Transcript E&OE
21 November 2009
Press conference, Perth
Subjects: Travel to Trinidad and Tobago, CHOGM, visit to Cuba, assistance to Burma and Pakistan, EU Relations, Fiji, asylum seekers, cooperation with Sri Lanka and Indonesia, Emissions Trading Scheme .
STEPHEN SMITH: Later this afternoon I'll leave Perth, on my way to Trinidad and Tobago for the Commonwealth Foreign Minister's Meeting in the Port of Spain. Foreign Ministers are of course meeting in the run up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the CHOGM meeting, which will take place next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Commonwealth, of course, is a most important institution and Australia values very much its membership of the Commonwealth. It's the sixtieth anniversary of the Commonwealth and the meeting will mark that occasion. It will be a re-affirmation of the Commonwealth's core values and principles, particularly an adherence to democracy, to freedom of speech and to human rights.
But the CHOGM meeting will also be an opportunity to gather political momentum for Copenhagen. It will be the last of the major Leaders' meetings, in advance of Copenhagen and so we fully expect that both Commonwealth Foreign Ministers and the Commonwealth Leaders, at CHOGM, will be considering climate change and the need for a positive outcome in Copenhagen.
En route to Trinidad and Tobago, I'll be visiting Cuba. This will be the first visit by an Australian Foreign Minister to Cuba since 1995 and reflects Australia's enhanced engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean.
Cuba, of course, is an important country in its region and in the margins of the General Assembly in September, in New York, I had a meeting with my counterpart, the Cuban Foreign Minister. We discussed the desirability of enhancing Australia's engagement with Cuba, particularly so far as development assistance matters are concerned. Cuba has an extensive program of development assistance in the medical training area in the Pacific.
It is, of course, an important opportunity when I'm in Trinidad and Tobago to also meet with other Caribbean and Latin American counterparts. I'll be meeting formally, for the first occasion, with the CARICOM Group of Caribbean countries. Twelve of the 15 of CARICOM are, of course, Commonwealth members.
So an important opportunity, so far as the Commonwealth is concerned, but also an important opportunity to enhance Australia's engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean; following on from my trip this year to Chile and Brazil and my trip last year to Peru.
There are a number of other announcements which have been detailed for you. Can I just very briefly draw attention to those.
Firstly, on Wednesday of this week, Australia will pledge a further $15 million worth of humanitarian assistance to Burma, following on from cyclone Nargis. This continues Australia's desire to be of assistance to the people of Burma where it can. It underlines, as well, the need for continued access by the international non-government organisations, to Burma, for development and humanitarian assistance reasons. And that pledge will formally be made on Wednesday of this week, at one of the post-cyclone Nargis development assistance conferences.
I'm also announcing today $5 million for assistance to Pakistan. This follows on a request from the World Food Programme, the WFP, for urgent humanitarian assistance to displaced people in Pakistan, as a consequence of the conflict in Pakistan between the Government and extremists, particularly in the north-west frontier provinces.
And there's a large number of displaced people in Pakistan, and this follows on from our ongoing humanitarian and other assistance to Pakistan. We are one of the founding members of Friends of Democratic Pakistan and in the course of the last two years have doubled our development assistance and also now are the second largest trainer of Pakistan military officers, outside the United States.
I'm also announcing today the appointment of a new Ambassador to Afghanistan. Mr Paul Foley will become our Ambassador to Afghanistan. Mr Foley is an experienced Australian diplomat. He's previously been our Ambassador to East Timor and the appointment follows on from President Karzai's inauguration in the last couple of days.
Can I again make the point that I've made in the run up to the Afghan elections, and which the Prime Minister and my colleague, the Defence Minister, have made since President Karzai's victory and inauguration, that Australia and the international community look to the new Karzai Government to make substantial progress on corruption, on governance, on provision of services to the people of Afghanistan, and on anti-narcotics work. But also taking a greater responsibility and burden, so far as security for Afghanistan is concerned.
So we look forward to Ambassador Foley taking up his position.
Can I finally just welcome the appointment of Baroness Ashton as the European Union's Higher Representative on Foreign Policy Matters and also congratulate Belgium Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy as the new President of the European Union.
Australia has enhanced its engagement with the European Union. Last year when the French had the European Union Presidency, I launched, with Foreign Minister Kouchner, the Australia-European Union Partnership Framework, which sets out the modern basis of the relationship between Australia and the European Union. So we welcome these appointments overnight, so far as the European Union is concerned.
Australia has worked closely with Baroness Ashton, particularly in her capacity as European Union Trade Representative, and I look forward to a close working relationship with her.
