PM's missed trip a win for parochialism

KEVIN Rudd has sometimes been (unfairly) criticised for choosing to attend international dialogues instead of staying at home to work through domestic policy difficulties. It is one of the reasons Julia Gillard has clocked up more time as acting PM than any previous deputy.

But this week, the Prime Minister made the opposite mistake by failing to attend a crucial nuclear security summit in Washington organised by US President Barack Obama.

Despite Australia being home to the largest deposits of uranium anywhere in the world, and despite an unprecedented number of world leaders attending the summit, Rudd didn't go, instead sending Defence Minister John Faulkner.

While Obama met world leaders from countries including China, Russia, Japan, Germany and India, in a series of bilateral sit-downs the soft diplomacy benefits of which are unquantifiable, Rudd toured regional NSW and Queensland attending relatively minor events. It was a missed opportunity at the expense of the national interest.

Scheduled for the Prime Minister on the two days the Washington conference was running were visits to Port Macquarie and Lismore, an interview with ABC radio at Wide Bay and a photo opportunity (no media conference) with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

While these PR engagements might be important to Rudd's marginal-seats election strategy, it would have been more pleasing if he had put the nuclear security of the planet on a higher footing.

As the supplier of 38 per cent of the world's uranium, Australia should have been front and centre in Washington.

A Rudd media release on the summit said: "Australia has a particular interest in the security of nuclear materials." Just not enough interest for Rudd to attend.

While Rudd and countless bureaucrats went to Copenhagen for what was ultimately a failed conference on climate change, the team he sent to Washington was out-gunned by overseas delegations as they debated issues such as whether exporters of uranium should be responsible for storing returned waste.

I would have thought most Australians would consider that a pretty important topic.