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Jim Middleton: While in Delhi you have seen your Indian counterpart, Krishna, you must be pleased that he has acknowledged that relatively few of the attacks on Indian students in Australia involved a racist element?

Stephen Smith: When I came to India on this occasion, my third trip to India as Foreign Minister, I had three objectives in mind: one was to advance the strategic partnership between Australia and India; the second was to have discussions about security arrangements for high profile sporting events including the Commonwealth Games; and thirdly was to speak not just to my counterpart S.M. Krishna and other Government officials, but to speak to the Indian people about the efforts we have been making to deal with the terrible assaults on Indian students in Australia.

I think we have made some progress in having the Indian people, Indian officials understand the extent of the efforts that we have made in conjunction with state and territory governments, but also making progress on India understanding that is anathema to modern Australia. That we find an assault on anyone to be contemptible, and we have zero tolerance for racism or any racial overtones associated with any of those attacks. I have made clear to the Parliament a month or so ago, that its quite clear that a small number of these attacks have had racist or racial overtones. I think we have made progress, but we do have a big job to do in repairing Australia's reputation and standing in India, which has been damaged as a consequence of the focus on these assaults.

Jim Middleton: (inaudible)

Stephen Smith: I went to St. Stephens College; the campus of a very well regarded institution. I spoke at length to the staff, to the students, and then spoke at length to the media, and I think as well with the Indian media we have been making some progress. I think, and this is not said in any way critical of the Indian media or the Australian media, I have made the point that whatever our own view of media reporting might be, we have to accept the fact that this has done us some damage and work from that basis. But my very clear impression with Government officials, with members of the Indian public I have spoken to and with the media, that there is now a greater appreciation of the need if an incident occurs, to just wait until we know what the facts are. Let the investigative processes take their course.

So I think the raw edge if you like, has come off. That is not to say that we do not have an ongoing issue that we need to mend, we do. And we also need to continue to be very vigilant and diligent about the steps we continue to take to minimise risks to any international visitor who comes to Australia. But in this context, particularly Indian students who come to Australia to study, we want them to continue to experience what has been the experience for the vast bulk of Indian students, which is a high quality educational experience, but also a great Australian experience which they remember for the rest of their lives.

Jim Middleton: As you know that the Australian Government has made a number of changes to visa arrangements and the monitoring of Australian educational institutions. Have you suggested to the Indian Government that its time you introduced tougher regulation of Indian migration education agents… (inaudible)… prospect in Australia?

Stephen Smith: Well one of the things which the students safety issue has done is that it did cause us to focus on and it caused both the Indian Government and the Australian Government to look very carefully at some of the arrangements that were in place. It is quite clear that regrettably over the years there has been a rorting by either immigration agents or by migration agents who were utilizing the viable mechanisms to essentially advertise an educational experience as a backdoor migration or employment experience.

Recent changes that we have made to various regulations - visa, migrational and educational regulations will certainly stop that. Also the changes that we have made which put a better emphasis on Australian skills demand and knock out of play some of the previous roots of study into Australia, whether it was hair dressing or cooking, I think will also help.

What we have seen in terms of trying to deal with this problem has been a very large number of Indian students in Australia, we have, rule of thumb, a 100,000 - 50,000 of those or half of those in Victoria, so there is a large management issue as well. But we have had good discussions with Indian officials and with Ministerial counterparts, not just on this visit but previously, because both Australia and India have acknowledged that we needed to make some structural changes to get over some of the rotting that was occurring and frankly some of the laxness and lack of integrity in the system.

Jim Middleton: Going to another subject, while you have been in New Delhi you have seen some of the Hockey World cup contests, seen as a bit of dry run for the Commonwealth Games. From what you have seen, is there any reason for athletes going to the Commonwealth Games now to feel for their safety?

Stephen Smith: In the end that is the matter for Australian athletes, sportsmen and sportswomen and the relevant sporting associations to determine. In the case of the Commonwealth Games obviously the Commonwealth Games Association. But we continue to do a range of things when it comes to security of sporting events. We have a large number of high profile events occurring in India in the course of this year. The Hockey World Cup is on at the moment and you are quite right, that is being seen effectively as a dry run for the Commonwealth Games.

The Games of course are on a much bigger scale than the Hockey World Cup but also there is the IPL, so we have been making our security and threat assessments available to the sporting associations and to the individual players so far as the IPL is concerned, to enable them to be in the best position to make a judgment. We have done that consistently and we will continue to do that.

Secondly, one of the things I have done here is to have further discussion with my counterpart and relevant Ministers about the cooperation and coordination of the security arrangements. We are very pleased with what is occurring on the ground so far as the Hockey World Cup is concerned, and we have been very pleased with the coordination and cooperation in the run up to the Commonwealth games. But it is just a very regrettable fact of modern life, whether it is an Olympic games in Sydney or a Commonwealth games in Melbourne or the Hockey World Cup and Commonwealth games in Delhi, or indeed an Olympic games in London, that these are now high profile events. They are at risk of being targeted by terrorists or extremists and we have to be vigilant and very diligent in this respect, and India and its Ministers and its officials are being diligent in that respect.

So we are certainly happy with where things are at the moment, but there is a fair amount of water to go under the bridge between now and October. We will continue to adopt that approach and continue to make our advice available to the athletes and to the associations so they can make their own judgments about participating or not.

Jim Middleton: One final question on another subject, now I know you do not want to make a running commentary on this episode, but how disappointed would you be in Israel if it refuses to cooperate with the Australian investigation into the identity theft of three Australians in relation to the assassination of that Hamas leader in Dubai?

Stephen Smith: Well at my request or at the Government's request, the Australian Federal Police started an investigation into the abuse of Australian passports. They are conducting that investigation. They have officers in Israel as we speak with the support of passport officers. So their investigation is ongoing, they have the support of other agencies like ASIO. But you are quite right I am not proposing to make a running commentary on that investigation or wait until I get their concluded investigation of it and their concluded report.

When I spoke to the Israeli Ambassador when this issue became public, I said to him that we expected the cooperation of Israeli officials and Israeli agencies and if we did not get that cooperation then it would only be adverse conclusions that were drawn from that. So the investigation is ongoing, it is always best in these matters when there is an Australian Federal Police investigation, to let them get on with the exercise and the discharge of their responsibilities. I will await their report.

I have not put a timetable on that, that is entirely a matter for the Federal Police and I will wait until we see the outcome of that. As I said to the Ambassador, and I said publicly, if there isn't cooperation with that investigation then it is only adverse conclusions that can drawn from that lack of cooperation if it occurred.

Jim Middleton: And the adverse impact on relations between two countries, relations that have been friendly for such a long time?

Stephen Smith: We will take it step by step. I have seen some people try, for example, to make a link between this issue and voting before the General assembly on processes relating to the so called Gulfs Time report or the Gulfs Time review. I have made it very clear, publicly and privately, that we have not allowed this issue to disturb our objective view of things like General Assembly resolutions, we take them on their merits in a case by case basis.

We will take this step by step. We are a long standing friend of Israel, that has been Australia's position, the Governments of both sides for a long period of time, and we want that to continue. But as I said to the Ambassador, and I said publicly, if it was the case, if it was shown in the event to be the case that passports were abused with the knowledge or the condoning by the Israeli officials or agencies, then Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend. We would not regard that as the act of a friend and as a consequence we would be deeply disappointed about that, but we will take it step by step.

ENDS

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