PM: I'm deeply shocked by developments this morning in East Timor affecting the President of East Timor and the Prime Minister.
What we've had, apparently, are coordinated attacks aimed at assassinating the democratically elected leadership of East Timor, a close friend and partner of Australia.
We can confirm that this morning, Dili time, East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot and wounded at his home on Beach Road in Dili.
The President was taken by ambulance to the Aspen Medical facility of the Australian lead international stabilisation force where he's receiving all necessary medical care.
Australia has already indicated we'll do whatever is necessary to provide further medical assistance including offering medical evacuation to Darwin.
That offer has been extended and I'm advised, in the last quarter of an hour or so, has been activated.
We understand that the condition of Jose Ramos-Horta is very serious, but stable.
Also this morning, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's convoy was attacked. I've spoken to Xanana Gasmao twice this morning, and spoken to his wife Kirsty on two separate occasions as well.
I can confirm that both the President and his wife and family are safe.
He's indicated to me that both with Government security officials and his parliamentary colleagues that they are making efforts to ensure that stability in East Timor is secured at this time.
Australia will stand resolutely behind East Timor at this time of crisis in their democracy.
Australia is a long standing partner and friend of East Timor, in the past. We will remain that way in the future, including at this time of national need.
In response to a request from the Government of East Timor, the National Security Committee of the Cabinet has met today, and authorised a substantial and immediate reinforcement of Australian Defence Force personnel, as well as an additional contingent of AFP personnel.
The international security force, the stabilisation force, including ADF, have already secured key buildings, and deployed more broadly throughout Dili and increased their presence in East Timor's districts.
The security situation on the ground is currently assessed as stable, but this could change quickly as events unfold.
We have, at this stage, not publicly confirmed, but reasonably confirmed reports of the death of the rebel leader Reinado.
Prime Minister Xanano Gusmao has also asked if I could visit East Timor later in the week, and I intend to take up his invitation to do so.
My reason for doing that is to reinforce, in person, Australia's resolve, Australia's determination, to stand with East Timor at this time of deep challenge to its democratic processes.
I conclude with this: that, for there to be a co-ordinated attempt to assassinate the democratically elected leadership of a close neighbour and friend of Australia's is a deep and disturbing development.
This Government - the Australian Government - will stand resolutely with the democratically elected Government of East Timor at this time of crisis, hence our decisions in response to their request to dispatch additional ADF personnel and additional police forces as well, at this time.
I'm happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, How many of the troops and AFP are you sending? (Inaudible)
PM: On the question of the ADF deployment, the request from East Timor is for a substantial and significant enhancement. We would look to do that at company strength.
On the question of police personnel, we will be looking to deploy an additional 50 to 70 police personnel, again in response to a request from our friends in Dili.
JOURNALIST: Were there any Australian troops or AFP personnel involved in the incidents this morning?
PM: Not according to my advice. You'll understand, however, that this is a fluid situation. Piecing together precisely how events have unfolded this morning will take some time and I stand to be corrected in what I've just said. But, I have relayed to you the information which we are reasonably confident of being confirmed and accurate at this stage.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is he actually on the plane yet? You said activate, what does that mean?
PM: Well, again we extended the invitation to the East Timorese to have Jose to Darwin as quickly as possible. His condition, as I said before, we understand to be very serious but stable.
I understand a medical decision has been taken to airlift him to the airport about now. I would stand to be corrected the absolute detail of that because it is a fluid situation. We are ready to receive him in Darwin.
I understand that operation is under way.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, does it - the extra forces, is that an indication that despite the apparent death of Renaido that the rebel forces are still active and are still a threat.
PM: Our Government, the Australian Government, believes that if we get a request from the East Timorese Government, we need to respond quickly and substantially to that request.
I believe that when you have got something as fundamentally destabilising as the attempted assassination of the entire senior democratically elected leadership of one of our neighbours, it is obviously a destabilising time with rogue elements at play.
Therefore, an appropriate show of force is necessary. That is the judgement of the East Timorese, hence the request that they have made, hence why we have responded to that request.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) bring our total troop numbers to East Timor and is it just an increase in troops or is there going to be some military - additional military equipment taken in by them?
PM: My advice, and I will turn to Angus Houston to add to this if there is any inaccuracy in what I say, is that we'll be flying these forces in with ‘Hercs' very soon.
They will come as they are already prepared, as they are defence force professionals, with whatever equipment they need.
