TRANSCRIPT
THE HON PETER COSTELLO MP
Treasurer

Doorstop Interview

Hawthorn Campus, Melbourne University

Saturday, 29 March 2003
1.45 pm

SUBJECTS: Victorian Liberal Party; Helen Kroger; Iraq; Protests.

JOURNALIST:

Okay what changes now for the State Liberal Party? What do you think? What’s

the priorities for it do you think?

TREASURER:

I think the most important thing now is for the membership to get behind the

new President, Helen Kroger. She has got an ambitious reform agenda and Liberals

have to unite behind that reform agenda. And we have to rebuild the Party, we

have to make sure the Party is in the best fighting shape for the Federal Election

next year, and at the State level that we rebuild to make the Party competitive

at the next State Election. And that will happen if the Party gets behind Helen

and her reform agenda.

JOURNALIST:

How divided do you think it is at the moment?

TREASURER:

I think there is a lot of unity of spirit actually. As you have seen…

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible)

TREASURER:

…well, I think there was a very, as you have seen, I think a lot of unity

of spirit behind a reform agenda. It is, when you think of the number of seats

that the Party has lost since its high point in 1996…

JOURNALIST:

Yes.

TREASURER:

…I forget the figure, I think it was 45?

JOURNALIST:

Yes, 49 or whatever.

TREASURER:

49.

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible)

TREASURER:

…that we have come down a long way, and now is the time to start coming back

and I think the Party is united behind that agenda.

JOURNALIST:

Doyle and Kroger, that is the team for the next State Election?

TREASURER:

Well, the team will be Doyle and Honeywood and the Doyle Candidates. But I

hope with a strong administration supporting our candidates in the field and

raising the sinews of war financially.

JOURNALIST:

Just on the war, how do you think everything is going?

TREASURER:

Look, it is obviously a time where our troops and our servicemen and women

deserve our full support. They are performing magnificently. Plainly the military

campaign is being aided by the Australian men and women who are part of it and

we wish them all the best. We wish them well.

JOURNALIST:

Will we get a break down of the costs in the May Budget (inaudible)?

TREASURER:

Well, we will be able to put a pretty fair cost on the sums spent to date.

But I can’t put a final…

JOURNALIST:

Any feel for the (inaudible)

TREASURER:

…well, I can’t put a final cost on things until we know the duration.

JOURNALIST:

Yeah.

TREASURER:

…and obviously the longer it goes the more the cost will be.

JOURNALIST:

Do we know, ballpark, what it costs per day?

TREASURER:

No, but I can tell you that over the last, well the predeployment and the action

that has occurred to date has been of the order of hundreds of millions of dollars.

JOURNALIST:

Yes.

TREASURER:

Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.

JOURNALIST:

Given that it is really expensive, maybe we would be looking at a levy down

the track to pay for it?

TREASURER:

No, we are budgeting for the costs in this financial year and if it requires

additional costs next financial year I will be budgeting for that in the May

Budget.

JOURNALIST:

Now with the protests, it appears that a lot of the key protesters have been

the traditional agitators who just rock up everywhere. I mean what would you

say to those sort of people? They seem to be highjacking the protest from the

Mum and Dad who may not agree with it who would like to take part but you have

got these idiots who force them out.

TREASURER:

Well, I would say really there are two elements to the protests. One is some

people who are genuinely concerned about war and to those people we respect

their views. The other are professional agitators, some of them quite violent,

and they are seeking to use the genuine ones for other political purposes. And

you can see that in their demonstrations with their Socialist Worker banners

and other banners. These are professional agitators and they, I don’t believe

they are concerned about this issue they just see this issue as an opportunity

to advance a wider radical agenda.

JOURNALIST:

Mr Costello, how important is Helen Kroger’s election as President to the Victorian

Liberal Party?

TREASURER:

Well, first of all I congratulate Helen on her election. She has a strong reform

agenda. She wants to make sure that the Party is rebuilt and I think it is important

for the members of the Party to get fully behind her in that reform effort.

Now is the time for the Party unity and the Party rebuilding so that we are

in a position to put our strongest foot forward in the Federal Election which

is due by next year and to rebuild towards the next State Election.

JOURNALIST:

Do you think your public endorsement of her has, did help?

TREASURER:

No, I think the reason why Helen has been elected President is that the Party

realises it has to reform and it has to improve. To have lost so many seats

at the last State Election, to be coming up to a Federal Election, they know

that we couldn’t afford to repeat what happened in the last State Election federally

and we won’t. And Helen wants to make sure that our administration is in the

best possible shape to fight that election. She will have the support, I believe,

of all the members of the Liberal Party who are committed to that cause.

JOURNALIST:

How much rebuilding has to be done here?

TREASURER:

Oh, there is a lot of rebuilding to be done. The State Election result was

probably the worst we have ever had and so there is a lot of rebuilding to get

ready for the next State Election, but I call on Liberals to now focus on the

Federal Election, to get behind the new leadership, to support the reform of

the Party and to make sure that we are in the best shape to win the confidence

and trust of the Victorian public at the next election.

JOURNALIST:

Thanks Mr Costello.

TREASURER:

Thank you.