PRIME MINISTER: As you know, I have just been meeting with Prime Minister Singh. We have had a most productive set of discussions over our bilateral relationship and over our regional and global cooperation and we continued those discussions just now over dinner and I would like to thank the Indian Prime Minister and his wife for the hospitality they have extended to Therese and myself on this visit to India.
Australia and India are natural partners. We are both pluralist democracies, we are both significant economies and we are both globally engaged. We both seek to forge our national wealth through open economies, and we both want to see the stability of Asia underpinned by the principles of open regionalism, the peaceful settlement of disputes and the creation of multilateral institutions that engender strategic confidence and transparency.
In the past, the Australia-India relationship has been stop-start. It has proceeded in fits and bursts. Tonight, Prime Minister Singh and myself, as Prime Minister of Australia, agreed to end this era and move towards a stronger strategic partnership for the future. We, the Prime Ministers of these two great democracies, have decided to embrace a strategic partnership for the future to elevate our relationship from where it was, to a new level. Now, it is, therefore, the time to broaden and deepen our relationship in multiple respects.
We have made reference in our comments earlier this evening about the work which is under way on the FTA and we have made reference also to the strengthening of our security and defence ties through a new Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation. We have agreed to commit 50 million dollars each over the next five years for the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund and to work closely together in the Asia-Pacific and to work together to achieve also a strong outcome at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change.
I can also, tonight, confirm that in order to ensure Australia's ability to prosecute its growing interests in India and to maximize the opportunities arising from India's emerging economic and strategic weight, as well as to strengthen this important relationship, the Australian Government has committed to a significant upgrade of its representation in India. This will include significantly expanding representation of the Australian High Commission in New Delhi by six additional Australia-based staff including new positions from the Australian Treasury, the Australian Department of Energy and Resources, the Department of Tourism, the Australian Federal Police, the Department of Immigration and the Australian Customs Service. Australia will also be expanding Austrade's network of Indian national trade (inaudible) staff across a large number of regional cities.
We will also be expanding Australia's official presence in Mumbai by three Australia-based staff and in Chennai by four Australia-based staff. We will also be seeing the establishment of an Australian Investment Commissioner in Mumbai. This represents the largest single expansion of Australia's diplomatic and consular representation in India ever and, therefore, we regard this as an important step forward in putting flesh on the bones of this new strategic partnership with the Government in New Delhi.
I would also like to make some remarks about Indian students studying in Australia and the attacks which, I know, have been reported here in India. Let me be very clear about this. As Prime Minister of Australia, I am deeply disturbed and disgusted by attacks of violence against any foreign students studying in our country and who are in our country as our guests. Such attacks will not be tolerated. They will be dealt with, with the full force of Australia's law enforcement and criminal justice systems. Indian students and all foreign students are welcome guests in our country and they will be so for the future.
Before taking your questions, let me make some remarks also about the upcoming Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen. Prime Minister Rasmussen of Denmark has invited myself and other Heads of Government to attend the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference on the 17th and 18th December this year. I wish to confirm tonight that I will be accepting the invitation of Prime Minister Rasmussen and I will be attending the Leaders Segment of the Copenhagen Conference.
The Copenhagen Meeting represents a critical moment in international efforts to reach a robust agreement on global action to tackle climate change. Climate change is one of the most severe challenges facing all countries across the world, developed and developing. It is incumbent upon all nations to do what we can now to tackle this challenge of climate change.
In Australia, that means all shoulders to the wheel and bringing down carbon pollution and that means passing the Australian Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Abroad, it means bringing about a robust agreement at Copenhagen. In Copenhagen in December, we will be working together to deliver the action needed to tackle climate change.
With only weeks to go, time is running out, time is running out for us all, time is also running out for the planet. We need action. For business certainty we need action, for the sake of our children we need action, for the sake of our grand children we need action and we must all get behind an ambitious outcome at Copenhagen in getting the work done at home and abroad to bring carbon pollution down. For current and future generations, it is important that all nations work together towards a global solution to this global challenge.
Therefore, all Heads of Government around the world have been extended invitation by Prime Minister Rasmussen. It is important that as many Heads of Government as physically possible attend this Conference in order to lend momentum to the outcome that will be necessary.
