? music playing ?
I should indicate that this is a wage pause that is not just a policy that has been supported by
the Commonwealth government. It has also been supported by seven state governments and if it
had not been for the divisive tactics of the ACTU supported by the leadership of the Parliamentary
Labour Party, we would have had a general consensus throughout Australia that the pause is
something good for Australia and with the exception of the Federal Party, with the exception of the
ACTU leadership, there is that consensus. It is supported by governments, Liberal, National Party
and Labour governments. Because of what's happened in the past, we regard it as critical that the
pause continue and that it go for the 12 months. Now it's plain with the attitudes of the ACTU,
with the attitude of the oil industry unions, but we're going to get to a situation of more
and more severe industrial disruption and more and more Australians are going to get hurt,
more Australian firms will be in difficulties and more Australian jobs will be put at risk.
The government is not prepared to allow that situation to unfold and therefore I've recommended
to His Excellency that there should be a double dissolution of the Parliament. That has been
agreed. The election will be on the 5th of March. I should indicate that our policies have had for a
long while protected Australia from the world recession. In many ways, we will last to be
affected by the recession. We're determined that our policies will bring Australia out of the
recession before other countries, but that involves a continuation of the pause, the full
development of the initiatives that this government has launched over recent times. I believe it's
important that the people of Australia be given an opportunity to speak and if the union movement
is not prepared to listen to this government, if it is not prepared to listen to the collective
voice of seven state governments, then I challenge it to listen to the voice of the people of
Australia and I challenge the union movement to withdraw any indication of strikes or bans or
limitations of work while this election is being held so that the people of Australia can make the
judgment and we won't have more Australian jobs put at risk by union and industrial action. It's
going to be very important to continue the stable policies that we have in place and this election
will enable us to do it. No, it makes no difference what the policies may be to the policies. The
policies of the Labour Party are the same. I indicated when there was a challenge in the middle
of the year that it would make no difference which person was leading the Australian Labour
Party. I think it's worth noting that Mr Hayden has shown more signs of economic rationality than
has Mr Hawke because a week or so ago Mr Hayden was indicating a movement towards in support of
the wage pause saying it was the one thing that's important and going for Australia and it should
be given a chance to work but then he withdrew from that and I suggest he withdrew from that
under pressure of the union movement and under pressure of Mr Hawke who has been opposed to it
right through. So the policies of the Labour Party aren't altered by altering the shop front window.
But how important was... Today on radio Simon Crean of the ACTU said that he would be working
towards a Labour victory and implied in that was that perhaps the union movement wouldn't be going
so hard to break that wages freeze. Does that upset your terminology and policy? Well if there
was a Labour victory there would be no wage freeze. The Labour policy is full CPI adjustments and that
of course would mean more Australian unemployment because there'd be more Australian firms that just
wouldn't be able to compete and we all know how much wages went up over the last two years, how
the profit share fell dramatically but real wages went up by six or seven percent over a period in
which five or six percent in a period in which industries overseas were becoming more and more
competitive and Australian industry was becoming less competitive and becoming less competitive
as a result of the hours policies and the wages decisions of the last two year period.
What I'm suggesting to you Prime Minister is that perhaps over the next four weeks or so the
ACTU might decide as a deliberate course of action to go softer on their attempt to break
that freeze. Oh I hope that now that an election has been called and I hope that now there is an
appeal to the judgment of the people of Australia that all work bans and limitations, all threats
of strike action will be removed and I challenge the ACTU to do just that and then accept the voice
of the people of Australia. So I hope we'll have a period in which there will be no industrial
disruption through the election. How important was the instability of the Labour leadership in
the timing of your announcement? It's a question of the wage pause and the policies that are put
in place. One of the critical elements in this of course was the deputy leader statement which
was virtually inciting the oil industry unions to go out on strike and to disrupt and it's
perfectly plain that if we'd not taken this action over the next few weeks and leading up to the end
of the six months part of the pause there would have been increasing industrial action, more and
more Australian firms and difficulties and more and more Australian jobs at risk and this seemed
to the government to be the best way and the most secure way to avoid that happening. Prime Minister
was there a threat in the Parliament to the wages freeze? In the Parliament? Is it threatened in the
Parliament? The Labour Party certainly voted against it but we know quite well that the major
threat to the wage pause at the moment comes from industrial action by the union movement.
That has been a material factor in causing the government to move at this time. With unemployment
so high, with the deficit going higher and higher, with inflation not coming down very
dramatically, how can you convince the Australian electorate that you're better able to run the
country than the Labour Party? Many people understand very well that the difficulties in this
country are caused primarily by three things. The Labour Party itself has admitted that the world
recession has affected Australia and it's hit this country later than many others but now it's hit us
very hard and that's one factor not under our control. The drought is another factor that is
hitting Australia hard and we've taken imaginative policies to respond to that but I don't believe
anyone here would claim to be able to control that particular factor and the third matter of course
is something which Australians can influence and that's the level of wages paid in this country
and a large part of the problems we face have come out of the great pressure for shorter hours
and higher wages over the last two years and this I believe the Labour Party and the union
movement are very significantly blamed for but the people of Australia know that our problems
are caused by the world situation, by the wages and industrial pressures of the union movement
and also by the drought and you've only got to walk around this country and see what people
think of the present government and I believe very strongly that they will want our policies
to continue. There's plenty of time we don't have to have everyone speaking at once. Given
that this campaign could develop into you versus Mr. Hawke and given that Mr. Hawke has a very
high image within the Australian population as indicated by a number of polls over many years,
are you worried that you may not be able to beat him? Not at all and I think I've shown on many
occasions that I'm not worried by polls. Australians will go to the substance of the issue. They have
on previous occasions and they'll go to the substance of this issue very quickly indeed.
