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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to all of you. Normally, the LSE's director, Howard Davies, would be here at the microphone to introduce the Honourable Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. Unfortunately, he's in New York, but he sends his best wishes. I'm Sarah Worthington. I'm a pro director here and one of Howard's three deputies. The three of us might normally have drawn straws for the thrill of introducing the Prime Minister of Australia to an audience here at the lse, but fortunately, I'm the only Australian pro director, so the pleasure is mine. By a sort of commonly recognised national entitlement, I want to tell you what we're doing. Before I introduce the Prime Minister, I'll say a few words to introduce him. He will then speak for about 30 minutes, maybe a little bit longer, and then we'll have questions. We've got microphones for questions, so please wait until you get a microphone and then at the end of questions, I'm going to ask you to stay seated while we leave. We've got a very tight time schedule and we need to get the Prime Minister on to his next appointment. In good time. You, the audience, I want to welcome you here. This is a public event and there are a lot of you here, but when we opened the lines for tickets, we had over 1,000 requests in the first 15 minutes. So you're the lucky ones. I think, on that kind of calculation, the Prime Minister of Australia is more popular than most UK pop groups. Now, given your eagerness to be here, I probably don't need to introduce Kevin Rudd, but I want to say a few words.
- [01:52]
B
Mobile phones off, please.
- [01:57]
A
Kevin Rudd is Australia's 26th Prime Minister and he was elected only last November. He defeated the Liberal National Party coalition that had been led by John Howard for over a decade, and he now has the highest news poll preferred Prime Minister rating of any Australian Prime Minister. Once selected, he took very little time to do some quite dramatic things. He ratified the Kyoto Protocol, delivered a national apology to the stolen generations of Indigenous Australians, and identified some major themes that his government was going to direct their attention towards. Fighting inflation, acting decisively on climate change, improving the health and hospital system, investing in education, putting fairness back into Australian workplaces, and various other matters of that kind of ilk. And today, at a press conference, he said that becoming a republic is not on that list just yet. By his own account, Kevin Rudd's leadership style is influenced by his long experience in state government, then as a diplomat, and also in business before he entered federal politics. He's an expert on China he graduated with a first in Asian Studies from anu, majoring in both Chinese Language and Chinese history. He continued his studies in Taiwan and later spent time with the Australian Embassy in Beijing. We're very fortunate that he's been able to squeeze in a visit to the LSE in this tour, a pretty whirlwind tour of us, Europe and China. Today, for example, he has already had breakfast with Gordon Brown and an audience with the Queen. So can I welcome him here to have an afternoon with us? Over to you.
- [04:14]
B
I'm Professor Sarah Worthington, pro Director of the London School of Economics. Members of the diplomatic corps, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, students of the loc, leaders of the future. Well, my name is Kevin. I'm from Australia and I'm here to help. When Sarah said before that I'd be taking the questions, what she meant was, I'll be taking the easy questions. Anything difficult, I'll be referring to her, since she's the other Australian of authority and terribly well credentialed. So I'll be selecting who takes what question. It's an honour to be an Australian Prime Minister coming to speak at the London School of Economics, an institution with such a remarkable history. When the LOC was founded in 1895 by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallace and George Bernard Shaw, its goal was the bettering of society through research into poverty and inequality. The social democratic response to these great social challenges has rightly changed over time. But the relevance of these challenges in themselves has not changed at all. It has surely exceeded even their lofty vision in terms of the debate which this great school has encouraged over the last century. Through its doors have passed 15 Nobel Prize winners, 42 heads of government and heads of state, including John F Kennedy, Clement, Attlee, Romano, Proudie, as well as many leaders in business, academia and the law. One of the most famous Australian LSE graduates was Herbert Cole Coombs, affectionately known back home as Nugget. Great Australian name, Nugget. He took his PhD from the LSE back in 1933. Margaret Coombs is remembered as one of the greatest public servants in Australian history, serving as the first governor of the Reserve bank of Australia, helping to establish the Australian National University, my own university, and championing the interests of Australia's indigenous people. Many of Australia's most talented students continue to come to the loc, and this institution continues to strengthen the bonds between Australia and the United Kingdom into the new century. Another part of the deep bonds between our nations is, of course, our shared roles in the conflicts of the 20th century. On Friday, when I arrived in London, the first official event on my program was to visit the Australian War Memorial at Hyde Park Corn and to lay a wreath. That memorial commemorates the Australian servicemen and women who fought alongside Britons in the first and Second World Wars. The memorial says a lot about who we are and where we've come from. Australia and the United Kingdom have always been close allies. In two world wars, Australians and Britons fought side by side in theaters