PM: Listen, just a few words. Firstly, to thank the Ambassador Dennis Richardson for having us here this evening. What we have done with this gathering, and what the Ambassador has done at our request, is pull together 18 or 20 of our great Australian achievers here in the United States.
We have people who are prominent in the arts, people who are prominent in all fields of science, physicists, we have an astronaut, and we also have people who are very active in all forms of business and finance.
Why we are doing this is, you know back home that we have got this 2020 Summit coming up and the idea is to pull forth the talents and energies of the nation. We have through that non-government committee put together 1000 of our best and brightest. Well, offshore we have a million Australians at any given time and here in the United States, we have a truckload of talent and here are some of them.
What is our objective tonight? We are going to spend a couple of hours actually talking about ideas for the country's future. What we need to be doing further in terms of science and innovation, and in the sub areas of that, from cardiology through to physics and mathematics and the rest. We have just been talking about the Square Kilometre Array Telescope, business, finance, carbon trading, and as I look around the arts, and we have university administrators, what do we need to do across these various important challenges areas for the future.
So the Government is in the ideas business and we are in the United States, we want to tap the best ideas that Australia has here in this great country. And I will just add this as a final footnote, each of these good folk have flown here I think at their own expense and their own time just to spend some time with us tonight so I thank them very much on behalf of the Government for doing so. Dennis do you wish to add?
AMBASSADOR: Thanks very much Prime Minister. I just might say that this really was initiated by the Prime Minister, when I was back in Australia in January. We were having a chat about what he might do on the visit. And he was pretty keen to link in with the Diaspora.
Just by way of background, here in the United States, somewhere between 100,000 and 130,000 Australians live and work. And they cover the full scope of the activities that the Prime Minister was talking about. Here tonight are a small group of that Diaspora. It would have been possible to bring together another 18 people who are equally involved at the top of their profession. A mix of things brings them to the United States, opportunity, sometimes research funds, sometimes personal interest, sometimes ambition.
But tonight will be about, very much, the Prime Minister being in listening mode. He has spent the last few days, he spent Friday involved with discussing a whole range of things with the Administration. He has been talking non-stop since he has been here, involved in the full range of global matters. He is now in listening mode tonight.
PM: Are you saying I haven't been listening so far?
AMBASSADOR: No, no, no. You have been. Absolutely. Anyway, this is very much his initiative and you are all very welcome to this lovely house. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there might be some other people you want to listen to you, what are the chances that you will meet with the hopefuls for the presidency -
PM: Well we I think made arrangements to catch up with Senator Clinton tomorrow. As I understand it we are catching up with Senator McCain on Tuesday. And Senator Obama I understand is in Pennsylvania so I think we are making arrangements for a pretty detailed chat on the phone. So that is as I understand it but I am looking forward to that very much.
JOURNALIST: What messages will you have for them (inaudible)
PM: Well whoever wins this next election in the United States, Australia stands as a long term partner with America. Whether it is a Republican or a Democrat, we are partners with this country, long term future, whoever forms the next Administration in Washington. And that will be very much what I will be affirming to each of the candidates with whom I speak.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd your push to join the United Nations Security Council has been fairly well received at home. Alexander Downer got a Cabinet estimate in 2004 that it would cost $35 million to lobby, how much do you think your (inaudible)
PM: We are now doing that work in Canberra, on the precise strategy and we have decided to do it again from the ground up. What needs to be done step by step, right across all of the voting blocks of the United Nations. And this will be a big challenge for us right across Africa, right across Latin America and all points in between. Not to mention our friends in Europe and elsewhere.
This will be an intensive diplomatic strategy. Alex is right on this point, none of these things are inexpensive. But we believe that if Australia is to make a contribution to the world, you have got to do it in part through being active in the United Nations which means being active in the United Nations Security Council.
We haven't been a Security Council member, it's coming up for thirty years. We have got to change that which means, putting your shoulder to the wheel and having a go. That's what we intend to do.
JOURNALIST: You got some questions yesterday about the fact that you hadn't spoken yet with the Prime Minister of Japan. Phone calls go two ways, are you a little bit surprised he hasn't phoned you?
PM: Oh look, as I said yesterday, it is just a question of when things come up, you chat. And I am sure that as needs arise there will be conversations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Australia is up against South Africa to get the Square Kilometre Array (inaudible). Very good I suppose for WA and Australia if we got it. Could I get your view on what you have been told today and perhaps get Andrew Thomas to tell us about the value to Australia?
PM: Well as we were walking out here into this very brisk evening, and hopefully it will be brisk not for you or us not for much longer. We were actually just talking about the Square Kilometre Array Telescope on the way out. This is a big project. The decision is still some time off. There are key competitors, namely ourselves and the South Africans, but this is potentially a $2.6 billion investment, funded by all countries in the world, in a huge piece of technology which would turbo charge the science in Australia. Over to you Andy.
DR ANDREW THOMAS: Yeah it would. It is extremely important actually and I think Australia is a prime contender for it for a number of reasons. It has got the economic wherewithal to do it. It's got the infrastructure you need to run that large kind of project. More than anything else, it has got a high degree of political stability that you need for running a long term project like that. And Australia, by virtue of its geographic remoteness to other regions is a very low noise area, you would call it, to use the technical jargon. So that those kinds of observations can be done with a lot more cleanliness than they might in other environments.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
ANDY: If you are undertaking a project like the Square Kilometre Array, or any high tech advance project like that, what you bring to the country is a huge investment in high tech systems, in education and higher learning. And that knowledge base that you have, which you lever with all the resources of all the other nations that are participating, now enhances your community and you develop a whole place of intellectual wealth that diffuses out into the community and enriches the community for the next 20 years or so. That's why it is very important.
PM: Two final points as I go, just on this. One is, I regard this project of sufficient significance to Australia to have raised it yesterday with the Vice President and with the Secretary of State. This is a big project for Australia. And I am dead serious about long term investment in science in Australia. This is a big part of it.
The second thing is this. We have taken it so seriously we are also in discussions with the Government of New Zealand to in fact make sure that what goes forward, could in terms of meeting the scientific criteria, have facilities spread across the North and South Island of New Zealand as well. The way in which this technology is working is the wider geographical span, the better the capture. We are freezing, we are going in and my guests are waiting, off we go. Thank you.