E&OE...
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW, PORT LINCOLN SA
Subjects: Murray River; school hours; further sale of Telstra; tuna exports; Mayor's comments.
E&OE..................................................................................................
[tape starts] ...Murray River. That can be seen by some cynics as a toothless tiger given the power of the farming industry, cotton etcetera in New South Wales. Your response to that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it won't be a toothless tiger. I indicated the concern we have to ensure that South Australia is treated fairly and properly. These things are never easy when you have State governments taking different points of view. We have a responsibility at a national level to do the right thing by everybody. But that committee won't be a toothless tiger.
JOURNALIST:
So if they recommend that New South Wales bow to the pressure?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, I'm not going to preempt what the committee's going to decide. That's foolish. But any suggestion that it's going to be a toothless tiger or it's an empty gesture is quite wrong.
JOURNALIST:
On another national issue, the Teacher's Union has suggested that you're treating them as baby sitters to extend school hours, or the idea of extending school hours to five o'clock. What's your response?
PRIME MINISTER:
I just think that school hours should reflect the modern reality of family structures. We have school hours in this country that were devised at a time when there were very few women in the work force and when the traditional thing was for children to be picked up at the school gate by mum at three o'clock. Now that is increasingly not the case and all I'm asking is that State governments look at ways and means of ensuring that school hours are more in tune with the modern reality of family structures and family arrangements.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, yesterday you stressed the benefits that could accrue if the last section of Telstra were sold. But this is still bogged down with the Senate logjam. How are you actually going to tackle trying to get it sold? Are you going to try and open up fresh discussions with Meg Lees, or how do you see it going forward from here?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well with this and so many other things Michelle you get your best dividends by mounting a very strong public argument and trying to bring about a further shift in public opinion. As far as discussions with the Democrats are concerned, well we have good relations with the Australian Democrats and it's always open for either of us to initiate discussions with the other about any issue. I'm not going to foreshadow when or if I might talk to the Democrats about this or that issue. I don't have any discussions slated at the moment, but that doesn't mean to say I wouldn't have them in the future. But what I did yesterday was to articulate I think for the first time in a comprehensive way the linkage between selling the rest of Telstra and a capacity to do something about infrastructure in the bush, and also the increasing inappropriateness of having the government owning 50.1% in a telecommunications company with all the things that are happening in the telecommunications area. I don't think that argument has been so strongly articulated before and it's an argument that I'll be repeating and prosecuting as I go around the country in the months ahead.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] specific proposal about the sale of Telstra with linking it to specific projects in rural areas?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I've already made a generic link in the speech I gave yesterday and, well, you know, watch this space.
JOURNALIST:
So you may in fact go beyond the generic link? Are you saying.....
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think it's just a question of following the debate.
JOURNALIST:
On an issue that concerns Port Lincoln, there's no GST on dead fish, but there is a GST on live fish. Are you concerned this will effect the exports to Japan, the tuna.
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't think it's going to have a major effect....as I said in my speech if you just want to focus on the tiny, on one individual item then you can do so and argue that there are anomalies. We would have as you know, have liked a more comprehensive arrangement but that wasn't possible, and it's a question of looking at the benefits as I was outlining. And the export industry, the tuna industry will be hugely benefited by the new tax system and their exports will be cheaper and more competitive.
JOURNALIST:
Were you surprised that wasn't raised here today at the meeting?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well nothing ever surprises me in politics. I thought it was a very good meeting. Okay.
JOURNALIST:
Just on another local issue, the Mayor this morning gave you quite a serve on AM this morning. Does it worry you that you've kicked off the region with such a poor welcome?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I thought this meeting today was very good. You can't win everybody can you. I don't think he votes for me.
[Ends]
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