News Stories - 28 July
Suspension of the WTO Doha Round negotiations
Australia is very disappointed at the failure of the G6 Ministerial and the subsequent suspension of the Doha Round negotiations in late July. While this is a significant setback, Australia remains committed to the Doha Round and will continue looking for possible ways forward.
Australia is very disappointed the G6 Ministerial (EC, US, Australia, Brazil, India and Japan) failed to make progress on the Round in Geneva on 24 July.
Agricultural reform was the key sticking point and without movement on agriculture, no progress could be made on cutting industrial tariffs and opening services markets.
The breakdown was a missed opportunity not only for Australia’s farmers, manufacturers and service providers but also for developing countries which stood to gain the most from agricultural trade reform.
However, no deal is better than a “Doha-Lite” deal which would not deliver commercially meaningful opportunities. The Round was launched in 2001 to create a fairer and more open global trading environment which would deliver commercially-meaningful opportunities in agriculture, industrials and services trade.
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy suspended negotiations indefinitely on 24 July noting that WTO members would need to show a willingness to move from entrenched positions if the negotiations were to resume.
While there is real uncertainty about the Round’s future, Australia will continue looking for possible ways forward.
- Australia, along with Cairns Group allies, remains committed to pushing for meaningful reform of global agricultural trade.
- The EC and US also say they have not given up.
The Cairns Group 20th Anniversary Ministerial in Cairns in September will provide an important opportunity for key players to discuss how we can make progress toward our shared goal of bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion.
Australia’s response to the Middle East Tensions
Australia is gravely concerned about the continued violence in the region which has resulted in a large number of casualties. Australia has underlined that any resolution of the conflict needs to be sustainable and recognise Israel’s right to exist in peace.
Australia is gravely concerned with the escalation in violence in the region which began with the attacks on Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah.
- We have called on all sides to exercise restraint.
- Israel has the right to protect itself from terrorist attacks.
Australia is particularly concerned about the impact of the violence on civilian populations in Israel and Lebanon.
- In response, Australia is providing $2.5 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross for immediate humanitarian relief supplies and services. Of this $2 million will be allocated to the victims of the conflict in Lebanon and $500,000 for Israel.
A long-term solution to the Middle East conflict must involve acceptance of Israel’s right to exist in peace and the need for the emergence of a Palestinian state. The Lebanese Government must be able to exercise full sovereignty over its territory.
At the 26 July meeting in Rome between the US, UN, EU members, Russia and a number of moderate Arab states, participants agreed that a UN mandated force was urgently needed to provide a secure environment, but did not call for an immediate ceasefire.
- Prime Minister Howard has emphasised that any international force be focussed on a long-term solution to the conflict, and we would consider any request to contribute in that context.
- Any such international force needs to be large enough to effectively disarm Hezbollah.
Evacuation of Australians from Lebanon
Over past two weeks, the Australian Government has evacuated from Lebanon over 4500 Australians, permanent residents and their immediate family.
- The vast majority were evacuated to Cyprus and Mersin in Turkey, where they received accommodation and other consular assistance until they boarded government chartered aircraft for the trip to Australia.
- Over 3600 already returned to Australia.
Given Australia’s distance from Lebanon, this was a large scale and logistically complex undertaking.
- Inter-Departmental Emergency Task Force, comprising key officials from range of agencies, has met daily since 14 July.
- In Australia almost 460 officials have worked in 24 hour operations to manage the crisis and call centres, coordinate logistics and direct our consular response
228 officials from DFAT, Defence, AFP, Centrelink and DIMA deployed on Emergency Response Teams to Beirut, Damascus, Cyprus and Turkey.
- We chartered six ships which made 15 trips to Cyprus and Turkey (also taking out over 1250 foreign nationals (in addition to Lebanese) from Canada, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Poland, New Zealand, Lithuania, France, Brazil and Romania).
- We have so far chartered 15 flights from Turkey and Cyprus, in addition to two ADF flights, to bring these people directly home or to transit points for passage home.
Major phase of the evacuation is now complete, although we intend to retain a capacity to move smaller numbers, by sea or land, according to demand.
- We remain very concerned about the welfare of a number of Australians in southern Lebanon who have not been able to join evacuations convoys.
- We are continuing our efforts to contact this group and advise them of evacuation options.
Typical of the pattern of many large-scale consular emergencies, initial public criticism of the speed of the response has been replaced with a recognition of the complexities of the operation and overwhelmingly positive reactions from evacuees and the general public.
Tenth annual Australia/China Human Rights dialogue
The tenth annual Human Rights Dialogue was a frank and constructive exchange on human rights issues and concerns between senior Australian and Chinese officials. The Dialogue process also involved representatives from Parliament and the NGO community.
Australia has a strong interest in the development of human rights in China.
