LAWS:
Well it's been a fairly dramatic morning on the planned sale of the Snowy Hydro scheme. John Howard said no to the plan about half an hour ago and now the New South Wales Premier has bailed out too. Had little choice after the Prime Minister said what he said. And we have the Prime Minister on the line. Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, John.
LAWS:
Well you're certainly being applauded around Australia for your move and it's triggered Morris Iemma's move as well.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that doesn't surprise me, doesn't surprise me at all. John, I decided that this was one of those things where there was no long term public policy benefit in going ahead with the sale of our 13 per cent. There was huge community opposition, a lot of it based on sentiment about our history.
LAWS:
I think most of it...
PRIME MINISTER:
Indeed. And something that is good, the Snowy has become part of the post World War Two story of the development and expansion of this country, the immigration and all of those wonderful stories of people mixing and becoming Australians. And I think I underestimated the strength of feeling when we took the original decision. I don't mind acknowledging that. And when you're faced with strong public opposition and strong public sentiment on the one hand and no clear policy benefit on the other hand, then there's no point in pursuing it. If there were a policy benefit then I'd have had a different view. I mean the majority of the public at most stages has been against the sale of Telstra, but I've kept the line on that.
LAWS:
You have.
PRIME MINISTER:
The same, at various stages in relation to tax and industrial relations reform because there's a benefit. But on this issue there was no long term benefit and my colleagues were telling me that the public was unhappy. I was particularly influenced by the views of Gary Nairn, the Member for Eden-Monaro, where the Snowy is located. He couldn't say anything publicly because he's a Minister...
LAWS:
That's right.
PRIME MINISTER:
But he was arguing quietly, and in the end convincingly, so I reached the decision late yesterday that we should change and I talked to my senior colleagues about it, and Nick Minchin, the Minister I should say, he strongly supports the decision that I have announced and I don't want it to be suggested that I have sort of trampled on the views of a Minister who is involved. And it's clearly the right decision. The original decision as it turned out was the wrong one and I freely acknowledge that. There's no point in beating about the bush and conjuring up reasons. I didn't appreciate right at the beginning how strongly the public would feel.
LAWS:
Very strongly. It surprised me a bit.
PRIME MINISTER:
Anyway, I've listened and there is no harm from time to time in changing your position if there's a clear feeling in the public and a strong sentiment against what you have decided, especially when there is no policy benefit. And it has never been a promise of ours to sell the Snowy. It wasn't in my election policy in 2004. It came as a footnote to the decision of the New South Wales Government.
LAWS:
And it was the New South Wales Government who made the decision without discussing it with you.
PRIME MINISTER:
The New South Wales decision was unilateral. It was a unilateral decision. They didn't ring us up and say 'do you mind if we sell our 58 per cent?' They just announced they were doing it, which is their right. Now I've exercised my right to announce that we are now not going ahead.
We did inform the New South Wales Government of our decision just before I made the announcement. I'm not pretending the 13 per cent announcement made by me this morning was made in concert and in the knowledge that the New South Wales Government was going to pull out. Let me make that clear. I had no idea when I made the announcement what the New South Wales Government was going to do and we'd decided to pull our 13 per cent off the market irrespective of what New South Wales and Victoria did.
And I think the New South Wales Government has decided to pull out because we have pulled out and because the political pressure within the ranks of the New South Wales Labor Party, given our decision, would have been overwhelming. And I think that's the reason why the New South Wales Government has pulled out. But anyway, the Premier will explain that and we will go on cooperating, and I think in fact we're at the same football match this evening so I'm sure we'll have a cup of tea.
LAWS:
I'm sure he'll be delighted to see you. I tell you who's going to be happy. Your mate and mine Bill Heffernan will be jumping with joy.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he is a mate of mine but there are a lot of other people inside my party who have expressed, in different ways, their feelings on this and I had one backbencher who spoke to me yesterday and she said 'John, I don't mind fighting the good fight on something we all believe in, but arguing against the tide of public opinion, and something that's sort of a 20th order issue, what's the sense in that?' That made a lot of sense to me.
LAWS:
Yeah. Bill Heffernan made a lot of sense too. He gets carried away but that's the good thing about him.
PRIME MINISTER:
Bill is a great bloke. He's a great friend of mine, a terrific mate of mine. I don't always feel 100 per cent comfortable with everything he says, but I don't suppose he feels 100 per cent comfortable with everything I say. But he's a good mate and your friends are your friends irrespective of what they do aren't they?
LAWS:
Yeah, I thought he did a terrific job about it though. I mean he was...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we've got the result. Those who wanted the change, there has been a change and I feel very comfortable with the decision that we've arrived at. I don't think the nation will be the poorer. I think people will feel that they can have an influence and that they've got a Federal Government that's not insensitive to the strength of public feeling. And I'm always a soft touch for strong public feeling based on national sentiment.
LAWS:
Good. I think it's good that you are, that you understand that the public feel very strongly about some things and the Snowy Scheme was one of them.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there's no doubt about that. I mean I have been quite overwhelmed by the strength of feeling on this. I mean I was away for 12 days or so and when I got back, as soon as I got back people were coming to me saying 'John, what are you doing this for?' And I explained why and they sort of said 'yeah, what are you doing it for?'
LAWS:
Do they really talk to you like that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah they do. My colleagues do and a lot of the public does. I mean that's Australia.
LAWS:
It sure is, and you're running the joint at the moment and doing a pretty good job according to all.
PRIME MINISTER:
Trying to.
LAWS:
Good to talk to you Prime Minister. Have a nice weekend and thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you. Bye.
[ends]