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MINISTER: I was very pleased to be able to speak to the students here at St. Stephen's, a distinguished educational institution and which reflects very much some of the shared values that Australia and India have. We both see education as being a very important opportunity for young people. We both see education as one of the things which Australia and India share.

As you know, we have had in recent times some very grave difficulties with terrible assaults on some Indian students in Australia, particularly in Melbourne. As I made clear to the Australian Parliament, as I have made clear to the Indian government and as I continue to make clear, we have zero tolerance for such assaults.

We know that a small number of these assaults have had either racial or racist overtones. We regard that as being absolutely contemptible, and the relevant authorities are investigating these matters and we want to see the culprits brought to justice.

JOURNALIST: While you do accept that the attacks on Indians, some of them have been racial in nature. How come there have not been many convictions or any convictions so far on the attacks on Indians?

MINISTER: That is not true. There have been convictions - that is the first point. Secondly, there are some 70 investigations underway and our authorities are working very hard to bring the people responsible to justice. There have been convictions and there have been very heavy sentences, but it is not for any government of the day, the Indian government or the Australian government, to be involved in that investigative process. That is the matter for the police and the relevant authorities. They have been working very hard on those investigations to bring the people to justice.

But as I say there are some 70 investigations, we would want of course in an ideal world for there to be no investigations because we do not want assaults to occur. We live in the modern world and regrettably, no government - whether it is the Australian government or the Indian government - can guarantee that such assaults will not occur. But we are doing everything we can to ensure that when any international visitor comes to Australia, whether it is an Indian student or a national from another country, that they experience what the vast bulk of people in Australia experience which is a safe and peaceful environment and in the case of education, a quality educational experience.

JOURNALIST: Despite the assurances by the Australian government not much has been seen on the ground in terms of avoiding or curbing the attacks on Indians. What is the Australian government actually doing on the ground?

MINISTER: Well, again, that is not right. The Victorian government in particular has allocated a whole range of resources to the areas where they regard and we regard as being high risk. As I indicated to the students here, we know that very many of the students are not just engaged in studies but also engaged in part-time employment. Some of that has seen them working and travelling in the late hours of the night and in the early hours of the morning. In any city, this increases the risk for individuals concerned, so there has been a greater community policing presence, there have been stronger and better advice given to individual students on how to minimize any risk so far as they are concerned.

So simply this is not the case that nothing has been done, on the contrary. One of the things which I think has helped has been the exhaustive aide memoire that I provided to the External Affairs Minister Krishna at the time I made my Ministerial Statement. I think that the Parliamentary Committee and the Indian Government has found that very useful and that is reflected by the Ministerial Statement which Minister Krishna himself made to the Indian Parliament a short period ago.

JOURNALIST: Minister Krishna said that Indians who are going to Australia to study hair-dressing and cooking and other courses like that should just not go. Only a few universities should be targeted by Indian students. Isn't all this casting a shadow over India-Australia relationship particularly since Sujata Singh has been called back to India?

MINISTER: Minister Krishna and I have had a number of conversations about these and there are a range of things that we agree about. One thing that we do agree about is that we do not want this issue, however difficult, to adversely affect on the strength of the relationship.

I think it is important for everyone to bear in the mind that over the last two years Australia and India have taken our bilateral relationship to a higher level, to a new level, with our two Prime Ministers signing up the strategic partnership in November of last year.

My visit here is the eleventh by an Australian Minister to India over the last two years and we have seen the same number of visits by Indian ministers to Australia, so there is a much higher level of engagement and that is reflected by the strategic partnership.

When it comes to the courses that students are doing, we have recently, as you would be aware, changed some of those arrangements, it became clear to us that historically and in the past that there had been some rorting by educational agents or by migration agents as acknowledged by both the Indian government and the Australian government.

It is also the case that there are a range of courses which were previously available, cooking and hair-dressing you have mentioned, where the demand is no longer there so far as Australia is concerned, so we have changed those arrangements which will focus much more on the skills that Australia needs, the demand for Australian skills, and that will see a change in the composition of students who go to Australia from India. That, we also think, will see a change in some of the risks which some of the students are exposed to.

As I say, we have discovered that very many of the students are combining education with part time employment and that part time employment - whether it is taxi driving or working in the retail industry in the early hours of the morning - does expose to them to a great risk. We think changes to those education arrangements will see a change in the composition of students which will see a minimization of risks for students in the future.

JOURNALIST: Can you tell me, are you concerned that given your 11 ministerial visits of the Australian government and higher contact between the two governments, that the message is not cutting through to the grass roots level in India that things are being done in Australia?

MINISTER: One of the reasons I am here is to make that point clear. I acknowledge absolutely as I did in my ministerial statement to the Parliament that this issue has caused considerable damage to Australia's standing and reputation amongst the Indian people and we have to work very hard to address that.

