BJ:
Hello Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning.
BJ:
And welcome to Tassie. Have we interrupted your morning walk this morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the rain and you.
ALLAN:
You're in Hobart at the moment. So is it raining in Hobart is it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes it is raining in Hobart. I went out and I got about half of it and then the rain got a little to much.
ALLAN:
Don't worry about Hobart. Come up this end because it's not raining here.
PRIME MINISTER:
What, it's fine up there is it?
J2
It's going to rain this afternoon. What time do you get up here?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'll be getting up there some time tomorrow.
BJ:
Now this is for the launch of the Apt Railway?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's the idea, that's the intention yes.
BJ:
All things being crossed and all things falling into place.
PRIME MINISTER:
All of that, that's right.
BJ:
Well Prime Minister, it's obvious that you have well and truly got your hands full at the moment with the Iraq situation. How long do you think we're going to be involved in this whole process?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's impossible to say. I've at no stage tried to put a time limit on. I think people who do that are very foolish. You should remember that the first Gulf War lasted for 41 days and this has been going 13 and people are saying why isn't it over. And on that occasion the target was to push the Iraqi army out of Kuwait, it wasn't to liberate the whole of Iraq. So this is a much bigger undertaking therefore people who are saying it's gone on for too long, the strategy's falling and apart and so forth have really lost touch with reality.
BJ:
I think people got the impression that it was going to be quick because George Bush right at the start sort of said, you know, we're aiming for a quick war. What do you think he meant by a quick war though?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well everybody aims, if you go into military conflict, (inaudible) the aspiration of every military conflict in history that you would it to be over soon because the shorter the war generally speaking the lower is the loss of life and the quicker you can move on to the post conflict stage and this is particularly important in Iraq because it is a very tyrannical regime and once it's gone the people of Iraq will I'm sure have a much better life.
BJ:
Prime Minister, in recent years when we've seen these conflicts the power of the media has brought this home to everyone in such an amazingly graphic way, what is your feeling on the media coverage of the war? Is it to much, are we being bombarded with it or is it not enough?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's what I expected. You have to be realistic. We live in an age where the media is more intrusive, the media is 24 hours a day available. This is quite different the way in which journalists have been placed inside military units. That decision was taken, whether it was a good idea or a bad idea, it's been taken and I would expect it might be the norm in the future. You've got to remember, or bear in mind that if media had been embedded inside military units in World War I or World War II.....
BJ:
It would have been huge.
PRIME MINISTER:
....perhaps those conflicts may not have lasted as long because the scale of misery and death and slaughter in those conflicts was infinitely greater than anything that's being witnessed now.
BJ:
Prime Minister, look on a sort of a lighter and brighter note, what are the plans to keep our boys and girls happy because I notice in reports coming out of America this morning, American Playboy is launching Operation Playmate to perk up the troops by allowing them to email the centerfolds who will send back personally autographed rather tasteful shots of themselves. Do we have any plans on a local front to send Kylie over or...?
PRIME MINISTER:
That is something that, you know, should be handled by Playboy here. I think it's something that private enterprise will look after if there's a market for it.
BJ:
Couldn't we just pop Kylie in a Post pack and send her over there.
ALLAN:
Good point. You wouldn't pay much postage with it.
PRIME MINISTER:
[inaudible] you'll get me into trouble.
ALLAN:
I was looking at your website, the Prime Minister's own website, and there's an official photo of you on there. I didn't realise that there was an official photograph of the Prime Minister. In fact BJ's doing the pose, you've seen the photo too. We could send those over. I wonder how that would go.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah c'mon, what's your next question.
ALLAN:
Oh goodness me. Prime Minister. We have to wrap it up here but we do thank you very much for your time and we do hope you enjoy your time down here in Tassie and get to sample a bit of our local clean green produce, and have a pleasant stay with us.
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm sure I will.
[ends]