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1920’s Australia’s lesson for Gillard in the Asian Century

Fergal Davis

by Fergal Davis

03 Nov 05:55am

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Filed under: Asian Century, Asylum Seekers, Families, Julia Gillard, Stanley Bruce

33 comments

On 28 October the Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a speech at the launch of the White paper on Australia in the Asian Century. “History” she said “asks great nations great questions”.

Prime Minister Stanley Bruce played a significant role in shaping Australia’s outlook in the early twentieth century.

As we look forward to the Asian Century we might also want to reflect on the way Australia sought to define its place in the world 100 years ago: a century marked by the global process of decolonization.

In the 1920’s the sun never set upon the British Empire but it was a rapidly changing world. 

Following World War I – a war fought to “defend the freedom of small nations” – the Dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa had a new found self-confidence.

The landscape of Europe was changing. And while the birth of the Irish Free State brought a troublesome conflict to an end it introduced a petulant and nationalistic tone to Imperial Conferences.

It might not have been obvious at the time, but the process of decolonization which would reach its zenith in the 1960’s had begun.

In that world Stanley Bruce, who would one day become 1st Viscount of Melbourne, became Prime Minister of Australia. Bruce is an undervalued character.

He was not a crusading Prime Minister; his main focus was on maintaining the status quo; his most distinguishing (and most exciting) feature is that he wore spats.

Yet, Bruce – or more precisely the conservatism he represented – played a significant role in shaping Australia’s outlook in the early twentieth century.

Bruce focused his attention on maintaining Australia’s link with the British Commonwealth. He summed that policy up in three words: men; money; and markets.

It was partly as a result of that focus that he sought to secure Australia’s naval defence through the (ultimately ill fated) Singapore pact.

On the other hand, the Irish were bound to the Commonwealth not out of love but out of necessity.

The Irish could not attain full independence militarily and so they accepted Dominion status – that acceptance was conditional.

Many opposed the Treaty with Britain which had established the Irish Free State –and in 1922 there was a civil war.

Even supporters of the Treaty sought to exploit any potential to expand the meaning of Dominion status.

In 1926 the conservatism of Stanley Bruce collided with the dynamism of Kevin O’Higgins.

O’Higgins was a brilliant young politician who had fought in the Irish War of Independence but was far more the civil servant than the revolutionary.

He was the Irish Vice President (a position equivalent to Deputy Prime Minister), Minister for Home Affairs and spokesperson at the Imperial Conference of 1926.

He saw Bruce as an impediment to the ambitions of the fledgling Irish Free State.

While the Irish sought to galvanise a coalition with Canada and South Africa to define Dominion status in such a way as to secure all the trappings of independence Bruce was fundamentally opposed to rigid definitions.

The Irish wanted Dominion status defined, clearly and concretely. Bruce believed that formal rules would lessen cultural ties and associations. Workplaces and perhaps clubs need laws and rules; families do not.

O’Higgins was assassinated by members of the IRA in 1927 whilst on his way to Sunday mass.

However, prior to his death he had succeeded in his goal of articulating clearly the relationship between the Parliament Westminster and the Dominions.

This resulted in the Statute of Westminster, 1931: the Dominion parliaments were recognised as being equal to the Imperial Parliament in London. That was an outcome Bruce had resisted.

The position of Prime Minster Bruce was standard-fare in Australia in the 20’s and 30’s.

Maintaining the Imperial relationship, relying on the UK for men, money and markets was not contested ground. Unlike the Irish, Australians saw their interests as lying in the maintenance of the unity of the Empire.

But, in so doing, Australia placed its defence in the hands of British navy – which hindsight reveals was an error.

More importantly in seeking to defend the status quo, Australia did not shape the debate on the shift from Empire to Commonwealth – it missed the opportunity to mold the century of decolonization.

The Gillard government will be hoping that this White Paper can mark an opportunity to actively determine the nature of the Asian Century and Australia’s place within it.

To do so it must learn from Bruce and not be reactionary – it must be proactive. Building embassies; teaching Mandarin; but most importantly asserting Australian values.

In this regard Foreign Minister Carr points to the lengthy and ongoing engagement with Myanmar. He might also highlight East Timor and other places where Australian foreign policy has been a force for good in the region. But there is more to do.

