Phnom Penh
PM: Well it's fitting to finish my year of international travel here in Asia and together with leaders of Australia's most important partners at the East Asia Summit. The East Asia Summit is an organisation that is vital to promoting habits of trust and cooperation amongst the countries of our rapidly emerging region.
This is my last international trip for the year. If I was to give a comprehensive report on everything I've done during the course of the year it would take quite some time. So it's not my intention to do that. But I do want to point out some of the main features of what I've sought to achieve during the course of this busy but productive year.
First, with our NATO ISAF partners we have kept transition on track in Afghanistan and we've set in place a strong framework for supporting Afghanistan after 2014. Second, we have secured the hosting of the G20 for Australia and of course that is going to be held in Brisbane and we are also looking forward to the Finance Ministers Meeting in Cairns. We've secured a position on the Security Council where we will sit in 2013 and 2014 as the UN deliberates on some very important issues including Middle East peace, Iran and Syria and the final stages of transition in Afghanistan.
We've set out our ambitious agenda at home about Australia's engagement with our region and our plan for Australia's future: Australia in the Asian Century. And that document has been warmly received by our Asian leaders as I've briefed them on it.
We've launched a new chapter in our ties with India, including through establishing annual leaders' level meetings and clearing the way for negotiations to begin on a Nuclear Safeguards Agreement to allow the sale of uranium to India for its power industry.
We've strengthened other key relationships during the course of the year. We've held our second annual level Leaders' Summit in Darwin with Indonesia, our first 2+2 Defence and Foreign Ministers' Meeting with Indonesia and the first round of negotiations have been held on our Comprehensive Economic Partnership between our two countries.
We are shortly to have our very formal celebrations of 40 years of diplomatic relations with China including by proposing new high level architecture for the relationship and funding a new Consulate in China. We want to expand our diplomatic footprint there and expand the reach of our businesses.
We've kept our alliance relations strong through the implementation of our Force Posture Review commitments including the first successful training rotation of US marines through the Northern Territory.
And as a woman leader I've been privileged to be able to lend Australia's support to international efforts to increase women's leadership and participation, including through our Gender Empowerment Initiative in the Pacific.
We've been working in the trade agenda in a very busy way and I will turn to Dr Emerson for some comments on that specifically, but we've concluded our Free Trade Agreement with Malaysia and we are expanding pathways towards a greater economic integration with the region in which we live and we've made some progress on that today both through the meeting of the Trans Pacific Partnership and the launch of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and Dr Emerson will talk very specifically about those.
At the East Asia Summit today there was strong support for Australia's very practical initiative on malaria. This is the kind of practical initiative that deepens the work of the East Asia Summit.
I've been pleased with the discussions at the East Asia Summit today. They've been comprehensive; they've been across a wide range of areas. We've been able to have some frank discussions about key challenges in our region including issues involving the South China Sea and North Korea. And that is exactly what we want the East Asia Summit to do and to be. We want it to be a regional meeting where nations, large or small, can come and put their views and discuss issues and challenges within our region with no issue being off the table of discussion.
Finally, during the course of the day I did have formal bilateral discussions with Premier Wen of China and with the Prime Minister of Thailand. Both of those were productive engagements.
Premier Wen of course will very shortly step down as China's Premier. He's been a good friend of Australia and I had the opportunity to thank him for the collaborative and cooperative spirit in which he's worked with me and worked with our nation.
MINISTER EMERSON: This evening leaders gathered to launch negotiations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. This involves the 10 ASEAN nations plus six countries with which ASEAN either has or is negotiating free trade agreements. This grouping constitutes 30 per cent of global GDP and almost half of the world's population.
When we look to the Asian Century and the work that we've done and continue to do on Australia's place in the Asian Century, we reflect on the growing middle class of Asia and when we have a grouping that constitutes 30 per cent of the world population and growing in income and wealth this is a lot of purchasing power and it's a great honour that Australia has been asked to be a member of the team that is negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership which is being driven by the ASEAN countries and we already have a high standard agreement with the ASEAN countries with the ASEAN-Australian-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. This is designed to build on that and not only in goods but services and investment collaborations.
So again, it's a reflection of the priorities that we identified in the Asian Century White Paper, we did anticipate the likelihood of this launch today, it is an historic launch, and the ambition of the negotiations is to have them complete by the end of 2015.
So we have two tracks towards the ultimate goal of a free trade area for Asia Pacific, both of which have genuine momentum. We're in both negotiations for a total of 21 countries; we are amongst six only, that are in both negotiations. And I think that itself is a reflection of the regard and the importance that others attach to Australia's place in the Asian Century.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, earlier today you saying with these trade agreements, it's all about creating Australian jobs. Can you tell us a little bit about where you're expecting these jobs to be, where you're expecting jobs growth as a result of these agreements that have been signed or could be signed?
PM: Sure, well look, I'll talk to that and I'll also get Dr Emerson to make some comments.
