Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refuses to say when his plan to send asylum seekers to PNG will work Kevin Rudd appeared on The Bolt Report for the first time on Sunday July 28th and refused to say when his plan to send asylum seekers to PNG will work. PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has refused to say when his hard line plan to banish asylum seekers arriving by boat to Papua New Guinea will work. The Prime Minister discusses his plans for the economy, his controversial plan to slow the flow of boats carrying asylum seekers, and the carbon price with News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt. Courtesy The Bolt Report Mr Rudd has stood behind his decision to overhaul asylum seeker policy after he was elected in 2007. "We operated on the basis of the mandate we received from the Australian people in the 2007 election," he said. And had we not done so, you and others would have criticised us for not honouring our word to the Australian people. The situation changed after that, Mr Rudd said. I've quite readily admitted we probably should have changed in the period of 09/10, or began to adjust and I've got to say, 20/20 hindsight is easy. A Galaxy poll published by News Corp today found people rated Mr Rudd better than Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at handling the asylum seeker issue, 40 to 38 per cent. "They've got a right to have those attitudes," Senator Carr told Meet the Press. Meanwhile, earlier today the federal government hit out at state governments for not buying Australian cars as criticisms continue of its tax changes for fleet cars are biting business. A short-term price war is heating up as car dealers panic sell to clear orders cancelled due to changes to fringe benefits tax rules, but Industry Minister Kim Carr said he was more worried about Australia's car production levels, which are their lowest since 1957. Meet the Press, Ep 23, Seg 1 And state and local governments needed to shoulder blame, Senator Carr told Meet the Press today. "We're seeing, for example, in WA and Queensland, less than 25 per cent of the government fleets are now being sourced from Australian suppliers," he said. Now that's just not good enough. We are talking to the states about fulfilling their obligations to buy Australian, to encourage them to think of their national responsibilities, rather than buying imported cars. Senator Carr said FBT had not been used to buy Australian-made cars for some time. Is it right for the taxpayer to fund the private use of motor cars? Now I say that's not right. But he said he would not consider amending the new rules to allow FBT for those who do buy an Australian-made car. "It (FBT) was introduced 20 years ago to encourage people to buy Australian cars, they no longer do that through this mechanism," he said. The original policy intent, of course, has been lost. We have got to find other ways to encourage people to buy Australian cars because they are very good value.