PM Transcripts

Subjects: boat people; election campaign; war against terrorism; economy; polls; preferences.
JOURNALIST:
The 40 boat people who have been accepted to come into Australia, would you still describe those people as queue jumpers?
PRIME MINISTER:
Mr Ruddock dealt with that issue this morning and he made the point that we';ve had a real tragedy and everybody is very disturbed about that. Obviously somebody who has been classified as a refugee is a refugee. The question of whether that person could also be categorised as a queue jumper would depend upon what had happened to the attempts of that person to obtain acceptance in another country on the basis of that person';s refugee status and therefore it is not possible for me without knowing the details of that to directly answer your question.
JOURNALIST:
The Indonesians are proposing a summit to deal with the issue of boatpeople with Afghanistan, Iraq and Australia. Would Australia be prepared attend and take part in such a forum?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';ve not had any such proposal put to me.
JOURNALIST:
Would you be prepared to take part in…?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';m not going to deal with a hypothetical situation Tom. If somebody puts a proposal we will of course look at it and look at in a very urgent and positive light but I';ve not heard of any such proposal. As recently as a few minutes ago I';ve spoken to the person who normally advises me on these matters and he did not mention it.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Beazley today accused you of hiding behind the boat people issue and refusing to debate domestic policy. Is he right?
PRIME MINISTER:
He';s absolutely wrong. He';s doing this to cover the fact that he keeps changing his position on this issue. Yesterday morning he tried to blame me for the deaths. Then he started to back off and now he has changed his position again and he is saying that he doesn';t resile from what he';s said. Well what doesn';t from? Does he not resile from the statement he made at the Marriott hotel in Gladstone that this pointed to a failure of policy or does he not resile from what he said later when he said he didn';t say that at the Marriott Hotel. I mean, once again he';s going from one side of the road to the other. But look, my position on this is very clear. He should never have sought to make political capital out of the tragic deaths of more than 350 people, and no matter what he says, the more he talks about it, the more he ensnares himself, the more he compounds the difficulty he';s got. And this of course is on a day when we';ve had a dramatic illustration of the quality of the Government';s economic management. If ever the Australian people wanted evidence of who is the superior economic manager, you';ve had it today with this magnificent CPI result which brings our inflation rate right back bang in the middle of the Reserve Bank';s target range. A lower increase in the market expected; clear evidence that the once off effects of the GST were as we predicted, once off, and they have now washed through the CPI figure and that is of enormous comfort to Australian wage and salary earners because it means that the real value of their tax cuts has been delivered by the Coalition.
JOURNALIST:
In your lunchtime speech you criticised Mr Beazley for being an Oxford University graduate. What did you mean by that?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I wasn';t criticising him, I didn';t criticise him for being… I drew attention to the fact of his friendship with Mr Gallop. I don';t criticise somebody for going to Oxford University, I didn';t say that. What I said was that his mate, he and Gallop were at university together, that';s fine. I mean, people say I';ve been at university with somebody, that doesn';t mean to say I';m criticising somebody for being… I mean I respect people who go to Oxford University. I just don';t agree with them always, that';s all.
JOURNALIST:
Laurie Brereton today said that the conflict in Afghanistan should be kept short, global attention should be paid to avoiding civilian casualties so that the situation of Australia';s relations with Muslim nations and Muslim communities…. Is this a fragmentation of political bipartisanship?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I would like to hear what Mr Beazley has to say about that, and I would like to hear from Mr Brereton how he believes from his vast military experience, how he believes that it can be kept short. I mean, we would all like that. We would all wish that it hadn';t happened. I';m not alleging that there';s been a fragmentation of bipartisanship. I haven';t seen the full context of what he has said and I';m not going to get into a position where you know somebody suggests I';m unreasonably alleging a fragmentation of bipartisanship. I don';t want bipartisanship to fragment on this issue. I don';t think it is in Australia';s interests if it does. But I think what you ought to do on that rather than ask me is go along and ask Mr Beazley and while you are asking him that question you might ask him whether he will send to the department of finance for immediate costing, the promises that he has made to date, because according to the Treasurer';s calculations, the Labor Party on its promises has already got the budget in deficit to the tune of $200 million in the year 2002-2003. And the principal source, the basis of that claim is that the loans that Labor is offering in relation to the aged care sector, because they don';t carry a repayment date and because they don';t carry a nominated rate of interest, will be treated by the department of finance as grants and therefore it comes straight off the bottom line. So I would like the Labor leader to send to the department of finance the costings. And also send them before the last couple of days of the campaign so that we can have the benefit of the costings before the public makes a judgment.