In answer to the first part of your question, that'll bring our total troop deployments in East Timor to about a thousand.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) coincide with a parliamentary sitting week (inaudible)
PM: Well Dennis, events are rapidly unfolding and I've received that invitation from the Prime Minister of East Timor. We've agreed that I'll travel later in the week. It's more likely to be later in the week than earlier. I would hope towards the end of the week. But we're watching things very carefully.
Apart from responding positively to his invitation, I also want to make sure in my own mind that we have sufficient deployment of assets to assist the democratically elected Government of East Timor.
I want to make absolutely sure of that personally, and that's what I hope to be doing in a few days time.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: We have no information available to us at this stage which would suggest that.
We seem to have the efforts of rogue elements at work. But, this is a rapidly unfolding situation in terms of the information flow. Let's see what unfolds. But in direct answer to your question, we have no such information available to the Government at this stage.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM:Well, given that these events only happened a number of hours ago, the request made elsewhere I'm unfamiliar with. But I've spent a fair bit of time this morning talking with Xanana Gusmao, and with members of his family, and it's their considered position that they could do with these assets now.
Remember, historically we've had a relationship with East Timor whereby we have a particular set of responsibilities relating to their security.
When one of our friends in need puts their hands up for a bit of help, a bit of extra help, particularly under these extreme circumstances when someone has tried to take out the democratically elected leadership of the country, I think the right thing to do is to respond and to respond quickly.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: I understand through the Department of Foreign Affairs there is contact with Jakarta, unless the Foreign Minister wants to add to what I'm saying.
As we have been in contact with the United Nations as well given their responsibilities for security arrangements there, and our friends, allies and partners in Wellington.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, do you know how many rebels were involved and indeed how many were captured?
PM: On both those questions, it's fluid. There are conflicting reports, and I'd rather not mislead you on the content of it. As soon as that becomes clear, statements will come from us or from the Government in Dili.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Sorry, I missed the first bit -
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Well, I think everyone in the Government is deeply disturbed by what's happened this morning. Of course, a number of these problems have been brewing for some time, going back to the events of a year or so ago.
But, precisely what has caused this event, let's wait for all the facts to unfold.
I've been around long enough in international relations to know that you wait for all the facts to be in before you reach definitive conclusions.
What we know for a fact is that someone out there tried to assassinate the political leadership of our friend, partner and neighbour. They've asked for some help, and we're about to provide it.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) SAS, commandos or elite forces (inaudible)
PM: I don't want to go into the detail of the content of forces, I'll leave our defence force professionals to make those decisions on the precise composition thereof.
But I can say that, certainly, the ADF, a professional bunch of men and women, are always prepared for these contingencies. We have a ready reaction capability at company strength. That's what's being deployed.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) say about how long Australian troops might need to stay in East Timor and indeed what do they say about Australia's capability perhaps we can contribute to other efforts abroad other than East Timor in the future?
PM: Well, both the Defence Minister and Foreign Minister and I have been talking about this today. Because it reinforces an argument we've advanced in the Australian debate for a long, long time. And that is, we have large security policy challenges here in our own region, our own neighbourhood, our own back yard. And, we need to make sure we've got adequate deployable assets to respond to contingencies in the neighbourhood.
Of course, you're aware of the Government's position in relation to the future of our combat force in Iraq. And one of the reasons we've advanced for its return is that we need those assets to be deployable elsewhere.
Therefore, looking ahead, we will be vigilant about future security policy needs in the neighbourhood. But, we need to make sure that we have sufficient assets at home against a range of contingencies in the neighbourhood, not just this one.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: The advice that I have from officials is that in relation to yours truly there is not a problem. And frankly, the key challenge is to respond positively, definitively, and publicly to an invitation from my East Timorese counterpart.
If the Prime Minister in East Timor says: ‘what I need is some defence assets and police assets and it would be great if the Prime Minister of this country could come', my response to that is, yes, yes and yes.
If that assists in stabilising a polity, political arrangements in East Timor at a time when they've suffered enormous external shock.
Let's put this into context.
When you look at what has happened in East Timor, this is a very significant regional security policy development. When you have an armed attack against the political leadership of a neighbouring state, particularly one for whom we have such unique responsibilities as East Timor.
Therefore, when our friends ring us up, and contact us, and we're in contact with them, and requests are forthcoming, we should respond and we have done so.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
ANGUS HOUSTON: In answer to the first question, no, we had nobody involved in any of the incidents this morning.
In terms of the deployment, it will be a substantial force that will put us just under a thousand, and will have the capacity to respond in any way that the Government needs us to respond.
