COUSENS:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning.
COUSENS:
Surely you haven't come to north Queensland just to open the hotel?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I came primarily to north Queensland to visit Innisfail, but also to come to Townsville and make a fairly important announcement that I'm sure will be widely welcomed in Townsville about the Jezzine Barracks. And I'll be making an announcement about that....
COUSENS:
Right now?
PRIME MINISTER:
A very good announcement at a large community gathering in about an hour's time, but why not open a three star hotel as well, because all of these things feed into the prosperity of Townsville and north Queensland. Townsville of course is home to a large part of the Australian military, Lavarack Barracks, it is a great university city, but it's also got a tourist side to it and therefore all those features come together. And it's a combination of those things that makes Townsville such a prosperous city and one of Australia's most go-ahead places. And Peter Lindsay, the local member, is always telling me about the different aspects of life in Townsville, and they're always on display when I come here.
COUSENS:
Mr Howard there is a really positive feeling in the community that you're here to clarify the future of Jezzine Barracks in Kissing Point, you've told us that, but can you tell us your Government's plans for the land?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the public will like it, I think they will find that it's very good. But I do want to pay the courtesy that I know is due to people turning up this morning, but I think the arrangements that I'm going to announce will be arrangements that the community will like.
COUSENS:
Can you at least then assure the community there will be no private development on the site, that it will be retained for community use?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the community will find what I say later today to be very good and I don't they'll be the least bit concerned about the arrangements. I think they'll be very enthusiastic about them.
COUSENS:
On the Liberal leadership front Mr Howard, it must have been a difficult conversation you had with your 2IC, Treasurer Peter Costello, when you told him you were continuing on?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to talk anymore about that conservation. It took place. I told my colleagues by letter what I was doing. I then made an announcement, Peter made a statement. His response has been very gracious, as you say, and the response of somebody whose first priority is the interests of the country and the interests of the Liberal Party.
COUSENS:
What did you think when he said it doesn't matter how I feel?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't intend to respond to any of those questions. We are now dealing with the nation's business. Your listeners want me to concern myself with their concerns and their challenges not other matters. That issue has been dealt with and I have nothing more to say about it.
COUSENS:
One of their concerns though could be how will voters know that they're not essentially voting for Peter Costello or any other potential leader who might emerge for you to hand the reins over to in the next term rather than you when they head the ballot box?
PRIME MINISTER:
Part of what the Australian public has voted for over the last, during the last four elections, is Peter Costello's contribution to the economic management of the country and I think people are very well satisfied. I think I saw an opinion poll of a couple weeks ago that gave him a 70 percent approval rating as Treasurer. Now he's a very well regarded person in that job. He'll continue to be a first, do a first class job in that and I don't really want to say anymore.
COUSENS:
But will it be difficult to work with the Treasurer?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no. We've worked very well in the past and we'll continue to work very well in the future.
COUSENS:
Can you guarantee that you'll stay on for the entire next term should you beat Kim Beazley?
PRIME MINISTER:
You can ask me all those questions when we get into the election campaign, okay. It's 17 months off or whatever.
COUSENS:
Oh, 17 months of fun ahead Prime Minister. Okay, analysts are expecting the Reserve Bank Board will decide to increase official interest rates when it meets this morning. Analysts are saying up to a quarter of one percent. How much do you think they could go up given last week's higher than expected inflation?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to speculate, I don't know. The Bank will make a decision, the Bank has the independent authority to take these decisions. I have no idea and I'm not going to speculate.
COUSENS:
The talk is a rise of a quarter of one percent, the Shadow Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner, says the increase could be up to half a percent. What would you be comfortable with?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to comment. It's silly of me to make any speculative comments as the Bank meets.
COUSENS:
Okay, let's talk about East Timor briefly, Prime Minister because it's very important for this community. We've got a lot of troops who are representing Australia.
PRIME MINISTER:
I saw a lot of them there a couple of weeks ago.
COUSENS:
That's what I wanted to talk about, tell us about that trip. When you visited East Timor you warmly welcomed the new leadership in Jose Ramos Horta. Do you think his ascension to the Prime Minister position of the fledgling country, will that hasten stability there?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's a good move, after all this is another democracy, and it's not for me to tell other countries who their Prime Minister should be, but he's a very experienced man. We know him well, we respect his judgement and I believe it's a step in the right direction.
COUSENS:
So what do you think then of the job that our troops are doing and our Brigadier Michael Slater who is from Townsville, are doing in the country at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
A first class job. They have been able to scour the place and pick up a lot of weapons, they've got the gangs off the streets, they've settled the place down and it has all been done in an atmosphere of goodwill. Australians are very good at combining the responsibilities of having a military presence and all that that entails with discipline and getting riotous or rebellious behaviour under control, at the same time winning the hearts and minds of the local population. And Mick Slater has done a really first class job and I congratulate him and all of his men and women. They're in good spirits and they were very proud of the professional job they've done in the name of their country.
COUSENS:
Eighteen minutes past nine on the morning programme with the Prime Minister, John Howard. David Cousens with you this morning, will our Townsville based troops, our Australian troops, will they be returning to Australia soon?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I can't give you a unit-by-unit, person-by-person calendar, but our presence there will reduce as circumstances allow.
COUSENS:
And will that be imminent? Do you think the circumstances...
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think there's any sense in my speculating about that. We saw some units come home, some naval units and I think some of the helicopters. They came home 10 days, a couple of weeks ago, and it is planned to reduce the, what, 2500 to 3000 who are there now, down further as conditions allow. And we'll get down to a certain bedrock number. Now exactly when that happens is something that will be decided on the advice of the Army because it's professional advice. Brigadier Slater and the CDF who will give me advice on that and we'll act on that advice.
COUSENS:
The Middle East crisis is increasingly, I don't know what term, hideous.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well any war, it is hideous and the loss of life is appalling particularly civilians, women and children in that dreadful catastrophe, that attack. We must, however, remember who started this. It was started by Hezbollah when they attacked Israel by going across the border and capturing soldiers. Like everybody else, I'd like to see the fighting stop. I'd like to see an international force, but that international force must have a number of things. It must have numbers. It needs to be 10 to 15,000 at least and it needs to have the clear authority to disarm Hezbollah and to reassert the authority of the regular Lebanese Army and the Lebanese Government. If it doesn't have that authority it's questionable whether it should be sent in the first place.
COUSENS:
What would your offer be from Australia's point of view in terms of a contribution?
PRIME MINISTER:
We would not be in a position to offer companies or battalions or anything like that. We have commitments elsewhere that would preclude that. We might be able to make what is called in the trade a niche contribution, a small number of specialists in certain areas, but we haven't made any decision on that. We would not contribute anything to a token force and we would not contribute anything to a large force that did not have the sort of mandate of which I spoke. I am very much against exposing Australian soldiers to a situation, or Australian military personnel, to situation where the mandate is not clear. They might be heavily outnumbered and could become the target of terrorist attacks and I'm just not interested in that.
COUSENS:
Twenty one minutes past nine. Finally, Mr Howard before I let you go an enjoy the Queensland winter, because I'm feeling generous today, I'm happy to allow you another chance to spill the beans on Jezzine Barracks in Kissing Point before you make the announcement.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think you'll have a reporter there, but it will be a good announcement and the community will love it
COUSENS:
Prime Minister John Howard, thanks for dropping by the studio today.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]