right around the globe, in Europe and the Atlantic, in Asia and in the Pacific. And we did so in the name of the values which we still hold dear. Values of freedom, values of fairness, values which cause us instinctively to seek wherever we can to to defend the weak against the strong. Our histories have been intertwined since the 18th century, when my own forebears received a free passage to the colonies. Australia's on both sides. Australia's modern political and legal system is built on the foundation of British philosophical and institutional traditions which we have inherited. And these are good traditions. But today I do not want to talk about our shared history. I want to talk instead about our shared future. I want to talk about how Australia and the United Kingdom can work creatively together to shape the future global order. On security, on global economic management, on economic development for the poorest nation states, and on climate change. The time has passed when countries, including those with close ties like ours, can talk about their bilateral relationships as though they take place in some sort of vacuum. In today's world, we are all deeply connected to each other with an increasingly interconnected global order. This complexity is compounded by the fact that in this age of globalization, of security, the economy and the environment, we are also witnessing the collapse of what the international relations scholars have described as the great dividend between what was once clinically described as the foreign and the domestic, the internal and the external, the national and the international. All governments are increasingly operating in a seamless policy space where better coordination and cooperation within and between states has become more important than ever. The new Australian government's mission is to build a modern Australia that is capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. That means we have to be strong at home and fully, I repeat, fully engaged abroad. We are committed to strong macroeconomic management, critically and an increasingly fragile global economy. We are committed to investing strongly in productivity. We need nothing less than an education revolution to make sure that our people have the skills and training to compete in the fiercely competitive global economy of tomorrow. We are also committed to building 21st century infrastructure, both transport infrastructure and infrastructure of the future like high speed broadband. And we are committed to building an inclusive Australia where the benefits of prosperity are open to the many, not just the few. Australia is already deeply integrated with the global economy. It's now a quarter of a century since the election of the Hawke Labour government that pioneered extensive economic reforms that internationalised the Australian economy. Australia's economy is worth more than $1 trillion US and we are a member of the G20 group of large economies. Our international trade in goods and services equal to around 40% of GDP. Our major export markets are in Asia. Our major foreign investors are the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. Our major investment destinations are those same three countries as well as New Zealand. In short, Australia is a full participant in globalisation and we recognise that as a beneficiary of globalisation we have also to maintain, support and enhance the global economic order and the political and security order that underpins it. To do so, the new Australian government will prosecute what I describe as a creative middle power diplomacy. That means we will use our assets, our strengths, our networks and work with our partners across the world to find solutions to global and regional challenges. We will approach our task based on the three pillars of foreign policy of the new Australian government. Our alliance of the United States, our membership of the United nations where we work with partners from around the world, including our partners in Europe, and third, our comprehensive policy of engagement with Asia and the Pacific. Today I want to argue that in a rapidly changing world, Australia and the United States have a lot to gain from working with each other to shape the emerging global order, particularly given Britain's strength in Europe and Australia's strength in Asia. Both of us are long standing allies of the United States and we are both deeply engaged in the other two major regions of the current global order, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. In Australia's case, we pride ourselves on being the most Asia literate country in the collective West. For the UK and Australia, this is not a bad set of strengths to bring to the table as countries seeking to contribute to the shaping of the emerging global order. Furthermore, we actually get on with each other. Remarkable. At least outside the legitimate and visceral hostilities of cricket, where very simply we are good and you are not so good. Well, I'm an empiricist and the loss of the ashes is as unjust as the loss of the old marbles. That'll get me into trouble. The open global architecture pioneered by the United States and its allies in the aftermath of World War II has led to remarkable economic growth. But there are challenges of plenty lying ahead. Enhancing the global security order by acting decisively and proactively on terrorism. Reforming UN multilateralism. Restoring stability to global financial markets. Making progress on trade liberalisation. Delivering on the global undertaking to make poverty history by making sure that the benefits of globalization are spread more evenly around the world. Enhancing human rights and not ignoring them, even when it's politically difficult, as is currently the case with China and Tibet. And in addition to all these great challenges to the global order, we must build a coordinated response to climate change. The great moral, economic and environmental challenge