4 IA
PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF NEWS CONFERENCE, SHERATON HOTEL, PERTH, 19
SEPTEMBER 1989
E 0 E PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, John Halfpenny's been very critical
today of you bringing in the military to help sort out the
civil aviation
PM: Well I didn't have any doubts before this that I was
right and if Mr Halfpenny's criticised me, that just
reassures me that I'm right.
JOURNALIST: He says though that your bad handling of the
situation has deliberately worsened the dispute.
JOURNALIST: Just let me make it clear that I have never
taken any notice of John Halfpenny. I've never regarded John
Halfpenny as someone who has any significance at all in these
matters. Now you can quote John Halfpenny as long as you
like if it satisfies you. It is a matter to me of supreme
indifference if I should perhaps just amend that I repeat
what I said at the beginning. If John Halfpenny is coming in
against the Government and in any sense giving comfort to the
pilots, that totally reconfirms our position in this matter,
yes. JOURNALIST: What about the pilots advertisement this morning
calling on you to back off. Will you back off?
PM: Now what I'm saying a bout the advertisement that here is
the Federation which in February of this year in its
publications to its members said to them, ' prepare for the
great battle in which we're going to shut down the industry'.
These are the people who are now expressing their concern for
the tourist industry, for the people on school holidays.
They deliberately set about shutting down the airline
industry in which they said they were going to take on their
industry, the Government, the Arbitration Commission and
everyone else. Now I have said from the beginning on behalf
of the Government and the people of Australia, you are not
going to take on the rest of Australia and win. If you are
going do something which is different from all other workers
and say that you'll have special treatment, then you're
wrong. You're not going to do it. We are not going to
destroy-a system in Australia which has created over one and
( PH cant) a half million Jobs, which has exercised wage
restraint, which has seen a growth in profits, which has
allowed investment, which has allowed jobs. All that's not
going to be destroyed by the pilots and f or them to now be
saying ' back of they've got their facts wrong. They ought
to read their compass. I hope when they're in the the
cockpit, they read their compasses better than they're
reading the compass in this matter. They've just got it back
to front.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, you've also put your own credibility
on the line. Have you painted yourself into a corner on
this? Have you become obsessed with it?
PM: Do I either look as though I'm painted into a corner and
I feel obsessed? I'm simply doing what any Prime Minister
must do and that is when the security of this country is
threatened, to stand up and say those who will threaten the
security of the country are not going to win. Now I've
simply said in answer to a question when I was asked was my
credibility on the line, I said yes. I said it is if as
Prime Minister I'm not prepared to stand up f or the security
and economic welfare of this country, I wouldn't deserve to
be Prime Minister. Now that's quite straight forward. The
fact is that this Federation will not be allowed to destroy
the Australian economy.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, do you believe the Government's now
on the way to winning this dispute?
PM: Well there is no doubt that the Federation would never,
never win it. I mean it's never going to be allowed to win
it. So I've put it in that way. I don't talk in terms of
victory for myself or for the Govenruent. I don't want to
talk in terms of victory. The only rial entity whose
interests are involved here is the Australian nation, the
national interest, and that is going to win.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, there was a suggestion by a Melbourne
industrial relations lawyer today, Anthony Mackin, that the
coming ACTU Congress at the end of the month may herald a
little more division in the union movement about this
dispute. Are you concerned, particularly in the wake of what
Mr Halfpenny said that you're going to hear more objections
from the union movement about
PM: but I've said what I've got to say about Mr
Halfpenny. It comes down to a question of Bill Kelty and
John Halfpenny. I'll tell you who to have your money on.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, there have been calls today for a
national summit or a Premiers' Conference about this dispute.
Will you consider any of those options?
PM: Of course I wouldn't. We have a system in this country
through the Industrial Relations Commission and the
guidelines which is there for everyone else. Everyone else
abides by it and under their restraint that they've exercised
under it, where they've processed their claims through that
system, the rest of the country has prospered. We are not
going to be setting up some special arrangments for who? For
pilots? For pilots who've, as we've said, are averaging
$ 80,000 a year for an average 8 hours flying, and they think
that where everyone else will work according to these
arrangements that we're going to rush around having national
summits, Premiers' Conferences, special mediators, for these
people-who are getting $ 80,000 a year for 8 hours flying? I
mean you must be joking and they must be joking if they still
think that that sort of thing's going to happen. The
situation is that by their action they have resigned, they
have resigned their employment. They are no longer as a
result of their own action employed by Australian and
Ansett. So what Ansett and Australian are doing is filling
those vacancies in the ranks created by the pilots'
resignation. That process is going ahead, it will go ahead
and the national airline system will be restored.