I said back in the winter and you may not have agreed with me but I said then that I thought
that Mr. Hayden would be a tougher man to beat than Mr. Hawke. I still believe that. Prime Minister,
you've consistently scorched speculation about an early election. How do you now justify the
U-turn? It's not a U-turn. You know quite well that governments don't like speculation of this
kind and the speculation itself is unsettling but it is the events of recent days that have
caused the government to come to this decision. Prime Minister, as a matter of fairness, will the
government now withdraw the television and newspaper ads being run in support of the wage
pause? Oh yes, they ought to be withdrawn but let me make the point. Those advertisements are not
being placed to support a policy solely of this government. They're there to support policies
which are being supported by eight governments, Liberal, National Party and Labour and therefore
they were not party political advertisements. They were advertisements in support of a policy
that had been agreed at a Premier's conference. Why will you now withdraw them then Prime Minister?
Quite obviously because the Federal Labour Party takes a different view and because we
are also in an election period. Full details of today's election developments and Mr. Hayden's
resignation in... This afternoon, a few hours after Mr. Hayden said he was resigning as opposition
leader, Dennis Grant covered the Prime Minister's announcement. The Prime Minister moved early here
in Canberra today to bring on the early election. By mid-morning he had informed Liberal Party
officials interstate but it wasn't until just after midday that he made the trip to the official
residence of the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen but Sir Ninian was entertaining a party of Polish
diplomats to lunch. Mr. Fraser had to be content with leaving a letter and having a brief chat.
According to Mr. Fraser, Sir Ninian examined closely the reasons for the early poll. Later this
afternoon Mr. Fraser called a press conference. Most Australians, he said, were behind the Federal
Government's wages freeze. The opposition came only from the Labour Party and the unions but he said
that opposition is growing. Now it's plain with the attitudes of the ACTU, with the attitude of the
oil industry unions that we're going to get to a situation of more and more severe industrial
disruption and more and more Australians are going to get hurt, more Australian firms will
be in difficulty. The main issue of the campaign says Mr. Fraser will be the wage freeze but there
will be others. The future of the economy, the future of Australian industry, the employment
levels of Australia, the development of this nation, the building of Australia, and the way
which has been foreshadowed by policies announced over recent weeks, these are all going to be
central to this particular campaign. And the Prime Minister ruled out the construction of
the Franklin Dam as an issue. Mr. Fraser will open his campaign in Melbourne on February the 15th
and so the press conference was over, almost. There was one last question. Mr. Fraser, did you
have any second thoughts this afternoon when you found out that you would like to face Mr. Hawke
and not Mr. Hayden? On the contrary, I had a little more relish. It'll be the first election in which
two Labour leaders have been knocked off in one go. The leader of the Australian Democrats,
Senator Chip, said in Perth that Mr. Fraser was putting his own political convenience over the
needs of the country. I still can't believe that he has been as cynical as he has been. We all knew
he was a political opportunist but to come on an Australia Day address and say the country's on the
brink of ruin, to spend a million dollars of taxpayers money saying look let's support the
wage pause unless we do we're going to fracture the whole economy and then in the middle of that
announce an election which will paralyze the whole country for two months. From today there'll be no
government in this country to me is an act that I believe every decent Australian should be
disgusted with and I think he'll reap that on election day because people will be so angry
that of this hypocrisy this utter hypocrisy that you'll feel that in the ballot box and for that
reason I think the Democrats will have the biggest vote we've ever had since our inception.
