tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/julie-bishop-6445/articlesJulie Bishop – The Conversation2023-09-25T10:40:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2142622023-09-25T10:40:27Z2023-09-25T10:40:27ZView from The Hill: ‘Player’ Mike Pezzullo undone by power play<p>Mike Pezzullo, one of Canberra’s most powerful and certainly most controversial public servants, cannot survive the revelation of the trove of text messages showing him blatantly inserting himself into the political process. </p>
<p>Pezzullo, the secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, has been stood aside while his extraordinary behaviour, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/power-player-20230925-p5e7fq.html">exposed by Nine Entertainment</a>, is scrutinised by a former public service commissioner, Lynelle Briggs. But the end of the story is predictable. </p>
<p>In the tsunami of encrypted texts, running over five years and sent to Scott Briggs (no relation to Lynelle Briggs), a Liberal insider and confidant of prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison, Pezzullo repeatedly lobbied for his departmental interests and his views. </p>
<p>He dissed ministers in the way of these interests or those (and other people) he didn’t rate. He used Briggs to seek leverage with the then PMs, asking for his opinions to be passed on. Briggs was happy to comply.</p>
<p>Nine <a href="https://www.9now.com.au/60-minutes/2023/episode-34">says it learned of the messages</a> “via a third party who obtained lawful access to them”. </p>
<p>Pezzullo is a one-off in today’s public service. He can perhaps be partly understood by referring back to the so-called bureaucratic “mandarins” of decades ago. They ran their departments with iron grips, and in some cases were, or tried to be, as powerful as ministers, or more so. They gave no quarter in bureaucratic battles.</p>
<p>The mandarins were “players”. Pezzullo is a “player”. </p>
<p>He’s tough and polarising, with supporters and bitter enemies. Critics have long questioned his judgement. On security matters, he’s the hawks’ hawk. While at first blush his texts appear highly partisan, that is too simplistic an interpretation. He fights bureaucratic and policy/ideological battles, rather than being directly party-political.</p>
<p>His addiction to texting is certainly bipartisan. Within the Albanese government they joke about it starting first thing in the morning and running well into the night. </p>
<p>As a public servant, Pezzullo has served both sides of politics. When in the defence department, he was lead author of the Rudd government’s 2009 defence white paper, which raised the hackles of China. Earlier, he was a senior staffer to Kim Beazley when Beazley was opposition leader. His primary interest is defence – he would have liked nothing better than to head the defence department.</p>
<p>When Anthony Albanese won government, some in Labor wanted Pezzullo gone. He survived not least because the new home affairs minister, Clare O'Neil, in charge of this huge, sprawling empire, needed an experienced hand. </p>
<p>In some ways, Pezzullo is a stickler for process – as we saw when Morrison was trying to make political use of a boat headed for Australia on election day – which makes these texts all the more shocking. But he portrayed himself as acting in broader interests, telling Briggs at one point during the 2018 battle over the prime ministership, “I say that from a policy perspective and not from a Liberal leadership perspective”. </p>
<p>Pezzullo lobbied relentlessly for the creation of the home affairs “super” department, which Turnbull set up in December 2017 to placate the ambitious Peter Dutton. </p>
<p>Those who resisted its establishment, particularly then attorney-general George Brandis, became Pezzullo’s targets. He accused Brandis of “lawyering” public servants “into a state of befuddlement”. </p>
<p>Pezzullo is particularly fond of military imagery. During the struggle to get home affairs up, he texted Briggs, “I am running deep and silent. Won’t come up to periscope depth for a while”. In another message he said the attorney-general’s department needed to be “put to the sword” on a matter, then “we can break out of the Normandy beachhead”. (In a 2021 Anzac Day message to staff Pezzullo caused a public ruckus when he wrote of “the drums of war” beating.)</p>
<p>Moderates were an all-round worry in the Pezzullo texts. Marise Payne, in the defence portfolio, was “completely ineffectual”, “a problem” and “doesn’t have a clear view of the national interest”. Julie Bishop received short shrift; he “almost had a heart attack” when she put her hand up as a candidate in the 2018 upheaval. He was sarcastically relieved when Briggs assured him she had few numbers.</p>
<p>In that battle, in which Dutton (Pezzullo’s minister) challenged Turnbull and Morrison ultimately emerged as prime minister, Pezzullo was concerned about who would end up his minister. </p>
<p>“You need a right winger in there – people smugglers will be watching”, he texted Briggs. </p>
<p>“Any suggestion of a moderate going in would be potentially lethal viz” for Operation Sovereign Borders, he said. </p>
<p>Pezzullo had little time for the head of the prime minister’s department, Martin Parkinson: he was not up to the job and “entirely lacking in self awareness”. In one of those nice ironies of politics, Parkinson was commissioned by the Labor government to lead O'Neil’s migration review.</p>
<p>Pezzullo, whose tug-of-war appearances at Senate estimates hearings are often compulsory viewing, complained to Briggs in 2020, after enduring a very long session, that the hearings were “actually a concern for our democracy”. But he boasted that “in batting terms we are 0-400”.</p>
<p>Free speech came well behind security in Pezzullo’s priorities. After an awkward story by reporter Annika Smethurst, who was subjected to a police raid, Pezzullo reportedly argued for a revival of the D-notice system, under which editors were requested not to publish certain information affecting defence or national security. It didn’t happen.</p>
<p>Pezzullo in one text asked Briggs, “Please keep our conversations confidential. Tricky tight rope for me”. Tricky indeed. The player obsessed by security has been undone by some unidentified power play that has left him totally exposed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214262/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pezzullo is a one-off in the today’s public service. He can perhaps be best understood by referring back to the so-called bureaucratic “mandarins” of decades ago.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2124482023-08-30T09:25:36Z2023-08-30T09:25:36ZView from The Hill: Australians go into the referendum divided – can the country emerge united?<p>The stakes in the October referendum are high. For Anthony Albanese, who has made the Voice his great social cause of his first term. For Peter Dutton, who has defied those who say he is on the “wrong side of history”. </p>
<p>For those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who look to the referendum for affirmation of their special place in our society, as well as giving them a chance for some tangible improvements in their lives and opportunities. </p>
<p>For Australia’s international reputation. </p>
<p>The latest polling has put the “no” side ahead, after a slide over the months in the initial substantial support for the constitutional amendment. History is on the “no” side. Only eight of 44 referendum questions have been carried since federation. </p>
<p>But the result remains open, at the start of this campaign. Both sides accept there is a substantial bloc of uncommitted voters, as well as others, presently nominally in the “yes” or “no” camps, who are “soft” and thus open to persuasion. </p>
<p>Many voters haven’t yet tuned in; this is unsurprising, especially when the cost of living is dominating so many people’s attention. </p>
<p>The strength of support from younger voters, a lot of them still unengaged, will be a crucial factor in the outcome. </p>
<p>Albanese will be prominent in the campaign, but it won’t fill his calendar, according to his office. This is not an election. Indeed in a few days the PM is off overseas, visiting Indonesia and the Philippines ahead of the G20 meeting in India. The government says it wants this campaign to be grassroots-led. Yes23 already has some 28,000 volunteers in the field door-knocking. </p>
<p>If the “no” side won, it would be a significant blow to Albanese. This might not translate into a longer problem for the Labor vote, because the caravan would move on: people would make their judgements on Labor versus the Coalition on other grounds. But the interesting thing would be whether Albanese’s authority among his colleagues would be diminished. Would cabinet ministers become more inclined to question his judgement? </p>
<p>Looking ahead, a re-elected Labor government would have to think twice, or thrice, about going ahead with a referendum for a republic if it couldn’t carry one for the Voice.</p>
<p>Conversely, a win would strengthen even further the PM’s authority. Dutton would take a hit, especially in current and potential “teal” seats – those seats the Liberals need to win back or prevent from falling at the next election. The Voice has already set Liberals against each other – whichever way the vote goes, Dutton will have to rebuild unity. </p>
<p>The government would try to heap as much blame as possible on the opposition in the event of a “no” victory, but the cost to Dutton would probably be overshadowed by the wider fallout. And blame-shifting would involve saying the electorate got it wrong, which is always tricky. </p>
<p>A loss would be devastating for Indigenous people, even accepting that not all of them support the “yes” case. It would invite despondency, unleash anger, strengthen the radical activists in the Indigenous community, and deeply harm reconciliation. It would be the end of what many saw as a new beginning.</p>
<p>On the other hand, a “yes” result would start another long journey. Most immediately, that would involve putting together the Voice itself, about which the government has only been willing to specify the barest bones. The task wouldn’t be easy, involving fresh consultations with Indigenous people and, almost certainly, a good deal of argument. </p>
<p>That would be followed by activity on treaty and truth telling, to which the government is committed under its pledge of support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart as a whole. </p>
<p>In future years, the worth of a successful referendum would be judged, in part, by whether the Voice did in fact contribute to noticeably better outcomes in closing the gap in health, education, housing, employment and other markers of equality, fairness and opportunity. </p>
<p>Would it turn out to be a cohesive, informed, influential body, or fall victim to politics, internal or external? In a decade, would it be seen as a failure or a facilitator? </p>
<p>Other countries mightn’t be hanging out for the referendum result, but it will be noticed internationally – or at least, its defeat would be. </p>
<p>On Monday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop campaigned together in Perth for the “yes” case. A sparky pair, these two, in their very different ways. </p>
<p>Bishop, who is now Chancellor of the Australian National University, warned: “Australia’s international reputation can be affected by a ‘no’ vote. </p>
<p>"I have no doubt that it would be sending a very negative message about the openness, and the empathy, and the respect and responsibility that the Australian people have for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders,” she said.</p>
<p>The referendum campaign will, unfortunately but inevitably, sharply divide the country. For voters, a crucial question should be, what outcome will leave Australia most united afterwards?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>History is on the “no” side. Only eight of 44 referendum questions have been carried since federationMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230032019-09-10T20:07:21Z2019-09-10T20:07:21ZAustralia’s political lobbying regime is broken and needs urgent reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291666/original/file-20190910-109943-1n2bz4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former ministers Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop have appeared before a Senate committee to defend their post-parliamentary jobs.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/05/no-theatrical-flourishes-as-pyne-and-bishop-play-down-their-new-backstage-gigs">Recent jobs</a> taken by former senior ministers Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne have brought on ire of the Australian Senate, which is now concluding an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/22/pyne-and-bishops-jobs-set-for-senate-inquiry-as-rex-patrick-rejects-explanation">inquiry</a> into the matter.</p>
<p>The testimony before the inquiry has been extraordinary: not just for what was said, but for what wasn’t — Australia’s lobbying laws are almost totally ineffective.</p>
