AUSTRALIA'S TRUE ROLE IN ASIA

AUSTRALIA'S TRUE ROLE IN ASIA

Address by The Hon Alexander Downer, MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to the Asialine Launch, Canberra, 1 May 1997.

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Australia and the Region

Australia's Foreign Policy in the Region

Australia's Achievements in the Region

A tolerant Australia

The Contribution of Heads of Mission from our Key Asian Posts

Introduction

My colleague Mr Fischer, Mr Flood, Ambassadors and High Commissioners of our key Asian diplomatic missions, Dr Morgan, Group Executive, Westpac, Mr Hawes, Group Executive, Qantas, distinguished guests.

I am pleased to be able to address you today at this launch of Asialine, which has, for the last few years, helped inform business about developments in Asia. Now, in its revamped format, and with the welcome support of Westpac and Qantas, it will reach an even wider audience.

It is entirely appropriate that the new-look Asialine is launched at the beginning of talks Mr Fischer and I will be having with the Heads of Mission from Australia's key posts in Asia. These meetings provide an important opportunity to reflect on Australia's Asia policy and review the range of policy options for the region.

Australia and the Region

There is no more important issue facing Australia's foreign policy than our engagement with Asia. Australia's future lies with Asia. This Government is committed to that future. That is why we have made engagement with Asia our highest foreign policy priority.

Australia is inextricably linked with Asia for the long-term. Australia contributes to both the prosperity and the security of Asia, just as the region contributes to our own prosperity and security. Asia is more than a geographical concept. It is now a place of common concerns and, importantly, joint aspirations.

The reason Australia continues to seek closer engagement with Asia is because of the profound benefit which flows from our friendship with the countries of the region and the realisation of our mutual interests.

Australia's Foreign Policy in the Region

To that end, the Government has advanced the prosperity and security of both Australia and the region by building a highly successful foreign policy on four key pillars:

first, we take a long-term view;
- we will soon release our White Paper setting out our thinking about and our policy approaches towards long-term regional trends;
second, we have a commitment to economic liberalisation, without which the region's full potential will not be realised;
- our renewed emphasis on bilateral trade agreements, as well as our continuing efforts in APEC and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will help sustain this momentum;
third, we have a strong commitment to cooperative security in the region;
- the more complex and uncertain post-Cold War environment necessitates a strengthening of both bilateral and regional cooperative linkages;
  - for example, Australia's reinvigoration of its ties with the United States embodied in the Sydney Declaration of last July focused squarely on the contribution the alliance makes to regional security;
  - also, our constructive participation in the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, contributes to strengthened regional security;
the fourth pillar is a commitment to a humane and principled approach to the challenges which face our region;
- Australian foreign policy aims to achieve practical results in upholding universal human rights and promoting democratic values.

Australia's Achievements in the Region

Above all else, this Government has been determined to translate our enduring commitment to the region into practical and realistic measures.

In the fourteen months since coming to office, the Howard Government has pursued a realistic approach to its regional relationships which focusses on delivering tangible outcomes that advance our security and which promote export jobs for Australians. The key regional achievements include:

the Australia - Indonesia Development Area which was inaugurated only last week and which is the first such sub-regional agreement Indonesia has entered into with any country outside of ASEAN;
the landmark Maritime Boundaries Agreement with Indonesia which was signed in March and which completed over a quarter of a century of negotiations;
the negotiation of a revitalised trade agreement with Malaysia;
establishment of a security dialogue with China and agreement with China to a formal and regular bilateral human rights dialogue;
the inauguration of political-military talks with South Korea which built on similar talks recently commenced with Japan; and
agreement this week that the Australian and Japanese Prime Ministers will hold an annual summit on bilateral and regional issues.

Taken together with our support for a regional secretariat for national human rights commissions and a region-wide approach to demining, these achievements clearly demonstrate that the Government has already translated the four pillars of our Asia policy into concrete outcomes in a mere 14 months of work.

A tolerant Australia

An important element of Australia's foreign policy is the promotion of Australian values such as tolerance and a respect for cultural diversity both within Australia and within the region.

These values are important because a humane and principled approach to the region's challenges is one of the key pillars of our foreign policy. And humanity begins at home.

Last year the Federal Parliament passed a bi-partisan motion condemning racism, and reaffirmed our absolute commitment to a non-discriminatory immigration policy. This motion had genuine moral force. Moreover, it had deep personal importance to me, as I have spent a large part of my life promoting good relations between Australia and peoples of many different nations.

There are dissonant voices in our society, most notably Pauline Hanson and the One Nation Party, which do not see Australia's future with Asia. Those views promote an insular Australia separate from the region. This is the concept of a little Australia, inward looking, narrow-minded, protectionist and disconnected from our own neighbourhood.

These are not the views of the Australian Government. These are not the views of the vast majority of the Australian people.

Rather, they are views which create divisiveness within Australia and portray a false view of this country and of the true values which constitute and sustain our society. They are views which, if adopted widely within this country, would harm our national prosperity and diminish the role Australia can and must play in Asia, and moreover they would diminish Australia itself.

In that context the Prime Minister has made it clear that support for the policies of Hanson will disappear once people realise that she doesn't have any superior answers.

Those policies, which include banning foreign investment and a racially discriminatory immigration policy, would cripple Australia in its economic and political relations with the region, and as their impact becomes better understood the commonsense and the decency of the Australian people will see these ideas wither.

The views of Pauline Hanson, if they were ever to become official Australian policy, would not cost a few jobs. They would cost Australia tens of thousands of jobs. They would lead to a loss of our major export markets and to a loss of investment in Australia crucial to building Australian jobs.

The simple truth is that Hanson's policies are job destroying policies.

Moreover the ideas about race and the absurd rendering of history which underpin Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party are offensive to people of all backgrounds and they are blind to Australia's triumph of cultural diversity.

That is why it is critical to fight and destroy, through open debate, those ideas that try to strip away the tolerance which is at the heart of everything that is best about Australia.

The magnificence of Australia is that tolerance has triumphed over narrow-minded bigotry. That is why One Nation would be better called "Once Nation", because it embodies ideas which belong in the past.

Ultimately, these ideas have already lost. They have lost because Australia is already engaged with its region. Australia is already an open and tolerant country. And Australia is already a richly diverse country.

That is not to say Australia is perfect in every way, but we have done as well as any other society in the world in building a strong, diverse nation made up of people from over 130 different countries.

That is the strength of Australia and we will be diminished as a nation if we let ideas based on fear or ignorance establish even the shallowest roots in today's Australia.

The Contribution of Heads of Mission from our Key Asian Posts

It is this Australia, one committed to and fully engaged with Asia, which Mr Fischer and I and the Heads of Mission will be reflecting on in the next two days.

To ensure that Australia has in place the best policies for engagement with Asia, I convened this meeting with the Ambassadors. As our senior diplomatic representatives in the region, the Heads of Mission bring with them a wealth of experience and insight into their host countries and how best to develop and implement Australia's policies. I expect the meeting to produce important policy proposals for further consideration.

Next week, these Ambassadors will travel to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to exchange views with some of the many Australians who are at the forefront of our nation's engagement with our region: the business people whose export-oriented businesses create jobs and a greater standard of living for Australians.

These business people are the audience which the revamped Asialine is addressed toward. Their practical deeds represent the voice of the real Australia and this Government is committed to ensuring that their efforts and Australia's commitment to engage more closely with our region come to full fruition.