Interview with Michael Rowland and Virginia Trioli, ABC News Breakfast

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

Subjects: Japanese earthquake, China

16 March 2011

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Families are still waiting to hear from more than 100 Australians believed to be in Japan's worst affected areas.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: For the latest developments on that search by consular officials, Kevin Rudd joins us now. He's the Foreign Affairs Minister. Kevin Rudd, good morning, thanks for joining us.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks for having me on your program.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Now, the number of Australians unaccounted for, that figure seems to have shifted this morning. Can you take us through that, please?

KEVIN RUDD: The figure that we have as of 6.30am this morning is 144 unaccounted for Australians.

We use that term quite deliberately. It means that we have a reasonable basis of knowledge that those Australians were in the disaster-affected areas at the time when the tsunami and earthquake hit and, furthermore, that since then we've been unable to make contact with them.

Therefore we continue to work as hard as we can to bring that number down by identifying more and more Australians who have managed to get out and can I just appeal to anyone watching your program who've got friends, family and loved ones who have been in the area and who have got out, but you haven't contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs consular crisis centre, please do so, so we can continue to bring this number down.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: So, if I'm not mistaken, that number has gone up or am I incorrect there, the unaccounted for?

KEVIN RUDD: The unaccounted for number has been bouncing around. I think that's the fair thing to say. I'd rather not say it's gone up or it's gone down; it's bouncing around and the reason is this is an imprecise science. I think you'd understand that.

Our consular officials, and there are large teams of them now, are out working in a number of locations in the disaster-affected areas. They, in fact, secured the return to Tokyo of a group, I think of about a dozen, in the early hours of this morning, to Tokyo, and they've been working in Sendai and other areas as well, going from hospital to hospital, shelter to shelter, and finding out where the Australians are.

So our officials are really burning the midnight oil in Japan right now.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Are there many Australians who are calling on your officials there to assist them to either get out of the north-east of Japan or to get out of Japan altogether?

KEVIN RUDD: What we've done is provided another consular team at Narita Airport itself to assist Australians who have either booked flights but who have been unable to get to the airport on time because roads are clogged - yesterday it took four hours to get from Tokyo to Narita Airport.

They are there for the explicit purpose of helping Australians onto alternative flights and providing other forms of direct consular assistance and that's what we're there to do.

Also, of course, we continue to provide advice through the embassy in Tokyo. All up, if you include our search and rescue personnel, we've got nearly 250 government officials of one form or another, on the ground in Japan as we speak. We've got 200 or 300 working the consular crisis centre back here in Canberra.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: And how concerned is the Australian Government about radiation contamination for Australian citizens? I mean, all citizens of Japan, of course, but Australians in particular.

KEVIN RUDD: We've been following this in great detail through Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority. We met with them again early last evening, later last evening, and we're meeting again first thing this morning as they trace and analyse the data coming out of Fukushima reactors, units 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as keeping an eagle eye on 5 and 6.

Their advice to the Australian Government is contained in their statement of yesterday. I might just read you the relevant sections, if that's okay.

ARPANSA, that is the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority, advise that there is a small chance of contamination at very low levels for Australians who were in the Fukushima area at the time of the incident.

Their statement goes on to say for those Australians in Japan but outside the affected areas, the health risks are negligible. That's their advice.

Having said that, ARPANSA, together with their counterparts in the United States, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other national agencies, are following this by the hour. Their officials, our officials were working through the night on this and as and when there is any change to the information which they provide to us we will, of course, make that available to the Australian public.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Just very quickly, I know I have to let you go. It's another subject altogether but I'm genuinely interested in your answer to this.

When the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday said that, yes, China needed some political reform, what did you interpret that to mean? Was that China trying to communicate to the people, look, please don't spring on us one of these democracy style movements we're seeing in the Middle East? What was he really calling for?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, as you'd appreciate I've been focusing on Japan and focusing on what's going on in Libya as well.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Sure.

KEVIN RUDD: And I haven't seen the full text of Premier Wen Jiabao's statement but the call for political reform in China goes back to, frankly, 1984-85. It comes in waves and in the past has often meant reforms to the political processes within the Chinese Communist Party, some greater powers for the National Peoples Congress, but I think we should see this in the context of what the Premier was saying and I'm sorry, I don't have the full text in front of me nor the environment within which he was speaking.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Sure. Maybe we can talk about it at length another time. Kevin Rudd, thanks for joining us this morning.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks for having me on the program.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Thank you.

END

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