Happy to take your questions now. I begin with one of our colleagues from India and then rotate with colleagues from Australia.
JOURNALIST: I am Parul Malhotra from CNN IBN. We have noted that you said that Indian students are welcome in Australia. We have also noted that the colleges that the private colleges which many of them study are actually shutting down in your country and there is a tightening of migration norms as well. Should we then understand that a certain type of Indian student is not welcome in Australia?
In your discussions with the Prime Minister, did you ask the Indian Government for any help in tackling this issue, (inaudible) maybe about cracking down on migration agents in this country?
PRIME MINISTER: Let me answer both those questions.
Firstly, all qualified Indian students, who are wishing to attend an Australian registered academic institution, are welcome consistent with the normal requirements of Australian Visa and Immigration Law. When I referred earlier to action in relation to certain private training organizations in Australia, I was referring to the actions taken within Australia to tighten the regulatory control of those institutions. We want to make sure that all institutions, be they public or private in Australia, are delivering quality education and training programs to all foreign students when they come to Australia to study. It is important for our friends in India and for their families, who support them, when they come to Australia to study that those private training organizations are delivering an appropriate quality of training program for them.
Secondly, the other part of your question dealt with the assistance with the Indian Government. Certainly I discussed this matter with various representatives of the Indian Government today. The primary responsibility, of course, lies with Australia. We are the host country, we are receiving Indian students to Australia as our guests, we are receiving all foreign students to Australia as our guests, we have something like half a million foreign students in our country each year, one-fifth of whom come from India. Of course, we will seek to work with our friends in New Delhi on any aspect which is relevant to a tightening of quality control arrangements that may extend to the operation of certain migration agents, it may extend also to the way in which business representatives generally of any private training organizations in Australia operate in India within the fabric of Indian law. But I conclude where I began. This is principally an Australian responsibility and it is a responsibility which we, the Australian Government accepts.
JOURNALIST: PM, are you aware of the some of the people on the Oceanic Viking coming ashore either tomorrow or quite soon anyway to processing (inaudible) in Indonesia?
PRIME MINISTER: I am unaware of any such report Malcolm. I have been pre-occupied with various things today. But I am unaware of that report. As I have said on previous occasions, our intention is to work methodically through each of the individual cases concerned. We will continue to do so. In terms of when these processes reach conclusion, that really does depend on how circumstances unfold.
JOURNALIST: I am Sanket Upadhyay from Times Now. My question is in two parts.
First of all, you talked about cooperation between India and Australia. Would there be something in store as far as climate change is concerned? What is Australia looking from India as far as climate change is concerned? How would you coordinate with this country? The second question pertains to the students. It seems that your Government is quite concerned as far as Indian students are concerned in Australia. You have taken a number of steps on the ground also. But it seems that those steps are not really working on the ground. There are these incidents that keep re-occurring. What does your Government intend to do to make sure that these incidents are reduced?
PRIME MINISTER: Firstly, on the question of climate change which is the first question you asked, can I say that we already, through Prime Minister Singh, work closely through the framework of the G-20 where Australia and India are both members in coordinating our response to climate change, most recently, for example, the G-20 Finance Ministers met in St Andrews in Scotland to examine at our direction, as leaders, climate change financing options which may prove part and parcel of a solution either at Copenhagen or in associated negotiations. That is one area where we are working and if you are looking at the whole fabric of climate change cooperation, getting a deal on finance is very important to getting an overall deal in terms emissions reductions.
Another part of the response goes to the coordination which we hope to achieve with India in areas of relevant technology, that is, technology which has the ability to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. For example, in various discussions I have today, I have spoken with my Indian colleagues about the work Australia has initiated through a Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. This is all about clean coal technologies, carbon capture and storage. This is an Australia Global Initiative. We have Indian representation on our Global Advisory Board.
What is the purpose of this? It is to prove up the applicability of using carbon capture and storage technologies at scale for coal-fired power stations in the future. We have some 26 of the largest economies around the world who have become members of this Institute. The largest energy companies in the world have also become members of this institute.
How is that relevant to India? Projecting ahead to India's future electricity generation, a huge proportion of that will continue to come from coal-fired emissions. As it will from China and from other emerging economies, we, in Australia, are the largest coal exporting country in the world. Therefore, this is a highly potentially applicable technology for bringing down the real greenhouse gas emission levels. That is an area where India and Australia are also actively collaborating.
