C d TRANSCRIPT OF NEWS CONFERENCE ON DEPARTURE FOR NEW
ZEALAND -1 FEBRUARY 1990
E OE -PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: think you'll be able to squeeze in a bit
of business, given you have three days in Auckland?
PM: a serious question?
JOURNALIST: What do you hope to achieve on your New
Zealand visit over the next few days?
PM: Well I'm scheduled to have some discussions with Mr
Palmer, the Prime Minister. We will be covering a range
of issues of mutual concern. Also of course I hope to
see something of our athletes and performance at the
Games. JOURNALIST: The CPI figures yesterday Mr Hawke, what's
your reaction to them?
PM: I'm glad to see that there's some reduction in the
annual rate of inflation. It's not something that we
should get wildly excited about. But the move is in the
right direction.
JOURNALIST: Do you think with today's balance of
payments as well there might be cause for a further
easing of monetary policy?
PM: Well we'll have to wait and see what the balance of
payments figures show. I don't know what they are. We
have no indication in advance of them. We won't be
moving irresponsibly in the area of monetary policy. As
we've said all along, we'll watch the developments and
make the appropriate decisions.
JOURNALIST: But you're hoping your decision will be
vindicated though by today's figures.
PM: The decision has already been vindicated. The
balance of payments figures, as we've said, the reason we
didn't wait for them is they don't reflect the current
situation at all. They reflect decisions of nine months
ago.
' U JOURNALIST: balance of payments figures are good
today, might it be enough to call an election on Mr
Hawke? PM: We don't just go on one particular thing like that.
I've been fascinated by all the speculation on the
election that you people have been engaging in. Mr
Peacock seems to think about it every day. But we just
go on with the business of governing the country. of
it obviously go virtually its full term. I'll make a
decision in the relatively near future about the date of
the election.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister the Treasurer yesterday
seemed to back away from the idea of an increase in the
fuel tax for road funding.
PM: What idea of an increased tax was there? I mean I'm
not aware of one. I'm simply I at a press conference
responded to a question ' would you have difficulty
selling an idea?'. I was wanting to make clear that
there'd been a very gross misrepresentation about the
proportion of revenue to the Government allocated to
roads under this Government. In fact this last year
slightly up on the proportion of revenue available to the
previous government from oil that was made available to
roads. I was making that point and then someone seemed
to say oh well now he's talking about an increased tax on
petrol for roads. Now I can't help it if people jump to
conclusions. So Mr Keating wasn't running away from any
idea. No idea had been formulated.
JOURNALIST: it could be considered, but be
considered before the next election?
PM: All things are raised. People raise this idea, that
idea. I didn't say simply because I was referring to
what had been happening to the proportion of revenue from
oil going to roads. There was nothing in that and you
ought to read the transcript very carefully. I made no
proposal about an increased tax. You don't want to get
carried away by an analysis of fact and say out of that
analysis of a factual situation which the Prime Minister
gave therefore he is moving to some increased tax. There
was nothing there to sustain that proposal at any point;
So Mr Keating has neither advanced nor retreated from an
idea which wasn't proposed.
JOURNALIST: ( inaudible)
PM: I'm afraid you're competing questions there. I
can't hear you. And I've got to go. See you later.
ends