PM: Can I start by advising people that today as I speak an extensive search and rescue mission is continuing to occur at Christmas Island. They're searching along the shore line and we have rescue divers in the water.
The HMAS 'Pirie' and the Customs vessel 'Triton' are engaged including in areas where ocean currents may have taken survivors or victims. Three aircraft, including two P3 Orions are involved in the search. The operation will continue until nightfall and an assessment will be made then about whether or not it continues tomorrow.
I do want to be clear though, that given the passage of time I believe we do need to face the grim reality that it is becoming increasingly unlikely, an increasingly remote possibility, that survivors will be found at this stage.
The numbers of survivors hasn't changed since yesterday and as people were advised yesterday it remains at 42. I can confirm that there are three Indonesian crew members amongst the survivors and they are being interviewed by the Australian Federal Police. I can confirm that a further two victims have been found amongst the wreckage of the boat by rescue divers and that does bring the number of victims to 30.
Now I know Australians are united in their sadness and their shock at these events and that people's thoughts are on the loss of life and the family members who are grieving, on the circumstances of the injured and I believe people's thoughts are also with those on Christmas Island who tried to help and are now dealing with such difficult memories of this incident and I believe people thoughts are also with our rescue personnel, our Navy and Customs and Border Protection personnel who have been involved in the search and rescue efforts in this tragic incident.
I think Australians are thinking of this today and certainly their good wishes and thoughts are with the grieving, with the injured, with the people of Christmas Island and with our search and rescue personnel.
It remains unclear exactly how many people were on the vessel and we may never know that number with precision. Three survivors have been airlifted from Christmas Island to Perth overnight.
I advised yesterday that there had been some movement of other survivors, so that now brings to five the total number who have been airlifted to Perth for assistance. Now four of those individuals required the specialist assistance that can be made available to them in Perth through the health care system and one is the husband of the injured woman who has also gone, obviously, to be with his wife in these circumstances. Other injured survivors are being treated at Christmas Island.
Obviously the survivors of this incident are traumatised and they're receiving all the care and support we can provide. An imam met with survivors yesterday and arrangements are being made to hold a memorial service that is likely to be on the 19th or 20th of December. A memorial service or services and they will be for the purpose of recognising the loss of life and allowing people to grieve.
Obviously we are very mindful as well of the needs of the people of Christmas Island at this difficult time. Counselling services have been offered to Christmas Island residents who participated in the rescue or witnessed the incident. A shopfront has been established on Christmas Island with professional counsellors to provide immediate assistance to community members who feel they need that assistance.
Now I recognise that there is a great deal of interest in why this vessel was not detected and how the rescue effort was undertaken. As I said yesterday I want there to be a clear flow of information to the public as the facts of this matter become known.
I did ask yesterday for the chronology of events to be released so that Australians did have access to that information and of course there are a number of inquiry and review mechanisms here, including the Western Australian Coronial inquiry, the work of the Australian Federal Police and a Customs assessment which will be conducted quickly as to what has occurred here.
I also yesterday spoke about the establishment of a bipartisan standing group of Parliamentarians in order to receive continuing reports about what the facts of this matter are.
Now it's important that none of these proper processes be pre-empted, but because of speculation to the contrary I do want to be clear that the people smuggling vessel was not sighted until it was sighted from Christmas Island itself by residents. It was not sighted before that time.
If we look at Australia's search and rescue zone it covers 10 percent of the area of the earth. If we look at the amount of ocean that lies to our north, the area that we seek to keep under watch, the area in which we are most likely to see asylum seeker vessels, that area is more than 1.4 million square nautical miles. That's a very big area, to give people a context here, a Dash 8 aircraft in a seven hour mission could fly over 50,000 square nautical miles. I think that helps people give a sense of how big an area we are talking about.
Consequently I think people would understand with such a big area, that it is possible for a boat to get to Christmas Island and not be detected. As I indicated yesterday, the radar that is on vessels, that radar is affected by weather and in these circumstances extreme weather conditions where the Navy and Customs vessels were the other side of the island, the radar was not effective to detect the vessel before it was obviously at Christmas Island and was sighted by residents.
Now I also understand that there is a great deal of interest in the chronology and the rescue efforts here and through the various processes that I've outlined I'm sure that more information on all of this will come to hand over the days and weeks ahead. However I do want to make the point that the rescuers worked in incredibly difficult conditions, I do not believe any Australian could underestimate how difficult this task was, or the determination with which the Navy and Customs personnel went about this difficult and dangerous task.
