t J HHU JI\ L I-1A. ItLUZ-ID410Z 02 Feb 93 15: 10 No. 004 P. 02
0
PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH JANA WENDT, A CURRENT AFFAIR
PARLIAMENT HOUSE 6 JUNE 1990
EMB$ ARGOED UNTIL BROU~' CAST
E OE PROOF ONLY
WENDT: Prime Minister, thank you very much for your
time. PM: Pleasure Jana.
WENDT: I have to ask you, how do you feel?
PM: I feel great.
WENDT: No problems?
PM: No problems.
WENDT: Cabinet met in your absence and made some
important decisions. How much input were you able to
have into all of that?
PM: All those issues that were decided in my absence had'
been a subject of discussion with me beforehand.
WENDT: So you were confident that you knew exactly what
was going on in the Cabinet Room?
PM; Yes.
WENDT: There seems to be at the moment some questioning
of your ability to keep on doing this job. Are you
tired? PM: No, Itm not tired. I've never felt better really.
I feel on top of things mentally in a way I haven't
before really. I mean I've always felt good mentally but
I feel better than I have ever before. And physically
I'm great.
WPENDT: Dr Hewson has not so delicately suggested that
you're too old for the job.
PM: I noticed that with a bit of amusement. I think it
said more about Dr Hewson than it said about Bob Hawke.
K j L_ rlhwr\ L H I-2
WENDT: What do you think it does say about him?
PM: He's got a lot to learn.
WENDT: Do you think it wa too rough a remark to make?
PM: N'o, no. In politics you've got to be prepared for
rough stuff. I don't think it was rough. I thought it
was stupid.
WENDT: Do you believe that you have a responsibility to
your Party to bow out while you are still on top?
PM: No. The way they put it to me I have a
responsibility to stay in, and for a considerable period
of time. I mean this is in the ring now, the question of
my leadership, so let me cast aside those very strong
shackles of modesty which always chain me down and refer
you to the recent research which talks about the last two
elections and the Hawke factor. Now I don't want to
spell them out but you know what that research shows.
WENDT; But do you think the time will come when you will
have to, for the sake of the Party, say to yourself well
now is the time to
PM: No, the time will come when, not only for the sake
of the Party but according to good sense, I will have to
give it away. But that's not for a long time yet. I
mean, I am not immortal, I'm not going to go on forever.
of course there'll come a time.
WENDT: The rumour mill about Paul Keating taking over is
gaining momentum again. Do you believe that he is ready
now PM: It's a very narrow-based rumour mill and it's one
which causes amusement both to me and to Paul.
WENDT: Well let me put it to you this way. When do you
think he might be ready to take on this job?
PM; if you take the bus syndrome, if I were to go-under
the bus, he would be ready now. I mean none of the
comments I've made to this point imply that I don't think
he's incapable of doing the job now. It's simply that
the position won't arise.
WENDT: Why did Paul Keating take it upon himself to read
the riot act to Ministers who supposedly had stepped out
of line. Why
PM: particularly did with John Button and as I've
said, I have no problem about that at all. Because the
question of economic management is very much within
Paul's bailiwick although I am involved there too. It's
fl-IWRiL-LU U2 i-eo 91b: 10 No. U-u-4 '. U6
HHWr\ L H U
p 3
a joint effort between Paul and myself. He felt that he
needed to say what he did. I had no problem with that.
WENDT: And you supported him in that?
PM: I did. I do.
WENDT: Mr Hawke, there's been some suggestion that it
may be time for a reshuffle of your Ministers.
PM: I've never heard anything more ridiculous than this.
I mean that is, you often hear me saying that things get
shoved into the public arena which are legless. Well
this is the thing that was amputated at birth.
WENDT: Well we were just talking about Mr Keating having
bucketed Senator Button. I mean do you think it's time
for Senator Button to move on?
PM: No, and neither does Paul.
WENDT: The other name that's been thrown into the ring
is Ralph Willis. Is it time for him to move on ? 7
PM: Certainly not.
WENDT: Mr Hawke, do you think there comes a time when
you just get sick of the abuse, and you're copping it
obviously from the Opposition, that's predictable, but
you've copped it from within your own ranks from people
like Peter Walsh. Do you get sick of that?
PM:* No. If you looked at the question of the
relationship between the Party and myself I think it has
probably never been closer than it is now.
WENDT: Mr Hawke, you wouldn't be human would you if you
didn't react to something like the ' old jellyback' line?
PM: It worries me not at all. I can assure you I lost
not a moment's sleep about it. I'm the one who knows
myself. I know the tough decisions I've had to take, I
know the arees I've had to kick, the ears I've had to
belt. But you see I don't do those things in a dramatic
public way. I go about the business of running this
Government by first of all indicating to my Ministers
that I have confidence in them. I am not an interfering
Prime Minister. In the more than seven years now of this
Government in that Cabinet, in the end not that it
comes to this sort of thing normally but in the end if
there's a question and the Prime Minister says this is
what's going to happen, that's what always happens.
