Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
2012 emphasised the need for deeper integration and engagement with Asian
neighbours (included the neglected task of developing ‘Asian [language] literacy’). 48
Thus, Canberra is acutely aware that its relations with key countries such as China,
India, Japan, Indonesia and the ASEAN countries are vital to its regional diplomatic
interests.
Foreign aid
Aid is an extension of Australia’s national interest, with a regionally directed focus.
Prime Minister Howard once reflected upon the regional basis to this notion:
‘Australia’s most immediate interests and responsibilities will always be in our
region’ 49 – the South Pacific (Pacific Island countries) and South-East Asia. This
area is sometimes described as an ‘arc of instability’, 50 a term that conveys the
connection between aid, security and the national interest. Aid was not always
conceived of in this securitised fashion. Aid thinking prior to the mid-2000s was
primarily development centred, with an emphasis upon economic growth and
market-based solutions. 51 But global jihadism and the danger of failing states in the
regionshiftedAustralia’sapproachtoaidtoonethatsoughttomanage‘thespillover
to Australia of transnational risks, potentially festering within the borders of
“ineffective” states’. 52 The primary means to influence the region has largely been
through foreign aid or overseas development assistance, through forums like the
Pacific Island Forum, and, in extreme situations, military intervention.
Australia’s aid budget 2018–19 reflected this regional prioritisation, giving $1.3
billion to the Pacific region, $1 billion to South-East and East Asia, and smaller
amounts to regions with more pressing needs – $284.8 million to South and West
Asia and $258.5 million to the Middle East and Africa. 53 Ifaidwasgivenonthe
basisofneeditwouldbegearedtowardsAfricaandSouthAsia,whichcontain
most of the world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs). Comparatively, only five
countries in the Pacific and three in South-East and East Asia are listed as LDCs. 54
But regional dangers have been brought into sharp relief post 9/11, epitomised
by Australian intervention in Timor Leste,theRegionalAssistanceMissiontothe
Solomon Islands, and ongoing governance issues and political instability in Papua
New Guinea and Fiji. Chinese influence in the Pacific region has also framed
Australia’s recent foreign aid commitments and prioritisation.
The securitisation of the region, coinciding with the increasing revenues
garnered from the mining boom, ushered in a ‘golden consensus’ of bipartisan
48 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2012, 167–71.
49 Howard 2005 (emphasis added).
50 Ayson 2007.
51 Corbett and Dinnen 2016, 89–91.
52 Hameiri 2008, 357.
53 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2018a, 6.
54 UNCDP 2018.
594