Subjects: Education; political life
E&OE..................
Thank you Ted. Ladies and gentlemen and students.
It is quite a pleasure to be here to spend an hour hearing something of the special projects of your school. Particularly the projects providing a more effective transition from school to work. And one of the ways in which education has changed over the last ten or twenty years is a greater recognition of the need to provide a closer link between what you do at school and how doing things at school prepares you for the workforce and helps you to find employment after you leave school.
Over the last couple of weeks, I've had quite an experience of visiting classrooms. Last week, it was Education Week in New South Wales and I was invited to go back to my old primary school in the suburbs of Sydney where I attended some fifty years ago in Earlwood. The school had changed a great deal, but it was quite an experience to go back and to visit some of the old classrooms and to talk to some of the students in that school now. And it was a reminder to me of the value of the public education that I received in Sydney and the importance of my early school years.
One of the things I learnt when I was at school was that if you had some visiting dignitary you didn't want them to make too long a speech, but you enjoyed the opportunity of putting a few ideas to him and asking him or her a few questions and I know that some of you are fairly keen that that happen.
The message that I want to bring to you today is that in the modern world it is very important that we focus as much as we possibly can on getting the best outcomes for our students. Employment opportunities are always there if we can get the right outcomes, we can train people in the right way and as the economy continues to run well we can get the two of those moving together.
Now I know that the School to Work Transition programmes that have been functioning here have been very successful. I listened to what the Principal had to say about funding, taken that on board. And I heard some of the stories from the students who'd had success as a result of the programmes here in finding apprenticeships and finding practical opportunities in all, in a whole variety of trades. And in the moments that I have been here I have had the chance of hearing, I guess a cross-section of aspirations of young Australians and this is for me a very informative experience because all of you either right now or in the very near future are looking at finding apprenticeship training at TAFE or university opportunities that are going to lead you into employment. And we're very keen at a Federal Government level to work with State Governments and also importantly with local school councils.
One of the things that's very different now in the way schools are run around Australia to what they were when I was at school is that you have school councils that involve parents and they involve the local community and they involve also some representatives of the student body. And I think that is a very sensible way of running a school because the successful schools, like successful businesses, like successful sporting teams are schools that have a joint team effort, where everybody recognises they have a role to play, everybody has some rights and also everybody has some responsibilities to try and make a contribution and to try and make a difference.
So I want to thank the Principal and I want to thank the School Council and most particularly I want to thank the students for having me here. I was, it was suggested to me by my very good colleague and friend, Bob Charles, who's been your federal member since 1990 that I should come along and meet the student body of this school because it has demonstrated a capacity to work very effectively with quite a number of programmes.
Now that's all I wanted to say, but I wanted you to take the opportunity of having me here, captive to this microphone and captive to this audience, if you wanted to ask me some questions, or to put some suggestions to me about how to run the school, how to run the country, how to run my government, or indeed how to run anything you like, I'll have a go at trying to respond to them. But thank you very, very much for having me as your guest, I've enjoyed the opportunity of talking to you and I'll be very happy to respond to your questions. Thank you very much.
QUESTION:
What are the features of your job as a prime minister that you enjoy most?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, that is actually, that is a commonly asked question, what do I enjoy most. But it's really a very easy question to answer. The thing I enjoy most is quite literally what I'm doing now. It is the opportunity of going all around the country and talking to different groups of Australians and they are all different no matter how regularly you do it.
You might think it would get uniform and boring, it doesn't. It's quite the reverse, you have a completely different insight into the way the country works, what it is like, what its people are like. And although I've been in politics now for twenty-six years, I've of course only been prime minister for four and a half years of that twenty-six years and the opportunity of meeting different groups of Australians, not only here, but in other parts of the world.
Anzac Day this year I spent on the Gallipoli Peninsula and there were 12,000 to 15,000 young Australians there on the morning of the Anzac Day Service and it was quite an extraordinary experience to meet all of these young, enthusiastic Australians away from their country, but being drawn to the country and affection for what it had achieved. So, that's the best part of the job, by far.
