Subjects: Pat Rafter; sport; contractors; Aston by-election; Bob Katter.
E&OE................................
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, Pat Rafter's performance last night?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it was a fantastic match. Like millions of other Australians I watched it from start to finish. I was disappointed for him but he behaved magnificently, he's displayed great sportsmanship, enormous grace under pressure and made all of us very proud of him and I congratulate him for the role model that he presents, particularly to younger Australians, as to how to behave on the sporting field. Our sporting heroes are very important to us and how they behave is very important to the image presented generally to young Australians and I thank Pat Rafter for the magnificent example he is of great sportsmanship, great ability but also the grace and the dignity to congratulate somebody when he doesn't make it himself.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think he should call off retirement plans?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you know I hesitate to put pressure on him. We all admire him and if he decides to stay. well let me put it this way if he were to decide to stay he'd make a lot of people happy but I can understand why he might want to do otherwise. But that's a matter for him and his family and I can say particularly to his mum and dad you must be very proud of your son.
JOURNALIST:
What's your assessment of Australia's sporting prowess at the moment Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's outstanding. We had a wonderful recovery in Melbourne on Saturday night which I had the great pleasure of seeing, we had a terrific result in the test against England and the women's cricket team in England did brilliantly, I sent them a congratulatory message yesterday. They are a great team, they are a fantastic team. We got to the final of Wimbledon, we're doing pretty well but we've always punched above our weight in sport. But the important thing is not only winning but it's also to win well and also when you don't win well to lose well and Pat has demonstrated a capacity to do both and that's why he's very important to the way we view sportsmen and women in this country and he really is a magnificent role model.
JOURNALIST:
It was also good to see such a big Aussie crowd there to cheer him on.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think that was great and I think the other thing that was terrific is the way in which the sporting teams now provide cross support to each other. Pat delivered a message at the beginning of the rugby test against the Lions in Melbourne. Steve Waugh and all the boys were there last night to cheer for Pat. And Steve Waugh I know has often been in the dressing rooms for the Wallabies when they've been playing against New Zealand and South Africa. So I think this cross support is terrific and it shows that they see themselves as having sort of a collective role in the life of the nation and they do and it's very nice to see.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister if I could ask you about the tax treatment of contractors, there is concern today that the legislation, the changes don't go far enough and that the system will be bogged down in confusion.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that's not justified. The message I give is that if you are a genuine independent contractor - that if at the end of the day you make a mistake, you don't deliver what you contracted to deliver then you're responsible and not somebody else such as your employer - then that defines you as an independent contractor. And people will see particularly when further tax office rulings come out, which they will very shortly, that that is ultimately the criteria and that's only fair. If you are an independent contractor, if you accept all the responsibility then you have to make good the defects, even if you are doing more than 80 per cent of your work for one company or one person then you're an independent contractor and you should be treated for tax purposed quite differently. But if on the other hand you are in reality being treated for all legal purposes, except for some sort of artificial arrangement, as an employee just like the person working next door to you in the same firm then why should you be treated differently. Isn't that a bit unfair on the other person? So that's the spirit of the legislation and by allowing as we announced yesterday self assessment we are avoiding so much of that particular.
JOURNALIST:
You don't think it will be a further whole raft of problems for those who self assess.
PRIME MINISTER:
No not if they do it, if they're honest. You're not talking here about people who are tax avoiding. I don't regard people who are independent contractors as tax cheats, I admire them. The more people in small business there are the better as far as I'm concerned. But you can't have an arrangement where somebody is just artificially a small businessman or woman without any responsibility. In the end if you're an employee and you make a mistake there may be repercussions between you and your employer but it's your employer who has to make good the faulty workmanship not you. But if you're in business on your own you've got to make good the faulty workmanship and that makes a huge difference.
JOURNALIST:
Is it too late for Aston?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I don't know what's going to happen in Aston, I would say this though in relation to the Labor Party on this issue, the Labor Party wanted even tougher legislation. They're now talking out of both sides of their mouth on contractors but last year they moved an amendment in the Parliament to toughen the legislation. They would have screwed down far more heavily on contractors than this legislation. They regard the legislation we altered yesterday as still being too soft. And I think that sends a message to people in the electorate that they're no friends of small businessmen. Don't anybody think for a moment the Labor Party's embracing small business, they wanted a tougher pursuit of contractors than was originally provided and they condemned our changes of a year ago in the parliament.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard the defection .
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah can I just say one other thing too about this issue generally, what we did yesterday was fine tuning the implementation of some very big changes to the tax system. And I've made it clear in the past and I make it clear again that this government stands ready to further fine tune the operation of this vast change to the tax law. I don't regard it as a concession, an admission of failure or weakness to fine tune such a big change and the obsessive use of words like backdown and backflip leave me can I tell you totally unfazed. I intend to continue where necessary to fine tune the operation of the tax laws.
JOURNALIST:
Any particular areas?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't have any other areas, I'm just making the general point that when you have such a big change it's inevitable there'll be some fine tuning.
JOURNALIST:
So more backflips and backdowns?
PRIME MINISTER:
Fine tuning if necessary always.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, on Bob Katter's decision to quit the Government how big a blow is that for your pre-Aston and pre-federal poll?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I don't think too big because Bob has sort of been running his own race for quite some time.
Thank you.
[ends]