PM Transcripts

Subjects: Australia';s involvement in the war against terrorism
LAWS:
Good morning, Prime Minister, I trust you';re well.
PRIME MINISTER:
I am, John.
LAWS:
I suppose you';re not necessarily over-excited at having to make the announcement that you had to make but in the interests of the world it had to made, didn';t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it did. It was not a joyous announcement. I did feel very much the weight of what I was saying. To commit 1500 young Australian men and women to very great danger is not an easy thing to do.
LAWS:
Do you believe the danger will be very great?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the danger, particularly for those people who might go on the ground, will be very high, much higher than in East Timor. They are very well trained and they';re very eager to experience battle, that';s the nature of people who go into Special Forces.
LAWS:
True.
PRIME MINISTER:
They are superbly well trained but it';s a very forbidding country from a point of view of its terrain and the people they could be dealing with are quite vigorous fighters to say the least. So it will not be an easy operation. They won';t just be involved in search and rescue operations. They will be there in the thick of it. They will be acting under separate Australian command. There will be separate Australian rules of engagement. Nothing will be done by our men without the permission of their Australian commanding officer but, of course, they will be working in an integrated way with the Americans.
LAWS:
Given the nature of the Taliban it would be reasonable to believe that there would be much hand-to-hand fighting.
PRIME MINISTER:
There could be. I don';t want to speculate about the detail of it. I don';t think it helps anybody except to make the general point that it will be quite dangerous, unprecedented for many of our people and the very sort of operation for which these men have trained all their professional lives.
LAWS:
Did President Bush ask you for a larger deployment?
PRIME MINISTER:
He did in the end. They asked for an extra four FA18 fighter aircraft which will effectively provide air cover for American aircraft, which are based on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. He also asked for, or his military asked for an additional frigate to provide protection to allied vessels. And on top of that we have decided to send one of our amphibious ships to act as a command vessel, the Kanimbla or the Manoora – you remember the Manoora…
LAWS:
I certainly do.
PRIME MINISTER:
…was the large vessel that took people to Nauru. Well, the sister ship to the Manoora, the Kanimbla, will very likely fill that task and it will be really a command headquarters for the Australian operation and it will be lying somewhere in water, obviously, in an appropriate place to act as a command headquarters. Because we will have different elements to this force. We';ll have the SAS, we';ll have the re-fuelling aircraft – that';s the 707s – we';ll have the P-3C Orions, we';ll have the FA18s and then we';ll have this command vessel that will have a frigate escort as well. So it';s a larger commitment than we originally envisaged. It will be about 1550 men. Most of them will have gone overseas by the middle of November. Some of them will go quite soon. When the exact dates have been worked out I';ll make that public. I spoke to the Opposition Leader last night after I';d spoken to President Bush.
LAWS:
Did he give you total support?
PRIME MINISTER:
He did. I informed him of what President Bush had asked of us and what was involved and he said he would support it and I';m anxious to keep, at a very bipartisan level, support for what we';re doing. It';s very important that political controversy not mar the effort of the Australian men and women overseas. They go over in the name of our country and they';re entitled to full, bipartisan support back home.
LAWS:
Have you got any idea of the time frame?
PRIME MINISTER:
How long it will last?
LAWS:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
LAWS:
Does the President?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. He said to me again last night that he thought it was going to take quite a while.
LAWS:
Has he indicated that our involvement could stretch even beyond what you';ve committed?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I would be surprised if Australia were asked to contribute more. I don';t rule out us being asked to contribute more. Whether we would feel able to do so would depend on when the requests were made and what happens between now and then. What we';re contributing is by no means token, it';s quite significant and it';s bigger than we expected and it will make a difference.
LAWS:
Have you yet named the Australian leader of our contingent?
PRIME MINISTER:
I hope to do that later today. He';ll be a Brigadier.
LAWS:
I see, that';s all you can tell us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, I';ve just got to go through one formality on that before I announce it.
LAWS:
Okay, I understand that. Look, the Anthrax scares continue. There';s been another one in Sydney. One at a school in Sydney and, as you know, they';re happening all over Australia. Do you have a message for the people who are perpetrating these extraordinary hoaxes.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I have a message to anybody who';s done it after yesterday, if they';re caught they';ll go to gaol for 10 years. Because when we get back into Parliament – and I think this is fair to say - whoever wins the election there';s going to be a law passed that will have effect from yesterday exposing people to a gaol term of 10 years.
LAWS:
A possible 10 years. They would only get the 10 years if the Judge gave it to them.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I can';t direct Judges.
LAWS:
No, unfortunately.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think, probably it';s a good idea if Judges aren';t subjected to directions…
LAWS:
But obviously you feel that the sentences need to be increased.
PRIME MINISTER:
I feel very strongly that people who are exploiting the community';s fear of terrorism should be punished. I mean, it';s punishable with life imprisonment to send a dangerous substance through the mail and what we';re creating is the new, broad offence of hoax terrorism. Because what is happening all too frequently now is that people are engaging in hoaxes.
LAWS:
Can you understand why?
PRIME MINISTER:
Why, well I think you have some sick people in the community. But I think they have to understand that what they are doing is unsettling the lives of everybody. They are tying up the valuable law enforcement resources of the community that should be available to catch people who are actually committing other serious crimes and they';re an absolute community pest. But they';re more than that, they';re a menace and they ought to be dealt with as severely as possible.
LAWS:
Well said. Okay, Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time. Good to talk to you and I hope we talk soon.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[Ends]