We have to be open and transparent and upfront about that and that is one of the reasons why I say that although there has been a focus on this very difficult issue in recent times, this does not reflect either the Australia-India relationship, nor does it reflect on the modern Australia.

We regard these assaults as being contemptible. If there is a racist or racial overtone associated with the assaults, we regard as that being absolutely beneath contempt.

But we do need to appreciate that this has caused us damage amongst the Indian community and amongst the Indian people and we are working to offset that and we will be doing a range of things in the future. We seek to better portray the modern Australia and to underlie the strength of the relationship between Australia and India.

JOURNALIST: Sir, you said about the study instituted at the Institute of Criminology. Can you elaborate the mandate of the study and when it is expected to submit its report?

MINISTER: The Australian Institute of Criminology is as independent body so it will be a matter for them to report, and the timetable on it. But one of the things that has come to light is that our police authorities in Australia do not keep their statistics on the basis of nationality or national origin and so it has been difficult to do an exhaustive statistical analysis of these assaults.

So we have asked to Australian Institute of Criminology to work very hard to see whether we can get a better understanding of that which has occurred, whether we can respond to the perception that has grown up which is, for some reason Indian students are targeted.

For ourselves, we think that very much of the explanation is that a large number of Indian students in Australia, a 100000 as a rule of thumb, 50000 in Victoria or Melbourne and occupying or engaging not just in studying but also in part-time employment, which has maximized the risks to the students. So we want to see if the Institute of Criminology can give us a deeper and further analysis to make sure that we are responding in every possible way, so that we are doing everything we can to address what we regard as a most serious issue.

JOURNALIST: Being around this issue for almost a year, do you think the heat is coming off out of the issue? How long will it take in India and Australia to pass this?

MINISTER: I think there is a better understanding in the mind of the Australian government, a better understanding in the mind of the Indian government about what has occurred and the steps that have been taken. I think it is a much longer exercise for the Australian government and the Australian people to persuade the people of India that this is not a proper or an appropriate reflection of Australia.

So I think there is a better understanding of the steps that we have taken. That is reflected by Minister Krishna's Parliamentary statement, reflected as I understand by the deliberations of the parliamentary committee.

We have a big task ahead so far as our standing and reputation in India is concerned. That is why, for example, I wanted last night to underline that sports is one of the things that we have in common and there will be a range of things that we want to do in the future to reflect the fact that the value and the virtues that Australia and India share bind us very deeply together.

We are robust Parliamentary democracies. India is the world's largest democracy. We are both respecters of the rule of law. We are both respecters of individual human rights. We conduct ourselves internationally in a way which reflects and respects international legal norms. And so in the end I am confident that these values and virtues that we share will prevail. But Australia has a job to do in drawing these attributes to the attention of the Indian people.

JOURNALIST: While Indians were being attacked in Australia, there were few comments made by the police officials, the Victoria police chief to be precise, that was rather insensitive. Do you think the police authorities and the police department needs sensitization on the issue?

MINISTER: I have not reflected on comments made by anyone in this particular issue and I am not proposing to give a running commentary on who has said what. I am responsible for the comments that I have made and my comments have been along the same lines from the first moment, that we abhor violence, that we abhor these attacks, and if there are any racial or racist overtones to them, then we regard that as being absolutely contemptible and not reflecting the modern Australia.

But I am not proposing to give a running commentary on what people have said. I think we do all need though to be careful as we deal with this matter. Often I see people leap to conclusions when the best and safest thing to do is to await the careful investigation by the relevant authorities. But there are some things which I think are there which have to be accepted. One thing which has to be accepted, regrettably is that a small number of these attacks have had racist or racial overtones and I regard them as being contemptible.

JOURNALIST: During your last visit you had expressed some concern about the security for the Commonwealth games, now today you are happy with the security?

MINISTER: That is not right, I did not express concerns about security for the Commonwealth Games when I was last here. I have said consistently that regrettably in the modern world when these major sporting events occur, whether it is an Olympics in Sydney, a Commonwealth games in Melbourne, or a World Cup in Delhi or a Commonwealth games in Delhi, we have to be absolutely assiduous about the attention we pay to security matters and the risk of terrorist attacks.

Secondly, I have said consistently and I repeated yesterday, that I am very pleased with the coordination and the cooperation that Australia and other Commonwealth countries are receiving from India over this matter. But we need to be absolutely vigilant until the completion and conclusion of the Games.

But I am also satisfied that the Indian authorities are doing everything they can to ensure that is the case. In very many respects the Hockey World Cup which I attended last night is being regarded and has being regarded in a sense a dry run for some of the Commonwealth Games arrangements and I know from my conversation both with the players and the officials that people are very happy with the security arrangements that have been put in place so far as the Hockey World Cup is concerned.

But we always have to proceed on this basis, both Australia and India, both Australians and Indians have been on the receiving end of terrible terrorist attacks and we always have to be vigilant and understand the risks associated with these high profile sporting events and do everything we can to minimize the risk accordingly.

[END]

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