Mr CREAN (2:24 PM) —My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the statement of the chairman of the terrorist organisation Islamic Defenders Front in Indonesia on 20 March that `everyone who supports the US action in Iraq will face a terrorist response'. I refer also to the travel warnings issued by DFAT on 22 March about threats to Australians in Surabaya. Prime Minister, given the gravity of these threats, what conversations have you had with the President of Indonesia since the outbreak of the war about the protection of Australian citizens and what steps have you taken to address these threats?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I had quite a number of conversations with the President of Indonesia before military operations. One of the reasons I quite deliberately went to Jakarta to see President Megawati after I had seen President Bush and Mr Blair was to express my gratitude to the Indonesian police for the magnificent work they had done in tracking down the people who had murdered 88 Australians in the Bali attack. One of the other reasons I went to see President Megawati was to put into context the policy of the Australian government regarding Iraq, to explain that the action was not in any way anti-Islamic. President Megawati explicitly accepted this explanation and, in fact, it has been reflected in statements made by her; so the proper background has been established. Contact between Australia and Indonesia since has quite properly been between our security agencies—between our police and other security agencies. One of the things that has been very successfully done since the Bali attack is the development of an extensive network of contacts between the Australian Federal Police, their counterparts in Indonesia and their counterparts in other parts of the region.

The Leader of the Opposition will recall some discussions that he and I had when we were in Bali together. We both agreed, perhaps approaching the matter in slightly different ways but nonetheless having the same objective, that we needed to develop closer relations between the security agencies of Australia and the security agencies not only of Indonesia but also of the region, and we have done that. In fact—and I am sure I am not disclosing anything I shouldn't—the material in relation to the concern about Surabaya was communicated very rapidly and directly. I know it has been the subject of quite a number of discussions between our agencies and the relevant agencies in Indonesia.

If the point of the Leader of the Opposition's question is to elicit from me an assurance that there has been extensive contact at the appropriate level between Australia and Indonesia about the Surabaya warning then I can assure him that there has. As far as the general question of heightened terrorist alerts the reality is that, as I said yesterday, as the Attorney-General has said, as the foreign minister has said, we have been on heightened terrorist alert in this country since 11 September 2001. There was the general warning issued last year in November. On top of that, of course, there have been very specific warnings given in relation to Australian citizens in Indonesia. The foreign minister has gone over that. Different countries express things in different ways.

If the Leader of the Opposition is asserting that we have not given appropriate warnings to Australians in Indonesia based on the information that we have, he is wrong. We have gone further than that; we have laid the basis of practical deterrence and practical assistance. That is, to engage the Australian Federal Police and their counterparts in Indonesia, and the state of cooperation between those agencies could not have been better. The testament and the evidence of that is the way in which they cooperated to track down those who were involved in the Bali attack. I think it is fair to say that the security relationship between the two countries in particular could not be stronger. We have explained our position on warnings. There is really nothing more I can add without being repetitious, which I know is against the standing orders.