Podcasts about foreign policy white paper

While the calling of a federal election has been delayed by Tropical Cyclone Alfred, it must still happen in May, and so this episode the podcast offers its third “incoming government brief”: a document presented to the new (or returning) minister for each department, for the purpose of providing a descriptive overview of what the department does, and highlighting the most important issues facing that particular portfolio. The Australia in the World Incoming Government Brief has four chapters:(1) A changed external environment, (2) Plausible futures and policy dilemmas, (3) Key commitments by political party, and (4) Miscellaneous. Above all, the central challenge for this document at this moment is simply how to describe the world Australia now finds itself in, and to frame the challenges the government will face, regardless of its partisan perspective. No wonder this is probably the longest episode in the podcast's history! Darren is joined by Richard Maude, who has appeared multiple times before, most recently in February 2024. Richard had a long career in government including serving as Director-General of the (then) Office of National Assessments, and Deputy Secretary in DFAT where, amongst other roles, he headed the whole-of-government taskforce supporting the preparation of the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. He was the inaugural Executive Director, Policy, the Asia Society Australia and is now a distinguished policy fellow at there. Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning. Relevant links Richard Maude (bio): https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/richard-maude Incoming government brief for Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, May 2022: https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/dfat-foi-lex5624.pdf Penny Wong, “National Press Club Address, Australian interests in a regional balance of power”, 17 April 2023: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/national-press-club-address-australian-interests-regional-balance-power Richard Maude, “Australia's Indo-Pacific destiny up for grabs in a new world order”, Australian Financial Review, 11 March 2025: https://www.afr.com/world/asia/australia-s-indo-pacific-destiny-up-for-grabs-in-a-new-world-order-20250304-p5lgru Anna Del Conte, Gastronomy of Italy [Revised Edition], 2013: https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781862059580/gastronomy-of-italy-revised-edition/ Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (tv series): https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/stanley-tucci-searching-for-italy Black Doves (tv series): https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81682935

Mike Pezzullo recently said that “the likelihood of conflict in this decade has been about 10 per cent, which is meaningful enough to plan for and indeed to be concerned about”. If Pezzullo's assessment is correct, that means there is a 90 per cent chance that conflict will not happen. What is Australia's plan for that (likely) scenario? This episode is about that 90% world, where Australia's relationship with China will still matter greatly, as Beijing's behaviour influences many of our interests, not just geopolitics and national security. How might Australia consider thinking about a cooperative agenda with the PRC? In the words of PM Albanese, his government's approach is to “co-operate with China where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest”. Where can we cooperate, especially given the deep freeze in political relations that the two countries are only now climbing out of? What does engagement in the national interest mean given the extent to which China can affect many things we care about? Darren is joined in this conversation by Dr Paul Hubbard. Paul is trained as an economist, first joining the Australian Public Service in 2006, and was sent from there to the ANU as a Sir Roland Wilson PhD Scholar in 2014.  More recently, in his capacity as a National Government Fellow at the ANU, Paul led a small team to produce a report - "A Sustainable Economic Partnership for Australia and China" that was launched in May. The report proposes an agenda for how Canberra and Beijing can take their economic relationship forward, and the two discuss that in the context of the broader question of what it means to develop a cooperative agenda with China and how should we think about the constraints imposed by geopolitics on that work? Note: the report reflects the views of the ANU research team, and Paul's comments in this episode are in an unofficial capacity as an expert on the Chinese economy, and do not represent the views of the Australian Government or its agencies. Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Walter Colnaghi and theme music composed by Rory Stenning. Relevant links “A Sustainable Economic Partnership for Partnership for Australia and China”, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, May 2024: https://eaber.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/A-Sustainable-Economic-Partnership-for-Australia-and-China.pdf Partnership for Change: Australia–China Joint Economic Report, Report authored by East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and China Center for International Economic Exchanges, August 2016: https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/partnership-change#:~:text=The%2520Australia%E2%80%93China%2520Joint%2520Economic,in%2520both%2520Australia%2520and%2520China. 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper: https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/2017-foreign-policy-white-paper.pdf Paul Hubbard and Dhruv Sharma, “Understanding and applying long-term GDP projections”, EABER Working Paper Series, Paper No. 119, June 2016: https://eaber.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/EABER-Working-Paper-119-Hubbard-Sharma.pdf Paul Hubbard, A Wealth of Narrations: https://www.amazon.com.au/Wealth-Narrations-1-PC-Hubbard/dp/B0CR6TXX7C Chris Miller, Chip War: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Chip-War/Chris-Miller/9781398504127 The Ezra Klein Show, “Israelis Are Not Watching the Same War You Are:, Interview with Amit Segal, 14 June 2024: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/14/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-amit-segal.html

What is the strategic significance of the Indian Ocean to Australia? What challenges and opportunities does the region present for Australia and its partners? And how much can Australia realistically achieve in such a vast region? In this episode, Darshana Baruah, David Brewster and Shafqat Munir join Rory Medcalf to discuss the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean to Australia and the region. Darshana Baruah is a Fellow with the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where she directs the Indian Ocean Initiative. David Brewster is a Senior Research Fellow at the ANU National Security College (NSC) and focuses on security in India and the Indian Ocean region, and Indo-Pacific maritime affairs. Shafqat Munir is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Bangladesh Centre for Terrorism Research at the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies. Professor Rory Medcalf AM is Head of NSC. His professional experience spans more than three decades across diplomacy, Intelligence analysis, think tanks, journalism and academia. Show notes: Securing our Future – national security conference, 9–10 April, 2024: secure your tickets United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS): find out more Foreign Policy White Paper (2017): find out more We'd love to hear from you! Send in your questions, comments, and suggestions to NatSecPod@anu.edu.au. You can tweet us @NSC_ANU and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. The National Security Podcast is available on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This event explores Australia's identity in Asia, and what it means for Australia to be in the Asia-Pacific region. Ten years since the ‘Australia in the Asian Century' Foreign Policy White Paper, we reflect on Australia's role and national identity in Asia. What does it mean for Australia to have an Asian Identity? What is Australia's Asia Identity? What does it mean for Australia to be in Asia? How do we harness multiculturalism in policy making? Taking a policy and cultural perspective, this event will unpack Australian nationhood and grapple with Australia's identity in Asia. Panel: Hon Tim Watts MP (Member for Gellibrand and Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Alice Pung OAM (Author) Dr Sabrina Gupta (Lecturer, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University) Associate Professor Bec Strating (Director - La Trobe Asia, La Trobe University) Held on 14th July, 2023.

