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JON FAINE: Simon Crean is the Acting Foreign Affairs Minister. There are many issues this morning that occupy his mind. One of them perhaps being Tony Abbott's near miss yesterday. Simon Crean, good morning to you.

SIMON CREAN: Good morning Jon.

JON FAINE: You were driving yourself this morning, is this a commentary on Commonwealth car drivers after Tony Abbott's near miss?

SIMON CREAN: No, no I wasn't far from here so I thought the best way to do it was to get here, just parking that's the problem Jon.

JON FAINE: Yes, yes it certainly is but Tony Abbott yesterday caught up in an incident where a stunt — a media stunt organised at a traffic black spot nearly claimed him with the cameras waiting, it would seem in my judgement, at a most inappropriate place on a very busy highway.

SIMON CREAN: Yeah well to tell you the truth I've not seen the footage, I've heard the reports of it — I had a particularly busy day yesterday and a late night but I know the particular area I think they're describing and I just think it's very lucky in Tony Abbott's case, and that of the driver, and whoever else was in the car that they — they weren't cleaned up.

JON FAINE: But for the politicians organising media stunts in a way that puts — well, other people but also their own safety at risk.

SIMON CREAN: Well again I don't want to comment, I don't know the circumstances, I think it would be unfair for me to comment not knowing the circumstances but I don't think it would come as any surprise that politicians are, because of your profession from time to time, expected to do all sorts of things for the media Jon…

JON FAINE: We'll talk about…

SIMON CREAN: This could have turned to tragedy. I think that people obviously should be more careful in terms of that which they are planning. But can I — what I can say from all reports is that the driver of the vehicle that almost collected him seemed to perform an amazing job so congratulations to him.

JON FAINE: The truck driver. And we'll talk about the relationship between politicians and the media in a moment. Mark Latham has delivered one of the great all time dummy spits from a retired politician in today's Financial Review but let's save that up for a moment.

The Age newspaper today report that in Indonesia in the capital Jakarta, local media are reporting that there have been high level meetings between Australian diplomats and Indonesian diplomats to try to delay and defer the execution of three of the Bali Nine until after any Federal election in Australia. Is this appropriate?

SIMON CREAN: Not only is it inappropriate, it's not true. We would never tie the circumstances of people facing potentially death row or of consular cases or of people in trouble. We would never tie that to the election cycle.

JON FAINE: It would be embarrassing to have a confrontation with Indonesia in the build up to a Federal election?

SIMON CREAN: Look we have to deal with all sorts of embarrassments through political cycles Jon, yet you deal with those at the time. But to make the suggestion that we're saying, “don't do anything to these people til after the election is over”, is just plain wrong.

JON FAINE: What are you saying to the Indonesians?

SIMON CREAN: We're saying to the…well first of all, the appeals by the three in question have not yet been lodged. That's the first important point and that process has to be gone through before any decision is taken as to what their fate is.

Clearly we have been making representations to the Indonesians, as we do with anyone in a country convicted of a crime that in that country carries the death penalty. We make the point we don't support the death penalty. You should not be imposing it, that's a general proposition.

But in this case, we have to await the outcomes of the appeal which as I understand it, one is about to be lodged and the other two will be made after that. We have to let this run its course, but to suggest that we would be saying to the Indonesian authorities, “look, don't do anything that could embarrass us in an election year”, is nonsense. I think it's very hurtful to the families concerned because they're the ones that are really burning up in these circumstances, wondering what the fate of their children and loved ones are. We will make the strongest representations we can, at the appropriate time always, regardless of political cycle.

JON FAINE: Soft diplomacy is all about the art of not saying what you really mean and getting your message across without anybody using as — describe the megaphone, so are you publicly saying one thing whilst privately there's something else going on?

SIMON CREAN: No because if indeed your argument's right about the so-called soft diplomacy, we would certainly be registering it at a much higher level than seems to have been the case reported of this interchange. This was a courtesy call by a number of lower level officials to an advisor to an incoming Attorney General.

All I'm saying Jon is look, have a look at the facts: (a) I'm telling you, we would never link it to an electoral cycle, we'll treat the cases on their own, we will deal with them with all the sensitivity and care that we can, knowing the problems that the parents and indeed the individuals face, but it just doesn't ring true. If you were going to make this sort of representation and bring it on strongly, that's not where you would start and that's not the game we're in.

JON FAINE: Eighteen minutes to nine. Simon Crean, we've spoken before about the situation, the relations, deteriorating relations, between Australia and India, you spoke to us after you'd been over there. And now, there is a new crisis in the relationship, and we're told that a Pakistan-based militant from the 313 Brigade is threatening Australia's sporting stars from hockey, cricket and the Commonwealth Games teams when they go over there and, in part, motivated by the way they claim Indians are being treated in Australia. This is spiralling, escalating, snowballing, call it what you will. And efforts by you, your colleagues, state government, federal government, so far, are not making much of a dent.

SIMON CREAN: Well we'll continue to make the efforts in terms of addressing the problems in relation to India. What we're dealing with here potentially is a much bigger problem, and that is the threat from terrorism in relation to sporting events.

