COLIN:
Prime Minister John Howard flies into our region today, into the Federal seat of Paterson and he joins us now. Good morning Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning David.
WILKS:
And Tanya here. Hello.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hello Tanya, you well?
WILKS:
Yeah very well. Already we've had the Member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon on the air this morning and he's been in the local Herald as well, issuing a challenge to you to stop and talk to the striking Boeing workers, telling them why you support the employer, and why workers generally shouldn't see this dispute as a sign of things to come under IR reform.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well can I just say, I mean I'll reflect on what Mr Fitzgibbon has said. I like Joel Fitzgibbon. His politics are different from mine but we have a cordial relationship. This strike by the Boeing workers ,of course, is occurring under the existing law and I've never been able to understand how people say this is a portent of what is to come. What the Boeing workers on strike have chosen to do is to withdraw their work, withdraw their labour in support of negotiating for themselves a collective agreement. It's not about pay and conditions. 90% of the workers doing similar work for Boeing don't support the strike. They've stayed at work. The vast majority of workers have made it clear they don't want a collective agreement and they prefer to stay on their common law individual agreements which have been in place for many years. They're not incidentally, Australian Workplace Agreements. And the 25 employees on strike can go back to work at anytime and I understand that they can go back on their old terms, or accept new terms, that would see everyone of them get a pay rise. Now that's their choice. Now in those circumstances, it seems to me as if the workers in question are exercising their rights to make a political point about the nature of industrial relations, but it's not a political point about the proposed changes, because what is occurring is occurring under the existing law.
COLIN:
Okay, there was a poll conducted recently by a very popular television show in the country and the question they put was "did you believe John Howard when he said a terrorist attack was being planned?" 27% said yes, 73% said no. Does that indicate there might be a lack of confidence in the Government, or maybe in you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't know what it indicates, but all I can say in relation to that issue, that I had reason to say what I said. I had reason to do what I did. And it would appear as if what I did and what I said was at least consistent with events as they unfolded. You have to, in my position, do what is right, not necessarily do what the public wants you to do, or might believe you should do.
WILKS:
Have the police led you to believe that anymore of these raids could be imminent?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to talk about advice I get from the police. There is nothing to be gained by that. Arrests have taken place, people are in custody and it is for the courts to decide what happens, not for me to make declarations, or indeed for anybody else in political or police authority to make declarations. It's very important at a time like this that we maintain to the principle that people arrested are entitled to a presumption of innocence. More generally, there is no doubt we are living in different times and we therefore need different laws.
COLIN:
Okay, you're coming out to the region today because Bob Baldwin couldn't get a guernsey on Celebrity Overhaul. Hopefully you're going to be taking him for a walk. Does he need...
PRIME MINISTER:
I wont go into that.
COLIN:
Come on.
PRIME MINISTER:
I will not go into that.
COLIN:
He needs to do the kind of exercise that you do every morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
He is a great Member and he exercises very, very energetically on behalf of his constituents. I haven't met a bloke who works harder for the people he represents than Bob Baldwin. He really is quite remarkable.
WILKS:
What will you be doing today PM?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'll be doing a couple of events with him and they've been publicised for the people; their community events, a big community event. Bob of course is a great enthusiast and he runs a lot of things in the electorate. He has citizen of the year and young citizen of the year and sports achiever of the year for people in his electorate and he always gathers a lot of people.
WILKS:
We were asking our listeners last week whether they thought you watched reality TV and so we're very curious. Did you rate say Dancing with the Stars? Were you backing Ada or Chris?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I watch it occasionally. I don't watch it regularly, I have to say that. But I do watch it occasionally.
COLIN:
All right, with all the sport that was on at the weekend, how much of it did you watch because we know you're a sporting tragic?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I did watch quite a lot of that. I watched a lot of the soccer game, which ended up being a disappointment. I hope that in the home town atmosphere we can do a great deal better and I briefly watched also the Wallabies. I'm a great supporter of theirs. Unfortunately they didn't have a good time, and I also watched a bit of the rugby league. It was a pretty busy weekend.
COLIN:
There could actually be a job for you going as coach of the Wallabies by the end of the day the way things are going.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh well look I feel for Eddie Jones. It's not easy, when things go wrong people always try and find a scapegoat without recognising that all teams go through periods of being down and perhaps we you should recognise that it is cyclical and maybe we have been losing a bit because the other teams for a while have been better. We can't win all the time.
COLIN:
That's right.
PRIME MINISTER:
We really can't, and I think it's a bit hard on Eddie and George for that matter for people to look around. Why don't we just acknowledge that on the circumstances of each game, we've been outplayed by a better team.
COLIN:
All right . we've turned on a beautiful day weatherwise for you in the Hunter. Have a good day.
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly will thank you.
[ends]