JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) Australian troops to Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
There haven't been any discussions between the Australian Government or Australian Defence officials about that. It was frankly news to me, there's always the possibility at a military level that all sorts of discussions go on, but there have been no discussions between Ministers, no discussions between senior officials of the British Ministry of Defence and the Australian Defence Department. We have quite a significant contingent in Iraq already and that contingent will stay until it has done its job. We are tomorrow looking at the question of whether we should make an additional commitment to Afghanistan, and we'll look at all of the facts and circumstances and no doubt the whole issue of troop deployments abroad will come up because you also look at where else you are committed when you're looking at the possibility of a new commitment. But the story in the London Sunday Times is not based on any discussions of which I have any knowledge.
JOURNALIST:
Would you be comfortable with Australian troops taking over command in (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I'm not going to respond to speculation which is not based on the discussions of which I have no knowledge.
JOURNALIST:
Are you concerned by criticism of your proposed industrial relations changes (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we proposed to change the unfair dismissal laws because the way they operate has worked to reduce the number of job opportunities available to people, particularly in small business. We need to change these laws because they destroy jobs - that's the reason why we're going to change them.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, as a Sydneysider who I know likes to drink the water, have you heard Mr Carr's plans about the desalination (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't heard the detail, although it's been widely speculated now for some days that an announcement would be made. I would like to hear the case. We do have a problem of water availability in Sydney and the responsible thing for me to do is to look at all of the possibilities and I don't want to attack anything off the top of my head; that's not responsible. I do however know that desalination is expensive, it's also energy intensive. I would hope that all of the recycling options are fully explored. I do worry that the New South Wales Government has been a little too ready to dismiss almost out of hand the options of recycling and I'm not convinced that the case for preferring desalination has been strongly enough made by those who would want to have desalination rather than recycling. But it's an important issue and having stated that principle I don't want to say that under no circumstances would desalination be a good idea, it's just that it does have a number of disadvantages.
JOURNALIST:
Would you like to see more effort put into recycling (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think that option must be fully explored.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister why does Bill Farmer deserve a job as Australia's Ambassador to Indonesia (inaudible) scandals he presided over (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't accept your description of scandals. I reject that as a categorisation. He is going to Jakarta because he's very experienced diplomat, he's had a very long and distinguished and meritorious career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and I'm confident that he will do a very good job as Australia's Ambassador.
JOURNALIST:
There are suggestions that you made that announcement yesterday so the London bombings would overshadow it. Is that right?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's outrageous, absolutely outrageous.
JOURNALIST:
Does the movement of Bill Farmer protect Senator Vanstone?
PRIME MINISTER:
Senator Vanstone is well able to protect herself. I operate on a principle that ministers should go if they have been directly responsible for significant failings or if their continued presence as a minister causes the Government ongoing damage. That's always been the true Westminster principle. It's never been the Westminster principle that if something goes wrong in the corner of a department for which a minister is not directly responsible, that minister should resign. That is nonsense, it's never been the case and I don't Senator Vanstone needs any protecting. She can look after herself very effectively.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, do you believe that you have the support of the Australian public about sending troops to Afghanistan?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we haven't made any decision to support, to send more troops to Afghanistan. We're going to discuss that issue tomorrow. When you take decisions of this kind you don't first do an opinion poll, I have never done that in relation to important decisions and in the time I've been Prime Minister I've taken a number of difficult and important decisions which have not enjoyed, when a survey has been done, majority support of the Australian community. That hasn't deterred me from taking a decision. My responsibility is to do things that I believe are in the interests of the country. If some of those decisions involve short term, or even long term unpopularity, well that's something I have to wear. I'm not in the job I'm in at the moment for popularity reasons or reasons of my own political hide. I have a responsibility, particularly having be re-elected for a fourth term, to do things that are in the long term interest of Australia and that applies whether it's national security or as issue like industrial relations. And tonight at the Sydney Institute I'll be outlining in some detail the intellectual and economic case for further moderate, sensible changes to our industrial relations system. It's easy to think that because we're doing well at the moment we don't need further reform. That couldn't be further from the truth. It's precisely when you are doing well that you have to build for the future, and that's what we're doing. And our policy will guarantee that in the future we have a stronger economy and when you have a stronger economy you have more jobs and higher wages.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, are there any updates on Australian casualties in London?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't had any advice which fundamentally alters what I've previously been told. There is always the possibility though, with bodies still to be recovered from the Kings Cross tunnel, there's always the possibility that there could be Australians amongst that group of victims. Now I don't want to rule that out, but until I have further information there is nothing that I can add to what has previously been said.
JOURNALIST:
Is there any update on the work of the Australian police (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
They will be there to do two things, to help as required and also to observe and learn against the possibility we all pray won't arise, of having to deal with a similar incident in Australia. And I thought it was a very good thing right at the beginning to send a group including a transport expert as well as police experts to help if required, but also to observe, because if something like this, God forbid, were to happen in Australia we would all want to be fully prepared.
Thank you.
[ends]