Can I finally just make some comments about Fiji. You may have noticed overnight that the interim Fiji military government has made changes to its broadcasting and communications arrangements. It has effectively seized licenses and re-allocated those licences without compensation to the original broadcasting licence-holders. I think this does two things.
Firstly, it sends a very worrying signal so far as sovereign risk is concerned. We know that Fiji's economic circumstances have deteriorated significantly since the military regime came to power. That's been compounded by the global financial crisis, so we continue to be very worried about Fiji's economic circumstances. But the effective seizing and re-allocation, at the whim of the interim Attorney-General and Minister for Communications, will send very bad signals to the international investment community.
Of course, it also sends another bad signal so far as freedom of speech and human rights in Fiji is concerned. The military regime has consistently set out to impose itself on those voices in the media and those voices in Fiji, in the Fiji community, who articulate criticisms of the interim regime. So further worrying signs from Fiji overnight.
I'm happy to respond to your questions on those, or other matters.
QUESTION: [Inaudible question]
STEPHEN SMITH: I will certainly, when I'm in the Port of Spain, in Trinidad and Tobago with my Commonwealth counterparts, will have conversations with them about trouble spots that we find, or difficult areas that we find in the Commonwealth - and Fiji will be one of those. I'll also be discussing with my colleagues, my recent visit to Sri Lanka and efforts that Australia is making to see resettlement of displaced people in Sri Lanka and help assist Sri Lanka to win the peace following upon the end of the very bloody civil war that we've seen in Sri Lanka.
So, yes Fiji will be a topic of conversation that I'll have with my colleagues. In addition, of course, to formal meetings, there is the opportunity of bilateral meetings and exchanges with my counterparts, but Fiji will be one of those.
QUESTION: In the MOU that you signed with the Sri Lankan Government, what's the funding arrangements as far as Australia's efforts in…
STEPHEN SMITH: Well there are three separate things that marked my visit to Sri Lanka. Firstly, the Memorandum of Understanding was in respect of people smuggling, human trafficking matters, and that Memorandum of Understanding is to enhance cooperation on the legal aspects of people smuggling. Greater capacity building, greater assistance on prosecutions and disruption matters.
Secondly, the Foreign Minister and I signed a joint statement, a joint declaration, which goes to much broader issues than just people smuggling. Australia's desire to be of assistance to resettle the people in the displaced camps, but also our desire to assist Sri Lanka in the necessary reconciliation and healing process. And I indicated in Sri Lanka that we would enhance our contribution to the resettlement of the displaced people in Sri Lanka by some $11 million, including $6 million for mine clearance work, and I've detailed that in announcements in Sri Lanka and subsequently.
But very importantly, I think, in Sri Lanka - and this will be a topic of conversation amongst Commonwealth Ministers - will be how the international community can assist, not just on reconstruction and resettlement in the north, not just bilaterally, but also through agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and also be how the international community can assist Sri Lanka in the healing process, in the political reconciliation.
It's quite clear that the Government of Sri Lanka needs to move on issues of devolution and the like.
QUESTION: And how confident are you that the work that's being done is going to stop the so-called push factor?
STEPHEN SMITH: It's quite clear that the more that the people of Sri Lanka believe they have a long-term role in the country's future, then the less will be the factors to see people want to leave Sri Lanka.
And so, our efforts, so far as combating people smuggling and human trafficking are at three levels. Firstly, greater cooperation on combating people smuggling and the criminal syndicates who are linked to people smuggling out of Sri Lanka. Secondly, moving the people out of the displaced people's camps back into the community, and, thirdly, assisting a political reconciliation and a healing in Sri Lanka. All of those things, we hope, will have their positive impact on the number of people moving out of Sri Lanka.
I also, as I've indicated, had discussions with the Sri Lankan Government about the possibility of looking at our ordinary, annual migration program to see whether there are aspects of that which could be utilised to undercut the attractiveness of the people smugglers.
QUESTION: If the boat arrivals keep coming though, it shows that all those measures have failed.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, why don't we wait patiently to see what positive effect they have.
QUESTION: How long before you see…
STEPHEN SMITH: I've made it clear, the Immigration Minister's made it clear, the Prime Minister's made it clear, and we've been saying this for a considerable period of time, that the push factors, not just Sri Lanka, but also the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area, will continue to see large numbers of displaced people and potentially, large numbers of people wanting to move through our region. This is not a problem that is going to go away tomorrow, and I've made that point repeatedly over previous months.
QUESTION: Some observers say that your Government's going to defined on this unauthorised arrivals issue. Are you in agreement with that? Will the Government be defined by how well it handles the refugee issue?
