PRIME MINISTER:
Ladies and gentlemen I'd like to start this news conference by expressing on behalf of the Government and the people of Australia our profound sympathy, sense of friendship, sense of concern and identification with the people of Britain and especially the people of London in the wake of these terrible terrorist attacks.
I hope later today to personally convey those feelings to my friend and colleague, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The attacks will resonate particularly with millions of Australians. There is no city outside our own cities better known to generations of Australians than the city of London. The location of the attacks are locations familiar to so many of us and I'm sure many in this room. This brutal, indiscriminate, unforgivable attack on innocent people going about their daily lives is a mark of the depraved character of the people who carried it out, a mark of their utter-alienation from the mainstream of any noble thoughts and religious convictions to be found anywhere in the world. Not only were the victims of this attack ordinary citizens, they would undoubtedly have comprised people of different religions and of no religions at all. There would have been British citizens of the Muslim faith using the London underground at this particular time as well as people of the Christian and other faiths, and it's a reminder that people who do things such as this are enemies of all of us, and all of us are targets, and all of us must maintain our resolve and our commitment to resist, never to be cowered by, and never to bow down to terrorist threats.
This attack will not alter the policy of the British Government on anything, nor should it, nor will it influence in any way decisions to be taken by the Australian Government in the future. I say on behalf of all Australians how deeply shocked and horrified I am, and we all are, at this attack and how much we feel for our British friends and allies, not only now but in the past. We are freedom loving people, the city of London has been a citadel of the defence of democracy for centuries and it will continue to be so.
There are seven Australians on my information who have been injured, one of them is in a very critical condition. I'm not in a position at this stage to talk about identities, but all consular assistance is being made available. I've spoken twice since the attacks to the Australian High Commissioner in London, Richard Alston, and I want to pay tribute to the work of Richard and his staff and the prompt fashion in which they have sought out and offered assistance to Australians that have been caught up.
The latest advice I have is that the death toll is currently 52, some hundreds injured; in the nature of things sadly the death toll is likely to climb. We are sending a special group to the United Kingdom comprising of six people, three officers of the Australian Federal Policy - including people with counter terrorism and bomb experience, one officer from the Victoria Police, one officer from the New South Wales Police and one officer from the Department of Transport and Regional Services. Overnight there was a meeting of the National Counter Terrorism Committee which is a body that brings together all the relevant Commonwealth Agencies and the State Governments and Police Forces represented at a Premiers Department, Deputy Commissioner level - that body met and reviewed the situation. There has been no change in the alert level in Australia. It remains at medium. That was, I'm told, the unanimous view of people participating in that meeting. That situation of course will continue to be reviewed.
We do not have any specific intelligence of any kind suggesting that because this attack has taken place, then it's more likely that there will be an attack on the Australian homeland. We do not have any intelligence or advice to that effect. I must nonetheless say that this country could be subject of an attack like this. I have never hidden or concealed my view that this country could experience a very serious terrorist attack. It is in the nature of the struggle that we have that any country can be subject to a terrorist attack. These attacks are indiscriminate, they are indifferent as to the damage they inflict and also as to the individual targets of the outrages they perpetrate, and that means that just as Australia was a terrorist target before the 11th of September, has continued to be so since and remains so now and this attack is a reminder that something like this could occur in our country.
We will do everything within our power, we will cooperate as we have in the past with the state authorities to prevent an attack occurring. I want to record my appreciation of the level of cooperation that has existed between the commonwealth and state authorities in relation to the challenge of terrorism and the cooperative police and intelligence effort that is needed to respond to it. There has been an excellent level of cooperation and for my part I am committed to that continuing and I'm sure it will continue.
I conclude my opening remarks by saying again that this is a terrible gut-wrenching, horrific reminder of the kind of world we live in, of the kind of people we must confront and defeat, and of the need for this country to remain ever-vigilant and alert, whilst continuing to go about the life that we so greatly prize and value-an open, free, friendly life, which has always been a characteristic of this country and we must always ensure that it remains so, side by side with a determination to work with other freedom loving countries to confront and ultimately defeat the scourge of terrorism.