We take any of these threats seriously. We investigate them — we've done that. We're in touch with the sporting bodies that have to make the final decision as to whether the team goes across. We've spoken to our Indian counterparts and indeed Pakistan as well, and there is nothing, at this stage, that required us or has resulted in us changing the travel advisory in relation to India.

JON FAINE: But the issue…

SIMON CREAN: We will — we will keep…

JON FAINE: …the issue to do with the way Indian students are perceiving Australia, the way Indian community leaders are perceiving Australia is clearly one that you do have some control over…

SIMON CREAN: Yes.

JON FAINE: …and the question is what more can we do to reassure people in India that Australia is not a haven of violent racists preying upon Indian students?

SIMON CREAN: Well we have to do everything we can to address this concern. We've had high level engagement with ministers.

JON FAINE: It's not working.

SIMON CREAN: Well let’s see. It's not going to work overnight. This is a problem that has emerged over the Christmas period. We've spoken about it before. There are a number of incidents. India clearly believes that there is a disproportionate number of Indian students being affected.

We've established this close working task force between the Federal Government and the state law enforcement authorities, where after all the responsibility rests in terms of street violence and attacks on people.

We are dealing closely, particularly with the Victorian Government, but with the Queensland Government as well. We're actively engaging with the Indian community, and we are seeking to address what is a very real problem. We'll continue to do it.

I must say when this issue did come up in the — I think it was the middle of last year Jon — we were making progress. The incidents over Christmas have set us back, but I think the demonstrable ability for us to make progress last year a) means we can do it again, but clearly, we've got some work to do.

JON FAINE: Very quickly, Stephen Conroy, Senator Stephen Conroy clearly wining and dining, just declaring that he's wining and dining with media barons and IT moguls and all the rest of it, but still unable to explain a $250 million gift, and you and your colleagues and the Government, surely at some point Senator Conroy has to explain what's gone on here?

SIMON CREAN: Well as I understand it, they have explained it…

JON FAINE: Inadequately.

SIMON CREAN: …they've said that it's been… well I think that there are a couple of important points, the commitment in terms of local content and the uncompetitive…

JON FAINE: … that's the whole point Simon Crean…

SIMON CREAN: …position that these networks find themselves in vis-a-vis the rest of the world. That's the basis upon which I understand the decision's been taken.

As for the hospitality, the fact that we know about it is the requirement for it to be declared. And that's the very reason that it is. People can make their own judgement about that.

JON FAINE: Quarter to nine on 774, ABC Melbourne. Jon Faine with Simon Crean, Acting Foreign Affairs Minister.

Have you had a chance — I've just provided you with a copy of the Financial Review today. Mark Latham is a regular columnist for the Financial Review and he's written what I've described as the greatest political dummy spit of recent times.

Have you had a chance to scan it? What's your reaction?

SIMON CREAN: Only when you put it in front of my eyes just as I walked in the door.

JON FAINE: He says that he felt perpetually trapped as leader of the Federal Opposition. I despised that office, the Press Gallery, the Caucus — that's you — the constant travelling, stuck in hotel rooms, listening to other people's plumbing. Honestly, how many times does someone have to visit Townsville and Rockhampton to find salvation. He has a spray against Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, the New South Wales Labor Premier, John Della Bosca, Jeff Kennett, absolutely everybody.

SIMON CREAN: I think the unfortunate thing in Mark's case is the perspective through which everyone views him and this article would appear to simply reinforce that view, is the prism of the way he left politics.

In the year that he was the leader, he was a very competitive leader against John Howard. The polls even had him in front. The election campaign was hard fought. I think the tragedy with this guy is the way in which he couldn't accept defeat and couldn't accept the judgement of the people.

The fact that he continues on in this vitriolic, hateful mode, I think is a real problem for him. I feel sorry for him, but I think that when one looks back historically, unfortunately he will be always perceived in the way in which he dealt with defeat, not the way in which he almost was able to claim victory.

JON FAINE: Tony Abbott yesterday was described as the Liberal Mark Latham, which is why Mark Latham's written this piece saying, stop saying that my name becomes a brand for badness in a sense. I'm being compared like a benchmark for failure. Is Tony Abbott the next Mark Latham?

SIMON CREAN: Well he's an opposition leader, and I tell you, he's a person of great extremes and very little measure at times. He's a person that's prone to go over the top and he's a person of quite significant double standards. I couldn't believe it when he was asking in the Parliament the other day what we were doing to protect maritime worker's wages for all — of all things, in the context of the emissions trading scheme. I mean this was the guy that not only introduced workforces, Workchoices, but sat in a Cabinet at midnight to change the law so that the Patrick workers, the waterfront workers had all their benefits stripped away. I mean where does this guy get off? That's what I say about Tony Abbott.

JON FAINE: We'll see whether or not it gets even more personal as this shadow boxing before a federal election takes place.

Thank you for your time this morning.

SIMON CREAN: Thanks Jon.

JON FAINE: Simon Crean, Acting Foreign Affairs Minister, Minister for Trade in the Rudd Government.

ENDS

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