An In conversation with Audrey Tang, who was appointed Taiwan's first Digital Minister by President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. Lowy Institute Director of Public Opinion Natasha Kassam spoke to Audrey Tang about their journey from an activist and civic hacker to a senior minister, and how digital democracy and innovation have helped Taiwan to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of disinformation and tensions with China. Audrey Tang held positions across a range of technology companies and start-ups before becoming involved in politics during Taiwan's 2014 Sunflower Movement, when Tang volunteered to help the protesters occupying Taiwanese parliament to broadcast their message. Tang was then invited to build a media literacy curriculum for Taiwan's schools, and appointed Taiwan's first digital minister in 2016. Tang has been a key figure in Taiwan's pandemic response, and was named one of Foreign Policy magazine's 100 global thinkers in 2019. Natasha Kassam is the Director of the Lowy Institute's Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program, directing the annual Lowy Institute Poll and researching China's politics, Taiwan, and Australia-China relations. She is also a Fellow of the ANU National Security College's Futures Council and a member of the Advisory Board for the University of Melbourne's Asian Law Centre. Prior to joining the Lowy Institute, Natasha was an Australian diplomat in China and Solomon Islands, and part of the drafting team for the Australian government's 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper.

“China is angry. If you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy," a Chinese Embassy official told Australian reporter Jonathan Kearsley at a meeting in late 2020. Kearsley wrote that the comment seemed like the strongest public indication from the embassy of how “toxic” the relationship had become between China and Australia. In the last year, the Chinese government has suspended beef and cotton imports from Australia, slapped an 80% tariff on Australian barley, and instructed Chinese students and tourists not to travel to Australia. But Australia used to be one of the strongest supporters of forging closer ties with China. NüVoices chair Joanna Chiu, author of the new book China Unbound on Beijing's deteriorating global relations with Western countries, chats with former Australian diplomat Natasha Kassam on how Australia-China relations has hit such a low point and why diplomatic tensions seem to have impacted Australians of Chinese heritage the most. Kassam is the director of the Lowy Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program, researching Australia’s Indo-Pacific strategy, China’s domestic politics, Taiwan, and Australia-China relations. Before joining the Lowy Institute, Kassam was responsible for government policy on human rights and legal issues in China, and drafted the Australian government’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. Recommendations: Natasha: The new book The Beijing Bureau; also, the Lowy Institute's interactive survey feature on experiences of Chinese-Australian communities where one in five said they were physically threatened or attacked because of their Chinese background in the previous year. Joanna: An essay by Bobo Lo, Global Order in the Shadow of the Coronavirus.

It has become conventional wisdom in Washington that despite entrenched political polarisation, a tougher stance on China is bipartisan. But with only two months until the Biden administration begins, will this be proven correct? How will the Biden administration's approach to China and the Indo-Pacific be different from the Trump administration's? What issues with China will the Biden administration prioritise? To discuss these issues, the USSC hosted a webinar event with Axios China Reporter, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian in conversation with USSC Senior Non-Resident Fellow and former Senior Advisor to the Australian Foreign Minister, Dr John Lee. Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian covers Beijing's influence and intentions and writes the weekly Axios China newsletter. Based in Washington, DC, she was also the lead writer of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists report known as the "China Cables", which detailed classified Chinese government documents revealing the inner workings of China’s detention camps in Xinjiang. Bethany was previously a national security reporter for The Daily Beast and an editor and reporter for Foreign Policy magazine. She was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Berlin and was previously a Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. She previously spent four years in China. Allen-Ebrahimian holds an MA in East Asian studies from Yale University, as well as a graduate certificate from the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies. Dr John Lee is an Adjunct Professor and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. From 2016-2018, he was senior adviser to the Australian Foreign Minister, the lead ministerial adviser for the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, and her principal adviser on Indo-Pacific strategic affairs in the lead-up to the reinstitution of the Quad in 2017.

This week Allan and Darren welcome back Richard Maude to the podcast, who returns after his first appearance back in February in Episode 41. Until shortly before that first recording, Richard was Deputy Secretary, Indo-Pacific Group, in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Prior to that, he headed the task force responsible for drafting the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. From 2013-2016, Richard was Director-General of the Office of National Assessments, and before that he was senior adviser on foreign policy and national security to Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Richard is now at the Asia Society Policy Institute as the inaugural Executive Director, Policy, and Senior Fellow. Before welcoming Richard however, Darren’s big “secret” is revealed, which is that since late 2018 he has been living in Beirut, accompanying his wife Rebekah Grindlay, who is Australia’s Ambassador to Lebanon, and their children. On Tuesday 4th August, Beirut experienced one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in human history, which utterly devastated the city’s port and downtown area. Darren was at home with his family at the time, and tells the story of what happened next, including the extensive damage to the embassy and injuries to Aussie diplomats. It’s a small insight into what a DFAT crisis response looks like in the immediate aftermath of a terrible tragedy. Richard is then welcomed, and what follows is a fascinating deep dive into some of the biggest questions of international affairs today, and what they mean for Australian foreign policy. The conversation was too long to fit into a single episode and so, in this first part, the focus is exclusively on the United States, which as the Australian government says in the recent Defence Strategic Update, remains vital for the security of our region. But can Washington continue to play the role Australia hopes, and needs, it to play? Darren asks both Richard and Allan to highlight what evidence from the Trump presidency, and the country’s COVID-19 response, helps shed light on this broader question. Is America experiencing political decay? Are the strengths that enabled it to win the Cold War now hindrances in competition with China? What does the US need to do well to continue to play a significant role in the region, and what can Australia do to help? Can Canberra perhaps mitigate some of Washington’s weaknesses? Stay tuned for part 2, where the conversation turns to China, new models of international cooperation, and the future of Australian foreign policy. As always, we invite our listeners to email us at this address: australia.world.pod@gmail.com We welcome feedback, requests and suggestions. You can also contact Darren on twitter @limdarrenj We thank AIIA intern Mitchell McIntosh for research and audio editing and Rory Stenning for composing our theme music. Relevant links Richard Maude’s biography via the Asia Society Policy Institute: https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/richard-maude Australian Government, “2020 Defence Strategic Update and 2020 Force Structure Plan”, Department of Defence: https://www.defence.gov.au/strategicupdate-2020/ Ross Douthat, “The revolt of the republican strategists”, New York Times, 11 August 2020: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/opinion/trump-republicans-lincoln-project.html