<p>The Senate’s reaction reflects a wider sense in the electorate that elected officials may be putting their own interests ahead of the nation’s. As a result, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-trust-in-politicians-and-democracy-hits-an-all-time-low-new-research-108161">trust in government and its institutions has been falling</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-lobbying-laws-are-inadequate-but-other-countries-are-getting-it-right-78550">Australia's lobbying laws are inadequate, but other countries are getting it right</a>
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<p>Moreover, Bishop and Pyne’s example reflects an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/24/more-than-half-of-lobbyists-have-worked-within-australian-government-study-finds">increasingly common problem</a>, in which senior decision makers go on to lobby for the same organisations they once made decisions about. This problem — called the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-revolving-door-why-politicians-become-lobbyists-and-lobbyists-become-politicians-64237">“revolving door”</a> — is severely undermining efforts to regulate corruption and lobbying, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/effective-anti-corruption-efforts-must-be-part-of-broader-lobbying-regulation">little attention</a> has been paid to the matter by our major parties.</p>
<h2>Lobbying’s inadequate regulation in Australia</h2>
<p>Australia’s lobbing regulation broadly consists of two documents, the <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/Integrity/lobbyistregister/Documents/lobbying-code-of-conduct-2019.PDF">lobbying code</a> and <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/government/statement-ministerial-standards">ministerial statement</a>. Beyond this, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00043">Criminal code prohibits political corruption</a>.</p>
<p>The regulation requires that ex-ministers not lobby members of government, the public service or defence force on matters relating to their former portfolios, and can not take advantage of privileged information recently gained in their role as minister. This applies for 18 months after they have left their roles. </p>
<p>In spite of this, former foreign minister Bishop took a role at one of the government’s biggest private aid contractors, Palladium, and former defence minister Pyne <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/26/christopher-pyne-takes-job-with-consulting-firm-ey-to-help-grow-defence-business">took a role with consulting firm EY</a> to help build its defence business.</p>
<p>When asked to about these roles, both suggested they were not breaching the lobbying code, as they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/05/no-theatrical-flourishes-as-pyne-and-bishop-play-down-their-new-backstage-gigs">would not lobby for their clients</a>.</p>
<p>And the person who was responsible for oversight, head of the prime minister’s department Martin Parkinson, agreed, telling the senate that there <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/top-bureaucrat-backs-pyne-bishop-findings-20190830-p52mgd.html">“was no evidence”</a> that they had breached the code.</p>
<p>This is telling, and rests on the belief that to be a “lobbyist”, you must be active and explicit in representing your clients’ interests to government. But it also misses the point of our revolving-door prohibition.</p>
<p>The philosophical basis for prohibiting a minister from taking positions like Bishop’s and Pyne’s rests on three basic problems: the potential for bias, unfair access to former colleagues or subordinates, and the insider information a decision-maker has gained from their former role.</p>
<p>Perhaps the biggest problem is that of bias, which Parkinson’s testimony effectively ignored. There is the potential for a decision-maker to know — or even expect — that they will be later employed by the same companies and individuals that benefit from their decisions.</p>
<p>There is no accusation here that any recent ministers have engaged in such a subtle form of corruption. But that is also the problem: it would be impossible to know if it had.</p>
<p>Our laws require an explicit <em>quid pro quo</em> arrangement (that is, an obvious bribe) to have existed for someone to be found in breach of them. Short of someone confessing to the matter, this is very hard to prove. The days of “brown bags of cash” are largely gone, but it’s worth thinking of how the idea of a well-paying job might be similarly corrupting.</p>
<p>This is why the necessary response to the problem of the revolving door is to prohibit it (<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/dont-change-ottawas-five-year-lobbying-ban/article29828142/">sometimes for up to five years</a>), and have an independent regulator enforce the lobbying regime. </p>
<h2>Changing the rules of the game</h2>
<p>Aside from its inquiry into Bishop and Pyne’s new jobs, the Senate has <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/greens-win-senate-backing-for-federal-icac-20190909-p52pii">just passed a bill</a> legislating for a federal Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), to be called an Integrity Commissioner, to oversee lobbying regulation. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/lobbying-101-how-interest-groups-influence-politicians-and-the-public-to-get-what-they-want-60569">Lobbying 101: how interest groups influence politicians and the public to get what they want</a>
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<p>This is important, as the prime minister’s department and attorney-general’s office have shown that they are unwilling to aggressively enforce the lobbying code. Since the code was adopted in 2008, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/18/not-a-single-lobbyist-punished-for-rule-breaches-in-five-years">there have been no recorded breaches</a>, but this hardly reflects the absence of wrongdoing. Rather, as Parkinson inadvertently pointed out, the code is so narrowly worded that breaches are barely possible. </p>
<p>Beyond this, the question is what would happen if a genuine breach was discovered?</p>
<p>The answer is probably nothing. No part of the code sets out penalties. The most stringent punishment that could be dealt would be to deregister a lobbyist (even though many skirt this system altogether), or block a lobbyist’s access to decision-makers. Neither of these possible remedies has ever been used.</p>
<p>In other words, even if a national integrity commission is created, any lobbying laws it oversees would need to be dramatically improved.</p>
<h2>Lobbying and the ‘marketplace of ideas’</h2>
<p>There is an ideal of democracy based on the “marketplace of ideas”. In this ideal, a population hopes that ideas are heard equally and fairly, but that best ideas are the ones acted on. This is an important ideal, but it is only an ideal. </p>
<p>So, the challenge is to make the system as fair as possible. The current lobbying system doesn’t get close. Instead of ideas being presented to decision makers on “merit” (however defined), it is most easily accessed by those with the closest relationships to government. Consequentially, the current lobbying regime undermines Australia’s democracy.</p>
<p>Fixing this problem is not easy, but is doable. This requires major reform, but the path to such reform is clear – not a challenge of feasibility as much as of political will.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Rennie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian politics’ ‘revolving door’ is undermining efforts to counter lobbying and potential corruption, and the regulation system is hopelessly flawed.George Rennie, Lecturer in Politics, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1213602019-08-02T03:14:18Z2019-08-02T03:14:18ZVIDEO: Michelle Grattan on Labor’s hard reality - and Barnaby Joyce supporting an increase to Newstart<figure>
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<p>University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan. They examine <a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-anthony-albanese-on-labors-hard-times-121184">Anthony Albanese’s approach to passing legislation</a>, given the hard reality for Labor in the senate. They also talk about Barnaby Joyce’s support for an increase in Newstart and Julie Bishop’s appointment as the first female chancellor of ANU.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121360/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parliament has now finished its sitting fortnight. Michelle Grattan discusses the key issues from it, including Labor’s approach to passing legislation given its weaker position in the Senate.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1207612019-07-22T13:35:20Z2019-07-22T13:35:20ZView from The Hill: Senate decides Pyne and Bishop have a few more parliamentary questions to answer<p>Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-22/christopher-pyne-julie-bishop-new-jobs-do-not-breach-standards/11330262">has cleared</a> Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their post-politics jobs. But it’s doubtful the average voter would take such a literal or generous view of their conduct.</p>
<p>Scott Morrison had flicked to Parkinson the row over the part-time positions the two high flyers have taken that clearly overlap their previous portfolios, when the rules provide for a longer separation period.</p>
<p>Pyne, former defence minister, is advising EY, which operates in the defence area. Bishop, former foreign minister, is joining the board of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/04/palladium-aid-sector-concerned-about-rise-of-private-contractor-employing-julie-bishop">Palladium</a>, a global group working in aid and development.</p>
<p>The code says: </p>
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<p>Ministers are required to undertake that, for an eighteen month period after ceasing to be a Minister, they will not lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the government, parliament, public service or defence force on any matters on which they have had official dealings as Minister in their last eighteen months in office.</p>
<p>Ministers are also required to undertake that, on leaving office, they will not take personal advantage of information to which they have had access as a Minister, where that information is not generally available to the public.</p>
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<p>The government on Monday was quick to gag an embarrassing opposition move in the lower House calling for Parkinson to probe further into the circumstances of Bishop, who told him she didn’t have any contact with Palladium while foreign minister. A video had been posted by the company, labelled “Australia’s Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, commends Shared Value and Palladium’s Business Partnership Platform”. (Government sources said later that the video - in which Bishop did not use Palladium’s name - was a congratulatory one about a Foreign Affairs initiative.)</p>
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<p>In the Senate, the government lacked the numbers to prevent the conduct of Pyne and Bishop being <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/scomo-ey-to-be-called-to-inquiry-into-pyne-bishop-jobs-20190722-p529hs">referred to a committee</a>. The motion from Centre Alliance’s Rex Patrick won support from Labor, Greens and non-Greens crossbenchers, passing 35 to 29. The committee has three opposition members, two government senators and a One Nation representative. Pyne and Bishop will be invited to appear and could be required to do so.</p>
<p>The greyest area of the post-ministerial employment provision is the stipulation not to take advantage of private information acquired as a minister.</p>
<p>Parkinson says in his report to Morrison: “a distinction should be drawn between experience gained through being a minister and specific knowledge they acquire through performing the role. It is the latter which is pertinent to the Standards”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-christopher-pyne-and-julie-bishop-fail-the-pub-test-with-their-new-jobs-119875">Why Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop fail the 'pub test' with their new jobs</a>
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<p>In practice, however, this can fade into a distinction without a difference. As Parkinson also says: “It is not reasonable to think that former Ministers can or will ‘forget’ all information or knowledge gained by them in the course of their ministerial roles”.</p>
<p>Pyne initially said he would be “providing strategic advice to EY, as the firm looks to expand its footprint in the Defence Industry”. EY initially talked up his role but then quickly qualified it in the face of the controversy.</p>
<p>Parkinson spoke to both Pyne (who had already issued a long public written explanation) and Bishop.</p>
<p>In Parkinson’s account, Pyne seems to have done a lot of talking with EY about what he can’t do. EY is paying, of course, for what he can do.</p>
<p>Parkinson says he considers Pyne “has put in place mechanisms to ensure that, whilst his engagement with EY will appropriately draw on his 26 year experience as a parliamentarian, he will not impart direct or specific knowledge known to him only by virtue of his ministerial position”.</p>
