TRANSCRIPT OF JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE of Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, The Minister For Foreign Affairs and The Austrian Foreign Minister held in SYDNEY last 19 FEBRUARY 2011

SUBJECTS: Bilateral Relationship, Middle East, Travel Advice, Whaling, Afghanistan War, Galaxy Poll, and ALP Reform.

KEVIN RUDD: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and I would like to also formally welcome my colleague the Foreign Minister of Austria who visits us today in Australia as a guest of the Australian Government. For the history books let me record the fact that this is the first visit to Australia by a Foreign Minister of Austria, and so you are particularly welcome here in our country.

We have had a good discussion this morning about our bilateral relationship. We have a substantial economic engagement with one another, we have several hundred Austrian firms who are active in the Australian economy, we have active Australian investment occurring also within Austria. Beyond that of course our countries share common values, we share common interests in the global community. And our discussion this morning is focused on how do we turn a new page in the Australia Austria relationship and create a new chapter of our cooperation in foreign policy matters around the world, and we've agreed to do that.

What we have discussed today in particular is firstly how do we work more closely together in areas of concern to the entire international community in arms control, disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. This vitally affects our interests given developments in the Korean peninsula, developments in Iran and developments elsewhere. And this challenge that we've been presented with by the non-proliferation treaty review conference last year - with 62 agreed recommendations and how to translate that into reality in the future - is something which our governments will now work together on.
We've also discussed our broader collaboration in international institutions and we will deepen that as well. We also look forward to the opportunity of engaging our Austrian colleagues on the continuing work of the G20 given that the future health of the global financial system directly underpins the future wellbeing of both our economies and both our societies.

We see ourselves therefore as having much in common and we intend to work together on these challenges in the future. We also spoke of our respective work in the area of interfaith dialogue, work which Austria does within Europe and we also seek to do in this part of the world with our good friends in Indonesia. Now this has been a very productive discussion.

We've also of course in today's discussion focused on the immediate developments in the Middle East. Australia has followed these developments with great concern. Overnight it is fair to say that in Bahrain the situation has deteriorated considerably, we have seen clear reports of fatalities among protestors and a large number of injuries as well.

We've also seen developments which have been disturbing overnight in Libya as well as the continuation and in some places the commencement of protest activity in various other parts of the region. In Yemen, in Iraq, in Jordan, Syria, Algeria, Djibouti and Kuwait. We therefore face real challenges as the region grapples with the challenges of the democratic aspirations of the people to the wider Middle East.

For Bahrain could I make this additional remark in terms of the safety and wellbeing of Australian travellers? We currently have 400 registered Australians in Bahrain, we believe there are about 1000 Australians within Bahrain. We have dispatched two Embassy officials from Riyadh to be on the ground in Bahrain to provide Consular support. We're providing regular travel advice updates to all Australians who are registered with Smart Traveller. On 17 February we sent a mail out to all registered Australians in Bahrain and we continue to undertake similar actions in other parts of the wider Middle East.

Furthermore if I could draw the attention of the Australian public to the change in the Australian travel advisory to Bahrain. This has been reissued today. The Australian travel advisory for Bahrain now reads that Australians should reconsider their need to travel due to the unpredictable security situation as a result of recent clashes between protestors and Government security forces which have resulted in a number of fatalities and many more injured.

I would draw the attention of all members of the Australian travelling public and all residents in Bahrain to this upgrade today of the Australian travel advisory on Bahrain. Both the minister and I have been exchanging our analysis of where things are developing in the wider Middle East and in particular in Bahrain overnight, and therefore we view these developments with concern.

My final point speaking for Australia is this; we'd call upon all governments of the region including those in Bahrain and those in Libya and elsewhere to respect the right of peaceful protest. This we believe is a universal right for all peoples to be able to exercise their voice, their political voice without threat or the actuality of violence. We therefore make that public statement of our position as we've done in the past in relation to Egypt. Our immediate concerns also address of course the wellbeing of Australians resident within the region

I'll conclude my remarks there, and then invite my Austrian colleague to make some remarks about our discussion this morning and then we'll happily take any questions that you might have.

MICHAEL SPINDELEGGER: Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen I'm really proud to be the guest of my dear colleague Kevin Rudd here in Australia. We had a wonderful exchange of views, it was a very fruitful meeting we had and I would like to focus on three different issues.

First of all from the bilateral point of view I think we could cooperate more in the future. As Minister Rudd said we are starting to open up a new chapter in the cooperation between Austria and Australia, we are sitting side by side in all the international organisations, sometimes we are mixed up of course, but it doesn't matter. I think we have a lot in common and there are a lot of similarities in our societies. So it makes sense to cooperate more in the future.