I also want to recognise that there will be a great deal of public interest in the criminal investigation and the possibility of bringing to justice the people smugglers who organised this venture.
Now I do not want to say much about this investigation for all of the obvious reasons, but I can say that I'm advised by relevant agencies that the investigation is progressing, that Australian authorities are working closely with the people smuggling taskforce from the Indonesian National Police. This collaboration has been successful in the past, with the arrest of 112 people smuggling organisers in recent years. I'm happy having provided that additional information to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what do you make of Anna Bligh's comments that these events should prompt a rethink by the Labor Party of its refugee policy?
PM: Well obviously it's the Federal Government and me as Prime Minister working with the relevant Ministers who set policy.
Our policy is there and we are determined to keep delivering on our policy, we've got more assets patrolling our borders that we've ever had before, we operate a rigorous mandatory detention system, we've increased the penalty for people smugglers, we've lifted our efforts at cooperation with Indonesia and countries in our region for the policing task, we've enjoyed some success in disruption people smuggling ventures and of course we will continue to work with our region on law enforcement.
As well we will pursue the policy I outlined earlier this year, of having a Regional Protection Framework and a Regional Processing Centre and the aim of that is to take away the very reason why people would get on boats, to take away from people smugglers the very product that they sell.
JOURNALIST: Has she jumped the gun by making these comments when the full details of what happened on Christmas Island are not yet known?
PM: People can make comments from their various perspectives. Obviously the government has set its policies and I've just outlined those policies for you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, based on the where this boat has come from and getting as far as Christmas Island, it then becomes quite feasible that there are or have been many other boats that have perished in the oceans and Australian authorities haven't noticed it?
PM: All I can say to you is what I have said. We are dealing with a huge area of ocean, our search and rescue zone, 10 percent total area of the globe and it is not possible for every square nautical mile to be under surveillance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
I'm not going to extrapolate or engage in hypotheticals about things, you've got no facts on and I've got no facts on, but I did want to explain to people, to give them a sense of the size of the area here.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minster, have you had advice about how many other boats may have -
PM: No I haven't.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, yesterday when you announced a committee had been set up, it seemed there may have been confusion as to what that committee would be doing. I think some people thought that maybe it would be a committee that managed the response, what exactly did you mean by this committee, can you spell out what it will be doing?
PM: Thank you very much. I outlined this clearly at the press conference yesterday, I do think the matter because a little confused during the afternoon and I'm not blaming anyone for that.
Yesterday, obviously people were trying to get across a lot of information about a dreadful and tragic incident, but I do again want to be clear about the purpose of this group. What I want to do is bring together Parliamentarians that represent political parties across the Parliament, the Opposition, the Greens and a Parliamentarian representing the Independents.
What that group would do is it would receive reports from the agencies that are involved in managing the incident and will be continue to be involved. Receive reports, so Parliamentarians have got the facts, I want people to have the facts, I want Parliamentarians to have the facts, I want the Australian public to have the facts. This group would not play any role in managing the incident, they would not write a report, they would not make recommendations, they would not be dealing with policy questions.
They would be there to receive reports and get the facts. Now that would be in addition to, on top of, the normal protocols about briefing the Opposition on matters like this.
Now, why do I want to do that extra bit to get the facts to people? Well if we reflect on Australia's history there have been times when it has been debated for months what the facts of an individual incident are.
People would recall the children overboard affair, where for many months the nation debated whether or not an asylum seeker had sought to throw a child off a boat and it took many many months for the facts to be clarified that that had not occurred . I don't want us to go through that again, I want people to have access to the facts, for the facts to be known, for Parliamentarians to know those facts and consequently for there to be that broader reporting back to the Australian people.
Obviously as Prime Minster I will be doing what I'm doing today and bringing the facts to the Australian people as well.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister has the AFP come up with any charges that can be applied to Wikileaks?
PM: I'm happy to answer that question, but what I will do, if you don't mind, is take any questions about the incident at Christmas Island first and then we'll come back to other matters.
JOURNALIST: You said there were three crew are being questioned, is that a case of they, even they didn't get a reliable number of how many people on the boat?
PM: Look, the advice to me is that we do not have a reliable number, and so I don't want to do go the details of questioning of individuals by police officers. I don't think that's appropriate, but the advice to me is that we do not have a reliable number.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, I think first and foremost we've got to complete dealing with this incident. We are still in the search and rescue phase, though, as I've indicated to people - and it is grim news - but as hours pass, obviously the likelihood of finding anybody else alive becomes a more and more distant possibility.