<p>Bishop, who will have been out of the ministry for a year next month, has said little publicly about her non-executive directorship. She told Parkinson she had yet to attend a board meeting and that “Palladium does not expect her to engage on any Australian based projects”.</p>
<p>Patrick suggested the terms of reference given to Parkinson were limited - designed to fix a “political problem”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-a-kinder-gentler-senate-at-least-for-now-119902">Grattan on Friday: A kinder, gentler Senate - at least for now</a>
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<p>This is not new ground. Former trade minister Andrew Robb took up employment (annual remuneration of $880,000) with the Chinese Landbridge Group soon after he was trade minister. He has strongly rejected criticism of his action (and since left the group).</p>
<p>Two former ministers with responsibility for resources, the Liberals’ Ian Macfarlane and Labor’s Martin Ferguson quickly accepted positions with the sector. Stephen Conroy, a former communications minister overseeing online gambling laws, came under fire on becoming a lobbyist for the gambling industry – he points out this was three years after he was a minister.</p>
<p>Going back further (when the ministerial code of conduct did not include a post-separation provision) <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/first-termers/">Peter Reith segued</a> from the defence portfolio into advising defence contractor Tenix.</p>
<p>The Senate inquiry, reporting by September 10, will look at “action taken by the Prime Minister and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to ensure full compliance by former Ministers” with the relevant section of the ministerial standards. </p>
<p>At the end of his letter to Morrison, Parkinson highlights the impotence of a PM once members of his team are out in the wide world.</p>
<p>“While there are certain actions available to you when considering the conduct of a current serving Minister, and a possible breach of the Standards, there are no specific actions that can be taken by you in relation to former Ministers once they have left the Parliament”.</p>
<p>Either some way should be found to make the code enforceable or, if that is too hard, let’s skip the hypocrisy and admit it is no more than an exhortation to departees to act properly – complying with not just its letter but its spirit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Former ministers Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop are among many who have accepted jobs post-office in breach of ministerial code of conduct - but they will face a senate inquiry.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1199842019-07-09T04:31:25Z2019-07-09T04:31:25ZDiplomacy and defence remain a boys’ club, but women are making inroads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283220/original/file-20190709-51305-17ff90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Julie Bishop and Marise Payne have risen to the top in foreign affairs, but their successes may be masking more systemic issues preventing women from advancement. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">William West/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Lowy Institute has launched <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/gender-australia-ir-sector">a three-year study</a> on gender representation in Australia’s diplomatic, defence and intelligence services, and the findings are critical: gender diversity lags significantly behind Australia’s public service and corporate sector, as well as other countries’ foreign services.</p>
<p>In a field which has long ignored research on gender or feminist approaches to understanding international relations, this report is welcome and sets forth an important research agenda within Australia. </p>
<p>Gender diversity is an important issue for all who value the pursuit of Australia’s national interests overseas. Attracting and retaining the best talent is more important now than ever before.</p>
<p>As then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull <a href="https://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/keynote-address-at-the-16th-iiss-asia-security-summit-shangri-la-dialogue">said</a> in June 2017: </p>
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<p>The economic, political and strategic currents that have carried us for generations are increasingly difficult to navigate. </p>
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<h2>The report’s most significant findings</h2>
<p>The Lowy Institute found that of all the fields in international relations, women are least represented in Australia’s intelligence communities. </p>
<p>As the funding and resources of the intelligence sector <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201819/NatSecurity">continue to grow</a>, this is a serious problem with little transparency. The sector appears to be struggling with a “pipeline” and “ladder” problem: women are both joining at lower rates and progressing at far slower rates than their male counterparts.</p>
<p>Another important finding is that the presence of female trailblazers in these fields, such as foreign ministers Julie Bishop and Marise Payne and Labor’s shadow foreign minister, Penny Wong, may be masking more systemic issues. This may be leading some agencies to becoming complacent, rather than proactive, on gender diversity. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-bid-for-more-female-leaders-mansplaining-probably-wont-help-43844">In the bid for more female leaders, 'mansplaining' probably won't help</a>
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<p>Women’s pathways to leadership continue to be impeded by institutional obstacles, such as unconscious bias and discrimination built into the cultures of these sectors, as well as difficulties in supporting staff on overseas postings. For instance, the report notes that in 2017 the government cut assistance packages for overseas officers, including government childcare subsidies. This has gendered ramifications given that <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2018.pdf">women continue to do the bulk of domestic labour</a>. </p>
<p>As such, the most important and high-prestige international postings are still largely dominated by men. <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Pages/women-in-leadership-strategy.aspx">DFAT’s Women in Leadership Strategy</a> has proved successful in meeting initial targets for improving women’s representation, however the industry as a whole has not yet followed suit. </p>
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<p>Further, it is not enough to just consider <em>how many</em> women there are, but what roles they occupy, given that women have often been siloed into “soft policy” or corporate areas and out of key operational roles needed for career progression.</p>
<p>The report also draws attention to the marginalisation of women from key policy-shaping activities. </p>
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<p>From the study’s research on declared authorship, a woman is yet to be selected to lead on any major foreign policy, defence, intelligence, or trade white paper, inquiry or independent review.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-in-combat-the-battle-is-over-but-the-war-against-prejudice-grinds-on-3593">Women in combat: the battle is over but the war against prejudice grinds on</a>
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<p>We would mention a few exceptions of women in other high-profile foreign policy roles – <a href="https://cew.org.au/members/heather-smith/">Heather Smith</a>’s stewardship of the G20 during Australia’s presidency and <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/about-us/our-people/homs/Pages/high-commissioner-to-india.aspx">Harinder Sidhu</a>’s leadership in the crucial India High Commission. We would also note the contribution of <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/about-us/our-people/homs/Pages/ambassador-to-the-association-of-south-east-asian-nations-asean.aspx">Jane Duke</a> to the ASEAN Summit in Sydney. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/Leaders/MsRebeccaSkinner.asp">Rebecca Skinner</a> has served as associate defence secretary since 2017 and <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/Leaders/MsJustineGreig.asp">Justine Grieg</a> was appointed deputy secretary defence people in 2018. Major General <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/personnel-appointments/2018-11-08/major-general-cheryl-pearce-australia-force-commander">Cheryl Pearce</a> was also appointed commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus - the first Australian woman to command a UN peacekeeping mission.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283237/original/file-20190709-51292-46vci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283237/original/file-20190709-51292-46vci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283237/original/file-20190709-51292-46vci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283237/original/file-20190709-51292-46vci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283237/original/file-20190709-51292-46vci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283237/original/file-20190709-51292-46vci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283237/original/file-20190709-51292-46vci9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cheryl Pearce was commander of the Australian joint task force group in Afghanistan before taking up her current role.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Miller/AAP</span></span>
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<p>While the under-representation of women in international affairs remains a core concern, we would argue the report could have taken a broader look at gender representation in foreign affairs-focused academic communities, think tanks and publishing industries, as well. </p>
<p>Many of these organisations have similarly woeful records when it comes to gender diversity. For instance, Australian Foreign Affairs magazine has been <a href="http://www.broadagenda.com.au/home/where-are-the-women/">criticised</a> for the lack of women authors it publishes. We know that it is not for lack of credible voices, but rather seems indicative of a systematic form of marginalisation of women within the wider foreign affairs community.</p>
<h2>Bright spots for gender diversity</h2>
<p>However, there is some cause for <a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/dfat-women-in-leadership-strategy/">optimism</a>. For instance, our current PhD project is documenting the gender make-up of leaders and internationally deployed representatives in the departments of foreign affairs and trade, defence and home affairs, as well as the Australian Federal Police. As of this January, women represented 39.5% of those in the senior executive service in DFAT, and 41.4% of those employed as heads of Australian embassies and high commissions globally. </p>
<p>Further, we’ve found an increase recently in the number of women who work in diplomatic defence roles. While the Lowy report notes that women held just 11% of international roles in defence in 2016 (it is unclear exactly <em>what</em> international roles they are talking about), we found a slightly higher percentage of women (19%) currently employed in defence attaché roles. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-performance-on-gender-equality-are-we-fair-dinkum-113657">Australia’s performance on gender equality – are we fair dinkum?</a>
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<p>The achievements made in this sphere are not just limited to gender either, with women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds forming an important and growing part of representation.</p>
<p>In fact, a more in-depth analysis of the Lowy report’s data would have produced some very interesting, and more nuanced, findings. For instance, foreign affairs has long been the preserve of men, however it has also been the preserve of certain <em>types</em> of men. <a href="http://www.broadagenda.com.au/home/is-diversity-disrupting-diplomacy-and-are-we-doing-enough-to-ensure-it-is/">Diplomacy remains</a> a bastion of prestige, social class, heteronormativity, and in Australia, Anglo-Saxon privilege. It was only last year, for example, that Australia’s first Indigenous woman, Julie-Ann Guivarra, was appointed ambassador (to Spain). </p>
<p>Overall, as the report outlines, gender equality is not just nice to have, nor is it a marginal issue in foreign policy. Rather, the findings are clear: addressing the continued gender gaps are imperative to Australian foreign policy, national security and stability. </p>