Today we have been discussing to cooperate in the field of disarmament, non-proliferation. I think Australia has set a lot of initiatives and we would like to support it. I just informed the minister what we are doing in Vienna, we opened up a new liaison office for disarmament in the United Nations centre and I think we could cooperate in that field, it's of most importance for all over the world to get some steps forward.

We have also been agreeing that we should meet on an annual basis. I totally agree to that and I invited of course Minister Rudd to come for the next time to Austria.

Point number two. What Minister Rudd said about Bahrain and all the region in the Middle East I totally agree to that.

We are very much concerned about the last developments, we have to follow that regularly and every day, and of course I think we have to act, we have to act in that way that we as the European ministers for Foreign Affairs, we come together on Monday in Brussels, we will discuss the situation and we will also give our high representative Catherine Ashton a mandate to build up a package of measures going to the region and to give the opportunity of Europe just to present measures from the European side. That could be just to make a proposal to come up with measures to really promote this transitional process and to give some advice to come to democratic structures and to have a democratic process in all these different states.

Point number three. I would like to say we have come with a business community from Austria here to Australia, we would like to present also more engagement in the field of cooperation in the economic field. And we have a lot of interest in Austria in this part of the world even if it's not around the corner, and I am sure that in a globalised world we could reach some efforts in the next years and I'm sure that our delegation from the business community in Austria is ready to engage more in this part of the world, and I think if Australia would come to Austria with a business delegation during the year we could really make some steps forward. We're very optimistic about that. And I really would like to thank you again for your wonderful hospitality.

I would like to express from the Austrian side also our condolences to all the victims about the floods and the cyclone here in Australia. We followed the pictures really every day and I would like to express also my sympathy for all the citizens of Australia in this situation. Thank you very much.

KEVIN RUDD: Thank you, Michael for those remarks. If I could before asking for your questions just add one or two things.

I join with him of course to welcome the business delegation that's come from Austria. It's good when our business leaders spend time with each other. They discover new economic opportunities which in the past we never knew existed, and so I think there is a great opportunity given the significance of Austria within Europe, its own particular outreach to the caucuses, its own particular outreach to the economies of the Black Sea as well as its own engagement within the European Union itself where there are great opportunities for Australian business as well.

Finally the Foreign Minister mentioned our engagement as an international community in responding in a supportive way to developments in Egypt and elsewhere.

Early this morning I spoke again with Baroness Ashton the European High Representative on Foreign Affairs in Brussels. I've also spoken in the last several days with Secretary of State Clinton and Foreign Ministers Hague, Westerwelle in Germany and Maehara in Japan, and yesterday also the UN Secretary General. The countries of the world, the democracies of the world need to come together to provide practical forms of assistance to our good friends in Egypt. Our friends in Europe are in the process of doing that through the coordination occurring in Brussels. Australia will be attending a senior officials meeting in Brussels on 23rd February in just several days' time where we hope not just to see efforts from the United States, efforts from the European Union but efforts from democracies around the world.

What form could this assistance take? Obviously forms of economic support, concerns about food security need to be addressed, also more broadly the question of how we assist at a technical level given the great challenges of economic management which we see playing out on the streets of Egypt and Cairo today, and also the challenges which present themselves to the Egyptians in the physical conduct of elections later this year.

So as fellow democracies in the international community but also in cooperation with our partners in Latin America and the Asia Pacific region and the European Union and elsewhere Australia stands ready to play its part in supporting the good people of Egypt at a time of great transition.

Over to you for questions.

QUESTION: Minister do you have any more details on the meeting between the Japanese Government - discussing whaling - and the Australian Ambassador for Japan? Do you know what happened at that meeting and what the repercussions are?

KEVIN RUDD: Well as you know we've had a rolling dialogue with our good friends in Japan on whaling going back quite a long period of time and it's quite plain that on this question we have a different point of view.

We have sought over some years to resolve this matter diplomatically with the Japanese in order to bring an end to so called scientific whaling, what we believe to be commercial whaling, in the Pacific. We weren't able to achieve that outcome diplomatically and that is why we have decided as an Australian Government to have this matter resolved with Japan in the International Court of Justice. And we've done so amicably with our friends in Tokyo because we believe it's important to use the international institutions to resolve matters where we have a different perspective.

In terms of the immediate developments in the South Pacific and the decision by the Government of Japan or by the Japanese fishing authorities to withdraw its whaling fleet , Japan will answer for itself in terms of the reasons for that.

Yes our ambassador attended a meeting at the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo yesterday, and as I'm sure you would understand and respect, the contents of diplomatic conversations should remain confidential.

QUESTION: The apparent release of an SAS video of an SAS raid of Australian troops in Afghanistan is with the Daily Telegraph. Do you - what are your thoughts on what such a security breach poses to our efforts in that part of the world?