The other part of your question went to the challenge of students in Australia, the challenge of all foreign students in Australia, whether they are from India or from elsewhere. You are right to say that the Australian Government, in partnership with the relevant State Governments of Australia, has taken a range of measures, both on the regulation of private training organizations on the one hand, together with greater activity on the part of our law enforcement agencies and their cooperation and coordination with local education and training venues within the major cities of Australia. This action is unfolding and it will take some time to have full effect.
I cannot say to you that because we are dealing with such large numbers, half a million foreign students in Australia at any one time, that you can rule out the possibility of future incidents. I cannot say that, that would be dishonest in my response to your question. What I can say is that the Australian Government that I lead has a zero tolerance approach to any violence against any foreign student who is a guest in our country, We will, therefore, be deploying all the possible resources available to Government to reduce any such levels of violence in the future, because we regard such students as welcome guests in our country.
You are right to say that the Australian Government, in partnership with the relevant State Governments of Australia, has taken a range of measures, both on the regulation of private training organisations on the one hand, together with greater activity on the part of our law enforcement agencies and their cooperation and coordination with local education and training venues within the major cities of Australia. This action is unfolding and it will take some time to have full effect.
I cannot say to you that because we are dealing with such large numbers, half a million foreign students in Australia at any one time that you can rule out the possibility of future incidents. I cannot say that, that would be dishonest in my response to your question. What I can say is that the Australian Government that I lead has a zero tolerance approach to any violence against any foreign student who is a guest in our country. We will, therefore, be deploying all the possible resources available to government to reduce any such levels of violence in the future, because we regard such students as welcome guests in our country.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Rudd, today, in your speech, you seem to suggest that these attacks are racially motivated. Is this different to the line that the Government was taking -
PRIME MINISTER: Where did I say that in my speech?
JOURNALIST: Well, you said that there were attacks targeted at Indian students (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: I stand to be corrected on the exact text that I used. But my own view is (inaudible) am disputing the premise of your question.
JOURNALIST: That is the first part. You can dispute that, if you like.
PRIME MINISTER: I will read you the text of the speech (inaudible)
JOURNALIST: Secondly, some of the Indian media has suggested that you owe Indian students an apology. Is that something you are willing to give them?
PRIME MINISTER: What I would say as Prime Minister of Australia, is I accept responsibility for the proper enforcement of Australian laws within our country. I do so conjointly with the State Governments of Australia, who run the criminal justice system of our country by and large. We are responsible for law and order in our country. As Prime Minister of Australia, I am responsible to the international community, I accept responsibility for the good things and the bad things that happen in our country.
But I have just said, in response to a question from our Indian colleagues, that I cannot provide any iron-clad guarantee that there wouldn't be any such incidents in the future. That is not responsible, that is not being honest. What I can say is that in terms of overall levels of criminal violence in Australia, the rates of criminal violence, whether it is of assaults or murders, these are, in fact, by any comparable Western standards, against most other Western standards, very low, very low indeed. And of course, what we are dealing with in the case of foreign students with such a large number of them, half a million, is a group which is large in our community and, therefore, the general rates of shall I say, criminal activity across the Australian community would be felt in a foreign student population as well.
So I believe that the right thing to do is simply to be upfront, accept responsibility for what has gone right, what has gone wrong and to indicate clearly how we will do things better in the future.
JOURNALIST: And no apology?
PRIME MINISTER: As I said, I accept responsibility for the Australian criminal justice system in partnership with the States and Territories who give it proper effect.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: You are not criticizing the Indian media are you (inaudible)
JOURNALIST: No, I am not at all criticizing the Indian media. I am saying that your message hasn't been heard in India. Do you accept responsibility for that?
PRIME MINISTER: Accept responsibility for the fact that it hasn't been heard in India? What I am accepting responsibility for this week?
JOURNALIST: We have heard you, but the audience in India hasn't heard it. Basically that is my point.
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, you raise very fair point, which is the extent to which what we have been saying domestically in Australia about these matters have been adequately reflected here in the coverage here in India.