JOURNALIST:
Was Mr Beazley invited to today';s tour of HMAS Adelaide and speak to its sailors with you today?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I arranged to go to HMAS Stirling at a time when I was not aware that the Adelaide was going to be there. Mr Beazley was at the HMAS Stirling last week.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, you are at the half way point of the campaign. Can you assess where you are and ….?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I';m not going to try and give a political commentary on where we are. I';ll leave that to you and I look forward to reading what all of you write.
JOURNALIST:
But you did say at lunchtime though it was appropriate point to assess things?
PRIME MINISTER:
In terms of the arguments I';m putting. Not in terms of how well I';m going or not going. What I';m saying is I';m not going to say whether I';m winning or losing or drawing or whatever. I';ll leave that to you but I did make the point at lunchtime today that the two drivers of the ultimate decision of the public would be national security and economic management. I think what the CPI figure has done today is to dramatically return economic management to centre stage. It has because what it illustrates is that what we said about tax reform has turned out to be right. I mean, we said there';d be a one off effect. Labor said it would drag on. We said the real value of the tax cuts would be retained. Labor said otherwise. What that figure today illustrates is that low income earners have been protected, have been fully compensated, indeed in relation to the family benefits low income earners according to the research that Bettina Arndt commissioned in your newspaper, and Tom Allard';s newspaper, is true and that is that the great bulk of the family benefits have been loaded in favour of the low income earners. I think today's figure is a great vindication of the economic predictions that the Government made at the time tax reform was introduced. I mean we';ve had a year of it and it';s bang on target, exactly what we said, washed through, a great result and a great vindication what the Government said at the time.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard if you think it';s a good time for assessment how well are you going?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don';t assess my political performance, I will leave that to you and I am sure you will do it. Regularly.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard do you think that the national security issue has drowned out some of your message on economic management?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I think they';re both there. And they should both be there and that';s the point in made in my speech today that both of them are there. I mean we have two and a half weeks to go in this campaign, there';s plenty of time over that two and a half weeks to talk about both of those issues. Look there's no way we either should have or could have held back from talking about national security issues over the last two and a half weeks and we will continue to talk about that. I';m going to talk about it tomorrow night, in Melbourne I';m going to talk about it tomorrow night. And I';ll go on doing that and we will also be progressively releasing over the next ten days, we';ll be progressively releasing a number of new policies, I mean you will be aware, Labor has released a lot of theirs in the very early stages of the campaign, I make no comment on that, I just simply observe that it';s happened. We have chosen to run our campaign in a particular way and that';s our judgment, in the end you will be able to work out whether it was the right call or not but I just make the observation that we';ve still got two and a half weeks to go and you will find by polling day that people will have received from us a balanced focus on both national security and economic management.
JOURNALIST:
Do you agree with today';s Morgan poll results?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that';s asking me to comment on polls which I don';t do.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Beazley today announced another $430 million in education funding…
PRIME MINISTER:
Over five years or six years or ten years or what.
JOURNALIST:
Over five apparently taking into…
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes well he's got the budget in the red already. But in the end you can';t fund increases in expenditure unless you run a growing economy. And that is the crucial overlay in relation to economic management.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister are you confident that economic growth will continue stronger after this forthcoming period of your government to provide the capacity for either/or further tax cuts or further government spending?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we accept the advice and the assessment of the treasury in relation to growth as contained in the mid-year economic review and the PEEFO. On the question of income tax cuts we can';t afford any this financial year, that';s already been made clear and everybody knows that next financial year the situation is quite tight, well it would be in the red under Labor already. On the question of tax cuts beyond that I will have something to say about the issue of tax when I do the policy launch on Sunday in Sydney.
