PRIME MINISTER:
Overnight, I’ll leave Australia to travel to the Netherlands. I will spend Monday in the Netherlands. I’ll be meeting with Prime Minister Rutte, amongst others, in connection with the work that Australia and Holland have done together to help bring home and bring justice for the victims of Flight MH17.
In the course of my day in the Netherlands, I will also have the opportunity to thank the more than 500 Australian police and military and consular personnel who have been involved in Operation Bring Them Home. I will also have the chance to talk with disaster victim identification experts about the whole process of identifying remains and repatriating them appropriately to Australia.
Then, I’ll travel to London to talk to security and intelligence officials, to talk to senior members of the British Government about counter-terrorism operations, and about the deteriorating strategic situation in Iraq and elsewhere and I expect to be back home early on Thursday morning.
As you know, MH17 was an absolute outrage, it was an infamous crime, and along with 298 innocent people, 38 Australians were murdered. The Dutch have done a marvellous job in leading the investigation into this atrocity, a marvellous job in commencing the criminal investigations into this atrocity, a fine job leading the police-led humanitarian mission to recover remains and belongings in Eastern Ukraine, and I think it really is good that I’ll have the opportunity to thank Prime Minister Rutte in person for the leadership that Holland has shown over the last few weeks.
I regret to say that the situation in Iraq seems to be deteriorating all the time. As most of you would know, there is a looming humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in northern Iraq right now. Some 40,000 women and children mostly, are exposed on a mountain surrounded, as I understand it, by ISIL forces that are threatening to kill them. They're exposed on this mountaintop without food, without water, without shelter, and this is one of the issues that I will be able to discuss in London and elsewhere.
I should advise that overnight our officials have been speaking with American officials. As you know, President Obama has labelled what's happening in northern Iraq as a potential genocide. America, amongst other things, has announced the beginning of humanitarian air drops to the people trapped on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq. We are talking to the Americans about possible Australian participation in these humanitarian air drops.
Are there any questions?
QUESTION:
What would such participation involve?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we're talking to the Americans about what might be involved. I understand that the Americans have commenced these air drops and they are looking to continue these air drops for as long as these people are exposed on Mount Sinjar. Australia does have some transport assets in the Middle East. There are two C-130 Hercules aircraft based in Al Minhad in the UAE and these could possibly be used to assist the American air drop in the area.
QUESTION:
So is it a question of offering equipment, or could you also be thinking of sending peacekeeping forces over there?
PRIME MINISTER:
We've been asked to consider participation in humanitarian air drops and I think the Australian people would be pleased to think that Australia might be involved in helping to rescue up to 40,000 people, mostly women and children, exposed on a mountaintop surrounded by people who have been busily beheading and crucifying those that they disagree with.
I just want to stress that this is a potential humanitarian disaster. This is a humanitarian disaster potentially on a massive scale. President Obama has already said that it has the potential to become a genocide and that's why it's important for Australia to join with our international partners in doing what we can to render humanitarian assistance.
QUESTION:
The Australian reported today that there was a chance of Australian warships would be used to launch missile strikes, is that right?
PRIME MINISTER:
There's been no discussions along those lines whatsoever.
QUESTION:
A former Australian army chief has been quoted as saying that we’ll have to fight radical Islam for the next 100 years, what do you make of those comments?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't had a chance to look at those reported comments, but obviously I know General Leahy. General Leahy was a two-term commander of the Australian Army and he's a person who I believe should be listened to respectfully and taken seriously. The great thing about Australia is that we have really been a model to the wider world of the successful integration of migrants from a very, very diverse range of countries and cultures and the last thing I want to see is anything that suggests there is some incompatibility between cultures and civilisations. I don't believe there is any incompatibility between cultures and civilisations. The problem is not any particular religion, the problem is extremism, the problem is terrorism, and that's why it's so important that we take appropriate measures here in this country - comparable to the measures that are already being taken in similar countries; that we take reasonable, sensible measures to ensure that we are protected against extremism and terrorism.
QUESTION:
Are you concerned that there could be a relationship between US air strikes and radicalisation?
PRIME MINISTER:
I want to stress that what President Obama has been talking about is essentially a humanitarian mission. He's been talking about air drops of food, water, and other humanitarian supplies to up to 40,000 people stranded on a mountaintop. Now he's also talked about potential air strikes if the ISIL advance continues to threaten more towns, particularly towns and cities in what's come to be called Kurdistan, or the Kurdish parts of Iraq. But this is designed not to pick sides in a war. This is designed – and this is what President Obama is talking about – this is designed to protect civilians from a murderous onslaught. I want to make it crystal clear that what we're talking about with what used to be called ISIL and now is calling itself the Islamic State, is not a terrorist group but a terrorist army. They are not seeking to set up a terrorist enclave, but a terrorist state and we've seen, with our own eyes on our television screens, exactly what happens to people who fall into their hands. We've seen the beheadings, we've seen the mass graves, we've seen the mass executions – this is an absolutely gruesome development.
This is medieval barbarism assisted by modern technology and all President Obama is talking about is essentially a humanitarian mission at its heart, the supply of food, water, and other necessities of life to up to 40,000 people trapped in 40 degree heat, in completely inhospitable country on the sides of Mount Sinjar.
QUESTION:
How quickly could Australia become involved?
PRIME MINISTER:
We are looking to assist as quickly as we can. As I said, we have some C-130 Hercules transport aircraft that are at Al Minhad Airbase in the United Arab Emirates and we're looking to see how quickly we can get crews there.
QUESTION:
Days or weeks?
PRIME MINISTER:
If Australia is required to be involved, yes, it will be days not weeks.
QUESTION:
In regards to MH17, I understand that there have been difficulties identifying any Australian bodies. So what's the protocol there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is something that I will be in a much better position to talk about in detail after my visit on Monday. But we have the best experts in the world, including Dr Simon Walsh who is Australia's leading expert on disaster victim identification on-site in the Netherlands. There are, I believe, four teams conducting the identification process, one of which is Australia, and they are meticulously and painstakingly going about their task. That's what they're doing. And as soon as people have been identified, next of kin are notified and as I hope people know, we've offered to fly next of kin to the Netherlands so they can accompany their loved ones back to Australia because it's very important that we accord to these people, so cruelly cut down, dignity and respect in death that they certainly weren't accorded by the Russian-backed rebels who shot their plane out of the sky.
QUESTION:
If they are identified, when can we expect to see bodies coming back to Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
In the end, that will be a matter for the next of kin. The identification process will take place as quickly as it humanly can but this is regretfully, and of necessity, a very slow process. Just as a reminder, in Bali, the first Australian victim came back after about 3 weeks and the last Australian victim didn't come back for, as I recollect it, about 5 months because the bodies are inevitably very badly damaged by an explosion at 33,000 feet, a subsequent deceleration, decompression, and fall. So we're talking about, in many cases, very, very badly damaged bodies and I hate to talk in such terms but that's what we are talking about and it's very important that we get this right.
QUESTION:
Can you give us any idea of how seriously you're considering sanctions on Russia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the Foreign Minister has spoken about this today. Everything's on the table. Our message to President Putin is: hold your forces back. Any move by Russian forces across the border would be an invasion, pure and simple. There will be nothing humanitarian about it. It would be an invasion, pure and simple, and the business of Ukraine should be left to Ukrainians to sort out.
[ends]