POPULAR WORDS

Prime Minister John Howard has expressed clear dissatisfaction with the community's attitude to liability for accidents and injuries. Following today's meeting in Canberra to discuss rising medical indemnity insurance premiums, Howard says the problem will not be solved in a day. "I don't think in the long run this and the whole issue of public-liability insurance is going to be solved unless and until there is a very major change in the expectations of the Australian community about liability for conduct. "I think we have to change our attitudes. I think the expectations in relation to litigation are too high. "I said years ago when we brought in national gun-control laws that I didn't want Australia to go down the American path on guns. I also don't want Australia to go down the American path on litigation," he says. In particular, Howard would like to see a change in the attitude that people have a right to sue, "irrespective of the sort of involvement, irrespective of the sort of conduct that we are involved in, irrespective of any knowledge that we might have of the possible dangers". "I think our expectations in the community are too high. You can't have it both ways. You can't expect to sue at the drop of a hat and complain about public-liability insurance premiums going up. "I think the whole community has to rethink this, otherwise we are going to make it impossible for some activities that we take for granted to occur in the future and we're going to make it prohibitively expensive for some doctors in certain circumstances to practice," he says. As for today's meeting, Howard says there were "a number of practical suggestions to make to the states which in the end control the law". "We can't alter the law of negligence in this country, only the states can do that, but I, as Prime Minister, can point out what is needed and we need a major change in our approach as a nation to the law of negligence if we're to get on top of this," he says.