of our age. Australia, United Kingdom can do a great deal to advance a shared vision for the future. For instance on security. We both have a stake in in global security. This gives us reason to work together on terrorism, not just closely, but with absolute intimacy. Terrorism remains a threat to Australia just as it does to the United Kingdom. Part of our response must be domestic police and intelligence agencies, etc. They must do in a way what is necessary under our laws and our values and do so effectively. But terrorism is not just local. Terrorism is also a global phenomenon. It exploits the openness of the international system to build its organisations and to plan its attacks. Cooperation across borders between our government agencies is a crucial element of our response. We can achieve a lot by sharing expertise on counterterrorism across borders. For Australia, working closely with our colleagues and partners in Southeast Asia is critical. We are also working together in Afghanistan. We are both committed to supporting Afghanistan in the long term. Last week I attended the Bucharest conference of NATO leaders to discuss Afghanistan. Australia is the largest non NATO contributor of troops to that country. More than a thousand Australian servicemen and women are there, largely in the dangerous south of the country, as is the United Kingdom. They're all putting their lives on the line. We work together, that's Australia and the uk, in a run up to the Bucharest conference to deliver a workable plan for Afghanistan's future. A plan that seeks to integrate the civil and the military components of an overall strategy. A plan capable of delivering a better future for the people of Afghanistan. And a better strategy to frustrate Al Qaeda's efforts to make Afghanistan a renewed base for terrorist activity which then threatens us all. And beyond these classical counter terrorism measures, to work together on reducing the grounds that ferment terrorism in the first place. Investing in education in the Islamic world as well as acting together on a comprehensive Middle east peace process. While at Gordon Brown this morning we discussed also the security implications of climate change. Climate change will aggravate existing strains and create new tensions within and between states as the supply of natural resources, including food and water, becomes increasingly unpredictable. Climate change is not just an environmental challenge. It is also an economic challenge and a moral challenge. It is also a security challenge. Australia wants to be part of the global solution on climate change, not just part of the problem. The first act of the new Australian government was signing the papers to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. We did this within one hour of being sworn in. We handed our instruments of ratification to the UN Secretary General within a week or so of being sworn in. And we will continue to work constructively in the international arena to bring this great project to its conclusion at the Copenhagen Conference at the end of next year. We see the United Kingdom as a key partner in this process. That is why I was pleased to announce with Prime Minister Brown today, a new enhanced partnership between our countries. With climate change very much at its heart, we share a vision for an ambitious, equitable and environmentally effective, economically responsible post 2012Global Agreement on Climate change. And we'll work together to this end, drawing our complementary regional and global relationships. We will also collaborate in specific areas aimed at building a global low carbon economy together with effective adaptation to to climate change. This will include collaborating on clean energy technology research and the deployment of energy efficiency, renewable energy and carbon capture and storage technologies. Developing also climate models that bring together the work of UK and Australian scientists sharing information expertise on emissions trading. Which is why I also announced today that Australia will now join the International Climate Action Partnership. If we're going to reach an effective global response, we need an ambitious long term global target supported by carbon markets that help drive investment in clean technologies. Technology must be a big part of the solution. Australia is the world's largest coal exporter. For us, finding a technological solution to carbon emissions from coal fired power stations is critically important. Work on these technologies is moving ahead. Last week in Australia we opened our first carbon sequestration pilot plant. Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, China and other countries like Norway must work more closely together on translating this technology into an effective commercial reality. Technology is crucial to achieving cuts in emissions. So too is action on energy efficiency, as is action on deforestation, reforestation and avoided deforestation in countries with major rainforest coverage. As Britain is now doing in partnership in the Congo and Australia is now doing in partnership with Indonesia and Papua New guinea, where rainforest concentration remains large. The transition to a global low carbon economy will provide new jobs, new industries and new growth for the future. Although structural adjustment will be necessary for all countries consistent with Our international approach. We in Australia are also committed to tackling climate change at home. We have committed to a target of 60% reduction of emissions based on 2000 levels by 2050, and we will develop interim targets in the year or so ahead. We are working to establish a mandatory Cap and Trade emissions trading scheme by 2010. By 2020, 20% of Australia's power generation will be sourced from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. Again, we'll lead up to Copenhagen. The UK and Australia will be working together towards a global consensus on climate change. Australia