Subject:
Opening of Eastwood Centre Superfresh, ALP, union dominance, housing affordability, London terror attacks
E&OE...
PRIME MINISTER:
Could I just say before taking any questions that the business I've opened, which is a wonderful example of just what you can do with a small business in Australia in present economic circumstances. Sam and Joe and their family started this business only four and half years ago and it's expanded from a much smaller site to this much larger one and is just a wonderful small business example of what has been achieved. So often when we talk about business we think of very large companies but the real success story in Australia are the fact that hundreds of thousands of small businesses have prospered, they've had low and stable interest rates, they've had good economic conditions, they're employing people, they're expanding, they're taking risks and they're investing money. And most importantly is they're providing fresh quality fruit and vegetables at the right price and that's a maxim that holds true whether you're running BHP Biliton or the Superfresh Eastwood Centre, doesn't really matter which, it's the same principle. You've got a good product, and you market it well, and at the right price you're going to do well. But ladies and gentlemen I congratulate Sam and Joe and their families and I congratulate the 1.9 million self employed people in Australia now. There are in fact more self employed people in Australia now than there are members of trade unions. Now that's important, not as a criticism of the membership of a trade union but rather as an illustration of how the prosperity of the last 11 years has really come very much off the backs of the small business men and women that have worked so very hard. And it's important that the economic conditions that have brought that about not be disturbed. It's important that we don't change our industrial relations laws, it's important that we don't interfere with the prosperity that we've had over the last 11 years so that in the next decade there can be many more examples such as this all around Australia. But I'm delighted to have been asked to open this business, open the expansion of this business and to wish its owners well and I can tell by the faces of the happy customers of Eastwood that it's doing very well and it's going to continue to do very well into the future. Thank you. Any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard following John Robertson's comments, do you think that the ALP is a union puppet?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think the person who ought to take the cold shower or the person who has taken the cold shower is Mr Rudd and not Mr Robertson because what really has happened is that the very thing that Mr Rudd said wouldn't occur has occurred. He has done what the unions have told him to do. He was flirting with a softening at the edges of the anti-AWA policy and he's backed right off that. He's now said that they are stone dead, lock stock and barrel they'll be gone. We all suspected that but he was sort of tip toeing around the edges and he was trying to sort of give the impression of listening and it's obvious that people like Mr Robertson and others have put the weights on him and he's backed off. So, so far from him telling bully boys to take a cold shower, he's the one that's had to take the cold shower.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think the IR issue is starting to hurt the ALP?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look the IR issue bothers people because it will hurt the economy. What worries me about their IR policy is the damage it will do to the economy. I heard Julia Gillard said she wanted a policy that reduced the number of industrial disputes. How can you reduce them from a record low? I mean industrial disputes are virtually zero now in many parts of the economy, the building industry, they've fallen from a very high level to be virtually nonexistent and she is pretending that she can make that better. The reality is, don't disturb something that's working. When you're on a good thing, stick to it, to use a well known marketing metaphor and why should you alter something that's working?
JOURNALIST:
But is the IR issue starting to hurt yourself as well, the polls aren't looking too good?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, what matters is its impact on the economy. I mean what worries me about IR policy is what conditions will they create for people like Sam and Joe. That's what's really important. That's far more important than any political impact.
JOURNALIST:
What kind of message (inaudible) John Robertson takes send to the voters?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think what it demonstrates is that when push comes to shove the unions run the Labor Party. Now we all know that. John Robertson is no Dean Mighell or Joe McDonald. John Robertson runs the union movement in New South Wales and he was a key player in getting Mr Rudd installed as leader of the Labor Party. Mr Rudd owes him big time and John Robertson won't be shy about collecting his dues.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think it's a problem that Mr Rudd does owe Mr Robertson, in your opinion?
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
Do you think it is a problem that.....
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I mean the problem is that if Labor wins, it will be told what to do by people like Mr Robertson. I mean that's the problem. And that is wrong because only 15 per cent of the workers that work for private companies now belong to unions and I don't believe in those circumstances the unions should have a monopoly on industrial relations policy. And that is my objection. My objection is not to unions as such. My objection is to the unions having a monopoly of power when it comes to industrial relations policy. And you've seen in the past few weeks Mr Rudd was flirting with some weakening of his policy on AWAs and the unions said