But I'd refer to you to our plan for Australia's future and it very clearly charts what is happening in our region of the world; the growth of Asia's middle class, the fact that this region of the world will move from not only being the biggest productive region of the world but to the region of the world doing the most consumption; people buying things and services that they want and those middle class consumers in Asia will want the same kinds of things that Australians want for themselves.
And so where are these job opportunities for us? Well clearly in agriculture, clearly in food processing, in tourism in customised manufacturing, in high-end manufacturing, in manufacturing which comes with an imbedded services component, in our services industries, financial services, legal services, a continuation of international education, health services. I actually think we will be doing good business in public policy services too.
We live in a region of the world where governments are increasingly turning their attention to social safety nets and the sources of domestic consumption. We've got a proud Australian record; I would say a Labor record, of social policy innovation. So people do come and ask us about Medicare, how does it work, they do come and ask about universal superannuation, how does it work, how does it make provision for your ageing society.
We are engaged with provinces in China about the intellectual property that's imbedded in carbon pricing, how you set up an effective carbon pricing scheme. This is on top of what we're already seeing in our economy with the huge down payment in resources which not only creates construction jobs, of course it does create that, but creates long term jobs. Those 20, 30, 40 year investments continue to generate the commodities that they sell.
So for us to be in a region where we don't have barriers, when we try to engage with these growth markets, it's good for Australian jobs.
MINISTER EMERSON: A very comprehensive answer, PM. By the end of this decade, the combined economies of Asia will be larger than the combined economies of Europe and North America. By 2035 there'll be 3 billion middle class customers in Asia and the Prime Minister has reflected on the opportunities and the splendid diversity of career paths that will be available to young Australians as we take our place in the Asian Century.
So the diversification will reflect the diversification of the economies of the region. Yes, we have a very strong investment and trade in minerals and energy, that will continue, but as we move into these high value services, high value manufacturing and back into agriculture, which has the opportunity to move from, let's say old economy to new economy, we can have market driven regional development in Australia. And wouldn't that be great for our country towns and regional centers.
So these opportunities are boundless. They are rich in their diversity and I'll add this, they are not simply for university graduates. They are very much for young people who go through our training colleges, our TAFEs - that's why we are so committed to investing in them. Because our tradies, our electricians, our plumbers have a very good reputation and standing in the region.
When I have discussions with other trade ministers they say, how can we get that sort of expertise in this region to build the cities, to build the transport networks, in ways that are very high quality. And we have the high quality young people to do it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, two years ago on your first overseas trip as Prime Minister, you said that foreign affairs wasn't your passion and that you would rather be reading to school children at a school at home. Two years on at the end of a year of a lot of travel and looking ahead to a Security Council seat, how do you feel about it now?
PM: Well it will always be the case that the passion that brought me into public life was a passion for education and its transformative power. And actually I've managed to combine reading books to school kids with international travel. I had the opportunity to do that when I got to go to a school following the Asia-Europe meeting and I do those kinds of things because if you want to see the future of a nation, go to a class room. That's true of ours. That's true of the countries to which I travel.
And that's way imbedded at the heart of our plan for our nation's future, is what we intend to do in education. Because there are all of these opportunities awaiting Australians tomorrow but they'll be opportunities people can only seize with high skill levels and they can be trade skills. We've got great trade skills training in Australia and that gives people an entrée, not only in to good jobs in our own country but around the region and it means that we need to have the kind of skill level that keeps developing our economy as there's a competition about skills around our region and around the world.
So I'm always proud to represent my nation overseas, I'm a very proud and patriotic Australian. It will always be true that the passion that brought me into politics is education but I'd invite people not to create a false divide between these two public policy areas.
What we're doing here today is important. What's happened today in Australian class rooms is as important to the future as well.
JOURNALIST: You talked about malaria repeatedly today, are you aware of corruption allegations involving the global fund with which Australia is involved and how concerned are you about that and how are you going to prevent that from happening again with money that you're now putting into malaria?
PM: Well I am aware of these allegations and of course like all allegations they've got to be looked at and properly worked through. We, through our aid program, take a very rigorous approach to the expenditure of Australian dollars and we have monitoring and checking processes. But to the extent that there are ever areas of concern then of course we work on them. But in terms of the work that we want to do on malaria, we've hosted a major conference in Australia, Senator Carr did that, we've committed $100 million. This is going to be built on the kind of experiences we have already had fighting disease in our region and around the world.
We do know how to make a difference. We've made a difference to a lot of kids' lives. We've got a lot of vaccine into kids' arms and down their throats that will make a difference to them, to diseases like polio. So we do know how to do it but of course you've always got to be vigilant about the expenditure of every Australian dollar.
JOURNALIST: I understand though that AusAID's been aware since May that there was corruption in the global fund and that corruption involves fake anti-malarials essentially being given to people. Why doesn't Australia get on the front foot on this, because people's lives are at risk as a result of this as a result of this?
PM: Well I believe we can be very proud of the work of AusAID and very proud of the diligence that they show in distributing Australian aid dollars. I am aware of the allegations that you refer to and they are being worked through.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what can you tell us about the downside of the global economy? I understand the Asian Development Bank gave a briefing at the start of the Summit talking about China and India growth easing off. Are you concerned that there could be a downturn in the global economy which could make these trade negotiations a bit redundant?
