Subjects: ALP electoral rorts; Road funding
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
PRESENTER:
First this morning to national matters, the Federal Government has now outlined plans to spend $1.6 billion on roads, while in a separate development allegations of electoral impropriety are continuing to come to light in Queensland for the Labor Party. Joining us now from Parliament House in Canberra, Prime Minister John Howard. Prime Minister good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Hello Steve.
PRESENTER:
Which headline was more pleasing to read this morning; “Labor MP’s and Brown Envelopes/Cash” or “Councils Reap Millions in Road Funding”?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well certainly the second one, certainly the second one. Positive stories about what we are doing for the people of Australia are always much better then negative stories about the Opposition
PRESENTER:
And yet…
PRIME MINISTER:
There is a big story in what’s happening in Queensland and there are a lot of explanations to be had but I am far more interested in giving back to the people of Australia some of the benefits of our good economic housekeeping.
PRESENTER:
All right, we’ll come to that in just a moment, but you would surely acknowledge that the developments in Queensland have the capacity to translate into votes for your Government.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Steve, I’m not a commentator, I’m a Prime Minister and my first responsibility is to try and do the best I can for the people of Australia. The Labor Party is accountable to the people for what it does, Mr Beazley is accountable to the Australian people for how he responds to difficulties within his party and one of the interesting things I find about Queensland was the allegation of the former party president in Queensland, Mr McLean, that allegations and concerns about illegal behaviour, that’s in relation to electoral rolls, was brought to the attention of Federal ALP people in the 1990’s, years ago. So there is a lot of explanation to be had. I’m not jumping to premature conclusions but when you have a Deputy Premier resign, when you’ve had a number of people named, when you’ve had a party member sent to jail for criminal behaviour, it’s big.
PRESENTER:
Should Kim Beazley ask Wayne Swan to stand aside as a Federal Labor frontbencher while the DPP investigate claims that he was allegedly, and I emphasis the word allegedly, involved in electoral rorting.
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m not suggesting he should at this stage, I mean he should satisfy himself by interrogation that Mr Swan is okay in relation to that issue. But that investigation has been initiated by the electoral commission and anybody is entitled to the presumption of innocence in relation to these matters. I’m not going to do what the Labor Party has done in relation to allegations made against some of my colleagues and consider somebody guilty without the due process. But I’d have thought most Australians would have been, to say the least, puzzled and amazed at the stories that unfolded on television last night about that envelope.
PRESENTER:
Just one final question on this matter, should Mr Swan, would you like to see Mr Swan called before the Parliamentary committee on electoral matters.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven’t given any thought to that, and that really is a matter for the committee.
PRESENTER:
Prime Minister, the $1.6 billion road funding announcement. Is that going to get regional Australia and your bush backbenchers off your back?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s not designed to get anybody off my back and people aren’t, so to speak, on my back all the time anyway. It was a genuine investment for the long term benefit of the road infrastructure of Australia. We found that we had a bigger surplus in offing than we expected, and we thought the best way to return some of that to the Australian people was to invest in further road maintenance and road construction. It is a big country and our roads do need constant care. This is a 75% increase over the next 4 years in the amount of money that the Federal Government gives to all of the councils of Australia, and the money within each state is being distributed in accordance with the formula established under the Keating and Hawke Labor Governments, I want to stress that. And this suggestion that in some way it was distorted to help marginal Coalition seats is utterly wrong. I mean if Mr Beazley feels that he ought to ask the councils in his own electorate of Brand to return the four and a half million that in some way they are going to have access to.
PRESENTER:
But Prime Minister you know that out there this morning people watching us are going to say there he goes, he’s admitted he’s got a bigger surplus than he, than he originally anticipated, that’s due at least in part to the extra money you’ve received through petrol taxes and excises and that linkage is still there. So is this announcement going to get those people, who say we want assistance in petrol pricing, off your back.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well once again you’re asking me to make a political comment rather than to evaluate the quality of the decision that the Government has taken. I know that the debate about petrol prices is there, I know that, I don’t like the high price of petrol, but it’s due overwhelming to the high world price of oil.
Overwhelming it is due to that, and I think if you’ve got a bigger surplus than you expected it is a better long term investment to spend an additional $1.6 billion, I mean improved new roads last for years, for years, and that is a very good long term investment.
PRESENTER:
But do you concede that you are losing the propaganda war on petrol prices and their linkage to the GST. I mean what you say may technically be correct but you’re losing the war of words.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Steve the question of whether I win or lose a war of words, in the end all of that gets resolved when we have an election. My responsibility is not to fret about whether I’m losing a propaganda battle on a particular issue but rather to take a decision which is good for the country, and I honestly believe that spending this money on road renewal and road maintenance is a better use of the additional resources than some of the other suggestions that have been put to the Government. And in any event the great bulk of the additional surplus has come out of sources unrelated to fuel.
PRESENTER:
Shires and councils, as you’ve said, are going to get their money direct, but whose going to decide which councils get how much and how that money is going to be spent.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the decision as to which council gets how much has already been made in accordance with a formula established under the former Government by state grants commissions, so they take into account a whole lot of factors relating to needs, size, quality of roads and so forth, they decide that, so that’s a process separate from the, you know, you might say the pressure of Federal politics. Now as to what money gets spent on what road in each shire or municipality, that is a decision for the council, as it should be, and in turn those councils will be accountable to their electors
PRESENTER:
But what guarantee…
PRIME MINISTER:
For sensible spending of that money.
PRESENTER:
But what guarantee is there that State Governments and Local Government don’t just take your money and substitute it for their own spending.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well if the Local Governments begin to do that then we will stop sending our money. And as far as the State Governments are concerned, I’ve written to each Premier asking for an assurance that they won’t, as a consequence of this decision, reduce their funding for local roads, and I can promise you this Steve that if any of them start reducing their funding you’ll hear about it and the electors of their states and the electors of the municipalities in their states will hear about it as well.
PRESENTER:
One final question, you’re going to announce a series of flood measures today to assist…
PRIME MINISTER:
No I didn’t say we were going to announce them today, I said that we’d consider that yesterday, we’re going to be sympathetic and I hope to be in a position to announce it in the next day or so. Now I don’t expect to be in a position to announce it today, it is more likely to be tomorrow.
PRESENTER:
Okay well then that being the case I’ll leave it there. Thanks again for your time.
[ends]