Prime Minister of Australia Interview

Doorstop Interview
Eastwood Centre Superfresh, Eastwood

Subject:

Opening of Eastwood Centre Superfresh, ALP, union dominance, housing affordability, London terror attacks

E&OE

PRIME MINISTER:

Could I just say before taking any questions that the business I've opened, which is a wonderful example of just what you can do with a small business in Australia in present economic circumstances. Sam and Joe and their family started this business only four and half years ago and it's expanded from a much smaller site to this much larger one and is just a wonderful small business example of what has been achieved. So often when we talk about business we think of very large companies but the real success story in Australia are the fact that hundreds of thousands of small businesses have prospered, they've had low and stable interest rates, they've had good economic conditions, they're employing people, they're expanding, they're taking risks and they're investing money. And most importantly is they're providing fresh quality fruit and vegetables at the right price and that's a maxim that holds true whether you're running BHP Biliton or the Superfresh Eastwood Centre, doesn't really matter which, it's the same principle. You've got a good product, and you market it well, and at the right price you're going to do well. But ladies and gentlemen I congratulate Sam and Joe and their families and I congratulate the 1.9 million self employed people in Australia now. There are in fact more self employed people in Australia now than there are members of trade unions. Now that's important, not as a criticism of the membership of a trade union but rather as an illustration of how the prosperity of the last 11 years has really come very much off the backs of the small business men and women that have worked so very hard. And it's important that the economic conditions that have brought that about not be disturbed. It's important that we don't change our industrial relations laws, it's important that we don't interfere with the prosperity that we've had over the last 11 years so that in the next decade there can be many more examples such as this all around Australia. But I'm delighted to have been asked to open this business, open the expansion of this business and to wish its owners well and I can tell by the faces of the happy customers of Eastwood that it's doing very well and it's going to continue to do very well into the future. Thank you. Any questions?

JOURNALIST:

Mr Howard following John Robertson's comments, do you think that the ALP is a union puppet?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I think the person who ought to take the cold shower or the person who has taken the cold shower is Mr Rudd and not Mr Robertson because what really has happened is that the very thing that Mr Rudd said wouldn't occur has occurred. He has done what the unions have told him to do. He was flirting with a softening at the edges of the anti-AWA policy and he's backed right off that. He's now said that they are stone dead, lock stock and barrel they'll be gone. We all suspected that but he was sort of tip toeing around the edges and he was trying to sort of give the impression of listening and it's obvious that people like Mr Robertson and others have put the weights on him and he's backed off. So, so far from him telling bully boys to take a cold shower, he's the one that's had to take the cold shower.

JOURNALIST:

Do you think the IR issue is starting to hurt the ALP?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well look the IR issue bothers people because it will hurt the economy. What worries me about their IR policy is the damage it will do to the economy. I heard Julia Gillard said she wanted a policy that reduced the number of industrial disputes. How can you reduce them from a record low? I mean industrial disputes are virtually zero now in many parts of the economy, the building industry, they've fallen from a very high level to be virtually nonexistent and she is pretending that she can make that better. The reality is, don't disturb something that's working. When you're on a good thing, stick to it, to use a well known marketing metaphor and why should you alter something that's working?

JOURNALIST:

But is the IR issue starting to hurt yourself as well, the polls aren't looking too good?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well look, what matters is its impact on the economy. I mean what worries me about IR policy is what conditions will they create for people like Sam and Joe. That's what's really important. That's far more important than any political impact.

JOURNALIST:

What kind of message (inaudible) John Robertson takes send to the voters?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I think what it demonstrates is that when push comes to shove the unions run the Labor Party. Now we all know that. John Robertson is no Dean Mighell or Joe McDonald. John Robertson runs the union movement in New South Wales and he was a key player in getting Mr Rudd installed as leader of the Labor Party. Mr Rudd owes him big time and John Robertson won't be shy about collecting his dues.

JOURNALIST:

Do you think it's a problem that Mr Rudd does owe Mr Robertson, in your opinion?

