E&OE
18 March 2009
ABC News Radio: Interview with Marius Benson
Subjects: Lowy Institute report, Afghanistan, Durban Conference
MARIUS BENSON: Good morning, Stephen Smith.
STEPHEN SMITH: Hello, how are you?
MARIUS BENSON: I'm very well. Now, can I begin by asking you about this Lowy Institute report on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which is according to the report understaffed, underfunded and ill-equipped? Is that the department you supervise?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I think this is a very good contribution because it puts, not just the department, but Australia's overall diplomatic efforts overseas into an historical context. And the point, the general thrust of the report, is precisely the same point that the Prime Minister made when he launched the National Security Statement last year, which is, essentially, that we need to have more points of our armoury overseas.
There's no doubt there's been an historical under-resourcing of the department. That's not something that we can fix in one year, in one budget or even one term.
MARIUS BENSON: But, Minister, hasn't the overseas representation been reduced on your watch?
STEPHEN SMITH: Let me put the thing in its historical context. I don't want to be politically pejorative, because there's an important national interest at stake here. The Prime Minister's made the point, I've made the point, but now we see the Lowy report make the point. The previous government, when the previous government came to office, it cut, very substantially, the Australian staff both onshore and offshore and the gap between 1996 and 1998, overall in the department was over 500 staff cuts, and overseas it was 130.
In our first budget in office we had to rein in spending. And, yes, there were cuts from staff, both onshore and offshore. Onshore it was just over 20, it was 21, and offshore it was 29. So, the difference in the cuts in their first year and our first year was 500 overall and 100 overseas. That's not really the point I'm making.
We want to have an effective diplomatic array onshore and offshore and we need to provide more resources. That's our aspiration. But we can't do it in one budget or in one year and we've got to do it in the context of the overall financial circumstances.
MARIUS BENSON: But, so far, you have cut numbers. Is the department now understaffed?
STEPHEN SMITH: We need to do more, there's no doubt about that. The Prime Minister's made that point. I've made that point. There are also some very other important points that the report makes, which is a decline in the language skills. That's something that we do need to rebuild.
It also makes a very important point that we are looking at a substantial contribution that Australia makes through overseas development assistance. We're very strongly committed to increasing that, but we need to make sure that that is badged as an Australian contribution. That's also an important point.
MARIUS BENSON: Will more money be provided for any of this overseas development or the department itself in the next budget? Surely not. Surely everyone's getting a haircut.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, in the first instance, our commitment on overseas development assistance is to increase it to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015-2016. And we will stick to that. We've made that clear. But we're going through very difficult financial economic circumstances so we have to judge the outcomes when we see them.
There's one very other important point which I'd like to make, and that's this: the current Government wants to do much more, in terms of our overseas diplomatic relations, whether it's to Africa, whether it's to India, whether it's to South or Latin America.
But we've also seen over the recent period effectively, an explosion in the consular work that the department does. And that's a very important part of the resource allocation which we also need to pay very careful attention to. We're very serious about giving assistance to Australians when they're overseas, but that does provide very intense resource demands on the department and the report makes that clear as well.
MARIUS BENSON: Minister, could I quickly ask you about the Prime Minister's trip to Washington? You have said that you would not be surprised if you get a request from the United States for more Australian troops in Afghanistan. You don't get surprises on trips, on meetings between heads of government like this - it's all been ironed out well and truly by now. So, clearly you expect a request. You wouldn't be making public that expectation if you weren't going to say yes to that request. That means more Australian troops to Afghanistan.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I don't agree with the analysis and I don't agree with your conclusion.
MARIUS BENSON: Right.
STEPHEN SMITH: We won't be surprised to receive a request. That may or may not come in the course of the Prime Minister's visit. The very key feature of this is that the United States Administration is doing a comprehensive overarching review of the approach to Afghanistan. That includes not just the military contribution, but also civilian capacity building and reconstruction.
And also at some point in the cycle, the notion of the Afghan political leadership engaging in a political dialogue. So, there's a very important overarching review the US Administration is going through.
If and when we receive a request from the United States Administration, of course we'll judge that on its merits, of course we'll make a decision which we think is based in our national interest. And our very strong view is that it's in our national interest to make a contribution to staring down international terrorism in Afghanistan.
MARIUS BENSON: Mr Smith, a quick final question. The Durban Conference is a conference on racism, which has been very controversial because it's been seen as an Israel bashing exercise. The rules have changed. Will Australia now be going to the Durban II Conference?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I don't know whether the rules have changed. I've made it clear that unless the preparatory text for the conference changes qualitatively we won't be there either, because it does set the scene for another anti-Israel, anti-Semitic harangue.
There's been a very important development in the last 24-36 hours. I spoke last night to the Dutch Foreign Minister, Maxime Verhagen. He had just come from a meeting of European Union Foreign Ministers. He has strongly made the point to them that unless the text changes qualitatively the Dutch wouldn't be going. He got very strong support from a number of his European colleagues, including the German Foreign Secretary, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and also the French.
So, there is a lot of pressure now on to qualitatively change the text. The European contribution's been an important one. Our position remains the same, unless we see qualitative changes in the text we won't be going to Durban II because we won't take part in the re-run of Durban I, which was, essentially, an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic harangue.
MARIUS BENSON: Mr Smith, thank you very much for your time this morning.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks, Marius.
[ENDS]
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