Aug32017

Radio interview with Geoff Hutchison, ABC Radio Perth

Australia

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

I’m delighted to be joined by the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull. Mr Turnbull, good morning to you.

PRIME MINISTER:

Good morning Geoff. Great to be with you.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Prime Minister, have you done anything to win back the West this week?

PRIME MINISTER:

I’ll tell you what I’m doing right now, I’m on the way to open, officially open the extension of the Mitchell Freeway which is extending it six kilometres from Joondalup to Hester Avenue in Clarkson. 

That extension which I’ll be opening with the Premier was 80 per cent funded by the Commonwealth and the balance from the state and it is a $216 million project. It is going to relieve congestion. It is going to ensure that people spend less time stuck in traffic and they spend more time with their families. It will enable people, it will open up economic opportunities and all of the benefits that come from improved infrastructure.

So it is a good example of the commitment we have to Western Australia and it is part of our over $7 billion of commitments to infrastructure in this state.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Do you accept that if the West Australian public believe the answer is no to that question? And I appreciate what you’ve just told us about an important piece of road infrastructure. But do you accept that if the Western Australian public answered that question with: ‘No, he has done nothing to win back the West’? that several of the Ministers that have been with you this week will lose their seats and you will lose office?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, Geoff, obviously, if voters are unhappy and vote the other way it has electoral consequences and plainly we’re committed to delivering for the people of Western Australia, for the people of Australia.

You asked a question earlier about what is an ordinary Australian. Can I tell you Australians are all extraordinary. The greatest asset of this country, of this state are our people. And their enterprise, their determination, their vision, their courage is what we’re doing to enable – every one of our policies, whether it is investing in better infrastructure, whether it is investing here in Perth in the Mitchell Freeway extension or in METRONET, or in any of the projects we’re backing around the state and around the nation – all of them are designed to better enable Australians to achieve their dreams, to marshal their enterprise to get on and grow the economy and deliver all of the jobs and opportunities that we need.

Look, I am unashamedly backing Australians’ enterprise.

My opponent Mr Shorten and the Labor Party are I would say equally unashamedly determined to tax and regulate business.

Everything they have in their platform is calculated to discourage investment and employment.

Everything we are doing is going in the right direction which is encouraging investment and jobs.

You know, whether it is the announcement we made this week with Michaelia Cash, one of our great Western Australian Ministers about the AHA backing internships and getting young people on welfare into jobs. Isn’t that a great thing?

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

With respect I’d like to stay with the GST issue for just a moment. This week you said: ‘I’m the first Prime Minister to address this issue’.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I believe that’s the case Geoff.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Do you think voters could name what it is you’ve actually done?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it depends how much they follow the news I suppose, Geoff, but I can tell you exactly what I’ve done – in consultation with the West Australian Premier at the time Colin Barnett – what I proposed was that when Western Australia’s share returned to a normal level, and it was expected to get up over 70 per cent by 2019-20 was the estimate at that time, that would be an occasion when we should reset the GST formula so that there is a floor and that was on the basis, because if you did it then then at that particular time no other state would lose.

And look, this is a political challenge, and Colin understood that. We discussed this, I made that proposal, or that commitment at the State Council of the Liberal Party here in WA.

I have pursued it at COAG meetings. I have made the case for Western Australia at COAG meetings, both in front of Colin and in front of your current Premier Mark McGowan.

We now have the Productivity Commission looking at the GST formula and what we are endeavouring to do is to develop a fairer GST formula that gives a distribution of GST that will not only pass the pub test in Western Australia but be seen as fair everywhere else.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

If the only public take-away from the week is that WA is to lose a further $1.9 billion because the Australian Bureau of Statistics has noted there are 60,000 fewer people in the state, won’t that just confirm this parochial suspicion of ours that political words are completely meaningless? Scott Morrison told Mark McGowan: ‘We can’t do anything about that, sorry’ – won’t that be the thing that lingers in the memory of the West Australian public?

PRIME MINISTER:

Geoff, I’ve got to tell you, just between us and your listeners, there are two, it’s like parallel universes. This is what I hear from the media.

I have met with hundreds of Western Australians this week. In Perth, I’ve met with school students. I’ve met with their parents. I’ve met with a 100-year old war veteran. I’ve been down to Albany. I’ve been to Busselton. I’ve been out to Swan View Senior High School. I’ve been in the pub in Mindarie. And the reception I have had could not have been more warmer or more positive or more welcoming.

And so I listen to you saying how angry people are and how furious they are and how they wish I wasn’t coming and so forth – it is a complete parallel universe between what the media is saying and what the people I’m meeting in the real world are saying to me.

Now I recognise there is an unfair distribution of the GST. Yes. I am seeking to resolve it. Yes.

What is the Labor Party doing? What is Bill Shorten doing about it? Nothing. He is attacking me for suggesting that the formula should change.

So the reality is in terms of politics, there is one side of politics federally that is seeking to reform the GST formula so that it is more fair and that is my side.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

And save its political skin in Western Australia.

PRIME MINISTER:

It is my side of politics – look, again, Geoff, your negativity – look, I know politicians should never complain about the media but I just, you know, your listeners I reckon have a much more positive view if they are like the literally hundreds of people I’ve met this week.

