Interview with Peter Dick and Mary Collier, 4BC Breakfast

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

Subjects: Invitation to foreign diplomats to visit Queensland 

10 March 2011

PETER DICK: Mary, this is innovative, isn't it, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd plans to bring 100 foreign diplomats to Queensland, to send a global message that the state is back in business after its summer of disaster, and he joins us on the program this morning. Good morning, Minister.

KEVIN RUDD: Good morning, thanks for having me on the program.

PETER DICK: It's our pleasure. From your experience, is there worldwide knowledge of what happened in Queensland over the last couple of months?

KEVIN RUDD: There certainly is worldwide knowledge. I'm currently in the Middle East, in transit in Cairo, on my way to Tunisia, and then I head back home to Canberra, and then back to Brissie. But let me tell you, everywhere I go, people ask this question, how are the floods? Has Queensland recovered? I get it everywhere I go. I've had it today in Abu Dhabi, so we need to get the message out that we're back in business.

PETER DICK: Yes, so you find this in non-English-speaking countries as well?

KEVIN RUDD: Exactly, right across the world.

You need to understand that every country's national television networks are flooded with pictures of what we went through for days and days, and weeks and weeks on end, and so everybody knows about it. As I said, I think, in a piece I wrote in the Courier-Mail today, when I was in Tarin Kowt with our troops in Afghanistan the other day, in the poorest province in the country, the provincial governor comes up to me, and his first words are, have you recovered from the floods yet? So…

PETER DICK: Incredible.

KEVIN RUDD: …this is known across the world, therefore we've got a responsibility to get the message back to the world, that we're back in business, and that's why I've come up with this idea.

MARY COLLIER: Mr Rudd, you're planning to send out 100 invitations to every foreign ambassador who's accredited to Australia, to come for three days to both Brisbane and Cairns. Have you got any idea of the costings, and would the ambassadors bring their own entourage with them?

KEVIN RUDD: Look, I'll leave that to each individual ambassador. The thing is that they'd fund themselves, but I said to them earlier on that I would do a retreat with them somewhere in the country in the first half of this year, now I've chosen to make that my own home state of Queensland, and they will send whoever they choose. It's about 100, if you add together the embassies in Canberra and some of the consulate generals in Sydney, but I think it should be good.

PETER DICK: Would it be a sightseeing thing for three days?

KEVIN RUDD: No, what I intend to do in Brisbane is to – and I'll speak to the State Government in detail about this, is have them in a location where they can then receive presentations from not just State Government but also Brisbane City Council, also from the other regional councils that have been flood-affected, and then do the same sort of thing in Far North Queensland.

I'm sure they'll go out and see some of the sights in Brisbane as well, but the basic task is this; to send a message back to the world that we are back in business, and that's why I put together this, together with some of the other proposals I've outlined in today's Courier Mail.

MARY COLLIER: You're not worried at all that maybe bringing ambassadors as opposed to say, tourist operators themselves, would be a bit bureaucratic? Are you sure that they're the right people to get the message out?

KEVIN RUDD: You know something? I believe this has to happen at multiple levels, tourism operators are important as well, it's one of the reasons why, you know, I strongly support what Martin Ferguson, the Federal Tourism Minister is doing, in partnership with the Queensland Government, of getting the message up and out to tourism markets around the world that we're back in business as well.

I've just been in the last 10 days or so in the Middle East, and I think there is a rich opportunity here, countries like Saudi Arabia, who like to have family holidays on beaches, and they love the Gold Coast, they love Queensland, we just need to get more of them. Similarly, with new inbound tourists from China, all these levels of action are necessary if we're going to get Queensland fully back on its feet, and tell the world we're back in business, and this really is the global smart state.

PETER DICK: It is quite ironic that in many ways this has put Queensland on the world map.

KEVIN RUDD: Well it's true. I mean let me tell you, everyone that I speak to knows about Brisbane, they also know about Queensland, if you asked them what the other five states of Australia were, they probably couldn't tell you…

PETER DICK: Yeah.

KEVIN RUDD: …and – so what's our challenge? It's to turn adversity into opportunity, and to actually demonstrate that the place is rich with investment potential, with trade potential, with economic potential more broadly, and that's why the other measures, which I've outlined in the paper today, I think are useful as well.

I'm also saying to the Queensland public, send your thoughts in, respond, let us know what other things can be done; this is purely within my own portfolio, and Craig Emerson's portfolio of foreign affairs and trade.

MARY COLLIER: Minister, if I can just ask you briefly, did you catch up with Julia Gillard's speech to the Joint Session of the US Congress overnight? She had some nice things to say about you, as well as former Prime Minister John Howard.

KEVIN RUDD: No, I've been actually on the road here in the Middle East. I've just spent some time with the new Egyptian Foreign Minister, transiting in Cairo on my way to Tunisia, where as you know, these two countries are either side of the war in Libya, so I haven't caught up with any of that yet, but I'm certainly appreciative of those friendly references to what I've done in the past.

PETER DICK: Thanks for talking to us, Mr Rudd.

KEVIN RUDD: Look after yourselves.

END

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