Podcast: Finance & Fury Podcast (LS 44 · TOP 1% what is this?)Episode: Global Infrastructure plans in the name of climate change - Why then are the recommendations focused on changing Government accounting practices and risk-measures, along with opening the floodgates for redistribution spending?Pub date: 2019-09-13Notes from Listening Post:ThoriumWelcome to Finance and Fury, The Furious Friday Edition   Today – SDG9 - How infrastructure spending helps an economy - Anyone who knows basic economic and GDP has learnt that Infrastructure spending leads to GDP growth – so the theory says – Very hard to measure benefits/gains – Direct through spending in GDP equation – flow on effects Go through Economic theory backing this – stimulus spending for GDP growth – First – estimates Research provided from McKinsey and UN – MK established the Global Infrastructure Initiative (GII) in 2012 MK Two reports – 2015 to 2016 – World spent $9.5trn (14% GDP) $9.6trn follow year Transport, power, water, telcom – $2.5trn, Social infrastructure, oil and gas, mining – $2.4trn, Real estate - $4.65trn Spending trajectory points to a shortfall of about $350 billion a year to what we are told we need – but triples when including funds needed to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals Report states – meeting is critical for the future of undersupplied regions such as Africa – remember Africa Emerging economies account for some 60% of that need Projects – no idea – broken into categories – power, water, etc – but on what, who knows – Have programs going – but go to each and it is just another rabbit hole trying to find each individual thing This ep - Focus of policy and recommendations to provide grease to the wheels of bureaucracy: Helping Financial System out through Governments Talk about the theory as justification and also the   Governments hand in this - Regulations/Legislation - Basel III, Solvency II, pension fund allocation rules Basel III and Solvency II mandate classifying infrastructure as high-risk capital allocations Also - pension funds have allocation rules that specifically limit their exposure to asset classes and countries Recognizing infrastructure as an asset class with a lower risk profile – Infrastructure can be low or high risk Low upon completion and proof of profitability – In developing – high risk – many infrastructure projects don't meet forecasts – known as ‘white elephants' To avoid low return investments – governments need more oversight and analysis before a decision in made – More regulations for infrastructure works – Question: If there was a special equation to perfectly predict profitability – Gov wouldn't be ones who have it Sadly – no tool exists – only outcome from involvement in assessment is higher costs and more delays due to layers of legislation and checklists before approval   Governments will also take an active role beyond changing the laws – Want to make money back off it Road pricing and other fees toll roads, bridges, and tunnels are increasingly common around the world. Taxes and fees - Cities including London have introduced congestion pricing on urban roads. Property value capture - Governments acquire land around an infrastructure project - profit once the project is completed through lease or sale - using the resulting funds for new infrastructure investment - Spain added this to its constitution. Other methods – more traditional – increase general or specific property taxes and fees from owners/developers Changes in public accounting and budgeting frameworks Treating infrastructure as an asset on a public balance sheet and depreciating it over time rather than adding the entire cost of a project to the fiscal deficit up front mirrors corporate accounting practice - helpful to Gov – gets around limits on deficits and debt. Example – 3y $6bn project is being constructed and will take 6 years – one payment upfront now and one in 3 years Current – Adds $6bn onto deficit now - although the government is actually paying money only in years one and three, it books spending of $2 billion in each of the three years. However, the roads will be operational for the next 20 years. It would make just as much sense for the government to book an expense of $300 million every year for 20 years as the public asset is consumed. But many public assets, unlike private assets, do not have corresponding revenue streams attached to them – no accountability – as a new office block will have a life of who knows – 40, 50 y – hides real spending onto future books Socioeconomic rates of return on public investment is meant to exceed the government's cost of capital—and substantially increase the future tax base in a way that makes the project self-funding over the long run important caveat is that this accounting approach could undermine the productivity of public investment Report notes - risk that government leaders, freed from the responsibility of having projects appear in their fiscal expenses during their tenure, might decide to spend ineffectually – Very politically useful in the short term – spend away on your voting demographic — boosting particular constituencies such as construction workers and the unemployed—costs passed to future generations. Why they want to introduce a powerful oversight body – Issue is that a Government doesn't run itself like a company – if it did – transparency and getting willing transfer of cash rather than by force- fine – but if they keep GDP measurements the same – instant bonus compared to depreciation costs A great deal of infrastructure development fails at the outset – Corporate accepts risks – Gov just take and don't let you know Report states – Many issues - Land rights may need to be obtained from many owners, political support and funding may need to be secured from multiple jurisdictions, or business models may depend on a large number of co-investors for ancillary revenue generation What will it cost? – Just on economic – Transport, power, water, telco – the $2.5trn current spent criteria Will require $3.3 trillion annually through 2030 without SDG – but with well over $4 to $5trn Where will the money come from? Financial System – Hard to attract investors – barriers and lack of interest from most investors Recs to help - governments need to develop their project pipelines, remove regulatory and structural barriers, and build stronger markets for infrastructure spending Public-private partnerships have assumed a greater role in infrastructure, although there is continued controversy about whether they deliver higher efficiency and lower costs. Govs have eyes on financial system Funding - number of sources – combined have $120trn under management by institutional investors Banks and insurance – $66trn, Investment companies, private equity Special development banks – $40trn Super funds and pensions - $11trn Early 2019 – World Pensions council – had meetings with G20 – executives and board members confirmed they were in the process of adopting or developing SDG-informed investment processes, with more ambitious investment governance requirements – notably when it comes to Climate Action, Gender Equity and Social Fairness – okay? Capital stewardshipis expected to play a crucial part in the progressive advancement of the SDG agenda: "pension fundtrustees have started to exercise more forcefully their governance prerogatives across the boardrooms, coming together through the establishment of engaged pressure groups [...] to shift the [whole economic] system towards sustainable investment" - by using the SDG framework across all asset classes In the end – mostly comes from us – ep last week – robin hood Private and institutional investors (mostly your money) – have $120trn under management 60% or $73trn from America and EU – want to get down to 50% and use other nations 87% of funds in High income countries – demand in middle to low income countries Mostly come from us – Similar to last week with Comparative advantage Policy aims to match these investors with projects – but requires solid cross border investment principles   Financial - Standardization of terms and risk categories, risk-return reviews, development of indexes Project pooling. Another way to reduce transaction costs for investors is by pooling projects, including the development of respective funds, indexes, and securitization vehicles. Development of securities exchanges. Governments can significantly increase private investment in infrastructure assets by adding liquidity to securities exchanges. Gov issue equity and debt on government-owned infrastructure projects and infrastructure operators to encourage private investment. Governments should play the role of market maker and encourage multilateral development banks to sell their investments as individual or bundled assets to increase liquidity. Development banks – special financial pools to accept funding and lend out money for project financing Aus – Quote “The Asian Development Bank has signalled it will inject more cash into high-quality projects aimed at dealing with climate change and tourism and less on infrastructure "white elephants" as it battles pressure to counter the growing influence of China across the Pacific” China - Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank – US major supporter – last year $22 billion worth of loans and grants to projects across the region, with another $14 billion leveraged from the private sector Pushing framework for us to join - allow “Australia to lead the region in mobilising the trillions of dollars required to respond to specific strategic challenges that threaten to push vast numbers of people back into poverty, such as climate adaptation across the Asia Pacific”, Flow - estimated (in 2017) at up to $429 billion annually needed by 2050. Approach to climate finance is in keeping with the Australian Government's 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, which has named climate diplomacy as an essential strand - Recommendation - allow Australia to leverage investment from multiple sources to achieve the SDGs – mostly pooling funds from super accounts and investment funds   Will it help? – Estimates – more spending could add about 0.6% to global GDP. infrastructure construction immediately creates jobs – Report estimate - one percentage point of GDP could generate an additional 3.4m potential jobs in India, 1.5m in the United States, 1.3m in Brazil, and 700,000 in Indonesia Forget that spending has to come from somewhere – expense of future growth in economy – stimulate now for the comedown later – In Australia – we are a large country – infrastructure lacking – why city planners like concentrations/urbanisation Create further urbanisation – cities grow while rural shrink (% of population) – Other side of Growth – Governmental policy population growth from immigration Also helping to fuel growth through marginal increases in consumption UNs publications talk about how manufacturing and industrialisation increases incomes, stimulates growth through increased production and consumption – greater supply, cheaper goods, more people spend – true – But only evidence of this working long term is with free market deciding – Every example of Gov trying mass reindustrialisation's in 20th century didn't end so well – Governments were responsible for the deaths of 250m in that time period through ‘miss management' – Uni of Hawaii – not including wars – Don't have a lot of faith in Gov ability to match plans – Especially if accounting methods change - Beyond this - Issue with current state of financial system – too much debt already – stimulus – like stimulant -less effective the more that it is used – Gives gov less bang for buck Obama's economic experiment of Keynesian economics on steroids was a failure - stimulus plan, bailouts, ObamaCare, tax hikes, minimum-wage hikes and regulations – doubled national debt in eight years In 2015, the Joint Economic Committee of Congress found that compared to the eight previous post-recession events, “the Obama recovery was the weakest on record.” Why? Too much debt already – doesn't continue to grow through stimulus once debts hit thresholds World indebted – then lower than forecasts growth very likely Been trying to get out of debt – govs have a lot Helping out developing nations is a noble thing to do – but access to infrastructure will increase CO2 emissions – even renewables – developing the 3rd worlds has opposite outcomes to CO2 reductions – consumption etc leads to more – especially in process – no way to get energy needed clean under current tech Also – Aus - we have one of highest emissions PP in world in Aus – Due to our lifestyles – cars, large houses, lighting and inability to adopt nuclear or thorium power– also export a lot of our LNG – rely on coal or renewables – which are costly to run compared to coal measured in Kw/pHr So if they really wanted to lower our emissions in the name of climate as one of the biggest culprits – Spend $30bn and put in 4 nuc plants to power the nation – Solution has been to get inflation out of the money flow increase - IMF needs spending though and not happening - needs inflation back – mass infrastructure spending is the next ditch effort to restart the economy – climate change is the reason to have people want it In short – don't expect to see a lot of thing money being spent to boost our struggling economy – Hard enough to get a Coal mine in QLD, let alone a dam or large scale infrastructure (E/W tunnel) Wont see our CO2 go down from the infrasturcutre spend – as it is in the name of climate but done for growth Thanks for listening, if you want to get in contact you can do so here.   Resources to check out: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Capital%20Projects%20and%20Infrastructure/Our%20Insights/Bridging%20global%20infrastructure%20gaps/Bridging-Global-Infrastructure-Gaps-Full-report-June-2016.ashx https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/capital%20projects%20and%20infrastructure/our%20insights/improving%20the%20delivery%20of%20road%20infrastructure%20across%20the%20world/a-better-road-to-the-future-web-final.ashx https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/capital%20projects%20and%20infrastructure/our%20insights/bridging%20infrastructure%20gaps%20has%20the%20world%20made%20progress/bridging%20infrastructure%20gaps%20how%20has%20the%20world%20made%20progress%20v2/mgi-bridging-infrastructure-gaps-discussion-paper.ashx https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/2537IDR2018_FULL_REPORT_1.pdf      The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Finance & Fury, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

