Interview - Shane McLeod, ABC Radio (From Kyoto)

Subjects: Trilateral Strategic Dialogue, Zimbabwe

SHANE McLEOD: Minister, what does it actually mean, setting up a disaster network for the Asia-Pacific region?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, we’ve seen in recent times the Chinese earthquake, the Burma cyclone, and the tsunami. All of these disasters have been too great a scale for any one nation to deal with alone. So we’ve had a bit of, regrettably, life experience, and the United States, Australia and Japan have all helped in those exercises. We think we can be much better prepared, much better coordinated. And, if we get that coordination and preparation right, then when the next disaster strikes we’ll be able to apply much better coordinated and instantaneous relief to whatever nation state is seriously adversely affected.

McLEOD: You talk about experience. The recent experience with Burma, suggests that some countries don’t want help. How can something like this try to change that kind of attitude?

SMITH: Well the Burma example that we’ve seen frankly is almost unique in the modern day. The Chinese experience showed us that even China acknowledged that the human consequences and the adverse consequences of the earthquake were much too great for even a country as large as China to deal with. But we want to be, as a nation state, a good international citizen. That’s the aspiration of the United States and Japan as well. We work very closely together. The Trilateral Strategic Dialogue is a very important reflection of that. We just think we can be much better coordinated; not just agency-to-agency in a national sense, but also agency-to-agency in that tri-nation sense. If we do the groundwork now, if and when, regrettably, another disaster on a mammoth scales hits, we’ll be much better prepared to render much-needed assistance and do that quickly.

McLEOD: In terms of operation, what will it mean?

SMITH: Well, we’re going to have officials from the three countries meet in Australia before the end of the year to determine the final guidelines. But instead of in an ad hoc way, inquiring at the last minute what another nation state might be doing, we’ll have much better coordinated preparedness, know what our capacity is, know what each nation state can bring to bear and do that much more quickly and much more effectively.

McLEOD: Is it about money, or is it about expanding the ability to respond?

SMITH: Sometimes it’s about money, but this is about much more than that, it is about appreciating what capacity we have. In the Chinese earthquake, for example, one of the areas in which we were able to offer assistance was the expertise which comes from modern urban disasters: emergency relief, also forensic medical assistance and the like. So it’s understanding what capacity you have and coordinating that. Often what is required is an urgent application of money to buy much-needed equipment, whether it is medicines, or temporary shelter or temporary accommodation. But often it’s knowing what technical expertise you have and how quickly you can apply that.

McLEOD: Partly cutting waste, then, I mean to coordinate, to make sure other countries….

SMITH: No, I don’t mean cutting waste. I think just making sure that we’re much better prepared, ready to effectively spring into action and having detailed operating procedures in place so that as soon as the disaster strikes, we’re on the phone automatically to our Japanese and United States colleagues and hit the ground running rather than having to respond in an ad hoc way to a disaster on a human tragedy scale.

McLEOD: Finally on Zimbabwe, were you able to discuss that issue in the trilateral dialogue today?

SMITH: Well, I certainly discussed Zimbabwe with Mr Koumura and Secretary of State Rice, and with my other foreign ministerial counterparts that I have had discussions with over the last couple of days, in particular the United Kingdom. I think everyone is proceeding on the basis that the Southern African Development Community states and the African Union states have got to put pressure on Mr Mugabe. He has no legitimacy, either electoral or democratic, and we continue to urge those relevant southern African states to take action. And to its credit the G8 Ministers’ communiqué is a very, very robust communiqué against the brutal Mugabe regime, not accepting his legitimacy at all. We continue to urge the neighbours of Zimbabwe to put pressure on Mr Mugabe to arrive at a political solution which reflects the will of the Zimbabwe people.

McLEOD: Thank you very much.

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