Subjects: Visit to the battlefields of the Somme and Gallipoli;
E&OE ...........................
PRESENTER:
In Paris, Alexandra Kirk asked the Prime Minister how the visit had touched him.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I can't, I don't know. I think looking back on what they did it makes me feel very proud of that whole generation of Australians, and indeed of those who went to World War II and Korea and Vietnam and all of those who put their lives on the line for their country. I am quite sure the younger generation today would do the same thing if asked, but thank God they haven't been, and I'll do everything I can as Prime Minister to never allow that kind of thing to happen. I mean the greatest emotion I have out of visiting battlefields is the sense of waste of young lives destroyed and loves unfulfilled and dreams unrealised and lives cut short. You look at the ages on the headstones, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, it's terrible and just drives home to political leaders that their supreme responsibility is to do everything in their power to stop that kind of thing happening again.
KIRK:
And at a personal level, you're obviously touched emotionally by your visits to both Gallipoli and the Somme, that's true?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course I am, you can't not be.
KIRK:
Can you understand then, at an emotional level, for example how an apology could be so significant and symbolic to aboriginal people?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think Alexandra they are two separate issues. I understand that different people have different emotions about different issues but I don't think there's anything served by trying to link those two issues particularly as affection for what Australian soldiers did in defence of this country is something that is above and beyond party politics.
KIRK:
Clearly Australia and France are very close as a result of what Australia did in France. Australia's role in say East Timor hasn't brought Australia and Indonesia closer together, that's a source of friction.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, but I think your comparison is wrong. Australia fought on France's side in World War I and World War II. I really think that's a poor analogy with respect.
KIRK:
What's your view about President Wahid's suggestion of a tripartite meeting between yourself, him and also Xanana Gusmao?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm interested to read President Wahid's suggestion. I'll explore it. I don't reject it. I want to know more about it. I want to know whether it's something that's been thought through and I also would want to know Xanana Gusmao's views on it but I don't reject it.
My view is that the relationship was put under strain, that was inevitable. I respect what President Wahid has done. I think he's done very good things for Indonesia and I have been keen to see the relationship rebuilt but it can't be rebuilt overnight. You can't have what happened in East Timor only a few months ago occur and expect it to have no impact on our relationship with Indonesia. That is unreal. And people who run around saying well Australia could have intervened and used a different sentence here or there or a different word over there then Indonesia would have been cheering and everybody would have been happier. I mean that is just unrealistic and any common sense person knows that but my message to President Wahid is that I will look to the future not to the past, that if there are ways in which leaders of Australia and Indonesia and Xanana Gusmao can come together then I am happy to explore it but I would want to know a bit more about what precisely is proposed but I certainly don't reject it.
KIRK:
You see it as a possible icebreaker?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'm very careful with these things, not to get carried away on the basis of some press reports. I would like to find out a bit more about it through our Embassy and through the proper diplomatic channels before I commit myself to anything but I certainly don't reject it.
KIRK:
Is there a possibility that you might go to Indonesia or do you expect in the first instance President Wahid to come to Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
It was President Wahid's suggestion in the first place that he come to Australia. I was surprised at the time that he said he would come. Obviously at some stage in the future I will go to Indonesia but I don't have any plans to do so. I have been there on a number of occasions already as Prime Minister.
KIRK:
Should President Wahid come here first before you [inaudible] you think about going over there?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to play that game.
PRESENTER:
The Prime Minister, John Howard.
[ends]