And I will meet more Western Australians. I’m going up to Broome, of course, so I’m getting right around the state.

I could not have been more warmly welcomed, had more positive discussions than I’ve had here in WA.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Prime Minister, let me then just ask you, because I read this as soon as I came on air.

“Geoff, I’m a 40-year old Liberal supporter in a marginal seat and I would like you to let the Prime Minister know that unless he and the Liberals give a fairer GST distribution to WA, I and many of my friends like me will not vote Liberal.”

And you know that recent polling points to the same thing.

Whether it is fair or unfair you will carry this burden of blame. I think the only thing that people might agree this morning is that we live in a parallel universe.

PRIME MINISTER:

I’m not suggesting that people are not concerned about the GST. They are. I’m concerned about it too. But you’ve got to remember that you have, and I’ve discussed this, I had a very constructive, very cordial, friendly discussion with the Premier yesterday and you know, one of the challenges that we face and he faces is getting the Labor Party on board because who are the biggest opponents to changes to the GST formula? At the moment, Labor states. South Australia, Queensland, Victoria in particular.

You know, New South Wales, which is the biggest state obviously in population terms and so forth, its Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian supports reform to the GST of a kind that would actually result in Western Australia getting a fairer distribution.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

I do appreciate, I do appreciate that this is very, very complicated.

PRIME MINISTER:

No but Geoff let’s just put it this way, you’ve got one –

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

But your Party has been in power since 2013, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER:

All of that is true, but you’ve got one side of politics, the Liberal National side of politics which is seeking to do something about the issue, that recognizes there is a problem and is seeking to find a solution.

You’ve got another side of politics, the Labor side, which says there’s no problem and nothing should change.

Look at Labor on its track record – I mean again, I don’t want to disturb this pleasant conversation with some facts – but let’s look at this. Under my Government’s school funding reforms, Western Australian schools are going to get, their funding will double over the next ten years. The growth in funding for all schools here – independent, catholic and government – but particularly government schools is going to be very substantial. Now is that a special deal for WA? No it’s not. What it is, is the consequence of Western Australia being dudded by the last Labor Government, the federal Labor Government under Bill Shorten and Julia Gillard’s special deals, they had 27 of them.

Under a fair, national, consistent, needs-based funding model Western Australia does much better, only because it had been left behind by Labor before.

So what you’ve got, is strong –

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Mr Turnbull I appreciate that time is very short and we only have you for a few more moments but there are a couple of things that are significant that I do want to ask.

PRIME MINISTER:

Sure.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

I wonder, can you confirm that Tuesday’s party room meeting is going to discuss the possibility of a postal plebiscite?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I don’t discuss what is being canvassed in the party room. So I’m sorry, the party room discussions are within the party room.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

The Australian suggests there might be a secret ballot of Government MPs to decide the issue. The only reason I raise it it’s been such a headline-grabbing distraction this week.

PRIME MINISTER:

You know something, it’s distracted you and it’s distracted a lot of reporters.

But in the course of my visit here, to the best of my recollection, only one person has raised the issue with me out of hundreds.

Now I’m not suggesting it’s not an important issue, don’t get me wrong. But what I’m saying to you is that it is a very, the issues that West Australians are more concerned about is schools funding, education, infrastructure, GST – as we’ve been discussing – you know, the growth of the economy, you know, what are we going to do to pick up economic activity here after the downturn.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

All of which is true. All of which is true. But you also understand that central to your authority as Prime Minister and your party, is how this issue is dealt with in the party room next Tuesday.

PRIME MINISTER:

And it will be dealt with in the party room. I mean, look, all of this –

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Tony Abbott is speaking about a, indicative of a lack of leadership and a lack of discipline. So you know these things are issues that need to be addressed.

PRIME MINISTER:

Geoff, you know, I do understand the way the Liberal Party operates. We do have, lots of issues get raised in the party room. Any member of the Liberal Party can raise any matter they like in the party room and they often do. It is a democratic process. We discuss these issues in the party room. And then we make decisions and then they’re announced. Now I talk to my colleagues about these issues privately. I talk to them in the Cabinet obviously, talk to them in party room. But those conversations are private conversations. Now I appreciate the media’s abiding interest in it.

Just a little thing to reflect on – you know, when Michaelia Cash and I announced this initiative with the AHA to have 10,000 new interns – now these are kids that are on welfare, right, who want to get into a job.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Yep.

PRIME MINISTER:

So it’s a fantastic program. So the AHA says: ‘Right, we’re going to get 10,000 of these young people, give them a start, give them an internship, give them some training and hopefully that will result in them getting a job.’ So that’s beaut. You’d think everyone would say: ‘Fantastic, let’s hope it is so successful.’

We announced that. The only questions from the media – until I basically shamed them into asking questions on something else – the only questions were on gay marriage. So there is apparently no interest at all.