JOURNALIST:
Are you going to Darwin farewell HMAS Sydney?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';m not exactly certain at the moment when the Sydney is going and clearly it would be something that both Mr Beazley and I should do together and I would not seek top go on my own and on a day that was particularly inconvenient to him, let';s put it on that basis.
JOURNALIST:
Have you been briefed on eyewitness accounts that these people who died tragically on this boat were herded on under gun point by Indonesian…
PRIME MINISTER:
No I have not, I heard just before I came to this news conference a promo on ‘PM'; to that effect but I have not had any independent verification of and I';m not making that allegation, I just don';t know Michael. JOURNALIST:
There are some community groups that are asking for some of these people with I guess more tragic tales, individual tales, that they be allowed into Australia. Would the government consider that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Mr Ruddock responded to that earlier today and I agree with what he said.
JOURNALIST:
The Ansett administrators have complained that there';s no real certainty about the terms of which the Government has provided the cash for entitlements for…
PRIME MINISTER:
They have not made that complaint to us, that is news to me.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) federal court yesterday.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they ought to make the complaint to us and not to the Federal Court.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard you said today it was going to a be very hard campaign, or election for the Liberal';s to win. Are you concerned that the Labor Party has been making up ground on domestic issues?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Jenny I said at the very beginning of the campaign it was going to be hard to win and that remains my view. As to the rest I will save myself the commentary but the preference deal announced by the Democrats today has not helped the government obviously because it';s blatantly pro-Labor preference deal, it';s not neutral. When you say you';re going to preference the ALP in McMillen, Bendigo, Chisholm, Lilley and Griffith, they';re Labor held seats, but Petrie, Longman, Herbert, Moreton, Eden Monaro, Paterson, Richmond and the only three marginal Coalition seats that you';re going to preference are Dunkley, MacArthur, perhaps Wide Bay, doesn';t look like a very even handed deal and I got to say it';s contrary to the preference that Natasha Stott Despoja expressed to me in two discussions I';ve had with her in which she said that her preference remained in favour of having a split ticket. Now that is not a split ticket, that is a pro-Labor preference recommendation if ever you see one and all the sort of backing and filling she';s gone (inaudible) oh it';s only a recommendation, the reality is that Democrat booth workers on polling day will be handing out Democrat how to vote cards recommending that preference allocation in those seats. So it';s contrary to what she said. Now okay I mean they';re perfectly entitled but don';t any Democrat voter who wants the Democrats to remain truly independent of the two major parties think for a moment that this anything other than a pro-Labor preference deal so I would say to Democrat voters whose second preference is the Coalition rather than Labor you have been sold out by your party on this issue.
JOURNALIST:
… Liberal';s seal their own fate though in five seats placing their priority in negotiations…
PRIME MINISTER:
But Greg you';re missing the point, the point is that if you believe as Natasha said that you should have split tickets and stay neutral you don';t enter into preference negotiations, you just issue a split ticket.
JOURNALIST:
Have you sought any clarification of that change with her?
PRIME MINISTER:
No well it';s been announced, I mean it';s clear all right, I';ve got a press release here from Jack Evans, Australian Democrats National Campaign Director and I heard Natasha on the radio, on the ABC at lunchtime and she was saying well it';s only a recommendation and talk to Jack Evans, I mean you can';t, we';ve sort of come to crunch point on this, I mean she';s the leader, they';re going to give out how to vote cards and those how to vote cards are going to be blatantly pro-Labor. So the Democrats, if they were sitting on the fence between Labor and Liberal they';ve now jumped off the fence into the Labor backyard and Democrat voters should understand that their party is no longer neutral, they clearly want a change of government.
JOURNALIST:
So does that signify Prime Minister that if you are re-elected it';s going to be very difficult for you to work with the Democrats particularly getting stuff like industrial relations reforms through the Senate.
PRIME MINISTER:
I';ll tell you what it signals Mark and that is that they have opted to favour the Labor Party, that';s what it signals.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) you seem in an ebullient mood.