<p>We can, and must, do better. Australian foreign policy needs good ideas, and it needs a lot of them. We cannot assume they will all come from the same place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Harris Rimmer received funding from the Australian Research Council and DFAT. She is affiliated with IWDA. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elise Stephenson received funding from DFAT. </span></em></p>A new report has found a major gender gap persists in Australia’s diplomatic, defence and intelligence fields. Australia needs good ideas, and we cannot assume they will all come from the same place.Susan Harris Rimmer, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Griffith Law School, Griffith UniversityElise Stephenson, PhD Candidate, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1198752019-07-04T19:48:25Z2019-07-04T19:48:25ZWhy Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop fail the ‘pub test’ with their new jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282615/original/file-20190704-126391-1r4c0us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Questions have been raised about the new private-sector roles of former ministers Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Labor has <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/labor-says-julie-bishop-s-new-job-doesn-t-pass-pub-test">criticised</a> former ministers Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop for taking up new roles related to their government portfolios, saying these actions breach ministerial standards. </p>
<p>Pyne, the former defence minister, was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/26/christopher-pyne-takes-job-with-consulting-firm-ey-to-help-grow-defence-business">appointed</a> as defence consultant to consulting firm EY a month after leaving parliament, while Bishop, the former foreign minister, was <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/julie-bishop-joins-palladium-board-20190701-p5230f">appointed</a> to the board of the private overseas aid consultancy firm Palladium, less than a year after quitting the ministry. </p>
<p>Following the threat by Senator Rex Patrick to call a Senate inquiry into Pyne’s new job, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sought <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-04/scott-morrison-orders-christopher-pyne-julie-bishop-job-review/11277978">advice</a> from the head of his department on whether there has been a breach of ministerial standards. </p>
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<h2>What do the ministerial standards say?</h2>
<p>Ministerial standards set out the standards of conduct expected of ministers. The principle underlying the standards is that ministers should uphold the public’s trust since they wield a great deal of power deriving from their public office.</p>
<p>Morrison’s <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/statement-ministerial-standards_1.pdf">statement of ministerial standards</a> proclaims</p>
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<p>All ministers and assistant ministers are expected to conduct themselves in line with standards established in this statement in order to maintain the trust of the Australian people.</p>
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<p>In the cases of Pyne and Bishop, the standards further state that ministers must not “lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the government, parliament, public service or defence force” for 18 months after leaving parliament on matters they dealt with in their final 18 months as ministers.</p>
<p>It also prohibits ministers from taking personal advantage of information to which they have had access as a minister, where that information is not generally available to the public.</p>
<p>Pyne and Bishop have both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/04/scott-morrison-seeks-advice-on-whether-christopher-pyne-breached-rules-over-defence-job">claimed</a> their new jobs are consistent with the ministerial standards. </p>
<p>Pyne <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/04/scott-morrison-seeks-advice-on-whether-christopher-pyne-breached-rules-over-defence-job">argued</a> that providing occasional high-level strategic advice in his new role at EY does not equate to lobbying or involve the use of information he had acquired in his portfolio.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cabinet-ministers-pyne-and-ciobo-set-to-head-out-door-112770">Cabinet ministers Pyne and Ciobo set to head out door</a>
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<p>Bishop, meanwhile, has <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/julie-bishop-criticised-over-job-move-20190702-p523df">defended her new role</a> by saying</p>
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<p>I am obviously aware of the obligations of the ministerial guidelines and I am entirely confident that I am and will remain compliant with them.</p>
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<p>Regardless of their statements of assurances, it can be argued that neither of these new positions pass the “pub test.”</p>
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<h2>Why should we have cooling-off periods for ministers?</h2>
<p>The Grattan Institute has <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/whos-in-the-room/">found</a> that one in four former ministers go on to take lucrative roles with special interest groups after leaving politics. </p>
<p>Likewise, as my co-authored <a href="https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2019-media-releases/icac-seeks-comment-on-lobbying-conduct-and-regulation-in-nsw">discussion paper</a> for the <a href="https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/">NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption</a> shows, more than one-third of lobbyists are former government representatives (that is, former politicians, senior public servants or ministerial advisers). </p>
<p>There is, thus, a well-established revolving door between government and lobbying due to the extensive and beneficial networks developed by public officials in the course of their duties.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-heads-roll-ministerial-standards-and-stuart-robert-54479">Will heads roll? Ministerial standards and Stuart Robert</a>
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<p>The post-ministerial employment restrictions have been put into place to reduce the risk of corruption and undue influence by former public officials-turned-lobbyists hoping to sway their former colleagues and underlings and influence public policy for the benefit of their clients. </p>
<p>There are three main ethical and democratic issues underlying this phenomenon. </p>
<p>The first is the possession of confidential information by former officials. </p>
<p>Second, there is the issue of a minister-turned-lobbyist’s access to and influence over key decision-makers in government – connections that can be used to benefit cheque-writing interest groups. </p>
<p>And third, there is the risk that powerful industry groups may approach ministers while they are still in office with promises of lucrative positions after politics if their grants or applications are approved.</p>
<p>Despite these issues, the cooling-off periods for ex-ministers who go on to lobbying roles have been historically <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/whos-in-the-room/">poorly enforced</a>. As a result, former politicians are often able to take up roles in breach of these post-employment restrictions without any repercussions. </p>
<p>For example, former Australian trade minister Andrew Robb <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/liberal-andrew-robb-took-880k-china-job-as-soon-as-he-left-parliament-20170602-gwje3e.html">walked into a $880,000-a-year consultancy</a> with Chinese company Landbridge five months after leaving parliament in 2016. The then-special minister of state <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-07/andrew-robb-china-consultancy-role-billionaire-scott-ryan/8596854">ruled</a> that this did not breach ministerial rules, claiming that someone with a broad portfolio like Robb should not be prohibited completely from work after they leave parliament. </p>
<h2>How can we fix the system?</h2>
<p>The post-employment separation requirements serve a legitimate purpose in reducing the risk of corruption and undue influence in our democracy. </p>
<p>The first step for the government to address the problem is to properly enforce the cooling-off periods. Having these requirements in ministerial standards does no good if prime ministers turn a blind eye to these kinds of appointments. We need to pass a law to give an independent commissioner the power to punish those who are in breach.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-barnaby-joyce-affair-highlights-australias-weak-regulation-of-ministerial-staffers-91744">The Barnaby Joyce affair highlights Australia's weak regulation of ministerial staffers</a>
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<p>For example, Canada has a law mandating a <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/rsc-1985-c-44-4th-supp/latest/rsc-1985-c-44-4th-supp.html">five-year post-separation period</a> for ministers, MPs, ministerial advisers and senior public servants before taking up positions as third-party or in-house lobbyists. This law is strongly enforced by an independent commissioner of lobbying. Breaches are an offence punishable by a C$50,000 fine. </p>
<p>Second, the rules need to be tightened to avoid technical arguments about compliance. For example, laws are needed to explicitly ban former ministers, their advisers and senior public servants from carrying out lobbying activities for a certain period of time, whether as individuals, or on behalf of organisations or corporations, including consulting firms. </p>
<p>More broadly, there is also a need for greater transparency in the lobbying industry – specifically, what types of individuals and organisations are successfully gaining access to and influencing government. </p>
<p>Due to concerns over this, the NSW ICAC has launched a <a href="https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2019-media-releases/icac-seeks-comment-on-lobbying-conduct-and-regulation-in-nsw">public inquiry</a> into the regulation of political lobbying called “Operation Eclipse.” The outcome of this inquiry should provide many options for reform at both the federal and state levels.</p>
<p>The regulation of the revolving door between politicians and lobbying groups has been extraordinarily weak in Australia. The phenomenon of ministers taking up plum positions that create actual or perceived conflicts of interest has continued unabated for many years. </p>
<p>To restore public trust in government, it is time to tighten the rules and be serious about enforcement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yee-Fui Ng receives funding from the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption for Operation Eclipse (an inquiry into the regulation of political lobbying). </span></em></p>One in four former ministers go on to take lucrative roles with special interest groups after leaving politics. Our current standards regulating this practice aren’t being enforced adequately.Yee-Fui Ng, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1122992019-02-22T03:48:17Z2019-02-22T03:48:17ZVIDEO: Michelle Grattan on Julie Bishop’s retirement and misbehaving ministers<figure>
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<p>University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini and Michelle Grattan talk about the week in politics. They discuss Julie Bishop finally announcing her retirement and how damaging this might be for the Liberal party; the pressure on Mathias Corman following his dealings with travel company HelloWorld; and the cyber security concerns after revelations that the major parties’ networks were hacked.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-bishops-boots-were-made-for-walking-112251">Grattan on Friday: Bishop's boots were made for walking</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini and Michelle Grattan talk about the week in politics.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1101722019-01-21T18:41:16Z2019-01-21T18:41:16ZThe Liberal Party is failing women miserably compared to other democracies, and needs quotas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254691/original/file-20190121-100279-1g2j4wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kelly O'Dwyer last week announced she would not be re-contesting her seat of Higgins at the 2019 elections.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Ellen Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Look around the world this week and you see women exercising power and influence everywhere. In the United States, House Speaker <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/why-nancy-pelosi-wont-compromise-border-wall/580516/">Nancy Pelosi is wrangling US President Donald Trump</a> over his shutdown of federal government. In the UK, Prime Minister <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/20/theresa-may-cross-party-consensus-brexit-backstop-tory-split">Theresa May doggedly pursues Brexit</a>. Yvette Cooper, chair of the British Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee and described by some as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-deal-vote-theresa-may-second-referendum-vote-election-yvette-cooper-a8736216.html">the Labour opposition’s “alternative leader”, is bringing forward legislation</a> to try to head off a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-hard-soft-what-is-the-difference-uk-eu-single-market-freedom-movement-theresa-may-a7342591.html">“hard” Brexit</a>.</p>
