E&OE
29 April 2009
Interview, Sky
Subjects: Swine flu outbreak; troops for Afghanistan; asylum seekers; climate change; Sri Lanka.
(Nicola Roxon, Federal Minister for Health and Ageing [excerpt].
DAVID SPEERS: Good morning and welcome to AM Agenda, I am David Speers. Our guest this morning is Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, we'll be talking to him shortly for his take on the global efforts to contain the swine flu outbreak and also reports this morning that the Prime Minister will today announce more than around 200 Australian troops are to be joining those already in Afghanistan, a troop boost there.
Later in the show, our panel, Small Business Minister Craig Emerson and Shadow Environment Minister Greg Hunt will be looking at the budget build-up and also reports of a split in cabinet over climate change.
First to swine flu. More than 150 people in Mexico have now died and cases have been reported in the United States, in Europe and now also in New Zealand. There are still no confirmed cases in Australia but authorities are looking for 22 people who were on board the same flight as the New Zealanders returning from Mexico.
Around 90 Australians are being tested to see if they have the swine flu. Last night, Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced new measures; swine flu is to be listed as a quarantinable disease which means the Chief Medical Officer can, if necessary, detain people, and quarantine them, in their own home.
[Beginning of excerpt]
NICOLA ROXON: We are a very long way off needing to do that. In the current circumstances we don't have confirmed cases and we've had the community being extremely cooperative. This is making sure that we don't delay if we have a very quick change in circumstances.
[End of excerpt]
DAVID SPEERS: Swine flu has not yet reached pandemic stage and it may not, but international efforts are underway to contain its spread.
Joining me now is the Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, Minister, thank you for your time.
STEPHEN SMITH: Good morning.
DAVID SPEERS: More than 150 died in Mexico, there are cases around the world, including New Zealand, how worried should Australians be?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, we're taking every necessary and reasonable precaution, obviously we want to be safe rather than sorry.
And so we're following the advice of our Chief Medical Officer and also following the advice of the World Health Organization. That's why we've been taking the precautionary measures that we have that Nicola Roxon, the Health Minister has announced and why, for example, in my area, we've upgraded our travel advice for Mexico and we're drawing the attention of the difficulties to Australian travellers.
DAVID SPEERS: At an extreme level, the Government can decide to ban planes and ships coming into Australia, it can shut down schools and sporting events. At what point are those steps triggered?
STEPHEN SMITH: I think we're a very long way from that. I mean, whilst we want to be safe rather than sorry, while we want to take every precautionary measure, we do need to keep things in their perspective.
To date, the only fatalities that we've seen have tragically been in Mexico and I've taken the opportunity, both last night to relay Australia's condolences to the Mexican Ambassador to Australia and also through officials to my counterpart, the Mexican Foreign Minister. But we've seen other confirmed cases but no fatalities, for example in the United States, Canada and more recently in New Zealand.
And we're still waiting for the scientific analysis as to what is the cause of that. But we're also obviously very carefully trying to test any Australians who are suffering from flu symptoms, and particularly, now tracking the 22 Australians who are travelling with the group of New Zealanders, some of whom have confirmed as suffering from swine flu.
DAVID SPEERS: However, Canada and Cuba have suspended flights to and from Mexico, is Australia considering that at all?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, not so much the suspension of flights, but yesterday we upgraded our travel advisory to indicate that Australians should reconsider their need to travel to Mexico, we've taken it to a higher level.
That was essentially off the back of the World Health Organization taking its assessment of the swine flu to its next level in terms of going down the road or moving down the road to swine flue pandemic stage.
So, we're saying to Australians reconsider your need to travel to Mexico. If you are in Mexico and if you're concerned about your health, you might want to consider leaving Mexico. But if you are in Mexico, you should certainly follow the advice of the local authorities and follow all the practical, medical advice as being given not just by Australian authorities but by the World Health Organization.
DAVID SPEERS: Well, a parliamentary delegation in fact is cutting short its visits...
