Subjects: Ministerial arrangements, overseas visit
E&OE....................................................................................................
PRIME MINISTER:
Ladies and gentlemen, under the new Ministerial arrangements Mr Mark
Vaile will become the Minister for Trade to replace Mr Fischer. Warren
Truss will be promoted into the Cabinet to take over Mr Vaile's
current portfolio of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests. And Larry
Anthony will be joining the Ministry as Minister for Community Services.
In addition, Senator Ron Boswell, the Leader of the National Party
in the Senate will be appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister
for Transport and Regional Services, Mr Anderson. These are the only
changes that are being made to the Ministry. They are sensible changes.
Mr Vaile will be an energetic Trade Minister. The appointment of Larry
Anthony means that in the one century three generations of the Anthony
family have served as Ministers of the Crown in the Federal Government
of Australia. I congratulate Mr Anthony and Mr Truss and Senator Boswell,
in particular, on their promotions and also, of course, Mr Vaile who's
not only the new Minister for Trade but he's also the new Deputy
Leader of the National Party of Australia.
These changes will be formalised on the 20th of July. The
new Ministers will be sworn in in Canberra on the 20th
of July following a Cabinet meeting that day. Mr Fischer will act
as Prime Minister during my absence overseas which occurs in a few
minutes time and will continue as Acting Prime Minister until his
formal resignation from the Ministry and as Deputy Prime Minister
of Australia when I return on the 18th of July. I think
these appointments will be widely welcomed particularly in the rural
community. They strike the right balance. And Mr Vaile will become
a very effective part of the Foreign Affairs and Trade team joining
Mr Downer who is Minister for Foreign Affairs. Anybody have any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Do you think Mark Vaile will be known as the reluctant Trade Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't think so. I think there's been a little bit
of over interpretation of what he said at the press conference last
Thursday. I think what Mark was wanting to indicate was that he wasn't
in a hurry to get out of agriculture. He'd got rather used to
it. He enjoyed the job. He was doing it well. He was never as reluctant
to be Trade Minister as people suggested. Mr Anderson and I talked
about the matter yesterday and John said, having reflected on it,
he felt that the right thing to do was for Mark to be appointed as
Trade Minister and I accepted Mr Anderson's recommendation. It
was always going to be a National Party Ministry. That's in the
nature of the Coalition arrangement. Mark was never disinterested
it's just that he rather liked being Agriculture Minister. And
I know what it's like when you get a new Ministry and you're
in it for a few months, you grow accustomed to its face and you rather
like hanging on to it.
JOURNALIST:
And it didn't concern you that it took a number of days to finalise
that.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, what, three or four days. And you've got to bear in mind,
Raphael, that the arrangements, the new arrangements, don't come
into force until the 20th of July. It's not as if
we've been without a Trade Minister since Mr Fischer announced
his resignation. He's still the Trade Minister. And I should
tell you that at two minutes past seven this morning he was on the
phone to me at Kirribilli House reporting on his latest discussion
with Mrs Barshefsky about our lamb exports to the United States and
also giving me an update in relation to the future occupancy of the
director-generalship of the World Trade Organisation. So, we still
have a very active Trade Minister in Tim Fischer until the 20th
of July and I'm sure that he'll be extremely active as Acting
Prime Minister while I'm out of the country.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, what will be your main objective in Japan?
PRIME MINISTER:
My main objectives will be to, I guess, reinforce with the Japanese
Government the importance of the bilateral relationship, to encourage
a recommitment by Japan to the free trade goals of APEC. We agreed
two years ago with the Japanese that there would be a Prime Minister
to Prime Minister meeting each year. We had one briefly last year
in Kuala Lumpur. I'm going to Japan this year and I hope that
in the nature of things it will be possible for the Japanese Prime
Minister to come to Australia the following year. Japan is still our
best customer and it's a relationship that must be kept in good
repair. It is in good repair. And I want to drive home to the Japanese,
while I'm there, how important we regard their continued association
with us both at a trading, a political and a people-to-people level.
JOURNALIST:
Does it concern you at all that John Anderson wasn't elected
unanimously by his party and Mark Vaile was? Did that speak to you
of any disquiet within the Coalition?
PRIME MINISTER:
When Malcolm Fraser was elected Leader of the Coalition in the Liberal
Party in 1975 he wasn't elected unanimously, in fact, there's
only been to my knowledge three cases in the last 40 years that people
have been elected leaders of their party when there's been a
change like that unanimously and - when I became Leader of the Liberal
Party in '95, I think Bob Hawke was elected unanimously Leader
of the Labor Party in 1983, Harold Holt as Leader of the Liberal Party
in 1966. Off-hand I can't think of any other. Doug Anthony and
Ian Sinclair had a contest for the leadership of the Party when Jack
McEwen went. I don't think anybody could say that Anthony's
leadership of the National Party from 1971 to 1983 was in any way
destabilised by the fact that he had to win a contest. It's a
democracy and you have contests in democracies. I don't think
that's an issue at all. I mean, I don't even know whether
that story's true. I mean, I'm never told these things.
They're matters for the National Party Room but if it is true,
so what. It's a contest. He won it convincingly and he'll
go on to be a very good leader and I'm sure that he'll have
the very strong support of his Party.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, on a separate matter, have you seen reports of the latest
Naltrexone study that says it's not effective in treating addiction?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I've seen a brief report. I haven't had any independent
advice about it, therefore, I don't think I'm in a position
at the moment to comment. Thanks.
[Ends]