PRIME MINISTER:
Well ladies and gentlemen, I';ve got a couple of comments to make and also to make an announcement of an important new initiative involving the Australian Federal Police.
This morning, I';ve had the opportunity of an extensive briefing from the Commissioner, Mr Mick Keelty, and the Minister and a number of the senior officers of the Australian Federal Police about the ongoing operation in conjunction with the Indonesian National Police investigating Jemaah Islamiyah and also two major operations that have led to the seizure of amphetamines and cocaine involving extensive co-operation with the law enforcement agencies of five or six overseas countries.
I take the opportunity of reaffirming the very strong commitment of the Federal Government to its ‘Tough on Drugs'; strategy which has yielded the best results of all and there is a marked reduction in the number of deaths from heroin overdoses. I reaffirm the total opposition of the Federal Government to the introduction into Australia of heroin injecting rooms, so far as lies within our power, we';ll do all we can to stop the use of heroin injecting rooms. We opposed the Labor Party';s federal policy which is to be permissive towards the introduction of heroin injecting rooms. The ‘Tough on Drugs'; strategy is yielding results because of the activities of the federal police working in close co-operation with the state police forces and the police forces of other countries. We have been able to secure record seizures. It';s a tough fight. It is never completely won, but we are making progress and any retreat from the essentially zero tolerance approach that the Government has will be a signal to those who would traffic in drugs that this country has gone soft. We have a three pronged approach. We provide more money for law enforcement and could I mention that in the last period since 2000, there has been 130% increase in funding for the Australian Federal Police. Now, not all of that has gone to drug enforcement, but quite a lot of it has. So our position on that is unequivocal and there won';t be any deviation.
Quite separately from that, after discussion with the Minister, Senator Ellison and the Commissioner, I';m announcing this morning the formation of a dedicated international deployment group within the Australian Federal Police to comprise some 500 officers recruited from both the Australian Federal Police and the state police forces. They will have the permanent ongoing responsibility of taking part in international deployments. They obviously will incorporate many of the people who are now on deployment in the Solomon Islands and to be deployed in the near future in Papua New Guinea. The difference is that we';re going to have a separate dedicated group and the people involved in it will have the full time responsibility of taking part in international deployments. The weakness of the current arrangement is that it';s essentially [inaudible] that a police officer might be working, for example, in the Victorian police, go on deployment in the region on the understanding that he or she would then return to service in the Victoria police. That creates difficulties for state police forces because it';s essentially ad hoc. And, of course, as these officers are involved in apprehension in other countries they';re required to give evidence in court when people are charged, that also creates further demands on their time and logic suggests that we should have a separate dedicated force. They will, of course, be all under Australian Federal Police command. It will reinforce the projection of an Australian national police presence in the countries in which they';re deployed. I should emphasise that the purpose of this group will be for deployment in the region, nobody should construe from the formation of this group we have in mind deployment further afield, the whole purpose is to consolidate and put on a proper dedicated basis the evident need for this country in the years ahead to provide police, professional police support to many of our neighbours in the Pacific.
Many of these countries need trained police, as much if not more than they need military personnel and one of the best things that Australia can do, on an ongoing dedicated professional basis is to provide an effective police presence and police advice in these countries. There are adequate resources within the current forward estimates to finance the formation of this dedicated group because more money was made available recently for the recruitment over time of additional police officers. But this will put it on a proper basis, it';s a recommendation that came through the Minister from the Commissioner and I think it';s a very sound one and it will just put on a proper basis and in a way that we can effectively co-ordinate what is very valuable work.
I';d like to thank the Commissioner and his colleagues for having me here this morning, I';m personally very strongly committed to the fight against drugs in this country, I do take an uncompromising zero tolerance view, I won';t retreat from that and that will remain the very strong focus of the Government in this year.