Unlike the policies of Stanley Bruce, Australia’s role in the Asian Century must be about more than Men, Money and Markets: it must be about more than asylum seekers and commercial trade. It must be about defining values – and promoting them.

Fergal Davis is a senior lecturer at the ARC Laureate Project at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW.

Comments on this post will close at 8:00pm AEST.

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33 comments

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    • acotrel says:

      05:19am | 03/11/12

      ‘Australia’s role in the Asian Century must be about more than Men, Money and Markets: it must be about more than asylum seekers and commercial trade. It must be about defining values – and promoting them.’

      Surely we should also have goals and ambitionsfor the common good,  and the desire to conscientiously risk manage our way towards them ?

      Reply

    • Gregg says:

      07:43am | 03/11/12

      ” Surely we should also have goals and ambitionsfor the common good,  and the desire to conscientiously risk manage our way towards them ? “

      Great stuff, so what should we sign up to?

    • PJ says:

      08:01am | 03/11/12

      Australia’s role in the Asian Century must be about capturing Asian markets and expanding our business portfolios, rather than crucifying Australian industry for the sake of populist, unrealistic Green theories, that the rest of the world pays lip service too.

    • acotrel says:

      08:56am | 03/11/12

      In this life you write your own ticket.  What do you want Australia to be come ?  Abbott doesn’t seem to know.

    • acotrel says:

      05:34am | 03/11/12

      ‘The Bruce–Page government met industrial action with severe penalties such as the 1926 amendment to the Crimes Act and the 1928 Transport Workers Act. This heightened the tensions of industrial conflict. Strikes of sugar mill workers in 1927, waterside workers in 1928, then of transport workers, timber industry workers and coal miners erupted in riots and lockouts in New South Wales in 1929. Bruce responded with a Maritime Industries Bill that was designed to do away with the Conciliation and Arbitration Court and return arbitration powers to the States.’

      Julia Gillard could learn a lot from Stanley Melbourne Bruce ? If Tony Abbott ever gets up we could get a repeat performance. Peter Reith did the same sort of unproductive crap.

      Reply

    • Gregg says:

      07:52am | 03/11/12

      The twenties, leading up to the recession were starting to become tough times, not all roaring twenties and the parallels are there for us to take heed of.
      A lot of partying in good times, minimal responsibility and ain’t it all reminiscent of many good times of late, even a government with generous hand outs to lead the way, even if they knew they did not have the money and would be plunging us into even more debt, really responsible that!

      I doubt given Julia’s grey past with some Union people and support for the Thompsons and Slippers that she is open to learning too much from anyone and it is not that she is so young anymore.

    • Two Cents worth says:

      12:22pm | 03/11/12

      @acotrel- One would hope your favorite p.m. does not learn too much from Stanley Bruce, e.g. his preference for a White Australia policy.
      We might also hope that she will lose her seat at the next election,as a sitting p.m, just like Bruce (and Howard, just in case you were going to add that).
      To reiterate my comment from the “Slipper-Thomson post"the other day,
      Where did you get the notion that JG is the legitimate p.m. of the Nation?
      I believe that Kevin Rudd was the P.M. when Labor were elected.

    • Ben says:

      06:13am | 03/11/12

      So, in summary, we must build embassies, teach Mandarin (bit hard when almost none of us speak it), and define/assert “Australian values” (whatever they are). So if you know some Chinese-speaking brickie who loves a punt, stick with him. He’ll be showing us the way forward.

      Reply

    • FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. says:

      09:22am | 03/11/12

      Way to go Ben!!!

    • owl says:

      10:22am | 03/11/12

      There’s plenty of Mandarin/ English speaking Australians.
      We need them in our schools teaching the kids from primary level.
      My daughter is a geologist at a minesite and many of her school mates, Uni friends and now her workmates are bilingual.
      She has recently taken it upon herself to learn Mandarin, a very significant addition to her CV and a tool for her future ambitions.

    • Ben says:

      11:34am | 03/11/12

      @owl

      Good luck to your daughter. I agree it would be a significant boost for her CV. However, from my (limited) understanding, it requires at least five years intense study before one becomes proficient. I don’t see how that can fit into an already crowded school curriculum. As for your statement that many of your daughter’s workmates are “bilingual”, that’s open to various interpretations. I mean I can say “Good morning” and “The door is green” and “That woman making the potato salad has a big bum” in pidgin German, but that doesn’t make me bilingual.

