JOURNALIST:
Well Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard has just walked in to the studio. It's a rushed visit Mr Howard, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Walked into this magnificent new studio.
JOURNALIST:
State of the art and purpose built, what do you think?
PRIME MINISTER:
Very nice, very nice indeed. Good to see you both again.
JOURNALIST:
Thank you Mr Howard. And also in the studio with us this morning is a fellow you might have remembered seeing at Gallipoli, Rupert McCall.
PRIME MINISTER:
I have, how are you? Great to see you, how are you? That was very, very well done, that was a great occasion. It really was fantastic.
McCALL:
Well mate I appreciate that and I didn't get to catch up with you then but it was a responsibility like to be asked to write that essay for Gallipoli and it was certainly one that came with a great honour and yeh-I mean the whole thing was pretty specialised. I'll return the compliment and say that the words you spoke at the dawn service were-not only were they pertinent they were powerful and quite passionate, very fitting for the occasion and at the Lone Pine service and we were both there and we know how special it was, the reception that not only you received but Kim Beazley and Prince Charles and Peter Cosgrove was magnificent. And the way that you interacted with the crowd-I think at one stage somebody handed their mobile phone to you and you said hello to someone's mum back home.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I think I said hello to mum back in.....
McCALL:
But it was quite inspiring, it was quite inspiring mate and I think you did a great job.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes the best part about it was the behaviour of all the young Australians there, I got a bit upset when they got criticised back here because of the litter issue-now I know nobody likes litter but I don't know quite where they were going to put it.
McCALL:
Where do you put 20,000 people...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you can't have rubbish bins these days because of security but..fantastic.
JOURNALIST:
Alright mate, good on ya Rupert. Thanks Rupert. Okay lets hop into it shall we and in a breaking story this morning it would appear that Douglas Wood, the Australian hostage in Iraq is on the verge of release-at least we can keep our fingers crossed. I don't whether you're totally across that this morning Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the information I have is that the Sheik has spoken to somebody, unidentified, so you have to treat it with a bit of caution. He has reported that to our people in Baghdad-that is all that I can tell you at the present time. We would all hope that it's right but we would also be aware in a situation like this, there are always people who may represent things-I don't mean the Sheik, I mean others who may representing to him things that are not correct. I hope that it is correct and we'll obviously keep in very close contact.
JOURNALIST:
Yes let's hope its not false optimism. There is a tiny little bit more I can add, apparently Keysar Trad has been in contact with Mr Al-Hilali in Baghdad, there is some medicine on its way to Mr Wood, apparently, for his eye problems and other problems he has. They are confident of a release as soon as fighting dies down in that area and that's the latest we have and that's only...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that's what he's saying. I mean I don't want to in anyway disagree with it but I just have to enter the cautions of... there's noting worse than false expectations in a situation like this, particularly and most particularly, overwhelmingly, for the man's family.
JOURNALIST:
Yeh, indeed, of course. The Government I think would be finding itself in a fairly complex and difficult situation at the moment because not only do we have that situation, we have an Australian man now held on terrorist charges in Kuwait, we have the Bali nine and we have Schapelle Corby, it's tricky times diplomatically I'd imagine?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes it is tricky times diplomatically. The Corby and Bali nine cases are separate and apart in the sense...
JOURNALIST:
Of course.
PRIME MINISTER:
It's not the first time that Australians have been charged with criminal offences overseas. As far as Schapelle Corby is concerned, it's getting very close - the verdict. I re-express the hope that it's a true verdict and it's a fair verdict, everybody would want her to be acquitted if she's innocent, everybody would want the whole trial to be conducted in a fair manner and in the end we have to just trust the Indonesian justice system because that's the system that's dealing with her.
JOURNALIST:
Schapelle Corby's legal team asking that there should have been more in the letter that went to...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there couldn't have been more. We were asked to provide some facts and that's what we provided. We have to understand the extraordinary difficulties that this puts the Government in. We want the best thing done by our citizen but we also have to recognise that the right of another county to try one of our citizens if an alleged offence occurs in that country. Can you imagine the reaction of Australians if the President of Indonesia, or the Prime Minister of Malaysia, or the Prime Minister of Japan, or the President of the United States started telling our courts what to decide? If they started writing letters saying this person is innocent, this person should be released, this person should receive leniency, we would say, stay out of it.
