HOST: The Prime Minister Julia Gillard joins us. Prime Minister, good morning.
PM: Good morning.
HOST: Thanks for joining us Prime Minister, the questions about Qantas of course still remain strong and Premier Baillieu in Melbourne with the Melbourne Cup Carnival really badly affected says you should have intervened earlier. How do you respond?
PM: Well Premier Baillieu hasn't got the facts of this right and I'm not surprised really that he's joined common cause with Tony Abbott's political campaign. We're used to all of this negativity from Tony Abbott and the Opposition. Let's just get the facts clear here, as late as Friday Qantas was saying that it was negotiating this dispute, two o'clock Saturday Qantas contacted the Government, not for a discussion, not to ask our opinion, but to tell us that they were grounding the planes at 5pm.
HOST: It was put out strongly, Prime Minister, yesterday by one paper in particular that they tried to contact you at CHOGM and you didn't respond.
PM: And that paper, The Daily Telegraph, you're right, that story ran yesterday and as early as 7:30 yesterday morning Alan Joyce was on the radio saying that story was untrue. So don't be misled by false reports here, that report was wrong.
HOST: What about going back to that basic point though, regardless of the politics of the other side, that this was coming, this was getting worse, Qantas was getting badly affected, therefore the economy was badly affected. Why didn't you use your powers under Fair Work Australia to say: take it to the tribunal?
PM: We did take it to the tribunal, so let's just get the facts right here and the law right here, you can't just chuck the Australian law in the bin and pretend it's not there, which some of the commentary from the Opposition has done. So, Qantas on Friday saying that they were negotiating the dispute, on Saturday contact us at 2pm and say ‘we are grounding the planes', that is a Qantas decision. They were not seeking to discuss it with the Government; the board had made the decision. As soon as we heard that, we made application to Fair Work Australia to get the industrial action terminated, it was terminated and planes were back in the sky yesterday afternoon.
Now we all know that in this country, in the past, we've seen industrial disputes that have lasted weeks, that have lasted months, here we are Qantas starting to engage in a lock out on Saturday and we had planes back in the sky by Monday afternoon.
HOST: Fair Work Australia, of course, the Federal Government was a major party in that hearing-
PM: -The hearing happened because of the action of the Government.
HOST: And you were there and you will be there, presumably. What will the case, what will the Federal Government take to Fair Work Australia, what will it ask for now?
PM: Well the parties now sit in a room and see if they can sort it out and I believe they should sort it out and I made that perfectly clear to them yesterday. If they can't sort it out, then the industrial umpire will sort it out for them and tell them what to do and tell them what their working conditions are going to be.
But the significant thing for the travelling public and people are getting planes now and people who have been stranded are making their way back home, so Fair Work Australia's decision was a win for the travelling public. The significant thing for the travelling public over the 21 days of discussions and then if the industrial umpire has to sort it out, the period that it takes is that the planes will be in the sky, because industrial action has been terminated.
HOST: Just one more on the Qantas issue, Prime Minister. The question of whether we can have the old Qantas back, is the Government going to try to affect an Australian owned airline and keep it that way, or does it have to ride out the way it is in the economy?
PM: Well there is a Qantas Sale Act, that puts obligations on Qantas about its Australian identity, so I think that the provisions of that piece of Australian law are very important, Qantas is an iconic Australian brand. But we are not intending to resume Government ownership of Qantas, no, we're not, that's not the way Government engages in the modern economy.
HOST: Interest rates, of course on everybody's lips today, with the Reserve Bank decision coming down in a few hours time. How strongly will the Government pressure the banks - Wayne Swan's already been out there, but how much pressure do you want to put on the banks to make sure that they pass on any cut?
PM: Just to put it in order, the Reserve Bank of course is independent from Government, so they'll make the decision this afternoon. The Reserve Bank has indicated that they have got room to move and the Government's been playing its role by engaging in the greatest, fastest fiscal consolidation the country's ever seen. What that means is getting the budget back into surplus, we're getting that job done and that plays its role in not putting upwards pressure on inflation and the Reserve Bank keeps a very big eye on what is happening with inflation, as it does interest rate settings. So the Reserve Bank will make its decision, if the Reserve Bank determines to cut rates today, then I think Australian banking customers will look at their banks and say they've got no excuse for not passing that cut on.
HOST: Do you feel that, that as Prime Minister they have no excuse?
PM: I certainly do, I don't believe that the banks would have any excuse for not passing the rate cut on, in full, if a rate cut occurs today.
HOST: Just looking back, it seems such a long time ago now, with all the events of the last couple of days - CHOGM, is it unfair to call it a multimillion dollar talkfest, that just talked about talking some more?
PM: Oh, I think that is unfair. Let's have a look at what happened, a first for Perth, for Western Australia, for Australia, we had more than 50 heads of government, representatives of nations, come to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. That actually meant that there were 3,000 people in Perth, 1,200 of them at a Business Forum, Australian business leaders meeting business leaders from overseas, forming bonds, doing deals, working out joint investments, so that's good for Australia.
There was also a big Youth Forum, so I think that's great for young people around the world and a People's Forum, where people could come and raise issues that concern us and concern nations around the world as well.
HOST: And Prime Minister, when it to came to a big issue, like human rights, it's effectively put off, isn't it?
PM: Well there were steps forward taken at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. This is an organisation, it's more than 50 nations, it works by consensus, so no one meeting changes the world, but progress was made. On human rights questions there was a new empowerment of a body called the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. In all of the history of the Commonwealth, until this time the only kind of choice the Commonwealth had if a nation was off the path of democracy and the rule of law and human rights, was to let it run until it was really bad and then decide to suspend of expel them. Now this group is empowered to intervene when the nation is first starting to veer off that right path, rather than waiting for it to go over the cliff.
HOST: Meanwhile Prime Minister, another very important matter to be dealt with today, the race that stops the nation. Does it stop Parliament? Do you get to watch the Melbourne Cup?
PM: We don't stop Parliament. We're in the process of making some arrangements so that question time starts early and finishes early, so people can canter - that would be the right word today, wouldn't it-
HOST: -It would.
PM: So people can canter to the their TV screens and watch the race.
HOST: This could be a rare moment when the Government and the Opposition get together?
PM: Well, I think you'll find people in all sorts of combinations and iterations round the building watching the Melbourne Cup.
HOST: We've got to get a tip too, Prime Minister.
PM: I've gone for Manighar, with Damien Oliver. Having spent so many days in Perth, having seen Perth put its best face forward to the world during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, I've gone for a Western Australian jockey.
HOST: Thanks very much. Thanks for your time today.
PM: Thank you.