    • owl says:

      01:29pm | 03/11/12

      Good point, Ben, but my daughters friends at high school: one born in Malaysia, one born in South Africa(speaks Afrikaans)  did her gap year at an abbotoir and made friends with Aussie Muslims, Chinese, and Afghan refugees all either bilingual, or adding English to their vocab. She lived on the uni campus for her first year and shared accomodation with African and Chinese students. On the minesite, she as a graduate geo works under a French Geologist, who speaks a number of languages and along side an Asian geologist.
      She was thinking of squeezing in her honours next year, but she has opted instead to study mandarin and has been encouraged to do so by her workmates and superiors.

    • Gregg says:

      06:49am | 03/11/12

      An interesting article Fergal and despite both O’Higgins and Bruce having their varying views on national interests, it is not too surprising that they would differ, given the geographical and political differences that applied and still do.

      Ireland/Northern Ireland, Canada and South Africa certainly have a number of differences to Australia and that applies just as much in the twenty first century as it did at the start of the twentieth if not more so and any government should realise that.
      I/NI and Canada in particular are much closer to like markets, like in culture and living standards than Australia will ever be, SA a little different though still closer to like markets and having a huge indigenous population for their industries working at rates likely more akin to other markets in Africa.

      Australia stands out in that our nearer markets of asia are of much more manufacturing than us and they manufacture far cheaper because of labour rates and subsequently lower standard of living for the most part, huge cultural differences aside.
      Europe already has massive unemployment, imports from both Asian countries and also manufacturing more and more in cheaper labour eastern european countries a driver.

      We need look no further than the WTO and the purported goals of level playing fields to see what the ultimate result can be and further loss of manufacturing and living standards in Australia are more than likely.

      The White Paper on Australia in the Asian century will likely have minimal impact and perhaps just a fluffy exercise for Australians need to face up to what do coming times offer as far as opportunities to maintain a reasonable standard of living.
      If we feel our future is within and trading with China, then there is far more to consider than just language and apparent culture for business in Asia is vastly different , a much more dog eat dog approach in a low wages and lack of regulations environment and weight of numbers and that eating dog to survive will not really see much there that Australians can do in expecting to get what we see as reasonable wages and conditions on a broader front.

      I doubt that many of our politicians or senior bureaucrats if any at all have really got down to grass roots levels to see what life is there and even some businessmen have run foul of authorities in China and so to have a political push for engagement could see many more finger burns and even more ahead.

      Australia is not totally alone in the dilemma of understanding the future for other western developed nations have had manufacturing/trading eroded in recent years and are experiencing huge fiscal pressures in an attempt to maintain past living standards.

      The developed nations with higher wage structures and industrial/environmental regulation will never beat countries with lesser standards in those respects into change, the sooner we have a Stanley Bruce prepared to lead on questioning the validity of continuing the likes of WTO and UNHRC conventions the better off we can hope to be and it may be tough until a trading block is established between countries with like standards.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      09:00am | 03/11/12

      I believe in the free market and the WTO.  I don’t believe in a world where there are no international standards for Workplace OHS.  Where Grub employers in Asian countries can build fortunes on workers’ industrial diseases and deaths. The playing field is not level !

    • vox says:

      11:07am | 03/11/12

      Stanley Bruce and John Howard. What a double act they make. Bruce was particularly admired by Howard and he emulated many of the anti-worker actions so often resorted to by Bruce.
      You really have no idea what you are talking about, Gregg. Your cutand paste response shows how shallow you and your theories really are.
      Are you surprised that Bruce and Howard should be expelled by their own electorate, (both seats deemed ‘ultra-safe’), for their common failures?
      You suggest that Gillard has done something wrong. Have you been to the police with your “evidence”? And with your “evidence” re Slipper and Thomson, both of whom you have also deemed guilty of some crime.
      Did I read your comment regarding the then Howard Government lying to the Australian people about WMDs,etc., etc.?
      I dealt with the rodent and the rabbit elsewhere as to their duplicitous treatment of the nation, but I must say that I missed any mention by you and Dash, and Rosie, and TimB, of Howard’s treachery.
      Please don’t tell us all that you lot are selectively principled?
      Who would have thought.
      And TimB still hasn’t explained why we are in Afghanistan. I hope he’s not unwell.