I pointed out that if you were sitting at home watching that press conference on television, maybe you had one of your kids, wasn’t getting started properly, didn’t have a job and you were worried about them, you’d be saying: ‘Gosh, this is really interesting, I hope this works. Maybe my boy or my girl could get a start there.’ Instead, you’ve got the journalists talking about something else. So anyway-

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

You’re a Prime Minister who needs clear air to talk about the things that matter to you. I guess my last question is, how do you think you’re relating to ordinary Australians, as we seek to define who ordinary Australians might be? How do you think you’re personally relating to ordinary Australians?

PRIME MINISTER:

I can only tell you that I mix with Australians in many, many environments all over the country – in big cities, in country towns, you know, regional centres, in pubs and you know, in coffee shops on the street, on trains-

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

And people haven’t talked about the GST with you this week?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well of course they have. Of course they’ve talked about the GST. Absolutely. That is–

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Were they cranky?

PRIME MINISTER:

The concern about the GST in Western Australia, I would say could be summed up this way is that there is a general understanding that there is, if you like, support is given to smaller states with a lower revenue base, like Tasmania and South Australia. People understand that. But they say: ‘34 per cent, you’re kidding me. That is just totally unfair’, and I agree with them.

It is a question of, well, you know, clearly it does not pass the pub test.

Now what we need to have is a GST allocation formula that is fair and is seen to be fair right across the nation. That is what we’re seeking to do.

It is not an easy political challenge but it needs strong advocacy and of course that needs advocacy from Western Australia, the Western Australian Government within the Labor Party as well.

So again, I want to have an outcome here where we have a revised formula, that whether you’re in Western Australia or Tasmania or Queensland, you can say, ‘Well, that is fair.’ That’s what we’ve got to do because we’ve plainly got a situation in Western Australia where 30 cents, 34 cents in the dollar is not a fair go and we are the nation of a fair go. We’ve got to rectify that and I’m working on it, but it is obviously a matter that is politically very complex because of all the vested interests.

Mark McGowan has got the opportunity as Labor Premier of WA to make that case within his own Party as well and I encourage him to do so.

GEOFF HUTCHISON:

Prime Minister I do hope that all our parallel universes coincide

Thank you for your time this morning.

PRIME MINISTER:

They intersect occasionally. Okay, thanks a lot Geoff.

[ENDS]

Aug32017

Traffic moves freely on the new Mitchell Freeway extension

Australia

The Mitchell Freeway extension through Perth’s fast growing outer northern suburbs is now complete and will open to traffic on Friday morning.

The $236 million project is 80% funded by the Turnbull Government and 20% funded by the McGowan Government and extends the Freeway from Burns Beach Road to Hester Avenue.

This vital improvement – along with the future METRONET rail line to Yanchep – will ease congestion for the residents of Perth’s northern suburbs and accommodate housing and commercial opportunities in the high-growth northern corridor.

The newly constructed section of this major arterial road will make the freeway much more efficient, particularly during afternoon peak periods.

Prime Minister Turnbull and Premier McGowan officially opened the extension today.

“We are partnering in the big projects like the Mitchell Freeway extension, which coupled with the enterprise of Western Australians, will create new jobs, tackle congestion and grow the State’s economy”, Mr Turnbull said. “Less time in traffic allows motorists to spend more time with their families or more time at work. It means quicker, safer and cheaper commuting for individuals and businesses.”

Mr McGowan said travel times through the area are expected to decrease by approximately 60 per cent on average and will help stimulate further investment in the north of Perth.

“Living down in Rockingham and commuting to the city every day I know the pressure congestion can have on families. Less time commuting means more time spent at home – and this can only be a good thing,” Mr McGowan said.

Federal Minister for Urban Infrastructure Paul Fletcher said the newly constructed section of this major arterial road would now be much more efficient, particularly during afternoon peak periods.

“The project now provides a direct route between the suburbs north of Joondalup and the Perth central business district, ensuring the economic potential of the region isn’t locked up in traffic each day,” Mr Fletcher said.

WA Minister for Transport Rita Saffioti thanked the community for their ongoing patience and understanding during construction and said the improvements to the Mitchell Freeway are part of a comprehensive plan to address congestion and create jobs.

“Access to the growing outer northern suburbs will be further bolstered by the future METRONET rail line to Yanchep,” Ms Saffioti said.

Some of the key features of the project include:

  • A six kilometre, four lane extension of the Mitchell Freeway from Burns Beach Road in Joondalup to Hester Avenue in Clarkson;
  • Interchanges at Burns Beach Road, Neerabup Road and Hester Avenue; and
  • An extension of Neerabup Road (east from Connolly Drive to Wanneroo Road) and duplication of Hester Avenue from Hidden Valley Retreat to Wanneroo Road, to provide a connection to the new freeway extension.

Main Roads WA, the department responsible for managing the project, and CPB Contractors (formerly Leighton Contractors PTY LTD), introduced a number of sustainable and innovative elements to the Mitchell Freeway extension.

The use of roundabouts instead of traffic signals at the new Neerabup Road and Hester Avenue freeway interchanges will reduce maintenance and operating costs, while also improving traffic flow, safety and reducing vehicle emissions.

Sustainability features included the installation of LED lighting, wildlife underpasses at strategic locations and the use of recycled glass in the road base.