and the United Kingdom can also work more closely together on the Global Development Challenge. Today, I announced that Australia will be signing on to Prime Minister Brown's Millennium Development Goals Call to Action. We support its aim of working for accelerated progress towards the MDGs. We want to work together on important issues like reducing maternal deaths. It is disturbing that still in 2008, every minute a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth. It's not just disturbing, it's absolutely appalling. We're committed to cooperate to achieve demonstrable reductions in maternal mortality. This is something we can do and we should do so with urgency. The Millennium Development Goals must be achieved by 2015. We signed on to that in the year 2000, and the clock's ticking. We're halfway there already. At this halfway mark. Progress in some countries is mixed at best and in some cases are downright disappointing. When I visited Papua New guinea recently, I announced that Australia will place the Millennium Development Goals at the centre of our new development assistance relationship with the Pacific island nations. Through our proposed Pacific Partnerships for Development. Australia will also work closely with the United Kingdom and lead up to the UN Special Conference on the Millennium Development Development Goals in New York in September. These two challenges, climate change and development, are closely linked. Climate change is already making it more difficult to achieve the goals of poverty, eradication and sustainable development. The World bank estimates that 20 to 40% of all overseas development assistance is at risk from global warming. Therefore, the development challenge will require effective integration with the climate change challenge both in reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. It will also require greater effort, which is why Australia has now embarked on a program to lift its official development assistance from 0.3 to 0.5% of gross national income by 2015. Australia, Britain and the European Union should also work on better coordinating our development efforts among the Pacific island countries. Likewise, Australia intends to examine how we might modestly partner with Britain and the Commonwealth in defined development challenges in Africa. Our efforts must be effective, long term and global if we are to be serious about making poverty history. I'm a firm believer in the role of international institutions. Australia played a significant role in the founding of the United nations some 60 years ago through our then Foreign Minister Bert Evert. Evatt sometimes riled his colleagues from the great powers, but he was recognised as a champion for the rights of smaller countries, a critical factor in building effective international institutions. International institutions help to build rules and norms of international behaviour. The United nations and other global institutions need to evolve and reform if they meet the challenges of the 21st century. The structure of international institutions must reflect the realities of the modern world. The Security Council needs to better reflect the world of the 21st century. Australia supports Japan's and India's bids to become permanent members of the Security Council. As a demonstration of our commitment to the United Nations, I announced in New York last week that Australia will seek a non permanent seat on the Security Council in 2013-2014. I am committed to boosting cooperation between Australia and the United Kingdom in the un, including on questions of UN reform. Australia and the UK can also work together to push for a successful outcome to the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation negotiations. This is the Doha Development Round. It is designed in large part to assist the development needs of developing countries. Negotiating texts will soon be out and Australia supports the idea of calling for an early ministerial attention to the text to concentrate people's minds and to get an outcome on Doha. Freeing up trade is too important to the world's economic future to let this chance pass. We can also work together on the form of international financial institutions. The IFES the IMF should adopt at the end of this month a package of measures aimed at better aligning its members, quotas or shareholders with their weight in the global economy. Quotas are the main determinant of voting power in the imf. Emerging market economies will be the main beneficiaries. Korea will see its quota double. China's quota will increase by 50% and India's and Brazil's each by 40%. The reform package will provide for further adjustments for emerging markets in future years. Prior to the reforms, China's IMF Bolton's share was less than the combined shares of Belgium and Switzerland. The package also contains important measures to increase the voice of low income IMF members. Australia can take some credit for these outcomes. Some years ago we were among a handful of countries urging the need for quota reform to enhance the IMF's legitimacy and relevance, particularly among emerging market economies in our region. In 2006 under Australia's chairmanship, the Group of played an important role in the development of the first stage of the current reform package. Australia has recognised that this is not a zero sum game that all IMF members will benefit from a fund that has greater legitimacy and relevance and is therefore more effective in fulfilling its right and mandate for international financial stability. Reforming the IMF is important for the long term. Dealing effectively with the current global financial crisis is important in the immediate term. The current crisis is significant in the overall context of the economic globalization process we have all experienced over the last two decades. Economic globalisation has been driven by three principal the liberalisation of global capital flows, the liberalisation of global trade flows