STEPHEN SMITH: Yes...
DAVID SPEERS:..in Mexico. Were they crazy to go in there at all on the weekend?
STEPHEN SMITH: When they arrived, of course, our travel advisory was at a lower level and the advice that they had wasn't, well, it met the circumstances at that time. But they have now truncated their visit and they're returning today, Wednesday Mexico time, and it's sensible that they're truncating their visit.
DAVID SPEERS: What about the economic impact of this, what do you think it's going to mean for the global economy and the Australian economy?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well it's early days. It will depend, firstly, how long it lasts. But anything which is disruptive to international exchange of goods and services with people, of course, has adverse economic consequences. But I think it's early days.
We've, of course, all benefited, particularly, if you like, in the Asian regions, from the experience that we had with the SARS epidemic some time ago. And some of our Asian neighbours and friends have put in place a whole range of precautions after the SARS epidemic and they're now relying upon those. Time will tell how long this difficulty lasts and what the adverse consequences are.
DAVID SPEERS: Let's move on. The Daily Telegraph, reports today the Prime Minister will today announce 200 more Australian troops are to be sent to Afghanistan, is that correct?
STEPHEN SMITH: I said a couple of weeks ago that I expected the Government would be in a position to make a decision and make an announcement within a matter of weeks. I am not proposing to comment on that article. I haven't commented on any of the running commentary and I've seen articles which suggest withdrawal of our troops and articles which suggest thousands more, so...
DAVID SPEERS: But is a troop increase necessary?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, firstly, I expect we'll be in a position to make an announcement in the very near future, that's the first point. Secondly, obviously we've been...
DAVID SPEERS: Today?
STEPHEN SMITH: ...well time will tell. Obviously we've been making it clear, for some time, myself, Joel Fitzgibbon the Defence Minister, the Prime Minister as well, that we'd been looking at what more, if anything, we can do to help stare down, as part of a UN-sponsored effort in Afghanistan, the threat of international terrorism.
What more could we do, for example, to assist the Afghanistan election which is on in August, what more we might be able to do in terms of training both...
DAVID SPEERS: Because the report is that 100 would be for training and 100 would be for helping with the election.
STEPHEN SMITH:..I am not confirming any of that. Suffice to say we have been looking very carefully at what can we do in terms of additional contribution for training both the Afghan police and the army. In the end, we've got to have the Afghan army and the Afghan police doing what the international force is currently doing. And finally of course...
DAVID SPEERS: The international force is putting in - well Barack Obama's putting in 17,000 so is 200 just a - going to make any difference at all?
STEPHEN SMITH: As I say, I am not commenting on any of those suggested details. The US Administration have indicated an additional contribution, effectively, of 21,000; the Europeans have indicated an additional contribution, some of it, if not the majority of it currently for the temporary purposes of an election of up to 5000 additional contributions. It's quite clear that there needs to be a real focus on what can the international community do, both to assist the Afghan election, to train the army and the police and also to build their state institutions.
In the end, we can't stay there forever, so we have to leave Afghanistan in a state where they can manage their own affairs and contain what is currently the worst international terrorist threat that we find.
DAVID SPEERS: Just a few other issues. Four more asylum seekers have been found, this time on Deliverance Island. We have a map of it here, it's in the north west of the Torres Strait, just off Papua New Guinea. These four have been taken by helicopter to a temporary detention facility on Horn Island, also in the Torres Strait. Most of these asylum seekers, whether it's these ones or the ones who have been arriving transit through Indonesia.
Is there anything more that you would like Indonesia to be doing to stem this increased flow?
STEPHEN SMITH: We don't yet have an understanding or indication as to where these four may come from. And you're quite right: they've been taken to a temporary detention facility. They may be taken to Christmas Island. Time will tell.