On the occasion of the podcast’s 50th episode, Allan and Darren are thrilled to welcome Australia’s most senior diplomat and foreign policy official, Frances Adamson, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the first woman to hold this appointment. The interview was conducted on Wednesday 17 June 2020. Immediately prior to her appointment as Secretary in August 2016, Frances was International Adviser to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. From 2011 to 2015, she was Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, also the first woman appointed to this role. Previously, Frances served in the Australian Consulate-General in Hong Kong in the late 1980s during the early years of China's reform and opening. From 2001 to 2005, she was seconded as Representative to the Australian Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei. She was also posted twice in London, including as Deputy High Commissioner. She was Chief of Staff to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and then the Minister for Defence from 2009 to 2010. The conversation begins with Allan asking about how Frances, and the Department, have been dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, and Darren wonders whether the pandemic is upending the traditional practices of diplomacy. The discussion moves to the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper – in the time since, has Frances been more surprised by the pace of change, or its direction? Foreign policy elites have arguably been repudiated by recent political developments, such as Brexit and Donald Trump’s election victory. Allan asks Frances for her views on the political forces behind these events, and what the foreign policy establishment in Australia can learn. Zooming out, and noting that the international system is in a state of disequilibrium at the moment, Darren asks Frances to describe how she hopes the order will settle over the next few decades. Referring to Foreign Minister’s Marise Payne’s speech the previous evening, Allan asks Frances for more detail about the audit of Australia’s participation in multilateral organisations that was recently completed. Darren asks specifically about the role of “middle powers” – should they specialise given their resources are limited? The conversation moves to China. With so much material out there, what’s a good entry point for Australians seeking to learn about China, and make sense of the daily barrage of media coverage? What does it mean for both sides to “work harder” to manage the relationship? And Darren asks about the state of debate inside China – are there still live debates about the big questions of international affairs within the Chinese system, and has China made up its mind about Australia? In the final part of the podcast, Darren asks about the balance between generalists and specialists in Australia’s diplomatic corps, and about effective models of work/life balance that Frances has seen in her career. As always, we invite our listeners to email us at this address: australia.world.pod@gmail.com We welcome feedback, requests and suggestions. You can also contact Darren on twitter @limdarrenj We thank AIIA intern Maddie Gordon for her help with research and audio editing and Rory Stenning for composing our theme music. On this milestone episode, we also extend our heartfelt thanks to all our past interns. Without their help we could never have come this far. Thank you to Stephanie Rowell, Mani Bovell, Charlie Henshall, James Hayne, Isabel Hancock and XC Chong. Relevant links Biography of Ms Frances Adamson: https://www.dfat.gov.au/about-us/our-people/executive/Pages/biography-of-frances-adamson IPAA Podcast, “Getting Australians Home – The unfolding story: Frances Adamson.  https://www.ipaa.org.au/getting-australians-home-the-unfolding-story-frances-adamson/ Marise Payne, “Australia and the world in the time of COVID-19”, Speech at the National Security College, ANU, 16 June 2020: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/speech/australia-and-world-time-covid-19 Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/age-of-ambition-9781448190607  Richard McGregor, The Party: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-party-9780141975559 ANU Centre on China in the World, The China Story Yearbook: https://www.thechinastory.org/yearbooks/ China Matters: http://chinamatters.org.au/

