PRIME MINISTER
18 November 1996 TRANSCRIPT O THE PRIME MINISTER
THlE HON. JOHN HOWARD MP
PRESS CONFERE NCE PARLIAMENT HOUSE
E O E
Ladies and gentlemen, I've called this news conference to inform the Australian public
that shortly after 8.00am this morning President Clinton telephoned me to inform me
that according to the space tracking facilities of the United States, the Russian Mars
probe, which is now apparently orbiting out of control, could crash on Australian
territory, His advice at that time was that it could crash around nooh,' eastern summer time
Australian eastern summer time, although there was. no clear certainty about that.. We.
can't be certain where the probe will come to earth. The initial indications, according
to the President, were that it would be at some point in the Indian Ocean. When he
spoke to me the best advice was north central Australia. I have subsequently spoken
to the Premiers of New South Wales and Queensland to inform themn of my knowledge
of the matter and Mr Fischer has spoken to the Chief Minister of the Northern
Territory. I have also briefed the Leader of the Opposition. We're continuing to
monitor the likely impact point.
The probe contains four plutonium powered batteries. Each the size of an ordinary
film canister containing approximately 200 grams of plutonium all together. The
Russian spgce agency has advised us and also the United States that the canisters are
designed to withstand the heat of re-entry and impact on the ground in which case
there would be no danger of contamination, I chaired a meeting of the National
Security Council this morning which has asked the Australian Defence Force and
Emergency Management Australia to make preparations to deal with any emergency. I
would of course, as well as informing the Australian public of the information we have
available at the present time, naturally urge all Australians if they do believe they come
into contact with any of the debris of the-probe after the point of impact if it does land
in Australia. Can I emphasis that it is just impossible to know two thingys exactly
when it will hit the earth or come into the water, it's impossible to know exactly when
that's going to happen and, of course, it's impossible to know exactly where.
Although the bulk of the situation reports over the last few hours have all been that it
would be somewhere in the northern eastern central part of Australia. One of the very
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later reports indicates that it could well be in the Timor Sea& It is a very, very moving
feast and we really won't know until it does comne to earth. Obviously anybody who
does come into contact or believe they're coming into contact withi any of the debris
should display extreme caution. We have been told, and we have no reason to believe
that the advice tendered by the Russians about the state of the canisters is other than
correct, but quite clearly it is a matter that the Australian public is entitled to be filly
informed of After I was ruing by the President this morning and after I'd had the
meeting at the Security Council I endeavoured to ascertain as much information before
calling this news conference so that I could firstly give reasonable notice before the
likely point of impact, but also at the same time have as much up to date information as
could possibly be made available.
The President's press secretary has issued a statement which I will make available if
it's not already been made available I'll have it made available through my office
which provides really no more detail. It reiterates the statement of the Russian
authorities that there is no danger of contamination. It does make the point that in the
unlikely event that one or more of the batteries did break open the United States would
be prepared to offer all necessary help to any nation to deal with any resuiting
problems. ' Now our emergency management arrangements, of course, have included
consultation with the atomic energy advisers and the scientific advisers available to the
Government. They were informed very shortly after I had mny discussion with the
President. 1 naturally appreciated his action in personally telephoning me to inform me
of the up to date assessment of his authorities. I don't think that there is anything
more that I can usefully say at this stage except to again emphasis to the Australian
public the need for very great caution.
If people have any information about the impact of the probe there is a Defence
Department telephone number that I'd make available that is 06 265 0000. If people
have information, or they believe they have information, which beas upon the time and
the point of impact then they're invited to ring that telephone number.
JOURNAILIST:
Prime Minister do you expect to get any more detailed updates on the likely impact
point through the morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I do.
JOURNALIST: And how wvill you post us about that the people I mean?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I will just take whatever steps and my office and Mr McLachlan's office will take
whatever steps are necessary as further information, hard information, becomes
available we'll make it known either by means of a written statement or perhaps even a 2
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fuarther news conference by one or other of us or one of our officials. It's one of these
things where we want people to know what the situation is but we don't want to be
melodramatic about it it's important. I mean, the public has a right to know that
something containing four canisters of plutonium may land in our country. They must
also be reassured that according to the advice that we've got that they won't break
open. But the only thing you can do in a situation like this is to tell the public in a
completely factual way what you know and what you've been informed. I can't tell
you where it's going to land, I can't tell you when, I can't guarantee it but I can only
tell you what I've been told.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, what is the action plan that if it lands on Australian soil, what happens
there with emergency services?
PRIME MINISTER:
We'll have a team of experts wvho will pretty quickly go there. in fact, I reckon they'll
be there very, very quickly indeed. I wouldn't even, as a non-scientist, I wouldn't even
begin to understand precisely what they would then go about doing, but they have a
very well developed action plan. And the team includes not only defence personnel but
it also includes people who know quite a lot about dangerous substances.
JOURNALIST; Isn't it already on the way from the United States, Mr Howard?
MCLACHLAN: That plan has been activated already. As soon as we heard about it the Chief of the
Defence Force activated the plan. It's a standing plan. It's in place ready to move all
the time. And it has people who are experts on radiological matters, it has
arrangements with the State emergency services and that's been activated about an
hour, hour and a quarter ago.
JOURNALIST: And where is this team and where do they take off from?
