Subjects: National Illicit Drugs Strategy; Ryan by-election; competition policy; Senator Ron Boswell.
E&OE................................
PRIME MINISTER:
Well ladies and gentlemen, you've viewed the material, you have a media kit. There's really not a great deal I can add to the launch except to emphasise that the campaign is designed to be quite direct. It is designed to grab attention. It is designed to focus the minds of parents all around Australia on the desirability of talking to their children about the drug problem. So if there are questions you want to ask me or Dr Wooldridge, or Major Brian Watters, please go ahead.
JOURNALIST:
Prime minister what makes this campaign different from other ones in the past which have obviously failed? Why do you think this will work?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't think it is fair to say that every campaign against drugs in the past has failed. I think that is far too defeatist. I think one of the problems with the reporting of the drug issue in this country is there is a focus on conflict, policy conflict, there's a focus on areas where we haven't achieved everything we've wanted to rather than there being a focus on the levels of agreement between governments and a focus on progress that has been made. The difference between this campaign and other education campaigns is that this is really targeted to the greatest education resource the country has, and that is the involvement of parents in the future of their children. I believe very strongly that you can do far more to educate children about such things as drugs by enlisting parents, than you can through any other agency. That's not to decry the work of the schools, that's not to decry the work of churches, that's not to decry the work of other organisations. It's just that properly mobilised, rightly focused and getting the right balance between concern and understanding, parents can have a greater impact on the behaviour of the their children than anybody else and this is designed very deliberately to marshal that potential and that's why I believe it will be more successful. That's not to say that in the past there's been a complete failure.
JOURNALIST:
Is there a benchmark that you've got in mind for this Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
It's impossible to set a benchmark at this time. It will be years before we know how successful a campaign like this has been. Just as it has taken years for campaigns in relation to other public health issues to really unarguably deliver dividends. But if you don't try, you won't be able to have those dividends in the future. We do know that properly motivated, parents can have a greater influence than anybody else. We do know that if the right language and the right approach is used, children are more likely to listen to their parents than anybody else, and we do know that if you can persuade children not to start taking drugs in the first place that is a far better approach than trying to wean them off it or to restore them to normal living after they've decided to kick the habit. So we are really hitting where you can get the best returns.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, what about the children who are outside the family system, who are wards of the state or homeless?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we enlist as best we can, and they are doing a magnificent job, the organisations, not only the government organisations but also welfare organisations, and clearly they have many trained professionals, not only paid ones but also volunteer ones, and children who are outside what you might call a formal family structure, are not forgotten.
JOURNALIST:
This is obviously focussing on preventing kids taking up drugs. Can you talk more about the next phase of the program which seems to be targeting those who are using?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that phase of the program has been in operation now for quite some time. I mean, the diversion programs of which I spoke, that involves the commonwealth committing $110 million to programs which in effect say to people who have begun to be touched by the criminal justice system because of their drug taking habits, you have a choice. You can either go on doing that and run the risk of ending up in jail, not for drug taking, but for crimes you commit because you have taken drugs, or alternatively, you can go into some kind of diversion, go into a rehabilitation program. It's offering people a choice. Do a rehabilitation program and you are home free as far as the criminal justice system is concerned. Don't do a rehabilitation program and you run the risk of ending up in jail because you rob or you assault or you break and enter because of your drug habit.
JOURNALIST:
.. three point plan policing is also a part of that. How will we see a strengthening there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that has already occurred. The booklet contains some statistics about the sharp increase in the seizures of drugs. I mean, it is very easy for the critics and the cynics to say to "oh well, it's a losing battle", the reality is that the police authorities, both the federal police and the state police and the customs service have been remarkably successful in increasing the effectiveness of drugs seizes over the last couple of years, since they've had these additional resources. And I take this opportunity of thanking the Australian Federal Police, of thanking the police services of each of the Australian states and thanking the Australian customs service for the work that they've done in that context.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, the advertisement with the families seems to me to be mother and father and two children. But in reality that isn't what is happening in Australia. A lot of single parent families, children who can't speak to their parents like we saw in those ads. Do you think you've missed out on those?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't. Can I say that is nitpicking. I mean you say the reality is not. I mean the reality is that the majority of families are still two parent families. That's not to decry in any way single parent families. And you will have noticed that some of the depictions involved one child and one parent, and not al of them involved two children and two parents. I think they were quite balanced.