Two years after Robert Mugabe was swept from power, how is his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa faring as President of Zimbabwe? The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper reinforced Australia's commitment to the Indo- Pacific region. Might this have been a mistake? Did you hear the one about Stalin? Life under Russian dictator Joseph Stalin wasn't funny and yet there were jokes. Is there a difference between machine learning and artificial intelligence and what effect will either have on our working lives?

Two years after Robert Mugabe was swept from power, how is his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa faring as President of Zimbabwe? The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper reinforced Australia's commitment to the Indo- Pacific region. Might this have been a mistake? Did you hear the one about Stalin? Life under Russian dictator Joseph Stalin wasn't funny and yet there were jokes. Is there a difference between machine learning and artificial intelligence and what effect will either have on our working lives?

This week Allan and Darren interview Richard Maude, who needs no introduction to regular observers of Australian foreign policy. Until recently, Richard was Deputy Secretary, Indo-Pacific Group, in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Prior to that, he headed the task force responsible for drafting the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. From 2013-2016, Richard was Director-General of the Office of National Assessments, and before that he was senior adviser on foreign policy and national security to Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Richard has now taken on a new position at the Asia Society Policy Institute as the inaugural Executive Director, Policy, and Senior Fellow. Allan commences the discussion by asking Richard how he thinks about the “Indo-Pacific” and to describe Australia’s Indo-Pacific strategy. How has the world changed since Richard started working on the Australian Foreign Policy White Paper back in 2016? Darren describes his own shock at the events of 2016, and asks Richard whether he has ever been personally surprised by any events in international affairs which, in turn, caused him to update his own “model” of the world. The conversation then returns to a familiar theme of recent episodes of the podcast, sovereignty, and the logic of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s emphasis on the concept in developing his government’s foreign policy. Allan contrasts the challenges to the rules-based order that shaped the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper—in particular relating to the Law of the Sea—with those that have come since, especially emanating from Australia’s allies. Is there still an order to defend and how does a country like Australia do it? And in doing so, will Australia need to be willing to accept trade-offs, such as deemphasising liberalism and democracy, in order to get cooperation on global challenges like climate change, war, or trade? The conversation moves to China, with Darren asking Richard the extent to which China’s domestic politics factors into his model of China’s behaviour on the world stage, and what major questions remain in his mind regarding China over the coming years. Closer to home, Darren asks whether Richard accepts the premise of two warring “tribes” in the Canberra policymaking community regarding China, and Richard’s answer speaks more broadly to the issue of how to integrate security and economic perspectives into policymaking. In the final part of the podcast, Allan asks the perennial question of why those who believe that foreign policy is a critical element of Australian statecraft have been unable to convince successive governments to invest in it, while Darren wonders how foreign policy successes can be measured. The podcast concludes with Richard describing his new role with the Asia Society Policy Institute, and reflections on how think tanks and academics can most effectively attract the attention and shape the views of ministers and policy advisers in Canberra. As always, we invite our listeners to email us at this address: australia.world.pod@gmail.com We welcome feedback, requests and suggestions. You can also contact Darren on twitter @limdarrenj  We thank AIIA intern Isabel Hancock for research and audio editing, Rory Stenning for composing our theme music and Angus Blackman for technical support in studio. Relevant links Richard Maude’s biography via the Asia Society Policy Institute: https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/richard-maude  Richard Maude, “Charting a Course for Australia in a Changing Asia”, Asia Society Policy Institute, 13 February 2020: https://asiasociety.org/australia/charting-course-australia-changing-asia John Kehoe, “The division in Canberra over China”, Australian Financial Review, 2 December 2019: https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/china-power-struggle-in-canberra-20191128-p53f27