Thank you.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, how much are you expecting this programme to cost?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the Commissioner can give the precise amount, there';s plenty of resources in the forward estimates, I';ve gone over that. We have given the Federal Police an enormous amount, well a large amount of money, perhaps enormous is a slight exaggeration but a large amount of additional resources and can I say they';ve delivered the goods. I think the efforts of the Australian Federal Police over the past few years have been extraordinary, the Federal Police did an outstanding job in Indonesia in the wake of the Bali investigation, I think the high watermark of Australia';s relations with Indonesia in the last couple of years has been the level of professional co-operation between the Australian Federal Police and the Indonesian national police and in many circumstances and in many ways co-operation between the agencies of Australia and the agencies of our neighbour countries are the best way of promoting good relations between our two societies.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible)briefing on the fire bombs in ….?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I have been given some briefing. Let me say that I am appalled at what occurred, any suggestion of attacks with a racial bias appals Australians. The Chinese people of this city are a very welcome part of the Perth and of the Western Australian community, they';ve made a wonderful contribution to the modern Western Australia and to the modern Perth and any suggestion that this is in some way racially based adds a further dimension to what is obviously a crime. I don';t want to say more than that because there are police investigations and it';s never helpful for people in my position to say more than that in these circumstances.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) marginal seats in WA, how significant is the West Australian vote in the national campaign?
PRIME MINISTER:
Every vote matters. Western Australia is very important, Western Australia is a state where we have some real opportunities. But I of course speak of something that';s a long way off.
JOURNALIST:
… Mark Latham (inaudible) on drugs, this is an election campaign starting at a…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the Labor Party has a weaker policy on drug enforcement than we do, and they would turn, they would encourage and turn a blind eye to heroin injecting rooms, we won';t. I mean we are, we have a simple uncompromising position, we are totally opposed to heroin injecting rooms, at a federal level we will do all we can to stop them, we don';t think heroin injecting rooms are the way to go, I';m pleased to say that some of the states are saying that they';re not going to do it, my recollection is that I haven';t heard yet from the Western Australian Government in response to a letter I recently wrote. But we have a zero tolerance approach and it won';t change, whereas the Labor Party has a more permissive approach.
JOURNALIST:
But if the states and territories want to move ahead with heroin trials…
PRIME MINISTER:
We will do everything we constitutionally can to prevent them occurring.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, has Frank Cicutto made the right decision by resigning from the National Australia Bank?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he';s obviously decided that that is the correct thing to do and I certainly wouldn';t criticise it, I don';t know that I want to say anymore than that, it is a matter for the bank, a matter for the board, a matter for the shareholders, obviously he felt there were circumstances that suggested that he should do so and I don';t think it appropriate for me to give a commentary on it.
JOURNALIST:
… good policy announcements, are you tempted to call an early election?
PRIME MINISTER:
What';s the next question?
JOURNALIST:
President Bush has announced an independent inquiry in the US into intelligence before the Iraq war, is that something that you';d give consideration into doing here in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';m going to analyse what he';s said, I';ve heard a report on it. You';ve got to bear in mind of course that almost all of the intelligence that came our way in relation to the war against Iraq pertained from British and American sources. It didn';t come from our own independent sources, obviously it was independently assessed and so forth but it was primarily British and American intelligence and I';ll see what the detail of that that statement is.
JOURNALIST:
… nomination for President Bush and Mr Blair for Nobel peace prize..
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I believe both of them made a strong contribution to producing in the longer run a safer world. I am absolutely unconditional in my continued support for what they did, I have a great respect for both of them. Despite the fact that he comes from a different politically persuasion from me, I have developed a warm regard for Mr Blair, I think he';s a courageous intelligent person, I think his policy on higher education is the right policy, it';s the same as ours and he';s being realistic, he was also prepared to take on those in his own party who dissented from his policy on Iraq and I';m delighted that the outcome of the Hutton inquiry I think vindicates his stance and it';s a smack in the eye for those people who loosely and glibly accused him of telling lies.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Is there a need for what?
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) new funding mechanism for Australian schools?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think the current funding arrangements are very good, what they do is provide choice and choice is very important in this area and the great growth in the independent sector has been in the low fee paying schools because people are exercising their choice. But we remain very strongly in support of a mixed system of both government and independent schools, and the aim should be to lift and maintain the standards of all of those schools. I think we have to keep a sense of balance about the quality of education in this country, I read a report last night that indicated that in areas of literacy and mathematics and comprehension this country performed well above the OECD average in relation to children at the age of 15 and I don';t think we should fall into the trap of thinking that our education system isn';t still of a very high standard and I think we have to be honest enough to debate the reasons why parents exercise the choice that they do about either the public or private education of their children and instead of people reacting with indignation when those matters are raised, we should be honest and open enough to debate them. I think I better go to my next engagement.
Thank you.
[ends]