The project has been delivered on time and under budget, with savings reallocated to other infrastructure priorities including the Wanneroo Road and Joondalup Drive grade separation and the Murdoch Activity Centre access roads. These projects form part of the Australian Government’s recently announced $1.6 billion commitment towards the $2.3 billion Western Australia Infrastructure Package.

Aug32017

Press Releases: Briefing on Secretary Tillerson’s Travel to the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia

United States • Democrats • OECD – United States • Republicans • White House

Special Briefing

Susan A. Thornton

Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs

Via Teleconference

August 2, 2017

MS NAUERT: Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today’s call to preview Secretary Tillerson’s upcoming travel later this week to the Philippines, to Thailand, and also to Malaysia. Today we’re joined by Susan Thornton, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Today’s call will be on the record. The content of this call will be embargoed until the conclusion of the call. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Acting Assistant Secretary Thornton. Thanks for coming back; appreciate it.

MS THORNTON: Yep. Thank you, Heather. I’m very excited to be here today. We are heading out to the region for what should be a great chance to do some multilateral diplomacy in Asia, and also showcase bilateral ties with strong partners in Thailand and Malaysia. The Secretary, as you know from his comments yesterday, has spent a lot of time on Asia policy, and of course knows Southeast Asia well from his previous life. So the ASEAN – that’s the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – the ASEAN-related ministerials in particular that we’re going out for are a great opportunity to highlight U.S. engagement, to discuss U.S. priorities in the region and around the world, and also to prepare for leaders’ meetings this fall that we’re going to be having for both APEC and the East Asia Summit.

We began this prep with the Vice President’s trip, actually, to the ASEAN secretariat in Jakarta in April, where he noted the President’s intention to travel to the Summit this fall. The Secretary then hosted ASEAN foreign ministers here in Washington in May, and we’ve had many, many meetings and visits since, including the President’s meetings with Prime Minister Lee and President Jokowi just last month in Hamburg.

So we are continuing our Southeast Asia engagement apace with the Secretary’s upcoming trip to Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia, and we are committed to working with our allies and partners and friends to continue to provide regional security, to promote good governance and respect for the rules-based system, and to advance economic opportunity for the United States.

Just a word on North Korea. I know that the Secretary did speak quite a bit about North Korea yesterday. You’ve seen the statements and reactions from the White House, State Department, the UN mission in recent days to the – last week’s launch. We continue to seek broad international cooperation to respond to North Korean provocations, and we call on the international community to enforce the UN Security Council resolutions passed to date, including the sanctions regimes within, and to drastically reduce their interactions with Pyongyang. And we stand ready, of course, to honor our ironclad commitments to defend our South Korean and Japanese allies.

And I think with that, I’ll go ahead and close out my opening statement and look forward to your questions, and look forward to seeing some of you out there on the road as well.

MS NAUERT: Susan, thanks. Okay, let’s take our first question, please.

OPERATOR: And ladies and gentlemen, if you’d like to ask a question, please press * then 1. Again, if you have any questions or comments, please press *1. Our question – first question is from Abigail Williams, NBC News. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi there. This is a – slightly left of center, but this is related to what the administration is doing regarding North Korea. I wondered if you could confirm reports that the Trump administration is planning trade measures to force China to crack down on intellectual property theft, and whether this will in any way hinder or impact cooperation with China on North Korea.

MS THORNTON: Well, I think there were some news articles about some kind of trade action this morning, but I don’t think I have anything official for you on that, and don’t have any further comment. We do have a lot of conversations with the Chinese about a whole range of trade and investment and other economic issues, and intellectual property rights is one that is a perennial favorite in those talks, and we talk to the Chinese about IPR violations and our concerns about those at every opportunity that we have to raise our concerns, and have made some progress over the years, but I think many of us who have been looking at this issue feel that the progress remains insufficient and needs to continue to be worked on. But I don’t have any specifics for you on this thing that you raised.

MS NAUERT: Okay. Let’s go on to the next question, please.

OPERATOR: And that’s from Josh Lederman, AP. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hey, thanks for doing this. So Secretary Tillerson said yesterday that the goal of applying pressure to North Korea is to develop a willingness for them to sit and talk with us. But I know you guys have all said the conditions aren’t there yet. So I’m wondering how the Secretary will approach the presence of North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho in Manila, as North Korea has announced. Will he avoid the foreign minister? Is there any chance that they might find a moment to interact, even informally, on the sidelines of ASEAN?

MS THORTNON: Yeah. So I think, as you said, the Secretary was very clear yesterday in his discussion of North Korea that we are seeking to exert pressure on the North Korean regime in order to change their calculus about what – being willing to seriously discuss with us the abandonment of their nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which are prohibited by UN Security Council resolutions and other agreements.

So I think basically what we’re trying to do is galvanize this pressure and isolate North Korea so that it can see what the opportunity cost is of developing these weapons programs, and that, we hope, will have the effect of bringing the regime in Pyongyang to the realization that it – they’re just not worth keeping and that they would enter into a serious discussion with the international community about how to abandon what the process would be for giving up those weapons and what could they expect to gain from that decision. So that is very much what we hope to see unfold in the future. But that is – as I mentioned, it’s in the future. As of right now, we don’t see any indication that the North Koreans are willing to enter into such a serious discussion with us, and we have said that it’s important now to create the conditions for them to make this change in their mind about their dedication to these weapons programs.

