
No, we are not going to exempt food because...
JOURNALIST:
But you...
PRIME MINISTER:
Can I say that there is a lesser case for exempting food now than
24 hours ago, because we have increased the compensation. I mean the
whole idea of compensation is to look after low income people who
are paying the GST on items like food. Now by boosting the compensation
massively, well, significantly... by boosting the compensation
you actually reduce the argument for exempting food, you reduce it
quite dramatically.
JOURNALIST:
So, every way I look at this, the GST is sunk that you will
not get it through the Senate.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, if the package is rejected before as I expect the 30th
of June, well, we will return the legislation to the Senate again,
and we will try again. I mean, I do not intend to walk away from tax
reform. I mean I have been in public life now for 25 years...
JOURNALIST:
On Tuesday.
PRIME MINISTER:
On Tuesday. I believe that tax reform is good for Australia. And I
thought the whole idea of electing people to public office was for
them to do things they thought were good.
JOURNALIST:
Now, this is a shattering personal blow to you, if I can put it that
way, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it is not a shattering personal blow, I mean, I think it is a
great setback for Australia.
JOURNALIST:
But you staked so much of your belief, of your career...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, well I know, but the game is not over, the play is not finished.
And I intend to go ahead with this because I believe in it and I think
I owe the Australian people the honesty of saying to them, I will
continue to persevere with it, I will continue to fight for something
that I believe is good for this country and which I told you about
before the last election. I have to keep going back to that. It's
so fundamental to the trust between politicians and people. I told
the Australian people what I wanted to do and I won the election and
I want to do it.
JOURNALIST:
....majority of the vote...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah but I mean, Mike, I mean you know as well as I do that it's seats
that count and I mean on that sort of basis Bob Carr should not have
been the Premier at the last election in New South Wales. I mean,
break it down, you know how the system operates. We have won the election
and....
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] and it's the seats that count, but you don't
have the seats in the Senate so there you go.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, but I mean, we told people what we were going to do.
JOURNALIST:
Yeah, entirely.
PRIME MINISTER:
And if I now walk away from it people will say, well he didn't really
believe in it.
JOURNALIST:
Okay.
PRIME MINISTER:
Now, I do believe in it and I am going to keep persevering.
JOURNALIST:
If you - nobody doubts your capacity to persevere - if you roll the
legislation, the bill up again the ...GST up again to the Senate,
presumably the [inaudible] and it's rejected again you'd have grounds
for an election, would you take them?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, obviously you and I both know how those double dissolution provisions
work and the answer to that question is, yes there would be. The question
of the timing of the next election is not something that I would dream
of entertaining at this stage. We just had an election. I heard the
tail end of Mr Beazley saying he doesn't want an election....
JOURNALIST:
He doesn't.
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think he does, I don't think the Australian people do.
JOURNALIST:
No.
PRIME MINISTER:
But the Australian people do by and large think that if people get
to them and put down a platform and they get elected then they ought
to implement it. And we are going to persevere and keep trying.
JOURNALIST:
But the rock hard reality is that you've got nowhere to go unless
you can somehow persuade Harradine to....
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, let us, I mean, there is still water to flow under the bridge.
I mean, it hasn't yet been rejected the first time.
JOURNALIST:
It's a pretty thin trickle though isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the omens aren't as good now as they were a day ago but all
sorts of things happen in politics. I think a lot of people in the
community are going to say: gee they have increased the compensation
a lot, it's an even fairer package.
JOURNALIST:
You are relying on a popular uprising.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I don't know, I don't quite believe in popular uprisings. But
in the end, people have to listen to what the public says and thinks
and I will just persevere. I am not accepting that the thing is dead,
not accepting that for a moment. And, I mean, after all....
JOURNALIST:
This is the fat lady sings theory then is it?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't think that is entirely appropriate. I think it's always
expect the unexpected' thing.
JOURNALIST:
All right. But you have only got until the end of June and the new
Senate takes over and you haven't got a hope in hell of anything there
have you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it depends, I suppose, on the mood of the new Senators when
it actually gets down to the wire doesn't it?
JOURNALIST:
Right. Has this ruined your weekend?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, it hasn't ruined my weekend. I would have rathered it went
otherwise but....
JOURNALIST:
Were you surprised that it happened today? I mean, Mr Costello's on
a plane, you are in Brisbane?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I was always coming to Brisbane because I had a post-Budget commitment
to fulfil. But I have been in this game so long that I don't get surprised
by these things anymore. And I am disappointed, I am quite disappointed
because I felt on all considerations of principle he ought to put
his hand up for it because he has normally respected the mandate of
the Government particularly if it makes the disclosure of its policy
before the election and I had that very much in mind when I went to
that last election. I knew that on his past track record Brian Harradine
always respected a government that actually disclosed what it intended
to do in full before an election. And I also felt that...
JOURNALIST:
In that sense you gambled and lost.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's not a question of gambling and lost. I mean, I did it because
I think taxation reform is good for the country. I didn't put taxation
reform up at the last election as some kind of gambler's fetish
I put it up because I thought it was good for the country. And it
still is and nothing has changed, it's still good for Australia now
as it was 24 hours ago. The fact that Brian Harradine has said he
won't support it doesn't remove its economic worth for the long-term
future of Australia and it doesn't alter the fact that we have an
old-fashioned ramshackle tax system. I mean, all those arguments are
still there and we are in the arena of ideas and political debate
and I am just going to go on arguing the cause because that is the
point of being in public life to do things that are in the long-term
interests of the country.
JOURNALIST:
Right. Prime Minister, thanks very much for your time, I appreciate
that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay.
[ends]