PM: This morning I've begun my day with a series of events based on education and people to people links between Australia and China. I had breakfast this morning with Chinese participants in the Higher Education Executive Leadership program. This brings to Australian universities, leading figures from Chinese universities. It's a great way of making links between our two educational institutions in both countries. I met with people who had been to universities in all parts of Australia. The program, in fact, has seen almost 200 Chinese and Australian senior university executives undertake short-term exchange placements in China and Australia.
After that, I then had the pleasure of being at an event attended by many Australian alumni and Endeavour Award Scholarship holders. I was particularly pleased to meet a number of young Australians who are here benefiting from Endeavour Awards, undertaking part of their study in China in areas as diverse as water, through into legal studies, through into scientific studies. I also had the opportunity to meet with a number of Chinese people who are also Endeavour Award holders and have undertaken part of their studies in Australia.
At the same event I was pleased to witness the signing of three new agreements which reflect our growing education cooperation. One is creating a chair of Australian studies at Peking University. This is the first such position in China. This has been supported by BHP Billiton and I thank them very much for the financial contribution that has made this possible. I also witnessed the signing of an agreement to establish an Australia-China Strategic Relations Institute at the University of Technology in Sydney. This has been made possible through the support of China Raybo and EG Funds Management and I thank them for that. I think across these two events we can see the importance of education in building people to people links between Australia and China.
I will now move to a tour of the Forbidden City. I'm very much looking forward to having the opportunity of seeing such an important and historic part of this great city of Beijing.
Later today, I will attend a lunch with senior Chinese business leaders. Clearly a focus of my visit here in China has been on our economic relationship given its importance to Australia. I attended the CEO forum yesterday. I attended a trade forum dinner last night and I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to further discussions on economic links between Australia and China at the lunch later today.
I will then have the opportunity, which I'm looking forward, of meeting with a woman called Ms Li. She is a translator. As many people would know, Gough Whitlam was the first Australian Prime Minister to open up diplomatic ties and relationships between Australia and China. He travelled here firstly in 1971 as Opposition Leader. He returned in 1973 as Prime Minister. Ms Li was his translator on that visit, when he came in 1973. I heard in Sydney at a lunch event attended by representatives of the Chinese community that Ms Li, a lady in her mid-seventies, was alive and living in Beijing. I asked our Embassy if it would be possible to locate her so I could have the opportunity to say hello to her. I want to thank our Embassy staff. It wasn't an easy job, but they have tracked Ms Li down and I'm very much looking forward to meeting with her. She played a part in what was an historic moment for Australia-China relations, assisting Mr Whitlam. My understanding is that Mr Whitlam remembers her with fondness as he remembers that very important first visit as Prime Minister to China. So I'm looking forward to that.
I will then meet later today with President Hu and pursue a comprehensive discussion with him, having had the opportunity to meet with Premier Wen yesterday. So I'm looking forward to a discussion with him across the range of ties between our two countries including our economic relationship and our broader relationships including our defence cooperation.
Tonight, I will attend the opera. This event is as part of the Imagine Australia series of cultural events. This has been a year of bringing Australian culture to China. The banner for that is Imagine Australia and it has involved events right throughout China. We are about to see the baton change and it will become the year of Chinese culture in Australia, where Australians will have the opportunity to participate in Chinese cultural events throughout our country. Cultural exchange has also been an important way of building links between our two countries.
So with those opening remarks, I'm very happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will you see it as necessary to raise the issue of human rights again with the President after you did yesterday with the Premier?
PM: Yes, I am intending to raise the issue of human rights with President Hu.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) the defence cooperation (inaudible)?
PM: I will be remarking on the growing defence links and cooperation between our two countries. We have defence links in the sense that the Chief of our Defence Force, Angus Houston, comes here once every 12 months to visit with his counterpart, and to meet with him. We have participated in some joint exercises including live firing exercises. We've indicated that Chinese ships are welcome in Australian ports and we may see such visits later this year. So I will be talking to President Hu about these growing defence links between our two nations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what will you say to President Hu on human rights and do you think the Chinese take Australia seriously when it raises concerns about human rights?
PM: I am intending to raise human rights with President Hu. More broadly, in answer to your question, what I would say is we raise human rights, as I did yesterday, with President Wen because of who we are and what we believe in. It is part of us to believe in human rights and consequently to raise our voice on human rights. When Australia raises its voice, of course, we are one of many voices. The international community engages in human rights dialogue generally and many countries raise such concerns. I do believe that China does listen to, and respond to, international opinion and we are one voice in expressing that international opinion.
