Transcript of Interview with Greg Cary, 4BC

Subjects: Queendland floods; disaster assistance; Afghanistan

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

19 January 2011

GREG CARY: Our Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd has been combining his time very well in recent days helping those in his local electorate of Griffith. That's where we broadcast from. But also took time to host his equivalents from the UK, William Hague and Liam Fox was there as well. And he joins us now. Minister good morning.

KEVIN RUDD: Good morning Greg, I'm in Little Stanley Street South Brisbane at the moment.

GREG CARY: Oh are you, and how's your injury? What did you do?

KEVIN RUDD: What did I do? I think like a whole lot of people, I managed to get my foot infected. So I think it was just a lot of muck and germs in the water. And before you know it, it swells up like a balloon, you've got a problem. I've been treating it with antibiotics for the last several days and it's finally come back down. And the good news today I got my RMs back on. So life's normal.

GREG CARY: Life is normal. Well there have been serious things being talked about. Just before we get on to some of those foreign affairs matters, from a local angle Kevin, what's your take at this point and what needs to be done from your angle?

KEVIN RUDD: Slow and steady return to normality. I was just talking to a couple of the local business owners here in Little Stanley Street. These businesses are opening again for the first time today. I mean they've lost a full weeks custom and they employ a lot of people. I'm outside a little Italian place called La Via. He employs 15 people. So he's back in business today. They haven't had electricity for a week.

Beastie Burgers next door the same. So this strip along here would employ literally hundreds of people and today they are slowly grinding back into gear. And that's what I pick up in various parts of the south side which I represent.

GREG CARY: Are you able at this sense… to get a sense of what the impact will be on the country heading into the next budget and things we might have to forego et cetera?

KEVIN RUDD: The honest answer to that Greg is no. I think it's going to take us a while to crunch the numbers on this. Because what are the impacts? Queensland, we represent 20 per cent of the country - so 20 per cent of the population, with 20 per cent of the nation's economy. And we represent more than that in terms of the nation's exports.

So if we take a hit here, it's not just a local impact it's a national impact. And that's why as a nation we've got to stand shoulder to shoulder with Queensland to get the state back into working order as quickly as we can. It's the right thing to do. But it's a national self-interest in making sure it happens as well.

GREG CARY: Just talking about self-interest. I'm getting a lot of emails now and I'm sure a lot of people are raising the same subject with you. Balancing - the amount of money that we are giving to countries in other parts of the world when things are going well, that's fine and where we can help we do. And we're always on the top of that list.

The Federal Government at the moment has offered I think about $17 million to Queensland at a time when we're offering hundreds and hundreds of millions to countries in other parts. At what point does self-interest take over from those other interests in a situation like this?

KEVIN RUDD: Well Greg take for example natural disasters. In any given year we would spend in Australia - I'll check the exact figures on this, but probably 10 times more in Australia on natural disasters than we spend on natural disasters in other parts of the world. So we've always had a view that when mother nature hits and we've got a real problem, that the first responsibility is to attend to those at home.

And I think our challenge nationally is to make sure the Australian Government as I've said, steps up to the plate with the Queensland Government, with the local authorities, right across the state, to get this country back into working order as quickly as we can. I think we can do that.

GREG CARY: I haven't checked all these figures, but a lot of these figures that are getting around the place are correct. That we give Indonesia about $458.7 million, that we give Papua New Guinea a similar amount, Solomon Islands 200 plus, Philippines 100 plus, Vietnam 100 plus. At what point do we take some of that and pour it at areas here where people as you've seen firsthand are devastated?

KEVIN RUDD: Well the big challenge always is to make sure we're doing the right thing here on the home front. And my view always is that when it comes to rebuilding our own country and our own community, that's got to be the government's top priority. But let's also remember that other priorities don't disappear at that time as well.

One of the reasons that we have programs around the world - and you mentioned Indonesia just before - is it's very important to continue to work, for example with the Indonesian education system to prevent and reduce the development of radical Islamist sentiments through the Indonesian education system.

So one of the reasons we've made that a priority - under the Howard Government who spent I think something like one or two - more than a billion dollars on this stuff and we've continued it since we've been in office - is to make sure that the mainstream Indonesian education system is moderate, mainstream and peaceful. And to do that we've had to make sure that we keep those programs going.

So it's a question of how you do that and at what pace you do it at. But to answer your broader question Greg, the number one priority is to get Queensland back on its feet. And I'm a Queenslander. I see this as my own community.

I was down a shop in West End this morning. Small business, lady called Sharon runs the corner shop. We're going to have to get her business back and running as quickly as possible. Because when she's out of business for two months, it affects all those who supply her, it affects the delivery companies, the people who run the transport trucks. It affects also the local community who can't get their local milk and bread.

GREG CARY: Kevin...

KEVIN RUDD: That's the back bone of it all.

GREG CARY: That's the priority. Okay, you've only got a couple more minutes. I was reading an article by Greg Sheridan in The Australian this morning commenting on your meetings yesterday, you and Stephen Smith our Defence Minister with your colleagues William Hague and Liam Fox from the UK.

And there was some commentary on how things hadn't been run as well in Afghanistan as they might have been for the last five or six years. In what way haven't they been run well and how should we or why should we now be confident that they are now being run well?

KEVIN RUDD: Well these are comments I think made by Liam Fox, the British Defence Secretary in particular. And he is reflecting over the last 10 years. Part of the problem, Greg to be honest about it, is that after the war in Afghanistan '01, '02 when the Taliban regime was taken out by the Americans, by the British, ourselves and about 20 or 30 other governments around the world - straight after September 11, after that a lot of countries, including the Americans either pulled out completely or left a skeleton force in Afghanistan. And that happened from 2002 on. And as a result, we have practically - we had a time there where the Taliban were able to regroup. And that continued for several years. The Australian Government for example and Mr Howard did not recommit until 2005/2006.

That's part of the problem we've had and what Liam Fox, the British Defence Secretary was saying yesterday, it's not been until the last couple of years that we've had a fully comprehensively agreed NATO, ISAF - that's the International Security Assistance Force strategy, for the whole country, political, military, economic, working hand in glove with each other. Now that's in place it's infinitely better than it was.

GREG CARY: It's good to talk to you. We'll do it in greater length soon and good luck with all you're doing locally too.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks very much Greg. And thanks to all your listeners who have pitched in to help as volunteers. Not just in my community, but right across Brisbane. I really appreciate it.

GREG CARY: Our Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd. Speaking locally from Griffith this morning where he is lending a hand, where to his credit, he's been lending a hand from day one around the place and mixing in the other high level talks ...

END

Media enquiries