    • Bob says:

      03:16pm | 03/11/12

      Acrotel: Those “grub employers” are the best thing that could happen to those people. I’ll simplify this for you. Lets assume that we’re discussing a 14yo orphaned sweatshop worker in a country without the social services Australia could afford up until a few years ago: Being an underage sweatshop worker is better than working in the fields all day, which is better than being a street prostitute, which is better than starving to death on the side of the road. In return, their (relatively, they’re not bad compared with the alternative - Foxconn’s suicide rates are no higher than the average Chinese rates, for example) low wages allow us to have a high standard of living. Unfair? Not really. Our great great great grandparents went through it during the Industrial revolution. It gave them the prosperity to allow their children a better life, and so on. Now, you can talk about how bad it is all you like, But if the only reason people are employing them is because they’re cheap, what happens when they’re no longer cheap enough? Where would you rather be? Those who are employing them definitely aren’t saints, but it’s far better that they’re there than they’re not.

    • stephen says:

      07:52am | 03/11/12

      I’d like to know how Indonesia’s population will become middle class and how our country is set to benenfit.
      The precedent is supposedly China, yet if it wasn’t for our mining industry we would have enjoyed absolutely no profit from her rising equities.

      The future may well be the food bowl which is being considered in far Nth. Qld. but I will wager that we will have no imput here except to sell of great parcels of land so that the hungry will feed themselves, and we will be garderners.

      Economists make mistakes often - they cannot even predict inflation rates, make interest rate forcasts and unemployment figures - and they fail to take into account the cultural spheres people are obliged to when they purpote industrial landscapes that Australia may be a part of.
      China looks after herself, and so will Indonesia, so will Vietnam, South Korea too, etc.

      Reply

    • Gregg says:

      08:52am | 03/11/12

      As to countries looking after themselves, that’s the key stephen and whereas Asian countries currently do that with the aid of manufacturing for international trade supported by cheap labour, Australia does not have that luxury and in fact we have lost a lot of manufacturing that we had prior to WTO international trade agreements becoming more the norm.

      Prior to the development of manufacturing in Asian countries, they still looked after themselves, be it with a lower standard of living.
      That Australia is losing our manufacturing in reality means to some extent we are sliding to where Asian countries were prior to getting more into manufacturing and we as a nation may likely have to get more and more used to lower living standards or at least far less disposable income.
      We can see that starting to occur with things like power charge increases and we are not even factoring in the cost of new power stations that any responsible government should have on the drawing boards for quite a few will in coming decades reach usual life spans, some already past them and that will also increase generating costs because of upgrades, refurbishments and needing to transport coal longer distances in many cases.
      The same will likely occur with water as there is more and more reliance on desalination which in itself is a huge energy user and then what may have to happen re the Murray Darling basin re water supplies there, smart use of water one thing but as the population grows, so is more food production desirable.
      Ultimately, there could be the cost of many more dams on the upper reaches of tributaries, trapping and directing water that contributes to regular coastal plains flooding but we do seem to fail to appreciate at political levels what is really pertinent for both power and water.

      ” The future may well be the food bowl which is being considered in far Nth. Qld.  “
      I’d say Central to southern Queensland has far more potential for whereas water ,management in those regions is also a necessity for high regular production and also to help with preventing extent of floods,  with northern queensland you are getting into tropical conditions, certainly more seasonal and limited with what can be grown in some areas not just because of the seasons but prevalence of bugs etc.

      The Ord River/Kunnunurra region can be learnt from for the experimentation there has shown two things to be prominent, one being the limited growing season for it is just too damm hot for much of the time and then distance /cost of getting produce to markets.
      A lot of the Ord River irrigation scheme is now having Sandalwood plantations developed as a more feasible use than growing food crops.

      There will certainly always be some export markets that can be developed in Australia, just from the aspect our growing seasons are reversed and the growing prosperity of some Asian regions and it is more that which Australia should concentrate on rather than the need for languages and understanding of other cultures by all.
      It means that much much more needs to be done re our water and power management, they being far more important to survival of our living standards than something like the NBN.

