Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
to this issue, initially refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocols (though eventually
ratified in 2008) and reluctant in implementing meaningful domestic legislation
such as carbon capping/trading schemes. In contrast, Australia has been proactive
in providing humanitarian assistance and relief to regional counties that have been
affected by natural disasters (e.g. the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami) and assisting others
with capacity-building to improve their resilience against future occurrences. This
is partly driven by fears that climate/disaster affected local states will become
destabilised resulting in increased migration flows to Australia itself.
Section 3: Regionalism
‘Asian engagement’
Australian recognition of its geographic place at the southern tip of South-East Asia
occurred glacially, as it clung to its European roots. The gradual replacement of
fading British power with the greater strength of a fellow Anglo-Saxon American
ally allowed Australia to continue its limited embrace of its Asian neighbours (with
exceptions, such as the 1950 Colombo Plan). Australia found itself engaged in
wars of decolonisation at the behest of the UK and USA in the postwar era, and
Australian contact with Asia remained confined mainly to strategic issues, even as
trade with a revitalised Japan started to become increasingly important from the
1960s. One major impediment to Australia’s acceptance in the Asian region was the
‘White Australia’ policy, which was officially ended by Gough Whitlam in 1973.
This policy realignment was catalysed by the 1989 government report by Ross
Garnaut entitled Australia in the Northeast Asian Ascendancy. 41 However, it was
not until the Labor prime ministership of Paul Keating that Canberra truly faced
the reality that its natural home was as part of Asia, and not simply as an isolated
‘cultural outpost’ of an Anglo-Saxon protector. 42 Keating, with the support of his
foreign minister, Gareth Evans, carved a path – sometimes controversial – of ‘Asian
engagement’, and the country has assumed a strong role not only in the economy
of the Asian region, but also in its institutional arrangements. Indeed, Keating
and Evans were instrumental in the creation of pan-regional organisations such as
APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum. The ‘region’ in which Australia resides is
referred to variously as ‘Asia’, the ‘Asia-Pacific’ and more recently the ‘Indo-Pacific’.
While Labor governments have typically been more proactive on this, and though
LiberalPrimeMinsterssuchasJohnHowardandTonyAbbotthavesoughttoplace
a stronger accent on ‘Anglosphere’ partners, they have not interrupted the process
(a dynamic identified as the ‘Howard paradox’). 43 Even Liberal Prime Minister
41 Garnaut 1989.
42 Keating 2000.
43 Wesley 2007.
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