PM Transcripts

Subjects: Labor Party campaign launch; Knowledge Nation
PRIME MINISTER:
Well ladies and gentlemen, having had a look at Mr Beazley';s policy launch I must say that even the most ardent Labor supporter would have a huge sense of disappointment. This is a tremendous anti climax. Just like Rollback we';ve heard for months and months and months what an extravaganza and a mind blowing policy exercise knowledge nation has been and they';ve laboured mightily and produced something which is essentially a collection of incremental changes and one or two ideological swipes along the way. Incremental changes and additions to what is already there. It does not make any substantial difference to the long term funding of universities. My understanding is that we put about $5.2 billion into operational funding for universities. This is going to add only slightly to that. They have once again re-embraced discrimination against Australians by saying that under a Labor government if you';re a foreigner you can pay fees at a university but if you';re an Australian you can';t. That';s discrimination against Australians.
The proposals in relation to apprenticeships are really inadequate catch-up politics. We';ve demonstrated very conclusively that we are the apprenticeship party. I mean we';re the party that has lifted apprenticeships by over 140%. Labor allowed them to languish and we';ve more than doubled them. So I would sum up Knowledge Nation which is the centrepiece of this policy launch as being a pathetic anti climax. I thought we would have something different. I think Labor supporters were expecting something a bit more dazzling than this and they';ve really been given a bit of a policy squib.
I';m intrigued to hear that Mr Beazley wants to do something about increasing the threshold points at which HECS is repayable. When he was Minister for Education Mr Beazley lowered the income threshold at which HECS became payable. He doubled the fees for undergraduates taking second degrees and he increased the pace of repayment of HECS debt. This could well be another example of not listening to what he says but remembering what he did.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, do you think it';s a good idea that Labor has introduced this notion of broadband access becoming a universal right just as local telephone access is, [inaudible] broadband into the Universal Service Obligation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well once again I';d like to see the practical implication of that and what';s involved in relation to the other obligations of Telstra.
JOURNALIST:
Are you surprised about the small amount of money in the first year or first years?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look this is a complete fraud in terms of any immediate relief. I mean this will take years. It';s all back-end loaded. I mean anybody who was looking from day one for some kind of university nirvana from Labor will be very disappointed. This was meant to be their specialty. I mean this is what we';ve been lectured on for months and months and months.
JOURNALIST:
….tax concessions for R&D investment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s public sector oriented. I mean I haven';t thsought through the implications of that. I';m not going to offer a comment on it.
JOURNALIST:
Why shouldn';t students get HECS relief Mr Howard?
PRIME MINISTER:
Why shouldn';t they?
JOURNALIST:
Yeah in terms of …..
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s a question of your priority. I would have thought the most important thing is to get to university and to get a job. I would have thought the people who';d got jobs after they';ve left university are less in need of relief than people who don';t have jobs. I can';t see where it';s enormously urgent that the point at which you start repaying your HECS be increased. The complaints I hear are not so much in that area. Rather I hear complaints in other areas. Certainly not in that area.
JOURNALIST:
Doesn';t education need the sort of long term planning that Mr Beazley is proposing?
PRIME MINISTER:
No this is long term deferral. This is not long term planning.
JOURNALIST:
Just on brain drains. You said this morning [inaudible] talk about the brain drain….
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah well what I';m asking Australians to bear in mind is that we have always had a situation where many of our best and brightest go overseas to further their education and their training. The idea though is they shouldn';t be stopped from doing that but we should be sufficiently attractive for them to come back. I think we';ve got to have a sense of maturity about this. We attract people from other countries. We';re part of the globalised world. You';ve got to expect this, as long as they don';t stay away. Most of the incentives designed to bring them back were built into Backing Australia';s Ability. The problem Mr Beazley has is that we';ve already done this. I mean most of what was needed to be done in this area was done in our Backing Australia';s Ability program announced at the beginning of the year. And, you know, he';s essentially been playing a bit of catch-up, he has a few ideological swipes along the way such as the concession in relation to the, not only, not so much in relation to the HECS fees but in relation to the fee paying places. And I guess the other point I would make is that there is very little emphasis on standards. There is not the emphasis on standards that my colleague Dr Kemp who of course is the father of literacy and numeracy standards in the Australian education system. If it hadn';t been for David people wouldn';t have started talking about literacy and numeracy in Australian schools.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, isn';t it fiscally responsible for Labor to back-end load the policy so they can afford it?
PRIME MINISTER:
You can';t have it both ways. You can';t run around saying the world is going to come to an end unless we get the opportunity of implementing Knowledge Nation, and then when you';ve got the opportunity of implementing Knowledge Nation if it';s that important he would have been willing to cut programs in other areas and put this in before those programs. What he';s demonstrated by this, by back-end loading is he doesn';t really regard it as important as he said. What he wants to do, he wants to hang on to everything that';s there and then add this on top, well if it';s that important he would have had the courage to say well look this is more important than something else and I';ll cut that other thing. But he doesn';t have you know what in order to cut that other thing.
JOURNALIST: Is it a catch 22 situation though? If he did commit more money then you could simply accuse him of spending too much but the fact that he has been….
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, look Sarah political campaigns are about people stating their priorities and what Mr Beazley has said by back-end loading all of this expenditure, he says that Knowledge Nation is not as important as all of the existing Howard Government programs. Now, that';s very flattering but it also reflects his own priorities.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Beazley summed up Knowledge Nation as one word being jobs. How would you sum it up?