<p>In Germany, CDU leader and likely Angela Merkel successor <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/18/germany-politicians-business-leaders-letter-brexit-the-times">Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer co-authored a public letter to the British people</a> urging them to remain in the European Union. And from New Zealand, Prime Minister <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/20/whatever-britain-decides-new-place-world-new-zealand-stands/">Jacinda Ardern wrote a comment piece</a> for the London <em>Telegraph</em> expressing solidarity whichever way Britain goes. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-she-prepares-to-leave-politics-germanys-angela-merkel-has-left-her-mark-at-home-and-abroad-105957">As she prepares to leave politics, Germany's Angela Merkel has left her mark at home and abroad</a>
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<p>And in Australia? Reportage involving senior women in politics is dominated by Morrison government cabinet minister <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-odwyers-decision-turns-the-spotlight-onto-bishop-110159">Kelly O’Dwyer quitting</a> her prime Melbourne seat of Higgins, fellow Liberal <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/fresh-talent-liberal-senator-jane-hume-bails-out-of-race-to-replace-kelly-o-dwyer-20190121-p50slm.html">Senator Jane Hume ruling out running for it</a>, and speculation about <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/01/19/rumours-of-julie-bishop-quitting-parliament/">whether or not former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will, like O’Dwyer, quit politics</a> at the forthcoming federal election too. It is a sharp contrast. What is going on?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-odwyers-decision-turns-the-spotlight-onto-bishop-110159">View from The Hill: O'Dwyer's decision turns the spotlight onto Bishop</a>
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<p>The UK has already had two female prime ministers in May (since 2016) and Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) – the latter, after Winston Churchill, the most significant British prime minister of the 20th century. This is not to say politics is easy for women in Britain – far from it. Political <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/theresa-may-faces-more-gender-based-abuse-than-jeremy-corbyn-report/">attacks on May are three-times as likely to be gender-based</a> as those on Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/world/europe/jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-stupid-woman.html">Claims Corbyn called May a “stupid woman” in parliament</a> got traction because of the widely perceived implicit sexism of Corbyn-era Labour, which tends to be overshadowed by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45030552">controversy over its more blatant antisemitism</a>. Female MPs come under sustained social media attacks of the most violent and reprehensible kind, something Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Jess Phillips have campaigned against prominently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jul/28/yvette-cooper-twitter-response-rape-threats">again</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/18/vile-online-abuse-against-women-mps-needs-to-be-challenged-now">again</a>.</p>
<p>It is in this climate that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/23/thomas-mair-found-guilty-of-jo-cox-murder">Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered</a> by white supremacist Thomas Mair during the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016.</p>
<p>But while politics is incredibly tough for women in Britain, they hang in and fight on, across the political spectrum. This is because in Britain women’s presence in politics has been normalised. There’s no sending them back to the kitchen. To an extent which should not be necessary, they are battle-hardened. Male opponents know they will not go away.</p>
<p>Equally in the US, women in politics will not be seen off. The pronounced misogyny of President Donald Trump stirred rather than cowed women who stormed the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/18/record-number-women-in-congress/">creating an all-time high in congresswomen’s numbers</a>.</p>
<p>Democrat Nancy Pelosi prevailed against significant internal challenge and external opposition to be elected Speaker. From this position she is prominently calling Trump’s bluff and, since the government shutdown, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/pelosi-is-winning-battle-with-trump-because-she-s-better-at-her-job-20190121-p50skx.html">bettering him in the rhetorical struggle for decent government</a>.</p>
<p>In New Zealand, women in politics has long been business as usual. Ardern, elected in 2017, is the country’s third woman prime minister after Helen Clark (1999-2008) and Jenny Shipley (1997-1999). One could go on and on, citing the normalisation of women in politics in Sri Lanka, India, Israel, Iceland, Denmark, Pakistan, Indonesia, Canada, Germany and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Women have, often with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/quotas-are-not-pretty-but-they-work-liberal-women-should-insist-on-them-103517">help of quotas</a>, been accepted as regulars in political battle in all these places, sometimes rising to the political equivalent of generals and supreme commanders just like the men, many of whom might not like it but know it is an inescapable – and, in fact, reasonable - part of contemporary life.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quotas-are-not-pretty-but-they-work-liberal-women-should-insist-on-them-103517">Quotas are not pretty but they work – Liberal women should insist on them</a>
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<p>The military metaphor is unfortunate, but in this context useful to explain through analogy what is going on by contrast with women in the senior levels of the Morrison government.</p>
<p>May and Pelosi are playing the long game – operating strategically – in pursuit of specific political outcomes irrespective of the extra, gendered-tier of political attack to which they are subject. They do this in the confidence that women in their parties and parliaments are political “regulars”, in the business of politics for good.</p>
<p>In Australia, the presence of women in politics has been normalised other than in the Liberal and National parties. Labor’s Julia Gillard was prime minister from 2010 to 2013. If Labor’s sustained poll lead holds through to election day, Opposition deputy-leader Tanya Plibersek is likely to become deputy prime minister this year. The Greens have been, and before them the Australian Democrats were more often than not, led by women. Australia’s flagship far right-winger, Pauline Hanson, is a woman. </p>
<p>But to be a woman in the Liberal or National parties is still to be a political “irregular” – one of a group of resented interlopers, tiny in number, whom many male colleagues hope can be driven away.</p>
<p>Female LNP leavers manifest this – not just O’Dwyer and, likely, the prominently-snubbed Bishop when her decision finally crystallises – but those like Julia Banks who have <a href="https://theconversation.com/liberal-julia-banks-defects-to-crossbench-as-scott-morrison-confirms-election-in-may-107715">left the Liberal Party</a> and gone to the crossbench, and Liberal fellow travellers like Cathy McGowan and Kerryn Phelps who sit as independents alongside her. </p>
<p>It seems the position of women in the Liberal and National parties is too fragile, too brittle, for them to stand and fight like regulars. Rather, like guerillas on the wrong end of the power asymmetry women face within the Morrison government, they are withdrawing from the battlefield. It will be up to others to stand and fight another day. </p>
<p>That fight cannot be won without critical mass. Women in the Liberal and National parties need to embrace quotas and they need to do it now. They will never be numerous enough to achieve the status of “regulars” reached by women in most of the rest of the democratic world otherwise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Wallace receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The departure of Liberal women is a sign that they have always been outsiders within the party, and by world standards the gender imbalance is stark and woefully out of touch.Chris Wallace, ARC DECRA Fellow, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1101592019-01-20T11:08:33Z2019-01-20T11:08:33ZView from The Hill: O'Dwyer’s decision turns the spotlight onto Bishop<p>The political down time over summer can be something of a respite for
an embattled government. But for Scott Morrison, it has just brought
more setbacks. The weekend announcement by cabinet minister Kelly
O'Dwyer that she will leave parliament at the election is the latest
and most serious.</p>
<p>O'Dwyer says she wants to see more of her two young children, and
would like to have a third, which involves medical challenges.</p>
<p>Her decision is understandable. The first woman to have a baby while a
federal cabinet minister has been juggling an enormous load.</p>
<p>But with the general expectation that the Morrison government is
headed for opposition, many people will think (rightly or wrongly)
that O'Dwyer was also influenced by the likelihood she faced the grind
of opposition, which is a lot less satisfying than the burden of
office.</p>
<h2>Bad timing for the minister for women</h2>
<p>Her insistence at Saturday’s joint news conference with Morrison
that he will win the election won’t convince anyone.</p>
<p>If the Liberals didn’t have their acute “woman problem”, O'Dwyer’s
jumping ship wouldn’t be such a concern. She’s been a competent
minister, not an outstanding performer. She was not in “future leader”
lists.</p>
<p>But it’s altogether another matter to have your minister for women
bailing out when there has been a huge argument about the dearth of
females in Coalition ranks, damaging allegations of bullying within
the Liberal party, and high profile Victorian backbencher Julia Banks
deserting to the crossbench.</p>
<p>All in all, the Liberal party is presenting a very poor face to women
voters. It was O'Dwyer herself who told colleagues last year that the
Liberals were widely regarded as “homophobic, anti-women,
climate-change deniers”.</p>
<h2>Anti-women climate-change deniers?</h2>
<p>An effort earlier this month to have assistant ministers Sarah
Henderson and Linda Reynolds talk up the Liberals’ credentials on women looked like the gimmick it was.</p>
<p>O'Dwyer says she has “no doubt” her successor as the Higgins candidate will be a woman. Morrison also says he thinks there will be a female replacement.</p>
<p>But this just highlights how the Liberal party’s failure to bring
enough women through the ranks now forces it into unfortunate corners.</p>
<p>The candidate will be chosen by a local preselection. As one
journalist quipped at the news conference, is the situation that blokes needn’t apply?</p>
<p>And what if a man happened to win? Remember Morrison’s experience in the Wentworth byelection, where he wanted a woman and the preselectors gave him Dave Sharma? </p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-wentworth-preselectors-rebuff-to-morrison-caps-week-of-mayhem-103216">Grattan on Friday: Wentworth preselectors' rebuff to Morrison caps week of mayhem</a>
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<p>Sharma was generally considered a good candidate - and Morrison is happy for him to have his second try against independent Kerryn Phelps at the general election.</p>
<p>Assuming, however, that Higgins preselectors heed the gender call,
it seems they will have some strong female contenders to choose from.</p>
<p>Paediatrician Katie Allen, who contested the state election, has
flagged she will run; Victorian senator Jane Hume is considering a
tilt.</p>
<p>There is inevitable speculation about whether former Abbott chief-
of-staff Peta Credlin might chance her arm for preselection.</p>
<p>But her hard-edged political stance would be a risk in an electorate
where the Greens have been strong – savvy Liberals point out a climate
sceptic wouldn’t play well there. And it would be embarrassing for her
if she ran for preselection and was defeated.</p>
<p>O'Dwyer rejects the suggestion she was swayed by the possibility she
might lose Higgins. Some Liberals were pessimistic about the seat
after the party’s drubbing in the Victorian election, and Labor was
ahead in two-party terms in a poll it commissioned late last year.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/minister-for-women-kelly-odwyer-says-liberals-were-subject-to-threats-in-leadership-battle-102608">Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer says Liberals were 'subject to threats' in leadership battle</a>
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<p>But the government has a 10% margin in two-party terms against Labor, and despite the polling the ALP doesn’t expect to win the seat. (In 2016 the Greens finished second.)</p>
<p>O'Dwyer, who is also minister for jobs and industrial relations,
remains in her positions and in cabinet until the election.
