MARTIN:
Prime Minister thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Pleasure.
MARTIN:
What did the Indonesian President say to you when you announced the $1 billion?
PRIME MINISTER:
He said words to the effect that I'm overwhelmed by Australia's generosity and I will never forget it.
MARTIN:
It sends Indonesia and the whole Muslim world a message doesn't it of Australia's commitment and also our generosity?
PRIME MINISTER:
It does. This is a terrible tragedy for mankind, on humanitarian grounds alone a lot of help is needed. But what we're saying to the people of Indonesia in particular is that we're here as your friends. There's an old saying in the English language isn't there that charity begins at home, our home is this region and we are saying to the people of our nearest neighbour that we are here to help you in your hour of need.
MARTIN:
Are there any strings attached at all, let's say with human rights in Aceh?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, there aren't any strings. I mean we will quite separately continue to argue for a peaceful settlement of that issue, but I haven't said well look if you don't do this and that this money won't be available. But there is a joint surveillance of it and no money can be spent on a project without the approval of the Australian Government and the Indonesian Government, it's a true partnership in that sense and we'll obviously be very careful to ensure that the money is well directed because we have a responsibility to your viewers, the Australian taxpayer, to see that it is well spent.
MARTIN:
You've just come from this extraordinary conference, it is extraordinary isn't it...
PRIME MINISTER:
It is amazing.
MARTIN:
... get these together, and you've made the announcement, you had an ovation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yes, I did, cause this is, I mean we are a country of 20 million people, we are a wealthy country by world standards but we're only a country of 20 million people and this is an enormously big contribution and I'm very proud that we're able to do it. But I'm particularly proud of the work of our military and our police in Thailand doing that incredibly distressing victim identification work, I mean that is awfully stressful work and I want to record my thanks to them and also to all of the Australian people. I mean more than $100 million has been raised in Australia already and it seems it will go on. Now Colin Powell mentioned that the American total was over $200 million and even allowing for exchange rate adjustments and population adjustments, gee that is an incredible response and it just shows that the Australian heart is good.
MARTIN:
$100 million from us and $200 million from all those Americans.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, it's just an astonishing thing.
MARTIN:
You said yesterday that you warned there's a danger of aid groups or countries bumping into each other. Is it time for a master co-ordinator?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you can't actually have that other than the country where the aid is being delivered. I mean Indonesia runs Indonesia and Thailand runs Thailand but I think one of the advantages of this conferences is to drive home to people the need for co-ordination. The United Nations has a role in this, but...
MARTIN:
Does Australia have a role?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Australia has a role certainly in relation to the delivery of our own assistance and we're already playing a major role, air traffic controllers in Banda Aceh are playing a major role and I think on the ground contact is the way to sort it out, General Cosgrove made this point to me that some of the bottlenecks in Aceh have been resolved by the two militaries getting together and agreeing how things are to be done.
MARTIN:
Two weeks ago you couldn't have thought, we couldn't imagined perhaps 1,000 Australian military personnel in Aceh.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, that's right. By the middle of January we'll have 1,000 and we've had very good co-operation with the Indonesian military because we've been very transparent, we're not going in there with any devious motives, we are going into help and we do it in a very practical way. I think Australia still has the only water purifier in the whole of Aceh. Now that is a priceless asset but it's a practical asset.
MARTIN:
Did you think of going and visiting Aceh yourself like Colin Powell?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I've decided not to because it diverts resources from the relief effort and I'm not being critical of other people. But if you go there as a head of government they have police, they close the airport, they do this that and the other and while the free flow of aircraft and everything is desperately needed I'll put it off until later on.
MARTIN:
I ask you because we want to go back there tomorrow, you wouldn't like to come back with us tomorrow would you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you see this is the problem, you can go there, I'm not being disrespectful of your security Ray, but you can go there without that sort of fanfare.
MARTIN:
But it takes 24 hours because the backlog is so bad.
PRIME MINISTER:
Now you get police and your whole thing's up because they do that, they insist on in for security reasons and if that results in delaying the delivery of an urgent medical case I'd feel terrible.
MARTIN:
Can I ask you personally, how has this terrible tragedy affected you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well like any other person, I'm human, I mean you're reduced to tears, I mean anybody, I would think millions of Australians would have watched this and been reduced to tears and just the sheer random character of it, the people who were saved, those who went in one direction and lived and those who went in another direction and died. And I feel so much for the families of Australians who are still missing, I mean our losses are not as great but to those who've lost loved ones the loss is total and...
MARTIN:
Do you still expect they're going to be greater than we have at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
Sadly I believe it will, I can't say how many but I think it will be greater than what has been officially recorded at the present time.
MARTIN:
Alright, thank you for your time and ducking out of the conference. Will you get to the cricket on Monday?
PRIME MINISTER:
I will, I want to go there as a gesture of support and I have, they particularly would like me to go. I was talking to the Indian Foreign Minister who's a cricket tragic and he was eagerly looking forward to it and of course there's going to be another match in Calcutta, I think the cricket loving nations of the region have a particular bond on occasions like this.
MARTIN:
PM, thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]