Allan and Darren attempt their first “emergency” episode, recorded on Friday 4 October, the day after Prime Minister Morrison delivered the 2019 Lowy Lecture at the Sydney Town Hall. The conversation is structured around a commentary Allan wrote for the Lowy Interpreter that same day, in which he argues that the speech “marked a clear step away from the sort of Australian foreign policy articulated in the government’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper and towards the worldview of Trumpism and Brexit”. Darren, in contrast, found a lot more than Allan to like in the speech, and explains why he saw evidence of a clear theory of the political causes behind the crisis afflicting the rules-based order. This is probably the most significant disagreement Allan and Darren have had in the history of the podcast, which makes for a lively conversation! We invite our listeners to email us at australia.world.pod@gmail.com We welcome feedback, requests and suggestions. You can also contact Darren on twitter @limdarrenj  We thank AIIA intern James Hayne for his help with research and audio editing and XC Chong for research assistance. As always, we’re grateful to Rory Stenning for composing our theme music. Relevant links Scott Morrison, “In our interest”, 2019 Lowy Lecture, Sydney Town Hall, 3 October 2019: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/speech-lowy-lecture-our-interest Allan Gyngell, “Scott Morrison strikes an anxious and inward-looking tone”, Lowy Interpreter, 4 October 2019: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/scott-morrison-lowy-lecture Scott Morrison, Speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 23 September 2019: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/chicago-council-global-affairs Nick Bisley, “‘An ally for all the years to come’: why Australia is not a conflicted US ally”, Australian Journal of International Affairs 67(4) (2013): 403-418: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10357718.2013.803029 Tony Abbott, “Remarks at G20 Leaders’ Retreat”, Brisbane, 15 November 2014: https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-23959

