JAMES GLENDAY:
Good morning Prime Minister. Can I ask first of all how seriously is Barack Obama taking this situation in Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
Very seriously indeed and the American government is right to be taking this very seriously indeed. It seems that the big northern city of Mosul is now controlled by al-Qaeda type terrorists and it seems that these people are now in a position to threaten Baghdad. This is a very serious situation. America and its allies, including Australia, liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein some years ago and I don't think any of us liberated Iraq from Saddam to see Iraq fall into people who are like the Taliban or worse, to fall into their hands.
JAMES GLENDAY:
As you mentioned, Australia has been in Iraq before. Should the US feel the need to contribute troops, would Australia stand ready?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think it's very early days to be talking about that but this is a very serious situation, no one should take it lightly. The last thing anyone should want is to see a large swathe of Iraq - or indeed any country - under the control of al-Qaeda type operatives. That's the last thing anyone should want. This will be a humanitarian disaster for the people of Iraq, quite apart from being a very serious problem for the region and the wider world.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Just to your talks today, where in Australia do you think more US troops could be based?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we concluded negotiations over a force posture agreement and this is basically about the sorts of logistical arrangements that will apply to US troops who are rotating through Darwin. This is very important. It was announced to the national Parliament by president Obama in 2011 to enthusiastic support from both sides of the Parliament.
I think this is not only good for Australia, but it's good for our region to have a strong, enthusiastic United States commitment to our part of the world.
JAMES GLENDAY:
But this force posture as well as solving those indemnity issues, it does also allow for additional troops to rotate through in the future. How many extra do you think could potentially be in Australia's north or even at somewhere like HMAS Stirling?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the agreement is for 2,500 US Marines to be rotating through Darwin. We want a marine expeditionary brigade to be rotating through Darwin. And this gives us the opportunity, not just for Australian and US forces to train together in our north, but for our regional partners to train together with the United States. Indeed, later in this year there will be two exercises involving Australian, US and Chinese troops and this is going to be a very important confidence and trust-building measure for our whole region.
JAMES GLENDAY:
A few hours ago in a major speech you spoke about how the US should embrace China's rise. Are you concerned with how the so-called pivot to Asia is going here in Washington?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I'm an enthusiastic supporter of increased US involvement in our region. Our region has done spectacularly well in the last 30 or 40 years since 1975. It has been stable and it has been prosperous and the United States has been a very, very important element in the stability and the prosperity of our region and I want that to continue. Everyone else in the region wants that to continue.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Of course, but you say that China's rise should be welcomed but at the same time you're paving the way for more troops to come to Australia and you're also expressing concern about China's actions in the South China Sea. Are these contradictory claims and actions by you?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, they're not. We have all benefitted – the United States has benefitted, Australia has benefitted, everyone has benefitted by the rise of China. To make the obvious point, our resources sector has expanded massively to meet Chinese demand and we've all benefitted from the extraordinary growth of production in China which has provided us with so many important and high quality goods. So this is a very good thing, the rise of China, but we all support the rise of China as a good global citizen and I think generally speaking, that is what the Chinese want to be.
JAMES GLENDAY:
On security and intelligence cooperation, this was an item fairly high on your agenda, did you push for greater sharing of spy information with the President?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we are part of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership that involves the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It's a very long-running intelligence sharing arrangement. It's been around for some six decades and under this arrangement there is already very, very full and complete sharing.
JAMES GLENDAY:
But should it be closer?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's as close as any relationship anywhere on the globe.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Barack Obama of course, apologised to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Do you believe that countries in the Five Eyes arrangement should ever apologise for spying or intelligence-gathering when it's in the national interest?
PRIME MINISTER:
We certainly should never apologise for doing what is reasonably necessary to keep our country safe and frankly, what we're also doing is helping to keep our friends and neighbours safe. For instance, much of the information which is available to Australia is then shared with our regional partners. We have a very strong security relationship with Indonesia for instance. I'm confident that that will grow closer in the months and years ahead. The Five Eyes arrangement is something which is beneficial not just to five countries, but to free people everywhere.
JAMES GLENDAY:
There's been a lot of speculation leading up to today's meeting about your climate change policy but some sources in the White House say these stories have been ‘all hat and no cattle’. Did you simply agree to disagree on this one or was it not an issue?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think people should run around pretending there is disagreement when none exists. President Obama and myself both take climate change very seriously and we've got strong and effective policies in place – or coming into place – in Australia to deal with it. We wouldn't be putting $2.5 billion on the table to fund direct action measures against climate change if we weren't serious about it and I think that it needs to be remembered that in an American context, our direct action policy would be the equivalent of a $40 billion fund and this is serious money.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Did you tell the President that?
PRIME MINISTER:
We had a good discussion. We had a very good discussion. It was a very constructive and genial discussion because we all want to do the right thing by our planet. I regard myself as a conservationist. Frankly, we should rest lightly on the planet and I'm determined to ensure that we do our duty by the future here.
[ends]