Kevin Rudd confident of AUKUS passage through US Congress | ABC Radio National
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Patricia Karvelas
Kevin Rudd is Australia's Ambassador to the United States and former prime minister and he joins us now. Ambassador Rudd, welcome.
Kevin Rudd
Good morning, Patricia, and good to be with you on the program.
Patricia Karvelas
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and foreign secretary Antony Blinken have both visited Beijing in recent months in signs that the relationship is thawing. Is this move in relation to investment likely to jeopardise that progress?
Kevin Rudd
I think the bottom line is the administration has been fairly clear in its communications with the Chinese government that there'll be still a range of measures which the US government would put in place to protect its own industries and to ensure that in areas of sensitive technology it is looking after both US and allied interests. I doubt therefore that this most recent announcement from the US Treasury on foreign investment restrictions will come as a surprise to Beijing.
Patricia Karvelas
China just dropped its tariffs on Australian barley, but should Australia follow the US and look to do the same in banning some investments in China?
Kevin Rudd
Based on my most recent advice, there has been no request from the United States for either Australia or other governments to engage in parallel measures on the restriction of foreign direct investment. These are applied to, for example, semiconductor technologies, they apply to artificial intelligence, they apply to quantum computing and other highly sensitive high-tech domains. I'm sure if such a request was to come to the Australian Government, the Australian government would consider it on its merits.
Patricia Karvelas
Let's move to the AUKUS partnership. You've said you're confident that the US Congress will pass the AUKUS bill. How are you so sure given there are concerns from some Republicans?
Kevin Rudd
In the four months that I've been in Washington as ambassador, I've spent a lot of time with both Republicans and Democrats as either chairs or ranking members of the Senate and House committees: the Foreign Relations Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Armed Services Committees and others. And so what's fairly plain is that whenever a significant piece of legislation goes through Congress, once the administration has presented its draft, it is normal and natural for individual committees to have their say and to reflect their views. It becomes part of a complex negotiating process in and between the committees, and between the committees and the administration. But based on every assurance that I've received so far, from senior Republicans and senior Democrats, Australia's core interests in terms of ship transfer legislation, core interests in terms of the future of technology transfer between the two countries, will be supported by sufficient numbers both within the House and the Senate to secure passage. It won't be an even process. Making legislation in the United States is about as tidy as making sausages; that is, never a process to be observed too closely. But then again, our own democracy functions often on similar lines. So let's just sit back and allow the US political process to go through its various stages through until the end of this year.
Patricia Karvelas
There are broader questions though, Ambassador, around the AUKUS timeframe. Based on what you've seen in the US are you confident these submarines can and will be built in the next two decades?
Kevin Rudd
Well, since I've been in the United States, I've had the opportunity to visit one of the two major shipyards responsible for the production of US nuclear-powered boats - that's at Newport News and Huntington in the state of Virginia. These are massive facilities. But it is true that these facilities, both for US needs and for Australian needs, will need to be expanded which is why we intend to collaborate with the United States on further investment in the industrial base. But, based on the discussions I've had with the administration, based on the discussions our own defence and naval teams have had with US counterparts, we're confident we'll get there. Of course, the other part of the equation is the beginning of the construction of our facility at Osborne in South Australia for the AUKUS-class subs. I was able to spend time with Premier Malinauskas in South Australia on this the other day, as well as with the Australian naval infrastructure group and look at their plans for the development of what will be a massive facility in Adelaide, which will add to Australia's overall national defense, self reliance and resilience into the decades ahead.
Patricia Karvelas
Kevin Rudd, Four Corners is reporting a new US Air Force mission planning and operations centre will be built in Darwin as part of a wider military spend by the US in the Northern Territory. Why is the US expanding its presence in the area so much?
Kevin Rudd
This is part of the normal evolution of our allied arrangements with the United States. For the US, their interest, of course, is to ensure that they are engaged in the proper sustainment of their own forces here in the wider Indo-Pacific region, all anchored to the maintenance of strategic equilibrium in our wider region. So that we end up being able to keep a free, open and sustainable Indo-Pacific region. Of course, in Australia's case, we will do what we can to support that, but these arrangements are also consistent with our own national sovereignty interests.
Patricia Karvelas
Ambassador, if Donald Trump does return to the White House, which of course is possible, would it fray support the US alliance in Australia?
Kevin Rudd
The wonderful thing about the American democracy and the wonderful thing about the Australian democracy is that ultimately these things are determined by our respective peoples. We have been through enormous challenges in the past, both some generated by domestic politics, others generated by the dynamics of our strategic operating environment. But the bottom line is this alliance has gone from strength to strength.
Patricia Karvelas
Kevin Rudd, obviously you're the ambassador to the US in Washington DC. Do you have the issue of the Voice to Parliament raised with you there?
Kevin Rudd
So far, the Voice question in the upcoming referendum in Australia has not generated enormous public attention in the United States. I think as the campaign proceeds here in Australia, both the yes case and no case, it will come to more attention. And of course, whatever the result is, it'll be well noted in Australian and US domestic politics, particularly given the sensitivity of Native American questions and broader relations between African Americans and the rest of the American community.
Patricia Karvelas
Because these issues of race relations are huge in the US as well, how do you think it would be looked at if Australia was to vote no or yes?
Kevin Rudd
Well, the United States is familiar with the long process of reconciliation between Aboriginal Australians and non-Aboriginal Australians. Americans are well familiar with, for example, the Apology back in 2008 and the fact that we as Australians, both then and through the processes of reconciliation have elected, both black and white, to bring our peoples together. Now, it's not my place as an ambassador to advise Australians which way things will be viewed or how they should be viewed, but I'd simply say this: the great thing about Australia so far in the way in which we approach these difficult and hard questions of race has been this resolve across the Australian community, black and white, to engage in these deep processes of reconciliation over time.
Patricia Karvelas
Just finally, Ambassador, your prime ministerial portrait will be unveiled today. Just have one question: beard or no beard?
Kevin Rudd
Well, actually, you know that beard of mine, Patricia, that's not really a cultivated thing. That's just, for we Queenslanders, it's a bit of overnight growth.
Patricia Karvelas
You're so rugged, Kevin Rudd.
Kevin Rudd
Well, ruggedness has always been essential to my Queensland identity -
Patricia Karvelas
Yes, yes.
Kevin Rudd
- and Australian identity in Washington.
Patricia Karvelas
Of course.
Kevin Rudd
I think we'll just wait and see what happens. I put this thing off for 10 years or so, Patricia, but I got worried that the Parliament House mob would ultimately commission anybody to knock up a quick drawing based on an official photograph. I thought I'd better get it done. Vanity ultimately prevailed.
Patricia Karvelas
Vanity ultimately prevailed. Do you like it?
Kevin Rudd
I've only seen a photograph - I've not seen the real thing - so you can study carefully my facial reaction today in terms of what it actually looks like. So Thérèse, who is a far better judge of these things than I am, says it's a great portrait and a great likeness. She's the sophisticated member of our union - after all, she's from Adelaide - and she is a great judge of these things and is enormously confident in the skills and talents of the artist and all will be revealed later today.
Patricia Karvelas
It certainly will. Ambassador, thank you for joining us.
Kevin Rudd
Good to be with you, Patricia.
Patricia Karvelas
Ambassador Rudd there.