JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, do you believe the alliance is still an issue in this election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think...
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I think it is, I think the quality of the relationship is still an issue. Look at the Free Trade Agreement, does anybody imagine that a Latham Labor Government could have been able to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with the current administration? Not a hope. And Mr Latham still hasn't made up his mind. The House of Representatives in America has voted by 314 to 109, President Bush and his rival Senator Kerry have both supported the Free Trade Agreement, but still Mr Latham is dithering. When he meets those Premiers today they should tell him where the Australian national interest lies and that lies in him immediately and unconditionally supporting this Free Trade Agreement.
JOURNALIST:
... Federation Square involving yourself, do you think your security is adequate at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look I never talk about security matters.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, Mr Latham is today talking up the benefits of having a Labor Government at both state and federal levels. What do you think about that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the Australian public when they think about it will be quite horrified at the thought of wall to wall Labor Governments. Can't you imagine them if Labor wins the next election having a meeting and planning the hand back of control of industrial relations to the trade union movement? I think the idea of having Labor everywhere is a thoroughly bad idea and particularly in the area of industrial relations.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, what's your response to the Butler report?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think what the Butler Report does is totally clear Mr Blair of allegations that he pressured the intelligence services. And it also puts paid to this idea that there was bad faith used by the British Government, I mean it was an investigation of British intelligence but it certainly is not as critical of Mr Blair as many people have suggested.
JOURNALIST:
Are you now prepared to accept that at the time we went to war that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction that were fit for deployment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I am prepared to accept is what Lord Butler said and that is that it would be a very rash person who said that Saddam Hussein never had weapons of mass destruction or that they won't be discovered. That's what Lord Butler said and he was an independent person of great repute, operating in a non-political environment, unlike the American Senate report which was a far more politically hyped up inquiry. Butler is now out of the civil service, he runs a college at Oxford and he's regarded on both sides of British politics of a person of independence and he has found in that fashion and I think it's a very interesting and certainly a very balanced report. Sure there are flaws identified, nobody's denying that, but this allegation that the intelligence was massaged by the British Government, that the services were pressured, that's wrong and he even finds that that report in relation to getting uranium from Niger was soundly based, now isn't that interesting.
JOURNALIST:
In respect to the Flood report, when do you expect that to be completed and when it is completed do you expect it to be made available to the public?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's due to be given to me by the end of this month, as to whether it comes earlier I'm not certain and we'll obviously deal with it quickly and appropriately.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, you've been to Gippsland, this is your third time now what do you...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I love the place.
JOURNALIST:
What do you feel as the most pressing issue for the residents here?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well listening to what the Mayor said in there a few moments ago, maintaining the very low of unemployment. I mean unemployment under my Government in this area is 3.3 per cent, that is below the national average. If you get a change of government you won't keep it that low.
JOURNALIST:
... Governor General will swear in your new ministry this weekend, what was the reason for having it so quickly?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you normally do, once you appoint somebody in a new job they like to take over.
Thank you.
[ends]