‘Indian students in Australia have the highest levels of satisfaction’

The issue of violent incidents against Indian students needs to be put into perspective. Overall,Australia remains a very safe country in terms of crime. And that applies to international students as well.

Secondly,we do regular surveys with our international students because we host about half-a-million of them and the proportion of international students to domestic ones in our country is the highest in the world. They have consistently shown a very high level of satisfaction with life in Australia and the quality of education there. Interestingly,a recent survey shows Indian students have the highest levels of satisfaction.

None of these is an excuse for attacks that occur and we take that very seriously. The steps we have taken has had an impact. It is much less of an issue today than it was 12 months ago.

But more broadly on the question of multiculturalism,you need a commitment on the part of all communities to support core Australian values. I think it’s reasonable to insist that no matter where you come from in the world,if you make your home in Australia,you sign on to those core principles that we see as fundamental to our way of life.

We have made a huge shift in a very short period of time in a country that was dominated by an Anglo-Saxon community to now being one of the most multicultural communities in the world. Forty per cent of Australians are either born overseas or have one parent born overseas. There is probably no such other country in the world.

You are an Australian diplomat. So is the founder of Wikileaks. Mr Kevin Rudd said the Australian diplomatic system would back Assange. In this context,what is our opinion on this kind of revelation of classified public documents?

What Mr Rudd had said was that as an Australian citizen,he would be entitled to the consular assistance that we provide to any Australian without reference to the merit or otherwise of his case.

On the broader question,I think in our system the release of classified information is a very serious offence and anyone who does that would be brought to book by our judicial system. Now,in the case of Wikileaks,it seems a secondary disclosure,although nobody really knows who leaked it initially. But secondary disclosure is very different from primary disclosure. So I think the main culprit,if you like,is whoever gave it to Wikileaks. And that sort of breach of national security of any country is something we treat very seriously.

India and Australia are going through a phase that you could call parallel,in terms of Australia moving into Queensland and Western Australia,which are resource rich areas. In India,there is a sense people are moving into Central parts,which are again resource rich. But both these regions,in Australia and India,have indigenous communities there,and both countries also have the laws to protect those communities. What are the ways in which we can improve the dilemmas that arise and what are our stumbling blocks?

Well,they are difficult and complicated issues and all countries have struggled with that and Australia is no exception. I think in terms of Australia’s position,(I cannot really comment on India’s position),we are putting a lot of emphasis on trying to narrow the gap between indigenous Australians and other Australians in key indicators like health,education,employment opportunities. And we are doing that through a partnership with indigenous communities,through trying to empower them to take control of their own affairs,to develop programmes that are most suited to their particular circumstances,because the needs of a remote aboriginal community in the desert,an aboriginal community living in urban areas or in agricultural areas,they are all going to be very different. So,I think it requires a combination of active government policy,a partnership with indigenous community leaders as well as indigenous organisations,a very strong emphasis on the fundamentals by which I mean health and education.

We spend a lot of money on aboriginal issues. Money itself is clearly not the answer because if it were,the issue would have been resolved some time ago.

The coalition government in Australia consists of the Greens — the political party for environmental issues. So there would obviously be issues with mining as far as environment is concerned. Australia also has an active Climate Change Department. In India,there seems to be an environment vs development debate currently. How is Australia balancing that and how can we learn from that?

Well,we wouldn’t present ourselves as the world model in that sense but I think it’s important to recognise it’s not an either/or situation,that you have to choose between development and environment. The key to good policy in this area is sustainable development,which is protective of the environment and which does not contribute to ecological degradation. That is broadly the framework in which Australia operates. We have our own national targets in meeting climate change challenge and we are in the process now of trying to construct an emmissions trading scheme domestically.

The government is keen to putting a price on carbon and we hope to include a legislation to this effect in Parliament this year. Our view is that if you want to have an effective carbon reduction programme,the best way to do it is through market mechanism and to do it,you need to put a price on carbon. So we are working on details of that. It is not easy. There are a lot of different views about it. It is a politically sensitive issue. Some of the political parties are opposed to a tax on carbon,others want to go much further.