PRIME MINISTER:
A damp squib. That';s three words.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, what do you think about Labor';s proposals to increase ABC funding to the levels before you came into government?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I support the current level of funding of the ABC. Which represents a real increase on the last few years. We';re not in a position to commit to further funding of the ABC.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister do you think that voters have become collectively engaged in this election campaign?
PRIME MINISTER:
That';s something for you to decide, you';re the commentator. I certainly find a lot of engaged voters as I move around Australia. I';ve in fact found more engagement in this campaign than I did the last one. I have. I don';t know what, I';m not quite sure what it means but I';ve certainly found people more engaged.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister what do you say of criticisms from people like the Australian Vice Chancellor';s Committee who said that increased funding to universities over the past five and a half years has only been achieved by lowering HECS thresholds, increasing rates of payment, and actual money coming from government spending has not increased? PRIME MINISTER:
Well my reply to that is that what matters for universities is the amount of money they get not the source of that money. Governments have responsibilities in a number of areas and it is not unreasonable in a society such as ours, that people who go to universities make some contribution to the cost of their education because a university education confers very considerable benefits on the people that have it.
JOURNALIST:
Well do you think on that point that people who are earning $22,346 a years are in a financial state sufficient to take an extra tax load to pay off …..?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don';t think it is unreasonable to ask people at that level to start making a contribution, no. I know many people who are trying to support families on that kind of income and I therefore don';t think it';s unreasonable. I think the present arrangements are quite reasonable.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister the ABC Board is meeting today to discuss the future of the ABC Managing Director, Mr Shier. Would you be unhappy with anything less than a full expression of confidence in Mr Shier?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I';m not going to comment on the management of the ABC it';s an independent body. We appoint a Board and I have full confidence in the Board. They';re fine men and women. I';m not going to get into that. Look, look the ABC runs it';s own affairs, we give them money and they pride themselves on their independence, the ABC, they are absolutely vigorous in defence of their independence and rightly so. Now you don';t want me to get involved in the affairs of the ABC I';m sure.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister you said today in your speech that Australia needs a leader who is prepared to take unpopular decisions. Is the implication of that that Mr Beazley won';t take unpopular decisions?
PRIME MINISTER:
No the, the very clear charge I make in relation to Mr Beazley is that I think faced with difficult decisions he would go for the easy option always. Well he';s done that in Opposition.
JOURNALIST:
Are we getting back to (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you mentioned the word.
JOURNALIST:
What are some of the unpopular decisions you';ve got in mind for us?
PRIME MINISTER:
What unpopular decisions have I – I';ll tell you what. I was reflecting on what I';ve done over the last five and a half years, I hope in the years ahead I don';t have to take decisions that the Australian public don';t like but I can say to you that if it';s necessary to do so I will and argue my case as I have with tax reform and that is what good Prime Ministers do. Now I don';t have anything in mind, we all hope that it won';t be necessary to do it but I';ve shown in the past a capacity to take difficult decisions and I won';t be unwilling to do it again.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard you also mentioned that it wasn';t a time for flexibility, but hasn';t that been one of the hallmarks of your Government particularly on things like….?
PRIME MINISTER:
No responsibility within a clear forward direction. That';s what I';ve done. Well in relation to BAS that was responsiveness along a clear path of forward direction.
JOURNALIST:
What about petrol excise?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we didn';t abolish fuel excise. We just reduced the rate and got rid of automatic indexation. I';m very pleased I took those decisions, I think they were the right decisions at the time. And I was asked to take all of them by Mr Beazley but apparently he still wants the money that was spent on them. He really does want it both ways, he';s a most amazing bloke. He says you';ve got to do this, you';ve got to do that, but please somehow or other make it, make it not cost anything so I';ve got several hundred million dollars left.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, according to the Washington Post, Saddam Hussien has sent letters to the Leaders of the west requesting they stop the war on Afghanistan. Have you received such a letter? And what is your response?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven';t received that letter. I think you might know what my response would be.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard just in relation to overseas students, you said that Labor';s policy on fees would discriminate against Australians. Could you just expand on that? I mean are you discriminated against now apparently if you don';t have the money to pay for those classes?
PRIME MINISTER:
You can have HECs.
JOURNALIST:
You can also gain greater access to (inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER:
Isn';t it unfair to say that we';ll let foreigners buy their way, come and have university places but not Australians. I just can';t understand how you can possibly justify that. It just seems to me to be a piece of fundamental discrimination. I mean there';s no way Labor would take away the right of foreigners to – would they?
DR KEMP:
That';s right.
PRIME MINISTER:
David… the right of foreigners to pay at university but they';re going to take it away from Australians? This is just an ideological genuflection to the student unions. That';s all this is.
JOURNALIST:
Dr Kemp, were you as disappointed as the Prime Minister with Mr Beazley';s education policy?
DR KEMP:
I';m absolutely as disappointed. It';s a damp squib when we';ve had all this rhetoric about what they';re going to do, there';s not a single extra on-campus place promised in this document. In fact what we know from Labor is they';re going to destroy some 6,000 places of Australian fee paying students which is going to cost universities $141 million over three years and they haven';t even conceded that in this address today. And of course we need to take that into account when you look at what the impact of the policies would be on the universities. There';s a sbe on the universities. There';s a slush fund that he';s creating but he';s also going to take money out of the universities by abolishing these fee paying places. These places are all additional places, they don';t take places away from any other person or student. They are places that simply add to the pool of Australian schools.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, we seen you cough a number of times in public today – is the campaign wearing you down at all?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, you make me nervous.
[Ends]