JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister John Howard's on his way to Adelaide, just before he hops on the plane he joins us. Good morning Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
G'day, how are you? I did hear it, don't worry.
JOURNALIST:
You're the real one and you're coming.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, before we get to the issues of policy, that's what we really want to talk about, federal politics, has it gotten dirtier over the last 20 years? I mean you've been there..
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't believe so. But I'll just cut right to this point; we have no dirt units, I am not interested in Mr Latham's private life, I'm interested in his public policies, the allegations he continues to make that we're putting out dirt on him are wrong and I challenge to provide the evidence and I note with great interest that six or seven of the most senior journalists in Canberra have all said they have not received information from us on his private life. I really am angry at this false claim by him, he's entitled to protect his family, his family is not being attacked by me and it's not being attacked by anybody in the Liberal Party. Now that's all I want to say about it but I'm not going to allow this false allegation to go unchallenged, we do not have a dirt unit on Mr Latham, that is a figment of his imagination.
JOURNALIST:
John Howard, the public housing issue has come up with Labor offering now a plan where they want state governments to contribute as well. We have 30,000 people on our waiting lists in South Australia for public housing. Is your government proposing to match that or do something different?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we're not going to give some knee-jerk reaction to what Labor has put out, we'll be saying something further about housing down the track.
JOURNALIST:
You don't want to talk about it at this stage?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well beyond saying that the most important thing about housing of course is the supply of land which is the responsibility of state governments, the cost of building the house and also of course interest rates. And I would point out that interest rates under this government are the lowest they have been for 30 or 40 years, much lower than they were under the former government. We would argue very strongly that the land release policies of state governments are too restrictive and that the development costs which lie within the province of state and local governments are also too restrictive and that the answers lie very much in improving the supply in order to not only make more properties available but of course to contain the price.
JOURNALIST:
There's been quite a lot of discussion about children, and one of them has been the after school sport issue and you propose an after school plan with football and netball and cricket. Why isn't soccer in there...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well hang on, we haven't said for a moment that it'll be restricted to AFL, cricket and netball, it's just that the three bodies that run those sports have approached us and offered to make a financial contribution. But I made it very clear to them that we wouldn't restrict participation just to those few sports, I believe that the after school physical activity should be available in all sports and also in non-structured sporting activity as well, if that is what suits individuals, I mean I'm a great lover, as everybody knows, of cricket, I follow rugby union intensely, but I played soccer as a young bloke, I watched an AFL game last weekend in Melbourne, I don't, I'm not seeking in any way to have a preference in particular sports, but it should be said that the AFL and Cricket Australia and Netball Australia did approach the Government and offer, not only to help but also to provide a financial contribution. So that is why the names of those three sporting bodies have been mentioned. Let me make it very clear to you and your listeners that we're not trying to in any way exclude other sports. We welcome them, if other sporting bodies want to come on board and help that will make it even better.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister you'll be with us for three days now...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I will.
JOURNALIST:
Are you going to be trying to seek out the impact on South Australian voters of Peter McGauran's very determined push to place a low level radio active dump in South Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there'll be a lot of issues that will come up, I'll obviously be talking about the benefits to South Australia and the historic agreement we reached at the premiers' conference a couple of weeks ago, which is going to mean that $500 million will now go into projects to get the River Murray flowing again.
JOURNALIST:
But when you're confronted by the dump question, which...
PRIME MINISTER:
I will deal with that on the merits and what Peter McGauran has been doing is representing and advocating government policy, there was a process, we acted according to legal advice and there's been a decision taken by the full federal court and the Government will give consideration as to what it will now do.
JOURNALIST:
... do you think the marginal seats?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, the question of whether it will be damaging or not is a matter for individual voters. Voters take a lot of things into account. They take into account whether they're going to have a job under a future government, they take into account Labor's record on interest rates, they take into account the fact that we have the lowest unemployment in the last 34 years and we have very low interest rates and we have a great deal of job security. There are a whole range of things that people will take into account, obviously some people will feel... will be conscious of this nuclear dump issue, others will recognise that you've got to have a national plan to deal with this issue and that you can't just leave the issue unattended. But we'll be looking at the consequences of that federal court decision.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, we know you've got to hop on a plane right now. So thanks for your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay, thank you. Bye bye.
[ends]