Understandably Morrison would not want a reshuffle. But having a lame
duck minister in the important IR portfolio is less than optimal.</p>
<h2>Attention turns to Bishop</h2>
<p>Inevitably O'Dwyer’s announcement has turned attention onto the future
of former deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop. Bishop has said she is
contesting the election but there is continuing speculation she might
withdraw.</p>
<p>While she has previously left open the possibility of running for the
opposition leadership this makes no sense.</p>
<p>Now in her early 60s, her chances of ever becoming PM would be
virtually nil if Labor won with a good majority and was set for two
terms. That’s if she had the numbers to get the leadership in the
first place.</p>
<p>It is assumed Bishop has said she’s staying so she stymies any replacement
she doesn’t want (such as attorney-general Christian Porter whose own
seat is at risk) and can secure a candidate she favours.</p>
<p>Even though she’s a backbencher now, it would be a another blow for
the Liberals if Bishop does decide to retire at the election.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/julie-bishop-goes-to-backbench-marise-payne-becomes-new-foreign-minister-102172">Julie Bishop goes to backbench, Marise Payne becomes new foreign minister</a>
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<p>She was humiliated when she received only a handful of votes in the
August leadership ballot. Her treatment left her deeply angry,
especially because none of her Western Australian colleagues supported
her.</p>
<p>But out in the community she is very popular and many voters still
can’t understand why, when there was a change of prime minister, she
was not the one chosen.</p>
<p>If Bishop were to walk away, she would be making a rational decision.
But it would send another powerful negative vibe to voters about
the Liberal party and women.</p>
<hr>
<p>UPDATE: Jane Hume, interviewed on the ABC on Monday morning, has
ruled out running for the Higgins preselection.</p>
<p>UPDATE: In reply to queries to her office, Bishop said on Monday: “I am pre-selected as the member for Curtin and it is my intention to run”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110159/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The minister for women’s decision to walk away is appalling timing, and the government’s most popular woman might follow suit.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1029052018-09-11T20:13:59Z2018-09-11T20:13:59ZShe’ll be right: why conservative voters fail to see gender as an obstacle to political success<p>When Julie Bishop called out that it was “not acceptable” for her party to add to Australia’s political gender gap, it marked a watershed moment for conservative politics.</p>
<p>Her <a href="https://www.nowtolove.com.au/women-of-the-future/the-weekly/julie-bishop-speech-51014">speech</a> at a Women’s Weekly forum last week marked the first time Bishop, a party heavyweight, had publicly acknowledged the party’s role in the under-representation of women in Australian politics. </p>
<p>Women make up 50.7% of the Australian population, yet just under a third of the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2016/August/The_gender_composition_of_the_45th_parliament">federal parliament</a>. About one in five federal Coalition MPs is female.</p>
<p>Bishop’s comments followed a string of Liberal women exposing the party’s discriminatory culture which many women find so unwelcoming. The most explosive was first-term Liberal Julia Banks’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/29/liberal-mp-julia-banks-to-quit-parliament-next-election-citing-bullying-and-intimidation">decision</a> to quit parliament because of alleged bullying from “within my own party”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1034597677017718784"}"></div></p>
<p>Despite this, our latest research shows there is little public appetite on the conservative side of Australian politics for embracing gender quotas. </p>
<p>University of Melbourne colleagues Leah Ruppanner, Jenny Lewis and I undertook a survey of 2,100 voting-age Australians in June this year. We found that conservative voters generally fail to see how being female can impede political success. Left-of-centre voters list gender as the main obstacle to success. </p>
<p>This study suggests the Coalition parties have little incentive to introduce gender quotas when their voters do not see any reason for them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-woman-problem-no-the-liberals-have-a-man-problem-and-they-need-to-fix-it-102339">A 'woman problem'? No, the Liberals have a 'man problem', and they need to fix it</a>
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<p>To test voters’ attitudes about female politicians, we used identical vignettes about a hypothetical politician, then invited a representative sample of Australians to rate that politician’s likelihood for success. The only differences in our vignettes was that half the respondents (1,050) answered questions about a male politician, while the other half responded to questions about a female. As the survey unfolded, additional identical information was posed about the hypothetical politician’s professional and personal traits, but not their party identity. </p>
<p>Overall, we found Australians on all sides of politics supported the idea of more women in parliament. But, through the hypothetical scenarios, we found strong political party divides in internalised attitudes towards female politicians </p>
<p>Liberal and National voters favoured our male candidate more than those who voted Labor or Greens. This fits with <a href="https://www.rci.rutgers.edu/%7Esearch1/pdf/Eagley_Role_Conguity_Theory.pdf">previous studies</a> that find “desirable” traits for leadership are typically linked to men. </p>
<p>Our findings are consistent with the different paths Australian political parties have taken to improve female representation in politics. Labor has instituted strict quotas to increase <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1314/ElectoralQuotas">female representation</a> since the 1990s. The Coalition favours voluntary targets and remains <a href="https://theconversation.com/liberals-deride-quotas-for-women-mps-but-how-are-they-going-to-make-targets-work-62727">opposed to mandatory quotas</a>.</p>
<p>The key argument against quotas has long been that there is simply no need for them. According to former prime minister <a href="https://www.afr.com/leadership/liberal-party-will-never-have-quotas-for-women-malcolm-turnbull-20131010-jyb0y">Malcolm Turnbull</a>, the Coalition has a “completely different culture” from Labor. In 2013 he said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You can’t say to people, ‘every second prime minister has to be a woman’, you have to let parties choose candidates based on their quality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This cultural difference appears to extend within the Liberal Party itself. When Banks resigned, some male party colleagues such as <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-29/julia-banks-not-re-contesting-seat-at-next-federal-election/10177360">Craig Kelly</a> failed to see this bullying environment as an issue – and adopted a “toughen up” stance. ANU <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240592736_The_Representation_of_Women_in_Australia_Meaning_and_Make-Believe">Professor Marian Sawer</a> calls this off-putting approach “gladiatorial politics”.</p>
<p>As a result, the Coalition is languishing far behind Labor on female representation. Overall, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2016/August/The_gender_composition_of_the_45th_parliament">a fifth</a> of federal Coalition MPs are women. That’s a long way behind Labor’s 48%, which has doubled since quotas were introduced.</p>
<p>The results indicate that conservative voters reflect the Coalition’s support for meritocratic or individualistic principles, a common argument used against quotas. Yet they fail to see how “meritocracy” is heavily skewed towards men, ignoring structural impediments that hinder women such as equal access to political networks, financial participation, a lack of mentors, and behind-the-scenes practices of political parties and preselections.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding maverick Coalition women like Judith Troeth, Sharman Stone, Judi Moylan and Sue Boyce, Liberals and Nationals deny Australian politics has a gender problem made worse by their parties’ attitudes towards women. </p>
<p>For this reason, Julie Bishop’s high-profile turnaround is significant because it directly links Australia’s low world ranking in female political representation to her party. She said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s not acceptable for our party to contribute to the fall in Australia’s ratings from 15th in the world in terms of female parliamentary representation in 1999 to 50th today.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some male Coalition MPs seem to understand the problem. Bishop’s view has been partly upheld by male MPs like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/08/coalition-mps-admit-gender-equality-issue-but-reject-setting-quotasv">Greg Hunt</a>, who told Channel Nine news: “I don’t think we’ll be at the right place until we have parity.” Moderate Liberal <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/peter-van-onselen/laundys-quick-fix-for-a-major-coalition-problem/news-story/059a4664d4cc30153b01f3c7de7da552">Craig Laundy</a> has also flagged using quotas as a short-term intervention. </p>
<p>While new Prime Minister Scott Morrison has notionally increased the number of women in his <a href="https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5607714/morrison-announces-new-ministry-line-up/">ministry</a> from five (under Turnbull) to six, three-quarters of his full ministry is male. This suggests a significant problem for conservative women entering politics. The sudden removal of Bishop as deputy Liberal leader adds damage to the Coalition’s image of having a problem with women. </p>
<p>Non-partisan, philanthropically supported programs such as the University of Melbourne’s <a href="https://government.unimelb.edu.au/engagement/pathways-to-politics-program-for-women">Pathways to Politics</a> program attempt to address the pipeline issue by teaching women from all sides of politics the skills to become politicians.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-liberals-have-a-serious-women-problem-and-its-time-they-took-action-to-change-it-96643">The Liberals have a serious women problem – and it's time they took action to change it</a>
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<p>Our study suggests the representation gap is unlikely to narrow unless the Liberal Party shows leadership to its voters, or vice versa, and heeds Bishop’s advice that “there’s a lot to be done” beyond reliance on the flawed and failed argument of “merit”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson is a guest lecturer for the University of Melbourne's Pathways to Politics program and previously worked as its academic coordinator.
