E&OE
30 November 2008
Interview with Barrie Cassidy - Insiders, ABC
BARRIE CASSIDY: And as you heard in the news, the worst is over after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, but still authorities are finding bodies after searching the buildings that came under attack. For the very latest I spoke a short time by telephone with the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, who's in London.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, in Mumbai we've confirmed of course unfortunately the death of Brett Taylor, Douglas Markell's family have indicated they believe he's dead and so do we but we can't officially confirm that. That'll require a formal identification of his body but we've been gravely concerned about that for some time.
Overall there are nearly 200 dead and 300 injured but we expect the death toll to rise. We know that already the Indian authorities have identified over 20 foreign victims.
The good news from Australia's perspective is that we have successfully accounted for 84 Australians who we became aware were in the area or in the vicinity but we're now down to a very small number of Australians who we haven't accounted for.
There's also of course the possibility that Australians who we don't know about were in the hotels and that again will require identification of the victims by the Indian authorities.
CASSIDY: And is there any reason to fear for the safety of those few who are not accounted for?
SMITH: Well I can't guarantee their safety. I can't rule out that we might not have a very small number of Australians amongst those victims.
CASSIDY: Now Minister, in Thailand now. How many Australians are stranded in Bangkok and what are their immediate prospects?
SMITH: Barrie we are becoming increasingly frustrated with what's occurring in Thailand. We've got hundreds of Australians stranded in Bangkok as a result of the closure effectively by the demonstrators of the two airports in Bangkok itself, the international and domestic airport. It's very frustrating for us and it's very frustrating for those stranded Australians. Some are becoming increasingly distressed and we understand that.
We've been working very hard, putting pressure on the Thai, Thai Airlines and on the Thai Tourism Authorities to try and get some Thai Airlines flights out and also to continue to provide assistance so far as accommodation is concerned.
But we can't rely upon, upon that presenting a conclusion. So late, late yesterday Anthony Albanese the Transport Minister spoke directly with the CEO of Qantas and Jetstar, Alan Joyce. And Qantas, to their credit, have agreed to put on extra flights and to be very flexible in what they can do to assist.
We've still got a lot of work to do on the details and the logistics because our essential problem is we can't get access in any regular way to the two airports in Bangkok itself. We're looking at alternative arrangements out of Phuket, which is a long bus drive away but also a military airport 140, 150 kilometres outside of Bangkok. So we're looking at putting ourselves in the position of being able to provide transport arrangements for Australians to get them to one of those two airports. But that is dependent upon getting access to the airports and getting flights in.
CASSIDY: Foreign Minister Stephen Smith there speaking from London.
[Ends]
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