JOURNALIST: Can you tell us about some of the questions that might be on your mind about China's military, particularly about avoiding the potential for accidents, maritime accidents, developing into conflicts because of an absence of communication channels with the PLA - particularly with the US but also other militaries including our own?
PM: An important part of building defence links is to build understanding so people know each other and have an understanding of each other at a human level, as well as at a very formal level. And I do think it's important that the Chief of the Defence Force come here each year and meet with his counterpart. Of course, we want to see increased military transparency. That is one of the agendas that we pursue. That helps build understanding about people's military methods and military protocols.
JOURNALIST: How do you rate your visit in terms of what you've achieved over the last week?
PM: Well, I've been pleased with each of the visits. Of course they've each been different. I wanted to come to North Asia - to Japan, to South Korea and China - to pursue a set of discussions about our economic interests. To pursue a set of discussions on defence issues, and we've done that in each location. To discuss free trade agreements. Each of the countries that I've visited has been a country in which we are actively engaged in discussions of free trade agreements. To talk about our cooperation in multilateral fora - the G20 - every country I've visited is a member of the G20 - the East Asia Summit, every country I've visited is a participant in the East Asia Summit - and to talk about further economic liberalisation, which we do through APEC. So I've been pleased to be able to engage in those discussions. I believe in each nation we've been able to make some progress, and for example, this morning we've announced, or I've witnessed, some important agreements that will make a difference on education.
JOURNALIST: Do you feel like you've kicked some big goals?
PM: Look, my job is to be out here vigorously pursuing Australia's national interests. I'm doing that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, it's now a year since Kevin Rudd decided that he would turn his back on his proposal for a carbon pollution reduction scheme. Given that you're pursuing the same thing now, in retrospect was that the right decision?
PM: We've canvassed all of these issues up hill and down dale back in Australia. I think it's the right thing to do to price carbon. I've always thought it was the right thing to do to put a price on carbon; that Australia needed to tackle climate change and create a clean energy economy for the future; that the best way of doing that is to put a price on carbon and we'll do that from the 1st of July 2012.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you developing a liking for foreign affairs or do you still prefer to be in the classroom?
PM: You're referring to the most over-interpreted statement, I suspect, of all time. What brought me into politics was a passion about opportunity, about fair distribution of opportunity, and that drives me now. There's nothing more offensive to me than that there is a child in Australia who might miss out on a lifetime of opportunity because they don't get a great education. That's always going to be very close to my heart and what drives me. As Australia Prime Minister I'm driven by all aspects of Australia's national interest and pursuing the kinds of discussions I have in Japan, South Korea, and now here in China, is part of that.
JOURNALIST: I know you've faced some criticism of your dress sense in the past. Gai Waterhouse today has called for you to have a makeover, but the way she phrased it was that when she saw a photo of you in Minami-Sanriku, it wasn't the damage behind you that gave her the horrors but you. That's pretty offensive, do you think she's stepped over the line there?
PM: My view is that this isn't about me and that it isn't about Gai. And I don't want anything to distract from the focus we should all have on the damage and devastation that I personally saw in Minami-Sanriku. I mean those images are going to live with me always. The horror of them. The grief that those people felt. The journey of recovery that they're going to have to undergo. To meet with kids who are literally living on a tiny little patch of space, the border of which is marked by a piece of cardboard. I mean these were truly moving events. And I don't want any collateral debate to distract from that.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: I'm not going to add to what I've just said. My focus, when I was standing there in Minami-Sanriku was on the devastation around me and the grief of the people that you could see etched on their faces. To hear the story of the Mayor who stood with me and described how he clung for life at the top of that very tall building. What an amazing image as to how high that wave was that he was clinging for life at the top of that building. That's what's important and that's where my focus is.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, was the carbon tax raised yesterday during your meetings with business leaders, and specifically was it raised in terms of the impact on exports of Australian resources to China?
PM: No it wasn't raised with me at all.
JOURNALIST: At lunch today - I think Dr Raby's lined up the most extraordinary guest list I've ever seen.
PM: Well, congratulations to the Ambassador. We don't get to do that very much publically, well done.
JOURNALIST: It's pretty much the who's who of every company that matters in China. What does that say about China's long-term demand for Australian resources and the ongoing resources boom in Australia?
