PM: Today, obviously, has been the start of the APEC meeting. I'm very glad to be here at this important meeting of economies in our region. And APEC has, for two decades, been driving regional openness and prosperity. It's the kind of work that the G20 is now doing globally. The historical focus of APEC has been about promoting trade and investment in our region, and APEC has enjoyed some success. But there is still more to do to engage in economic liberalisation in our region. More to do on the trade front and more to do behind borders so that countries work on those regulatory questions that can end up making it difficult for businesses to invest and trade with each others' country. Now this is important for Australia because APEC economies account for two-thirds of Australia's two-way trade in goods. And one in five Australian jobs relates to trade. So that means if we can improve doing business with our region, if we can improve trade with our region, then we of course improve the prospects for Australian jobs.
APEC is now, following its trade successes, going to continue to be delivering to its goals on trade but it's also broadening its focus to these behind-the-border issues that can prevent business and investment. And this is really a question of very practical things. To give you some example, under the umbrella of APEC, Australia is leading better heavy vehicle safety standards. And Lindsay Fox, our own Lindsay Fox, is playing a role in this with a dream that you could drive one of the heavy vehicles that Lindsay Fox owns so many of, and go through the region and have the same safety standards - that is, not at every time when you are trying to engage in transport and logistics, hitting a different safety or regulatory regime.
There's the cooperation that's led to the lowering of mobile phone roaming costs. I think everyone can understand just as a matter of practicality, if we are going to facilitate trade and investment in the region, being able to move around the region, use your mobile phone, use it at reasonable costs, is very important. And there's the work that we're doing to enable Australian professionals, people like accountants, to go and work in other parts of the region, take their Australian qualifications and be recognised for their skills and ability and be able to start practice. So as this meeting works through, we will be talking about trade, we will be talking about these behind-the-border issues, we will of course be talking about what happened at the G20 and the implications for the economic liberalisation work in our region and the economic collaboration in our region.
In addition, today, I've had the opportunity to meet with President Obama for a formal bilateral discussion. At the G20 I had the opportunity to have a few casual discussions, non-formal discussions, with President Obama but today we met for a formal bilateral meeting. In that meeting I reaffirmed Australia's long-term friendship with America. We are good mates and we will continue to be good mates. And what that means is that we've got an agenda of work that the two countries will participate in. Some of that agenda of work was talked about at the recent AUSMIN talks in Melbourne when Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defence Gates came to Australia for the formal AUSMIN talks. We talked then about greater collaboration on defence work. We talked about the implications of the US Force Posture Review for work in our region and implications for joint collaboration and work with the Australian Defence Force.
We too of course have had the opportunity with President Obama today, and more broadly with Secretary of State Clinton particularly, to talk about the diplomatic developments in our region, the geopolitical challenges and America's new engagement in the region by becoming a formal member of the East Asia Summit and I was able to discuss that matter with President Obama today.
We also briefly touched upon the question of climate change, what is happening in each of our countries. We talked substantially about Afghanistan as we move towards the Lisbon summit next weekend which both President Obama and I will be attending. This is obviously a meeting of NATO countries. Australia will be there, not because we're a NATO country, but because we are a major contributor in Afghanistan and we'll be there to participate in the discussions about the strategy in Afghanistan. And to be very clear about that strategy, it is the one that I talked about in my parliamentary contribution. We are talking about the conditions that would enable transition of security leadership to move from the forces who are there, including Australian forces, to Afghan-led security by the Afghan National Army and Afghan police. But we will have an enduring commitment to Afghanistan in the sense of supporting the people of Afghanistan. When I spoke in the parliament I made the nature of that commitment clear. We are engaged there now fighting the insurgency, training the Afghan National Army, facilitating the transition to Afghan-led security. But I was very clear with the Australian people that we would be engaged there to the end of the decade at least, and we would have a continuing involvement in the provision of aid and the development of governance in Afghanistan. So I had the opportunity to talk to President Obama about those matters today. Now as the lights come on and off I'm very happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what do you see as the three key markers of success of APEC coming out of tomorrow? What do you want to see out of the meeting?
PM: What I'd like to see out of the meeting is that APEC at a regional level backs the work that's been done at the G20, particularly the work on the Global Framework, the Framework for balanced growth, so that would be number one.
Number two that we commit to stay the course on trade liberalisation and reaffirm our commitment to not succumb to protectionism, even in a period where for some countries in the region this will be difficult as they have persistent unemployment rates and engage in fiscal consolidation which will put some pressure on government delivery of services.
