E&OE
15 March 2009
Today on Sunday: Interview with Laurie Oakes
LAURIE OAKES: Mr Smith, welcome to the program.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks, Laurie.
LAURIE OAKES: It's not exactly foreign affairs, although she has had an impact on our international relations from time to time. I am going to have to ask you about the nude pictures of Pauline Hanson. Do you think that could be a plus for her politically, like, rather like the Kevin Rudd visit to Scores nightclub?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I don't know whether that will be a plus or a minus, Laurie. Frankly, I think it's all a bit sad and unfortunate. I think the disclosure of the photos and the reason behind the disclosure, I think, is very sad. And I think the fact that anyone has photos retailed of when they were 17,18 or 19 is unfortunate.
But we are in public life and sometimes we have to bear that burden. But unfortunate, I think, is the best word I can use to describe it, whatever political consequences or ramifications there might be.
LAURIE OAKES: Well, Pauline Hanson says she doesn't care and I guess that's the sensible attitude to someone in politics.
But there's another bit of naked politics in the Sunday Papers today. A poll of Liberal MPs about the leadership. And 28 of the 66 MPs who responded want Peter Costello as leader compared with 21 for Malcolm Turnbull, are you surprised by that?
STEPHEN SMITH: No. The Liberal Party is going through a very difficult and divided time. Peter Costello is either making life a misery for Malcolm Turnbull, or he's stalking him.
And the fact that you've got such a large number of Liberal MPs who are prepared to indicate to the journalists that they don't have support in their leader, I think, presents a very difficult situation for Mr Turnbull and the Liberals. They're going through a very difficult time and it's that old adage in politics, disunity is death and they've got disunity in spades at the moment.
LAURIE OAKES: Well, I guess the Labor Party knows all about this. You went through similar things in opposition. But can I ask you, is Labor now acting on the assumption that Kevin Rudd will be facing Mr Costello at the next election?
LAURIE OAKES: Well, we're preceding on the basis that whoever the Liberal Party tosses up, whether it's Mr Turnbull, whether it's Mr Costello, in terms of policy, there are a couple of fundamentals.
Whether it's Mr Turnbull or Mr Costello, the Liberal Party is still handcuffed to WorkChoices. Whether it's Mr Turnbull or Mr Costello, the Liberal Party doesn't believe that we need to do anything about climate change. Whether it's Mr Turnbull or Mr Costello, their attitude to the global financial crisis is that we should simply sit and wait. So whether it's Mr Turnbull, whether it's Mr Costello, time and the Liberal Party and their disunity will tell.
But from a fundamental public policy point of view, I don't think it matters one dot.
LAURIE OAKES: Well, Mr Costello, does seem to have economic credibility with voters because of his record as Treasurer, would that make him harder to beat than Malcolm Turnbull?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I am not going to get into a comparison. I simply think that whichever Leader the Liberal Party tosses up, there are some fundamentals, fundamentals that they were in office for a long period of time. They attached themselves to WorkChoices, they attached themselves to a very unfair industrial relations system.
They didn't move on building the productive capacity of our economy whether it was through infrastructure or education. They were completely ambivalent if not ignoring and ignorant of climate change.
None of those things have changed whether it's Mr Costello or Mr Turnbull at the helm. Indeed, Laurie, Mr Turnbull seemed to get himself the Liberal leadership by attaching himself to the fundamental importance of climate change and an emissions trading scheme. Now he seems to be moving away from that for the purpose of saving his leadership.
LAURIE OAKES: Well, whack on the old Foreign Affair's Minister's hat, but I am going to ask you about the Kevin Rudd Barack Obama talks in just a little over a week. Is the Government hoping that Mr Rudd will be able to achieve the kind of bonding and harmonious relationship with President Obama that John Howard had with George W Bush?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, we certainly think that we can work very well and very closely with the new Obama Administration. It's the first meeting between the Prime Minister and the new President. That underlines the very important relationship that Australia and Untied States has, our Alliance.
It's a fundamental bulwark of Australia's defence and security arrangements. And so the first meeting is a very important one.
I spoke extensively in the end of January to Secretary of State Clinton and we think there's a lot that Australia and the United States can do together. So we're looking forward to the first personal meeting between the Prime Minister and the President and we think that it will, again, show that irrespective of which Administration or which Government is in Australia, the Alliance continues to serve Australia very well indeed.
LAURIE OAKES: Well, obviously Afghanistan is going to be one of the most important issues on the agenda. President Obama candidly admits that the US is not winning in Afghanistan. Is what he and Mr Rudd will discuss really an exit strategy in Afghanistan?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, certainly, just in terms of their discussion, obviously they'll speak about the importance of the Alliance, the need for the United States to be engaged in the Asia Pacific region, the importance of the relationship between United States and China and a range of other things.
But yes, this will be a very key meeting on Afghanistan. I think the international community is acknowledging that there's something of a stalemate in Afghanistan now, which is why we've welcomed very much the overarching review that the Obama Administration is doing into both Afghanistan and Pakistan under Mr Riedel.
So, we've welcomed very much President Obama's commentary about the need to have not just a military enforcement action in Afghanistan but also a civil capacity-building and nation-building reconstruction program. And also, at some stage, the need for a political dialogue in Afghanistan for the Afghanistan political leadership.