Our study was funded with grants from the Melbourne School of Government and the University of Melbourne's Policy Lab and Arts Faculty.</span></em></p>New research shows that conservative voters generally fail to see how being female can impede political success, while left-of-centre voters list gender as the main obstacle to success.Andrea Carson, Incoming Associate Professor at LaTrobe University. Former Lecturer, Political Science, School of Social and Political Sciences; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1023392018-08-29T20:18:42Z2018-08-29T20:18:42ZA ‘woman problem’? No, the Liberals have a ‘man problem’, and they need to fix it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234037/original/file-20180829-195313-ypn6l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Liberal Party room is dominated – and increasingly so over the past generation – by male MPs who anoint leaders in their own image.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Politics isn’t rational. Prejudice trumps performance. Politics is run by thugs. These are three reasonable conclusions from the snubbing of electorally popular Julie Bishop in last week’s Liberal leadership ballot, and Bishop-ally Julia Banks’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/liberal-mp-julia-banks-to-quit-at-election-calling-out-bullying-102340">decision not to stand</a> at the next election to protest bullying during the leadership campaign.</p>
<p>Why did it happen? Does politics have to work this way? </p>
<p>There are four facets to why Bishop, far away the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-hard-right-terminated-turnbull-only-to-see-scott-morrison-become-pm-102036">most likely to maximise</a> the Liberal vote at the next federal election, is not now prime minister.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-turnbull-government-is-all-but-finished-and-the-liberals-will-now-need-to-work-out-who-they-are-101894">The Turnbull government is all but finished, and the Liberals will now need to work out who they are</a>
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<p>Firstly, there is not so much a “woman problem” as a “man problem” on the conservative side of politics in Australia. The Liberal Party room is dominated – and increasingly so over the past generation – by male MPs who anoint leaders in their own image.</p>
<p>Last week they looked at Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison and Bishop and chose the one who is, if you average out the demographics of current Liberal MPs, their identikit picture. This reinforces the collective power of men in the Liberal party room, maximises their comfort level and is, until exposed to political reality in the form of a general election, an approach easily sold on the inside as “common sense”. </p>
<p>Secondly, the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/im-no-feminist-julie-bishop-20141029-11dn7m.html">reluctance of Liberal women</a> to name and organise around the liberal feminism they actually practice, psychologically undercuts their power and keeps them in a prone position.</p>
<p>They need to name and unashamedly organise around the set of ideas that can end the present male Liberal monoculture in a way consistent with their political philosophy: that is, liberal feminism. Every time Bishop and those like her shy from declaring themselves liberal feminists, they pull the rug from under not only
their own feet, but also from under the feet of every other Liberal woman around them. It’s time they staked out their philosophical ground.</p>
<p>Thirdly, Liberal women have to stake out their organisational ground too. They have yet to apply obvious lessons from overseas examples of how to organise and achieve change. As a British Conservative Party opposition frontbencher in 2005, the now British prime minister Theresa May established “Women2Win” to get more Tory women into parliament: the number of female Conservative Party MPs in Britain <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/suffragettes-centenary-women-vote-tories-theresa-may-women2win-female-mps-a8197551.html">has since nearly quadrupled</a>. Where is the Australian equivalent? Only Liberal women can make it happen.</p>
<p>And fourthly, in Australia, because of its particularly brutal gender politics, quotas <em>have</em> to be part of the answer. The long-held, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-quotas-in-politics-the-absence-of-women-isnt-merit-based-45297">empirically unarguable view</a> of experts like ANU political scientist Marian Sawer is that the Liberals’ refusal to adopt Labor-style minimum quotas for women’s pre-selection in winnable seats is dragging women’s parliamentary representation here backwards.</p>
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<p>Australia has moved from 15th place in the world in terms of women’s overall parliamentary representation in 1999 to <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">50th place in 2018</a> - an astonishing regression entirely down to the fall in female conservative MPs. Liberal women should accept the findings of sustained research in this area and make quotas central to their bargaining agenda.</p>
<p>Globally, the most successful conservative politician of the 21st century, by a very long margin, is a woman: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-angela-merkel-has-become-and-remains-one-of-the-worlds-most-successful-political-leaders-80389">German Chancellor Angela Merkel</a>. If you want to see someone dispatch a thug, watch <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/11/nato-summit-donald-trump-says-germany-is-captive-of-russians">Merkel deal with US President Donald Trump</a>. The British Conservative Party has already had two women prime ministers: Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. There won’t be a female Liberal prime minister here until Liberal women themselves organise with moderate allies to boost their numbers and normalise their presence in the party room. </p>
<p>Nor is this just an internal Liberal Party problem. It’s in the interests of all Australian voters for the Liberals’ “man problem” to be fixed since the consequences of being hostage to it, as we are now seeing, are so bad. </p>
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<p>Like a river dying from lack of water, increased party political involvement overall has to underpin change like this. More <a href="https://griffithreview.com/articles/need-greed-or-deeds/">“occasional politicians”, as Max Weber described them</a>, are needed and fewer political apparatchiks. More doing your civic duty by joining a political party and voting in preselections rather than leaving these crucial choices to the sad, mad and self-seeking. It means reasonable people not folding and leaving in the face of pressure from the thugs, but rather binding together and seeing the thugs off.</p>
<p>Politics can, and has been, more rational. Prejudice doesn’t have to, and hasn’t always, trumped performance. Politics doesn’t have to be run by thugs. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/balmain-basket-weavers-strike-again-tearing-the-liberal-party-apart-102044">'Balmain basket weavers' strike again, tearing the Liberal Party apart</a>
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<p>When the histories are written, the Liberal “moderates” appeasement of the party’s thuggish right-wing, both in policy and personnel, will be revealed as central to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s downfall and the party room’s failure to elect Bishop his successor. </p>
<p>Early this year, the numbers were there for moderate NSW Liberals to defeat the preselections of key right-wingers Tony Abbott in Warringah, Craig Kelly in Hughes and Angus Taylor in Hume. Internal discussions occurred over whether to do so. Turnbull and every key moderate squibbed the chance.</p>
<p>You can’t beat thugs through appeasement. You’ve got to get rid of them. Cleaning up the Liberals right-wing is the challenge for a future leader – a real leader.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Wallace receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Other conservatives parties in the Western world have done better on female representation than the Liberals - the party needs a gender quota and to rid itself of its right-wing thugs.Chris Wallace, ARC DECRA Fellow, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1021102018-08-28T20:21:29Z2018-08-28T20:21:29ZWith Bishop gone, Morrison and Payne face significant challenges on foreign policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233787/original/file-20180828-75972-ph4bm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Morrison will need to rely heavily on the experience of his new foreign minister, Marise Payne, and deputy leader, Josh Frydenberg.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Taylor/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With all the focus this week on new Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s domestic challenges, less attention has been paid to the international impact of the leadership change and any new directions for Australian foreign policy. </p>
<p>Morrison’s foreign policy credentials are slim and his interest in foreign policy is low, not rating even a mention in his first <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/transcript-of-new-prime-minister-scott-morrisons-first-press-conference-20180824-h14h1a">speech</a> to the nation as PM. </p>
<p>As immigration minister, Morrison presided over the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/03/opinion/australias-brutal-treatment-of-migrants.html">“stop the boats”</a> policy that was so unpopular with Australia’s neighbours and negotiated the disastrous and expensive <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/Factsheet_Cambodia-agreement_0117.pdf">Cambodia asylum deal</a>. He may also be perceived by Muslim-majority nations as unfriendly to Muslims after the 2011 shadow cabinet leak that he <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/morrison-sees-votes-in-anti-muslim-strategy-20110216-1awmo.html">urged</a> his party to capitalise on the electorate’s growing concerns about immigration and Muslims in Australia.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/julie-bishop-goes-to-backbench-marise-payne-becomes-new-foreign-minister-102172">Julie Bishop goes to backbench, Marise Payne becomes new foreign minister</a>
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<p>It is therefore a good idea indeed that Morrison will make his first trip overseas as prime minister this week to Jakarta to hasten the <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/negotiations/iacepa/Pages/indonesia-australia-comprehensive-economic-partnership-agreement.aspx">Australia and Indonesia free-trade agreement</a> and shore up one of our country’s most crucial relationships.</p>
<p>There are other big trips he’ll need to make quick decisions about. Morrison has already <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/morrison-won-t-go-to-nauru-pacific-meeting">decided not to attend</a> the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru next week, sending his new foreign minister, Marise Payne, instead.</p>
<p>After that, there’s the UN General Assembly in New York (24 Sept), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Papua New Guinea (12 Nov), the East Asia Summit in Singapore (14 Nov) and the G20 summit in Buenos Aires (30 Nov). An Australian PM would usually attend all of these, although the Coalition has often sent the foreign minister to the UN.</p>
<h2>New leader, same foreign policy outlook</h2>