And number three, that we also have the commitment to keep driving the collaboration that is making the difference to the behind the border issues. APEC is at this meeting considering a growth strategy, it's been the subject of discussion amongst leaders today and it goes towards these sorts of questions.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the G20 has overshadowed APEC? Do we need APEC? Is it a costly add-on these days?
PM: We need APEC. We need APEC to keep driving the collaborative work which is necessary in our region. Trade liberation, the regulatory matters that I've talked about as behind the border matters. This is a level of in detailed work that APEC really has a reputation for. For driving the sort of partnership in the region that allows this in detailed but meaningful work to occur. So the examples I've gone to: global roaming, heavy vehicle standards, these things make a practical difference to the ability of the countries in our region to do business with each other.
JOURNALIST: With the American president going to the East Asia Summit next year, do you think that he will be willing to keep up these multiple groups, attend these multiple groups?
PM: Well the president will be hosting APEC next year so he will have to get to Honolulu which presumably he'll look forward to. Look I believe there is a role for APEC on these matters that involve our region. I mean we're building on a lot of work here over a long period of time, 1989 to now. There's been a consistent work program, therefore it is a deep collaboration between countries and consequently I think it continues to play a valuable role.
JOURNALIST: Do you think we have too many of these summits now? By next weekend you will have been to four in the last six weeks or so. Leaders seem to be flat out just going to summits all the time. Is it a sign that nothing gets down unless the leaders do get together or are we wasting our time at these summits? It's good to have a new prime minister meet people but what is the value of these personal contact summits?
PM: You wouldn't want to extrapolate from this time period into saying that the intensity of summits is like that all year long, clearly it is not. We've been in a time period where yes they've been a number of summits clustered. In part that's done for the practicalities that once people have come to Korea for G20 its obviously easy, or easier for them to continue to Japan than it would be to go back home and at another time travel again. So yes there have been a clustering of summits in this period but they've each had an important role.
Now in terms of my choice of travel; we pressed to be a member of the Asia-Europe Meeting. It's a leaders' level meeting and having pressed to be involved in it then we did need to be represented at leaders' level. The G20 has been absolutely pivotal to holding the world back from depression. We press very strenuously for the G20 to be the guiding body for the economic work that we need to do globally, so clearly leaders' level meeting and that's appropriate. APEC was uplifted by Paul Keating to being a leaders' level meeting. Yes there are meetings at ministerial level as well but it plays a very useful role. The decision to travel to the NATO summit was a discretionary one. Australia did not need to be represented at leader level but I determined that at what I believe is a pivotal point in the strategy for Afghanistan given the importance of this in terms of our military commitment that it was appropriate for me to attend this NATO summit.
JOURNALIST: What was the nature of your discussion with President Obama on China today? Was there mutual concern in any areas or was it just general?
PM: We talked about the geopolitics of our region particularly in the context of the East Asia Summit which the US has determined to join. We very much pressed for there to be a part of the regional architecture that brought the US and China amongst others around the table to have a dialogue across the full range of areas, economic, defence, strategic questions, geopolitical questions that has been achieved with the joining of the US to the East Asia Summit. So we talked about our region in that context. We are obviously on the same page in the sense that the Australian attitude and the American attitude is to have a positive and constructive engagement with China. Everybody is talking about China's rise and that's understandable and as China rises and obviously we want to see China be a force for good in the world and be a participant in the global and regional discussions, and be a participant in the rules based system. And so Australia and the US have the same strategic objectives here.
JOURNALIST: You've been invited to go and see Barack Obama in the US next, did he make any indication about whether he's coming to Australia finally?
PM: We would like to see President Obama in Australia, but he issued the invitation for me to visit him next year and we'll look for an opportunity to do that in the first quarter or so of the year depending on other commitments .President Obama knows that he is welcome in Australia whenever he can make the trip.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Japanese Prime Minister made some very strong remarks today about the need to open up the economy. He acknowledged that Japan is losing ground because of the rise of China and other nation in Asia. That's a very positive sign for trade relations between Australia and Japan. Have you had any talks with the Japanese about trade yet? Do you take any comfort from the kind of signals that the Japanese Prime Minister is sending?
PM: The Trade Minister has just been here and you're right, this is a very positive signal. It's a positive signal that appears to be in the context of the Trans Pacific Partnership and the fact that that partnership is under discussion and coming together and obviously Australia is a participant in it. The prospect of that partnership causing Japan to think again about its trade position and to suggest a more open approach. This is very good news: for a long, long period of time Australia has pressed for freer access on agriculture to Japan. We've been endeavouring to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement between our two countries for some period of time, but obviously pivotal to our interests is agricultural access. So we very much welcome this change of view by the Prime Minister here and we'll keep exploring exactly what it means in a practical sense through our own free trade discussions. And we will come to understand more clearly what Japan means through discussions about the Trans Pacific Partnership.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, it does seem that there's a tradition that seems to have gone by the board. We understand you've been fitted up for something - we don't know - a kimono, a shirt, or something - but it seems that the APEC funny shirts have been buried here at Yokohama?
