PM Lee, Gillard also vow to continue working on unresolved trade issues
By Elgin Toh, The Straits Times, 12 Oct 2012
CANBERRA - It was the coldest day in a week in the Australian capital, with temperatures in the day never rising above 9 deg C and drizzle adding to the general gloom.
But that did not stop Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong from receiving the warmest of welcomes here - from a 19-gun artillery salute, to enthusiastic words all round from Australia's political elite, as the two countries renewed their ties and pledged cooperation in new areas.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the two countries were "friends through both good times and bad", and noted that Australia had no closer defence relationship in Asia than that with Singapore.
She expressed her country's amity unreservedly, saying: "I cannot imagine an Australia which does not call Singapore a friend, nor a prime minister of Singapore who did not feel welcome in our capital."
Mr Lee, too, described the two countries as "kindred spirits", and noted the "deep reservoir of goodwill and trust" between their peoples. He pledged Singapore's support for Australia's bid to enter the United Nations Security Council next year.
He also thanked his hosts for their hospitality in allowing the use of military training facilities, including those at Rockhampton he had just visited.
"I hear one Rockhampton family even hung the banner to welcome the troops with the words 'Welcome lah!', which is the Singapore version of 'G'Day Mate!'" he said at a luncheon in his honour.
Underscoring historical links, Mr Lee visited the Australian War Memorial later in the day and laid a wreath in memory of 102,000 Australian soldiers killed in war, including 1,800 who died fighting in Singapore during World War II.
In concrete areas of cooperation, the two prime ministers promised to continue working on unresolved issues in free trade.
Singapore became the first country after New Zealand to sign a free trade agreement with Australia in 2003. But the two have not reached consensus on thorny issues, such as Singapore companies being shut out of government procurement in Australian states, Singapore Airlines not being able to ply the Sydney-Los Angeles route and some Australian law degrees not being recognised in Singapore.
At a joint press conference yesterday, Mr Lee said Singapore was ready to move "any time Australia is", but added that the issues should be settled in a package. Ms Gillard said she "wholly" agreed, and it was "time to look again" at the issues.
They also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding to promote cross-border crime fighting between the two police forces. Singapore Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee, who was in Canberra to sign the MOU, said it would facilitate the sharing of information and the dismantling of transnational criminal threats.
In private discussions, the two prime ministers also explored future cooperation and engagement on cyber issues, education, sports and the environment. Details on these will be announced later, but The Straits Times understands that an MOU on sports could be signed in a matter of months.
Mr Lee arrived in Canberra on Wednesday as part of a five-day official visit to Australia, after completing a similar visit to New Zealand.
He found the capital city in a highly tense state. The government-backed Speaker of the House had just resigned, after a motion to sack him over sexist text messages had narrowly been defeated. During that debate, Ms Gillard accused opposition leader Tony Abbott of sexism himself in past statements.
Mr Lee met both Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott at Parliament House, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan. Later, at Government House, he met Governor-General Quentin Bryce.
During lunch, as is the custom, both Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott were given the chance to speak in a room full of Australian Cabinet ministers, MPs, public servants, businessmen and academics.
Both were warm when they described ties with Singapore, but references to a phrase used over 30 years ago by former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew - that Australia must reform or become the "white trash of Asia" - raised eyebrows.
In her prepared speech, Ms Gillard said straight-talking words like these made the older Mr Lee a "respected if rather forbidding uncle" to Australians, and the words "haunted a generation of Australian decision-makers". But she said Australia had changed, and was no longer on the path he described.
Mr Abbott, who took to the podium after, also referred to Mr Lee's remarks. He described them as "astringent", but added that he was "pleased to observe" they had been recanted.
An interpretation of the curious incident was given by National University of Singapore history professor Ian Gordon later. The Australian academic said Ms Gillard may have been trying to score political points over Mr Abbott, as the reforms Mr Lee had called for were eventually implemented by prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating from the Labor Party, to which she belongs.
And Mr Abbott, "being the debater that he was in college", may have been forced to make his remarks off-the-cuff in response to Ms Gillard.
PM Lee travels to Sydney today, where he is scheduled to meet New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell and address a gathering of businessmen.
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