JOURNALIST:
Having said all of that, how close are we to an agreement with the Indonesians on a prisoner exchange programme?
PRIME MINISTER:
Quite close and that could result in the future in people convicted and sentenced for crimes in Indonesia serving at least part of their sentence in Australia. Not all of it but at least part of it.
JOURNALIST:
Oh I see, so they'd still be some time spent in Indonesia before they come back.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
JOURNALIST:
I see. Okay lets move on shall we? Now one of the big issues that's been sort of pushed into the background a little bit in recent times but it is a major, major issue, is the fact that we are suffering from a dreadful drought.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
JOURNALIST:
Worst in a hundred years we're told here in Queensland. We understand that you and John Anderson, your Deputy, are going to be out meeting drought stricken farmers in New South Wales later this week?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I'll be going to some of the worst affected areas in New South Wales and John's going to join me on Friday, to talk to people and to demonstrate an ongoing concern. We of course continue to help enormously, drought affected areas of Australia with the Exceptional Circumstances which means that if you're in a drought declared area you get the equivalent of the unemployment benefit, plus interest rate subsidies of up to 5% on your interest bill or half which ever is the less, lesser and with a cap of $100,000 dollars a year on the subsidy. Now those two things together probably apply to, close to, or exceeding 50% of New South Wales, perhaps a lesser part of Queensland. There was some rain in parts of Queensland in the last couple of weeks but large parts of this state are still badly affected. We will continue to make unlimited resources available for the Exceptional Circumstances programme. What that means is that if an area is deemed to be in drought, then it gets that support.
JOURNALIST:
I see.
PRIME MINISTER:
(inaudible) how many areas in theory if the whole country were declared to be in drought then every part of the country would get that assistance.
JOURNALIST:
If there is no relief, either government relief or rain of course...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we can't... I mean they're two different things. We can only provide people with help, we wish we could but we can't make it rain.
JOURNALIST:
But are we likely to see increased food prices and the interest rate rise?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think it's too early to start talking about that Ross. Our immediate concern is for the farmers.
JOURNALIST:
Okay. Now the present little 'contretemps' shall we say, with Papua New Guinea-the Australian Federal Police officers being brought home. That's unfortunate to say the least?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well what happened was that the PNG Supreme Court declared that the legislation giving the Australian people immunity was unconstitutional. Now what we are doing is talking to the PNG Government about how we get around this problem. We are not prepared to allow our police to continue to operate there without this immunity. It may well be that the only solution to the problem is an amendment to the PNG constitution. The court has made a decision, we respect that decision, PNG lives under the rule of law as we do and we have to therefore either live with the consequences of that, which would be very unfortunate because PNG does need our help and we are willing to provide it, or there must be a way found to ensure the constitutionality of the immunity because we're not going to have people there without the immunity-that is not fair to them and we've made that very clear from the beginning. It's quite a serious issue because we go back to business as usual, PNG does have significant problems and we're willing to help and those problems haven't been reduced in any way by the decision of the PNG Supreme Court, in fact that decision has made it more difficult to achieve our objective. Now I'm not criticising the decision, I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just pointing out the consequences. So it's back to the negotiating table with the PNG Government, the aim being to find a way whereby legal immunity on a constitutional basis can be provided.
JOURNALIST:
So it's got nothing to do with Michael Somare being asked to take his shoes off at Brisbane Airport?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. None whatever.
JOURNALIST:
Alright, let's move onto the incredible case of Vivian Alvarez and her deportation, four years spent in the Philippines, some talk of her mounting a legal challenge now, some sort of compensation claim, and of course ambulance-chasing lawyers straight over there to see her. Does she have a case?
PRIME MINISTER:
On the face of it something has gone very wrong. How wrong and what all the circumstances are I'll wait until I have Mr Palmer's report. I can't say any more than that at the present time, I really do need to have all the facts. On the face of it a big mistake has been made, somebody who was an Australian citizen has been deported and that should never happen, it should never happen. Now, why it happened, who was responsible and what we should do is something that I can't answer at the moment, I will answer it when I've got all the facts.
JOURNALIST:
Alright. We've got a new Ambassador to the United States, the former head of ASIO. It strikes me as being a little sort of out of tradition if I may use that term, generally speaking these sorts of posts, particularly one as vital as the ambassadorship to the United States has gone to a former senior politician rather than a former senior spy.