JOURNALIST:
The six officers you're sending to the UK, is that a request by the British Government or was it an offer to help?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have very close liaison with the Metropolitan Police in particular, and we have liaison officers in London as well and we felt that this would be an appropriate way of both assisting but also I think very importantly, and bear in mind that the...I was told this morning that the metropolitan police in total number is more than the aggregate number of police in all the police forces of Australia, so it's a very large outfit the Metropolitan Police. But it will also be an opportunity and I don't want to be macabre about these things but you have to be realistic of us understanding the aftermath and getting understandings of what is in involved, so that if a tragic event were to occur in our country we would be better able to deal with it.
JOURNALIST:
Why are you sending a transport official?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
JOURNALIST:
To gather information?...
PRIME MINISTER:
Clearly the transport... the mass urban transport systems of London and the experience of this series of attacks, they are directly relevant to any preparations that ought to be undertaken, particularly in those cities of Australia such as Sydney that have undergrounds.
JOURNALIST:
Do they have experience of the Bali or Jakarta bombings, the officers who are being sent to London?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well one of the people is a bomb expert, so I think he would know most about what happened in Bali. One is a general counter-terrorism person.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, has it impacted at all on your decision that Cabinet will be taking next week for a possible troop deployment to Afghanistan? Will the bombings influence your decision?
PRIME MINISTER:
The attacks will not deter a decision that would otherwise or not be taken. Let me say this, we haven't taken any decision, but if anybody imagines that these attacks will intimidate the Australian Government in any way, they would be wrong, that does not mean that we have decided to make a fresh commitment to Afghanistan. I note incidentally that the Opposition, I think, has expressed a thought for that.
JOURNALIST:
Referring to the opposite though, if this is in fact an al-Qaeda attack, will that confirm the Government's commitment to try and do what it can to do...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we haven't made any decision - let's sort of not get too complicated and get into double negatives. We are going to talk about Afghanistan and the events of the last 48 hours are not going to influence the decision either way.
JOURNALIST:
On that issue, you've had intelligence briefings now. What indication do you have about who was responsible for this?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's too early to tell. Clearly it is a terrorist group. There are similarities between this attack and the attack in Madrid. Not least of course, and most obviously that it was an attack on the rail network of a major city. The latest advice I have through the discussions with the British intelligence is it's just too early to make a judgement. But the link with the G8 seems inescapable and the method, the sequencing, the timing of the attacks all of that bears a very close similarity to the methodology that was employed in Madrid.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, does this give cause for the Coalition to redouble its efforts to try and apprehend Osama Bin Laden?
PRIME MINISTER:
There are obviously Mark great similarities with past Al Qaeda activities. I can't tell you whether it's definitely an Al Qaeda operation. It could be. It could be an operation of an outfit that mimics Al Qaeda, that has only a loose association with it or it could be another terrorist group. But in the end, their similarities are more evil and sinister than their differences so it's a terrorist group whether it's Al Qaeda or something else. Obviously every effort is being expended to capture Bin Laden. But we shouldn't see the world terrorist network as exclusively Bin Laden.
JOURNALIST:
British intelligence services were obviously geared up and well prepared for a terrorist attack. But they clearly also had no warning that this was coming. Does it concern you that whatever group was responsible was able to keep it under wraps to this extent?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course it does. Of course it does. Am I concerned and horrified about this? Of course I am. You can have very good intelligence services, you can have the best in the world, and given their past experience the British security services are very good. I'm not going to get into the business of who's the best or whatever but they are good. They've had a lot of experience. And London has in particular, endured a generation of IRA bombs going off in pubs. So they're not entirely unfamiliar with this thing although not on this scale. But whenever something like this happens, you are reminded with a huge jolt of the extraordinary difficulty the world has, a free country, a free society has, in dealing with people like this. We are a society that respects the right of people and encourages people to exercise their freedoms to the full. And free societies always find striking that balance difficult. But that doesn't absolve us of the obligation to defend the freedoms that make us different.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister does this have any impact on your plans to go to London and does the Government have any advice for Australians planning to go to London or in London at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well any change in relation to travel advice would be notified by the Department of Foreign Affairs. It will not change in any way my plans to be in London in some two week's time. It's more important than ever that I go there. It's an important time, it was an important time before the events of the last 24 hours. It's doubly important now because any suggestion that an attack like this would interfere with the exchange that ought to go on at a head of Government level between countries like Britain and Australia would be quite appalling.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, do you think it's likely that in future we may have to see levels of security at train stations and on trains and even at bus depots that we currently see at airports?