and the explosion of new information communication technologies that have underpinned both. These three are the arteries of the globalisation process. I've already spoken at some length about the current challenges to the further liberalisation of global trade flows. Progress is critical if we are to combat the forces of protectionism and resolve trade disputes effectively. The current global financial crisis goes to the imperative of sustaining the strong capital flows that have underpinned the global economy's strong growth and recent years. We need to maintain a global regime that fosters open capital markets that allocates the world's savings to its most profitable uses within frameworks of supervision and regulation that maintain confidence in the system. Of course there are different views on the current financial crisis. Whether it represents a significant market failure or simply a market based repricing of risk. Either way the crisis is highlighted the challenge of of ensuring that regulatory frameworks keep up with innovations in financial instruments in Australia we found that during the credit turmoil that our regulatory framework has been doing its job. I was pleased to see Sir Howard Davies in a recent Financial Times opinion piece rightly drawing the connection between the Australian Twin Peaks regulatory model and the proposed reform of the regulatory arrangements in the United States. I don't know whether I would go so far as to will Sir Howard's view that the the U.S. treasury has come to rest near Sydney Harbour. That's to quote him. But I can say that our regulatory arrangements so far are working well. That's not to say that our regulatory system can't be improved. The current turbulence has exposed a number of gaps which we have announced we will aim to fill. It has of course also exposed gaps in the international network of surveillance and regulation which we want to fill as well. There is a parallel between the oversight of global financial markets and global trade in that effective globalization in both cases requires effective regulatory regimes that can sustain and, in the event of crisis, restore confidence. As I said at the Progressive Governments Conference here in London last Friday, modern social Democrats believe in open markets, but they also believe in the effective regulation of those markets. We are very much the party of intelligent regulation. The challenge we all face now, Australia and the UK included, is to ensure that we get the balance right between market freedom and market regulation. We shall not overreact to recent events, but equally we need to address the problems that have been exposed. Furthermore, we must coordinate our response to the financial crisis. Australia and the UK are both members of the Financial Stability Forum, and we are contributing significantly to the development of new regulatory approaches to global financial markets through the fsf. And we'll continue to do so at the upcoming meetings of the IMF in Washington this week. Once again, the UK and Australia will need to collaborate closely in this important work, focusing on matters of valuation, transparency and liquidity. A key lesson from all of the market trauma the last six months is that when it comes to something as fundamental as the integrity of financial markets, good rules are essential. In fact, it is government's responsibility to make the rules which will ensure that open economies and open markets are able to continue to support the economic globalization process. Governments have a role in protecting the integrity, trust and functionality of markets. We will make no apology for now insisting that the rules be reviewed to increase the disclosure and transparency arrangements so that a sensible assessment of financial risk is possible. To conclude, I entitle my remarks to around Australia and the UK global partners in shaping the future global order. The challenges to that order are as broad as they are deep security, global financial markets, global trade, the Millennium Development Goals and climate change. That's a very big agenda. It's a very broad agenda, but it is the future agenda. But what is remarkable about all these challenge areas is that Australia and the UK exhibit an extraordinary similarity, if not universality, of interests. And in prosecuting this agenda, we need leaders of the future to help us as well. Modern Australia and modern Britain both see ourselves as committed global citizens. We are both strongly committed to to contributing to the future global order. And above all, both Australia and Britain are forces for good in the world. A world in which the number of national actors willing to play a significant positive global role remains limited. I look forward very much, therefore, to building a new partnership with Britain in this, the third century of our bilateral relationship. One not just based on the strength and of our bilateral relationship, strong though that is, but one also based on our common commitment to building a global order that meets the challenges of the 21st century and 1 that helps all nations and all peoples, not just a few, to achieve their potential in the dynamic century that lies ahead. I thank you.
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A
It was the one technical thing we didn't check. We've now got about 20 minutes for questions. There is a roving microphone. Could you please make sure that the question you ask is a question rather than a lecture of your own? Could you introduce yourself, ask your question and what I'm going to do is take them in groups of three. Now, we probably look as though we're in the bright lights up here, but you are all in the half dark, so you'll have to wave furiously and I'll point, I'll point to three and then we'll do those and then we'll pick the next three. So here at the front here. And we need one on this side really, don't we? Yeah, we'll take the front and then we'll move back. Thank you.
