TRANSCRIPT

of

THE HON PETER COSTELLO MP

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR HIGGINS

Interview with Neil Mitchell

3AW

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

8.45am

E & OE

SUBJECTS:      Barack Obama

MITCHELL:

On the line is the man recognised as one of the best Parliamentary performers we have had in this country, the former Treasurer, Member for Higgins, Peter Costello, good morning.

MR COSTELLO:

Good morning Neil.

MITCHELL:

Was it one of the great speeches?

MR COSTELLO:

It was, look it was a great moment.  The theatre was spectacular and I think it is something that people will remember for a very long period of time.

MITCHELL:

That sounds diplomatic.  Was it a great speech?

MR COSTELLO:

It wasn’t a speech of detail and that’s always the case in an inaugural speech.  It was brilliantly delivered and I thought the rhetoric was great.  What I was looking for in this speech actually Neil was a defining phrase which would become the picture of the administration.  You think to yourself of Roosevelt ‘the new deal’, you think of Kennedy ‘the new frontier’, I thought Obama would give us a phrase that would define the Presidency and the phrase he seemed to choose was ‘the remaking of America’.

MITCHELL:

Yes.

MR COSTELLO:

‘This is the remaking of America’ he said.  He said to the nations around the world ‘we are ready to lead once more’ and he also said at one point which I thought was very important, he said ‘this is a moment that will define a generation’.

MITCHELL:

(inaudible)

MR COSTELLO:

‘The making of America that will define a generation’.  Time will show whether or not that was the case.  But that seemed to be how he wanted to place it that this was a turning point in history.

MITCHELL:

There’s an enormous hope and expectation on his shoulders.  Was it the right speech for this time?

MR COSTELLO:

I think Obama’s biggest problem is expectations frankly.  I was in the United States last week and the expectations are just beyond anything I have ever seen for any other President.  In fact there was a very big debate that I was part of while I was over there as to whether this will be a moment or a movement.  Will this be the election of Obama a movement which will change America historically you think of Andrew Jackson, you think of Lincoln, you think of Roosevelt, you think of Kennedy – is it going to be one of those movements or will this just be another President in a line of 44.  Now you can’t say, it is too early to say, we will be able to make some sort of estimations of that in four years or eight years time, but it really is important the way he placed himself.  And by the way I thought one of the things he did quite well was he was very generous to George Bush.  That crowd would have been absolutely hostile to Bush.  He began his speech interestingly enough by paying tribute to Bush but then went on of course to say this will be ‘remaking of America’ in other words to distance himself from the Bush legacy.

MITCHELL:

Confidence is such a fragile thing and such a strange beast.  Does his very election change the confidence that helps to drive the world’s financial markets?

MR COSTELLO:

I don’t think that the world will look at this as a turning point in relation to financial markets.  It would be different I think if he had put out a platform that had new ideas in relation to economic policy.  I don’t think that has been the Obama strength.  The Obama strength really has been I think to especially provide a turning point on issues like Iraq.  He is not an economic or a detailed economic President.  I see him much more as inspirational in the area of civil rights and foreign policy which after all is the principal area that Presidents address.  So I can’t see any great rally in global financial markets as a consequence of this speech but I think it will do something for America’s view of itself.  He got wild applause when he talked about actually turning this view which he thought was getting around of a ‘sapping of confidence’.  And I think there was a sapping of confidence in America in the sense that they felt that the world was disapproving of them and they now feel that the world is embracing them or to put it Obama’s way ‘we are embracing the world’.  That may well provide a lot more confidence.

MITCHELL:

Thank you very much for your time.

MR COSTELLO:

Thanks Neil.