The federal election campaign in the territory will focus on the bid by the two major parties
to win the seat in the House of Representatives. Political reporter Randy Wescombe this afternoon
sought comments from the two main candidates. The federal government has been pumping over a
thousand million dollars a year into the Northern Territory. I'm proud that I took a part in getting
that dough into our community. The Territory is sort of linked up with development, defence and a
whole range of government services that serve the isolated and remote communities. The ALP can't
touch us. Their priorities are all in Sydney and in Melbourne. Alice Springs lawyer and alderman Mr
John Reeves is standing for the Labor Party in a bid to break the long-standing CLP hold on the
seat. Labor will win the seat there's no doubt about that. The Territory has fared well under
both Liberal and Labor governments over the past decade. You've got to remember that the
Labor government at a federal level, the Whitlam government rebuilt Darwin at the cost of hundreds
of millions and it started the rail line between Tarculla and Alice Springs at the cost of hundreds
of millions. So the talk of thousands of millions being spent in the Territory is just what's been
going on under both governments of both political parties for years, decades. Mr Hayden is to resign
as leader of the opposition at a Labor caucus meeting on Tuesday and Mr Hawke says he understands
he won't be opposed for the leadership. Mr Hayden announced his resignation during an ALP
federal parliamentary executive meeting in Brisbane today. Barry Cassidy reports. Even as the party's
parliamentary executive arrived for today's meeting here in Brisbane, Mr Hayden's fate had
been sealed. He'd been approached after private meetings overnight and reluctantly advised to
stand aside. Mr Hayden put on a brave face for the media when the meeting began but by mid-morning he
decided to avoid a bloody party room battle and resign almost immediately. Mr Hayden said he did
so with no sense of joy, just a sense of responsibility to the Labor Party. He said it was possible he
could have narrowly won a leadership battle but that would have been unconvincing to the electorate
and resolved nothing. At worst it would have led to a nasty party room brawl creating divisions and
tensions. I want to say this, I am not convinced that the Labor Party would not win under my
leadership. I believe that a driver's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory the way the country
is and the way the opinion polls are showing up for the Labor Party. In that respect I have every
confidence about the party's prospects. I repeat it gives me no joy to have to do this, I'm sure
you'd understand. It's created a great deal of heartburn for me, it's not a decision that I would
have preferred. In fact as recently as Sunday I was still determined to fight the matter out but it was
increasingly clear to me that if I did that I would be guaranteeing great damage to my own party
and a return of the Fraser Government at the cost of my own personal interests and I'm afraid my
motivation goes beyond that. It was more than two weeks ago that key people in the Parliamentary
Labor Party swung around to the view that Mr Hayden had to go, that he had not been performing well
since the party's poor showing in last year's Flinders by-election. Mr Fraser had been allowed
to make the running on the crucial wages pause issue and in the early hours of this morning in
Brisbane's Gazebo Hotel a small group from the left wing faction finally accepted Mr Hayden had
to be approached. The catalyst in the end was an interview yesterday with the party's deputy leader
Mr Bowen who three times declined to declare public support for Mr Hayden and today it was Mr Bowen
who read to the media the transcript of the executive's resolution framed after Mr Hayden's
resignation. It reads as follows this executive of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party expresses
its profound appreciation of the services of Bill Hayden. The executive recognizes that his
resignation involves considerable personal sacrifice. Bill Hayden has put the Labor Party
and the people of Australia represents above his own personal political interests. The executive
is pleased to know that Bill Hayden will accept a senior shadow portfolio and upon the election
of a Labor Government will be a senior minister in that Government. The executive records its
appreciation of his great service to Australian public life and is gratified that this will
continue. Thank you. And then it was Mr Hawke's turn to face the media. I would indicate that
I will be a candidate for the leadership of the Labor Party when the caucus meets on Tuesday
and as I understand at this stage I would not be opposed. The second thing I want to say and
it's obviously appropriate that it be said now that Bill Hayden has done a remarkably courageous
thing an extraordinarily difficult thing to do and as he behaved himself on the occasion of the
challenge last year when he behaved with considerable dignity he has surpassed himself
on this occasion. Mr Hayden led the Australian Labor Party for five years succeeding the former
Prime Minister Mr Goff Whitlam. Our Brisbane political reporter Bruce Bertram surveys his
career. Mr Bill Hayden's hopes of leading an ALP Government back into power died today in his
hometown just over a week after his 50th birthday. He spent 22 of these years in Federal Parliament
from a working class background the son of an American who reportedly jumped ship to live in
Queensland Mr Hayden grew up in Brisbane started work as a public service clerk and served for
eight years as a policeman before winning the seat of Oxley west of Brisbane at the age of 28.
An economics graduate Mr Hayden lives at Ipswich near Brisbane with his wife Dallas. They have
three children in Canberra. He tasted power as treasurer for the last six months of Mr
Whitlam's government. He launched Medibank and failed to win government narrowly in 1980. His
biographer Queensland ALP President Dr Dennis Murphy has described Mr Hayden as a tough
professional politician having overcome an earlier appearance of uncertainty and as something of a
loner a private man and a workaholic. His immediate future is as a senior shadow minister and asked
today of his plans he said just to work. Bruce Bertram Brisbane. Australian share markets dropped
sharply this afternoon as a reaction to today's political events. In Adelaide John Milbank looked
at the day's trading. One Adelaide broker said people who invest in shares have vivid memories
still of the Whitlam years. All the same he thought this afternoon's activity was probably an early
overreaction typical of the stock market. There'd been some improvement he said in mineral stocks
towards the end of the day's trading. Falls easily outnumbered rises this afternoon and sellers
dominated business. The biggest falls ranged from 30 cents to as much as 70 cents. That belonged to
the mining stock central Norseman which finished at nine dollars fifty. Western mining dropped 36
cents to four dollars and two cents. Mount Isa shed 32 cents to four dollars ten and in the industrials
BHP lost 30.