Australia's Foreign Minister - who has been reasonably conspicuous in the cables released so far - covered this issue during a presser on Monday: QUESTION: Mr

Australia's Foreign Minister - who has been reasonably conspicuous in the cables released so far - covered this issue during a presser on Monday: QUESTION: Mr Rudd, just on that question. Do you think WikiLeaks will have a chilling effect on diplomacy, and, you know, back-room talks. KEVIN RUDD: I think it's having a focusing effect. QUESTION: As far as, you know, making people more cautious, and making diplomacy [indistinct]? KEVIN RUDD: I think foreign ministers around the world, from countries of all sorts of political traditions, are scratching their heads about this one at the moment - I'm just being frank with you - and particularly when, if we are dealing with diplomatic communications the content of which, if we are to be consistent with our profession, we then don't comment on. At the same time this has created real difficulties in various other parts of the world. Let's just put all this in a bit of context. You've had recent reports concerning - heads of government have been accused of corruption, being associated with the Mafia, been urging the United States to go to war against particular countries. I mean this has been happening in recent times. And without commenting, again, on the content or accuracy of any of those reports, it does create a separate and new dynamic. Now, what's the challenge for all of us? I was actually asked this question in Bahrain yesterday - what now happens? I think, rule number one for our friends in the United States is how do you tighten things up a bit? I think that's a fair old question. REPORTER: Security [indistinct] KEVIN RUDD: Well, it's just - you know, maybe two million or so people having access to this stuff is a bit of a problem. REPORTER: It's not the Lady Gaga CD. KEVIN RUDD: The - that could be a bit of a problem. But secondly, I reckon, what I believe to be the professional challenge for all of us, is to get on with the business, because all the big challenges we're dealing with haven't gone away. I had a question before about the Korean Peninsula, that is real, and live, and contemporary. And diplomacy, and the business of diplomacy, is underway, as we speak, on that. And if diplomacy gets it wrong on that then we all pay a very big price. So these challenges don't just go into suspended animation while we work our way through this stuff. So my answer, in Bahrain, as it is here today, is all of us to get on with the business, and not to become fundamentally side-tracked by all of this. But there are deep lessons, in terms of providing proper protection for such a large volume of diplomatic documents.