Welcome to Finance and Fury, The Furious Friday Edition   Today – SDG9 - How infrastructure spending helps an economy - Anyone who knows basic economic and GDP has learnt that Infrastructure spending leads to GDP growth – so the theory says – Very hard to measure benefits/gains – Direct through spending in GDP equation – flow on effects Go through Economic theory backing this – stimulus spending for GDP growth – First – estimates Research provided from McKinsey and UN – MK established the Global Infrastructure Initiative (GII) in 2012 MK Two reports – 2015 to 2016 – World spent $9.5trn (14% GDP) $9.6trn follow year Transport, power, water, telcom – $2.5trn, Social infrastructure, oil and gas, mining – $2.4trn, Real estate - $4.65trn Spending trajectory points to a shortfall of about $350 billion a year to what we are told we need – but triples when including funds needed to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals Report states – meeting is critical for the future of undersupplied regions such as Africa – remember Africa Emerging economies account for some 60% of that need Projects – no idea – broken into categories – power, water, etc – but on what, who knows – Have programs going – but go to each and it is just another rabbit hole trying to find each individual thing This ep - Focus of policy and recommendations to provide grease to the wheels of bureaucracy: Helping Financial System out through Governments Talk about the theory as justification and also the   Governments hand in this - Regulations/Legislation - Basel III, Solvency II, pension fund allocation rules Basel III and Solvency II mandate classifying infrastructure as high-risk capital allocations Also - pension funds have allocation rules that specifically limit their exposure to asset classes and countries Recognizing infrastructure as an asset class with a lower risk profile – Infrastructure can be low or high risk Low upon completion and proof of profitability – In developing – high risk – many infrastructure projects don’t meet forecasts – known as ‘white elephants’ To avoid low return investments – governments need more oversight and analysis before a decision in made – More regulations for infrastructure works – Question: If there was a special equation to perfectly predict profitability – Gov wouldn’t be ones who have it Sadly – no tool exists – only outcome from involvement in assessment is higher costs and more delays due to layers of legislation and checklists before approval   Governments will also take an active role beyond changing the laws – Want to make money back off it Road pricing and other fees toll roads, bridges, and tunnels are increasingly common around the world. Taxes and fees - Cities including London have introduced congestion pricing on urban roads. Property value capture - Governments acquire land around an infrastructure project - profit once the project is completed through lease or sale - using the resulting funds for new infrastructure investment - Spain added this to its constitution. Other methods – more traditional – increase general or specific property taxes and fees from owners/developers Changes in public accounting and budgeting frameworks Treating infrastructure as an asset on a public balance sheet and depreciating it over time rather than adding the entire cost of a project to the fiscal deficit up front mirrors corporate accounting practice - helpful to Gov – gets around limits on deficits and debt. Example – 3y $6bn project is being constructed and will take 6 years – one payment upfront now and one in 3 years Current – Adds $6bn onto deficit now - although the government is actually paying money only in years one and three, it books spending of $2 billion in each of the three years. However, the roads will be operational for the next 20 years. It would make just as much sense for the government to book an expense of $300 million every year for 20 years as the public asset is consumed. But many public assets, unlike private assets, do not have corresponding revenue streams attached to them – no accountability – as a new office block will have a life of who knows – 40, 50 y – hides real spending onto future books Socioeconomic rates of return on public investment is meant to exceed the government’s cost of capital—and substantially increase the future tax base in a way that makes the project self-funding over the long run important caveat is that this accounting approach could undermine the productivity of public investment Report notes - risk that government leaders, freed from the responsibility of having projects appear in their fiscal expenses during their tenure, might decide to spend ineffectually – Very politically useful in the short term – spend away on your voting demographic — boosting particular constituencies such as construction workers and the unemployed—costs passed to future generations. Why they want to introduce a powerful oversight body – Issue is that a Government doesn’t run itself like a company – if it did – transparency and getting willing transfer of cash rather than by force- fine – but if they keep GDP measurements the same – instant bonus compared to depreciation costs A great deal of infrastructure development fails at the outset – Corporate accepts risks – Gov just take and don’t let you know Report states – Many issues - Land rights may need to be obtained from many owners, political support and funding may need to be secured from multiple jurisdictions, or business models may depend on a large number of co-investors for ancillary revenue generation What will it cost? – Just on economic – Transport, power, water, telco – the $2.5trn current spent criteria Will require $3.3 trillion annually through 2030 without SDG – but with well over $4 to $5trn Where will the money come from? Financial System – Hard to attract investors – barriers and lack of interest from most investors Recs to help - governments need to develop their project pipelines, remove regulatory and structural barriers, and build stronger markets for infrastructure spending Public-private partnerships have assumed a greater role in infrastructure, although there is continued controversy about whether they deliver higher efficiency and lower costs. Govs have eyes on financial system Funding - number of sources – combined have $120trn under management by institutional investors Banks and insurance – $66trn, Investment companies, private equity Special development banks – $40trn Super funds and pensions - $11trn Early 2019 – World Pensions council – had meetings with G20 – executives and board members confirmed they were in the process of adopting or developing SDG-informed investment processes, with more ambitious investment governance requirements – notably when it comes to Climate Action, Gender Equity and Social Fairness – okay? Capital stewardshipis expected to play a crucial part in the progressive advancement of the SDG agenda: "pension fundtrustees have started to exercise more forcefully their governance prerogatives across the boardrooms, coming together through the establishment of engaged pressure groups [...] to shift the [whole economic] system towards sustainable investment" - by using the SDG framework across all asset classes In the end – mostly comes from us – ep last week – robin hood Private and institutional investors (mostly your money) – have $120trn under management 60% or $73trn from America and EU – want to get down to 50% and use other nations 87% of funds in High income countries – demand in middle to low income countries Mostly come from us – Similar to last week with Comparative advantage Policy aims to match these investors with projects – but requires solid cross border investment principles   Financial - Standardization of terms and risk categories, risk-return reviews, development of indexes Project pooling. Another way to reduce transaction costs for investors is by pooling projects, including the development of respective funds, indexes, and securitization vehicles. Development of securities exchanges. Governments can significantly increase private investment in infrastructure assets by adding liquidity to securities exchanges. Gov issue equity and debt on government-owned infrastructure projects and infrastructure operators to encourage private investment. Governments should play the role of market maker and encourage multilateral development banks to sell their investments as individual or bundled assets to increase liquidity. Development banks – special financial pools to accept funding and lend out money for project financing Aus – Quote “The Asian Development Bank has signalled it will inject more cash into high-quality projects aimed at dealing with climate change and tourism and less on infrastructure "white elephants" as it battles pressure to counter the growing influence of China across the Pacific” China - Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank – US major supporter – last year $22 billion worth of loans and grants to projects across the region, with another $14 billion leveraged from the private sector Pushing framework for us to join - allow “Australia to lead the region in mobilising the trillions of dollars required to respond to specific strategic challenges that threaten to push vast numbers of people back into poverty, such as climate adaptation across the Asia Pacific”, Flow - estimated (in 2017) at up to $429 billion annually needed by 2050. Approach to climate finance is in keeping with the Australian Government’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, which has named climate diplomacy as an essential strand - Recommendation - allow Australia to leverage investment from multiple sources to achieve the SDGs – mostly pooling funds from super accounts and investment funds   Will it help? – Estimates – more spending could add about 0.6% to global GDP. infrastructure construction immediately creates jobs – Report estimate - one percentage point of GDP could generate an additional 3.4m potential jobs in India, 1.5m in the United States, 1.3m in Brazil, and 700,000 in Indonesia Forget that spending has to come from somewhere – expense of future growth in economy – stimulate now for the comedown later – In Australia – we are a large country – infrastructure lacking – why city planners like concentrations/urbanisation Create further urbanisation – cities grow while rural shrink (% of population) – Other side of Growth – Governmental policy population growth from immigration Also helping to fuel growth through marginal increases in consumption UNs publications talk about how manufacturing and industrialisation increases incomes, stimulates growth through increased production and consumption – greater supply, cheaper goods, more people spend – true – But only evidence of this working long term is with free market deciding – Every example of Gov trying mass reindustrialisation’s in 20th century didn’t end so well – Governments were responsible for the deaths of 250m in that time period through ‘miss management’ – Uni of Hawaii – not including wars – Don’t have a lot of faith in Gov ability to match plans – Especially if accounting methods change - Beyond this - Issue with current state of financial system – too much debt already – stimulus – like stimulant -less effective the more that it is used – Gives gov less bang for buck Obama’s economic experiment of Keynesian economics on steroids was a failure - stimulus plan, bailouts, ObamaCare, tax hikes, minimum-wage hikes and regulations – doubled national debt in eight years In 2015, the Joint Economic Committee of Congress found that compared to the eight previous post-recession events, “the Obama recovery was the weakest on record.” Why? Too much debt already – doesn’t continue to grow through stimulus once debts hit thresholds World indebted – then lower than forecasts growth very likely Been trying to get out of debt – govs have a lot Helping out developing nations is a noble thing to do – but access to infrastructure will increase CO2 emissions – even renewables – developing the 3rd worlds has opposite outcomes to CO2 reductions – consumption etc leads to more – especially in process – no way to get energy needed clean under current tech Also – Aus - we have one of highest emissions PP in world in Aus – Due to our lifestyles – cars, large houses, lighting and inability to adopt nuclear or thorium power– also export a lot of our LNG – rely on coal or renewables – which are costly to run compared to coal measured in Kw/pHr So if they really wanted to lower our emissions in the name of climate as one of the biggest culprits – Spend $30bn and put in 4 nuc plants to power the nation – Solution has been to get inflation out of the money flow increase - IMF needs spending though and not happening - needs inflation back – mass infrastructure spending is the next ditch effort to restart the economy – climate change is the reason to have people want it In short – don’t expect to see a lot of thing money being spent to boost our struggling economy – Hard enough to get a Coal mine in QLD, let alone a dam or large scale infrastructure (E/W tunnel) Wont see our CO2 go down from the infrasturcutre spend – as it is in the name of climate but done for growth Thanks for listening, if you want to get in contact you can do so here.   Resources to check out: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Capital%20Projects%20and%20Infrastructure/Our%20Insights/Bridging%20global%20infrastructure%20gaps/Bridging-Global-Infrastructure-Gaps-Full-report-June-2016.ashx https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/capital%20projects%20and%20infrastructure/our%20insights/improving%20the%20delivery%20of%20road%20infrastructure%20across%20the%20world/a-better-road-to-the-future-web-final.ashx https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/capital%20projects%20and%20infrastructure/our%20insights/bridging%20infrastructure%20gaps%20has%20the%20world%20made%20progress/bridging%20infrastructure%20gaps%20how%20has%20the%20world%20made%20progress%20v2/mgi-bridging-infrastructure-gaps-discussion-paper.ashx https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/2537IDR2018_FULL_REPORT_1.pdf      

