Transcript E&OE
8 June 2009
Interview - Sky News
Subjects: European elections, Lebanese elections, diplomatic appointments, India
DAVID SPEERS: Let's go now to Perth, where Foreign Minister Stephen Smith joins us. Mr Smith thank you for you time. Can I just ask you on this, do you think Gordon Brown is doing a good job as Prime Minister in Britain?
STEPHEN SMITH: He's obviously facing very difficult circumstances. The United Kingdom of course is a financial centre, so they're suffering very much from the current global economic downturn. But if I'm drawn too much on that David, then I start to run the risk of being a political commentator rather than a Foreign Minister. Australia of course has a very close relationship with the United Kingdom. We deal with the Prime Minister and the Government of the day. We deal with whoever the UK political democratic process produces. We work very closely with the United Kingdom Government, with Prime Minister Brown, with my counterpart, Foreign Minister Miliband. But really the strength of the relationship is such that whether it's a Labor Government or a Liberal Government here, or a Labour Government or a Tory Government in the United Kingdom, the strong relationship between Australia and the United Kingdom goes on irrespective.
DAVID SPEERS: Can I ask you, Minister, about the outcome so far in the European elections. We're seeing across twenty-seven countries centre-Left parties doing very poorly indeed, centre-Right parties are doing well, the extreme-Right parties, far right parties, are doing particularly well, what do you put that down to?
STEPHEN SMITH: I think in tough economic times a number of things occur. Incumbent governments find it difficult. Often in very difficult economic times people do search or seek solace in extremism. I don't think though, irrespective of the European election outcomes, that the fundamental nature or basis or the relationship between Australia and the European Union will change. Our modern framework is of course reflected by our Australia-European Union Partnership Framework. Before these elections of course the European Parliament traversed the whole sphere of ideological views and that will be the case post the election. Our own view would be that there are some people now in the European Parliament whose views are anaethma to mainstream Australian views, but we've seen this from time to time. It won't change the fundamental basis of the European Parliament or our modern-day relationship with Europe.
DAVID SPEERS: And another critical election that's been underway over- overnight our time has been Lebanon. This has been a real litmus test. The Middle East and what it's thinking, each Lebanese election is watched very closely of course. And there has been a, uh, a coalition of parties around Hezbollah standing against a coalition of parties backed by the US and Saudi Arabia. The outcome there so far, what's you take on that?
STEPHEN SMITH: In the first instance we welcome very much that the election there has been largely free from violence. It's been a pretty good demonstration of a democratic process. Secondly, the incumbent government has been effectively returned. That's clearly the case from the early returns and the analysis over there. We expect that will be confirmed in the next 24 hours of so. We've been working closely with Lebanon, with the incumbent government, and we look forward to that continuing. As well, we've seen about 12,000 Lebanese Australians who are eligible to vote in the Lebanese elections take part. They've had to travel there because there is no postal voting system. That's been one, if you like, Australian aspect of that election outcome. But we're pleased that there's been no great display or incidence of violence and for Lebanon that's a very good thing.
DAVID SPEERS: Stephen Smith a couple of announcements you've made today, you've announced that Peter Varghese, the head of the Office of National Assessments, Australia's peak intelligence assessment agency, will become Australia's new High Commissioner to India. What makes a spy chief a good ambassador, in your view?
STEPHEN SMITH: High Commissioner Varghese is a very experienced diplomat, a very experienced and senior foreign affairs officer. Previously he has been High Commissioner in Malaysia and he served extensively throughout the foreign public service, including the Prime Minister's Department and of course now in his current position as the Director-General of the Office of National Assessments. India is a relationship that we want to take to the front rank of our bilateral relationships. We've worked very hard on our relationship with India.
DAVID SPEERS: It's being tested at the moment though isn't it, with these attacks on Indian students in Australia.
STEPHEN SMITH: We think we've taken it to a higher level and that's a good thing, but we are very concerned about the recent attacks on Indian students, which of course we condemn. I've spoken to my new Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Krishna, and made the point that we're working very closely with the relevant state governments, to firstly bring the perpetrators to justice, but secondly to make sure that not just Indian students, but any student, any visitor who comes to Australia, is safe and doesn't have to worry about their safety or welfare. The high-level task force that we established last week, headed by our National Security Adviser, met for the second time on Friday, so we're doing everything we can in conjunction with the states but also in close liaison with the Indian Government, both through its High Commissioner in Canberra, but also through its officials in India itself.
DAVID SPEERS: Why, why do you think, why do you think these attacks are happening, Stephen Smith? Do you put it down to racism?
STEPHEN SMITH: We're not commenting on that, we've seen suggestions that in some cases they may well be and in other cases, perhaps not. We prefer, in the first instance, to leave that to the relevant police investigations. I think that's a very important part of the process. But the message we're sending to India is that we're doing everything we can to make sure that Indian students can come to Australia and not have to worry about their safety and security. Australia of course is a very attractive destination for Indian students, we have anywhere from 90 to 95,000 students here. It's a very good thing both for Australia and India and we certainly want that to continue, but both the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, as Minister for Education, and I have made it very clear publicly and privately that this is something that we are working very closely to overcome and we want very much to bring the perpetrators to justice, whatever their motivation, but also ensure that we're doing everything we can to put at ease the concerns of Indian mums and dads whose sons and daughters are far away in Australia and to provide them every service that we can to put their minds at rest.
DAVID SPEERS: Just a final question, Stephen Smith, you also announced today that one of your senior departmental officials, Peter Woolcott, also a former chief of staff to your predecessor Alexander Downer, has been named Australia's new full-time Ambassador for People Smuggling. The full-time nature of this position is something new, is that because of the increase of boat arrivals in Australia?
STEPHEN SMITH: Certainly, it is part of our Budget response, where we increased our surveillance capacities, increased the officers deployed both onshore and offshore to offset what we now see as very significant push factors propelling people in our direction, through our region, whether that's from Afghanistan, the Afghanistan/Pakistan border or from, for example, Sri Lanka, where we've seen terrible civil conflict. So yes, it's part of our response to these issues. Mr Woolcott, of course, is an experienced officer. He's also previously been an Ambassador, but his full-time role will enable him to work very closely with the so-called Bali Process. Last April we had the first Ministerial Meeting of the Bali Process, which is our regional organisation dealing with people smuggling and human trafficking issues. So he'll work closely with our counterparts in the region, because that's one of the things we know helps offset these difficulties, working closely with countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka itself.
DAVID SPEERS: All right, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, thanks for joining us.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thank you, thanks very much.
[Ends]
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