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B
Peter Morris. I'm with ALP Abroad, based here in London and I'm also vice president of the British Australian Pensioners association, although I'm not a pensioner myself. Is the AOP abroad an affiliated organisation? Well, we help bring in quite a few votes for you at every election. This is not a setup and I'm worried about the question now, Mike. Well, my question is that Jenny Macklin before the election said that one of Labor's promises was to try to renegotiate the UK Australian Social Security reciprocal agreement. I know it's a bit of a mouthful to also include the upbraiding of British pensions for Brits living in Australia. This Social Security agreement also has benefits for Australians living in the uk and I was just wondering whether you've managed to catch Gordon Brown's ear on that one and whether also it's possible to raise that at the Commonwealth heads of Government meetings or other Commonwealth meetings that you have. Thank you. I'm Paul Smith, the President of ALP abroad. So, another friendly question. I'll preface it by saying these guys are not going to believe me. This is this Australian media. I'll finish by saying that like so many Australians, we suddenly felt very proud to have a Prime Minister. Never more so when you apologize to the Aborigines on all our behalf. But my question relates to, obviously we can see by the people here this evening, the many thousands who couldn't get into see you to see evening that Australians are very engaged with Australians government at home and in fact there are 200,000 Australians here in London, a million overseas. We are global citizens who work globally but have an affection and want to remain engaged in Australia. One of the blockages in doing that is Australians actually don't have the same voting rights if they're overseas than they do if they're at home. And I'd like to ask what steps you might take to make to ensure that Australians are encouraged to vote who remain overseas as citizens and that they enjoy the same voting rights as Australians who are located at home. Andrew Thomas. And you'll tell from the accent that I have nothing to do with the ALP. Channel 4 News. Mr. Rudd, you got here just in time to see all the fun and games you can have on an Olympic torch relay through London. Are you going to welcome the torch to Australia in the same way that Gordon Brown did being seen with it? Are you going to let the Chinese men in blue tracksuits accompany it? And are you going to personally attend the opening ceremony in Beijing? Here's my answer to the fellow travelers from the aip. First, Kui Yam. Firstly, on the Australia UK Social Security Agreement. Those negotiations are underway between the respective ministers. Now, there's no outcome on it yet, but it's underway. And I wish I could say what the outcome will be, but I can't. But we're mindful of that because so many Australians, or so many people in both countries are depending on that outcome. But thank you for reminding me of it. Secondly, on the question of voting rights, of course it's not the forum to go through a lengthy dissertation of Australian electoral law, and I don't propose to do so, but I think the important thing is to make sure that all Australians abroad as enfranchised as is legally possible, as you rightly pointed out. I think. I think Australia House remains the largest polling booth in the world. I'm not quite sure how many voted here last time round, but I know Senator Faulkner is looking at the voting arrangements for Australians abroad because at any one time there's 1 million of them. And given that we are a country of 21 million and some 11 million voters, this is actually a significant slice of people. So that is near and dear to our hearts as well. You mentioned also the apology to Indigenous Australians as a comment, not a question. Can I say when you applauded before. Thank you for that, but your applause really should be directed to Indigenous Australians who waited a long, long. And for us, it's been a bridge towards building a gap. Sorry to bridging the gap between the gaps that have been built. We're bridging the gap between indigenous and non indigenous Australians on education outcomes, health outcomes and infant mortality outcomes. And Jenny Macklin, again, who's the relevant minister, is working very hard on that. On the question of the torch relay, I had a very almost identical question this morning in the joint press conference with Gordon Brown. So you'll see what I had to say there. But just to restate it, firstly on the torch relay in Australia, it will be in Canberra. It will be on the 24th of April. And our current arrangements, as I understand is the Sports Minister will be attending that event. I'll be in Sydney that day. It's a national memorial service for the HMA of Sydney which has recently found having been sunk back in the Second World War. On the second point about Chinese security services, as I said in my statement this morning on that, Australia will look after the security for that event and Australians will. And your third part of your question was the opening ceremony. I think I've said quite repeatedly that we do not support boycotts. I've been invited and as I've said on a number of occasions, whether I go or not will depend entirely on practical arrangements back home concerning that particular slot of time. And that's the position I've had for months and months. Okay.
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A
Okay, three questions upstairs now. And this is really testing my eyes. One here, standing up towards the front and. Yeah, Wave your arm and I'll say yes. Yes, got it.
