Interview with Maruis Benson, ABC News Radio

Subjects: Libya and NATO, Marrickville Council's Israel boycott

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

15 April 2011

REPORTER: Kevin Rudd, the Secretary-General of NATO seemed a little disappointed at the end of the ministerial meeting. He made a request for more planes and that went unanswered. Is NATO losing its heart for the fight in Libya?

KEVIN RUDD: NATO has responded effectively to UN Security Council Resolution 1973 on the call for all necessary measures to be deployed to support the Libyan people against attack from the Libyan regime.

NATO currently has aircraft deployed, as do a number of other states as well.

There will be an ongoing debate about the intensity of airstrikes on a given day. That's normal in any military operation with political support but, plainly, this campaign is going to need to continue for a period of time and, at the same time, be reinforced with humanitarian supplies to the Libyan people, given the enormity of the humanitarian challenge.

REPORTER: But there does seem to be evidence of NATO being divided on this now. You had France and Britain saying the bombing campaign should be stepped up, the United States directly rejecting a French request for major airstrikes to be resumed by the United States. The alliance divided - is that fair?

KEVIN RUDD: Having spent a fair bit of today in Berlin with most of the relevant foreign ministers on this, having spoken to the British Foreign Secretary, the French Foreign Minister, as well as briefly to the Secretary of State, I do not sense that. As I said, it's normal for there to be an ongoing discussion between NATO partners on the intensity of the campaign on a particular day.

The key thing is, as a result of NATO's intervention the onslaught by the Libyan regime against Benghazi has been pushed back and, as a result, we now have some security for the people of Benghazi and a range of other cities but the battle still rages in and around Mistrata and other centres as well.

REPORTER: But you've had a month or so of these airstrikes now. Is a reasonable assessment that the battle is not being won? There was footage on the TVs just in the last few hours of Muammar Qaddafi in a motorcade in Tripoli. He was claiming and being acclaimed by people there. Is Qaddafi winning?

KEVIN RUDD: Qaddafi would hop into a motorcade in any city, in any country in the world, six months ago because that's what Qaddafi likes to do. The bottom line is his country has been blown apart as a result of the extraordinary actions which he took against his own people. Qaddafi and the brutal military repression he's used against his own people has invited UN Security Council 1973 and invited the NATO campaign against him.

REPORTER: Mr Rudd, can I ask you about a local controversy in a Sydney council which has an international aspect? That council, Marrickville Council, controlled by the Greens, imposed a boycott on Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. What's your view on that boycott?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, the action by the Greens, frankly, is just nuts. The bottom line is any local authority in the country should get on with the business of what they are paid by ratepayers to do which is to deliver properly their local services: making sure the garbage is picked up, that local parks are attended to, and the sort of thing that ratepayers pay them to do.

Foreign policy is the province of the national government and for any element of the Green Party to go out there and call upon the nation's government to engage in a campaign to boycott goods and services, be it from Israel or China or any other country, is, as I said, just plain nuts.

REPORTER: Are you saying the Greens more broadly are nuts? They are your partners in government.

KEVIN RUDD: On the question of this particular foreign policy intervention - and I've been quite explicit about this - the backing of a policy to impose a trade boycott on individual states, be it Israel or be it China, as the same Marrickville Council, through its Green Mayor, has called for in the past, is just plain inappropriate and plain nuts.

As for the other elements of Green policy, when it comes to foreign policy, we should consider those each on their merits and, of course, other elements of Green policy more - more broadly, on questions of domestic policy, should be considered on their merits as well but let's call a spade a spade.

This particular call by the Marrickville Council is just so far out there. It's unproductive, it's completely disconnected from the reality of Middle Eastern politics and, frankly, represents a series of measures which don't help when it comes to the interests of the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian people.

REPORTER: Kevin Rudd, thank you very much.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks for having me on your program.

GLEN BARTHOLOMEW: The ever-diplomatic Australian Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd. Just plain nuts is what he had to say about that Green initiative. He was speaking from Berlin where he's been attending a NATO meeting on Libya and was speaking to Marius Benson.

ENDS

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