STEPHEN SMITH: Any government is defined by any number of issues, but frankly, I'm prepared to leave that to historians, well down the track. This is one of the issues that the Government is dealing with and confronting. It's one of many issues, but I'm very happy to wait until future decades for historians to make those judgements.
QUESTION: Indonesia says that the women and children on the Oceanic Viking are in a quarantine facility rather than a detention facility. Is that living up to the promise that the Indonesian Government made?
STEPHEN SMITH: The advice I have is that the women and children are being accommodated in an area separate from the detention centre itself. It's within a facility which is in the same precinct. It's effectively an accommodation precinct. I'm told that there is no razor wire surrounding that area. There are bars on the windows. It's not uncommon for government buildings to have security arrangements of that like.
But they are separate from the detention centre, but the Indonesian authorities have made it clear that the women and the children will have access to any relatives in the detention centre itself. So, it's physically a separate accommodation. It is, of course, in the end, a matter for the Indonesian authorities to determine.
QUESTION: So you're happy that Indonesia's holding up its end of the agreement?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, our policy position in Australia is that we don't have women and children in detention centres, and that policy view is known to the Indonesian authorities, and it is not uncommon in Indonesia itself for women and children to be accommodated in separate community facilities.
On this occasion, the Indonesian authorities have determined that the women and children will be house in accommodation close to, but not in, the detention centre. It is not the detention centre - on my advice, it is an immigration facility which is accommodating the women and children for the time being.
QUESTION: So, has the Government made any representations to the Indonesian Government in the last 48 hours about the women and children?
STEPHEN SMITH: The Government over the recent period made representations to Indonesia, which was we believe that the women and children should be accommodated separately from the detention centre.
Ultimately, it's a matter for the Indonesian authorities to determine. They've done that and the advice I have is that it is a facility separate from the detention centre. There's no razor wire there. There are bars on the windows. It is not uncommon for government buildings, and this is a government immigration building, to have security facilities of that nature, but they are physically separate from the detention centre. In the end, it's a matter for the Indonesian authorities.
QUESTION: Is the refugee issue high on the agenda at this Foreign Ministers' Meeting?
STEPHEN SMITH: I've made the point previously that at this point in time, we see anywhere up to about 40 million people displaced throughout the world. Estimates are that potentially a third of those may well be in, or contemplating movements through, our region. So, people smuggling, human movement, human trafficking is not just a problem which is reserved or isolated to Australia. It's a regional problem as well as an international problem. Which is why through the Bali process, Australia works closely with both source and transit countries. A source country, such as Sri Lanka; a transit country such as Indonesia, but also Malaysia.
So, we work very closely with countries in our region, just as other countries, in Europe and in Africa, work closely as well. This is both a regional problem and an international problem. It's not a problem which is restricted to Australia.
QUESTION: Just on emissions trading, given the internal descent within the Liberals, is there any - Turnbull's saying that he's still confident [indistinct] reach an agreement by Monday on this. Is there any point reaching an agreement given the internal failure…
STEPHEN SMITH: I think the only thing that Mr Turnbull can frankly be confident about is that his party is racked with division on this issue. If I was Mr Turnbull that would be the only thing I would be confident about.
It's quite clear that at the heart of Mr Turnbull's problem on this matter are two things. Firstly, very many of his colleagues are climate change sceptics. Secondly, a range of his colleagues are Malcolm Turnbull sceptics.
So, the only thing that I would be confident of, if I was Mr Turnbull, was that his party is wracked with division on this matter. Both on climate change, but also, I suspect, on his own leadership.
QUESTION: So are these negotiations - I mean, are they worth having?
STEPHEN SMITH: Minister Wong and the Government continues to say, we believe it's important that the emissions trading legislation goes through the Parliament. We've made it quite clear that we're prepared to negotiate in good faith with the Opposition.
As a consequence of that, we've seen earlier this week, the Government announce changes so far as agriculture is concerned. So, we continue to be very, very pleased and happy to negotiate in good faith.
Of course, anyone is going to worry, when the other party that you are negotiating with is clearly racked with division on the issue and racked with division so far as the leadership of their party is concerned.
QUESTION: Is it time for Mr Turnbull to get rid of people like Tony Abbott from his front bench?
STEPHEN SMITH: That's entirely a matter for Mr Turnbull. Whether particular individuals stay or go from his front bench, won't solve his essential problem.
On climate change, his essential problem is that there are very many people in his party who are climate change sceptics, and, so far as his leadership is concerned, there are obviously many people in his party who are Malcolm Turnbull sceptics.
Okay. Thanks very much.
[END]
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