ABC NewsRadio with Steve Chase
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Subjects: Papua New Guinea; UN Security Council
E&OE…
STEVE CHASE Joining us to discuss the issue is Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Good afternoon.JULIE BISHOP Good afternoon Steve, and happy Australia Day to you.
STEVE CHASE Thank you. How concerned are you by this development?
JULIE BISHOP I have been speaking to people in Port Moresby and they tell me on the streets, out on the ground, you wouldn’t know that anything had happened. However, I understand overnight a small group of soldiers, possibly between 10 and 20, placed the PNG military chief under house arrest at Murray Barracks. I am told that the situation is calm but it is unpredictable. We don’t know if it is confined to a small group, whether it is an isolated incident or whether it is part of a broader tactic.
The military has shown appropriate restraint up until this point in the face of a stand-off between Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Sir Michael Somare, but I understand that the O’Neill Government has indicated that it believes that it has matters under control.
I would urge the soldiers to release the military chief, to return to their barracks, and allow the political stand-off to be resolved through the Parliament, through the courts if necessary, and ultimately through the ballot box.
STEVE CHASE So that is how you see it playing out, that it will be resolved or don’t you have that confidence?
JULIE BISHOP That is the view of the people that I have been talking to in Port Moresby. However, it is unpredictable. The O’Neill Government says it has matters under control, the retired colonel is indicating that he is going to give the parties seven days to resolve what he terms the crisis. But in any event I would urge that there be calm, that the soldiers release the military chief and allow the political process to resolve the stand-off through the Parliament and the courts if that is necessary and ultimately through the ballot box because there is an election scheduled to be held mid-year.
STEVE CHASE How do you rate the likelihood, I hate to be talking about this but there isn’t there a likelihood of bloodshed? Do you rate that highly?
JULIE BISHOP At this point we must accept that the O’Neill Government has matters under control, but it is volatile, it is unpredictable and these recent political events show how important it is for the Australian Government to maintain a consistent focus on matters in Papua New Guinea. I have been urging Kevin Rudd to pay more attention to our region, particularly to Papua New Guinea, and it is certainly not in our national interest to neglect Papua New Guinea or our region.
STEVE CHASE Are you suggesting that Kevin Rudd has, or at least the Gillard Government has neglected PNG?
JULIE BISHOP There certainly hasn’t been the focus on PNG that it requires, that it deserves, and I have been quite vocal in urging Kevin Rudd to pay more attention to Papua New Guinea. I know that our High Commission is assisting in whatever way it can in Port Moresby. For example, there has been a recent natural disaster with serious consequences in the Southern Highlands. A landslide has caused great loss of life and I am sure that our Australian High Commission is doing all it can.
But with the political instability we have seen over months it would help if the Australian Government were focussed on what is happening our region and in Papua New Guinea. I have been critical of the Government for focussing all its attention on securing a temporary seat in the United Nations Security Council. I think Kevin Rudd’s time would be better spent focussing on some of the problems in our region and it is not in our national interest to neglect or ignore the problems in Papua New Guinea.
STEVE CHASE Do you, or does the Coalition, have a view on what should be done and do you have a view on what has caused this current tension in PNG? Is it, at the basis of it, who is the legitimate Prime Minister?
JULIE BISHOP Well the events have played out over the last few months. We know that Sir Michael Somare was removed by a vote in the Parliament. On technical grounds the courts in PNG restored the Prime Ministership of Sir Michael Somare and then changed that view, and currently the O’Neill Government is in control, it is running the public service, it is running the country. But this kind of action by, I hope, a small group of military personnel is deeply troubling and events will let us know in the next couple of days whether it is confined to this small group and it is an isolated matter or whether there is some broader strategy at play here.
STEVE CHASE And would you expect a briefing on this particular issue any time soon?
JULIE BISHOP Most certainly. I am in constant contact with our High Commission in Port Moresby and as soon as I am able to speak to somebody in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra I will seek to do so.
STEVE CHASE Now before I let you go, on a separate issue, the former Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans says that Australia has a good chance of winning a temporary seat on the UN Security Council but he says both sides of politics need to be on board. Is the Coalition letting the team down?
JULIE BISHOP Not at all. We took the advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that Australia didn’t have a very good chance of securing a seat in the next round, in 2013. And so we believe that the best time for Australia to seek to secure a temporary position on the Security Council is when we have the best chance, and the advice that we received from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was that would be in 2018. I believe that opportunity has passed, but given that we started behind the eight-ball, that Kevin Rudd went against the advice of his own Department, he is trying to rush through the focus on winning a seat, and I am afraid that other areas of national interest are being neglected because of that focus. We don’t have the time or the resources to commit to winning a seat in the next couple of years. We should do it when we have the best opportunity to do so and taxpayers’ funds are not put at risk.
STEVE CHASE Julie Bishop, thank you for talking to ABC NewsRadio on Australia Day. I believe it is very hot where you are in Perth.
JULIE BISHOP It is indeed. It is over 40 degrees but there are thousands and thousands of people who are peacefully enjoying a very happy Australia Day.
STEVE CHASE Thank you very much. That is Julie Bishop, she is the Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister and ABC NewsRadio requested an interview with Kevin Rudd’s office but was told he was unavailable.