KEVIN RUDD: Well first of all I've not seen the release that you refer to and therefore I won't comment on specific details.

All I would say more generally as a question of principle is that we have always in intense military operations abroad a balance to be struck between transparency to our friends in the fourth estate on the one hand and the legitimate interest of the media to cover developments where our own sons and daughters are engaged, and on the other hand to maintain the absolute security of the operations in which they are engaged in order to provide them with the physical protection they need.

That's the balance that we always go to strike. It's a hard balance to strike, there are competing interests here, but I say that by way of general principle rather than commenting on the specifics of the matter that you refer to with the Telegraph.

QUESTION: Are you concerned though with what risk this poses if our soldiers are leaking footage of their operations?

KEVIN RUDD: I prefer - I prefer to leave that to both the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Force. They are charged with these responsibilities to maintain the security of our men and women in uniform abroad, and therefore what disciplinary arrangements apply within the Australian Defence Force, but I will not rush to any judgement on these matters as these are the subject of the normal investigations, the normal inquiries within the Defence hierarchy.

Our job as the Australian Government is to do everything physically possible to ensure that our men and women in uniform are equipped to do the task that they've been sent there to do and to do so with maximum security concerning their operations and their wellbeing.

But I make no particular comments on this individual matter.

QUESTION: What do you make of the Galaxy poll this morning showing that you're more popular as a Labor leader in Queensland against Julia Gillard?

KEVIN RUDD: Well firstly I'd say I've just come from Adelaide and I haven't seen said Galaxy poll. And so in politics…

QUESTION: [Indistinct] 24 percent and Julia Gillard 23 percent.

KEVIN RUDD: Well, you know, in my experience of these things over a long period of time, they go up, they go down, they go up, they go down and our job is to get on with the business of the Australian Government and I'm delighted to have the responsibility as Australian Foreign Minister to discharge those responsibilities.

QUESTION: Are you heartened though to have the support of your home state?

KEVIN RUDD: Well look I'm a Queenslander, you know, that's home. But the bottom line is it's not relevant to the business of the Australian Government. We face real challenges at home dealing with the response to natural disasters throughout my state of Queensland.

And let me just say that the rebuild, the more I see on the ground, is going to take every one of our national efforts. I was talking just yesterday or the day before to a colleague of mine from the seat of Blair where the devastation in so many of those small towns is massive, and really hasn't been the focus of national attention. And he described to me the amount of work which still needs to be done in communities like Esk for example.

Why do I say that? That's what people are concerned about in my state of Queensland right now, and that is - how do we rebuild, how do we recover given the volume of economic damage. That's the core challenge of the Government at home, I'm engaged in core challenges of the Government abroad, and as I just said in terms of what is unfolding in the Middle East right now, we face serious challenges in the period ahead.

We've got to be very mindful that if developments turn in the wrong direction in the wider Middle East all of our national interests and national security interests and national economic interests are affected. We must be mindful of the impact of these developments on the future of terrorism. We must be mindful of the impact of these developments on the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian authority, as well as being mindful of the impact economically of long-term instability in the Middle East on basic things such as the price of oil.

QUESTION: The Foreign Minister dropped a none too subtle hint about an Australian business delegation to Austria. Are you likely to reciprocate?

KEVIN RUDD: Of course, we've had a very amicable conversation about that, and it should happen and we'll be speaking with the Australian Chambers about a reciprocal visit in an appropriate time.

But I'll have one back at the Austrian Foreign Minister, Australian foreign ministers have visited Austria before.
[Laughter]

QUESTION: Mr Rudd your comments of Paul Howes being a thug [Indistinct] tomorrow. How do you think he'll react to that? What do you think his comments will be to that?

KEVIN RUDD: It's a matter for him.

I've simply responded to statements which he made in relation to a friend and cabinet colleague, and I don't propose to add to that.

I think on the broader question of party reform, which is in the press today, I can say this. I would support any recommendations for the reform of the Australian Labor Party which ensure that our party is a vibrant party of the people in the future rather than being a party which is at any time captured by the dictates of factional leaders. That's the sort of party I think both our members and the nation want for the future as opposed to the alternative.

Okay, folks are we done? Thanks very much.

And again can I say to my friend and colleague Michael who's come all the way from Vienna thank you for coming. We together have made a small piece of history. Yes we do occasionally get each other's correspondence because the rest of the world doesn't know about the extra syllable. But you know something, I'd much rather know that we're getting one another's correspondence because we are countries with so many things in common.

Welcome to Australia.

MICHAEL SPINDELEGGER: Thank you and we'll see you in Vienna.

KEVIN RUDD: Thank you folks.

ENDS

The transcript was provided by Dana Robertson from the Foreign Affairs Department.