MCLACHLAN:
Well they're under the control of Brigadier Alan Hodges. They are all over the
country. I mean, they are in various aspects but they'll be pulled in physically. They're
in different places, but they're controlled out of Canberra.
JOURNALIST: Are they assembling at the moment? 3
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MCLACHLAN: They are. They have been assembling on the phone and physically for an hour and ten
minutes or so. But as the Prime Minister said, assembling to go where is a difficulty.
And I just would like to emphasise that our information is that in past all the
predictions of the re-entry points and where these sorts of space debris finish up have
been inaccurate.
JOURNALIST: Are you hopeful of being told before it lands...
MCLACHILAN: Have been inaccurate, yes...
JOURNALIST: Sorry, are you hopefu of having any advanced warning before it lands on where it will
land or is that
MCLACHLAN; Let me just say to you that, as the Prime Minister said, we've had the previous
thought was, the first thought was that it would be in the Indian Ocean, then
somewhere in Northern and then Eastern Australia and now back in the Timor Sea.
All of that information, the last three pieces of information, have come through in the
last hour and twenty minutes. So we'll have updates as soon as they can be
ascertained by the US, and we're working very closely of course with the US.
JOURNALIST: ( Inaudible).., moving in from the US already in a pre-emptive fashion?
MCILACHLAN: No.
JOURNALIST: How big is the debris expected to be from this? Is there any sort of estimate on what
sort of size
PRIE MINISTER:
It depends with what. I mean, it starts to disintegrate, burn-up, as it re-enters the
earths atmosphere so... 4
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JOURNALIST: Who will Own it Minister or Prime Minister? Will it be the Russians or ours?
MCLACHLAN: You mean if it lands in the East Timor Sea who will own it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's your understanding of the amount of damage that 200 grams of
plutonium could in fact do to a population?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh look Paul, my advice is that it won't break up on impact, therefore it's not goin8 to
escape. But I'm not going to, for reasons I'm sure you understand, I'm not even going
to begin to hypothesise about that. I think my responsibility is unemotionally and in a
non-melodramatic way to tell people what the facts are. I'm not into the business of
hypothesising, I don't think that's sensible. And quite frankly, I don't know that it
would be sensible of any of the networks or the news outlets of this country to be
other than completely factual. We are dealing here with a very sensitive, I hope not
threatening, situation and I don't think any of should engage in the exaggeration or the
melodramatic... JOURNALIST: Are we likely to take up the US offer of help in dealing with it if it lands on Australian
SOil? PRIM MINISTER:
Well, it would depend entirely on the circumstances under which it landed in Australia
and what the consequences of that landing where. We note the American offer but we
have considerable resources of our own in these matters. But obviously if any help
were needed we would take it up. I hope it's not. I mean, let me emphasise it. If the
advice that the Russians have given both us and the Americans is correct, and even if it
does land in Australia and hopefuly it will land in an uninhabited part let us.. . if it
does then there will be no cause for any concern or alarm.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, beyond the advice about what's in this space debris has there been any
other information provided by the Russians and are you concerned that in fact we
found out a bit about this from the United States and not from the Russians?
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PRIME MINISTER:
No. Well look, I haven't really had time to sit around and think about whether we
would should have heard about it earlier. I mean, I'll worry about that this afternoon
or tomorr ow. I'm grateful that the Americans were able to informn us at the highest
level and in such a detailed way. I had quite a detailed briefing on the background of it
directly from the President and subsequent to that my National Security Adviser spoke
to the person in the White House who was on top of the all the technical detail of it.
So the Americans couldn't have been more helpful and couldn't have been more
anxious to let us know in detail what the situation was. The Deputy Foreign Minister
of Russia rang the Russian Anibassador in Canberra at about 9.30am to give himi a
briefing. Whether something should have been told to somebody else earlier, I'll worry
about that later. I'm just a little more preoccupied with the next few hours.
JOURNALIST:
Have the Russians requested access to the debris?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. JOURNALIST: Did the President express any doubt about coming to Australia?
PRIM MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST: Did the President express any doubt about-.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, he said he's looking forward to seeing us.
JOURNALIST: ( Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
He's pretty comfortable and relaxed. 6
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JOURNALIST: On the President's visit directly, can you give an assurance to the Australian car
industry that you will raise with President Clinton the question of their threat to our
automotive exports?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I called this news conference to talk about this other matter. I'll have plenty of
other opportunities to talk about the Clinton visit.
JOURNALIST; ( Inaudible)... . with the President this morning and wvas the first you had heard of this
satellite? PRIE MINISTER:
Well I'd heard on the ABC that it was travelling around. In fact, I think the ABC
radio bulletins this morning carried a reference to the satellite and I1th ink the existence
on it of the four batteries. I think it did. We had a conversation of about ten minutes
and during the conversation lie gave me a technical run down and we just went
through all the background of it. It was very helpifi and the sort of gesture that you
would expoct from the leader of a country with whom you have very close relations.
But of course it's obviously one of those situations where there's a proper obligation
to share that kind of information in the interest of people taking adequate preparations.
JOURNALIST: Are our own facilities tracking the satellite, in Pine Gap and other Austrajiar bases?
PRI[ ME MINISTER:
Well I don't normally get into comments about what some of our facilities do now, do
I? JOURNALIST:
No. PRIME MINISTER:
Thank YOU. 7
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