Transcript E&OE
8 June 2009
Press Conference
Subjects: Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum; diplomatic appointments; India; foreign investment; elections in Lebanon.
STEPHEN SMITH: This week on Wednesday the Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum will be held in Brisbane. This is the nineteenth Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum and it is the key annual ministerial level contact between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The forum commences with the official reception and dinner tomorrow evening, and then the meeting on Wednesday. I will co-chair the forum with my Papua New Guinea foreign ministerial counterpart, Sam Abal, and there will be a very strong delegation of ministers and parliamentary secretaries, both from Australia and PNG. This forum follows on from the successful forum last year in Madang.
PNG, of course, is a very important relationship so far as Australia is concerned. PNG is our second largest development assistance partner, and we have recently signed with Papua New Guinea a Pacific Partnership for Development so far as development assistance is concerned. Key areas include education, health, HIV/AIDS and governance issues. So it is an important relationship and an important ministerial forum in Brisbane commencing tomorrow.
Secondly, I have a couple of important diplomatic announcements to make.
I'm announcing today that Ambassador Peter Woolcott will become Australia's Ambassador for People Smuggling Issues. This, of course, is a decision that the Government took in the Budget context to have a full time ambassador for people smuggling issues, and this is part of the Government's efforts to counter people smuggling and transnational crime.
Ambassador Woolcott is a former Ambassador to Italy and a very experienced DFAT officer, and he'll do a very good job.
Part of the Government's effort, so far as people smuggling is concerned, has been our regional efforts, particularly with Indonesia. Ambassador Woolcott will take up some of the issues that arose at the recent very successful Bali Process Ministerial level forum in Bali, particularly pursuing the so-called ad-hoc group meetings which enable Australia, together with our regional partners, to take up particular regional issues - whether they are push factors emanating from Afghanistan or the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, or from Sri Lanka.
An important diplomatic appointment and Ambassador Woolcott will commence his duties this week.
Secondly, I'm announcing today the appointment of Peter Varghese as our High Commissioner to India. And High Commissioner Varghese will commence his duties in August, replacing High Commissioner McCarthy who has been a very successful High Commissioner to India, and a very successful career diplomat for Australia. We complement High Commissioner McCarthy on his good work.
High Commissioner Varghese of course is the Director-General of ONA, and he will be a very good High Commissioner for what is a very important relationship.
The Government wants to take our relationship with India to the front rank of our bilateral relationships, and we look forward to High Commissioner Varghese pursuing good work in India on Australia's behalf.
I'm very happy to make those announcements today and I'm happy to respond to questions on those or other issues.
QUESTION: At the ministerial meeting, will Australia be raising ongoing concerns about corruption within the PNG government...
STEPHEN SMITH: Our Pacific Partnership for Development with PNG has very significant aspects so far as public sector capacity building and governance issues are concerned. It is one of the areas which our development assistance partnership with PNG focuses on. Building the capacity of PNG's public sector institutions of State is very important. One of the aspects of our development assistance relationship with PNG is the so-called Strongim Gavman Program, named in Pidgin but obviously referring to a strong government.
Governance issues are very important in our development assistance program and we continue to work very closely with the PNG Government on those issues.
QUESTION: Is Australia satisfied with the way that PNG is using its aid [indistinct]?
STEPHEN SMITH: We work very closely with Papua New Guinea. It is our second largest development assistance partner. It's our largest in the Pacific and our second largest, following Indonesia, which of course is our largest from amongst Asia and the ASEAN countries.
We're very happy with our close working relationship with PNG. As is the case with very many development issues, of course we view these as long term capacity building and long term improvement. And part of the nature of our Pacific Partnership for Development programs, where we now have four or five and are in the process of striking up others, is to measure as we go - to have benchmarks and to measure outcomes. This is an important part of our Pacific Partnership for Development and overseas development assistance relationships.
QUESTION: How delicate and how much is Australia's relationship with India been damaged by recent attacks on Indian students ...
