Fed: Howard kicks off day two of regional trip

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2001
Fed: Howard kicks off day two of regional trip

BATEMANS BAY, NSW, Feb 1 AAP - The second leg of Prime Minister John Howard's three-day
regional tour begins here today with a flight to the Victorian timber town of Orbost.

Mr Howard will meet local school children before heading east to the holiday centre
of Lakes Entrance, also in Victoria's Gippsland region, for a community lunch.

The tour is his first regional visit in this election year and he has promised Australians
a social bonus made possible by the government's good economic management.

The prime minister kicked off the trip in the NSW cheese capital of Bega yesterday,
where he was greeted by a shower of woodchips thrown by a small group of anti-logging
protesters.

Defending dairy deregulation was high on the agenda after a critical report found the
move had slashed farm incomes by up to 30 per cent and forced hundreds of farmers out
of business since July.

But consumers had benefited by paying lower prices for milk, Mr Howard said.

The report found the slightly lower milk prices may have been the result of competition
between supermarket's own brands and name-brand milk.

Mr Howard was also forced to justify the GST paperwork burden, set to be another key
issue in the campaign, as businesses race to finish their second quarterly tax statements
ahead of the weekend deadline.

During an impromptu walkabout in the small coastal town of Moruya, he spent several
minutes chatting with lingerie shop owner Sue Weeks who complained the second statement
was harder to fill in than the first.

The trip winds up tomorrow in Yarra Glen on Melbourne's eastern fringe.

AAP kmh/kjp/mg/de

KEYWORD: HOWARD DAYLEAD

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