      As for making best use of great parcels of land that would have far better potential with water management, if a government has the smarts about them, they should be concentrating on developing water management on a massive scale and then looking at leasing rather than sale options.
      You could have entrepreneurs from Asia with their government backing possibly prepared to do somrthing like 100 year leasing with options and conditions to include development and maintenance.

      Australia gets revenue from leasing, land developed in an agreed manner that includes environmental concerns and there will likely be a considerable amount of employment developed, asians probably only too willing to learn and improve their english while they invest long term in an english speaking country.
      All too easy ain’t it!, my white paper.

    • stephen says:

      02:32pm | 03/11/12

      Wouldn’t mind tainting that White Paper a shade of brown but Canberra has no attractions for me except that pub underneath that spanish/hacienda looking building in the centre of town which has the best goddamned pool-table/jukebox this city of jersey city.

      Hell ‘87 was a good time in my life !

    • NESLIHAN KUROSAWA says:

      08:17am | 03/11/12

      Hi Fergal,

      When it came to the latest technology and latest innovations names of two countries Japan and Germany springs to our minds.  Being highly industrial and self reliant nations they did manage to do all that after being reduced to rubble during the World War II.  However the economic crisis which is taking a hold around the world has managed to burst those bubbles too.  At this stage in our lives we all have come to realize all good things must come to an end!

      When we talk about the “Asian Century” hype and what it can bring into our lives, it only seems like a false and empty dream, only!  Because when we look closely at the population of Asia, which is estimated to exceed 5 billion in not too distant future, I would worry much more feeding all those hungry mouths more than anything.  China isn’t inventing anything new at all and the only good thing the Chinese is copying everything insight, the only plus for China happens to be the massive work force willing to work for peanuts.

      Especially when we realize that most Asian countries are famous for deforestation as well as destroying the natural habitat of some extinct animals, at such a rapid rate.  Are the typically Asian nations rich in mineral or natural resources at all? China being in a top leader in polluting our environment like there is no tomorrow, I wonder what that would say about Ms Julia Gillard’s famous “carbon tax” scheme?

      Living green and protecting our planet actually may need so much more than collecting taxes. It is all about being a leader in innovative thinking as well as living.  If most Asians can really survive the next 5-10 years without running out of essential things that would be a real miracle.  I personally don’t mind calling it an Asian decade because a century is far too long for all those empty dreams and hopes.

      We have to get real by being self sufficient and by keeping our own identity.  And finally instead of following in the foot steps of other nations like China and India, with no real understanding of true democracy and equal rights.  We should set a good example by making clever decisions about Australia’s future.  When most Australian children leaving the public school system are basically struggling with English comprehension, reading, writing skills and simple maths, it seems ridiculous to force them to learn and speak Mandarin.

      While we are it lets also compare European income levels and living standards with the Asian income levels and living standards.  It is all simple maths, right?  No one can actually convince me that the billions of Chinese and Indians are living the good life that we can envy and admire so much.  Such equal rights and true democracies never existed in Asians nations, I get the feeling it isn’t going to happen now when there is such a widening gap between the very rich and the very poor.  Kind regards.

      Reply

    • St. Michael says:

      09:10am | 03/11/12

      Stanley Bruce has another echo in modern times: he was the first PM to lose his own seat at an election.  John Howard was the second.  Bruce also, according to Michelle Grattan’s book on the Prime Ministers, thought of the nation as a corporation - the problem being that the union movement was at its strongest at this stage and Billy Hughes stabbed him in the back over the attempt to return arbitration powers to the states.

      Bruce also suffered from an Australian version of the ‘Hoover Effect’ in that the Federal election was held 12 days before October 24, 1929, which was the start of the Stock Market Crash leading into the Great Depression.  The market had been undergoing some heavy swings since around September 3, and the maritime strike was something of a referendum on his government.  Bruce also suffered a defeat from a nation that demanded protectionism of Australian trade and a government that could legislate market swings out of existence, and as the Great Depression proved—utterly—it was a foolish nation indeed to believe that.  Australia is recorded historically as being hit harder than America by the Great Depression, mainly because of our dependence on primary export industries (wool, at that stage.)

      We’re back on a similar precipice today - albeit the issue is US hyperinflation, not a Depression (at least for the moment.  When US hyperinflation ends, that *will* bring on a Depression - because a massive spending cut is always deflationary.)