STEPHEN SMITH: We are taking the attacks on Indian students very, very seriously. The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister as Minister for Education, and I have all condemned them absolutely. We are working very closely with the relevant state governments and also very closely with the Indian community, both in Australia and working very closely with the Indian Government through our High Commissioner, High Commissioner McCarthy, in India.
The high level task force which I announced last week met for the second time on Friday, chaired by the National Security Adviser, and that involved participants from all of the states.
I've spoken to Victorian Premier Brumby. And on Thursday-Friday of last week, my office had close contact with New South Wales Premier Rees's office.
So we're working very closely. We're taking it very, very seriously and we condemn all of the terrible incidents which have occurred.
I note that there are reports over the weekend or overnight of further attacks. Can I say that the advice I have is that some of these suggested attacks have not been reported to police, and it is very important, where people have information or evidence or are the victims of attacks, that these are reported to the police. That's a very, very important part of the process.
I've spoken to my new Indian counterpart a week or so ago, External Affairs Minister Krishna. We are taking this very seriously and I think the Indian Government understands this. We'll continue to work closely with them.
QUESTION: Do you have any concerns about what impact the deal between Rio and BHP might have on our relationship with China?
STEPHEN SMITH: No, the relationship or the suggested agreement between Rio and Chinalco was, of course, a commercial agreement which required a range of regulatory approvals, including foreign investment approval.
As I understand it, as a result of commercial discussions, that is no longer being proposed by Rio and they are seeking to advance a joint arrangement with BHP.
Again, that is of course a commercial arrangement between Rio and BHP, and that of itself will be the subject of a range of regulatory approvals.
For some time, people have commented that as the minerals and petroleum resources industry has become increasingly internationalised and increasingly globalised, that perhaps it made sense for Rio and BHP to put their iron ore assets together. In the first instance, that's a matter for them but it will of course be subject to regulatory approval.
But the relationship between Australia and China is a strong one and China understands that when overseas foreign investment is made from whatever source, often it is subject to foreign investment approval.
But we continue to welcome overseas Chinese - we continue to welcome Chinese foreign investment just as we welcome foreign investment generally.
One of the reasons Australia has become and remains a prosperous country, even in difficult economic times, is because we are an attractive place for overseas capital investment. But depending upon the nature and the amount of that investment, it is of course subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval or, from time to time, the Treasurer's approval.
QUESTION: How encouraged are you by [indistinct] over the weekend that a tribal militia is being formed to attack the Taliban in the Swat Valley?
STEPHEN SMITH: We welcome very much the efforts of the Pakistan Government to confront extremism and terrorism in Pakistan.
I'm not proposing to comment on the detail of any particular operation or arrangement. But we have been very supportive of Pakistan. As you might recall, I visited Pakistan earlier this year. In addition to that visit, I've spoken on a number of occasions to my Pakistan counterpart, Foreign Minister Qureshi. Australia is one of the founding members of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, the United Nations Ministerial level group, and I attended a Ministerial level meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan in Tokyo in April.
We very strongly support Pakistan's efforts to confront extremism and terrorism and we also very strongly support their efforts to confront the difficult economic and social challenges that they have.
QUESTION: PNG has expressed interest in providing troops as UN peacekeepers. Does Australia support that...
STEPHEN SMITH: In the first instance, of course that's a matter for PNG and for the United Nations. As a general proposition Australia very strongly supports its partners in the Pacific making a contribution to peacekeeping forces, whether they are regional forces - or regional peacekeeping forces or arrangements, for example the RAMSI force in the Solomon Islands, or the international assistance force in East Timor.
We very strongly support our partners and neighbours and friends in the region making their own contribution to peacekeeping arrangements.
Australia of course is a very strong peacekeeping contributor, both to United Nations peacekeeping forces and to regional forces. So as a general proposition we welcome our friends in the region making their contribution as well.
QUESTION: There's some concern that their troops are badly trained and might be a bit trigger happy. Does that...
