Subjects: business survey; visit to Brunei for APEC; world trade; petrol prices; Foreign Minister Downer's visit to North Korea; road funding
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, you’ve seen the Dun & Bradstreet survey of business. What’s your immediate sort of comment on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
It doesn’t reflect what I hear, it doesn’t reflect the Reserve Bank’s assessment and doesn’t reflect the Treasury’s assessment. Obviously the transition to the GST involves adjustment. But the overwhelming reaction of business to it has been positive and more than 90% of them are totally opposed to a rollback. So all I can say to you is that the latest advice we have from the Treasury and from the Reserve Bank, and no doubt the Treasurer will have more to say about this tomorrow when he releases the mid-year economic review, is that the Australian economy is still growing very strongly and the employment data and the investment data would support that.
JOURNALIST:
Does it worry you though that Dun & Bradstreet [inaudible] saying things like the economy is now heading towards a recession?
PRIME MINISTER:
That would only worry me if I believed it and I don’t.
JOURNALIST:
What are you hoping for out of your trip to Brunei?
PRIME MINISTER:
The most important thing is to revive a commitment to getting a new World Trade Organisation round going. We have been in idle for the last couple years in APEC. Part of that has been due to less enthusiasm from the American administration as evidenced by what happened at Seattle, and also the attitude of a number of other major economies. We need to recover the momentum towards greater trade liberalisation. We’ll certainly be arguing for that. I also want to have a good discussion about world oil prices. The countries of the region face economic difficulty if high world oil prices continue. That’s why I asked that it be put on the agenda. It will be discussed as a result of Australia’s request at the leaders’ retreat. And it is important that not only the industrialised countries but also the developing countries understand the consequences of continued high oil prices. It can affect all of us. Nobody is immune from the economic consequences of more expensive fuel.
JOURNALIST:
If you don’t get the movement for trade liberalisation that you want, do you think that’s leaving Australia more vulnerable perhaps [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we never sit still. What we try and do is achieve progress on the multilateral trade front. If we can’t get it on the multilateral trade front…..it’s a nice farewell to Australia…..on the multilateral trade front, we’ll get it on the bilateral front. And I indicated at the weekend that we have a very open mind. We prefer multilateral progress but where you can’t get it and there’s an opportunity for Australia in a bilateral arrangement then we’ll go for that.
JOURNALIST:
Have you had any indication from the Americans that you may get perhaps a little more movement from them?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t think you’re going to get much indication from the Americans at the present time until the outcome of the presidential election has been resolved.
JOURNALIST:
Just in terms of petrol raising your concerns about the world oil price, that wouldn’t [inaudible] Government’s own indexation of taxes on petrol [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you know my view on that.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Downer’s heading to North Korea, the first visit by….
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s very welcome. The thaw in relations between North and South Korea has been very welcome and a lot of credit has to go to Kim Dae-Jung, the Korean President for not only his personal political courage but also the leadership he’s displayed on that issue. He really has been quite outstanding and his efforts at breaking down the barriers have Australia’s very strong support.
JOURNALIST:
Yes, the orbital, are you content with the way the New South Wales Government’s lining up on the orbital?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I can’t quite work out what the New South Wales Government is saying. My view is that each government has to accept its own responsibilities. Whenever there’s talk of a federal injection of money into road funding you can hear the, how shall I put it, the thundering hooves of state cost shifting. It goes on on just about every issue and road funding will be no different. And we’ll be very alive and our ears will be very attuned to those thundering hooves.
JOURNALIST:
What we’re hear from Mr Scully at the moment is that he thinks there should be a toll and that the state government is helping in the best way it can.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well if that is the attitude of the New South Wales Government of helping and of accepting its responsibilities than we’ll be very happy to work with them. We are going to inject more money into roads. We’re going to put more resources into local rural roads which do need more help. We are also willing to look at additional resources going into the outer metropolitan road structures of the major cities. We do see a role for the Commonwealth there. But we do not want a situation, emphatically do not want a situation that as we put more money in the states say thank you very much and walk away from responsibilities that they clearly have. That’s what I had in mind.
[Ends]