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FRAN KELLY: Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is currently travelling in Japan. He joins us from Tokyo now, Minister good morning.

STEPHEN SMITH: Good morning Fran.

FRAN KELLY: What exactly are you advising Australians who are already in Bangkok to do?

STEPHEN SMITH: Our advice to those in Bangkok is to avoid absolutely any sites of demonstrations or gatherings or military cordons. If they do inadvertently get caught up in any protest activity they should follow the advice of the security services.

But we in the last 36 hours have upgraded our advice to Australian travellers so far as Bangkok itself is concerned which is 'do not travel to Bangkok' and we urge them to take very strong heed of that advice. That excludes the Bangkok International Airport through which I myself transited on Monday night because there's no sign of any difficulty at the airport.

But our advice to Australians is don't travel to Bangkok. If you are proposing to go to other parts of Thailand, you should reconsider your need to go there.

FRAN KELLY: All parts of Thailand. Now we know, we heard just a few days ago the Australian Embassy was closed, but the website, the DFAT website say it's operational. What does it mean?

STEPHEN SMITH: We've closed it to visitors, that's been the case for a number of days and that's not uncommon with a range of other embassies in the area — US, UK, Canada. And that's because around the site of our Embassy, protesters were milling and there were gatherings of military and the potential for clashes. So we don't want people to go to the Embassy, but we are able to provide services by telephone. Australians who are in Bangkok and need assistance should ring the Embassy and they'll be given every assistance.

We've also set up a crisis centre in Canberra and if people want to utilise that they can get through to that on the standard consular number.

FRAN KELLY: Okay, do you know that number?

STEPHEN SMITH: 1300 555 135.

FRAN KELLY: Thanks very much, I wasn't trying to trick you, I was just trying to help people.

STEPHEN SMITH: [Laughs]

FRAN KELLY: Minister, what's your view of how the Thai Government has acted, calling in the military to clear out the protesters as they did with things that looked very much like tanks? I know they weren't quite that, and live ammunition?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well it's a very difficult situation for Thailand and of course Thailand's a very important partner to Australia and very important to our region but the Thai democratic and political process has been going though a very difficult time, not just in the last few weeks but for the last couple of years.

We've previously seen before the Abhisit Government came to office, the yellow shirts on the street. So this is a very difficult period for them. We continue to urge restraint. We regret very much the violence we've seen, the loss of life and the injuries.

And we've been urging both privately and publicly restraint on the part of all sides to the Thai political debate and the military itself, led by General Anupong who has shown great restraint. The last thing that we need to see or want to see is Thailand revert to military rule and there've been plenty of urgings in recent times for the military to take charge. We don't want that to occur, we want this resolved through democratic and parliamentary and political processes.

FRAN KELLY: Not great restraint on the streets yesterday you'd have to say, I mean live ammunition, people shot down, pretty, pretty violent.

STEPHEN SMITH: I was about to make that point. We of course regret any incidents of violence and when I use the phrase great restraint so far as the military is concurred, I use that expressly in relation to trying to allow the political processes to take their part and not to intervene or interfere.

Any incidents on the street, of course in the normal course of events they should have and I hope will be subject to all of the usual investigations when the dust settles and Thailand restores a capacity to manage its own affairs properly.

FRAN KELLY: Minister, just before we leave Thailand, there's a couple more issues to get to, but we have heard commentary this morning from Bangkok of, you know, suggesting that Thailand could be on the brink of civil war. How does that fit with the analysis you're getting?

STEPHEN SMITH: I don't want to use a phrase like that which of course would be pejorative. But I do want to underline the very grave, difficult circumstances that Thailand is confronted with. It has deteriorated significantly in the course of the last week and that is why we have changed our travel advice and why we are constantly monitoring the situation.

But we do urge the Thai political process to restore order and to resolve these matters in a peaceful way which doesn't see violence on the streets or see the need for Thailand's friends, not just Australia but other countries in the region including New Zealand for example, to be saying to their citizens that we don't want you to travel to Bangkok.

FRAN KELLY: Minister you've just been in Shanghai opening the Australian pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. Were Chinese people you spoke with there expressing anger over the proposed 40 per cent mining resources profits tax?

STEPHEN SMITH: It wasn't raised with me in Shanghai by Chinese officials but I wouldn't have expected that because I was there expressly for the Expo.

The day before on Monday we conducted in Beijing our annual high level economic cooperation dialogue. Simon Crean did that at Ministerial-level in conjunction with the Chair of the Chinese National Development Commission and it was discussed there and, as I said previously, I rate that more as interested in getting information rather than concern.

FRAN KELLY: Not concerned despite the pretty high level of Chinese investment now in our mining industry? You're not concerned that this profit tax is going to kill of their investment?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well they're clearly interested because this does go to investment but we've made a number of points to them as we have made to the industry in Australia.

Firstly there's a consultant mechanism on and as the Treasurer's made clear, everyone is welcome to put their views to that and Rio Tinto for example are doing that today. That's the first point.

Secondly I've also made the point both in Australia and off shore that I've heard all of these things said so far as the mining industry or the resources industry was concerned when people suggested years ago we should have environmental protection, that we should have indigenous land rights and that we should have a petroleum resources rent tax.

What's also under-appreciated is there is a lot in this package which will be of assistance to the smaller and medium sized mining companies because you get effective credits for state-based royalties.

FRAN KELLY: Sure.

STEPHEN SMITH: And it'll be interesting to see today whether Colin Barnett in Western Australia increases royalties. And that makes the point that we've got to have a modern system for minerals resources which is why we want to go to a profit tax-based arrangement as we have for petroleum resources.

FRAN KELLY: Just talking briefly about mining in your state, Andrew Forrest from Fortescue Metals announced Fortescue Metals is putting two projects on hold in WA. Are you concerned about that? A real loss of jobs, thousands of jobs in the Pilbara at least.

STEPHEN SMITH: I've seen the assertion and I don't put it any higher than that. In these debates you always have people who will suggest that this possible project or that possible project has been shelved as a result of a Government announcement. Bear in mind that the resources tax comes into play on 1 July 2012.

So when a project is said to be not going ahead there are always a range of sophisticated reasons as to why that may or may not have occurred. And there'll be plenty of assertions in the course of a very robust debate that a project is not going ahead as a result of a Government announcement. More often and more usually, if not invariably, there are a whole range of reasons why that occurs.

FRAN KELLY: Okay. And just finally in March a South Korean war ship was sunk, today the findings of an international report into the incident will be released. The South Korean Foreign Minister says it's obvious that North Korea fired a torpedo into the ship. Is that what the report will find?

STEPHEN SMITH: We will wait patiently to see the publication of the objective scientific analysis on the sinking of the South Korean corvette, the Cheonan. We have made our own expert officers available to assist in that investigation.

I think South Korea has responded very calmly to date. That's been a good thing because we don't want to see lack of peace or security on the Koran Peninsula but this is a very serious incident and we'll wait until we see the publication of the report and then respond accordingly.

But I do have to make this point, that North Korea and its conduct, particularly in relation to its nuclear conduct, is the most serious risk to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the most serious risk to peace and security in North Asia generally and it remains in flagrant breach of Security Council resolutions and in flagrant breach of the international community's adopted norms.

So we're very concerned about this issue but the international community I think is best placed to respond once the objective report and analysis of thinking is out there.

FRAN KELLY: Stephen Smith than you very much for joining us on Breakfast.

STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks Fran. Thanks very much.

FRAN KELLY: Foreign Minister Stephen Smith joining us from Tokyo.

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