(Check Against Delivery)

Introduction

Thank you, Dr Calvert; Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Today, I am pleased to launch a contribution by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the celebration of the centenary of Australian federation. In August 1998, I agreed to Dr Calvert's recommendation that the Department commission a history of Australia's engagement with Asia during the twentieth century.

The first volume of that history - Facing North: A Century of Australian Engagement with Asia. Volume 1: 1901 to the 1970s - is being launched today.

It has been a big project, and a lot of people have been involved. I want to pay tribute to Dr Calvert and the Advisory Committee, a large team of historians in the Historical Documents Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the editor Professor David Goldsworthy, and the publishers Melbourne University Press.

Together, they have created a significant contribution to the growing body of work in this important field of Australian history. A number of academics have contributed their independent assessments of the history of our foreign and trade policy. I welcome their contributions to the debate and discussion of the issues involved, even though I cannot guarantee that I will agree with all of their assessments!

You may have guessed by now that I don't agree with Henry Ford that 'history is more or less bunk'! Rather, I believe that, amongst other things, the study of history helps to develop a capacity for sound and informed judgement that is critical in many fields, including international relations. Australia has a developing foreign and trade policy tradition, and it is important that Australians understand it.

Observations about Australia and Asia, 1901-1950

The engagement of Australia with Asia is undoubtedly one of the great themes in the history of our foreign and trade policy.

The starting point of the first volume of this history is the federation of the six Australian colonies in 1901. Australia was launched as a nation-state in that year, with a central government possessing constitutional authority in external affairs. But, as Chapter 1 of the book notes, there were various forms of contact long before then.

Indeed, my first observation from reading this book is how important Asia was to Australians during the first half-century after Federation.

For example, the end of the First World War saw a substantial increase in Australian trade with Asia-to Japan, Hong Kong, to what are now the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, and later on, to China. This increased trade prompted the Australian Prime Minister, "Billy" Hughes, to appoint Australia's first trade commissioners to Singapore and Shanghai in the early 1920s.

During the Great Depression, Japan increased its buying of wool and China its purchases of wheat, so that by 1932, East Asia was taking about one-fifth of Australia's exports. With the collapse of British purchasing power, Australian trade with Asia helped to keep the Australian economy afloat in the dark days of the Great Depression.

It was partly because of the growing importance of East Asian trade that the Australian Government dispatched its first Goodwill Mission to East Asia under the leadership of the Minister for External Affairs, John Latham. Following Latham's visit, Australia re-established its trade commissioner service, paying particular attention to fostering trade with Asian countries.

Asia and the development of independent Australian diplomacy

The book also demonstrates that an independent Australian diplomacy was shaped to a large extent by the challenges of responding to events and developments in East Asia.

The absence of a coherent policy to follow up Latham's 1934 visit to East Asia caused the Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, to establish in 1935 a Department of External Affairs, separate from the Prime Minister's Department.

In the years after 1935, the deterioration in Australian relations with Japan and awareness of Japan's increasing ambitions in the Pacific caused the Australian government to consider options for refining its Asian policy.

As a result, the Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, announced in 1939 the appointment of independent Australian diplomatic representation in the United States, Japan and Canada, followed quickly by the establishment of a mission in China.

Following the Pacific War, active regional diplomacy became imperative for Australia as European influence in Asia declined and new states emerged.

In the late 1940s, Australians responded positively to change in Asia, amongst other things, by supporting Indonesian independence and later, in the 1950s, by helping to initiate the Colombo Plan of international aid to developing countries in South and Southeast Asia.

Economic Engagement

Another important theme in Facing North is that of Australian economic engagement with East Asia. Established before World War II and then much hindered by it, trade with East Asia expanded considerably in the later 1950s and 1960s.

The key initiative was the 1957 commerce agreement with Japan. Significantly, this agreement was achieved despite lingering resentment by Australians against Japan. The book tells the remarkable story of the making of this agreement and the extraordinary leadership of the Minister for Trade, John McEwen, and his departmental secretary, Sir John Crawford.

The agreement provided the framework for what was to become Australia's most important trading relationship and laid the foundation for a broader economic engagement with other parts of industrialising Asia in later decades.

Engagement with Asia

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the White Australia Policy-which had long been an obstacle to Australia's maintenance of good relations with Asia countries-was dismantled. Australia opened full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China well before the United States did so, and went on to negotiate a basic treaty of friendship and co-operation with Japan.

If there is a recurring theme in Australian foreign policy debate, it is whether or not Australia is 'engaged' with Asia. Critics of the Government's foreign policy claim that we have somehow turned away from Asia or scaled back our level of engagement. Such criticism is made despite the weight of evidence to the contrary.

Firstly, as this volume demonstrates, Australia has a long history of engagement with Asia. Our engagement with our region is broad and deep.

Secondly, the region has experienced great change and new challenges in recent years. The political, economic and social landscape across the region has changed dramatically following the economic crisis in 1997. Australia committed funds to all three regional IMF programs in responding to the crisis. We have led the drive in APEC to foucs on technical assistance. Our aid program in East targets better governance and economic management, as well as health, education, rural development and infrastructure. We have been an all-weather friend.

Thirdly, our trade and people-to-people links also tell a story about the strength of our engagement with our region. Our exports to East Asia grew 23 per cent in value in the year to July. Exports from ASEAN to Australia grew by 110 per cent in the years from 1996 to 2000.

Despite the economic crisis in Asia, total trade in goods between Australia and ASEAN grew by 62 per cent. That doesn't include the $8.9 billion trade in services in 2000.

People-to-people links have flourished. Over 68,000 students from South-East Asia were studying in Australian educational institutions last year, up 26 per cent from 54,000 in 1996. Last year, more than 300,000 Singaporeans, out of a population of 2.3 million, visited Australia. And Australians are visitng and living in Asia in record numbers too.

The Government's continuing commitment to engagement with Asia is indisputable. We have strengthened our bilateral relations with countries of the region and make a valued and respected contribution to the affairs of the region.

Conclusion

The book being launched today clearly shows that Australia and Asia have changed dramatically during the last hundred years.

In 1901 Australia had just become a self-governing but not yet independent Dominion, tied to the British Empire, and insulated from its regional environment. Today, we are recognised in Asia as an open and vibrant people, increasingly linked with Asia and more conscious than ever of our shared history and shared destiny.

This book is an important contribution to understanding the history of Australia's engagement with Asia. I commend it to you and have pleasure in declaring it launched.