I've been very pleased with the cooperation that we've been receiving from Indonesia. As you might recall, Chris Evans, the Immigration Minister; Bob Debus, the Home Affairs Minister, and I were in Bali recently for the Bali process, a meeting of 30 to 40 countries on people movements and people smuggling, which…
DAVID SPEERS: But more boats are coming in, so…
STEPHEN SMITH: Well more boats are coming in. That's no surprise, given the very significant push factors that we've seen, not just Afghanistan, potentially the Afghanistan Pakistan border area…
DAVID SPEERS: What about Indonesia? What more can they be doing?
STEPHEN SMITH: We're very happy with what Indonesia is doing. And the truth is that the small number of boats that we've seen in recent years has largely been a consequence of the very good cooperation between Australia and Indonesia on this matter.
DAVID SPEERS: [Indistinct] small amount, though, in recent weeks.
STEPHEN SMITH: We both know Indonesia and Australia and other countries in the region - Malaysia, Thailand - we all know that we now have a significant challenge that we have to face. And we know a number of things: that given the significant push factors, the only way we can deal with that is by dealing with it together, working in cooperation. And that's why, for example, we're extending our cooperation not just with Indonesia, but also to Malaysia, and also to Sri Lanka, where we're very concerned that what's occurring in Sri Lanka will now see additional push factors pushing people in our direction.
DAVID SPEERS: Also this morning, reports of a split in cabinet over climate change - Penny Wong apparently disappointed that Peter Garrett had warned that sea levels would rise by six metres this century because of ice melting in Antarctica. Was Peter Garrett being too alarmist with that claim?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well I've got to say, the only splits I've seen on climate change are amongst our political opponents who can't quite work out whether they're climate change sceptics or not.
DAVID SPEERS: Okay. But was Peter Garrett alarmist when he said sea levels could rise by six metres?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well I don't think there's any difference between what Peter's been saying, what Penny's been saying, what the Government's been saying…
DAVID SPEERS: Well there is. She's not saying that sea levels would rise by six metres.
STEPHEN SMITH: But what we do know is that we have a significant difficulty that we have to address. The adverse consequences of not acting are going to be far worse than steps and measures we take to address it.
What we do know is, if we do nothing, the adverse consequences will be completely deleterious.
DAVID SPEERS: Sure. But do you think sea levels could rise by that much?
STEPHEN SMITH: There are different scientific estimates as to what the adverse consequences will be. We won't know the extent of those consequences, and we don't want to know the extent of those consequences, because we want to take the remediation steps to avoid it. That's the key point.
All of the scientific evidence leads to a conclusion that we have a significant difficulty so far as climate change is concerned. That will have adverse consequences. Scientists differ as to what the extent of those consequences might be.
DAVID SPEERS: Ministers as well, by the looks of this.
STEPHEN SMITH: Political parties as well.
DAVID SPEERS: Okay. Just finally, Sri Lanka. The people who have had - tens of thousands trying to flee the fighting between the Government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels, how are they managing to get out?
And what more are you doing about it?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well today I'm announcing an additional $4.5 million worth of humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka. That's going in the main to organisations dealing with displaced people, because we've seen hundreds of thousands of displaced people, including to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, and the Red Cross. And we've been very concerned and we've made the point repeatedly that we need to see a cessation of hostilities.
We need to see the civilians who are still trapped in the hostile areas allowed to leave. We've called on the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms. We've called on the Sri Lankan Government to effect a political outcome to take the attitude that this can't be resolved by military means alone. There has to be some form of political dialogue, political reform to give a long-term enduring peace to Sri Lanka.
My UK counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner are in Colombo today making all of these points to the Sri Lankan Government. I spoke to David Miliband over the Anzac Day weekend, and Australia with the UN, the UK, France, the EU, United States, Canada, we have very very similar if not identical positions on these matters.
We've got to see a long-term, enduring peaceful solution in Sri Lanka. We've got to see humanitarian access to the civilians and assistance to them. And that won't be achieved by the Sri Lankan Government relying entirely on military means, and it won't be achieved until the Tamil Tigers lay down their arms.
DAVID SPEERS: Okay. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, thanks very much for joining us.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thank you.
[Ends]
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