PM Transcripts

Subjects: Election 2001
O';BRIEN:
John Howard, once again today you';ve put strong and consistent leadership, your leadership, right at the centre of this campaign and once again today you';ve failed to guarantee that you would serve a full third term.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well what I';ve said in the past Kerry is that when I get to the age of 64 I';ll think about my future. That';s all I';ve said and I';ve said it. But right now the last thing I want to do is leave government because I';m very committed to seeing the Australian people through these terrible challenges we have at the moment if that is their wish. And I';m being very open about that and that is my position.
O';BRIEN:
So open to the extent of saying that it is still an open question for you as to whether you will serve a full three year…?
PRIME MINISTER:
No what I';m saying Kerry is that I have in the past said that when I get to the age of 64 I';ll think about my future. But as I feel now the last thing I want to do is leave government because I want to see the Australian people through these very difficult challenges.
O';BRIEN:
But having put your leadership on the line against Kim Beazley';s and your leadership and the record of your leadership at the centre of the campaign you don';t think you weaken your own base in the process by failing to guarantee that you';ll serve a full term and that if you don';t in your place will be Peter Costello who will bring less experience to the very issues that you are highlighting today?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don';t.
O';BRIEN:
Right. Peter Costello on international security….
PRIME MINISTER:
No you asked me a question and you asked me whether I weakened the base of my claim and I said no I didn';t.
O';BRIEN:
But what I';m saying is that if you don';t serve a full three year term Peter Costello is your heir apparent. How would his credentials on the issues of international security that are right at the forefront of this campaign against a former defence minister, a seasoned defence minister in Kim Beazley?
PRIME MINISTER:
Kerry what I';ve said is that when I reach the age of 64 I';ll consider my future. I haven';t said that I will retire at 64.
O';BRIEN:
No no I understand that. That does leave it open doesn';t it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Kerry I can only repeat what I';ve said and I';ll say it again that I have in the past said that when I get to the age of 64 I';ll think about my future. Right now the last thing I want to do is leave government because I have an overwhelming commitment to see the Australian people through this huge security and economic challenge that we now face.
O';BRIEN:
Well speaking of this huge security challenge, who will be your defence minister in the next term?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don';t think it';s appropriate at this stage for me to speculate about who';s going to be ministers after the election. It smacks of hubris to start picking your cabinet at the beginning of a campaign and I';m not going to get into that business. I don';t take anything for granted in this election campaign. I think it';s going to be very tight. The Labor Party only needs a very small swing in order to win and the last thing I';m going to do is get into the business of counting my chickens before they';re hatched.
O';BRIEN:
Even so, international security is right at the heart again of this campaign. You';ve made it so. Do you think that that leaves a slight air of uncertainty at least about the experience of the person that you might put in that very crucial job?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I can assure you that I';ll put somebody of great ability and experience if the people choose me again as Prime Minister. And I can also say that I will take a very close personal interest in defence matters as I have over the last five-and-a-half years. My three defence ministers will know that I was a very concerned and interested Prime Minister when it came to defence matters and nothing is going to change in the future if the people do me the honour of re-electing me at the election.
O';BRIEN:
You';re seeking to strike the image of Howard the strong stable leader and Kim Beazley the weak vacillating leader. Can you think of a single thing that Kim Beazley would have done differently to you on the terrorism crisis?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven';t really thought very much about what he might have done on the terrorism crisis. I';m surprised that he';s attacked my decision to go to APEC. That is a plainly party political reaction devoid of any concern for the national interest. It is in Australia';s interest that its Prime Minister be at a meeting with the President of the United States, the President of China, the President of Russia, the Prime Minister of Japan, and the President of Indonesia, all to discuss terrorism, an item that I asked the President of China to put on the agenda for APEC. Now in those circumstances for me not to go I';d be letting the country down.
But he';s been weak and vacillating on illegal immigration. He started by saying we didn';t need a carping Opposition. Within four-and-a-half hours he was accusing me of playing the race card. He opposed our Border Protection Bill, voted it down. Then he';s changed his position, but in the Senate debate half his colleagues said if we win the election we';re going to change it. So he';s flipped and flopped and re-flipped on illegal immigration. So that';s the kind of vacillation that I have in mind.
O';BRIEN:
Well who really did flip and flop on the Border Protection Bill. What Kim Beazley objected to about your original Border Protection Bill was that it was too much to try….too important to try and take on board and decide on with the short time frame that you gave him. He wanted that bill to be reconsidered. Now wasn';t it you who substantially changed the Border Protection Bill which he then supported? And isn';t that the only thing on which he has disagreed with you on illegal immigration?
