PM: On behalf of the Government, I wish to pass my condolences to the family of Lance Corporal Jason Marks, who was sadly killed during engagement with the Taliban last night.
Lance Corporal Marks was a highly trained and professional soldier. He was an inspiration to others. Lance Corporal Marks is married, and is the father of two children. My deepest sympathies and those of my family, and those of the nation, go to Lance Corporal Mark's family and friends and his colleagues.
The Australian Government and the Australian Defence Force will continue to provide his family with the support and assistance they need during this most difficult time.
Our thoughts and our prayers are also with the four injured soldiers and their families. And we hope that they have a full and fast recovery. I am advised that the families of all concerned have been notified by the Australian Defence Force.
This is a sad day for the nation. It is a sad day for the Australian Defence Force. It is a tragic day for the family of Lance Corporal Jason Marks. The security situation in Afghanistan remains grim. This is a difficult, and remains a difficult and dangerous operating environment for the Australian Defence Force, most particularly in Oruzgan Province.
It is likely to become more difficult in the period ahead. We are facing a change of season as the winter snows melt and the Spring full begins, which usually indicates a heightening in military activity on the part of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
We've also seen parallel activity on the part of the Taliban forces in terms of the action that we saw attempted against President Hamid Karzai in Kabul in the last 24 hours. Therefore, 2008 will be difficult and dangerous and bloody and the Australian nation needs to prepare itself for further losses in the year ahead.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you concerned that a growing death toll will sap public support for our Afghanistan commitment?
PM: This marks the loss of the fifth Australian in combat operations in Afghanistan. We've had, prior to today's events, as I understand it, some 31 soldiers injured or wounded. This toll will become worse. And I think let's accept that reality and prepare ourselves for it.
The purpose of our recent meetings in Bucharest were to agree, for the first time, with our NATO partners in Afghanistan, a new integrated civilian and military strategy for dealing with the challenge in that country. That has now been agreed. Furthermore, officials today, I'm advised, are meeting in Ottawa to deal specifically with the new arrangements which flow from those discussions between our partners for the strategy which will apply now in the south of the country.
We therefore have a new way forward. Having said that, it will still be very difficult. And it will still be, in my judgment, very bloody. And as I also indicated in Bucharest, it will be important for ourselves, together with our NATO partners, to review the success of this strategy at least on an annual basis.
JOURNALIST: Was that agreed to in the end when you left Bucharest, I think it was still in flux whether that report-back regime was going to be (inaudible)?
PM: There is no formal agreement on that. That will be our approach and that will be discussed further with the NATO Secretary General between now and next year.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, at the moment are we winning or losing this war?
PM: This is a very difficult engagement. It's been going a long, long time. I think there have been problems with the way in which this strategy has been put together in the past. I think all NATO partners are agreed with that and principally, in the absence of an effective strategy linking the civilian and the military dimensions of operations in Afghanistan, therefore it is important to turn the page and embrace this new strategy.
But nothing is a blank cheque here. We therefore, as I indicated in Bucharest, will be reviewing the effectiveness of this strategy on an annual basis and will be doing so nationally even if there is a reluctance to do so corporately, though I have not encountered that reluctance so far.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister can you name a local, state or imperial power that has ever managed to control the area where you now (inaudible) Australian troops fighting?
PM: The history of Afghanistan is one which is not only bloody but one which has consistently resisted foreign troop activity. Across what is now called Afghanistan, and certainly the part of the country that you referred to, as I am advised. Therefore the history is against us, but remember, why are we there? We are there because a failed state was giving open succour and support to a global terrorist organisation Al Qaeda, which then attacked our ally the United States on September the 11th 2001 and in the process, murdered 3000 people.
We, as a consequence of our alliance with the United States, embarked upon a combined military action with them. Nothing has changed since then. What we have embarked upon now is a revision to the strategy which we believe to be most applicable in the field and that means, in its essence, getting the integration of our military efforts and our civilian efforts better done than have been in the past.
As I have said before, I would not have Australian troops committed there and nor would I have had Australian them committed there as the alternative Prime Minister of Australia last year had I not believed there was a strategy which could ultimately prevail. Nonetheless, this is not a blank cheque and it will be subject to rolling annual review.
Andrew, you had a question?
JOURNALIST: One of the things that you (inaudible) wanted to get out of the NATO conference was to get more combat troops in more hostile areas including Oruzgan. I think there was talk for example of the Germans coming from the north down to Oruzgan, I think they are stuck in barracks a lot of the time. When is Australia and its troops there going to see more help in these very hostile areas?
PM: Well, part of the discussion occurring in Ottawa today among officials will be to resolve overall troop deployments across the south. Once those discussions are concluded I am sure the Government will have something further to say on that. I think it would be unrealistic to expect there to be dramatic changes in immediate troop deployments, of course, some of our recent diplomacy has been focussed on ensuring that the Dutch could remain in force and the Canadians could remain deployed in the wider south and that has been the subject of quite intensive negotiations between governments and some discussions between myself and my Dutch and Canadian counterparts.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, this 15 day gap to the Budget, how is that process going? And can you guarantee that low and middle income earners won't be worse off when we're hearing of billions of dollars cut from Government spending?
PM: Well the first part of your question is, ‘how's the budget process going?', answer to that, tough as all hell. The second part of your question is that this is a Government that believes in standing up for the interests of working families. And that's why, despite quite considerable pressure in the first several months of this year to drop our commitment to introduce tax cuts for working families, we'll be proceeding with the implementation of those tax cuts. And proceeding with changes to the child care tax rebate as well.
We believe that working families are under financial pressure, not least from recent increases in mortgage payments, but also what's happened with petrol prices and what's happening with grocery prices. And therefore, our commitment is to do everything we can through the Budget to assist. There's no silver bullet here, but we believe in doing whatever we can to assist.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, you said of the case for Afghanistan, you've said that the risk in there is that the likely toll for Australia is likely to be high. What happens if we lose the war?
PM: Well, that's the great hypothetical question of this morning's press conference. I said before that I think the nation needs to steel itself for higher casualties than we have had so far. And, that's a reflection on heightened Taliban activity, the fact that the Taliban continue to be assisted by I think ineffective strategies to deal with the opium crop, and the flow of revenue which occurs between the opium crop and Taliban and through them Al-Qaeda forces.
That's why an integrated strategy dealing with military and civilian affairs is critical if we are to have a prospect of success. The ingredients of the document agreed to, both its public form and its internal form in Bucharest, provide us with the basis of so doing. Therefore, I've said, and committed this Australian Government, to being there for the long haul. But it's not a blank cheque. We'll continue to review this as necessary.
JOURNALIST: Would you consider dispatching more troops?
PM: We have no such plans as I indicated most recently to the President of the United States and to our colleagues in the other participating States in Bucharest, when we met for some time discussing explicitly our forward commitments - that we believed our commitment was significant.
Remember it's is the largest contribution of a non-NATO power to the operation in Afghanistan, and we believe it's sufficient for our current purposes. The key thing is to make sure that other parties engage in effective burden sharing, and furthermore, that there is an effective civilian correlation to the military effort.
Thanks very much.