JOURNALIST:
So do you think that was a snapshot of Australian families?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I thought those things represented situations in real life.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, can you actually just clarify - the $27 million over four years, is that just for the public awareness campaign brochures, the television campaign?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I think there's some other activities. But a great bulk of it goes towards that, yes.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, could I shift your attention to national affairs very briefly?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I regard this as really being at the centre of national affairs. I do. Can I say that I think these sorts of issues are in many ways even more important than the rate of inflation, and the rate of economic growth.
JOURNALIST:
Nothing to do with the economy. I was just wondering if you were pleased to see the re-endorsement of Ron Boswell last night?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm delighted that Ron's been re-endorsed. He's a gutsy courageous fighter for the bush.
JOURNALIST:
Does it vindicate your tough line on One Nation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that was a matter for the National Party. You know the Liberal Party's position. But I think Ron Boswell's been a wonderful advocate of the causes of rural people in Queensland and I congratulate the Queensland National Party in having chosen him. And I'll be there doing everything I can to get him re-elected as a Senator from Queensland.
JOURNALIST:
Well Senator Boswell this morning has said that he's spoken to you and Mr Anderson about rolling back competition policy. Is that what's going to happen? Are you going to ease competition policy?
PRIME MINISTER:
I saw that interview. I've indicated before that the Australian economy benefits from competition and we'll go on pursuing policies which provide benefits from competition. There are probably some areas where the impacts of competition policy might be examined to make certain that there are public interest benefits. But I've made it very clear in the past that we don't intend to walk away from pro-competitive policies. But there may be some areas where the impact of competition policy can be adjusted so that the public benefit is more obvious.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, Bob Tucker's conceded in Ryan as you're aware. So what chance do you think he'll have in winning that seat back at the federal election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I hope he's the candidate for the Liberal Party. I expect he'll be the candidate for the Liberal Party. He fought a very good campaign and our narrow defeat in Ryan is in no way the fault of Bob Tucker and I want to record my gratitude to him for the way in which he hurled himself into the campaign. We will fight very hard to win the seat back. I think at the moment for me to start engaging in bravado talk about the next election is inappropriate. I'm quite certain that we'll give a very good account of ourselves in the general election and I'm equally certain there were some people who voted Labor in the by-election out of protest on a number of accounts and they will come back to us in the general election. But I don't want to say any more than that.
JOURNALIST:
If it wasn't Bob Tucker's fault, whose fault was it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there were people unhappy with having an early by-election. There were people unhappy about particular aspects of policy, there were people who took the opportunity in a by-election of giving the government a kick. There are a whole range of things.
JOURNALIST:
Are you concerned about these reports that the Labor Party paid for the how to vote..or the printing of the how to vote cards for one of the independent candidates?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't know any more about that than I read in the newspapers. But I do note in passing that the Labor Party has endorsed the fourth former President of the ACTU to enter Parliament. That happens to coincide with some newspaper reports that employment contracts will be abolished by a future Labor government. It's very obvious that if you have a Beazley led Labor government with Jennie George, Martin Ferguson, and Simon Crean breathing down his neck it'll be a government for the unions, by the unions at the pleasure of the President of the ACTU's old boys' and girls' club.
JOURNALIST:
I saw in the newspapers this morning Prime Minister, there's a bit of uncertainty in Government House over planning, the future planning while there's no announcement on a new Governor General. When can we expect that?
PRIME MINISTER:
There will be an announcement at the appropriate time.
JOURNALIST:
Does that mean days, weeks?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't have any comment about timing or anything else about that.
JOURNALIST:
What were the areas of competition policy, just going back there for a second, that you might be re-examining?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't have any particularly in mind. I was just making a general observation that we remain very strongly committed to pro competitive policies. But that doesn't mean to say that every element of the way in which you implement that remains absolutely immutable.