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JOURNALIST: Thank you very much for speaking to us. The FTA has been a major agenda in your visit. What are the prospects and in what areas of trade do you see it really functioning between India and Australia as well and as a beneficial component for all the countries together?

SIMON CREAN: I think the benefits are very strong and that’s what will drive this ultimately. The feasibility study that we released indicates that there are significant gains to both economies in a way that lifts the GDP of both economies because it understands the dynamic that trade liberalisation is in terms of sustaining economic growth going forward. As for the areas of opportunity, they cover the whole field - from agriculture to manufacturing to services and to investment. What we have to do is to convince each other. I think this is not only a compelling case, but we have got to put time and effort in. This is a win-win outcome. What are the challenges for India? Resource and energy security. Australia’s strength in resources sector isn’t just about trading the commodity. It is also investing in India to develop their resource base better, that’s a win-win outcome. In the case of infrastructure, India has a huge commitment in terms of building the nation’s physical infrastructure. That money can be spent more efficiently with public-private partnerships and it can have a better return to the nation if, instead of just building the infrastructure, we also developed the logistics, the warehousing and the retail operations. They are significant strengths within the Australian economy. Again it is a partnership that can produce a win-win outcome. In the services sector, there are huge opportunities in education, in financial services. Both of them win-win outcomes, if we look at it sensibly.

So what’s done here, it is not just talking with Government, it is talking with the business community and Australian business community that is already well connected and well based in this country. But driving the dynamic, the importance of this relationship from the commercial perspective, not just the Government perspective.

JOURNALIST: At what stage are the talks right now and are there any hindrances at all? What are those things that need to be ironed out before a formal agreement is really..?

SIMON CREAN: The feasibility study was released yesterday. Both Governments have to take a formal decision in relation to it, but both Ministers accept the recommendation in the report; and that is that we should conclude a FTA. Now how long it takes, I can’t give you a length of time. What I can give you is a commitment on the part of both Ministers to see this through. And then an active engagement with the business community - to explain better the framework that is capable of being put in place through the FTA, to drive that framework from the point of view of commercial reality. What are the barriers to making these sorts of synergies work? What are the barriers to investment? What are the barriers to trade and see whether we can accommodate those in a more understood way through a transparent framework for activity.

JOURNALIST: In your earlier talks certain barriers were that of environment of child labour, those things really not in a very systemised manner in India for instance, primarily also because of laws not being specifically taken care of. Are those differences, will those be set aside and agreement still taken on would you be slightly more lenient to India on those fronts?

SIMON CREAN: These are areas of dialogue that a mature relationship needs to deal with. They are not issues that specifically lend themselves to a negotiation in a trade relationship because they are not directly trade-related to the extent to which there are issues, whether it’s labour standards, environmental standards, both of those, and child labour for that matter - these are the mandate of other international bodies of the WTO, of what’s happening in terms of the global climate change debate. So I think that what we can do is to recognise the importance of principles that we both share and reflecting in the appropriate mandates the way in which those issues are dealt with.

JOURNALIST: Also in the term of education because certain unfortunate incidents that happened in the past there was a formidable drop of at least 30% of admissions from India. But few universities this year around are saying there is a turnaround, there has been a few more applications coming in. Do you see that as a formidable change in perspective and also are there any clear indications of numbers of students coming in now because education as part of trade is also huge component?

SIMON CREAN: It is, it is important for Australia; but it is also important for India because one of the great challenges for India is how it develops its skill base. Now the incidents last year were an important wake-up call, not just a wake-up call for us to improve the safety of students coming in - we have taken important steps in that regard - but also a wake-up call to ensure that the integrity of the education service that’s being offered is upheld that the brand, quality education is not the best. Now there were a number of people that were promoting Australian education not to get an education but to get a visa. We have to stamp out that type of activities. We are selling a quality education and we are not selling visas. So if asked about a drop off in numbers, I think a big factor can be attributed to cleaning the shonks out of the system. So improving the integrity of the system has been important by-product. It is pleasing that it has begun to be another turn up. I think that the education arrangements between the two countries are vital because they are people-to-people links. You get better understandings - not just quality education - but better understandings between the two countries. That’s important.

JOURNALIST: Just a corollary to that, what percentage of turn up in that case are you seeing? Is that across different universities?

SIMON CREAN: I haven’t seen the latest figures. All I am saying is that this is an area that we are very mindful of the problems and opportunities. Now we will address the problems. But again, seeing, trading relationships or country-to-country relationships only through the prism of difficulty, misunderstands and sells both countries short. We will deal with the problems. The big challenge is how we realise the potential.

JOURNALIST: Energy is also as you mentioned earlier as well a huge component of trade between Australia and India, a few petroleum deals that we have already signed which will head on by 2014. There are many more companies, Indian companies which are meeting up the delegation as well. How important is oil and gas and the energy systems really in case of trade relations as well? What percentage, any figures that you could possibly place as a target really?

SIMON CREAN: Again, go beyond the figures to the challenge. The challenge for India just like any other country is how it secures resource and energy going forward given the huge growth that faces India. On resource security, it is a question of how efficiently it extracts its own resources - that’s where Australian companies can assist. Where it doesn’t have the resource, where does it draw that resource from? What it needs in that context, if it’s interested in security, is diversity of supply and reliability. Australia doesn’t position itself to be the only supplier of these resources, but it is one of the most efficient suppliers and it is certainly is a very reliable supplier. That’s where the partnership matters. What it results in figures, who knows. The trade stats will tell us that. Our task is to try and create the framework, the basis for moving forward together, in knowledge of what the challenges are for India, in knowledge of the diversity of what the Australian economy has to offer, and trying to forge that win-win outcome. That’s what I am interested in.

JOURNALIST: Area of nuclear energy as well, the supply of uranium really, has that been a bottleneck really in the talks at all? India always wanted to look at Australia as a partner.

SIMON CREAN: It has, and we have differences of opinion which are well known. But it has not been a barrier to us agreeing to recommend that we move forward on this Free Trade Agreement. That’s what I want to concentrate on because I think the opportunities in the whole energy space - whatever happens in relation to uranium going forward - there is a huge potential across so many other areas that are worthwhile exploring now.

JOURNALIST: But does that mean that, this is my last question, does that mean that looking forward, I mean it is the Labor Government probably which has the rule there. But will there be any special amendments made in case of India where uranium could be possibly derived from Australia for Indian energy?

SIMON CREAN: Our position on the uranium question is quite clear. We do not supply to countries non-signatory to the NPT. What we are prepared to do is to look at the energy security on a broader front for India. There is plenty of potential. Let’s operate on the areas that we can reach agreement on rather than to simply focus on a narrowness of the one around which we disagree at the moment.

JOURNALIST: It is not only intrigue, but in other relations as well, India and Australia is getting close. In the case of intelligence-sharing as well, is that really a formidable tie-up in case of the coming months because - even recently during terror attacks - there were lot of information that was shared between Australia and India. How do you see that?

SIMON CREAN: I think this is just another manifestation of the strengthening and deepening of the relationship between our two countries. When our Prime Ministers met here in November they undertook to develop an enlarged strategic partnership. The information sharing is vital. It is really important in terms of us being able to provide the best information possible to our Commonwealth Games athletes in the lead up to the games. I had a meeting yesterday with the Commonwealth Games authorities and we continue to share that information and reinforce the importance of it. But on the broader front, it is important to share, because the other thing that we share in common is the need to attack terrorism. And information-gathering and sharing of that information is vital in that regard.

ENDS

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