QUESTION:
Can I ask a little about your educational background to get where you are today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, my educational background is that I went to Earlwood Public School. Earlwood is a suburb in Sydney, it's in the inner south-west of Sydney. I went there until I was twelve and then I went to Canterbury Boys' High School, which is I suppose if you had a rough equivalent in Melbourne, it would be, University High or Melbourne High. It was one of those, it was a government school. And then I did what was then called the Leaving Certificate, which was the forerunner of now what's called in New South Wales, the Higher School Certificate, which is the equivalent of your VCE. And then after that I went to Sydney University and I did a law degree and I became a Bachelor of Laws, I graduated from Sydney University in 1961 and then I practiced law in the city for about thirteen years and then I entered parliament at the age of thirty-four. And I entered, so that's . . . I mean I am not suggesting that my education stopped at that point, education as the old clich goes is a lifelong experience, but my formal education was entirely within the government system in New South Wales. It was a good education and I am very grateful for the quality of the education that I received.
QUESTION:
What's your best memory of your school days?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, the best memories of my school days were, well I think, I used to enjoy debating. I was a very keen debater and I represented my school at debating. I'd have to say I also enjoyed very much playing rugby union - I know that's not very widely played here in Melbourne - played rugby union and cricket, cricket is my great sporting passion. I managed to get into the second eleven at school and the second fifteen. I played either fullback or five-eighth, you're probably not all that familiar, those of you who don't follow rugby with those field positions. But I enjoyed debating and I enjoyed the sporting contacts. And I found, I found school, I was also in the school cadets, I found all of those activities, I think it's very valuable if you have the opportunity to take part in a range of school activities. I guess I was like everybody else, there were moments when I didn't like school, and there were other moments when I found it valuable. When I look back on the teachers I had, I am very grateful for a teacher I had in my sixth class at primary school who inspired in me a great, helped to inspire in me a great interest in public affairs and discussing international issues.
It was the first time I had been introduced to school broadcasts where you had somebody talking about what was happening in other parts of the world and what was happening in Australia. I can remember, I know it's dating me very badly, but when the then Prime Minister of Australia, Ben Chifley opened the Snowy Mountains Scheme, you've no doubt read and heard about the Snowy Mountains Scheme, it was in 1949, it was just when I was, I was still at primary school and we all stopped to hear this broadcast. And of course the Snowy Mountains Scheme is the biggest national development project that Australia's had in all of her history. And they're the sort of things that you remember from school. I am never terribly good at remembering particular incidents, but they're the sort of activities and recollections that I carry very vividly.
QUESTION:
What has been your most embarrassing moment as prime minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, the most embarrassing moments I've had as prime minister is when I've sort of got somebody's name badly wrong. And I mean that can happen to anybody. You can get the name of a country wrong, or you can get somebody's name wrong and you can quite unconsciously.
I wasn't prime minister when this happened, but once when I was Leader of the Opposition I was campaigning in an election in South Australia, the Leader of the Opposition was John and the Premier was John and I got their surnames mixed and I said vote for John and I got the wrong surname. And the media obligingly picked it up and I had a fairly rough time. But you know, I've always been fairly careful of names ever since. It can, it really can happen to anybody, it really can and, but it doesn't sort of alter the embarrassment one bit, I can assure you.
QUESTION:
When you retire from politics, what do you hope to do?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven't really thought, I hope to do something useful. I'd like to at some stage, put some time back for a very good charitable cause. I think people that have been in public life and if public life's been good to them, they have something of an obligation to put something back to the community. And I would like to do that.
I guess I will indulge even further some of my sporting interests, but I haven't given a great deal of thought to the detail of what I might do. I think it's very important when you have a change of working experience that you find something that keeps you mentally active. I mean the opportunity of perhaps imparting to people who are interested in politics or government some of the experiences that I've had, I think that would be a valuable way.