PRIME MINISTER:
Not always. Not always. Our last Ambassador who was extremely successful, Michael Thawley, was a former diplomat. He had worked on my staff as my foreign affairs adviser, he turned to be an outstanding Ambassador and he was there at a time when our relationship became closer than ever before. His immediate predecessor was Andrew Peacock, of course a former senior politician. It's ebbed and flowed. Many of them have been senior politicians and that is often the right person. Dennis is the right person on this occasion. He's somebody with a foreign affairs background, he's had the security background, the security bulk is very large in the relationship. On top of that he's trusted by both sides of politics in Australia. I've found him an eminently professional public servant. He works hard for the Government of the day, he was previously Bob Hawke's chief of staff, that matters not to me. He did a very professional job. Contrary to things that are said about this Government - people's previous work allegiances are not held against them.
JOURNALIST:
Onto the subject of Japanese whaling, and I have suggested that the best thing to do is frankly to send out the Navy and blow the buggers out of the water if they're whaling in our area. I would venture to suggest that you would think that might be an inappropriate course of action?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, we certainly will be obeying international law and it is the case that the Australian claim to Antarctica is not recognised by a lot of countries around the world, it's disputed, and therefore any attempt by force to interfere with whaling activities otherwise sanctioned by international agreements would be a breach of international law. So the answer is of course no. But there are other ways of trying to change what I regard as a very bad decision by the Japanese - a very bad decision. It is not science to harvest 400 whales, it is not. And the decision to go after the humpback whales as well, the decision cannot be justified on scientific grounds and we are working at present with the Americans and the British and the New Zealanders so that the four of us might put a joint proposition to the Japanese Government that they reconsider what is proposed.
JOURNALIST:
The Japanese have been pretty intransigent on this issue in the past.
PRIME MINISTER:
They have in the past, there's no doubt about that. This has an area of long running of difference of opinion between Australia and Japan. It's one of the very difficult areas in an otherwise close relationship.
JOURNALIST:
And apart from diplomatic efforts is there anything else we can do to at least metaphorically send a shot across their bows?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I would prefer going down the diplomatic path.
JOURNALIST:
So we need to talk to those countries who are in Antarctica. How owns Antarctica at the moment, there are lots of countries...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well lots of countries have claims and not all those claims are recognised by the rest of the world. And obviously it's not in the interest of countries that are a long way from Antarctica to recognise the claims of countries that are close to Antarctica and we fall into the latter category. I should say in relation to Antarctica that one of the Budget decisions was to establish a direct air link between Tasmania, between Australia and Antarctica and that will go some distance towards reinforcing our claim to sovereignty over part of Antarctica.
JOURNALIST:
Alright. On another matter totally away from politics but one that's certainly making the frontpage of newspapers well quite frankly globally and that is the fact that Kylie Minogue has been diagnosed with the early stages of breast cancer. The extent of this condition is mind-boggling isn't it? It's just terrible.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think everybody feels shocked and saddened. A young woman, Kylie Minogue, any young woman of that age to be diagnosed with that condition, it does send a shudder through you, it happens to a lot of young women, it's a reminder because it's a high profile person just how wide is the incidence of breast cancer amongst young women and it just reinforces the need for women from a very early age to take all the precautions in the world to detect the condition in its early stages. The prognosis, if it is identified very early, is promising. The survival, full recovery rate is very high when it's discovered early. I think all Australians feel for her and wish her well and hope that it has been detected in the very early stages and she will make a full recovery.
JOURNALIST:
I should just touch on the Budget very, very briefly, we had the Treasurer Peter Costello in earlier this week of course talking about Kim Beazley's...
PRIME MINISTER:
Decision to vote against the tax cuts?
JOURNALIST:
Yes, yes. Will that happen...?
PRIME MINISTER:
Will he vote against the tax cuts? I don't know. In the end he may not - in the end he may say well I've made a bit of noise and I've said how I would have done it but I'm not going to vote against them. I think he's just being very foolish and juvenile. I can understand an Opposition Leader saying look if I'd have been there I'd have done it differently. But he's conceded the principle. He's not against tax relief and he's also not against tax relief at every point on the income range. His argument is one of degree and he's saying well if I don't get exactly what I want despite the fact that I'm in Opposition I'm going to vote against what the Government is proposing. I don't think Australians appreciate that. I think if he'd have said look I don't agree with the way they've distributed it but they're the Government, they won the last election, it's their Budget, I'll let it go through but I'll tell the Australian public how I would have done it if I'd have been Prime Minister or Treasurer. Now the public would have said fair enough, we'll have a look at what he's got to say.