Obviously I cannot comment, as I am not a regular viewer of Indian television. Perhaps, everyone here in the room from Indian television could send me their footage for the last three months and I will form my judgment about all that. Can I say just say though, within Australia, I have consistently said that what has gone on in Australia on these matters has been unacceptable. And therefore, we have a responsibility within Australia to reduce this problem and I have outlined the two means by which we propose to do that.
This is consistent with what I have been saying domestically in Australia for a long, long time.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Rudd, do you accept the premise that some people have that there is a growing or there is a level of racism in Australia, particularly among young people that may be linked with this? (Inaudible) Do you accept that? And if you do, you say that you are doing everything you can to address this. What will you do about that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well firstly, I don't accept your premise. I don't accept that there is, to use your term, a growing racism in the Australian society. Australia is a proud multicultural society. Australia is the home to some 300 languages, Australia is the home to something like 43 per cent of our population either being born abroad or one of whose parents were born abroad.
We have become a complete cultural melting pot and that is a good thing. And what I sense in the Australia of which I am the leader is a great culture of tolerance and acceptance across our broad society. You cannot, you cannot rule out the possibility of criminal action and criminal activity in any country. You cannot rule that out because these are facts which confront any society around the world.
The premise of your question that there is a growing racism in Australian society, I think, is wrong. I disagree with it and what instead we must do is deal with the practical questions and the responses I have given to them as posed in the earlier discussion with the journalists from India.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, to follow up on that question, (inaudible) criminal gangs were targeting Indian students. Is that racially motivated or not?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, in terms of criminal gang activity, I cannot comment specifically on each individual incident. The reference that we had in mind with a speech like that was that foreign students, including Indian students, from time to time would be targeted by individual criminal gangs. I can't give you the precise citation and list of the event by event, in terms what the investigations from the police have established.
What I can say is that we have an active responsibility in the criminal justice system to deal effectively with violations of law when they occur and we will continue to do so. The States and Territories responsible for the police and the criminal justice system have said that they will lift their effort. They will do so in conjunction with both the educational institutions, private and public, and that will be the case into the future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, was the issue of uranium sales to India raised specifically in your talks with Prime Minister Singh or in any other talks today and regardless of whether it was, is your message to the Indian Government, never ever?
PRIME MINISTER: The question of India's long-term energy needs in the decade to two decades to three decades ahead was, of course, a subject of discussion between ourselves and the Indian Government and within that framework, of course, we did discuss India's long-term energy needs, including those of uranium. That is, as you would expect in discussions between our two Governments.
Our response to that has simply been to reiterate to our friends in India, first of all, our active cooperation in assisting India through the Nuclear Suppliers Group to gain access to nuclear materials to support India's Civil Nuclear Program and we did that in concert with the United States, the Government of India and with other countries.
Secondly, on the question of uranium exports from Australia, I reiterated the fact that Australia's policy has operated since 1978 on essentially bi-partisan basis that it was not targeted on any individual country, that it was, in fact, a generic policy which arose from our belief in the importance of maintaining the integrity of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. That has been our policy, that remains our policy.
JOURNALIST: Sir, the Indian Government has been saying again and again that even one attack is an attack too many. Did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh bring up this issue (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think I indicated before in response to a question from our colleagues, this has been the subject of discussions here in New Delhi today, as you would expect. This is a consular matter. These are citizens of India, they are visiting the Commonwealth of Australia, I am the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is natural that we would discuss these matters.
As I said to you before however, it would be absolutely wrong of me to indicate there would be no such problem of violence against any student, any foreign student in the future. I couldn't provide that guarantee, any more than you could provide a guarantee that any Australian citizen or a citizen of another country would not encounter any act of criminal violence if they happen to be visiting India.
It would be not responsible for me to seek to make such a claim to you. What I can say to you though, as I have said in response to earlier questions, is that we will deploy every effort on behalf of Government to underpin the security of all foreign students in Australia.
Secondly, the problem which has arisen in times past, not with our universities, not with our public institutions, not with our public training institutions, but with the regulation of some of our private training organizations, is that that has to be improved for the future and those steps are under way.
These are the two practical measures that we have embraced and these are the ones which have been discussed amply today with the Government of India.
I thank you for your time.