PRIME MINISTER:
I'll be leaving shortly to visit the United States and the United Kingdom. There is probably no more important time for me to be having discussions with the leaders of these two countries with which we still have our closest relationships.
Security and the ongoing war against terrorism will obviously bulk very large in the discussions I have with the American President. As well as meeting President Bush, I will meet the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defence, the Special Trade Representative and also Dr Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve system of the United States.
And in the United Kingdom I'll have similar discussions with the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of Exchequer, the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary, as well as the Leader of the Opposition, and I'll have an opportunity to address gatherings of business men and women in both countries.
As well as talking security and issues relating to terrorism, I will also have discussions with both leaders about the necessity of further progress on trade reform in the context of the Doha Round. There was great discussion at the time of the G8 meeting about the desirability of increased foreign aid to the countries of Africa. There was a great deal of discussion at the time of the G8 about the need for increased foreign aid, it's also important to understand that freer trade and greater opportunities for developing countries to export their agricultural produce is far more valuable to the long term economic future of those countries than foreign aid.
So trade is a very important item on the world poverty agenda, a very important item, and that will be something that I will promoting very strongly with both President Bush and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair.
I will also, while I'm in Washington, chair, as the Chairman of the IDU, a leaders' meeting of the International Democratic Union. This is a body that brings together parties of the centre right and I expect a number of other party leaders from countries around the world will be participating in that meeting.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, will you be talking to Mr Blair and Mr Bush about national ID cards?
PRIME MINISTER:
Not specifically, it may come up in the course of the discussions but I'm not going there to primarily to talk about that. But this is an issue that ought to be back on the table but back on the table as part of inevitably looking at everything in the wake of something like the terrible tragedy in London. We haven't made a decision to have an ID card in this country, but it should properly be on the table, and we should properly assess whether in the light of what's happened in the 17 or 18 years that have gone by since the Australia Card was debated, and I acknowledge back then I had a view which is critical of that. I acknowledge that, but it's 18 years ago and it may well be that circumstances have changed. I haven't said that we're going to do it and you shouldn't assume we are, but it ought to be back on the table.
JOURNALIST:
What's your personal opinion?
PRIME MINISTER:
That it ought to be back on the table.
JOURNALIST:
You were in Washington for September 11. How important is it for Mr Blair and Australia for you to be seen shoulder to shoulder with him?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think it's very important. There are no two countries in the world with whom we more deeply share common values than the United Kingdom and the United States. And I make no apology for saying that. And it is important that we be seen as working together. It's also important as in each of the three countries concerned since I last saw, certainly in terms of visiting their countries, the two leaders, we've all gone through the electoral process. And I think it is especially important at this time to be having these discussions.
Could I also mention one other thing before I go? And that is that I've decided to appoint a Task Group of Government Members to contribute towards the communication and advocacy of the Government's workplace relations reforms. These are very important reforms to the Government and the appointment of this committee is a mark of the commitment of the Government right across the board to the implementation of these reforms that are very important to Australia's medium and longer term economic future.
The Committee of backbench Members will be chaired by Mr Andrew Robb, who has a background in this area as the former director of the National Farmers' Federation and a very strong advocate of workplace relations reform. And the Deputy Chairman will be Senator Santo Santoro from Queensland, who was an Industrial Relations Minister in the Borbidge-Sheldon Coalition Government in Queensland from 1995 until 1998.
This Committee will work closely with the Minister and will have the responsibility of assisting him and further promoting the advocacy of these very important long term reforms.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, on radio this morning a lawyer for Vivian Alvarez (inaudible) some sort of cover up?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, there's been no cover up. Everything is out there. Discussions are going on between the Government's lawyers and Mrs Alvarez's lawyers. I indicated the Government's response to the Palmer Report and we are now getting on with the job of implementing the changes that we intend to make.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister Cornelia Rau was on radio this morning. She discussed maybe that the Immigration Minister should have an ethnic background. Is that the kind of thing the Government might...
PRIME MINISTER:
That is a ridiculous proposition and I have no intention of appointing people according to any criterion other than individual capacity. The idea of appointing somebody with a particular ethnic background is absurd.
JOURNALIST:
(Inaudible) that showed that in three days of her being deported that DIMIA staff accessed her file to recognise that she was an Australian and allowed to live here legally. Should those DIMIA staff be identified and should they be reprimanded for not taking action at that time?
PRIME MINISTER:
The Government has indicated a response to Palmer and we're setting about implementing it. Thank you.
JOURNALIST:
When you meet Mr Blair will you be discussing the possibility of replacing British troops in Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
I wouldn't have thought there'll be discussion of that at all because it's not in contemplation. We have had no approach from the British Government to replace British troops in Iraq. We have an adequate commitment to Iraq, I don't believe there is any current case to increase that commitment, I indicated that the other day, and that will be the background of any discussions I have with Mr Blair, I'll be indicating that we'll continue to do the job in Iraq that we said we'd do, we think it's even more important that that commitment be maintained, and the equivocal ambiguous hard to work out position of the Labor Party on Iraq is even less sustainable now than it was a few weeks ago.
Thank you.
[ends]