E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
1030AM SATURDAY
16 JANUARY 2010
MELBOURNE
Issues: Bank profits; football club sponsored by brothel; Haiti
JOURNALIST: The Commonwealth Bank is projecting large profits this year. Are you comfortable with that?
JULIA GILLARD: Australians don’t want the banks taking them for a ride. They want good deals, they want competitive deals and our message to Australians remains that they should shop around if they’re not getting a great deal from their bank. So to the Commonwealth Bank, to each of our banks I would say, the community message is loud and clear, Australians don’t want the banks trying to take them for a ride.
JOURNALIST: But don’t you think they have a moral obligation considering you did give them so much financial assistance during the crisis?
JULIA GILLARD: I certainly think that the banks have an obligation to offer competitive packages and as customers of banks, we need to be putting them under competitive pressure. That’s why, of course, we’ve made it easier for people to be able to switch banks and switch products. I also think the banks need to take due account of Australian attitudes and Australian attitudes are, they don’t want to be taken for a ride by their bank.
JOURNALIST: Shouldn’t the government be putting pressure on them since you did give them financial assistance?
JULIA GILLARD: We’ve made very clear to Australian banks what we think is a fair go for Australians and we’ve made it easier for banking customers to put pressure on their bank.
JOURNALIST: Do you think it’s appropriate that St Kilda football club is being sponsored by a brothel?
JULIA GILLARD: No I don’t. We want the reputation of our great sports; whether it’s AFL, whether it’s tennis, whether it’s league, we want the reputation of our sports to be associated with good community values and I think in making this decision, the football club has made an error.
JOURNALIST: The situation in Haiti, what’s the latest with the Government’s support, humanitarian support?
JULIA GILLARD: We continue to see this humanitarian crisis unfold. Obviously assistance is now becoming available in Haiti. It’s a very difficult situation with such devastation, disruption to water, to power to everything that makes rolling out aid that little bit easier. But our humanitarian organisations are well versed in dealing with this kind of crisis. As a government, we’ve made available a $10 million humanitarian package and I know individual Australians are responding. Clearly, people’s hearts have been moved by this devastation, by its size and scale and I know many Australians will individually make donations to support the people of Haiti.
ENDS