So I think right now we’re still in the stage of elevating pressure on the North Korean regime, elevating their feeling of isolation. North Korea is a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum, which is one of the ministerial meetings that will be convening in Manila. They are not a member of the East Asia Summit, which is only 18 countries. The ASEAN Regional Forum is a broader grouping of countries in the region, and it’s aimed at conflict prevention types of discussions and meetings and capacity-building.

So the North Koreans have been included in the ASEAN Regional Forum and have attended on an annual basis. I think what we would expect to see this year at the meeting would be a general chorus of condemnation of North Korea’s provocative behavior and pretty serious diplomatic isolation directed at the North Korean foreign minister.

MS NAUERT: Okay, thank you, Susan. Next question, please.

OPERATOR: And that’s from David Brunnstrom, Reuters News. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. I mean, just to follow up on that last question, can you just say – are you saying that the Secretary will not be meeting under any circumstances with the North Korean foreign minister at the meeting? And is there any plan for a bilateral meeting with the Chinese foreign minister? And I’m wondering how they – the Secretary is going to counter perceptions in the region that the United States is not as committed as it could be in backing ASEAN countries and putting them in a position of having to find compromises with China rather than standing up to it.

MS THORNTON: Yes, so let me be clear on the first part of the question. The Secretary has no plans to meet the North Korean foreign minister in Manila, and I don’t expect to see that happen.

On the contacts with other foreign ministers, including the Chinese, there will be a number of bilateral meetings. We’re still working out the final schedule, so I don’t have anything to announce, yet, on that. But I expect we will definitely have a chance to engage with the Chinese foreign minister while we’re there and I think we’ll have a chance to engage with a number of other foreign ministers there as well.

I’m not sure – the last question was about U.S. engagement, I believe, in Southeast Asia and with ASEAN. I mean, I think we have a very strong record in this administration of engagement with Southeast Asia. We’ve had a lot of travel out to the region, a lot of statements in support of ASEAN, ASEAN’s centrality, continued ASEAN unity, and the importance of ASEAN to our approach to the region and what we believe is a very important element of the regional security architecture and the – very important for continued prosperity and peace in Asia. So I don’t think that there’s any question that the U.S. is somehow receding or toning down its engagement with the region. I think just the opposite: We are remaining engaged in this region which is crucially important to the future of U.S. security and prosperity.

MS NAUERT: Okay. Next question, please.

OPERATOR: And again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions or comments, please press * then 1. And our next question comes from Carol Morello, Washington Post. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, thank you for doing this. I guess we all have North Korea on the brain. Can you tell us if North Korea is expected to be on the Secretary’s agenda when he goes to Kuala Lumpur and to Bangkok, or will that all be compartmentalized into the talks that he has in Manila? And in particular, is he seeking anything particularly strong from Malaysia, since I believe that’s where Kim Jong-un’s brother was assassinated?

MS THORNTON: Yeah, thank you. So I know that we have been keeping a close track on the issue of the assassination, as you put it, in Malaysia, and I know that the legal proceedings and trial in connection with that case are upcoming and the Malaysians are continuing their investigation. I’m sure that the issue of North Korea will be raised not only at the ministerial meetings in Manila but will also be raised in those bilateral contexts just because it is such a prominent security challenge now, not only in Northeast Asia, not only in Asia, but actually for the entire world. So I think since that is such a high administration priority and since it’s also on the minds of all of the leaders in Asia, that that will undoubtedly be on the agenda for the bilateral meetings as well.

MS NAUERT: Okay. Next question, please.

OPERATOR: That comes from the line of David Clark with AFP. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Oh, hi. Thanks for doing this. And the bulk of my question was actually covered by Josh and David; thanks for that. I did have one detail I wanted to press you on on the regional forum. We understand that the United States had requested of some of its ASEAN partners that North Korea not be invited, as it usually is, to the regional forum. Obviously, you’ve spoken today about your desire to isolate them as much as possible. Isn’t coming to this forum, even if they don’t have a bilateral with the Americans, a sign that they’re not as isolated as they could be?

MS THORNTON: Yeah, well, I think we’ve made clear in a number of statements and I’ve made statements as well about our efforts to continue to promote the diplomatic isolation of the North Korean regime. So what we’ve been doing is going around talking to partners about what more could they do to contribute to that increasing pressure on the regime and the increasing sort of diplomatic isolation of the regime. And it is true that in the case of the ASEAN Regional Forum, as I mentioned, it’s a preventive diplomacy, a conflict-prevention organization. It has principles upon which membership is stipulated, and I think there wouldn’t be many members of the ASEAN Regional Forum that would disagree that the North Korean regime has violated many of the principles of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

So I think what we have been sort of looking at is having a serious discussion of what it would take for a member to be suspended from this organization that is dedicated to conflict prevention and preventive diplomacy. And I think we’re going to continue to have that conversation as it regards North Korea, and I think we’ll see how that develops over the coming year. Of course, it’s too late now to have that conversation since the meeting is upon us for this year, but we’ll continue to explore this and continue to, I think, push the organization to think about what kinds of suspension measures or requirements or stipulations might be included in the future.