      If you want a hint of the future, don’t study Stanley Bruce’s record.  Look at what happened under Joseph Lyons instead, because we’re likely to get a dose of that.

      Reply

    • Jag says:

      09:14am | 03/11/12

      What this article misses is that without that strong economic, political and ancestral relationship with the uk and Europe. Australia would have struggled to make it to the advanced stage it is today. We had a a ready made supply of qualified English speaking tradies and professionals to choose from. Let’s face it if Australia had rejected this path and turned to Asia, India and Africa instead. Would we have reached first world status? Hardly likely. Just look at how far down the development stage most of these Regions still are today. The Asian century? Are you sure?

      Reply

    • GROBP says:

      09:47am | 03/11/12

      Australian values? Stealing from the future. They’re our values. It’s over, Asian century ot not. Australia is broke. There is no way to recover after pinning all our hopes, relying on nothing else, no contingency, on a boom that’s over. So dumb It’s ridiculous.

      Reply

    • GROBP says:

      10:11am | 03/11/12

      Stephen.

      It’s pretendies. Go along with it. We get to spend the rest of Australia’s wealth while pretending to have a plan. It’s worked for two generations we should be able to squeeze another out of it and as you say, and I’ve said many times our kids will be farm hands on Asian owned Australian farms.

      The most disgusting betrayal of our own kids in history.

      Reply

    • ma_kelvin says:

      11:28am | 03/11/12

      Our children are learningJapanese and chinese and other asian languages now. The Japanese and chinese have been learning english and our culture for more than 30 years.
      Our children are just catching up and most likely only will learn a few words and minimal conversation and culture.  Culture exchange programs and sister cities were joint intiatives to respect other cultures and language. 
      As you are all aware one wrong gesture in a different culture can sometimes set back relations years.
      ITS TOO BLOODY LATE ABOUT THE PAST.  Its not too late for the future and the best thing that we can do is foster in our primary, high schools and its not to late for Universities the peace and understandings initiatives of the United Nations.  Also if you watch Star Trek and recently Avatar our fantasies sometimes can turn into reality for our future.  E=MC2

      Reply

    • ma_kelvin says:

      01:07pm | 03/11/12

      oops should be on open thread. cut and paste

    • the cynic says:

      01:52pm | 03/11/12

      ma_kelvin You are correct but our kids learning asian languages needs to be taken out of the hands of whoever controls things now. How is this for a stupid education system? My daughter started learning Italian in year one primary and we both thought that asian languages would be far better (at the time there was a huge Asian refugee complex a short stroll from the school in Mitcham at the time as well as over in Springvale)  but the penny hadn’t dropped in Australia that may be European languages have had their day. So the school teaches Italian in her first year. The next year the bloody school taught Spanish to all the kids,  those from year one previous just forgot all the Italian and had to get into Spanish mode, a wasted year. Then to top it off in her year three the school dumped Spanish and taught German !!!  Must have been Labor in control at the time. We went to work in Hong Kong and she started school here in year 4. She is now 31,  flawless in the local Cantonese and could confound Krudd in any debate using real Mandarin, she also can hold her own in Tagalog learn’t from our amah of 25 years.  Yes the Australian system needs to change if it is still like it was in the 1980s.

    • ma_kelvin says:

      05:55pm | 03/11/12

      @the cynic Yes you are correct and unfortuneately it reads like a Yes Minister episode .  I used to watch Yes Minisiter for a laugh at the ironic side but alas inherited the old English attitude towards politics in Australia. The education, health and other government departments must adapt the united nations attitude and also think laterally or the future of this country will be at the bottom not the top where it should be.

    • Ben says:

      01:17pm | 03/11/12

      >>Also if you watch Star Trek and recently Avatar our fantasies sometimes can turn into reality for our future.

      I used to think as a teenager that the letters in Penthouse ‘Forum’ were fictitious. Then one of the fantasies I read about came true for me many years later. So you might have a point there.

