Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for her question. In the hubbub, I did not hear the last bit of it, so I will attempt as best I can to respond to the question that she raises. The House may be surprised to know that the question of poker machines in general and mandatory precommitment was not a huge subject at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. In bilateral conversations with the British Foreign Secretary, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the foreign minister of South Africa and the foreign minister of India, this was not at the top of the agenda in the normal work that one does as a foreign minister. In fact, there were other priorities on the agenda of foreign ministers in Perth—this was not one of them. I appreciate the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has raised this question about international travel because we are about to have a distinguished guest in Australia within two weeks.

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