PRIME MINISTER:
I find that question impossible to answer except to say that whatever security steps are needed and reasonable and proportionate to the potential threat, ought to be adopted.
JOURNALIST:
..security level wasn't being changed. But is there any tightening of security at all being undertaken in Australia? And secondly, ASIO is obviously a crucial organisation in this situation. I wonder when you're going to clarify the head of ASIO?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh you won't have to wait too long for that? The first part, well whenever something like this happens, everybody and I include the states in this, look at it. I know a couple of the state Premiers have already talked about levels of alert and so forth and that's good and I encourage that. And I think it's fair to say that all of our security arrangements tend to get looked at again. But the threat level, because we do not have any particular advice about a possible new or specific threat, the threat level is remaining at medium.
JOURNALIST:
Are you concerned at these things coming at the time of the G8 leaders meeting and just prior to you overseas trip, that the renewed focus on terrorism might take some of the steam out of progress on other important international issues, for example, trade liberalisation and the head of steam that that was (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I would argue very strongly that it should not. I think it important that the world have a capacity to redouble their efforts in the fight against terrorism while at the same time, making sure that progress is made on those other issues. It would be one of the goals of the terrorist to disrupt planning and cooperation and activity on those other issues. So I would certainly hope that that didn't occur.
JOURNALIST:
With regards to security on local mass transit systems, is there a security upgrade being reviewed? Is that now being looked at?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well what I've said is that when something like this happens, all the individual agencies that have particular responsibilities look at arrangements and I'm quite certain that you'll see some increased state police presence in various areas in the major cities. I think some of the state governments have already indicated... That's a matter for their individual decision. It's always impossible for me to give a precise prediction to you of how many police will be at a particular place or what particular upgrade they're going to determine. We're working in a Federation. The great bulk of the police uniforms in this country are worn by state police. They have the community policing and community crime responsibility and they are the first point of response to incidents. And that is why our cooperation with them is so close. But I am certain that all of the Premiers will be looking at these things and as I say, I heard one of them this morning say that he'd put people on higher alert. Well that's good. That's how things should be because it's important that the public understand that the commonwealth and the states working together are alive to the reminder that is represented by this attack in London and together we are responding in an appropriate way. Now we don't want to over-alarm people, but on the other hand, we have to be realistic. We are living in a different world from the one that we knew before the 11th of September. And that is the brutal reality. Some people still find it hard to accept that. Some people are even falling into suggesting that that is manufactured for all sorts of reasons. They couldn't be further from the truth. We are living in a different world and we are part of that different world forever. And we have to understand that and respond to it.
JOURNALIST:
You were in Washington on September 11 and it clearly personally affected you greatly as it did everyone who was there. How does that experience reflect or influence your responses to this event?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think it's had an appropriate influence but not a disproportionate one. Well in a personal sense of course it does and it is only natural that if you were on the spot, something like that happens or these events occur. I mean the London underground is familiar to me - I lived in London - familiar to all of you. As I say there's no city outside our own that is better known to Australians than London. There are 300,000 Australians in the United Kingdom, 100,000 or more in London at any given time. So it's a city that's as close as can be to us outside our own.
JOURNALIST:
Why do you think it is that the fanatics who carry out these attacks seem to have no problem recruiting people to do them be it in Europe or elsewhere?