I think it is very important, no matter what field you're in, whether it's politics or a trade or a profession, or a service industry, after you've been in it for a number of years and you've achieved, you have some achievements in it, you do have some responsibility in a completely voluntary way to impart some of your knowledge and some of your experience to people who might aspire in different ways to do what you've done. Or do something similar to what you've done. They're the sorts of things that would cross my mind, but I can't say I've given a great deal of attention to it.
QUESTION:
What's your vision of Australia in twenty years time?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, in twenty years time, what's my vision of Australia? I want to see, I want to see a country that is able to offer jobs and hope to its young people. I want to see a country that relates very well to its neighbours. I want to see a country where people, irrespective of their background continue to be treated in a tolerant, decent way. Where, whether your name is Jones, or Smith, or Panapolous, or Stravinski, or whatever it may be, whatever your background may be, whether it's aboriginal, or it's Christian or Jewish or Muslim, that everybody is treated in a completely tolerant, harmonious way. I think that's very important. I think Australia is very good at that now.
I think we sometimes sell short how successful we have been in integrating people with entirely different backgrounds. When I went back to my old school in Earlwood, I was told that 40% of the students there are of Greek heritage, about 30% are of Chinese and Vietnamese and Indian and the rest of other mixed backgrounds. When I was there, there were very few people other than of English and Scottish and Irish backgrounds, there were a few boys of Greek background, now all of that has changed a great deal and I think we've been very successful in Australia. We sometimes talk as though we haven't been successful. I think we have. We have, we're a very harmonious country and we've been very successful in amalgamating people and I think that's fantastic. And I would like to see that kept and built.
And the other thing is that I want the fact that Australia is seen as a distinctive, special culture around the world, I would like that to be very, very strong as well because there is something very distinctive about being an Australian and I don't want that sort of lost in, in the sort of greyness of too much uniformity around the world. I would like to see that distinctive Australian character and edge preserved and enhanced if possible.
QUESTION:
How do you manage a family life being away from home so much?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's easier now because my children are grown up. I have three children, I have a daughter who is twenty-six, a son who is twenty-two and a son who is almost twenty. So, they sort of are able to look after themselves reasonably well. We still see, they're still with us at home and we still see a lot of them. But it's not quite as difficult to manage as it used to be. How did I manage it before? Well, the important thing is that if you have a job, and there are a lot of jobs that take mothers and fathers away from their children at various times, it's really a question of organising your life so that you are always there when there are some important events and I always saw to it that I was present at important events for my children when they were at school, or other activities. But when you were at home you gave them your attention and you didn't spend all the time on the phone talking to your colleagues. And the other thing is that when you are away it's very important to keep in touch by telephone, keep in touch regularly with your family while you're moving around the country, they don't feel as disconnected. And then when occasionally they see you on television and the phone rings, well they sort of think that they've got some contact with you. And it's amazing if you do organise it carefully like that it's amazing how you can establish a routine and that your family can grow up not feeling as though they've missed out on time that you've spent away. And I think I've been fairly fortunate in organising my life in that way and so far, touch wood, so good.
QUESTION:
What do you like to do in your spare time?
PRIME MINISTER:
What do I like doing in my spare, I don't have a lot of spare time. I have very little spare time. I guess the three things I would do in my spare time, I quite enjoy watching television. I enjoy television, I think it's a wonderful medium and I watch all sorts of things, I watch films, I watch a lot of sport. And I play golf. I've taken to golf with a bit of a passion over the last three or four years. I try and play that on a regular basis, the improvement is very gradual, very, very gradual indeed. I look with envy on the great achievements of champion golfers like all people who essentially hack around a bit do. But they're the sort, they're really the things I do most in my spare time, but there's not an enormous amount of it. I find that somehow or other I am sort of very heavily preoccupied.
[Ends]