OPERATOR: And our next question —

MS NAUERT: Next – next question, please.

OPERATOR: — is from Carter Rice, Asahi Shimbun. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, can you hear me?

MS NAUERT: Yes, go right ahead.

QUESTION: Hi. Actually, my questions were all addressed, but thank you.

MS NAUERT: Let’s go on to the next one, then.

QUESTION: Next question is Justin Arnold, Yomiuri Shimbun. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hey, thanks a lot for this. One thing I’ve noticed is that the South China Sea has dropped off as a major issue. Are there any plans to be talking about this during the ASEAN summit, and will the Secretary reinforce the normal United States line that all parties need to deal with it, essentially? Thank you.

MS THORNTON: Yeah, I definitely would not agree that the South China Sea has in any way dropped off. It’ll certainly be a focus of the discussion also in Manila, and I think this has been – if there’s a perception that it’s dropped off, it’s only probably because the North Koreans keep shooting missiles and doing – and undertaking other provocations that knock this kind of out of the front of people’s minds. But it certainly hasn’t been knocked out of the front of our minds and it will be a focus at the upcoming meetings. I think the United States will continue to press for language that makes it clear that we are dedicated to protecting and defending freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea. We also have had a number of conversations with allies and partners in the region about their concerns over latent tensions and continued concerns about maritime disputes in the South China Sea, and we’ll press for due regard for legal processes, dispute resolution mechanisms, and upholding, certainly, international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

So we will continue to press for that. I know that there is in the works an announcement about a framework on the code of conduct which has been discussed and agreed among the ASEAN states and China, which I believe they are going to be bringing to a conclusion in the context of these ministerial meetings. And I think the U.S. has certainly welcomed the agreement on the framework, but we are also continuing to call for the rapid adoption of an effective code of conduct. The framework is really just the outline of what would be the content of the agreement and the agreement still needs to be negotiated, and we would like to see it negotiated expeditiously and we would also like to see the eventual code of conduct contain effective measures to – for restraint and for dispute resolution, and also that the – whatever the agreement eventually contains, that the content be considered by all parties to be legally binding. So there is a – still a road ahead on negotiation and dispute resolution in the South China Sea which we support, and we would like to see that happen quickly and that it would happen with those parameters in mind.

MS NAUERT: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Our next question is from Bingru Wang, Hong Kong Phoenix TV. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Susan, for doing this. My question is: China has said that trade and North Korea issues are different, so they should not be discussed together. So how are you going to address the North Korea issue with the upcoming economic sanction measure in place?

And another question: More broadly, Trump administration has said that Asia rebalance strategy is abandoned, so what’s the difference now with regarding how you engage the Asian countries? Thank you.

MS THORNTON: Yeah, thanks very much for that. So I think there has been a lot of discussion – I mean, the two kind of prominent areas of discussion with China at a lot of our recent meetings have been these two topics of North Korea and what to do about the challenge that North Korea poses for the security of all of us and how we can all work together to try to bring about this change in the mind of the regime that I was talking about earlier and get them to the table to talk about giving up their weapons. We and China have the same goal, which is denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and so we share a mutual interest there and we want to find out how we can work more effectively together to bring about that change in North Korea that we would like to see.

On the issues of trade, trade has also been a prominent topic of discussion. We’ve had the China – U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue here in Washington, D.C. recently that discussed the full gamut of trade and investment and economic issues, and that discussion is continuing and we’ve got a number of hundred-day plans in the works to negotiate resolution and show concrete progress in that relationship.

I think what you’re talking about, the perceived linkage or the mentioned linkage between these two issues comes down to the question – and the Secretary talked about this at some length yesterday in his press conference – the question of what kind of relationship the U.S. and China are really going to have going forward, and can we work together to jointly resolve the key security challenge now facing Northeast Asia, which is the North Korea challenge. And if we can work together to do that, surely we can have a productive, mutually beneficial economic relationship in which we both enjoy reciprocal and fair access to each other’s markets and that this becomes a good basis for exchange between our two nations and our two peoples. So I think it’s not that they’re linked in a transactional way, but they’re linked in a – sort of a philosophical way if you think about the future of the relationship between the United States and China.

On the issue of the rebalance, I think that slogans are sometimes overrated or overused, but certainly, what the rebalance was trying to denote was that the U.S. is an Asia Pacific power, we’re going to be engaged in the Asia Pacific region, we’re a provider of security in the region, it’s key to our prosperity and our economic future, and we are going to pay a lot of attention to Asia and we’re going to put a lot of resources into our policy focus and our engagement and our interaction with Asia.

And so I think you’ve seen the engagement by all – so many high-level officials, with leaders coming here, with our high-level cabinet officials going there, with the President’s trip upcoming later this fall, so I think it’s really just a matter of naming it. And I think I would say our active engagement is frankly continuing and is not going to be changing anytime soon.

MS NAUERT: Okay, thank you. Next question.

OPERATOR: Our next question is from Conor Finnegan, ABC News. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Thanks very much for doing this. I was also wondering if the Secretary had any plans to meet directly with President Duterte, and if so, or even if not, how he’ll express America’s concerns about his human rights record while the Secretary is over there.