PM: Well I don't agree with your conclusion but let me go to the substance of your question. We did receive a briefing today from the Asian Development Bank and the take on the global economy is a familiar one; which is that Europe continues to face very entrenched difficulties. They have worked hard to try and stabilise the situation but even after all that hard work European economies still face fiscal challenges. They face the challenge of recession with millions of people literally out of work and it is going to take time, and it's going to take growth, in order to get those economies offering job opportunities to people who are now languishing on the sidelines - Too many of them young people, so many young lives that are blighted by unemployment.
So, we know that there's a problem in Europe. We know that President Obama has his challenges with the US economy including a very pressing challenge with the fiscal cliff and making sure that he manages his way through that and keeps managing growth in the American economy.
Here in this region of the world we are still seeing good growth rates. We've got to remind ourselves when people talk about a moderation, for example in China, we are talking about a moderation to what is a very high growth rate. So, you know, we, in our own forecasting in Australia as reflected in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook have computed all of this in through Treasury and we stand by the forecast we've made.
As the Treasurer has said consistently, particularly when he goes to G20 Finance Ministers' Meetings, there are risks in the global economy, they're risks on the downside to use the language of economists, and they're ones that we've got to keep a very keen and prudent eye on.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you talked about comprehensive and frank discussions including on the South China Sea, what was said at the Summit today?
PM: Well you've got to respect the fact that this is a closed door meeting and the fact it's a closed door meeting enables us to have frank discussions. So I'm not going to characterise the contributions of individual leaders. But what I can say is that there was a discussion of the South China Sea, there was a sense of welcoming of the ASEAN-China process to work through issues with the code of conduct to try to achieve a code of conduct.
You would have expected leaders to put forward different perspectives and they did but it was a good discussion. It was a discussion in a constructive spirit, it was a frank discussion and it was in my view, the East Asia Summit realising its mandate as the body where nations large and small can come and talk about challenges in our region and put their views.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that if the forum doesn't have that role that these things can fester, that there'll be real problems?
PM: Well I'll put it the other way, this is the only meeting in our region that brings the right people round the table to have discussions across political, economic and security concerns and that means that it's the right place for nations to come when they've got concerns and to have a frank discussion.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Prime Minister Hun Sen said there was consensus on the issue. Is that how you would characterise the talks?
PM: He will issue the Chair's statement so of course that's in his hands. I think that there was a very constructive spirit in the discussions so I would certainly characterise them like that.
As you would expect in any meeting where there's a number of people in the room of course you get some differences in emphasis and views, you would expect that too.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when you spoke about the Gaza conflict earlier today and said Israel had a right to defend itself. But in the past 24 hours Israel has fired on a building in Gaza which houses Palestinian and international media. Does that constitute just defending itself or does it go further than that?
PM: Israel does have a right to defend itself and Israel has taken incoming rocket fire from Gaza launched by Hamas and others so Israel does have a right to defend itself.
When I spoke to you earlier today too I talked about the need for restraint and doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties and I put that view to the Prime Minister of Israel when I spoke to him on Friday.
JOURNALIST: So do you consider that the responsibility for restraint falls on both sides and not only on the Palestinian side?
PM: Certainly the responsibility to avoid civilian casualties lies on everyone which is why when you see rocket fire from Gaza into populated areas of Israel, what you are seeing is rockets that are being launched at civilians.
So the responsibility to avoid civilian casualties lies on everyone. There's hope now to try and de-escalate this conflict. We've got the very strong engagement of the United States, of Egypt, of the UN Secretary General and what I would hope is that everybody is able to participate in those discussions to give diplomacy some time to do its work.
JOURNALIST: By the tone of your language though, you do sound as though you consider that the Hamas and the Palestinians are responsible for this state of this conflict. Is that an accurate summation of your view?
PM: Well I think we could have a long and theological debate about issues in the Middle East stemming back hundreds indeed thousands of years if we had the time to do it, but talking about now, clearly what we saw from Hamas and others in Gaza was the launching of rockets into Israel. This is where this started and Israel responded, Israel has a right to defend itself. So that's my position and the view of the Australian Government.
Having said that, of course if we can see this conflict de-escalated then you would want to see that and I'm sure we'd all share that hope, and there are now very many who are very active in trying to secure that outcome.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you gave Premier Wen a photo of Gough Whitlam, what was the thinking behind that?
PM: Well the thinking behind that was we are celebrating our 40 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and China.
We will have a formal event in the next couple of weeks in the Great Hall to celebrate and it was Gough Whitlam as Opposition Leader and then as Prime Minister who opened diplomatic relations with China.
At the time he first travelled to China he was the subject of partisan criticism, viewed as having been, I think the terminology was, ‘played like a trout' by the then Liberal Prime Minister of our nation, and it just goes to show doesn't it, that with the perspective of history, things that were controversial at the time become so much part of the norm that it's no one who criticises them any longer and we may well see that play out about some controversial issues in our domestic politics today.
Thank you very much.