Labor Party Leadership Mark Latham - Leader of the Opposition

Radio Interview with Mike Carlton

Transcript - Radio 2UE - 3 December 2003

CARLTON: Good morning.

LATHAM: Good morning, Mike, it's good to be talking to you.

CARLTON: You too, congratulations. Well done.

LATHAM: Thanks very much. It's a great honour and I hope to discharge it well.

CARLTON: I'll call you leader. Are they calling you leader yet?

LATHAM: No, no, the great leader of course was Gough Whitlam he had that name around the place and I would take his inspiration but I can't claim the comparison at this stage.

CARLTON: You might, you might. Did you celebrate last night?

LATHAM: Well, no, not really. There's a lot of work to be done. It's a big job, there's a lot of things to get organised in the new Labor Party team and I've been hard at it working through till 11:00 last night. Obviously, celebrating earlier in the day with my family who were down here for the occasion. But, we've got so much work to do, we're ready in many policy fronts, we're getting better organised and next year we'll be fighting the election to win it.

CARLTON: I did see your family there, and your mum. Did your boys know what was going on or was it just dad having some photos taken?

LATHAM: Well, my boys are aged three and one. So the one year old who is Isaac Gough, and on the 2^nd December he was doing his little clap hands routine, so he might have had an extra sense of the significance of that day with a middle name Gough. And my three year old boy, Oliver, he's learning more about politics. When I say to him, `Ollie what does dad do?' he says, `Daddy talk, man clap'.

CARLTON: Clapping? Are you scared or awed? You're in your early forties, you're following in the giant footsteps of people like Curtin, Chifley, Whitlam. Is it an awesome thing to do?

LATHAM: Well, it's a big responsibility but that's the nature of the Labor Party. Ben Chifley who came from being an engine driver, a hard worker who served the Labor movement and became a great Labor Prime Minister. John Curtin, someone who came out of the poverty of rural Victoria. Paul Keating who grew up near my neck of the woods at Bankstown. In my case a lad coming out of the public housing estate of Green Valley, a place named as Dodge City in the 60s and 70s. This is what the Labor Party is about, upward mobility, people who work hard, have a go, serve the working class community if you can do that in a leadership role – that's what our Party stands for – and to give all Australians the opportunity of climbing that ladder of opportunity.

CARLTON: Dodge City has changed now though hasn't it? Green Valley might have been a working class housing commission once, it's now prosperous and forward looking. Is that part of your vision for the country at large?

LATHAM: I think it's part of the Labor achievement. People that I grew up with in the South West of Sydney, we got a good education because of the Whitlam Government and that allowed people to get into better jobs, move into the double storey housing estates, become owners rather than renters. That's an important achievement. And then the Keating years: opening up the economy, giving people access to finance and capital, the explosion of small business. So many people I went to school with now when I run into them, they are either university graduates or they are working in sales or they are running a franchise, a small business. This is the Labor achievement of upward mobility. We exist to help people who work hard to advance themselves and their families and I want to continue that in the future. I believe in an upwardly mobile society. If you put in the hard work you can grab an extra rung on the ladder of opportunity and advance yourself.

CARLTON: I have to say, the Howard Government is axing the University of Western Sydney at the moment, isn't it?

LATHAM: Precisely, that's the problem. The Howard Government is taking the rungs away, it is taking the rungs off the ladder and driving down the affordability and accessibility of higher education and making it so much harder for families to find a bulk billing doctor. In doing very little in early childhood development and education, in running down out basic community services – so we've got to put the rungs back into the ladder. That's the Labor way and that's the central goal.

CARLTON: Have you ordered your priorities? You have a lot to do. You've got to build a front bench, you've got to set policy directions, where are you starting from this morning?

LATHAM: We did Alan Jones on radio, which is always a good place to start in Sydney. And I wish you well in that battle, it's a pretty interesting one to watch. The political arena is competitive but I like to see that in the media as well.

CARLTON: We've got a few rungs of opportunity missing…

LATHAM: But in a policy sense, Mike, we've really got to defend the basic opportunities of our community: education and health. I've got a particular passion for early childhood development. I think the under utilised opportunity in education are the years 0-5. I'm struck by the international research that shows you want to work out where someone will be at age 20 you can determine that at age 5. If their parents read you books at night, if education is valued in the home, if we've got good pre-school access this is the basic foundation stone of a learning society. One of the things that I want to do is urge all parents to read to their children aloud. If we all as parents read three story books a night to our infant children they will be literate and have numbers by the age of five going to school.

CARLTON: I really couldn't agree more.

LATHAM: And that's a great national program we should all be working on and I'll be certainly engaging the Government in ways in which we can build a bi-partisan agenda for early childhood development.

CARLTON: All right, I see in the news this morning you're under attack again though for allegedly taking another swipe at George Bush in a paper you wrote for the Australian Defence Association. You say Bush has squandered international goodwill and taken Australia on a march of folly into Iraq.

LATHAM: Well again, the Australian Labor Party opposed the war in Iraq for valid reasons. We didn't think it was the highest priority in winning the War Against Terror. We though more time needed to be taken to locate and be sure about those Weapons of Mass Destruction. None were used during the conflict, none have been found since and with the luxury of hindsight we wouldn't change our position one inch. It was a problem and it's legitimate to criticise policy that is not optimal, to criticise policy makers who could do better in the future. And I support the American Alliance but I'm not a rubber stamp. If we can point out ways in which Australian-American policy can be more effective in winning the War Against Terror I think that's very, very important not only for our democracy but most importantly the security and safety of our society. So, we can't take away our democratic freedoms to have an alternative point of view.

CARLTON: Have you got a call from the American Ambassador yet?

LATHAM: No, I can't say that's true. But I'm a lifelong supporter of the American Alliance.

CARLTON: It was reported this morning that he rang you. He didn't? Okay.

LATHAM: That's not accurate. I didn't see that report but I would certainly welcome his call and will obviously be wanting to talk to him in the near future.

CARLTON: Party house-keeping: there's a great call for unity and the end of division. When do you think you will set up your front bench, your Shadow Treasurer and so on?

LATHAM: Well, we've got Bob McMullan acting in the position for the rest of this parliamentary week. But, we've just got a couple of days of parliament to see out 2003 so we're not in a hurry to make those arrangements. I'll be consulting with colleagues. The mood is positive within the Caucus. There is a genuine mood, a feeling, a reconciliation to get on with the job, our main job of defeating the Howard Government. So I'm confident by the end of the year the new team, the best Labor team available will be in place and in the course of next year, the election year we will be taking the fight up on all the vital issues to make Australia a better place.

CARLTON: For example though, Kevin Rudd has made no secret of the fact that he voted against you in the ballot yesterday. Do you see him staying on as the Foreign Spokesman?

LATHAM: Well, I hope so. I desperately hope so. Kevin is a very, very effective media performer and he's got a wealth of knowledge about foreign policy. He had got a great future serving this great country as an outstanding foreign minister. And I don't want to see his talents wasted in Opposition – particularly when you look across at the Chamber at the likes of Alexander Downer. I want to see Kevin Rudd, a great Australian foreign minister. And I'll be working with him as hard as I can to make that happen.

CARLTON: All right, I'll let you get back. You have one hell of a day ahead. But once again, congratulations and the very best of luck.

LATHAM: A pleasure, Mike, and the best to you.

CARLTON: Thank you, good to talk to you.

ENDS. E & OE - PROOF ONLY