MS THORNTON: Yeah. Thank you very much for that question. We’re really looking forward to the trip to Manila, and I think part of the reason why we’re looking forward to it – not just the multilateral diplomacy, but there will be a chance for – to have a very good, robust bilateral program with the Philippines while we’re there on the margins of the ministerial meetings. We’re still working out the last details of the schedule of that bilateral meeting, so I can’t tell you exactly what the meeting schedule is, but we will certainly get those details out as soon as we have them.

But I think you can be sure that we will be raising all of the relevant issues that we have in the bilateral alliance relationship with the Philippines. We have a lot of things to talk about, obviously. The Philippines is right now grappling with a very difficult situation down in the southern island of Mindanao with the ISIS takeover of one of the cities down there. And we are working together not just with the Philippines, but other countries in the region to try to address the growing concerns and growing threats, frankly, of international terrorism. But certainly, we will be talking about governance, about human rights issues, and about how we can increase our economic and other kinds of people-to-people engagement with the Philippines. It’s one of our very important and oldest friends and partners in the region, and we are looking forward to being able to furnish the relationship and restore those bonds of friendship.

MS NAUERT: Okay, thank you. Last question.

OPERATOR: And that’s from Margaret Warner, PBS. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi there. Thank you for doing this. In the question about the linkage between trade and North Korea, you said essentially, going forward, we’re – we want to see if we can work together to solve the North Korea challenge. And if so, we can have a mutually beneficial relationship on trade. So flipping it around, though, what if you can’t come to a – if the U.S. and China are not able to work together to solve the North Korea challenge, does that mean – what does that mean for the trade relationship?

MS THORNTON: Yeah, I don’t think that I mentioned that there was that kind of explicit linkage between the if we can have a good relationship on North Korea then we can have a mutually beneficial relationship on trade. I think it’s more of a holistic kind of nature of the relationship question that we’re looking at in both of those cases, and they’re not necessarily connected in that way; they kind of run parallel.

But on the issue of sort of how we work with China and – on North Korea, I mean, there are a lot of “if” questions out there. I don’t think I’m necessarily that enthusiastic about answering these kind of hypothetical questions, but I would sort of go back to what the Secretary was talking about yesterday with regard to how we’re working with China on North Korea. What we think we’ve seen today in the way of cooperation, which we have seen significant steps taken by China to increase pressure on North Korea – frankly, unprecedented steps. And we do have indications that China is extremely concerned about North Korea and extremely unhappy with the direction things are going. They realize that this is becoming a greater and greater threat to China’s own security, and we see a growing determination on their part to take steps to try to address the situation seriously.

We think that they can do a lot more, as the Secretary mentioned yesterday; 90 percent of the North Koreans’ economy is still flowing through China, so that de facto gives them more leverage than other countries with more feeble and weak economic ties to North Korea. So we do want them to do more. We’re working with them currently to continue to step up enforcement of sanctions and to try to levy additional sanctions, so I think we have to keep working on that track. It takes time, it takes a lot of shoe-leather diplomacy and hard work, it takes a lot of work on the part of the Chinese Government to do this, and we would like to see more action faster and more obvious and quick results. But I think we’re not giving up yet.

MS NAUERT: Okay. Everyone, thank you so much for joining us. Acting Assistant Secretary Thornton, thank you as well. The embargo has now been lifted. Everyone, have a great day. And Susan, look forward to your trip.

MS THORNTON: Thank you.



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Aug32017

Reserved parking encourages visits to elderly parents

East Asia

A large residential community in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, has begun to reserve parking spaces for people visiting their elderly parents, making it easier for children to drop by on a regular basis.

The Cuiyuan community in the eastern city’s Xihu district is home to about 10,000 residents, almost 20 percent of whom are age 60 or older－and most of them live alone.

To encourage people to visit elderly relatives, the community management office has marked 18 parking spaces that can be preordered and used for free on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 am to 7 pm. The maximum stay is five and a half hours, according to Shen Yifan, director of the office.

“We visited many families to do research and found that the average family visit lasted for about that length of time,” Shen said.

Cuiyuan, which was built in the 1980s and has room for 600 vehicles, charges 4 yuan (60 US cents) an hour to park, or 20 yuan for a full day. It’s small money, but the management office said it is aimed at improving convenience, so people with limited time will be encouraged to visit lonely loved ones.

“Care for the old is a traditional virtue and part of Chinese culture,” Shen said. “By doing our part, we want to encourage young people to show more love and devotion to their parents. Good culture should be carried forward.”

The service, which started on Thursday and could be extended after a trial run, was used by three people last weekend, including an elderly resident surnamed Yu who reserved a spot for her daughter.

“She and her husband visit every Sunday, but they seldom find a parking space, which means my son-in-law has to wait in the car and my daughter comes to the house. They bring me some fruit, but she always has to leave after a few minutes,” Yu told Qianjiang Evening News.

“This Sunday, they didn’t need to worry about that. My daughter even cooked for me and had dinner with me.”