So, we are still in the search and rescue phase. We've got the internal, immediate review being undertaken by Customs and Border Protection. I would expect the outcomes of that immediate review to be available shortly, and we will see what we can learn from that in terms of future responses to incidents like this, and then there's the Coronial inquiry and the Australian Federal Police's work, so I think we've got to have these processes work through to make sure we're working on the basis of the facts and drawing the right conclusions.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) spoke with Rob Oakeshott this morning about this. What were his comments to you?
PM: Look, I did speak to Mr Oakeshott this morning about the purpose of the group that I wanted to bring together of parliamentarians. I will be writing today to make sure that this matter is absolutely clear, writing today to the Leader of the Opposition, to the leader of the Greens, obviously, Senator Brown, and to the Independents to make sure that they've got full details of the proposal I outlined at the press conference yesterday.
OK, are there any other-
JOURNALIST: -Prime Minister (inaudible)
PM: Yeah, no, we're going to come to, as I said, down the front, so we'll take people in order. As I said down the front, we'll just make sure we've dealt with any questions in relation to Christmas Island first.
Other questions? Alright, well, I think it would be fair to go back to you first, and then I'll come to the back.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: The Australian Federal Police has reported back to Government that it has not found breaches of Australian law here, and I do want to be clear about this matter - I believe that in some reporting there's been some conflation of what are different issues and I'd like to take this opportunity to go through those issues.
First, as I think people would be aware from media reporting, there's a series of hearings in the UK that ultimately relate to a matter in Sweden that involves Mr Assange. Obviously, Mr Assange will have all the consular assistance you would expect, and we've made clear that, obviously, as an Australian citizen Mr Assange is entitled to the consular assistance we provide to Australian citizens around the world when they find themselves in legal circumstances like the legal circumstances involving Mr Assange currently.
Second, there is the question of the theft off documents, what I've described in the past the foundation stone of WikiLeaks. It's clear that the theft of those documents is an illegal act. That's properly in the hands of the US authorities to deal with.
Third, in relation to WikiLeaks more broadly, the Government believed it was appropriate to refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police to ascertain whether or not there had any breaches of Australian law. We've done that now. We've received the advice and the advice is that there have been no breaches of Australian law.
So, I do want to make it clear. Obviously, there is a foundation stone here, which is the original theft of the documents. The US authorities are the lead agencies there, dealing with breaches of US law, and I'm not going to speculate on the result of any of those investigations, though I would say this: should any of those investigations ultimately mean an Australian is involved, then an Australian involved in such a matter would be entitled to consular assistance. We always assist Australian nationals when they face legal proceedings overseas.
But I do also want to be very clear about my attitude here. Now, I know there are a number of people who are fans of WikiLeaks. Let me make it very, very clear - I am not. This is a grossly irresponsible matter in my view. The release of all of this documentation has been grossly irresponsible, and I stand by the remarks that I've made about this previously.
I would also say that whilst I know that there are times when people are whistleblowers, when they are involved in circumstances where they believe that something wrong is happening and they've taken all reasonable steps to deal with it and then they do convey confidential information publically in order to get some public attention on that wrong, that is not the circumstance here in my view with WikiLeaks.
This has been a wholesale release of information without regard to national interest questions, to Australian national interest questions. I think it is irresponsible, and that continues to be my view.
Now, what I can say, obviously there are some people who are fans of this conduct, but I most certainly am not.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister (inaudible) in the 21st century dealing with these kinds of leaks in the future (inaudible) these kind of irresponsibilities?
PM: Look, I don't believe, on the advice to me, that there's any issue about changing our laws that's raised in these circumstances.
JOURNALIST: What's the difference between the information (inaudible) are you saying that that's the part that's illegal, that (inaudible)
PM: Well, it's clearly illegal to take documents without proper consent. That is obviously illegal.
JOURNALIST: But what kind, doesn't that put a hell of lot of Australian journalists (inaudible)
PM: Well, no, because I'm referring to- no, absolutely not, and let be very clear about this, because there's been a lot, in my view, of conflation of issues here and I don't want to see that happen again.
