SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:
Breaking news this morning, that earthquake in New Zealand. Have you been in touch with your New Zealand counterpart John Key about this quake, this deadly quake?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, I spoke with John Key just a few moments ago. I assured him of absolute solidarity and support from Australia. John appreciated that. He knows that we support the Kiwis and they support us when it comes to emergencies and natural disasters like this.
It is a seven and a half degree quake on the Richter scale. It is a deeper quake, John told me, than the big Christchurch earthquake. But it has been felt right across New Zealand. John's office in Wellington was shaken up, furniture knocked over, plates thrown out of cupboards and so forth. It has been felt as far north as Auckland too. It is a very big quake. He told me that so far they have reports of two deaths, and we passed on our - I passed on our condolences there. But obviously, it is early days. He is a great leader. New Zealand is very experienced with dealing with earthquakes and I am sure he will have the matter in hand.
CHRIS REASON:
Prime Minister let’s move on. We are talking about the refugee deal this morning struck with the United States under which detainees on Nauru and Manus Island will be urged to seek resettlement in the America, return home or face indefinite stay.
But the question I want to ask you this morning, Malcolm Turnbull, we’ve got Donald Trump coming into the presidency in the United States, and here we are sending him refugees; his signature policy is that he doesn’t want any more refugees. Are we at risk here of really destabilising our relationship with this new President?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well America is not taking any more refugees. It has an annual quota and the refugees that it will take from Nauru and Manus under these arrangements form part of that. They are simply managing the mix of their refugee intake just as we are. As you will have noticed some months ago I was at the UN and announced we would be taking more refugees from Central America as part of some commitments we made at President Obama's Refugee Summit.
So nobody is taking any more refugees, but what the Americans are doing is assisting these individuals on Nauru and Manus by bringing them in within their existing quota.
SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:
Prime Minister, do you think that’s really a deterrent to people smugglers then, if we are just moving chairs on the Titanic, deck chairs on the Titantic, so to speak?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look we send the most unequivocal message to the people smugglers - if you seek to bring people to Australia by boat, you will not succeed. You will not get here; you will not be able to sell that product. We are very, very clear about that. The people that are on Nauru and Manus are there because the Labor Party put them there. They are there because Labor failed in its defence of our borders. They are there because the Labor Government, as you know, under Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard and then under Mr Rudd again, allowed 50,000 people to come to Australia as unauthorised arrivals. They put the people smugglers back into business. Most tragically, 1,200 people at least died at sea.
By the end of it, we’ve been able to, over the last three years and more, we have been able to close 17 detention centres in Australia. 840 days no successful people smuggling arrivals. We have stopped the boats. We’ve taken the thousands of children out of detention that Labor put in to detention. We have the people on Nauru and Manus, many of whom have already decided to go home, but there are a number there, a number on both places, what we are seeking is re-settlement options for them that do not involve coming to Australia. The one place they will never be resettled is here.
CHRIS REASON:
Prime Minister you’ve got the situation where you just admitted over the last 24 hours you’ve had to pump up the resources across the Northern coastline, expecting this new wave of potential illegal immigrants coming down because the sign has been put out there hasn’t it – come to Australia, you get a few ticket to America. A lot of people this morning will be asking the question, why on earth would we follow a policy like this one?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look we have to resolve two challenges. On the one hand, we have the people on Nauru and Manus and particularly in Nauru where you’ve got women and children and families. We have been seeking to find resettlement options for them, obviously, they do not include coming to Australia. At the same time, we have the largest deployment of maritime assets to stand in the way of any people smuggling expeditions that we’ve ever had.
We have beefed up our resources from the moment I became Prime Minister I started adding to our maritime assets to ensure we have the capacity to deal with any surge in people smuggling attempts. So we’ve got the means to do that, we’ve got the resources. You heard from the Commander of Operation Sovereign Borders, the Chief of the Defence Force yesterday when Peter Dutton and I were at the Maritime Control Centre there in Canberra. What we are doing is ensuring that we can maintain the integrity of our borders and at the same time, find durable solutions for the people on Nauru.
SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:
Okay, but you’ve spoken to Mr Trump following his victory last week. How do you honestly think Australia’s relationship with the US will fare in the next four years, particularly on things like immigration – do you trust Mr Trump to honour this agreement that John Kerry has technically done in a caretaker Government though?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the agreement was entered in – the Government is not in caretaker actually, there’s only one US President at a time, And Barack Obama is President until Donald Trump is inaugurated on the 20th of January. The agreement with the United States was entered into some time ago, so it’s – it has taken a while however to put all the preparations in place to announce it in the way we have.
So first point is, you deal with one administration at a time. Secondly, I have no doubt that Donald Trump as President will pursue the national interests of the United States. and I can tell you that our two nations, Australia and the United States, have had long cooperation on matters of this kind which have enabled us to pursue and support our mutual and respective humanitarian and indeed national security objectives.
Each nation pursues its national interest, but those national interests are consistent and they are common national interests in defeating people smuggling and defending the integrity of our borders.
SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:
Alright. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, thank you we have to leave it there but thanks for your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much.
Ends