Aug32017

Radio interview with Cliff Reeve, Triple M South West

Australia

CLIFF REEVE:

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull good afternoon, welcome to Triple M.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah good afternoon Cliff. Can I just, I don’t want to start off the discussion being disagreeable but the welcome I’ve had has been absolutely warm and generous, wherever I’ve been and nowhere more so than in Busselton today.

CLIFF REEVE:

Perhaps it’s we in the pesky media.

(Laughter)

PRIME MINISTER:

The pesky media?

CLIFF REEVE:

The Sunday Times said that you were gone, there was a Labor Secretary said that this was called the kiss and makeup tour, the WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt said that you would be “run out of town unless you come with more GST money for WA”. You’ve also got infighting on the same sex marriage issue, I know you don’t want to talk about that but I’ll come to that shortly. I can’t help wondering if you feel a bit beleaguered – that word that Donald Trump used.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah no, I’m feeling great. I’m buoyed up by the warmth and positivity of the people of the South-West and as I say it’s been a great visit.

CLIFF REEVE:

There’s one issue that will not go away. And again, it’s in part the media that is running this, but there’s a lot of the Liberal members that are also talking about same sex marriage. There is an impasse. We have to find a way around it, can you tell us if you’ve got anything in your back pocket that can get this issue done, dusted and out of the road?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well look Cliff, again the only people that raise this with me are the media – so you’re dead right.

Out of the hundreds of people that I’ve met in WA this week I can only think of one person who has raised this. So that’s just a little fact I’ll leave your listeners to reflect on that, I think they probably want us to talk about other things. But just to be very concise, we took a policy to the last election that said we would have a – let the Australian people make up their decision on this issue of marriage, whether gays can get married, same sex marriage can be allowed and we give everyone a vote. Why hasn’t the vote occurred? I’ll tell you why, two words – Bill Shorten. He actually said in 2013 that he wanted to have a plebiscite. That was his policy-

CLIFF REEVE:

But Prime Minister is was also the Greens, and it was Nick Xenophon and I believe Derryn Hinch voted against it too.

PRIME MINISTER:

No, no I’m not denying that. But there is no question that if the Labor Party supported it, it would’ve been carried. So you know there is a lot of blame to go around for blocking that plebiscite, but the largest share goes to Bill Shorten and the Australian Labor Party. As I’ve said, who knows – but my view is it would’ve been carried in which case gay marriage would’ve been allowed. Now can we – do you want to move onto some other issues – or are we going to keep talking about this?

CLIFF REEVE:

Absolutely and I’m a big fan of The West Wing, the TV series and I remember-

PRIME MINISTER:

(Laughter) Right, okay.

CLIFF REEVE:

There was a couple of episodes where various characters had someone – Joe Public – talk to them about something, I’m wondering if there’s a constituent that you have had the chance to speak to, or has been brought forward for you that has had an issue that has really you know, hit you in your belly?

PRIME MINISTER:

What on this visit?

CLIFF REEVE:

Yeah.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah well I’ve had a number of young people talk about the problems of ice – methamphetamine abuse – that is a very big issue and one that a lot of older people of course are very concerned about it. But it’s very real issue I know. Particularly in Andrew Hastie’s electorate, it’s an issue that’s been raised in Nola’s electorate as well. So look, that is an issue – we’re putting a lot more money into both on the law enforcement side, on the rehabilitation side, but it’s a very serious health challenge.

CLIFF REEVE:

How do you think Parliament is going to go the first day that you sit back in there again?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it will go the way it always goes, you know it will be more – bit of theatrical fury in Question Time, but other than that we will get on with business.

Over the last year, a bit more than a year since the last election we have had enormous success in getting legislation through the Parliament, through the House. We have a one seat majority, and through the Senate well we don’t have – we have 29 votes out of 76. So you know we’ve had a lot of success with this Parliament, massive school funding reforms. I imagine some of your listeners are interested in schools and have children at schools.

CLIFF REEVE:

Simon Birmingham the Education Minister has been in the South West today too.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes, yeah that’s right and we’ve got a very good story to tell. Because Western Australia had got such a raw deal from the Gillard Labor Government with all of their secret and contradictory deals on schools, when we restored fairness, needs-based transparent fair funding, with federal money for schools across Australia, Western Australia does particularly well. So funding in WA schools will double over the next decade on an annual basis. So that is a very very big improvement.

We’re cutting business taxes, we’re providing investments in economic infrastructure, we are providing the incentives for businesses to invest and employ. Whereas what Labor’s proposing to do – or threatening to do – and I’ve got no doubt will do if they get elected; jacking up company tax, jacking up personal income tax, absolutely undermining the incentives you need to get the economic growth those young people deserve.

CLIFF REEVE:

Prime Minister I’ve just got one final thing, my son lives in Los Angeles and he said that the jokes that you made at the media dinner are still being talked about in circles in LA. He thought they were funny, so well done you! You’re still being talked about in America.

PRIME MINISTER:

Ah well, there you go. That’s good thank you.

CLIFF REEVE:

Prime Minister, I know you’re busy thank you very much for visiting Western Australia. Thanks for a couple of moments on Triple M today.

PRIME MINISTER:

No worries Cliff, thanks a lot.

[ENDS]