JOURNALIST:
His point about the seven million Australians who put you in power and let's look after them and actually spread those tax cuts across middle income earners a little more effectively is probably a valid point though, is it not?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it would be a valid point if what he was saying was accurate. I mean he accepts the changes in the thresholds at the upper end have got to be done, he runs around saying that people on high incomes are getting more dollars under our tax cuts - that is true. The people on high incomes pay more dollars in tax and they will still pay more dollars in tax after these tax cuts. And he also ignores the fact that the great weight of the tax relief that we have provided up until now through family tax benefits has gone to low and middle income earners; the great bulk of people on high incomes don't get family tax benefits, don't get any of them because many of the family tax benefits are income tested and once you go beyond about 100,000 most of the family tax benefits, not all of them, disappear. So there is, if you're interested in getting incentive into the system, if you're interested in providing encouragement for people to work harder and go into higher income tax brackets, there is a very strong argument for not only helping low and middle income earners but also helping higher income earners and I think it's playing very short sighted envy politics to say well he's getting x dollars and somebody else is only getting y dollars without acknowledging that the bloke who's getting x dollars is paying x plus $10 already in extra tax. Now that is the progressive tax system, you go into a higher tax bracket and you pay more tax and that will still be the situation after the changes that we have introduced. But if we are to keep the best and the brightest in this country we have to have a competitive tax system and all this will do is make us a bit more competitive with the rest of the world in those higher brackets and that's important for the future of our country.
JOURNALIST:
Now we should also mark the day by saying happy anniversary, apparently today is the 31st anniversary of your election as the Member for Bennelong.
PRIME MINISTER:
The 18th of May, it is indeed, I'd forgotten that. I should recall it was a very wet and rainy day, I can only hope that that might return to large parts of eastern Australia as the day wears on, I don't think it will though.
JOURNALIST:
Anything you would have done differently in those 31 years?
PRIME MINISTER:
A lot of things you might have done differently, I think the generally thrust of what I've tried to do I feel very content with because I think as particularly over the last 10 years this is a stronger, more respected country around the world, we have the lowest unemployment in 30 years. Unemployment now is virtually back to what it was in the early 1970s, it's not quite as low as it was then but certainly I think it's the lowest in about 28 to 30 years and of course our fiscal position is very strong, we've undertaken major reforms to the tax system, we still have some further reforms to do with industrial relations and that will be the next cab off the rank.
JOURNALIST:
It also coincides with the anniversary of the Breakfast Creek hotel doesn't it, the building of the Breakfast Creek hotel.
JOURNALIST:
Oh that's right, the foundation stone of the Breakfast Creek hotel was laid on this day in 1889, wondered if you'd like to come down and have a steak with us later today cause we were going to suggest...
PRIME MINISTER:
I would actually find that very attractive but unfortunately I've got a full book today.
JOURNALIST:
Well I was just going to say what is on the agenda for today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'm going to have a meeting with some of my Liberal Party colleagues in Queensland and then I'm addressing a major community event for my new colleague Ross Vasta who is the member for the seat of Bonner and then I'm addressing a large business lunch at the Hilton hotel I think it is in the city. And then this afternoon I'm opening the Liberal Party's headquarters and I'm doing something again tonight. So it's a fairly busy day, in between that I've got a bit of paperwork to do.
JOURNALIST:
Hectic schedule. They do a great steak at the Creek with the mushrooms...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I have been there, about 15 years ago I went there one afternoon. It's a great spot, haven't been back since, I must try and go again. But unfortunately I can't...
JOURNALIST:
We were looking forward to a couple of (inaudible) and a steak and then back into the public bar to sing four-part harmonies with the wharfies.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think I might... I mean I did alright with the workers in Tasmania at the end of last week in the forest industry.
JOURNALIST:
Indeed. Prime Minister, we're going to have it to leave it there but thank you very much for coming in this morning and once again happy anniversary.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
JOURNALIST:
Thank you Mr Howard.
[ends]