PM: The only person who could give you an answer about that is our host, the Prime Minister here, so you'd need to direct your question to him.
QUESTION: You don't regret the passing of this tradition?
PM: I seriously can't help you on what's happened to the APEC shirts. I did wear the East Asia Summit dress which, the one supplied to me was a cream jacket, and it didn't meet with grand appreciation by the photographers, as I recall it they were hoping for something more flamboyant.
QUESTION: Prime Minister could I get your personal view on two matters that are linked to the current debate on gay marriage and the debate on this that's going on within your party.
PM: And you've come all the way to Japan to ask that question? Or you've found it on the APEC agenda?
JOURNALIST: It's the only reason. It might be.
PM: I think there are some foreign affairs officials who are indicating some grand scepticism about that proposition.
JOURNALIST: What is your view on marriage and secondly what is your view on gay couples raising children?
PM: My view on these questions is on the record in Australia. So I would refer you to my statements in Australia rather than deal with these issues whilst I'm here in Japan.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on China, was the issue of their rare earths policy brought up in today's meeting?
PM: No, the question of the rare earths policy hasn't been raised in the forum. It may be during the course of tomorrow, but it wasn't raised in today's discussions.
JOURNALIST: Did you raise it with President Obama?
PM: No, I did not.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Treasury Department in its incoming government briefs, raised a lot of doubt about bilateral Free Trade Agreements, it said the whole game should be multilateral or absolute regional. The longstanding effort of the business sector in APEC has been to get a Asia Pacific-wide Free Trade Agreement. What is your view on it? Is it do-able? Are resources being directed away from the multilateral talks to deal with all these bilateral talks that Australia is involved in?
PM: We are free trade exponents, and our preference would be for a global multilateral round, ie, to have Doha come to a conclusion with a level of ambition. Our preference is to work as broadly as possible. But in circumstances where it has been very, very difficult to make progress with Doha, we have pressed to keep forward momentum for bilateral discussions as well. So yes, we're working on the Doha Round globally, we're working regionally, and APEC has been important to that trade liberalisation work. In circumstances though, where the global round has taken so long, we have also been pressing on bilateral Free Trade Agreements.
JOURNALIST: Like an Asia Pacific FTA, a free trade region?
PM: Well APEC's obviously worked on liberalisation and been effective; we now have these discussions on the Trans Pacific Partnership. We believe those discussions are important. I think you and I are probably on the same page about the ambition here, which is to have the broadest possible round, but in terms of playing out negotiations effectively, given we are a participant in the negotiations but clearly everybody else's view can effect timing and content and ambition, there are occasions where we think that it's in our interests to move as well as participating in those talks for bilateral arrangements.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, given you've been seeing the leaders up close, you've had informal meetings with some and formal meetings with others. On the question of China, do you sense that the chill between the US and China is kind of easing through these summits? Is there hope that there'll be better relations there, particularly regarding the region?
PM: I think difficulties are always improved by having an opportunity to sit and talk them through. That doesn't mean that the talking is easy, but I ask you to think about what the alternative is - to have these tensions, and no moment where the principal players come together to talk them through. It is better to have structures that bring people together and enable that dialogue.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you have had a series of intense summits and meetings with world leaders for the first time as Prime Minister. How do you feel fitting into the foreign policy area now? Are you developing a passion for foreign affairs and trade?
PM: Dennis, I like dealing with people and whether you're dealing with leaders of the G20, whether you're dealing with leaders here at APEC, whether you're at home talking to Australians about what's on their mind, people are people and if you can get them talking and work issues through you can normally find a good place, a good path, so I'm someone who likes to have a discussion, I like meeting people, and I've had the opportunity to do that here.
I also want, as Prime Minister, to always be a feisty advocate of our national interest and to do that you need to be at the tables where that national interest is effected, that's what I've been doing over the last few days. There couldn't be a more important place to talk about our economy and the prosperity of Australian families than at the G20, there couldn't be a more important Labor legacy to build on than APEC, and to talk about liberalisation in our region, and that matters for Australian families too.
JOURNALIST: Are you finding some passion for it?
PM: You don't want to over-extrapolate earlier comments, the way that sometimes your friends from the media are wont to do.