Subjects: Visit to New York.
E&OE...........
LAWS:
Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, John, nice to talk to you as always.
LAWS:
I hope you had a good Christmas. Did you get a break?
PRIME MINISTER:
I did. I read lots of books and played lots of golf and I had a very good break and I hope you did too.
LAWS:
I did.
PRIME MINISTER:
I didn';t feel guilty about having a break.
LAWS:
No, I think you';d earned it. Tell me, it must have been, given the fact that you are a sensitive man and not shy of that fact, it must have been very moving to see first-hand that ground zero area.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it certainly was. I talked to a lot of the workmen who, incidentally, are employed by Lend Lease which is an Australian company, a global Australian company. One man had been there since the afternoon of the 11th of September, the bloke who is in charge of the whole operation. It';s sad, it';s bleak, it';s desolate and, I guess, the most heart-rending part of all were the messages on the wall.
LAWS:
Still remaining are they?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yes, thousands, well, hundreds of them and all sorts of messages. I naturally had a look at the, there are lists of the countries and there was a photograph of Andrew Knox, one of the, sadly, one of the young Australians who died there and other little photographs of people with messages such as, ‘daddy, you are such a hero,'; addressed to a New York fireman, signed by his daughters and those sorts of things are really in anybody';s language heart-wrenching.
LAWS:
Is the site bigger than you anticipated it would be?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, it is really. I mean, when you look at a building from a distance it never seems to cover quite as much ground but it';s an enormous site. I happened to go up the top of the Empire State Building with my wife and two boys, who fortunately joined us for a few days, and we looked down towards the end of New York where the World Trade Centre used to stand and in the early evening it was illuminated of course and it';s just an enormous illuminated cavity in a sea of skyscrapers.
LAWS:
Yeah. Are you aware that there';s been another airport scare in the US this morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
I';ve not been told of that, so the answer';s, no, I';m not.
LAWS:
In San Francisco apparently they detected traces of some explosive on the shoes of some individual who incidentally was allowed to get away. That was in San Francisco. Have you noticed a heightened state of alertness during your visit, of course security in relation to…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well certainly the security ahs been very tight, I have to say that I found, I';ve always found security in Australia at least as tight, if not tighter than anywhere else in the world, even before the 11th of September. There is a heightened security at airports, I noticed that in Los Angeles ‘cause we flew in from Sydney to Los Angeles, I';ve certainly noticed that. On the other hand, well not on the other hand, but as well, I';ve certainly found in New York a tremendous spirit when people are forever remembering what happened but they';re certainly determined to get on with their lives. I met the new Mayor, Mr Bloomberg, just about an hour ago and he made the comment to me that he thought New York';s best days were ahead of it. And certainly the city';s got a spirit and a determination about, I think it';s a fantastic place New York.
LAWS:
Yes it is, it';s like a big Sydney, New York.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I sometimes say that there are similarities between the two cities, and there are. Sydney, in some respects it';s got a lot of similarities to New York and some things that are very different too. But there';s certainly great appreciation of what the former Mayor Guiliani did for the crime rate, and he';s remembered with great affection, he';s remembered by certainly the police and other';s I';ve spoken to. They think he did a fantastic job and they think his zero tolerance approach to crime was pretty good.
LAWS:
Well maybe on your return you can encourage some of the state premiers to develop a similar attitude, a zero tolerance attitude.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think New York';s a classic demonstration, their murder rate came down from something like 2000 a year to 600. Now it';s an astonishingly better place for many people to live in now than it used to be and indeed the people who are the greatest beneficiaries of that are the poorer people. The better off people could always live on the upper east side and protect themselves but the poorer people are the beneficiaries when the crime rate comes down.
LAWS:
Prime Minister you';ve also addressed the UN Security Council. Has there been a deal of criticism directly to you of Australia';s treatment of asylum seekers?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, the only person who';s raised it with me was a reporter who was later identified as CNN reporter, identified by the ABC AM Programme which I';ve seen a transcript of, as an CNN reporter. It hasn';t been raised with me with by anybody. I met Mr Karzai the, I guess you call him the provisional Prime Minister of Afghanistan. And we talked about the issue and I';m happy to say that we';ve arranged for an Afghani delegation to come to Australia to talk about this issue, I explained our policy, I said that we would, in relation to people who were not judged to be refugees, we would be willing to provide some resettlement assistance for them to go back to Afghanistan. He had publicly said the previous day that people were welcome to return.
LAWS:
Given that they allegedly left Afghanistan to escape the Taliban and the Taliban is no longer there, there would seem to be no reason why they couldn';t safely return.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that is our view and I thought today was a very positive meeting, the most positive development on this whole front for some time because they understood our position, he didn';t say to me well we want you to change the policy, he did say to me that he would send his delegation out and they want to do that in the next couple of weeks. And I';m cautious about progress in this area, it';s a difficult issue but I certainly think now that the Taliban is gone the situation has changed fundamentally.
LAWS:
Will this delegation be permitted access to Woomera.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes. Why not?
LAWS:
Well that';s it, that';s the point, why not.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we don';t have any objection to that, we don';t have anything, if they want to they can go and talk to people. I pointed out to him as Mr Ruddock and I have constantly, if people can establish a refugee claim then we will take our share of the people who establish who establish refugee claims. That';s always been our position and it always will be our position. But we won';t just have a situation created where whether or not people are refugees they should come here. And interestingly enough one of the comments that was made to be by one of his ministers was that they want to talk to these people to be satisfied that people who were calling themselves Afghanis were in fact Afghani's. They said that was fair enough too and I said really underlines the reason why you have to a screening process.
LAWS:
True.Now the fact that you';ve said that these can go to Woomera and they can go and ask questions and go wherever they like virtually, doesn';t that indicate that Australia has nothing to hide?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we don';t have anything to hide, nobody likes mandatory detention. You don';t like it, I don';t like it, nobody does. But if you are to avoid losing control of your immigration policy it';s got to be part of it and I mean that was the reason why long before I became Prime Minister the policy was introduced by the former Government.
LAWS:
Did you happen, this is far away from all of this, did you happen to see any of Michael Bevan';s innings the night before last?
PRIME MINISTER:
No unfortunately.
LAWS:
I hope you got somebody to tape it for you.
PRIME MINISTER:
I have made arrangements from here. I can assure you, I';m told it was a bottler.
LAWS:
Unbelievable. He';s the best one day cricketer in the world.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';ve seen a few great innings of his in one day cricket and he is fantastic. I mean it really means that we're back in the game.
LAWS:
His innings the night before I last, I promise you, after you';ve seen it, you';ll say it was the most fantastic end to a one day-er ever.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';m looking forward to seeing it and although I';m very happy to be in the United States and I';m on important business I';m sorry I missed it.
LAWS:
Prime Minister thank you very much for your time and we';ll be here to welcome you home.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks very much John.
[ends]