E&OE
22 September 2008
Interview on Sky News - Prime Minister's attendance at the United Nations General Assembly
COMPERE 1: The Prime Minister will head to New York after question time this afternoon to attend the UN General Assembly. Kevin Rudd will also use the visit to hold talks with the Federal Reserve and the World Bank to discuss the financial crisis that's gripping Wall Street.
COMPERE 2: The Opposition has criticised the visit as indulgent, saying Mr Rudd is spending too much time abroad.
COMPERE 1: Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is already in New York, and he joins us now to discuss the week's meetings.
COMPERE 2: Here to talk to him is Sky News political reporter, Kieran Gilbert.
REPORTER: Stephen Smith, thanks for your time. As our news presenters have told us, you're already in New York. You're there for the UN General Assembly. Why does the Prime Minister need to go as well? Are you worried he doesn't think you're up to the job?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, he's turning out with about a hundred other leaders of nation states. This is effectively the first week of the General Assembly meeting. It's the pre-eminent week for the United Nations, and it's traditionally known as leaders' week, where not just Foreign Ministers from United Nations countries, but also Prime Ministers and Presidents. So he'll be one of about a hundred national leaders turning up to do two things: to make the point that the United Nations is the premier international institution, so far as peace and security is concerned, but also taking the opportunity to talk about things that really matter to Australia's national interest: climate change. But also, the current crisis in international financial markets and international financial services.
So it's absolutely in Australia's national interest that the Prime Minister is here having those conversations with his colleagues.
REPORTER: But a lot of those reasons were tacked on very late in the piece. The original and the primary reason for his trip to New York was to attend the UN General Assembly. Is the Prime Minister too obsessed with Foreign Affairs?
STEPHEN SMITH: The Prime Minister's trip to the United Nations is perfectly appropriate and sensible. It's in our national interest that he's here. As I say, this is the pre-eminent week of the United Nations' General Assembly meeting. Traditionally, it's known as leaders' week because the leaders, either heads of government or heads of nation states, turn up.
And all of the trips that the Prime Minister has done, he's been doing precisely that. He has been advancing Australia's national interests. Whether it's his first trip to the United States to ensure that the alliance between Australia and United States was sound, or whether it's his travels through the Asia-Pacific. That's also been in Australia's national interest and it's been underlining the three pillars of our foreign policy, which is engagement with the United Nations, our alliance with the United States and engagement with the Asia-Pacific region. All of these things are in our national interest, both from a trade and investment point of view, but also from a peace and security and international strategic point of view.
REPORTER: But do you feel like he's encroaching on your patch a bit too much?
STEPHEN SMITH: Absolutely not. There's more than enough work for both of us. And I saw the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, out there over the weekend saying that, you know, the Prime Minister's been away longer than the Foreign Minister. Well, he should actually get his facts right.
There's no problem with the Prime Minister of a country, or the President of a country, travelling abroad meeting counterparts and pursuing necessary work in the national interest, and that's precisely what the Prime Minister's been doing. And he'll also, as am I, take the opportunity of having bilateral conversations on matters that are of interest or relevant. So it's actually a very good chance for him to have a conversation with leaders throughout the world about declining economic growth internationally, and about the difficulties of the international financial services sector. And, obviously, he'll be making the same point that I've already made here, which is, we of course, welcome very much the intervention of the United States Government with a $700 billion package that has certainly brought some certainty to the United States industry, and we hope that that has consequential beneficial effects so far as certainty throughout the world is concerned.
REPORTER: We know that, of course, Australia wants a seat - a temporary seat on the UN Security Council. Is there much support there for our inclusion and how important will the successor to Robert Hill be as Australia's envoy to the UN?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well firstly, we're standing for the 2013/14 term, so the ballot will actually be, or the election will be in 2012. So we've got four and a half years to go. Obviously our permanent representative at the United Nations, whether it's Ambassador Hill or his successor, will be very important to that.
But so far, since we've launched our campaign, we've had a very good response. In part, that's been because the first thing we did as a Government was to ratify Kyoto. The first thing we did in the Parliament was the apology to the Indigenous community. And both these things have reverberated very well in the international community. But we've got to translate that into votes over a four year period, so that'll be a long, hard tough campaign, but we're up for it.
And whilst our election to the Security Council is not the pre-eminent reason that we're here, obviously, it'll feature in the course of discussions that I have with my counterparts, as no doubt it'll feature in the Prime Minister's conversations. But it's a four year campaign and we're going to try and make every post a winner over the course of that four years.
REPORTER: Okay, can I focus now on a couple of your bilateral talks, your personal meetings? You're meeting with the Pakistani Foreign Minister this week. Of course, that country still reeling from the devastating terrorist blast at the weekend. How worried are you at the implications of further attacks on that Islamic nation?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I'm certainly very worried about circumstances in Pakistan. To some extent, the terrible bombing over the weekend in Islamabad has crystallised a lot of the problems that we've been drawing attention to. From the first instance of course, we obviously want to express our condolences to Pakistan for the terrible, cowardly attack. Also the Czechs, who lost an ambassador in the course of the blast. But it just crystallises what a difficult position Pakistan is in trying to stare down extremism and terrorism.
Certainly, what we've seen from the new President, President Zardari, and his comments since he became President, have been very positive. But Pakistan really needs the help here of the international community to try and combat and counter extremism, whether it's on the border area near Afghanistan or whether it's in Islamabad itself. And as I've said previously, I've made it clear that Australia stands ready, willing and able to render what assistance we can, as Pakistan tries to work through this very difficult situation.
REPORTER: Okay, can I get your reaction now to the resignation of the South African president, Thabo Mbeki. He's resigned under pressure from his party, the ANC. Will you be talking to your South African counterparts too, while you're in New York?
STEPHEN SMITH: Yes, I'll be speaking to my South African counterpart, Foreign Minister Dlamini Zuma to speak about those ramifications. In some respects, it's a surprise, but a surprise only in the timing. For some time, it's been clear that President Mbeki's ultimate successor would be the leader of the ANC, Mr Jacob Zuma.
Now it's unclear at the moment whether he will take over immediately or whether there'll be a caretaker President. That'll be something for the ANC and the South African political and democratic processes to ascertain. It's also been suggested that President, or former President Mbeki may continue to play a role in the Zimbabwe mediation.
So in some respects, it's no surprise, everyone knew that he was in the last 12 months of his term. We just simply hope that there's an orderly transition. South Africa for a number of years has been a shining light of democracy, parliamentary democracy in action. So we're expecting and confident that we'll see an orderly transition, either straight to Mr Zuma or to a caretaker President with Mr Zuma taking over at the completion of what would have been Mr Mbeki's full term.
REPORTER: Okay, just finally, Foreign Minister Smith, will the Prime Minister meet President Bush during his visit to the States?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well I think there's a chance of that. There's a reception that the United States administration is putting on. And he may see him there, but often in the UN General Assembly, you get to meet people in the corridors, what are commonly known as pull asides. So whether he meets him, time will tell. He's already had a couple of meetings with him, as you would be aware.
And I'm expecting to have a brief conversation with my counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But we'll both be endeavouring to get as many meetings as we can with our counterparts.
That's one of the reasons why this is such an effective place to be, with so many Presidents, Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers all in the same place, at the same time, you can transact a lot of business on behalf of your nation. And that's what we'll both be doing.
REPORTER: Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, live from New York, thanks for your time on Sky News.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thank you, Kieran, thanks very much.
[Ends]
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