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KEVIN RUDD: Well it's great to be here with the mayor of the Cairns Regional Council, because the role of local government here in Far North Queensland is critical to this region's economic future. Far North Queensland has taken a massive economic battering, first through the global financial crisis, and now through natural disasters.

Our purpose in being here is to provide a window to the world on what is happening here in Far North Queensland — the fact that the tourism industry is back in shape and back in business — open for business — and that beyond that, Far North Queensland is an area of rich trade and investment opportunities.

Today we have had, also, a range of presentations from all the regional mayors and the regional authorities in this part of the world.

It's very important that our diplomatic colleagues from around the world hear from the horse's mouth what's happening up in the Cape, what's happening in the Gulf, what's happening down the Cassowary Coast, what's happening in terms of each of the subregions of Far North Queensland, of tropical north Queensland.

I've also emphasised the absolute importance that our colleagues from around the world focus not just on tourism, though that is important and it's critical, but focus on the range of other investment opportunities in terms of tropical agriculture, but more widely in tropical research.

That's why I'm particularly pleased we're going to have an opportunity now to see what is happening at James Cook University here at the Cairns campus, the work that it's doing in terms of dengue fever research, which is of universal significance to the rest of the world.

Last night when with the mayor we launched the Tropical Innovation Awards for the second year running, it was, I think, a real eye opener to our colleagues from around the world what innovation has occurred here.

One of the award winners from last year has designed a solar panel which sits atop power poles — that has potentially got universal application — what a great idea, because power poles exist right across the world. Why not then have a solar panel on top of them, because they can feed straight into the grid? Now ask me whether I'm an expert in these things. No, I'm not. I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, and he wouldn't have got an award had that not been the case. But it is practical, local innovations in this part of the world, this sun-rich part of the world, which also are of use.

Another example; this extraordinary innovation in terms of long-term clean water storage, with water in a huge container vessel able to survive in a clean state for I think 18, 19?

VAL SCHIER: Under the — for two years, 28 months, I think.

KEVIN RUDD: Yeah, 28 months. And now, this is of enormous potential application around the world. I deal on a semi-daily basis with the world international disaster agencies; the World Food Programme; the Save the Children Fund; those who are dealing at the coal face of disasters across Africa and elsewhere in the world, and long-term, secure storage of clean water in volume strikes me as a very practical application of what can be done.

And so they're just two examples, together with of course what we'll see at James Cook University, whereby this is not just a fantastic place to bring your family on a holiday, not just a fantastic place to hold an international conference, a fantastic place also to run global trade fairs, but also a place of great innovation.

Over to you, Val.

VAL SCHIER: Thank you very much, and of course we're delighted to have so many heads of mission here, and their spouses, and of course the international media as well, because people quite frequently don't understand what Cairns is about. They see the little dot on the map and they think it is just tourism, and they're often really surprised when they find all the other activities that happen in this area.

Yes, we have been doing it tough, and that perception that's gone international that somehow or other we were closed to business, and we've all been flooded, needs to be laid to rest.

And we know that we need to get those messages out that we are open for business. And even though the weather hasn't been as good as we would like this morning, I hope you've had a chance to walk along our Esplanade and in that wonderful environment.

But it is an opportunity for us to show the world that we are about a lot more than just tourism, and as the Minister has said, you will see that this morning; that the whole notion of us being a centre of tropical innovation and expertise is something that we are really working very hard at.

And we've been quite astounded at the examples that we've been able to unearth by deciding we would showcase some of those inventions.

So that's really important for us. I know it's going to grow, and I know that we will get that recognition, and position ourselves in a different way.

Minister Rudd's sort of mentioned some of those inventions, but there are other things as well.

We have sugar cane, where instead of just looking at exporting our sugar we can actually look at the fibre. And we're working with a Japanese company to actually look at that fibre becoming a natural food additive. And there's a lot of interest in that.

So just taking our natural resources, looking at our opportunities with water, as climate change happens, and other parts of the world are having problems with water, we have natural rain-fed agriculture here. But we need to add that value to it rather than just exporting all of our raw materials.

So it's wonderful to be able to tell our story to people from countries around the world, and this has certainly been a huge opportunity for us, and I thank you very much for it.

KEVIN RUDD: Over to you, folks.

QUESTION: Mr Rudd, you've talked a lot about tropical innovation and how exciting it is, and how much you're supporting it. There's been a push for some time for a tropical institute to be supported and funded by Government. Is that now going to happen?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, there's a whole lot of activity already at James Cook University. The precinct, I think, contains within it four or five separate research institutes of one description or another, and it's, in my estimation, going gangbusters.

Government will always look at further proposals into the future, but let's look at what we have and actually get the message out of what is here, and go to the next step of its proper commercialisation around the world. That's where we need to go, and the existing base of tropical research here is fantastic.

QUESTION: Minister, how would you describe the reception of those attending this tour?

KEVIN RUDD: Well that's a question you should put to them. But based on my conversations with them they're delighted to be in Far North Queensland. Some of them have been here before — most have not — and I think the great opportunity up here in the tropical north is to demonstrate to them the diversity of not just the natural environment, but the diversity of what the economy holds here.

One in five people work in tourism up here — that's huge — four in five don't, and therefore it's the question of what actually happens in the rest of this economy and what leads economic growth into the future from this part of the world.

I'm enormously optimistic about tropical north Queensland. There are a few extra things that we need to do, but let me tell you, I mean the inherent strengths of this part of Queensland are capable of generating a next generation of economic growth.

