AUST: New PM pledges to work with New Zealand
Updated
Australia's new Prime Minister has pledged to work with New Zealand to deal with common security interests in the South Pacific and climate change issues. Kevin Rudd has had his first leaders meeting with New Zealand's Prime Minister, Helen Clark, who flew to Brisbane for the talks. Mr Rudd says he wants to broaden Australia's relationship with New Zealand.
Presenter: Graeme Dobell
Speakers: Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister; Helen Clark, NZ Prime Minister
DOBELL: The two prime ministers are also both Labor Party leaders, and Kevin Rudd says he regards Helen Clark as a friend, going back to their first meeting in the New Zealand parliament building in Wellington.
RUIDD: When we first met, she kindly took me to dinner in the Beehive, I was going to say Bees Hive, the Bee Hive.
DOBELL: Australia's new prime minister says the relationship with New Zealand is significant bilaterally for the economic and people-to-people links and Mr Rudd says Canberra and Wellington must coordinate their security roles in the South Pacific.
RUDD: We have so many things in common. From Australia's point of view, this is our sixth largest trading relationship. We have common security policy interests and New Zealand's role in the South Pacific has been outstanding under Helen's leadership, and I look forward to, not just continuing this relationship, but broadening it.
DOBELL: In Opposition, Kevin Rudd criticised the Howard Government for following the wrong strategies in the South Pacific. He warned that Australia could face rolling security commitments if the islands face continuing instability.
RUDD: Well, today's not the day for partisan comments about anything, but it's the day for looking forward. I've always been impressed by what the Kiwis have done on the ground in the South Pacific. I've always been very attentive to emerging problems and what needs to be done. None of us ever get it perfectly right cause it's a complex region. But I look forward to working very closely with the New Zealand Government and with Helen's government and the challenges we face there.
DOBELL: Mr Rudd is about to fly to Bali to take part in the United Nations climate change conference. Australia's prime minister says he expects to work through issues with New Zealand, because of common interests as part of what he calls a tough, hard negotiation. Environment groups have argued that there's a gap between Australia and New Zealand in the approach to emission reduction commitments by developed economies in the next stage of the Kyoto process beyond 2012.
The New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark.
CLARK: I think there's two issues here. One the Bali conference is endeavouring to get a global comprehensive negotiation going and from New Zealand's point of view, we would like to see out of that negotiation a long term emissions goal agreed on which is comprehensive, and everybody needs to be in on that. But there's a second track going on, and that's going on between the Annex One countries to the Kyoto Protocol and that's where this indicative range of the 20-40 per cent is being talked about.
Now up until now, Australia hasn't been part of that discussion because it hadn't ratified the Protocol. Australia will now come into that discussion. So let's separate the two things out. I think that one of the critical negotiations for all of us in Annex One is going to be when it's finally agreed what the Annex One countries emissions reduction goals should be, how that is then distributed across Australia, New Zealand, European Union, Japan, Russia, Canada, etc. and that is a discussion that is yet to be had.
DOBELL: Mr Rudd says that by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, his government has now got Australia to the negotiating table and Australia can now be part of the process.
RUDD: The purpose of Bali, is to set up a framework and a time line critically to resolve these questions. The move we've taken as Australia is to be part of the process, for the first time comprehensively. And we want the next two year period to be intensive, comprehensive, because we've got obligations to the region and the planet. We take those very seriously. It's going to be tough, full of hard negotiations of course, but I'd rather be around the negotiating table, than absent from the field.