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B
My name's Ben Davy. I'm a development policy advisor here in London. You mentioned a lot of challenges that we're facing and Australia will be looking to tackle in the future. What you didn't mention really was an issue around China and Chinese economic growth and the impact of that on the global order. And I'd be interested to hear from you what you see as Australia's future strategic relationship in relation to China. Thank you. I'm Mike Keating from Richmond, the American International University in London, and also from the West Australian branch of the arp. You mentioned Hawke, but not Keating. I don't know whether you've seen Keating the Musical, but I loved it. It had a great ending. And when I am. When I watched it, it reminded me of where we were before Howard took over with the big picture. And the big picture was engagement with Asia. It was reconciliation, it was multiculturalism and it was a republic. So on those last two points, which haven't really been addressed yet for multiculturalism, this addresses the UK as well in many ways. Do we need to re. Engage with what multiculturalism means? In order to re engage the population with Nazi culturalism in a post Howard era if you like. And in the Republic, is there any chance of Keating being the first President of Australia? Mr. President, I'm Darling Li, a PhD candidate from China. I've learned that you have a very nice Chinese name Lukewen, based on your exceptional well understanding of China. May I ask what your opinion is on the global impacts, the relationship between Australia and China? Peace especially on energy cooperation issues and climate change. Thank you very much. Let me start with the easy one first. PJK Mr. Keating is president. I think it's far better we decide first and foremost whether the nation wishes to vote and when and then I presume it's a matter for selection processes but as I've said before, on the question of a, of a Republic, it's not a top order priority for the government. I also said today that I'm sure in Australia the debate on this is going to roll out and roll out as it should. It's a democratic country. People have their say very soon. In Australia we've got something called the 2020 summit. It's going to be held on the weekend of the 19th and 20th of April. I came up with the idea together with colleagues that we should widen the tent of government, invite ideas from beyond the traditional sources, the public service and elsewhere. So a non government committee has put together a gathering of a thousand of the great and the good from across Australia. Parliament House, Canberra. Ten challenge areas, one of which is dealing with productivity and education. Other 1 Infrastructure. The future of creative arts and design, future of health, future of indigenous Australia. Another one has been governance. And I'm sure in that debate what you'll find is people both inside and outside that debate will probably hook into the subject. I mean that's just inevitable in my view. So the debate will unfold. But as I said, it's not a top priority for the government at this stage given the range of other domestic challenges that we face on the question of the two questions. But you also asked about multiculturalism. I think one of the great strengths of Australia is that we are a country of immigrants. It's just the diversity of Australia. Australia is as diverse as the audience I'm looking at at the moment. We're from everywhere and we are enormously enriched by that. Enormously enriched by the diversity. The first time, the last quarter century we had decent fish food as well. Since then, that's my criticism of Anglo Saxon traditional cooking. I'm in trouble again. The arrival of the Italians, the Greeks and Everyone like that, our friends from China and Vietnam and elsewhere in India, just the diversity of the country. There is great strength in a tolerant diversity. There's great dynamism in a tolerant diversity. And we should harness that. There are problems and there are some, as there are in this country. It's a question of being hard nosed about breaches of the law or prospective breaches of the law on which we need to act, but also open hearted in extending the hand of friendship as well. So I think we can continue to unfold that great Australian experiment. I think it's been doing okay. We need to be vigilant as well. There are a couple of questions about China. One, in the long term strategy with China. China is a huge country. It's impacting the global economy, it's impacting global security, it's impacting the global environment and the movement of peoples. It's impacting the way in which we provide education services around the world. The literally hundreds of thousands of Chinese students studying in institutions right around the world, including in Australia, including here at the loc. It's a great thing. Off to China from here and I'll be looking forward to catching up with students and others when I'm in China as well. For us, what are the key challenges? China obviously is out there with a long term demand for energy and resources. We understand that, but we're also operating in a free market. And so there are some stages when China will have access to energy and resources at market prices which it will regard as being too high. Accessing energy and resources when sometimes Australian producers of the same will regard those prices as too low. If you look at China's historical contracts, for example, on LNG coming out of Western Australia into Guangdong in the south, those prices, I'm advised, currently represent one third of the actual current market price. China did very well out of that deal. Ask for Chinese importer of iron ore today how they're going and I'll give you the reverse story in terms of iron ore prices, which they will regard as too high. That's life in a commodities market. Our challenge is to make sure that that is conducted on market principles within the overall framework of long term security of supply, as we have over many decades had with our friends in Japan who began importing these materials from Australia many decades ago. Another great area of engagement with China which parallels this is climate change. We cannot have an effective global outcome on climate change unless the United States and China are on the bus and India. These are very big emitting countries currently and prospectively and the focus of our diplomacy at all discussions I've had with Gordon Brown the last several days now is how we go about doing that. It's not easy. We understand the historical arguments about the trajectory of development and we understand also the current negotiating positions of China in the United States. But in China, one thing has happened in the last 12 months, I believe, and that is that China has reached a conclusion on the science. That is that climate change is happening. It's directly affecting the planet and therefore it's directly affecting them. That therefore gives us a basis for active engagement with the Chinese on a future arrangement which may assist in us delivering a decent planet outcome for the next generation of human beings. It's going to be tough, but one of my big focus in dealing with China in the future is to do whatever I can to get China on the bus. And in addition to that, India and the United States, if we all pull together in defence of our common interests as inhabitants of this planet, then we will leave a decent legacy and the reverse is too horrible to contemplate.