He has also underlined, which we think is right, the importance of Pakistan and the relevance that Pakistan has to the Afghanistan situation.
LAURIE OAKES: Well, Mr Howard cemented his relationship with President Bush by submitting Australian troops to the Iraq war. Is Kevin Rudd going to try something similar by committing more Australian troops to Afghanistan?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, we haven't yet received a formal request from the United States for additional troops. We, of course, won't be surprised if and when we receive such a request. Whether it comes at the meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Rudd, time will tell.
It may well be that they want to complete the review that they're doing before any formal request comes. But as we've said in the past, we'll consider that on its merits. We certainly don't want any enhanced Australian contribution to enable other countries not to make a similar contribution or to rest on their oars. Joel Fitzgibbon's made that point very strongly.
But we'll assess the request if and when it comes and make a judgement on it, on its merits.
LAURIE OAKES: I understand that within days of Kevin Rudd's talks with President Obama, you're off to a international conference on Afghanistan in the Hague, could you tell us about that?
STEPHEN SMITH: Yes. President Obama and the Prime Minister meet in Washington on the 24 March. On the 31 March the United Nations has convened a meeting of foreign ministers in The Hague. It will be jointly chaired by the Dutch, by the Afghanis and also by the UN. And it will bring together all those countries who have an interest in Afghanistan, not just NATO countries, or the international security assistance force countries like Australia.
But also some of the regional players, including Iran, which I think is a good sign. But it's an effort to focus on two things, to make the point that there are a number of countries in the region who have a key regional stake in peace and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But also there'll be a focus on what more countries can do in terms of capacity building, nation building, civil reconstruction because that's a very important part of the solution in Afghanistan, a very important part of staring down the current hotbed of international terrorism.
LAURIE OAKES: Now you say you haven't received a request yet for more troops to Afghanistan but there's an election, a national election in Afghanistan in August which obviously pose security problems. Is Australia planning any special help there, any special measures for that election?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, whilst we haven't received any formal requests from the United States for additional contribution in the longer term, all International Security Assistance Forces like Australia have received a request from NATO to contemplate additional contributions for the Afghanistan election scheduled for August this year.
Having good elections in Afghanistan is very important. So we will give consideration to whether additional security contribution is appropriate for the supervision of those elections. But in the short-term, I can announce today a $3 million contribution from Australia to assist the Afghanistan Electoral Complaints Commission. This is a body set up to help ensure that Afghanis have access to a full and free and fair election.
So, we're making an additional civil contribution today and we think that will play a good part in trying to ensure that there's a good turnout for the Afghanistan election and it's conducted in a transparent and free and fair way.
LAURIE OAKES: Just to pin you down a bit on the election security question. It's been suggested that Australia will send an extra infantry company of around 120 soldiers for that role, is that true?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I've assiduously avoided getting into any commentary on the various suggestions I've seen from so-called military or defence planners either within or outside the system. I am simply happy to say that we've received a request from NATO to give consideration to an additional contribution for effective supervision of that election.
That would be obviously a short-term or a temporary measure. And we'll give consideration of that. I am not tilting the lever one way or the other whether we will or we won't. We'll give consideration to it. But our other contribution, making contribution to the Afghanistan Election Commission is also, we think, an important part of that process and we hope to see similar contributions from other nation states.
LAURIE OAKES: Now you've said the Iranians are going to this UN conference on Afghanistan, which seems to me to be quite significant. Is that related to President Obama's desire to re-engage with the Iranians?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, certainly I think, the new Obama Administration and the international community have come to the conclusion that with Iran we have a very difficult member of international community. Australia is very gravely concerned about its nuclear aspirations. But in the first instance, dialogue is always worth having a go at and both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have made it clear that they want to extend the olive branch of dialogue to Iran, we support that.
It may well come to nothing but in dealing with these very, very difficult situations, it's worth a go and that particularly applies to Iran's nuclear capacity or nuclear aspirations. They are clearly still in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions and not complying with requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency and we continue to urge them to do so.
LAURIE OAKES: We're just about out of time, but the great global recession, it's not just an economic issue, is it? How much of a security issue is it?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, where we see poverty and financial and social difficulties, economic and social distress, then that does add to the difficulties that nation states have so one of the reasons we're very strongly committed to doing everything we can to offset the global economic crisis is not just the social and economic consequences which flow from doing nothing but also to do our best to make sure that nation states who are fragile, under pressure don't further descend into difficulty because when they do, they then become either targets or potential for insecurity either in our region or internationally.
And that's obviously adding to the difficulties that we find in the world at the moment.
LAURIE OAKES: Final question, to what extent could this economic security problem foster terrorism and give Al-Qaeda a kick along?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, as I say, Laurie, where you do find social and economic distress, it does add to the potential for the breeding ground for people being influenced by extremism by extreme ideology, by militancy.
And that's one of the reasons why we work so strongly across the board. Our contribution to peace and security in the international arena is not just the military or a peacekeeping contribution.
It's also the development assistance that we do, trying to raise the standing of fragile and difficult nation states and also our very strong commitment to things like interfaith dialogue where we do our best to indicate to the world that tolerance is a much better way than extremism or militancy.
LAURIE OAKES: Minister, we thank you.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks very much, Laurie.
[ENDS]
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