8 October 2001
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
MITCHELL:
Mr Howard good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Neil.
MITCHELL:
Can I just ask you when were you told, when did you get the call about the attack on Afghanistan, what was your emotion? What was your reaction?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I was rung at about 10 to 12 last night to be told to expect a call from the White House some time between one and half past one. And I guessed what it was about, I got the call, it was from Vice President Cheney and he said John we’ll be starting operations in Afghanistan from the air within about an air. And we briefly talked about the situation, he expressed thank yous for the offer of Australian military assistance, he said they would be wanting to take that up down the track in some other operation. How did I feel? Well I felt as anybody in my position would feel and as millions of Australians would feel that a serious situation is being made even more serious but the Americans have been patient as they have had no alternative. If they allow themselves to be bluffed out of retaliation by what has happened so far some that deterring further terrorist attacks it will only encourage the terrorists to believe that they can do it again, with greater destruction and with greater impunity.
MITCHELL:
Do you assume that what’s happened now will be a long term campaign of attack on Afghanistan?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think it’s difficult to be too prescriptive about that. My best thought is that it will take time, I think what they’ve tried to do on this occasion is to dismantle installations to try and hit some of the believed locations of the terrorist training camps. I don’t think one hit alone is going to do it, I think it will obviously need to be followed up by the use of ground troops. Perhaps by special forces. It could take some time, it could go on for a number of months. I’m unable, I don’t think even those in charge of the military operation in the United States are able to say how long it’s going to go on. The Americans have been very patient, they did make it clear what would happen if the Taliban did not hand Bin Laden over. I think they have been as patient as they could be expected to be. I want to make it very clear that this is not an attack on Islam, it’s not an attack on Islamic people around the world. The obscenity of Bin Laden suggesting that it’s an attack by the Western Christian nations in parenthesis on Islam is just completely wrong and should be rejected. Decent Islamic people, the millions of them around the world would be just as appalled by what happened in New York and Washington. You and I were and I remind your listeners that hundreds of Americans and other nationals of Islamic faith were killed in the World Trade Centre, hundreds of them. So any suggestion that what was done there was done in the name of decent Islam is completely wrong.
MITCHELL:
Is there any indication as yet when Australian military personnel will be called upon?
PRIME MINISTER:
No not as yet. I believed last week when I made my announcement and I think I indicated that it might be a little while yet before the involvement of our people is needed. But that's something that can change but right as we speak the answer to that is no, but that could change quite quickly. I will keep the Australian public informed, subject only to not being able to disclose things that might endanger the lives of our forces. Subject only to that I will keep the Australian public regularly and as fully informed as I possibly can, I also intend when additional requests are received or information that ought to be imparted, to him I will speak on a regular basis to the Leader of the Opposition. Irrespective of the fact that we’ll be in a caretaker mode of Government from 12 noon today, I would do that anyway because in a time such as this it is important that the nation speak with one voice, it’s important to make the point that any forces that go overseas go overseas in the name of our country and not in the name of one side of politics.
MITCHELL:
That said do you make the decisions or are the decisions only made through agreement?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, they’re made by me. The caretaker convention requires that decisions should not be taken which commit a future government without consultation with the Opposition. The decision to involve Australian forces has already been taken and has in fact drawn the support of the Opposition. But I’m not going to be anything other than completely open with Mr Beazley in relation to that as it should be disclosed to him. I’ve done that in the past, I spoke to him before I made my announcements last week and I’ll continue to treat him with the courtesies that are due to the opposition.
MITCHELL:
Prime Minister is Australia prepared to extend its commitment, its military commitment if requested by the United States?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes we are.
MITCHELL:
How open ended is that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh well it’s not open ended. We can’t give a blank cheque because anything we do has to be in the limit of our capability. It may well be that we are asked to provide in different areas a little more and perhaps what has hitherto been in prospect might not materialise and could be replayed by something else. But given our size the contribution that we already have offered is significant and it’s something that if there are further requests made we’ll obviously give thought to that. But it has to be within the limit of our capabilities and having regard to other commitments that we might have.