In fact, what I would do is refer you to my original statement about this, because I think it properly describes it and I want to remind people of what I did say so that those words can be reported and what I said last week when I was asked about these matters is I said I was going to ask the Australian Federal Police for advice. I said I wanted to be clear about my attitude, and my attitude, as I outlined last week, and this continues to be my attitude, is as follows - the foundation stone here is an illegal act that breached the laws of the United States of America. That is, the initial taking of the documents. That was not done by a journalist. The initial taking of the documents by someone who had access to them.
I'm not making any prejudgements about who that individual is. All of that will happen through proper court processes, but a person who is employed and has access to confidential material and then takes that material has obviously been involved in an illegal if they take classified material.
In WikiLeaks, let's be absolutely clear, that reference to the foundation stone is not a reference to a journalist.
Let me remind you what I then said following that. I went on to refer to Mr Assange and to refer to the fact there were some matters potentially arising, at that stage, from Sweden, and as I've made clear today Mr Assange is entitled to receive consular assistance as an Australian citizen dealing with those matters.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, the reason we provide people with consular assistance, one of the reasons we provide people with consular assistance is if they have complaints about how they've been treated, that they've got an ability to raise those complaints with Australian officials, so for Mr Assange, obviously, if he wants to make access to consular assistance and put forward any concerns he's had about how he's been treated, that's the proper way to do it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just then on (inaudible), you're advice is that while we don't understand that Assange took the original documents, which you say was the foundation event, your advice is he hasn't done anything illegal in this country.
PM: The Australian Federal Police advice to me is that there is no breach of Australian law here.
JOURNALIST: Should he be suspected of having breached US law in relation to the leaks, would you consider extraditing him, consider taking-
PM: -Not going to speculate on hypotheticals upon hypotheticals upon hypotheticals. We deal through proper processes with Australian citizens. Proper process for Mr Assange, who faces some legal issues unrelated to WikiLeaks, faces some legal issues unrelated to WikiLeaks arising in Sweden, proper process there is to provide Mr Assange with consular assistance as an Australian citzen.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's your reaction to one of the WikiLeaks, that (inaudible) for 12 months to become Prime Minister of Australia?
PM: Well, can I say firstly, let's remind ourselves about what cables are - and I think this always needs to be clear in the reporting - cables are a person's view of a conversation that they have had or some views that they've come to, so a statement in a cable does not confirm a fact. It confirms that someone had that view.
On cables, I don't, I've said all along, and the Government's said consistently, we are not commenting on the contents of confidential cables in the WikiLeaks process. What I will also say is I have been consistently asked, there couldn't have been a question put to me more frequently during the course of 2010, about the events of 2010 leading to me becoming Prime Minister. I've answered these questions consistently, I've answered them truthfully on every occasion, so people want to know what the facts are - they should refer to my answers.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Look, I think this is a matter that people will debate, debate through the ethics of, but I just, you know, for me it's appropriate that when people are reporting on WikiLeaks that they do not make the slip of suggesting that because something is written in a cable that it is a fact. Cables are reporting the views of the individuals writing the cables, and so that should be clear on all occasions.
I also believe that whilst this process has its fans the other side needs to be put, which is that I do believe this conduct is irresponsible conduct.
JOURNALIST: Is there any particular leak that's come out that would affect Australia and would have adverse affects in terms of our international relations?
PM: Oh, look, I just think the whole process of releasing lots of-
JOURNALIST: -But is there a danger of (inaudible)
PM: Well, certainly, and you would have seen Government spokespeople make this point and I don't allege that this has occurred, but confidential cables can, for example, identify people who provide information to governments, people who live under repressive regimes. Now, that can, if someone is identified in those circumstances who lives under a repressive regime, then of course that can have consequences.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Mr Assange that he doesn't release them?
PM: Well, how on earth would I know whether such cables exist?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, there's no source of knowledge or advice to me that would enable me to know what Mr Assange has in his possession.
JOURNALIST: Ms Gillard, do you plan on apologising to Mohammed Haneef?
PM: Mr Haneef has returned to Australia for a mediation process. I don't think I should be making any comments about what is a legal process that will be undertaken during the course of coming days.
JOURNALIST: His comments are fair, that his reputation has been-
PM: -I'm not going to be drawn into commenting on the Haneef matter when a legal mediation process is immenant.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the New South Wales Court of Appeal ruled today, overturned bans on seven former directors of James Hardie. Is this a blow to the role ASIC is meant to be playing as a watchdog for this big business?
PM: Look, I'll have to get back to you on that matter. I'm not briefed on that currently. Obviously, my time this morning has been spent in briefings related to the Christmas Island incident.
OK, thank you very much.