PRIME MINISTER:
I';ll just say a couple of things about the visit and then I';ll take your questions. Visiting the Philippines, Japan and South Korea at this time is a very important reminder of the close relations between Australia and those three countries. Naturally in South Korea and Japan there will be a big focus on the challenge of North Korea and as well as discussions with both of those countries on the importance economic links we have. In relation to South Korea, the dimension of our energy association. In the Philippines amongst other things there will be an emphasis on the ongoing challenge of terrorism in our part of the world and the major arrest made in the last 48 hours by the Indonesian police is a very forceful reminder of the ongoing threat posed by Jemaah Islamiah in that country and in our region generally. We should not underestimate the significance of this action by the Indonesian police. It demonstrates again the very valuable linkages between the Indonesian police and the Australian Federal Police because the Australian Federal Police cooperates very closely and provides assistance to the Indonesian police in relation to those arrests. As you are aware we have worked very closely with the Indonesian police since the attack in Bali and it continues to be a very live and conspicuous feature of the relationship between our two countries. Do you have any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, the travel advisories have not been updated since those arrests and the explosives were found. Do you think they need to be a bit more specific or at least updated?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that is a matter for the Department of Foreign Affairs and ASIO to discuss in the normal way. We already have pretty explicit warnings and I don';t think travel advisories are the things prime ministers should update in an ad hoc fashion at a news conference but I';m absolutely certain that the Department of Foreign Affairs will be giving attention to that and if any further update is needed I';m sure it will be made.
JOURNALIST:
Jakarta in particular was targeted we understand by those people. Australians in Jakarta, should they be concerned?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well once again we have for a long time now told people that travel to Indonesia has its dangers and we';ve been saying that now for a very long time. Now the question of whether in the light of what has happened we need to add further words to that advisory is something that the Department will have a look at. But it has to be analysed against the background of what is already in the advisory. You have to worry about the fable of the boy who cried wolf in relation to travel advisories. If you go to the end limits as far as warning language is concerned unless the circumstances absolutely justify that you run the risk of when you really do have circumstances to justify going to the ends of the earth with the language warning people will ignore it.
JOURNALIST:
The African uranium, [inaudible] uranium, Richard Butler has is in The Age today saying that the buck should stop with you [inaudible] in response to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes what';s the next question?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, are you satisfied in general with the credibility of the information you';re receiving from Australian security….
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I am. I thought the statement made by George Tenet yesterday really put this in perspective. When he said of the six reasons that led to the American intelligence community assessing that Iraq was reconstituting her weapons, her nuclear programs, not one of those six was the African uranium issue. So there were six reasons why in the collective judgement of the American intelligence services, Iraq was seeking to reconstitute her nuclear weapons capacity, not one of them was African uranium and that really supports the argument I';ve put all along that this whole thing has been blown out of all proportion. Now I know that there are people who, for political reasons of wanting to attack the Government over this, they disagreed with our decision, and of course they will attack us. But let';s be objective and let';s not blow out of all proportion what has occurred. If the Central Intelligence Agency Director is saying that there are six reasons not including African uranium as to why the American agencies have reached that view then it can';t be all that important and could I also remind you that as recently as last night the British are repeating that they stand by the judgement that they made some time ago into which I referred in Parliament and I';ve looked again at what I said to the Parliament, I looked again this morning what I said to the Parliament on the 4th of February and there was nothing in that statement that was not justified on the basis on the information in my possession at the time that statement was made.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, North and South Korea has today agreed to resolve the dispute over nuclear arms peacefully, are you encouraged by that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';d like to get some briefing on the extent of that, which I haven';t as yet received.
JOURNALIST:
Back on the uranium issue, you have said that you would follow up the failure of the two agencies [inaudible] now that there';s been a third agency [inaudible]…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you';re talking about the same material though.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
I mean I think, you';re talking about the same material.
JOURNALIST:
All the more disturbing…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well not necessarily so because you could argue that because the three agencies took a decision that there was no particular reason given the preponderance of the other material on which they were making assessments, there was no reason to pass it on. That could in fact be reinforcing of the sense of that judgement.
JOURNALIST:
But still three agencies have failed to inform you or your office, doesn';t this suggest a communication breakdown?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, it doesn';t automatically suggest that for a moment, and can I just take the opportunity of saying this line that';s running around in some sections of the media that there is a culture of don';t tell me anything I might find uncomfortable to know, can I just knock that on the head immediately, that is wrong. Worse than that is it insulting and offensive to the professionalism of the men and women who work in the intelligence agencies. Intelligence is a very difficult job, and it involves judgements, you never in intelligence have a black and white case that can hang somebody according to an, before an Old Bailey jury, it doesn';t work that way. You have to make a whole series of assessments, clearly what has occurred on this occasion is that a whole mountain of material has come in and inside a document that collectively presents a very strong case according the judgements that were made about Iraq';s WMD capacity there is a reference to a different view from one of the agencies. Now in those circumstances to suggest that intelligence agencies have failed or that there is a communications failure is not supported by the facts. Now that';s quite apart from the importance or otherwise of the material. One more question.
JOURNALIST:
… North Korean.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s too early to say that China is not part of the overall solution, it';s too early to do that, China was not a participant at the meeting in Brisbane but the meeting in Brisbane important though it was, was not the be all and end all of responses to the North Korean challenge. I continue to hold very strongly to the view that China is crucial to dealing with the North Korean issue. China more than any other country exerts influence over North Korea and it will be a view that I';ll be putting to the Prime Minister of Japan and the President of the Philippines and the President of South Korea and I hope, if it';s possible to see the Chinese leadership a little further down the track this year that I';ll be putting the same view to China because there is a strong association and there is a capacity and I would hope to see China fully enlisted in dealing with the problem. It';s a problem that has to be collectively addressed by all the countries in the region and the greatest prospect of a peaceful resolution will arise if you can get all, get an aggregation of pressure and persuasion from all of the key players and obviously one of the key players is China.
Thank you.
[ends]