PRIME MINISTER:
In the history of mankind there's always been a group of people who are seduced by fanaticism. It's never been any different. Islamic fundamentalism of the extreme variety is not the first recruiting agency for fanatics, the world has seen.
JOURNALIST:
What would you like to hear from the Australian Islamic community to this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I am sure that overwhelmingly, Australians of the Islamic faith would be as horrified at what's occurred, as horrified as all of us are. Can I say again, there would have been British citizens of the Islamic faith on those trains and on that bus. London is a very multi-racial city and it has a very significant number of people who were born on the sub-continent or who are children of people who are born on the sub-continent of the Islamic faith and I can't put it any more strongly than that. This is not an attack on Western Christians of Anglo-Celtic origin to the exclusion of all others. I am sure that when the causality lists are published you will see the names of many British citizens who are not Anglo-Celtic and are Islamic and this is a message to those who might be tempted to see generic evil in one section of the population - they're wrong if they do. It's a message and a reminder to people of all races and backgrounds that this kind of evil is the enemy of all of us. It's as much the enemy of decent Islamic people, as it is the enemy of decent people of other religions or indeed of no religions at all.
JOURNALIST:
Before you [inaudible] September 11 do you now think the West is winning the war against terrorism, what progress have you made?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think a lot of progress has been made but it was always going to be a long struggle. I've said that, and nothing has altered my view since then.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] fundamentalists?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't said it was. I have talked generically about that, I haven't said that.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't said that. I am not saying it hasn't been, I mean don't know. I think it's reasonable to presume that it was a terrorist attack. I think it's reasonable to see similarities with this attack and the Madrid attack. It's reasonable to assume that there were in Britain, networks, fanatical networks that had a capacity to carry this out. I can't be any more specific than that but I think I have made a number of reasonable propositions.
JOURNALIST:
You say that you believe progress is being made and yet when events like this take place many people may feel the reverse. What evidence is there that we are winning this war?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think that if you look at the grading of the al-Qaeda network in certainly Afghanistan and the fact that there has been a constant campaign waged against it in cooperation with the Pakistani Government. The fact that you've had, despite the most horrific intimidation, you've had successful elections carried out in Iraq, now there is no doubt leaving aside for a moment, the debate about the involvement in Iraq, there is no doubt that terrorist groups are operating in that country. Whether or not there was a link some years ago, is not really the point now, the point now is that terrorists are using Iraq as a front line in their campaign, that's still difficult I acknowledge that but I suppose it's a bit like generic war against crime, you never completely eliminate it but that is not a reason to give up the fight.
JOURNALIST:
Is the fight against terrorism?
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon.
JOURNALIST:
Is the war in Iraq helping the fight against terrorism?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the war in Iraq, or the campaign in Iraq, is important for its own reasons, important to see that a free people, eight million of whom were prepared to brave threats to their lives to cast a vote. It's important those people not be deserted, I feel that very strongly. Two more questions.
JOURNALIST:
How big a setback Prime Minister...
PRIME MINISTER:
I can't hear you.
JOURNALIST:
How big a setback then Prime Minister is this bombing to the war on terror?
PRIME MINISTER:
Every time the terrorists claim lives, it's an occasion to renew our commitment to it. I mean I would like to be able to announce there won't be any more terrorist attacks but we don't live in that sort of world and there are going to be more terrorist attacks in the future and you can't score it like a tennis match. You have to look at it from a very long perspective and just as it took a long period of time for other struggles to be won, the same will be the case with this.
JOURNALIST:
The [inaudible] attack, the British authorities leading up to the events of last night maintained that it was inevitable that there would be an event like this and they were right, is it inevitable that there will be some sort of terrorist attack on Australian soil?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I have said repeatedly and I'll say it again that there is a possibility of a terrorist attack in Australia, I cannot guarantee there will not be one and I cannot rule it out. That is the language that I choose to use, other people can use language they choose to use but that is my honest assessment. It has been consistently my assessment and that is the answer I will always give to that question because I think it is a truthful answer based on my advice and my understanding. Thank you.
[ends]