Prime Minister Kevin Rudd re-confirmed to Neos Kosmos his commitment to go ahead and sign an agreement with Greece in relation to the issue of the Work and Holiday Visa (Subclass 462).
“If re-elected as Prime Minister I will accelerate the negotiations so that we can resolve this issue as soon as possible in order to give the opportunity to young Greeks to come to Australia in the foreseeable future.”
Also, when asked about the Macedonian issue he stressed that “the position of the government and my own position is clear. Until a mutually accepted solution is reached we insist on the term FYROM”.
Prime Minister Rudd, speaking to journalists from the ethnic media, amongst others, addressed the issue of the asylum seekers. It was the Labor Party, he said, that introduced in the post-war period an organised and comprehensive immigration policy that transformed Australia into a lively, creative and multicultural country.
“The problem of the asylum seekers is an international problem – as Greeks and Italians know better than anyone else – and as such it needs regional and international solutions.”
He then went on to say that he has written to the Secretary General of the United Nations and to other international organisations and he has proposed to cover proportionally the costs of the resettlement of the refugees.
He also stressed that the Australian government will participate on August 20 in the regional conference organised by the government of Indonesian in order to address the issue of the asylum seekers. The government’s new policy has already started producing results he said and unlike the opposition who uses slogans instead of having a policy, we expect the situation to improve even further because we are willing to work closely with other countries in the region and the international community.
In the same interview Prime Minister Rudd, also reminded the electorate that Australia avoided the Great Financial Crisis as a result of the response of a labor government and that regardless of the claims of the Opposition and its leader Mr Tony Abbott, Australia is one of only eight countries in the world that has a AAA rating.