PM Transcripts

MURNO:
Prime Minister, thanks for your time. Who picked the election date, you or your closest political confidante Mrs Howard?
PRIME MINISTER:
We did talk about it. In the end I decided it. But we did talk about. Janette and I kick things like that around.
MURNO:
But you agreed on the 10th?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yep I thought it was a good date. I discussed it with John Anderson and Peter Costello as well, and my very senior advisers in my office. In the end there';s always an argument for and against a particular date but the interesting piece of symmetry is that the present parliament expires at midnight on the 9th of November so we are perfectly on time. We';re not early, we';re not late. We';re right on time.
MURNO:
Mr Howard, just three months ago you were considered in the polls a dead duck. Now you couldn';t be much stronger. Do you consider yourself a shoe in?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don';t. I don';t. I think the polls will tighten now that the election';s been called and I think it will be very tough. The Labor Party only needs to win seven seats. They need a swing of less than 1% if it';s uniform and they';ve won government. So we';re right on the knife edge. It';s so close that we only need a puff of wind in the wrong direction and we';re gone.
MURNO:
There has been a lot of speculation as you know about you perhaps not fulfilling your term as Prime Minister if you win the election. Can you guarantee here and now that you will fulfil your full term?
PRIME MINISTER:
What I';ve said in the past Mike is that when I hit the age of 64 I';ll think about my future. But right at the moment I have to say that the last thing I want to do is leave government because I';m overwhelmingly committed to seeing the Australian community through this new and dangerous and difficult security and economic challenge that we face. So really the last thing on my mind is leaving government.
MURNO:
And when are you 64?
PRIME MINISTER:
A little under two years time.
MURNO:
So?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s better to be…I';m quite open about it and I always believe in being open with the Australian people.
MURNO:
You once said Kim Beazley lacks ticker. Do you still think he does?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think he';s very indecisive, I really do. The last thing we want at the moment is somebody who can';t make up his mind on big issues or worse still keeps changing it as he did on illegal immigration. He changed his position three or four times on that and it';s still an open question if Labor won whether they would continue to support the legislation on border protection they finally let through in the Senate.
MURNO:
You must be pretty confident to take the rare step of going overseas during a campaign for two days.
PRIME MINISTER:
That';s not an expression of confidence. It';s an act of duty. How can a Prime Minister of Australia in present circumstances pass up the opportunity of a meeting with the President of the United States, the President of Russia, the Prime Minister of Japan, the President of China and the President of Indonesia when one of the issue to be discussed is terrorism which I specifically wrote to the chairman of the meeting – the President of China – and as a result of that he agreed to put it on the agenda. I can';t understand why Mr Beazley';s criticising me for doing this. I';m doing the right thing by the country in going to that meeting.
MURNO:
In announcing the election date today you said you would have more to say on income tax during the campaign. Why not tell us now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you plan a campaign and you plan to announce things during the course of the campaign. I have to say that the budget position because of the weakening world economy is not going to be as good as it might have been a couple of months ago. The world economy was weakening anyway but September 11 has delivered an enormous hit particularly to the American economy, and we';re going to have much smaller surpluses this year and next year. They';ll be a little better in the out years. But that';s going to affect what we have to offer and it';s also going to affect what Labor has to offer as well.
MURNO:
So you';re ruling out tax cuts?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I';m not ruling them out at some time. I certainly have to say there';s no room for personal income tax cuts in the current financial year. But further down the track there may be room and we';ll be saying something about that during the campaign.
MURNO:
Mr Howard if you do win how might you guard against the arrogance that often sets in with long term governments?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I can only promise that I';ll never be arrogant. I don';t approach this election campaign with any sense of arrogance, quite the reverse. I mean I';m not really thinking about how I will behave if I win. I';m really focused on winning and I guess you start thinking about things after you';ve won, you know, when you';ve won. It';s just one of those situations where I really do believe it';s going to be close. I think it';s going to be much tougher than people are suggesting because we have that tiny majority and it';s very easy for an Opposition to just bash away at the Government and criticise everything we';ve done and you sometimes get an audience for that. So I don';t regard this election as anything other than a huge fight and very difficult for us to win.
MURNO:
Some of those people who are more unkind would call you stubborn.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';m not stubborn. I believe I have resolve and I believe Australians want their Prime Minister to have resolve and have determination, be willing to stick up for what he believes in, to persist. I have all of those qualities, I hope. I don';t think that';s stubbornness. Stubbornness is just blindly refusing to change your mind even when you';re wrong. I don';t think people could say that. But if people say of me that I have a lot of resolve and determination and tenacity well I';m happy to plead guilty to all those things.
MURNO:
Okay. We';ll leave it there. Thank you very much for your time and good luck for the campaign.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks very much Mike.
[Ends]