30 June 2013
Subjects: Border protection policy, Australia-Indonesia relations, opinion polls, leader debates, election date
E&OE…
JOURNALIST Good morning Julie. Thanks for your time.
JULIE BISHOP Good morning gentlemen.
JOURNALIST Let’s tackle firstly, not simply the ascension, the re-ascension (if that’s a word), of Kevin Rudd to the Prime Ministership. It has obviously changed already the nature of the debate that we’re having in the public domain, particularly around asylum seekers. Let’s deal with that first and the Prime Minister’s claim on Friday that Tony Abbott’s position in respect to stopping the boats or turning the boats around would lead to ‘conflict’, quote unquote with Indonesia. Do you believe that was a gaffe or a ploy by Mr Rudd to try and change the debate around asylum seekers?
JULIE BISHOP Whatever it was it was a grossly irresponsible and reckless statement for the Prime Minister of Australia to make. He invoked images of a military conflict with Indonesia, he was talking about Field Marshals, he mentioned Konfrontasi which was an Indonesian conflict in the 1960s in which Australian soldiers died and he talked about this ‘conflict’ with Australia.
What utter nonsense Kevin Rudd talks. But this is not just about Kevin Rudd’s ridiculous, absurd comments. He is responsible for one of the greatest policy failures of this Government, indeed one of the greatest policy failures of a generation where we’ve seen more than 45,000 people come to Australia by boat, hundreds and hundreds of people drowning at sea, dying at sea, as a result of his policies and billions and billions spent, a blowout, as the Government struggles with the influx of people coming by boat.
JOURNALIST So what should he be putting to President Yudhoyono when he meets with the Indonesian leader in the next week?