Wed, 7th May 2008

Nelson interview with David Speers (Sky News) - John Howard Tribute Dinner

The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP
Leader of the Opposition

E&OE

SPEERS:

Brendan Nelson, thank you for joining us. Tonight is all about John Howard and you spoke in your speech inside the auditorium there about the courage that he showed on the waterfront dispute, on the GST, on gun control, on border protection. Courage can also I guess be described as great political risk can’t it? Were these sorts of things in the end accumulated to his downfall?

DR NELSON:

Well look firstly I should thank Sky for joining us. I think in the end public life and public service, as John Howard certainly lived it and seen it, is about doing what’s right for Australia and sometimes that happens to be popular. On other occasions it isn’t. And we made the decision, particularly in the last term of government that we would do what we thought was in the long term best interests of the nation and sometimes people make judgments about that which aren’t electorally favourable to us.

But as I said this evening, look, wherever you are in this country there is no question that we are not only more prosperous we’re more confident in ourselves, more confident in our future – although the economy has had the wobbles in the last few months – John Howard has done a magnificent job for Australia.

SPEERS:

Whoever followed John Howard was always going to have a difficult job. Now it’s fallen to you to negotiate how to deal with the legacy. You walked away from it on WorkChoices, on Kyoto, on the apology to the stolen generations, but you’re maintaining other elements of the Howard legacy.

DR NELSON:

Yeah, well David look we’ve got to be clear about it. We and I am very, very proud of what was achieved over almost 12 years. Apart from being the Leader of the Opposition, the alternative government, as a parent amongst other things I’m very proud of what was achieved.

But this is a democracy and Australians made decisions in November last year, no matter how disappointed we are as Liberals about that, and I’ve listened very carefully to what Australians said. We know they made judgments. We know the election outcome in the end was actually quite close. But nonetheless, whether it’s right or wrong, the union turbo-charged campaign on WorkChoices was a significant issue, as was the approach of the previous Government, the perception in the electorate about climate change and environmental issues. And there was also I think a lot of Australians who wanted to see some of the more symbolic things addressed, but under no circumstances should anyone in this country underestimate the importance of what was achieved.

And in fact Mr Rudd was so impressed with what the Coalition government achieved he adopted almost all of the platform and sought to sell himself as some sort of Liberal, which if course he’s not.

SPEERS:

Nonetheless you have been battling very poor opinion polls, some internal sniping as well. Is the job proving to be harder than you thought when you took it on?

DR NELSON:

Look it is a great honour. It’s a privilege to lead the parliamentary Liberal Party, to lead the Opposition, and I’m very, very determined in this. And we are about 10 seats away from a change of government at the next election. And I’m very focused on what I see as the five key challenges for the nation in terms of prosperity, our federation, the environment, the defence and security of the nation, and the cohesion and the values that we have as Australians.

And we’ve already started the process of building policy but, yes, look it’s a tough job but it’s an important job and it’s important the Government be held to account and Mr Rudd has given us bread and circuses and a fair bit of symbolism. He’s looked pretty ratty when he’s had to make decisions on carers and seniors and our relationship with Japan. Well let’s just see what the Budget brings next week.

SPEERS:

Would it help you if John Howard gave you a bit of a rap in his speech tonight?

DR NELSON:

Well he gives me quite a rap but we’ll just wait and see what he’s got to say.

SPEERS:

A lot of Liberal luminaries here tonight. One notable exception – Peter Costello. Why is that do you think?

DR NELSON:

Well Peter is obviously in Melbourne. This is a New South Wales function. You’ll find that pretty much everybody amongst the 1,200 people that are here this evening, this is our New South Wales family principally. A number of my colleagues who are in senior positions in the party at the moment have come from other parts of the country, but you will expect David that we will have similar events in the other states. We’ve already had one in Queensland.

SPEERS:

But looking back, how much did the divisiveness between the Costello and Howard camp, camps, in the final stages of the Howard Government contribute to the loss?

DR NELSON:

Well look I’m not going to get a, you know, a retrospect-o-scope out on that. There is no question – it was a formidable team. If you are looking at this this evening and you think back to what Australia was like in November last year – we had John Howard as Prime Minister, we had Peter Costello as Treasurer, we were confident if we had a mortgage, we were confident about...

SPEERS:

If you’d ask people on the street they would have said they hate each other’s guts. People knew that.

DR NELSON:

Well that is not... Look I’m not going to...

SPEERS:

That’s how people saw it.

DR NELSON:

Look I’m not going to go into that at all other than to say that I worked very closely with both of these men. I was a cabinet minister for six years. I worked though that Budget process, particularly with Peter Costello – to whom this nation owes an enormous debt for what he and his family have sacrificed, and he worked very, very well and very professionally with John Howard. They were a formidable team. We’re a much better country for them, and I can assure you that at the moment, you know, five months into Mr Rudd this is a different Australia. You know, Australians are much less confident about their jobs, about groceries and petrol and keeping the house.

SPEERS:

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson we’ll have to leave it there but thank you very much for joining us.

DR NELSON:

Thanks David. Great to see you.