PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning. Just before you ask me any questions, I want to make a comment about Mr Beazley's commitment to pull Australian troops out of Iraq if he were to become Prime Minister. If every country were to do that, we would guarantee a victory for the terrorists in Iraq, it's as simple as that. Whatever views people may have about the original decision to go into Iraq, it's elementary commonsense that if all countries cut and run, as Mr Beazley advocates Australia should do under his Prime Ministership, then that would guarantee a victory for the terrorists in Iraq and that would give an enormous worldwide boost to the cause of terrorism. And what Mr Beazley has advocated flies in the face of one of the findings of the National Intelligence Assessment on which he relied to make his criticisms, because that finding makes it very clear that a victory for the terrorists in Iraq would give an enormous worldwide boost to the terrorist cause. It's in Australia's interests that the terrorists fail both in Iraq and in Afghanistan and that should be the view of all Australians of commonsense, irrespective of the views they may have had about the original decision to become involved. We can debate that, but we must face the modern, the current reality, and the current reality is that a withdrawal by the allies from Iraq which in effect is what Mr Beazley has to be advocating because if it's alright for Australia to go, why isn't it alright for America and Britain and others to go, and that would leave Iraq in the hands of the terrorists, and that would be an enormous victory for the terrorists, a huge defeat for the west, and would boost the terrorist cause all around the world. Now any questions?
JOURNALIST:
He also said Prime Minister that you followed Bush into the wrong war and that you are making fellow Australians less safe, how do you respond to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
He also said on radio yesterday that this was the safest country in the world.
JOURNALIST:
He said the concentration should be on South-East Asia and not...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the concentration should be where the threat is and the threat is in Iraq, it's in Afghanistan, and it's also in our part of the world, but we can't station troops in Indonesia, I mean where does he suggest the troops go? JI operates in Indonesia, he's not suggesting that we'd actually send troops to Indonesia is he?
JOURNALIST:
In terms of cross-media ownership laws, do you expect the bill to be modified on the back of the current inquiry?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well let's get the result of the inquiry first. The whole idea of an inquiry is to have it, to hear what people have to say, and when we hear what they've had to say, we make a decision as to whether we modify the bill.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think support is waning for the changes...
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I am not going to give a commentary on that, let's get the inquiry. Any other questions?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, our correspondent Peter Lloyd said, as the Taliban...
PRIME MINISTER:
Your correspondent? Oh yes, I am sorry, the ABC yes, sorry.
JOURNALIST:
...said that the Taliban are accusing Australian Special Forces of killing civilians in fighting and are you aware of that at all?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I am certainly not aware of that, and nobody suggested to me that that has happened, and I would be very confident in saying that Australia's Special Forces have behaved with the utmost courage, the utmost decency and in the best traditions of Australia's military forces.
JOURNALIST:
Is there any plans on a federal level to help out the farmers at Goulburn who lost crops recently?
PRIME MINISTER:
We are very concerned about the black frost, and we will do everything we can to help. We would like, of course, to see the State Government kick in as well, this is meant to be a joint effort, it can't just be flick-passed to the Federal Government, but we will certainly meet our responsibilities, we'll meet them speedily, and we are very keen to help.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, the State Government is calling on the Federal Government to announce that area an exceptional circumstances area in the Goulburn Valley, will you do that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's being worked on right at the moment, we have to get an application from the State Government and from the local community, and then as soon as we get it, well we'll respond, but we want to see the State Government do something as well.
JOURNALIST:
There's a story in the Financial Review today that would suggest that the public service is losing, suffering a skills shortage and that it may have to increase pay rates to keep what people they do have, is that something of concern to you and could it damage the bottom line as far as the Government...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't think it's going to dent the surplus, I think we have a lot of skilled public servants, but we have to keep public service wages competitive, reasonably competitive, although there are some advantages of working in the public service that don't exist in the private sector. There is a greater predictability of employment, I think, in the public service, perhaps not quite so much now compared with the private sector given the booming economy and the fact that we have very low levels of unemployment but you have to keep public service salaries competitive. Thank you.
[ends]