PRIME MINISTER:

I beg your pardon?

JOURNALIST:

Do you think it is a problem that.....

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I mean the problem is that if Labor wins, it will be told what to do by people like Mr Robertson. I mean that's the problem. And that is wrong because only 15 per cent of the workers that work for private companies now belong to unions and I don't believe in those circumstances the unions should have a monopoly on industrial relations policy. And that is my objection. My objection is not to unions as such. My objection is to the unions having a monopoly of power when it comes to industrial relations policy. And you've seen in the past few weeks Mr Rudd was flirting with some weakening of his policy on AWAs and the unions said ‘no way José, you stick to the original commitment that was given by Kim Beazley' and he duly did so.

JOURNALIST:

Can I ask Mr Howard on the issue of housing affordability, you are under some pressure from your backbench on the issue, what is the Liberal answer to housing affordability?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well the biggest reason why housing is so expensive for young people now is that there is not a large enough supply of land. The cost of building a house has not gone up disproportionately in the last 20 years but the cost of buying land has gone up enormously and that's because the supply of land is too little. We need more supply of land, we need state governments releasing more land and we also need state governments abandoning this practice and local councils abandoning the practice of really loading development costs onto developers and homebuyers, rather than those costs being borne previously as they were by governments and others.

JOURNALIST:

Does that mean that you'll be pressuring state governments on stamp duty?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well the problem is the shortage of supply of land. That is what is causing land to be so expensive. It stands to reason that if you have too many dollars chasing too few products the price of the product is going to go up and that is what has happened with land. And every single expert who has looked at this will tell you that the shortage of supply of land is the major problem. Stamp duty is an issue, certainly, but the shortage of supply of land is the biggest problem of all.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister there is a poll out today that shows that a majority of voters think that your package to assist Aborigines is a political stunt. Are you concerned about that?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it's not a political stunt. I have done it because it's the right thing to do. I don't know what the long term political impact is going to be and that is not important. What is important is doing the right thing by the indigenous children of this country. We persevered for a very long time in the belief that matters relating to the criminal law should be left to state and territory governments. Plainly the Territory Government has failed in its responsibilities and we have intervened and intervened in a very significant way. But it's a genuine commitment by us; it's not a political stunt. We're in for the long haul and we will persist with it because it is the right thing to do thank you.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister, one last question?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes, certainly.

JOURNALIST:

Mustapha Kara-Ali on radio this morning talked about embassies such as the Saudi Arabian Embassy funding radical groups in Australia. Do you have any further details on that and what...

PRIME MINISTER:

Well if there is any evidence that any embassy funds groups that are behaving against the interests of this country those embassies will be given very short shrift. I don't have any evidence that the embassy is funding those, and if there is any evidence brought to my attention it will stop immediately.

JOURNALIST:

On the London attack and the fact that it now appears that one of the orchestrators of the attack was in fact a doctor, is that concerning from an Australian security perspective that we now don't know who the terrorists are?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I don't think I can draw any immediate implication from that. There's a news report about the occupation of one of the people. I think we should be careful we don't start extrapolating certain things from that. The one observation I would make about what's happened in London and in Glasgow is that it's a reminder that in our kind of societies, and our society and British society are very similar, there are groups of people who hate our way of life and there are groups of people who would do us damage and cause death and injury. And that is why we have to invest a lot of money in security. It's why we have to be very vigilant, it's why we have to run campaigns saying `Be alert, but not alarmed.' People sneered at the fridge magnets. The fridge magnets and the hotline have provided innumerable leads to our security forces and I say to those who were cynical and critical, you are wrong and indeed the vigilance of the public could well stand between a successful terrorist attack and the safety of our way of life. And I think it's very important that we persevere and none of us should take for granted that this couldn't happen in Australia. It could happen in Australia. Thank God it's not happened to date and we've got to work very hard as a community and as a nation to make sure we minimise the possibility of it happening in the future.

ENDS

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