      Reply

    • Luc Belrose says:

      01:53pm | 03/11/12

      The White paper on Australia in the Asian Century from the PM makes sweeping feel good statements with no details about objectives, policies, closer rapprochement re trade, diplomacy, education, learning of new languages and our relationships with the rest of the world.
      The Asian countries already give a lot of attention to us. China, India, Japan and Indonesia like our democratic Government and bureaucratic structures,  our world standard education / University systems and are happy to trade with us and us with them. They also want to invest capital in Australia in property, farming and businesses.
      So why not concentrate on these fields and reinforce those important commercial and personal ties rather than looking into fluffy dreaming of a blank airy fairy white paper in the vague hope that undefined future events will magically create that elusive rapprochement bureaucrats like to talk about.
      Asia is alive and working hard to improve their future and will happily join with Australia to forge ahead for a better future for one and all. That empty white paper can be filed back into a drawer marked “Election Promises”.

      Reply

    • James O says:

      03:13pm | 03/11/12

      Unlike the nation building that took place in America with the war of independence and more significantly the American Civil War between the North and South, Australia bypassed their opportunity for historical change and to become a Republic, instead Australia poltically shared in the pride of Empire with Royalist Britain. Australia was an unapologetic distant part of a British jigsaw puzzle significant only because of it’s proximity to abundant material resources domestically and in South East Asia which was important for the supply of Britain’s industrial machine, Britain could forsee little else of use for it’s distant territory as it was a strategic nightmare to defend and most of the likely adversaries to British interests had their own colonial problems to take care of. The great war was the first culture shock to reveal how isolated Australia was becoming from British foreign policy though the Boer War should have been a portent of things to come. Allegiance to the mother country still held a magnetic attraction like the call to arms to fight on the other side of the world. The Asia Pacific region was a place for adventurers and prospectors looking to get wealthy, these disparate characters were not looking ahead to make Australia into a growing economy they were creating empires of their own developing sheep and cattle stations on a vast scale and mining for gold. During those early formative years of the twentieth century Australia lacked the cultural diversity that the USA was bringing to it’s own shores, with the population requirements of a more habitable landmass America needed people to develop it’s infrastructure and technology and spread widely into it’s territories, creating cities. Australia retained a settlement culture habitating coastal areas and sparsely populated inland farming communities with a self satisfied indifference to the outside world, without any competition from neighbours there was little insentive or desire to change. The Asian shock finally arrived courtesy of Japan, a country that would have been little known to most people in post WW2 Australia, Britain had more use for Australian troops in Greece and North Africa than defending the Pacific,the truth was that Australia was expendable to British interests the strategic value of the Asia Pacific region was too far away for an ailing British economy under threat in Europe to have any hope of defending. The debacle of Singapore was a predictable consequence of incompetent strategic policy and colonial mindset that was ignored untill it was too late. Australia too was also unable to comprehend it’s own changing role in Asia,it had little industrial capacity to supply it’s own weapons needs. The dependence on the USA for Australia’s defence should not be taken for granted the scenerio of WW2 is not a thing of the past, history changes as will the USA at some point. Australia has to become a independent Republic sooner rather than later, it will also need to embrace Asia as an important part of it’s strategic role in the Pacific, Australia can become a true global gateway for the economic and cultural changes coming from Asia to the rest of the world, now and into the future.

      Reply

    • David V. says:

      03:46pm | 03/11/12

      “I have this feeling that a majority of European leaders have lost their faith in what made Europe great and into an influential factor in the world. Moreover, it seems as if it would be something shameful or something forbidden to talk about this issue. We can not help to see that those who are coming up now, stand firm for their spiritual identity: the Islamic peoples to Islam, the Asian peoples to Asian traditions and their spiritual system. It’s not just about God, but also about the culture that was influenced by their traditional beliefs. We on the other hand reject the power that comes from the fact that this is the world of Christian culture. The successful ones make sure that there is no future without children and family.” - Hungarian conservative PM Viktor Orban

      Orban’s sage words will be studiously ignored and laughed at by “progressives”, but invariably are of value. We have to learn from Asia but it may be too late, that Asia retains its culture, values and traditions whereas we out of self-loathing, pandering to minority victimhood, Equality & Diversity, open borders, spare the rod spoil the child, and whatnot, have allowed our own culture to be undermined from within by Left thinking, constituting a far greater danger than Islamic fundamentalism.

      Look at the successes of Japan, South Korea and Singapore, and compare them to our own failings.

      Reply

    • St. Michael says:

      04:53pm | 03/11/12

      Ah, this would be the same Japan that has spent the last 20 years in a liquidity trap and currently has a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 233% or so?

 
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