PRIME MINISTER:
Could I start by making a couple of comments on sport. I want to say what an extraordinary performance the Socceroos put up. I, like millions of other Australians, watched the game. To hold Brazil to a scoreless first half was a tremendous performance. You have to remember we're ranked, what, 42nd and Brazil is ranked number one and it was a fantastic performance and I wish them well in their tussle with Croatia. A victory or a draw could well, certainly a victory would and a draw possibly would, make sure that we got into the next round. And it really has been fantastic and they've done the country proud.
And it's been a long time since we've won a major tournament in golf in the United States and congratulations to Geoff Ogilvy. It was a great performance and he deserves it and I congratulate him on behalf of the sports loving Australian public.
And also Lleyton Hewitt winning the Queen's tournament to complete the trilogy of sporting activities overnight. Any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, a week ago you told your Party Room that you wanted the migration laws through the Parliament by the end of this week. Are you still confident that will happen?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't speculate about those things. I indicated yesterday in an interview and again this morning that I'm a patient man, and I enjoy talking to my colleagues and I don't have anything further to say.
JOURNALIST:
Is it something you want sorted out before you meet President Yudhoyono?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't have anything further to say.
JOURNALIST:
How much change though is acceptable? I mean you don't want to see too much watering down of these laws. That's fair to say.
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't have anything further to say to what I've previously said.
JOURNALIST:
Warren Entsch has today suggested that diseases may be something to consider, diseases that come in with boat people. Do you have any comment on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't heard that.
JOURNALIST:
On IR, are you surprised to see a drop in the polls for Labor given Kim Beazley's AWA promise?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't talk on a month to month basis about polls. They come and go. Mr Beazley made a huge mistake in pledging to get rid of AWAs. It was seen by the Australian public as Mr Beazley being bullied by the unions. People don't want their political leaders bullied by the unions. They want Mr Beazley to stand up for what he really believes in and seven months ago he believed in AWAs. He said you'd have to keep them. And then along came the unions and they told him otherwise and he rolled over. I don't think the Australian public respect leaders who roll over to bullying tactics from unions.
JOURNALIST:
Do you accept though that there are some unscrupulous employers who are taking advantage of the new laws?
PRIME MINISTER:
Ian, there are bad employers and bad employees no matter what industrial relations system you have. And all the industrial regulation in the world can't get rid of those employers who are determined to behave in an unscrupulous fashion any more than all the changes in the world can prevent some people not doing the right thing by their boss.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister with your meeting coming up in Indonesia, do you have any concerns about the security treaty? There were some murmurings this morning from Indonesia.
PRIME MINISTER:
That is not something that we're pushing. The idea of having a security treaty or some kind of document that would go under that name, providing it's got sensible terms in it, and terms that are good from Australia's point of view is something that I would support. But I have never made signing some kind of security treaty an immediate foreign policy aim in our relations with Indonesia. As you know John, I'm not a person who places a great deal of store on process or framework in our relations with the countries of the East Asia region. I tend to place a far greater store on the substance of the bilateral relationship and they are the sorts of issues that I'll discuss with the President when I next see him. Thank you.
[ends]