PM: Well, Australia is a reliable supplier of the energy that China needs. This is a very important relationship to both of our countries. China alone accounts for 25 per cent of our exports and we've got a great future as a reliable energy supplier to China, including in LNG one of the clean energy sources of the future. So when I've met with Chinese business people to date - I already had the opportunity to do that yesterday in the context of the CEO forum and the trade dinner that followed - and when I do it at lunchtime today, I believe that they will continue to raise with me China's demand for the commodities that we have to sell and that is good for both countries.
JOURNALIST: Is Gough Whitlam still revered in this country, do you think? Do you think he's still remembered?
PM: I don't think I'm the right person to answer that question for you. You would need to ask some of the Chinese counterparts that I've met with. But I think from Australia's point of view, it was an important moment in history. A very brave and a very visionary decision for an Australian Prime Minister to come and travel here in 1973 and I do think that it will be very special to meet Ms Li playing as she did that role in Australia's history.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister just quickly, I might have missed it but did you say that you want to extend defence links with China or do you just want to discuss them?
PM: I will be discussing with President Hu our defence cooperation, which has been growing over time.
JOURNALIST: Are you open to relaxing visa requirements allowing Chinese labour and Chinese companies to come in and build infrastructure for Australia that can be built more quickly and more cheaply by Chinese companies?
PM: On skilled labour, I want to see a few things. People would have heard me say before that I want to make sure that Australians get the opportunity to fully benefit from this economic development in our country from the resources boom. And it's not satisfactory to me that I can meet with mining industry executives who are crying out for skilled labour in the northwest of the country and then I can go to suburbs in Perth where youth employment is at more than ten percent.
So I've got a very clear focus on lifting labour force participation by Australians and lifting skills - so a young kid sitting at home in Kwinana without a job and without any hope can get the skills he or she needs to get that opportunity in the northwest of our country. Now even with increased labour force participation and increased skills we will need skilled migration. I believe we've got the visa settings right particularly with short term 457 visas. There were some rorts in the system. They weren't as responsive as they needed to be to the needs of employers. I think we've made a difference to that. But I do also want to be very clear: we will never countenance people coming to work in Australia and being paid less than Australian terms and conditions, than Australian norms for treating employees.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how concerned are you by what might be happening in Syria? And William Hague has raised the proposition that European nations will look at sanctions against Syria. Is Australia considering anything similar?
PM: I would join with leaders around the world in condemning the violence that we are seeing in Syria. Of course it is absolutely unacceptable and we are calling for it to cease immediately. The United Nations Security Council is seized with this matter and we welcome that. And I would anticipate that in the course of the Security Council considering the question, sanctions may be something that comes out of that Security Council consideration. So we are very open to taking what action we can in line with the United Nations Security Council to send a message about this grossly unacceptable violence in Syria.
JOURNALIST: Further to my colleague's question before about defence cooperation, can you give us some examples of the sorts of things that you'd want to see happening - in terms of this growing link between our two defence forces.
PM: I'm pleased with the kind of developments that we're seeing to date. With President Hu, I will raise the sorts of developments that we have seen. I think we've take some good steps forward and at a leader level it's always important to talk about a relationship across the board and to talk about parts of it that are growing and strengthening, and this is a part that has grown with increased cooperation between our militaries.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) and there is real concern about conflict starting (inaudible) accidentally because of that.
PM: I think we've all got an interest in military links and military transparency. I think Australia's got that interest. I think the US has that interest too.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: I think the best way of working through these issues is to, a step at a time, engage in increased cooperation and links and I'm pleased we're seeing that between Australia and China in the defence area.
JOURNALIST: Is China behaving better this year compared to last year?
PM: I'm going to say John Garnaut is behaving worse and not listening to Sally's instructions. Absolutely last question.
JOURNALIST: Last year there was a lot of criticism including in China about China's foreign policy creating unnecessary conflict with its neighbours for example. Do you think that's died down, is there more kind of discipline from the Chinese side in foreign policy?
PM: I understand what you're referring to from last year and some of the reactions to that across ASEAN countries, for example. So, look I understand those past events. What I think I can say about our present relationship with China is it's a constructive one. It's a comprehensive one. Yes, there are times when we have differences and you are referring to one of those times we had a difference. And when we have those differences we put our view clearly and we'll continue to do that.