MARTIN:
Mr Prime Minister, thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Pleasure.
MARTIN:
Talkback radio today PM, it called the $4 tax cut miserable and measly. Why did you bother?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Ray we could afford to give a tax cut, we'd provided extra money for Defence and security and education and Medicare. We'd guaranteed that we'd remain with a balanced Budget and quite rightly we decided that what was left over should be returned in a tax cut. Now I think it's rather odd for people to say well we want lower taxes but because the cut is not as much as we'd like it, I mean I understand it's never as much as we'd like it, it's not as much as I'd like to give.
MARTIN:
Well you can't do much with $4 can you?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no but Ray it's a question of whether you continue to hang on to people's money when you don't need it. I mean this is not our money, it's your money and your viewers' money and we operate on a very simple philosophy, we raise taxes and we spend it on necessary things, we keep the Budget in balance because that's good for the economy but if there's anything left over we should always return it to the people who own it. What about the Australian taxpayers?
MARTIN:
One of the suggestions today, you've heard commentators, you know the commentators would say that since the last tax cut in 2000 so-called bracket creep has stolen, or taken $27 from the average worker and what you do is give them four bucks back.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ray it is, I mean bracket creep always operates when you have income tax scales, it's not as dramatic now because we have this big number of taxpayers between $20,000 and $50,000 a year and they can move up in that range without going into a higher tax bracket and what we have endeavoured to do is to mitigate some of the effects of that. Now there's nothing covert or deceitful about this, I acknowledge that a thing like bracket creep exists, I know that and what we have done is to give back some money after we've provided for defence and health and education. I mean there's nothing magical about it, it's not designed to pave the way for an early election, it's just a bit of honest, returning of money to the people who own it after we have paid for defence and health and education and made sure the Budget is in balance. But I mean what is the alternative? We've got the money over so we hang on to it? I mean we could spend it on something else?
MARTIN:
Sorry PM, the alternative might be you've got $2.4 billion there, the suggestion's been that you spend it on something worthwhile like the environment or on adult education or a decent water policy. Why not spend it on something worthwhile?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well my philosophy is you spend money on the things you regard as essential and important, but I don't believe that if you've got money over you find something to spend it on. I think governments that do that are not serving the public well because the public is always a better judge of how to spend their hard earned money than is a government, no matter how good that government might be. I think the people who are listening to this programme would be saying to themselves if John Howard doesn't need this money for essential things I'll decide how I spend it no matter how small the amount is, I don't want him spending it on something rather than giving it back to me. I think most Australians would feel that way.
MARTIN:
Alright, could Peter Costello win an election on this Budget PM?
PRIME MINISTER:
Good try, I know what that's all about, don't have anything to add on the subject, I'll always do the right thing by the Australian people.
MARTIN:
If the Senate blocks the changes you propose in this Budget to Medicare and to higher education will you take them on?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I hope the Senate doesn't block us, the Labor Party has said that they will oppose these measures, that's very negative. They oppose everything, I mean they are very negative, I think the public's fed up with that. When we were in Opposition and when Hawke and Keating put up some sensible ideas, instead of blocking them we supported them. I mean they would never have been able to get through financial deregulation if we'd have run an opportunistic campaign against it and I think it's very silly.
MARTIN:
... would you push...
PRIME MINISTER:
Ray, let's take things in their turn as they arise.
MARTIN:
Well they're in their turn ...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well people often say things and when it actually comes to a vote, we're a long way off the vote on these things and to be talking about double dissolutions now is entirely premature. My position on early elections is I don't believe in them unless there's some overwhelming public policy reason and right at the moment there isn't. And I can only speak of right at the moment.
MARTIN:
Alright. Now do you want Peter Hollingworth back as Governor General?
PRIME MINISTER:
Ray, I said at the weekend that he would stand aside while this Victorian case was resolved. I also said that it was only after it had been resolved that he could properly make a decision about his longer term tenure of the office and he has told me in making that decision he will give the upmost priority to the dignity and the respect of the office and I don't have anything to add on that.
MARTIN:
Do you think that he's had a fair go, that the public debate has been fair?
PRIME MINISTER:
Some aspects of the public debate have been very unfair. Some people appear to pick on him quite unnecessarily, I mean he was attacked for not going to Bali within the first few days of that tragedy. He really couldn't, decisions had to be made and the person who had to go to Bali was the Prime Minister and he had commitments in another part of the world which were important in celebrating a battle 60 years ago in which Australia had been involved and I think that was very unfair. He obviously made a big error of judgment in relation to that case in Queensland, he knows that. But beyond that I really don't want to get into further discussion. He stood aside, the administrator, Sir Guy Green, is being sworn in tomorrow morning, I called on him as a matter of courtesy at Government House this afternoon, life goes on, he'll be picking up Dr Hollingworth's programme and the show goes on.
MARTIN:
Alright, a quick question, we're out of time, but a quick question, how did you feel when you stood alongside President Bush and he referred to you as the man of steel?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I was very flattered I guess.
MARTIN:
Sounds like Superman.
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly don't regard myself anything like that but I mean I'm not given for that kind of stuff, I don't go in for it. But he's a really good bloke and I hope at some time in the not too distant future Australians will see more of him, he's a very human warm person, he's got a great sense of humour, he likes sport and he's very intelligent and well briefed and I enjoyed his company immensely and Janette enjoyed Laura's company immensely as well.
MARTIN:
Sounds like a Superman himself. PM, thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER:
He's a really good bloke.
MARTIN:
Thanks for your time very much.
[ends]