WENDT: Mr Hawke, I'd like to move on to something very
different. The events that took place in Beijing twelve
months ago
PM: Yes. K. JL~ 1HWR HL. LL: U2-6t) 41b2 u2 hei joIt): I I No UU4 F U4
FJ. L. tMWNL ItLLU2-6! D641b2 02 Feb 93 15: 11 NO. 004
4
WENDT: are now the subject of intense debate. In fact
there is a point of view that there never was a massacre
in Tiananmen Square, for instance.
PM: That's nonsense. I know there's a view, but it's a
nonsense view.
WENDT: Why do you say that?
PM; Because, let me say this, I have access to
intelligence and information as well as the public
information which simply doesn't sustain that.
WENDT: There's also an echo of those events in our own
country obviously with thousands of Chinese
PM: Yes.
WENDT: -students here
PM: Yes.
WENDT: seeking refugee status. What are you inclined
to do with that problem?
PM; There'll be an announcement about that very soon.
In fact just yesterday I was having lengthy discussions
with Mr Hand about this.
WENDT: Your current immigration program allows for
something like 12,000 refugee places in this country.
Are you prepared to stretch that for those people?
PM: I think that we've got to have a, a ' separate
category for these people. I mean, this is a situation
which is unique and we will deal with it on those terms.
WENDT** I understand there's something like 8,000
applications for refugee status. If your quota is
12,000, there is going to be a blowout there, isn't
there, albeit in a special category?
PM: I'm saying there'll be, there'll be a separate
category. I don't think anyone's going to argue that
you see we've got more than 20,000, more than 20,000, who
are here who were pre-Tiananmen Square. Now for, for
those in particular, we have to have a special approach
and, of course, in regard to those who came post-
Tiananmen, we'll make the cut off point there of probably
about the 20th of June last year.
WENDT: We woke up this morning to read that we're asking
the Cambodian Government to take back some of the
Cambodian boat people who came to our shores. Why are we
doing that?
F~ IHJILL . ILL: U2-65584162 02 Feb 93 15 : 12 NO. 004
PM; For the obvious reason. I mean, we have a
compassionate humanitarian policy which will stand
comparison with any other country in the world. But
we're not here with an open door policy saying anyone who
wants to come to Australia can come. These people are
not political refugees.
WENDT: How can you be sure of that, Mr Hawks?
PM: simply there is not a regime now in Cambodia which
is exercising terror, political terror, upon its
population. WENDT: what do you make then of these hundreds of people
PM: What we make
WENDT: who get on their tin boats and travel across
PM: What we make of it is that there is obviously a
combination of economic refugeoism, if you like. People
saying they don't like a particular regime or they don't
like their economic circumstances, therefore they're
going to up, pull up stumps, get in a boat and lob in
Australia. Well that's not on.
WENDT: And risk their lives to do it?
PM: Well, risk their lives is not, I mean, we have an
orderly migration program. We're not going to allow
people just to Jumip that queue by saying we'll jump into
a boat, here we are, bugger the people who've been around
the world. We have a ratio of more than 10 to 1 of
people who want to come to this country compared to the
numbers that we take in.
WENDT: And you personally have no qualms about that?
PM: Not only no qualms about it, but I will be forceful
in ensuring that that is what's followed?
WENDT: Mr Hawke, the 20 percent foreign ownership limits
on Australian television networks, do you accept that
your Government's decision on that led directly to the
re-entry of Kerry Packer into the television game, if you
like? PM: No. I do accept that it probably made it easier
but, if you like, we were in a dilemma then if you're
going to look at it in terms of the judgement that people
made about who you helped. if we'd gone another way we
would have been Bond's mate. This way I was Packer's
mate. The fact is that we didn't make the decision in
terms of Packer's mate or Bond's mate, but being the
peoples' mate if I can put it that way. You had to make
F I M Uj 1\ L-ri t-I~ L. LJ~ o~ uz UZ eo j,
6
a decision which, in the end, you thought was the best
for Australia.
WENDT: Do you worry about the fact that your move may
now restrict competition in the Australian television
mark~ et to the extent that we today hear that the Seven
and Ton Networks may become one?
PM: well, again, you see, there's a speculation that
there might be a swallowing of Seven by Ten and it's
totally hypothetical and I wouldn't believe it would
happen. WENDT: Would it disturb you, Prime Minister, if in fact
that did occur?
PM: Well, you couldn't have a situation where one
ownership entity could have two stations, 8s YOU
appreciate. That wouldn't be allowed under the law. I
think it is true to say that we have a good television
system in this country and it's good for people like you
not that you have lots of potential employers it's
very good for the, for your bargaining position. I'd
hate you to see a position, Jane, where you and all the
good people who are performing on television would have a
lesser number of people clamiouring for your services and
in the process, providing us with a smaller range of, of
choice. I don't believe that will happen.
WENDT: Mr Hawke, thanks for your time.
PM: Thanks very much, Jana.
ends 1512 No. 004 F'. u7