- [48:19]
A
Time says, one more question. We need a woman. Make it very short. It will be. Thank you very much. The answer has to be very short as well. Sure. Thank you. I'm glad. Thank you for picking me because I have a very important message to deliver to you, Mr. Rudd. My mother, she says her name is Megan Morris and she lives in Brookhampton in Australia. I'm a journalist from BBC, but I'm here in a personal capacity and she. The message is thank you very much for winning the election because I always said I would never go home when John Howard was in power, But I do have a very strong.
- [49:08]
B
Or is that your mum?
- [49:09]
A
That's my mum.
- [49:10]
B
Right. Okay.
- [49:11]
A
I'm not a member of the Alpine and I do have a very short question for you, though, and that is it seems to me that the current debate about China, part of the problem is that in the west we profoundly misunderstand how China views as part of the problem in our negotiations with China on that issue. And given your own personal insight into China, in fact, that you're going to be going there soon, do you think that there is something that Western countries should be doing better or differently to try and engage China on this issue? And what will be your message to the government of China on Tibet?
- [49:46]
B
Let's just be very blunt about it. Dealing with China on Tibet and dealing with China on broader human rights questions is a very complex business. It's very difficult. Let's not pretend that it's Easy. It never has been and never will be. So the question is how to put all this into context and how. How to map an effective strategy for the future. Firstly, I think it's to recognize what's happened in China since 1978, when they started liberalizing the economy. That's 30 years ago. There were many changes in China since then. When I first went there to live, when I first started studying Chinese, the Cultural Revolution was still on. Our textbooks were full of class struggle texts. That's. I'm not that old, but let's stop looking for such doubt. And the China where Charles, my wife and I went to live in 1984 was barely beginning in this reform process. And the opportunities for average Chinese people to earn a living were very, very remote. There were very limited levels of personality. Well, the clock on 25, 30 years since then, it's changed. There is more space for people and there are great high living standards and hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. That's on the positive side of the ledger. On the other side of the ledger, we still have real problems on human rights. That's the absolute truth of it. Let's not pretend that it's any different. This is the complex reality that we're dealing with. So when it comes to the specific question of Tibet within that, the critical thing is to be upfront and recognise what's gone right in terms of China's development trajectory and where the problems still lie, and to be upfront about that as well. That's why I'm open in my public language about this. Secondly, what we do need to see.
- [51:45]
A
Is.
- [51:48]
B
The Chinese, through their representation, engage the Dalai Lama through his representatives. That needs to happen. There have been such contacts in the past, they need to be resuscitated. The rest of the world, in fact all governments except Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. The question is those negotiations within the. The framework of a good outcome for the Tibetan people. This would be a difficult set of discussions and negotiations in Beijing that I'm about to go to. I understand that, accept that, but I think it's the right way to proceed. Before I conclude altogether, could I just say one or two things to all of you? As students of the LLC and friends of the USC and Australians abroad? I was taken by the number of 200,000 Australians living in London. That's a lot of people. I know it's great being here, but. We do need you back home, too. There's a lot of things to do, big challenges, and we're up here sort of Adding to the brain power and the work you're doing here at the LSE and elsewhere. That's terrific. And time spent here is time well spent. But we have huge challenges, as I said. We've got the 2020 summit coming up. We've got a youth summit coming up next weekend and there are summits running all across Australia. The idea is to bring Australians from outside the ranks of government into the councils of government. Because I am of strongly of the view that we in the political process don't have all the wisdom. Neither do bureaucrats, neither do public servants. But many of you who are experts in your field, we actually want to hear from you. So go to the government website and you'll find a 2020 website rack in your submission to the Future Summit. The 2020 Summit. We want to hear from you. And if you choose to stay here, I'll be speaking to Gordon about making sure some of your visas are revoked and you've got to. It. Okay.
- [54:35]
A
I think you said the thank you I was going to ask you for. The Prime Minister is now late. It's probably my fault. We have a small present for him as a souvenir. He doesn't need to open it now, but thank you. Looks good. Okay, we're going to make a very fast exit. You can clock as we go if you like, in true Australian fashion, but we're going. Thank you.
- [55:07]
B
It.