We'll have a good manoeuvre capability and we'll be focussed on dealing with anybody who is up to any mischief against the East Timorese Government.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, just on another issue. While you were in opposition you promised greater accountability and transparency of parliament. According to Joe Hockey (inaudible) too fewer Question Times under your first year as there were under the Howard Government (inaudible)
PM: I think when it comes to the way in which this parliament will operate, there will be a number of things which we will do differently. As I said yesterday in an interview with Laurie Oakes, I don't think it's responsible to go out there in the promise that everything is going to change overnight.
Specifically on the number of sitting days, for example, you've seen the reform proposed by Anthony Albanese for an extra sitting day for backbenchers, I think that's a very good move. And all these other things which the opposition has raised, I'm sure we can work through those with what will be I'm sure will be a good positive and productive relationship between Mr Hockey and Mr Albanese.
JOURNALIST: When will the wording of the apology be made public (inaudible)
PM: It will be tomorrow. As Anthony Albanese indicated earlier today, we will give notice of motion tomorrow and therefore, prior to that, the opposition will be informed.
I was speaking about this only about an hour or so ago, a bit less actually, with the Leader of the Opposition. And, we'll make sure that all those processes are put in place for that to occur.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, will it be early in the day or will we have to wait (inaudible)
PM: Well, remember who our audience is here, which is indigenous people to have an apology registered with them through the parliament.
And in Jenny Macklin's discussions with indigenous leaders, that's actually important. That it be transacted through the parliament.
So, we seeking to deal with a couple of different objectives here. One is to be open and transparent about what we're on about. Two, deal with legitimate expectations of representatives of the stolen generations to make sure that they're happy with procedures and content. And three, to get up and out there as early as possible.
But, it will be available at the time when the motion is moved in the parliament, obviously, and prior to that we hope to have a further round of discussion with the opposition on language.
JOURNALIST: What's your reaction to the Reserve Bank's warning today that inflation is likely to remain above 3 per cent until mid 2010 and that further tightening of monetary policy (inaudible)
PM: It's a disturbing warning from the Reserve Bank about the extent of the inflation problem that we in Australia now face.
We've said before, and we'll say it again: when we were handed Government we were handed Government with inflation running at its highest level in 16 years. We now know the dimensions of the challenge we face in the years ahead.
That's why together with Wayne Swan, myself and Lindsay Tanner, we've been hard at work on this. That's why the first speech I delivered this year prior to new data coming out on the CPI and prior to new data coming out from the Reserve Bank on the level of interest rates, I indicated that our number one priority would be the war against inflation. Hence our five point plan to deal with the inflation challenge.
It's the enemy of working families, it's enemy of business, the enemy of the economy. For us it's public enemy number one. And we've got a huge challenge on our hands. And the RBA data today says that.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, I understand that you spoke with the New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma last night. Do you join -
PM: You're well informed.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) Mr Iemma's plan to privatise (inaudible)
PM: On the reform plan in New South Wales, with the electricity industry, Premier Iemma has my complete support.
This is a necessary reform for the nation. I understand how politically problematic it is. But, we need to make sure that we get proper generating capacity for the State for the future. I support Premier Iemma's direction.
JOURNALIST: Your Defence Minister spoke this morning about the need for Australia to have a seat a the table in talks on Afghanistan. You can tell us what that means (inaudible). What are you asking NATO for, what role are you asking NATO forces to give Australia? (Inaudible) How much extra pressure does that put on our commitments and does that (inaudible) NATO forces that they (inaudible)
PM: Well, the Defence Minister has been entirely right in his comments both in the special meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Edinburgh at the end of last year which he attended with the CDF and most recently in Vilnius.
And why he is right is, we currently have a thousand or so troops deployed in a very difficult and dangerous operating environment, and we want to be confident - absolutely confident - that this is part and parcel of a coherent global strategy for winning the war in Afghanistan.
And what the Defence Minister rightly said this morning was he was concerned about decisions taken earlier by our predecessors seem to have been taken in isolation from what NATO was doing.
Remember NATO supplies a large number of the forces in Afghanistan, and NATO countries are therefore individually and collectively responsible for shaping a lot of the strategy - military and civilian - for Afghanistan as a whole.
So what he's asking for, and I support him fully in this, is if we're going to have forces on the ground in Afghanistan, we want to be part of the decision making process, and therefore, as a consequence, have confidence that strategy is capable of success. So I support him in his efforts and his forthright comments on it.
And I think we'd better go. Thank you.
[ends]