STEPHEN SMITH: The decision as to whether their peacekeepers are taken is of course a matter for the United Nations, not for Australia. That's the first thing. Secondly, one of the issues that we deal with or one of the issues that we have in common with Papua New Guinea is of course defence and defence cooperation. This would be one of the issues that will be on the agenda for our Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum during the week.
Defence and defence cooperation is one of the areas that we discuss. And defence assistance, in terms of contact between Australia and PNG is one of the things that occurs on a regular basis between our respective defence forces.
In the first instance, it's a matter for the United Nations, but we certainly welcome the desire of Papua New Guinea and other of our friends and neighbours in the region to make their own contribution to peacekeeping forces.
QUESTION: Just on the ambassador to people smuggling, how will he - sort of - actively engage with obviously the countries that are quite in the spotlight as far as...the number of arrivals.
STEPHEN SMITH: We've made it clear, whether it's been the Minister for Immigration, Senator Evans, or me, that we are now looking at very significant push factors driving people throughout our region. This of course is not isolated to Australia. There are very significant push factors that we see throughout the world and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has himself made this point.
There are two aspects I think to the appointment of the Ambassador for People Smuggling Issues. Firstly, we've made it a full time dedicated position. In the past it has been effectively a part time position. We've made it a full time position to respond to those needs. Secondly, one of the things that Australia has done to help offset, or to seek to combat those push factors, has been to, with Indonesia's cooperation, restart the ministerial level meetings of the so-called Bali Process, the ministerial level people smuggling meeting which we held in Bali in April.
The Ambassador's job, Ambassador Woolcott's job, will be to work on people smuggling issues full time. He'll do that in conjunction with the Cabinet committee that has been formed to address people smuggling issues. He'll do that in conjunction with the officials who work to the Bali Process, particularly the so-called ad-hoc group which is the group designated by the Bali Process - both the ministerial and the officials' group, dedicated by the Bali Process to deal with specific regional issues. And one, for example, regional issue which has clearly emerged in recent times has been Sri Lanka.
Ambassador Woolcott will be working very closely either with his counterparts in other regions or with officials of those nation states, particularly those areas where we now see the push factors coming from, whether it's Afghanistan, whether it's the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, or whether it is Sri Lanka itself.
QUESTION: Could I just ask about the Lebanon election... are you concerned about the number of fly-in voters that took part?
STEPHEN SMITH: As I understand it, there's over 10,000 - about 12,000 - Australians who are eligible to vote in Lebanon who have taken the opportunity of travelling to Lebanon to vote.
Firstly, Lebanon does not have an overseas postal voting system. So if you are an Australian who is eligible to vote in Lebanon, the only way you can exercise that vote is by actually going to Lebanon to cast the vote personally. So that's a matter for the Australians concerned.
More generally, we welcome very much that the election has been largely incident free. It appears on the initial results that the current governing coalition will be returned. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Lebanon and with the new government of Lebanon.
It's been very pleasing to us from afar that what was potentially a very difficult election has largely been a good display of democracy and has occurred largely without incident. Those Australians who were eligible to vote, it's entirely a matter for them as to whether they did so. Lebanon of course is not the only country where Australian citizens are eligible to vote. Italy of course is one example. In the past we've seen postal voting occur from other nation states in their elections, and Australians taking up that right for a postal vote from Australia.
QUESTION: Have you made a decision on the US request to settle Guantanamo Bay detainees?
STEPHEN SMITH: No, we're still giving that consideration. There's an array of information which the United States has supplied, dealing with a number of the individuals concerned. That's being assessed by officials. It hasn't yet come to Ministerial level. But, as I've said previously, we'll assess that on a case by case basis. And once we've made our decision we'll certainly let that be known publicly.
QUESTION: Are you still inclined to support that or...
STEPHEN SMITH: I have never tilted the lever one way or the other. That would be inconsistent with our immigration obligations so far as domestic law is concerned. When we've made a decision we will announce it.
[Ends]
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