We are delighted to bring you a special edition of the podcast, a recording of a live event at which Allan Gygnell moderated a panel discussion on the topic: “Towards reinvigorating Australian foreign policy studies”. The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper highlighted how forces of change are challenging the rules-based global order upon which Australia’s security and prosperity has depended since the Second World War. At this moment of uncertainty in Australian foreign policy, how well-equipped are Australian academics to contribute to navigating a way forward? Asking this question invites reflection on the state of foreign policy studies in Australia as well as the extent to which the study and practice of foreign policy are (or could, or even should be) connected. The Panel was comprised of three very distinguished guests: Professor Valerie M. Hudson, the ANU Vice Chancellor’s “Australia in the World” Visiting Fellow and Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair in the Department of International Affairs of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University; Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow at the ANU Australian Studies Institute and former chief political correspondent and national affairs editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Canberra Times; and Professor Jacqui True, Professor of Politics & International Relations and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at Monash University. The event was held on Thursday 14 March 2019 on campus at the Australian National University, in partnership with the ANU Australian Studies Institute and the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. It was the concluding event of a day-long conference on the topic of Australian Foreign Policy Studies chaired by Professor Hudson and Professor Michael Wesley, Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific (from whom you will also hear from on the podcast). Our thanks go to Martyn Pearce of the Crawford School for his production and editing support. Relevant links Event page: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/cap-events/2019-03-14/towards-reinvigorating-australian-foreign-policy-studies Valerie’s bio: http://www.vmrhudson.org/ Mark’s bio: http://ausi.anu.edu.au/people/mark-kenny Jacqui’s bio: https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/jacqui-true

Welcome to Trans-Tasman Tales, the free podcast by the Australian High Commission in New Zealand.In the latest episode of Trans-Tasman Tales, Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand Ewen McDonald sits down with Frances Adamson, Secretary for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.Ewen asks the big questions, including how the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper is going one year on, how Australia and New Zealand can work together to make a difference and whether the flat white is an Aussie or Kiwi creation.Keep up to date with the Australian High Commission in New Zealand by following us on social media: Find us on FacebookFind us on TwitterFind us on LinkedInVisit our website Music by Lee Rosevere

Welcome to Trans-Tasman Tales, the free podcast by the Australian High Commission in New Zealand.Today's episode features Ewen McDonald, the Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand. Ewen talks with Deputy High Commissioner Andrew Cumpston about his first few months in New Zealand, his career, and his love of footy. Keep up to date with the Australian High Commission in New Zealand by following us on social media: Find us on FacebookFind us on TwitterFind us on LinkedInVisit our website Music by Lee Rosevere

On April 27, Hudson Institute hosted a panel to discuss Australia's Foreign Policy White Paper and its implications for the region.

On April 27, Hudson Institute hosted a panel to discuss Australia’s Foreign Policy White Paper and its implications for the region.

At a time of significant uncertainty about the shape of the future global order, the Australian Government is preparing its first foreign policy white paper since 2003. On 15 February, the Lowy Institute hosted the former Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Varghese AO in conversation with Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove and Director of Polling Alex Oliver for a timely discussion about the White Paper process and how Australia should position itself to advance its interests over the next decade. Peter Varghese AO was Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2012 to 2016 and is the 14th Chancellor of the University of Queensland. His previous appointments include High Commissioner to India, Director-General of the Office of National Assessments, High Commissioner to Malaysia, and Senior Advisor (International) to the Prime Minister of Australia. Mr Varghese was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 2010 for distinguished service to public administration, particularly in leading reform in the Australian intelligence community and as an adviser in the areas of foreign policy and international security. Mr Varghese was head of the White Paper Secretariat (1996-97) which drafted Australia’s first White Paper on foreign and trade policy.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced Australia will develop a new Foreign Policy White Paper, its first since 2003. What has changed for Australian foreign affairs over the last 13 years, and what foreign policy decisions should the new White Paper prioritise over the next decade? In the new Policy Forum Pod, Professor Michael Wesley joins Policy Forum Editor Martyn Pearce to discuss the foreign policy environment shaping Australia’s new White Paper. Professor Michael Wesley is Director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at The Australian National University. He has published extensively and has authored several books on foreign policy, including The Howard Paradox: Australian Diplomacy in Asia. He won the 2011 John Button Prize for Best Writing in Australian Politics for his book, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia. If you’d like to learn more about some of the issues raised in this podcast, head along to the Australia 360 Conference held by the ANU Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs. This free conference will be held all day in Canberra this coming Monday 29 August. Find out more about it here: http://bellschool.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/4369/australia-360-how-australia-travelling-todays-world Image by Nicolas Raymond on Flickr: http://freestock.ca/flags_maps_g80-australia_grunge_flag_p1025.html See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.