- We consider the annual Dialogue to be a useful forum to convey this interest to the Chinese Government.
Held in Canberra on 25 July, the Dialogue saw constructive discussion on a range of ongoing human rights issues, including freedom of the press, religious freedom, the treatment of political activists and Falun Gong practitioners, as well as conditions in Tibet and Xinjiang.
- This year’s Dialogue theme of labour rights prompted wide-ranging discussion.
- The Chinese delegation expressed interest in the situation of indigenous people in Australia.
The Chinese delegation met separately with representatives of the Australian NGO community, and had a useful discussion on issues including workers’ rights, religious freedom, and torture.
- Other Canberra meetings provided the delegation with practical information on implementing human rights and safety standards, including in the mining sector.
We will further strengthen our practical cooperation in the areas of legal reform, women’s and children’ rights, and ethnic minorities, with the two sides agreeing to a set of projects for 2006-07 worth $2 million.
- Previous cooperation has resulted in concrete human rights outcomes; one example being the passage of provincial-level domestic violence regulations.
There have been discernible changes to China’s attitude to our Human Rights Dialogue over ten years.
- It has evolved to include discussion on a broader range of issues with diverse representation from within the Chinese government.
News Stories - 21 July 2006
Australia is gravely concerned about the escalation in violence in the Middle East
Australia is gravely concerned about the violence in the Middle East which has already resulted in a large number of casualties. The safety of Australians in Lebanon is the overriding priority and the Australian Government is doing everything possible to ensure safe evacuations.
The Australian Government is working to ensure the safe evacuation of Australians from Lebanon. There are about 25,000 Australians in Lebanon. The situation of Australians in southern Lebanon is extremely worrying and the Government has called on all parties to facilitate the safe evacuation of foreign nationals.
The Australian Government is coordinating what could be the largest evacuation in Australia's history:
- It has arranged several ships to evacuate Australian citizens and permanent residents wishing to leave Lebanon to Cyprus or Turkey.
- Officials both in Beirut and in Australia are working to identify those Australians who need to be evacuated.
- There is close cooperation with our consular partners and Australia is prepared to assist their nationals as best we are able.
- The Australian Government is very concerned for the safety of its nationals and is in contact with Israeli authorities regularly about the assisted departures.
The escalation in violence in the region commenced with the attacks on Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah and Australia recognises Israel’s right to act in self-defence.
Hamas and Hezbollah must immediately and unconditionally release the IDF hostages and cease their attacks on Israeli territory. These must be the first steps towards the resolution of the current conflict.
Australia calls on all sides to exercise restraint, to avoid civilian deaths, to avoid damage to civilian infrastructure and to refrain from acts which escalate an already dangerous situation.
A long-term solution to the Middle East conflict must involve acceptance of Israel’s right to exist in peace and the need for the emergence of a Palestinian state. The Lebanese Government must be able to exercise full sovereignty over its territory.
The Australian Government will provide AUD2 million through the ICRC for humanitarian assistance to Lebanon.
Australia joins Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism
Mr Downer announced on 15 July that Australia will join, as a founding partner, the joint US-Russia Initiative announced by Presidents Bush and Putin at the G8 Summit in St Petersburg.
The Initiative aims to:
- improve accounting, control and physical protection of nuclear and radioactive materials and facilities
- suppress illicit trafficking, especially by terrorists, in such materials
- respond to and mitigate any acts of nuclear terrorism
- ensure cooperation in the development of technology
- deny safe havens to nuclear terrorists
- and ensure effective prosecution of nuclear terrorists
These objectives complement Australian programs dealing with nuclear materials, as well as our counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation priorities in Australia and internationally.
Australia was invited to participate in recognition of our record of counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation expertise and activism.
A meeting of founding partners – the core group of which will include G8 countries – is proposed for October 2006. This meeting will adopt a Statement of Principles and work plan. Partnership will subsequently be open to all states on a voluntary basis.
Australia helping to create Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System
Australia is committed to the long term sustainability of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWS) and will continue to work with Indonesia, India and others to build a better warning system. Interim arrangements for the IOTWS performed to expectations in the South Java tsunami event of 17 July 2006.
In accordance with internationally agreed interim arrangements for the IOTWS, tsunami alerts were issued very quickly by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii and the Japan Meteorological Agency – the interim warning centres for the IOTWS - to Indonesia and Australia.
The alerts were issued to Indonesia and Australia only because it was quickly determined that there was only potential for a locally destructive tsunami.
This tsunami highlights the importance of local public awareness and preparedness to enable an appropriate response at locations close to the seismic source.
The interim Australian Tsunami Warning System performed to expectations and relevant authorities were notified of the event.
Archived "News Stories"
7 & 14 July
30 June
16 & 23 June
2 & 9 June