QUESTION: The notion of a world fair to showcase research and development came up this morning and seemed to be perceived reasonably enthusiastically. Is that — has that idea got legs?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, my own point of view, and far be it from me to speak on behalf of Craig Emerson who's the Trade Minister who is responsible for trade promotion activity, or for his Queensland counterparts; and I'm sure Val will have a perspective from the Cairns Regional Council, but our Swiss ambassador, our colleague, was reflecting what is a strong European tradition of trade fairs. That is that when you to Hamburg, there is the Hamburg Trade Fair; if you go to, from memory, to Frankfurt, you usually go to CeBIT which deals with information technology; if you go to various other countries of Europe, it's known for its annual trade fair on a particular, shall I say, aggregation of business and innovation.

Now, I think the challenge here, which I think our diplomatic colleagues have put, is put together all the value adds of what we've got up here in Far North Queensland and make it the annual go to place for a particular product or a particular service.

One of the mayors suggested, for example, building on what Val said before, in terms of disaster preparedness and disaster management as well as let's call it architectural design to disaster proof residential houses as well as businesses from the impact of severe storms. There's a whole aggregation of expertise, but frankly, business opportunities around that, as well.

Maybe that's one area; I won't be proscriptive about that, but I think when you've got a region like this which is inherently attracted — inherently positive — with great residual strengths, how do you bring that together with a global fair which becomes the global go to place for X? And the challenge for this region is to work out what it wants that X to be.

QUESTION: Minister, I'm looking at the diplomatic tour as a whole. How confident are you that it will deliver actual economic outcomes rather than just being seen as a talkfest?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, I think the challenge here is to deal with the whole question of image.

Okay, let me be very clear about this, and Val said this before — what happened at the time of the floods, what happened at time of the cyclone up here or the cyclones up here is that there is massive global coverage of the world's biggest cyclone — this monster storm.

World coverage of the floods in Southeast Queensland, and the consequence of which has been the world has concluded that this state of Queensland has been knocked for six in terms of doing business as usual or coming here for holidays as usual.

So what am I about? I'm about turning that on its head through engaging these diplomats from around the world, and the accompanying international media, to send back a very simple message which is: three months on, Queensland's back in business. Queensland's open for business. Tropical north Queensland's open for business. That is the mission statement here.

How you measure that and the months and years ahead, I'll leave to others to judge. But frankly, I'd rather be doing this than sitting in a corner moaning about it.

QUESTION: Minister, are you visiting any towns affected by Yasi?

KEVIN RUDD: On this occasion, we're here at Cairns. The reason why we've invited the mayor of the Cassowary Coast, here in particular, is that he can present on what's happened within his particular local government area.

And therefore, because you've got up here a sequence of challenges — the global financial crisis hitting tourism, the natural disasters hitting tourism inflow — the best thing to do we thought was to bring the mayors together, as they've all been affected in different ways by let's call it general economic downturn, general global tourism downturn as well as the particular effect of all the natural disasters.

QUESTION: Just a few other questions, Mr Rudd. You've been helping campaign in a number of seats in a number of states and The Daily Telegraph says it's part of a comeback. Is this true?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, everyone in the Australian Government gets out there and supports local members in their seats. Everyone does that. That's what we're required to do. That's why you have ministers in the Government.

I'm no different to the other ministers in the Government, so whenever a local member of Parliament asks me to go out and campaign for them, I do. I've been doing that for about 20 years in one form or another, so nothing unusual about that.

QUESTION: So you're ruling out a comeback?

KEVIN RUDD: Look, that is not a faint prospect of possibility. Let's just — you know — let's just get a bit real about all this.

QUESTION: But just in terms of your portfolio area, what's your response to the arrest of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei on unknown economic crimes? It's said that this is part of a crackdown on dissidence in China. What should be done by the international community?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, in that particular case, we are seeking to establish all the facts first before we provide further comment on it. Normal [inaudible] would be deployed to ensure that we get all the facts straight, all the representations are made to local authorities.

I'm aware of the case. I'm aware of many such cases around the world, and I've been engaging with various ambassadors here on a range of other consular cases, as well. But as more information comes to hand, we'll confirm that publically.

QUESTION: You take a strong stance on human rights in terms of Libya. Is China any different?

KEVIN RUDD: I've said repeatedly that our position on human rights is universal. I've said repeatedly that our position on this, anchored in the Human Rights Declaration, anchored in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, is universal.

So we raise human rights concerns around the world with all countries and we have never made an exception on that score.

You've raised the question of Libya — can I just say this: in Australia, we are following events in Libya with deep and continuing concern.

The time has come for Colonel Qaddafi to get out of that country and go into exile.

The international community would welcome that occurring. The Libyan people would welcome that occurring.

There is too much bloodshed in Libya and it is absolutely imperative that he do so. Secretary Clinton has called for a ceasefire. I fully support her in doing that. I discussed this matter also in recent days with the British Foreign Secretary.

Secondly, it's critical that the regime itself and the leader of that regime, Qaddafi, gets out of that country. We don't particularly care where, because the Libyan people have suffered enough. It's time that we're able to get on with the proper process of a fundamental political reform program.

So we need a ceasefire that works. We need political reform which is real, and that means that Qaddafi's got to get out. And that's the bottom line. I strongly support the position taken by the Secretary of State on this matter. We continue to follow it in detail with our colleagues around the world.

Okay folks, thanks very much.

END

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