JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, has your visit to Indonesia caused some protocol concerns for other countries?
PRIME MINISTER:
It shouldn't have. That stuff in the paper this morning was ridiculous. The Indonesians made it plain that they would welcome the attendance of heads of government, ambassadors or special envoys and I thought it was appropriate that I go.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, do you plan in the broad to discuss a new security arrangement with...?
PRIME MINISTER:
That won't come up at this gathering. I'll be seeing the President-elect tonight when I get there but we'll be talking very generally. The most important thing I want to convey to him during this visit is how much we admire the way in which there's been this transition to democracy in Indonesia, that you've had this huge popular election in the largest Islamic country in the world, it's been carried out with a very pleasing lack of bloodshed and violence and I think it's terrific and I think it's a huge salute to the Indonesian people and to the political system in Indonesia. We tend to take these things for granted in our societies. We should understand what a huge achievement it is for Indonesia.
JOURNALIST:
There's some hope in Indonesia that the new President will really tackle some of the endemic problems with corruption in the country. Do you think... do you have confidence that that will happen?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have a lot of confidence in him. I'm not going to talk about internal matters in Indonesia. That's a matter for the Indonesian Government. But he's a very experienced person, he has a very strong commitment to good governance. He has a very strong commitment to the fight against terrorism. I know that we'll have a good relationship between Australia and Indonesia under his leadership.
JOURNALIST:
In Iraq, do you have concerns about... for the breakdown in safety there with the Australian embassy moving and also the SBS journalist detained there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there's obviously a continuing security problem, but we have to keep it in proportion. There is progress being made on other fronts and understandably, whenever there's an act of violence there's a refocus on that but we have to side by side with that understand that great progress is being made and I look forward to the holding of the elections at the beginning of next year. But we certainly do need to keep people there to protect the embassy.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, why did Australia knock back the request from the United Nations to provide some more security reinforcements in Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
Because we believe the contribution we have made so far, which has been in excess of most, is appropriate. We made a big contribution for our size at the sharp end, we said all along that having done that we would not participate in significant peacekeeping operations and while we will maintain the people we have there until their job is completed we don't see ourselves embracing a major further extension of our role - that's the reason.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, are you planing to visit staff at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, and I hope to have the opportunity of personally thanking them for the tremendous work they did and the way in which they handled a very difficult, threatening, frightening situation and I think the Ambassador David Ritchie has done a wonderful job and I look forward to personally thanking them for what they've done. Thank you.
[ends]