PRIME MINISTER:
No that';s not right Kerry because we actually, in the second Border Protection Bill it contained measures particularly about the transfer of people that weren';t in the first bill. In many respects it was a broader bill.
O';BRIEN:
You and Kim Beazley have started today declaring two quite different agendas for this campaign. You';ve been very big picture today with emphasis on the international scale. Mr Beazley says you';ll be forced by the end of this election to be fighting it on domestic issues for which he says you have no third term agenda, that you';re making it up as you go.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that';s completely wrong. The big domestic issue is economic management and I will match the economic management credentials of John Howard and Peter Costello against Kim Beazley and Simon Crean, and Simon Crean would be the Treasurer in a Labor government. I will match our credentials any day. I mean after all we';ve got the budget into surplus, we';ve got interest rates at a 30 year low. The Australian economy is doing better than most in the industrialised world. Even Mr Beazley today at his Press Conference said the economy was not headed for recession, he actually said the economy was doing quite well. So if he thinks he';s got an edge on the domestic agenda, I don';t know what area he';s thinking about.
O';BRIEN:
Well it';s interesting isn';t it. I mean there was a time in the not too distant past, when you and Peter Costello had been at pains to talk glowingly about the state of this economy and to be extremely optimistic about it. But it';s true isn';t it that you perceive and broadly pundits perceive that in this election climate it suits the Coalition better for people to think that the economy is not travelling so well, in that you';re regarded as a better economic manager and that Labor Governments get elected when times are good.
PRIME MINISTER:
Kerry that';s a very complicated question.
O';BRIEN:
It';s a conventional wisdom isn';t it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh it';s still a complicated question. I';ll leave the punditry to you and others. The Australian economy is well able to resist the buffeting that is now occurring around the world as a result of the terrorist attack in America. And the reason it';s well able to resist it, not be unaffected by it but resist it, is because of what Peter Costello and I have done over the last five and a half years. I mean that';s the message, if we had not done all of those things to make it stronger, which the Labor Party opposed at every turn, IR reform, tax reform, getting the budget into surplus, all of those things, waterfront reform, all of those things have made the Australian economy stronger and more resilient and on every issue, without fail, the Labor Party obstructed and opposed and tried to stop it happening.
O';BRIEN:
But isn';t it also true that this year particularly, on that same economic front when you talk about consistency that you have been guilty of a number of very substantial back flips not least of which is that you have spent virtually all of that surplus that you';ve been so proud on, you have embarked this year on a series of massive spending programmes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Kerry, we have made a number of changes such as the BAS form, petrol excise and so forth in response to community concerns. I don';t see them as back flips but if you do well that';s fine by me. I think the public saw it as us being responsive at the margins on particular issues. But the budget is still in surplus and by the end of this financial year we will have repaid $58 billion of the $96 billion of Federal Government debt that Mr Beazley left us in March of 1996. You don';t keep running up surpluses if you have paid off an enormous amount of debt. There comes a point where to accumulate surpluses for the sake thereof is counter productive. And you should be willing to run those surpluses down in the interests of justified expenditure such as on salinity and defence and roads and further taxation relief.
O';BRIEN:
Well speaking of further taxation relief and speaking of the surplus, it';s only a few weeks ago now that you were holding out the carrot of income tax cuts in your next term depending on the surplus. Are you going to be able to in the course of this campaign make a clear and definite promise about delivering a tax cut in the next term or not.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Kerry we will be saying something about income tax relief during the course of the campaign. I should tell you and the Australian public that it won';t be as extensive as it might have been a few months ago because the contracting world economy made worse by the events of the 11th of September are going to have an impact on growth in Australia and our surplus this year and next year will be much smaller. The surpluses in the out years will be greater but they will not be as great as might otherwise have been the case. Now that is a fact of economic life, it has happened through circumstances not within our control so we obviously have to tailor our commitments according to those circumstances and nobody can say that this most recent contraction is due to bt this most recent contraction is due to bad decisions by the Government, because world circumstances quintessentially are going to have an effect on all of us. But we will be able to say something on the income tax front but it will be more modest and more limited than might otherwise have been the case for the most obvious of all reasons.
O';BRIEN:
John Howard we';re out of time. Thanks for talking with us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Pleasure.
[ends]