MITCHELL:
Given the statements by George Bush in naming, specifically naming Australia, given the statements by Osama bin Laden on further the likelihood of further terrorist attacks, do you believe that Australia has moved up the list in terms of being a target?
PRIME MINISTER:
We are more vulnerable now yes. That was the case immediately after the 11 September. It is probable that by aligning ourselves with the United States there has been some increase in the potential vulnerability, we can’t run away from that rather unhappy reality but there is really not alternative, what is at stake here is the defence of the common way of life and set of values and there comes a time when you do have to make a stand. We can’t expect the friendship and the protection of the United States and to share all the things we share in common without being willing to shoulder some of the burden. You can’t ask the Americans, big and all as their country is, to shoulder the burden on behalf of the rest of the free world without the rest of the free world being able to make a contribution. And there’s a lot of support for the Americans, admittedly a very small number of countries have pledged military assistance but it’s no mean thing that many other countries have offered in different ways to help and there’s been strong endorsement from the Russians as to what the Americans have done. And it’s just one of those moments in the history of a country when it has to be willing to stand up and be counted. Remember America stood between us and military, potential military occupation in World War II and the present generation of Australians should never forget that.
MITCHELL:
Do you have any assessment or sense Prime Minister on where this will go? Where it is leading?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I guess my assessment is no better or worse than that of many others. It’s obviously a little unchartered by I think we’ve got to understand that the American military capacity right across the board is very extensive, it’s quite vast. And militarily the Taliban is not a strong opponent, their terror capacity is frighteningly effective. There was a an evil precision about what happened on the 11th of September. It was not clumsily executed evil and that of course only underlines the seriousness of the challenge we face.
MITCHELL:
Do you have any doubt that in the end the American and the forces behind the United States will win this battle.
PRIME MINISTER:
I have no doubt that in the end they will. But it could be difficult along the path and we have to stay together. We have to help within the limit of our capacity, we have to be on increased domestic alert but equally we have to get on with our lives. The terrorists win if everybody’s paralysed out of doing normal everyday things and life must go on and I’m sure Australians will take that attitude, I really am.
MITCHELL:
Given the statements of Osama bin Laden do we have to accept it is inevitable there will be further terrorist attacks now somewhere in the world?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the possibility of them is greatly heightened, of course. I think there’s a very strong likelihood of a further terrorist attack. I would argue that if we had done nothing, the world had done nothing there was an almost equally strong likelihood of attack.
MITCHELL:
Is there, and just finally, I know you’re in a hurry. Is anything of what’s happening on this issue relevant to the federal election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Neil I have not sought the conjunction of these events. Everybody listening to your programme will join us in saying that if we could turn the clock back and somehow or other have wiped out the experience of the world the events of the 11th of September we all would have done that. The question of whether it has any impact, that’s a matter for the Australian people. I do not seek to improperly join the two events. Clearly people will make a judgement on the 10th of November about the respective capacities of Mr Beazley and I to handle all of the challenges that Australia faces and I want to make it very clear to the Australian people that I’ve never been more determined about anything in my political life than to see the Australian people through, if they want me to, and I will of course accept their judgment on that through the new and very dangerous challenges of both strategic and an economic kind that our nation faces.
MITCHELL:
I did see you quoted as saying there’ll be no by-election in Bennelong. I assume that means you’re staying for all the next term if you…
PRIME MINISTER:
I was asked, I made the comment, it was in the context of this comment that if we won the election there’d be no by-election and I mean that.
MITCHELL:
That means you stay the full term.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes. In that context, if we win the election.
MITCHELL:
Yeah. And if you don’t?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m not in defeat mode at the moment, obviously that’s something that I’d have to, if we lost that’s something that I’d have to consult my party and the people of Bennelong about, before I made a decision, that would be a somewhat different set of circumstances.
MITCHELL:
You always seem genuinely angry about the situation with the refugees and the children being put overboard.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I was and am Neil. Refugees’ motivation is often the protection of their children. And trying to provide their children with a better life for the future. It’s not within my frame of comprehension that people who are genuine refugees would throw their children into the seas.
MITCHELL:
Prime Minister thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay.
[ends]