Interview with Tony Eastley, AM, ABC Radio

Subjects: Libya; Syria; Climate change

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

27 April 2011

TONY EASTLEY: Mr Rudd, good morning. Why has Australia gone down this path of paying for a ship?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, the bottom line is there are grave humanitarian needs in Libya right now. Australia is not a military contributor to the campaign in Libya but we have decided to become a significant humanitarian contributor. In fact we are the third largest, globally, after the United States and the European Union.

Given that we are not military contributors, this is an appropriate level of support for Australia to a country which has been ripped apart by a brutal dictatorship.

TONY EASTLEY: Kevin Rudd, there have been more reports of more shelling of civilian areas in Misrata. I know you've been talking to your French counterpart in Paris. Do you think there is worse to come?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, I've just spent some hours in discussion with the French foreign minister Alain Juppe talking about the situation both in Libya and in Syria in the wider Middle East. The bottom line is that there is intense military activity in the north-west of the country, not just in Misrata but in surrounding regions as well.

The important challenge for the international community is to - through its military efforts, led by NATO - is to sustain its operations, to continue the pressure on the Gaddafi regime and to provide whatever material protection they can to the people of Misrata.

TONY EASTLEY: When you say sustained, for how long?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, let's put all this into some context. The UN Security Council resolution was only adopted four or five weeks ago. This is a campaign against a well organised state - the Libyan state under the authoritarian dictatorship of Qaddafi - and so this is going to take some time.

TONY EASTLEY: So you're talking about this conflict going for the rest of the- well, the potential for this conflict to go for the rest of this year, if not into next year.

KEVIN RUDD: Well, the bottom line is you can't put a precise time on this and it would be imprudent to do so. In fact, to do so would actually arm the enemy with critical information. And what we need to do instead is to apply maximum military, security and diplomatic pressure on Qaddafi and the regime because Qaddafi has to go.

TONY EASTLEY: What's the difference between Libya and Syria, in terms of one has seen NATO involvement and the other has not?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, in the case of Syria, we have been working closely with our friends and colleagues in the international community and on the United Nations Security Council to consider the passage of a UN Security Council resolution condemning the actions of the Assad regime in Damascus, and the actions that it has taken against its own people.

TONY EASTLEY: But do you think there's an appetite for NATO action in Syria?

KEVIN RUDD: I believe the actions taken by the Assad regime in the last 24 to 48 hours have been extreme. We have seen them begin to turn on their own people. As yet we have not seen public declarations from the Syrian leadership of the type that we saw from Qaddafi, who threatened to inflict violence of a grand scale against the people of Benghazi.

But that is why we need a new and special envoy in there now to assess precisely what is happening on the ground, because the international media have not been given freedom of access.

TONY EASTLEY: Mr Rudd, the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, is saying that it's one year since you dumped the CPRS. Does it surprise you that you're still part of the Opposition's attack on this?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, I think the key thing to say about Mr Abbott is that Mr Abbott's head in the sand approach to climate change makes him almost unique in the Western world.

I haven't visited another country in my period as Foreign Minister where I've discovered an alternative leader or prime minister or president of the country with a position like Mr Abbott's which effectively denies that climate change exists, and which effectively refuses to consider actions to put a price on carbon.

The core question here is not Mr Abbott's criticism of others but the fact that Mr Abbott's criticism of taking effective action on climate change stands out as unique in the world, and if there's one country which will cop it first in terms of the long term effects of climate change it's the dry continent of Australia.

TONY EASTLEY: Kevin Rudd, thank you for joining us this morning on AM.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks for having me on the program.

TONY EASTLEY: Kevin Rudd.

END

Media enquiries