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KIERAN GILBERT: I'm joined now by the Foreign Minister in the Canberra studio. Stephen Smith, thank you very much for your time.

You've got a new portfolio taking on trade as well as foreign affairs, but do you really have enough time to put your stamp on that portfolio before the election?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, there's a very good symmetry and complementarity between foreign affairs and trade. We have one department dealing with both matters, and over the years I've worked very closely with Simon Crean. So very many of the bilateral free trade agreements that we're pursuing, or the regional agreements that we're pursuing, also have strategic implications. So I'm looking forward very much to it.

Australia has become a prosperous country in part because we've been over the years a great trading nation. That will continue, and we'll continue our trade efforts on the multilateral front, trying to secure a successful outcome to the Doha round but also on the regional and bilateral front as well.

KIERAN GILBERT: Given both foreign affairs and trade complement each other as you say, would you hope to keep that beyond the election as well?

STEPHEN SMITH: There are two aspects to that. Firstly, we'll have an election between now and the end of the year, so the first thing we have to do is to successfully get the support of the Australian people. We certainly do not take that for granted. It'll be a tough and tight election.

But if we are successful, as I've said in recent days, what then occurs with portfolios is entirely a matter for the Prime Minister.

But we'll take these things step by step. I think the most important attribute that I'll bring to the combination of foreign affairs and trade is the same that I brought to foreign affairs, which is, whatever judgment you make, you have to make a long-term judgment to protect, defend and enhance our national security interests.

The same applies in the trade area: whatever judgements you make have to be judgements that will protect, defend and enhance our economic interests into the long-term. So I'm looking forward very much to it and I believe the combination of the two portfolios, which is not unique either in our region or in the international community, will serve us well.

KIERAN GILBERT: The former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was overlooked for now. Do you think that that was the right judgment to make? That it was too soon to bring him back to the Cabinet table?

STEPHEN SMITH: He obviously had a conversation with the Prime Minister. In the event, the Prime Minister made a judgment after her conversation with him that the best outcome would be for Kevin to have a break. She's made it clear that she would welcome him very much back into Cabinet if we are successful at the next election.

So in these matters, they're always best left to the principal players concerned, and on this occasion it was the Prime Minister and the former Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister has said, if Kevin stands again and if we're re-elected then he would obviously be very welcomed as a senior member of a re-elected Gillard Government.

KIERAN GILBERT: We saw the G20 held just over the last couple of days. You're familiar with how these sorts of groupings work. World leaders like Barack Obama, David Cameron and others, they would have been scratching their heads, wouldn't they, when they saw there was no Prime Minister from Australia there?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, everyone understands that from time to time changes occur in a particular country. Very many, if not the vast majority of countries that we deal with, have their own elections. Very many of them see changes in leadership from time to time.

So we were well represented by the Treasurer and the Deputy Prime Minister. We've been a leading advocate of helping to ensure that the G20 becomes the premier international economic and financial institution, and we welcome very much that the G20 had as part of its deliberations and outcome a renewed commitment to trying to bring the Doha round to a successful conclusion.

KIERAN GILBERT: The former Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, says that Kevin Rudd won't be missed. In fact, he antagonised a lot of the relationships.

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I think the comment is obvious. Alexander Downer and Kevin Rudd were sparring partners. I suspect Alexander Downer is making a comment about a sparring partner, not an objective view about history.

When the dust settles, people will make a reflective judgment about Kevin Rudd's contribution, but one of the very substantial achievements that he made and helped ensure, which was very much in Australia's long-term national economic and security interest, was helping to ensure that the G20 did become the premier economic institution.

So Alexander Downer and Kevin Rudd have been long-standing sparring partners. No surprise that Alexander Downer is trying to put his own observation on it, but I wouldn't regard it as objective.

KIERAN GILBERT: Okay. A couple of quick issues before I let you go. A former Australian Ambassador to Israel has accused Julia Gillard of being too close to Israel and being silent on the excesses of Israel in recent times. What do you make of that?

STEPHEN SMITH: Julia Gillard, both as Deputy Prime Minister and as Prime Minister, has and will continue the long-standing approach of successive Australian Governments, which is, we believe that there has to be a long-term and enduring peace in the Middle East. The only way of securing and effecting that is by a two state solution.

We are strong supporters of that and strong supporters of the peace process.

Over the last two-and-a-half years as Foreign Minister, on a regular basis I see criticisms made of Australia and the Australian Government that we're too close to Israel and too supportive of Israel, and equally I see criticisms and comments made that we're not close enough and not supportive enough.

I think we get our policy approach absolutely right, and Julia Gillard will continue Australia's very strong view that, to have a successful outcome for Israel, for Israel's security, a successful outcome for the Palestinians, we have to have a two state solution, which is the only way forward so far as the Middle East is concerned.

KIERAN GILBERT: Okay. On the politics at home, the WESTPOLL shows that Labor would hold its four seats in your home state of WA. Does the bounce that we've seen in the opinion polls vindicate Labor's decision to change leader?

STEPHEN SMITH: I hate using the cliché on your show, but in the event there'll only be one poll that counts, and that'll be on a Saturday sometime between now and the end of the year.

But back home over the weekend, the very strong sentiment that was expressed to me was that people very much welcomed the fact that we had a new Prime Minister, welcomed very much the fact that we had the country's first woman Prime Minister, welcomed very much we had an intelligent and forward-looking Prime Minister, and an opportunity for the government to get a fresh start.

I'm not surprised that WESTPOLL reflects that, but we'll have a tough contest in the West for the four seats that we hold. But there'll also be a tough contest for the marginal seats in the metropolitan area that the Liberal Party hold - Swan and Cowan and Canning.

So it'll be a tough contest, just as the election will be a tough contest. We take nothing for granted in Western Australia, just as we take nothing for granted nationally.

KIERAN GILBERT: Stephen Smith, appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks. Thanks very much.

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