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KIERAN GILBERT: Joining me this morning on the program to discuss this and the other issues of the day, the Foreign Minister Stephen Smith. Mr Smith thanks for your time.

STEPHEN SMITH: Pleasure.

KIERAN GILBERT: Can we get a bit more detail as to what the Prime Minister was just discussing then?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, it's night time now in the area in West Africa so the search for the day has completed. The search has not drawn attention to anything conclusive so the search will resume again tomorrow, West Africa time, both with fixed wing aircraft and helicopter doing the aerial search. We've got our High Commissioner to Nigeria on the ground in Cameroon.

We're sending two additional officers to assist, one of whom has already arrived. We're working closely with the Cameroon authorities, also very closely with the company and providing consular assistance to the company and the families. Of course it's a very distressing time for the families and we continue to be very seriously concerned about the welfare of these six Australians.

KIERAN GILBERT: The terrain as I understand it, it's very, very thick jungle where this plane is reported missing.

STEPHEN SMITH: It's difficult terrain, thick jungle or forest. I'm told that in the course of the search yesterday generally the weather conditions were okay but it will also of course be subject to weather conditions.

It's not the wet season so that helps but we have to take it step by step and we're very happy with the cooperation we're receiving from the Cameroon authorities who are responsible for the search but they're doing that in close consultation with the company itself. I spoke to their Chief Financial Officer last night as well.

KIERAN GILBERT: Okay, on a few other issues now, the Chinese Vice President is in Australia. Just how important is this visit, given that this man is touted as the next President of China?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well it's a very important high level visit. It's the fourth time Vice President Xi has come to Australia. The focus of this visit will be trade and economic matters but it is a very important signal.

We've been working very hard, not just with our contacts with the current Chinese leadership but also to prepare the ground for the future Chinese leadership and Vice Premier Li was here last year as well in September, October...

KIERAN GILBERT: Are we right to assume that he's the next President, he's shaping up as the favourite?

STEPHEN SMITH: That is, Vice President Xi and Vice Premier Li are suggested to be the next leadership combination. Of course it's a matter for the Chinese authorities and their process so we leave that to them. But we are working with what we regard as the next crop of Chinese leadership. That's the sensible thing to do for the future.

We have a long term view of our relationship with China. It's obviously a very important economic relationship but the relationship these days is more than that, so it's a significant visit. It also does send a very strong signal that some of the difficulties and tensions that we had last year really are now behind us and we're both taking a long term view of the relationship.

KIERAN GILBERT: Any fallout though, on the issue of tensions, any fallout from the Prime Minister's reported comments about the Chinese in Copenhagen?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well alleged comments. I see there's now mixed suggestions from journalists about those alleged comments. But I've made the point previously, we have a very strong economic relationship. It's now broader than just minerals and resources industry, it's also broader than just an economic relationship.

We saw the Vice Chair of the Chinese Military Commission General Guo here recently. I've conducted with my counterpart Foreign Minister Yang, the first two strategic dialogues between Australia and China.

We do know that both in the past and into the future because we have different systems and different approaches to a range of things that there will be potentially differences or difficulties that we need to manage. But I think the last 12 months has also seen a maturing and a capacity to understand that these things can be managed provided we take a long term view of the relationship and that's what we're doing.

KIERAN GILBERT: On one other international issue before I want to ask you about the politics...

STEPHEN SMITH: Sure.

KIERAN GILBERT: ...domestically. The Gaza blockade, it looks like there's been some progress made on that.

STEPHEN SMITH: We welcome the announcement by the Israeli Government overnight, easing the blockade. Australia's policy position for some time has been to ease the blockade to enable humanitarian resources to be delivered to Gaza.

Of course we understand and are very conscious of Israel's security arrangements but we think it's a welcome step forward and we look forward to seeing its implementation on the ground.

KIERAN GILBERT: On politics now at home the NewsPoll shows Tony Abbott has halved the gap between the Prime Minister and he as preferred Prime Minister. It seems that voters are looking at him as a more credible alternative now?

STEPHEN SMITH: I see both of the leaders in your earlier clips of them indicated that, putting it - to use the cliché - in the end there's only one poll that counts, and we'll see that in the course of this year. But I think it is an important point to focus on the preferred Prime Minister and whist there's been some movement, you know, time will tell whether that's statistical or otherwise, Kevin Rudd remains the preferred Prime Minister.

But my essential analysis of all the polls at the moment is the polls continue to, in a sense, view the Government in isolation. What we need to see is a period of time where the contrast is there, the comparison is there, the two alternatives are provided for the Australian community to make a judgement about and we'll see that I suspect in the run up to the election campaign and certainly the election campaign itself.

We know it's going to be a tough poll. We know it's going to be a real contest but my view has always been that in the end, the Australian community won't risk Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, either on the economic front or the national security front.

KIERAN GILBERT: Well the Government, or certainly the State Labor Government wasn't seen in isolation yesterday, that was a by-election and it was a record result. If you were in the seat of Lindsay in Penrith, Macquarie in the Blue Mountains for the federal seats, the neighbouring federal seats, you'd be worried this morning.

STEPHEN SMITH: Well I don't seek to diminish the size of the swing in that by-election but I'll make a coupe of points. Firstly, it's a state by-election and the Australian community, whether it's in New South Wales or elsewhere, have always been very good at distinguishing between state and federal matters so you've got to be careful not to read too much into a state-based by-election for a federal poll.

What we know in Western Sydney and what our Members there know is it's a real contest and that's why they're working very hard on the ground to present to their local communities the advantages of returning them as local members and the advantages to the people of Western Sydney in terms of cost of living, tax cuts and the like and a strong economy. The advantages of returning a Rudd Labour Government.

KIERAN GILBERT: Okay Foreign Minister, appreciate your time. Thank you.

STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks very much.

ENDS

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