PRIME MINISTER:
I always am. I enjoy campaigns, I thrive on them, I enjoy the challenge of an election campaign and this is a campaign like none other because it has so many elements in it. They';re coming together, you';ve got national security and under that rubric you';ve got a whole lot of issues. You';ve got economic management, under that rubric you';ve got a whole lot of other issues, including the capacity to credibly fund increases in education and health expenditure. I make the point again, you can';t increase provision for those public services unless you';ve got a growing economy. Now who';s more able to deliver a growing economy? The Coalition, therefore we';re better able to provide for those very important areas.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard were you disappointed or even angry in the way that (inaudible) named Australia yesterday just ahead of your CNN interview in regards to the taking of refugees?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I can';t imagine to start with that he would necessarily have been aware that he was going to be interviewed just ahead of me. That';s the answer to the second bit and the answer to the first bit is no not particularly. I mean I feel sorry, can I say I feel quite sorry for Pakistan and I admire the stand that General Musharraf has taken. He';s taken a very strong, courageous stand. I feel very sorry for Pakistan, the refugee load is going to be enormous and there has to be a solution to that problem in Pakistan. The world should not toy with the idea that they';re going to solve the problem of refugees in Pakistan by finding places for a few hundred. You';ve got to find a solution inside Pakistan, you';ve got to give more resources to Pakistan to establish effective refugee centres and processing facilities in the hope that come a better climate in Afghanistan those people will return. The model was Kosovo and you don';t solve a 2.5 million refugee problem by finding a few hundred places around the world, it doesn';t solve it. I mean we';ve got to be realistic about this and get a sense of proportion.
JOURNALIST:
You mentioned a couple of times now you';re going to give us the intellectual argument for the deployment of Australia';s troops.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';m going to deliver a speech tomorrow night to the Australian Defence Association in Melbourne.
JOURNALIST:
What can you possibly say that Australians don';t'; already know? What reasons can you give for that deployment that we don';t already know?
PRIME MINISTER:
My purpose is to underline the importance of the issue and to pay the Australian people the respect of giving a detailed, set piece explanation of why Australia should be involved. I have a very strong view that you should never take for granted the continued support and acceptance, you should constantly be advocating an argument. Governments in the past have made the mistake of assuming that initially strong support for something remains. Now I believe the strong support will remain but I have a responsibility as Prime Minister to continue to communicate with the Australian people, it';s a very serious thing when you commit military forces and I';ve got an obligation in all sorts of different ways of communicating with the Australian people. I think it would be very arrogant of me to say well look I did an interview on 7.30 Report, I did an interview on ACA, I did an interview on the Today Show and I told you all why we';re going now don';t bother me again. I mean if I did that you rightly would rip me apart for being arrogant and I';m not going to make that mistake.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) why do it this week?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think this was the right time to do it.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister after (inaudible) on the deployment you said today on radio that the attack upon the World Trade Centre was an attack on Australia as well as America. Isn';t that more of an emotive argument as opposed to an intellectual argument?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s both.
JOURNALIST:
How is it both?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it is an attack in the sense that a nation is represented not only by its people and its geographical area but also by its values. And if you attack the values of a nation you are attacking the nation, that';s what I meant. And our citizens were attacked, there were more than 20 Australians killed, now that';s an attack on Australia, they were going about their daily lives. They were doing the ordinary things that you and I do and they were killed, now that';s an attack on us.
JOURNALIST:
Any meetings scheduled for Melbourne tonight?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. Mind your own business.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
Is that the affirmative?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I mean what are you getting at, come on David what';s the deal?
JOURNALIST:
I want to know when you arrive in Melbourne of whether you';ve got any meetings planned with the Liberal Party?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh you mean this is the thing that Geoff Walsh, Beazley put out about some crisis meeting between and Lynton Crosby? No. Yomeeting between and Lynton Crosby? No. You don';t believe that sort of nonsense do you, really? I mean we don';t try that. We haven';t tried to spin any of that to you so far have we?
[ends]