JOURNALIST: Are you out to destroy the Pilots Federation?
PM: Certainly not only not out to destroy any federation,
they seem to be out to destroy themselves because there's a
very strange sort of situation in an industrial position. If
you instruct your members to resign, which they've done, and
therefore you have no members employed by Ansett and
Australian, and then flap around all over the place saying,
' we want to negotiate', when you've got no members there
employed, it's very strange. But the important thing is
this; that the two airlines, in the situation created by the
Federation, are now seeking to fill those ranks by recruiting
people. Now it's my very strong view that when they have
succeeded in doing that, that they should then have an
organisation whether it's the Federation, whether they want
to be in that or whether they want to form another union
that that would be for the employees of Ansett and
Australian. But it's very important, I think, that they
should have an organisation, have a union. So it's the
Federation which has destroyed itself by taking its members
out. They've no longer any members employed there so the two
airlines are filling the positions where there were
previously Federation members. But certainly it's my
position and that of the Government that when that is
concluded there must be an organisation there.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about our safety record at
all, Mr Hawke? The air traffic controllers have suggested
that with a lot of foreign pilots, people new to the job,
that Australia's safety record is
PM: We have a Civil Aviation Authority which has a statutory
responsibility to look after the safety standards of this
country. They will discharge their statutory responsibility.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, can I change the subject for
seconds. The current account deficit's been tipped at above
the $ 2B mark to come out on Thursday. What's your tip?
PM: I have no tip.
JOURNALIST: Would today's any comment re today's project
on that figure?
PH: Well I think the important thing about today's project
the North West Shelf is as I said in my speech, that a
significant part of the current account deficit figures that
have been accumulating over the months is the bringing in to
O Australia of equipment which is going to establish projects
like the North West Shelf and we'll see that now coming onto
stream and building up to bringing into Australia $ 2B or more
in export income. Now as we look to the future therefore we
can have great confidence that much of the deficit that we've
been accumulating is as we've been saying, restructuring
Australian industry, Australian manufacturing industry,
building up more projects like the North West Shelf.
Australia has got a very, very significant, prosperous
future. We go through a period now where we can't be
complacent about the level of imports and we must restrain
demand to some extent. But in the long term what we're
seeing happening and what we're participating in is a
restructuring of the Australian industry, the development of
our resources which is going to make our external position
very strong in to the future.
JOURNALIST: Have you got a tip for the League grand final,
Prime minister?
PM: Well I've got to publish that later, I think. I think
the newspaper which has my-tipping rights has got an
exclusive on that. That's a bit later in the week.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, can I ask you about the capital
creation for Qantas and Australian Airlines. There's been
talk about non-preference shares, about partial
privatisation. What's your own favoured option for raising
capital for Qantas and
PM: I haven't got a favoured option. This is something
that's been looked at by a committee of the Party. We'll
look at it in Government. I am not publicly discussing what
my view about this is.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, the specific wording of the pilots
adtoday that you should butt out. Do you find that offensive
at all?
PM: No. I mean I've been in public life for 30 years and
I've probably said a few offensive if I can remember I have
to think hard, I may have in the course of 30 years said
something slightly offensive. No, I don't get upset by those
things. The only thing that really upsets me about the whole
thing is the temerity of this Federation which set about,
deliberately set about the destruction of the industry. I
mean this is in their own writing, in their own publication,
' we're going to close down the industry, we're going to have
the great battle against everyone'. Now when they've done
that to have the temerity to talk about their concern for
others, I mean I find that hypocrisy galling. But the fact
is that the Australian airline industry is going to be
restored. There will be a full restoration of the industry.
The only question is now is to whether these pilots, the
members of the Federation, want to be part of that
restoration or not. It's up to them, individually.
ends
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