<p>In many ways, Morrison’s foreign policy positions are unlikely to be different from Malcolm Turnbull’s. He will likely be perceived as friendly to the US and unfriendly to China on foreign investment, but a realist and pro-free trade. Morrison made a dramatic <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/revealed-why-the-sale-of-ausgrid-to-chinese-buyers-was-vetoed-20180528-p4zhxh.html">intervention</a> in 2016 to block Chinese companies from bidding for the NSW electricity distributor, Ausgrid, on national security grounds. </p>
<p>As acting home affairs minister last week, Morrison also <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2161282/australias-new-prime-minister-scott-morrison-bad-news-china-ask">announced</a> the government’s decision to effectively ban Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from participating in Australia’s new 5G mobile phone networks. In reality, though, the Turnbull <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-pushes-the-reset-button-with-china-but-will-it-be-enough-101383">reset</a> on the China relationship is likely to continue, as guided by the <a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/">Foreign Policy White Paper</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/julie-bishop-shows-the-boys-how-its-done-33206">Julie Bishop shows the boys how it's done</a>
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<p>The leadership change was not predicated on policy disagreements, with the exception of different ideologies on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/world/australia/australia-climate-change-malcolm-turnbull.html">climate change</a>. The change was rather more personality-driven, a question of style. But style – and leaders – matter in diplomacy. </p>
<p>Many foreign policy experts have been distraught by the <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/policy/foreign-affairs/scott-morrison-wins-but-australia-loses-20180824-h14gjq">damage done</a> to Australia’s international reputation by such disruptive spills, and how external messaging on good governance will be undermined. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233790/original/file-20180828-75999-cq5w0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233790/original/file-20180828-75999-cq5w0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233790/original/file-20180828-75999-cq5w0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233790/original/file-20180828-75999-cq5w0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233790/original/file-20180828-75999-cq5w0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233790/original/file-20180828-75999-cq5w0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233790/original/file-20180828-75999-cq5w0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Julie Bishop had a contentious relationship with China at times, but was largely seen as a stable presence in foreign affairs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rouelle Umali/EPA</span></span>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/policy/foreign-affairs/julie-bishop-the-only-steady-hand-as-leadership-ills-risk-credibility-overseas-20180821-h14adn">big loss</a> here is Julie Bishop, who has been a point of stability and continuity for Australia’s international partners since 2009, when she became shadow foreign minister. The sudden, inexplicable loss of both Turnbull and Bishop will be hard for our allies (and most Australians) to understand. </p>
<p>Bishop will be <a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/julie-bishop-legacy-of-australias-first-female-foreign-minister/">remembered</a> for her path-breaking role as the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/bishop-joins-ranks-of-the-few-20130919-2u2c5.html">first female foreign minister</a> and first female <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/dfat-secretary-frances-adamson-smart-choice-and-radical-reform">secretary</a> of DFAT. Her legacy also includes the <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/people-to-people/new-colombo-plan/Pages/new-colombo-plan.aspx">New Colombo Plan</a>, her push for <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/84535-australian-cyber-diplomacy-plan-sets-out-aspirations-for-online-peace-and-prosperity/">e-diplomacy</a> and her passionate <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-25/bishop-demands-compensation-from-russia-for-mh17/9801056">quest for justice</a> for the victims of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. </p>
<p>She did face criticism – as did the Coalition more broadly – for the inability or unwillingness to defend the aid budget from deep cuts, an asylum seeker policy that affected our international reputation, and an unwillingness to speak out on human rights, such as against <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/bishop-australia-to-retain-military-links-with-myanmar-despite-rohingya-crisis">Myanmar’s leaders</a>. </p>
<h2>Morrison’s support team</h2>
<p>Bishop’s loss is ameliorated by two factors - the appointment of Payne and the influence of Josh Frydenberg in the leadership team.</p>
<p>Frydenberg, the new deputy Liberal leader and treasurer, has a strong interest and inclination for foreign policy, having worked for former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. He was very active in the <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/g20-brisbane-2014-what-the-world-thought-of-the-global-summit/news-story/55db5019754e3934491041048bbafe54">Brisbane G20 Summit</a> in 2014. He is even a <a href="https://www.oup.com.au/books/higher-education/social-sciences-and-humanities/9780195596588-australian-foreign-policy-ebook">published author</a> on the liberal tradition in Australian foreign policy. </p>
<p>Frydenberg’s <a href="http://joshfrydenberg.com.au/latest-news/first-speech/">maiden speech</a> contained a particularly beautiful narrative about how his family suffered during the Holocaust in Europe and later emigrated to Australia. </p>
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<p>Like so many other immigrants to our great shores, all of my grandparents came here with nothing. … The welcome my family received and the opportunities and freedom they enjoyed is for me the essence of what makes Australia great. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233797/original/file-20180828-75984-1jfiqay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233797/original/file-20180828-75984-1jfiqay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233797/original/file-20180828-75984-1jfiqay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233797/original/file-20180828-75984-1jfiqay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233797/original/file-20180828-75984-1jfiqay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233797/original/file-20180828-75984-1jfiqay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233797/original/file-20180828-75984-1jfiqay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Josh Frydenberg at his swearing-in last week.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
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<p>The G20 Summit in Argentina in November is the best opportunity for Morrison and Frydenberg to shine in the international sphere. Given his newly-elevated platform at the summit, Morrison may have to moderate his constant criticism of <a href="http://sjm.ministers.treasury.gov.au/speech/022-2017/">“the new romantics of protectionism”</a> and dislike of the <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/economy/scott-morrison-backs-calls-for-wto-revamp-as-trade-war-threatens-to-escalate-20180723-h130y3">World Trade Organisation</a>. Morrison and Frydenberg should also pay heed to the difficult negotiations around the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/why-australia-really-wants-a-free-trade-deal-with-the-eu">Australia-EU free-trade agreement</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/2017-foreign-policy-white-paper-finally-acknowledges-world-power-is-shifting-87752">2017 Foreign Policy White Paper finally acknowledges world power is shifting</a>
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<p>Payne’s appointment as foreign minister is also seen as a positive, as is Simon Birmingham’s elevation to <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/new-trade-minister-simon-birmingham-will-use-his-role-to-promote-sa-food-and-wine-overseas/news-story/e10d954efd5eaea47ec25d96b7a171f1">trade minister</a>. Both are hardworking, reasonable politicians from the moderate wing of the Liberal party who can manage stakeholders well. Hopefully, they will have time before the next election to bring their own style to the positions. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.dailyliberal.com.au/story/5266529/mp-mark-coulton-honoured-by-elevation-to-assistant-minister/">Mark Coulton</a> remains assistant minister for trade, tourism and investment. He has yet to make much impact since being appointed in March, but has a welcome focus on Papua New Guinea, host of APEC.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=243273">Anne Ruston</a> has been appointed assistant minister for international development and the Pacific. She has voted in the past against increases in foreign aid and has limited experience in the region. She should follow the example of <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/australia-lacking-a-clear-pacific-vision-says-richard-marles/news-story/80e90b41fb9094c55e7e2703d974eab1">Richard Marles</a>, who did exemplary work in this portfolio, garnering respect in the Pacific. This role could become more difficult with Morrison deciding not to attend the Pacific Islands Forum. </p>
<p>Morrison should rely on Payne and Birmingham to manage Australia’s foreign policy and pay special attention to rebuilding our reputation for good governance. There is hard work to be done, and little time to do it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102110/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Harris Rimmer receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is affiliated as a national board member with the International Women's Development Agency. </span></em></p>Morrison has his work cut out for him restoring Australia’s reputation for good governance overseas and repairing relations with China.Susan Harris Rimmer, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Griffith Law School, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1022792018-08-28T10:11:33Z2018-08-28T10:11:33ZView from The Hill: Julie Bishop will be open to post-politics offers<p>Julie Bishop’s farewell appearance as foreign minister set some hares running about her future, but the real message is that Australia’s highest profile female politician is ready to move on to a post-political life.</p>
<p>When she called a news conference on Tuesday, Bishop had been expected to announce she’d leave parliament at the election. But instead she said she was remaining the member for her Western Australian seat of Curtin. What she avoided saying was for how long.</p>
<p>Teasingly, she even indirectly left open the possibility of seeking the leadership post election. When she was asked about that, she said: “It’s far too early for me to even contemplate what I might do. But I will certainly have plenty of time to consider my options and reflect on what has been an extraordinary time”. </p>
<p>In reality, the chances of Bishop being in the next parliament seem minimal. As for the leadership - which would be opposition leadership because if the government won there would be no vacancy - that’s not a job she would want. Or indeed that, as a moderate, she would get, given the conservative direction of the Liberal party.</p>
<p>Bishop could presumably expect to receive some attractive job offers in the next few months, and if the right one came along, domestic or international, she would be taking it.</p>
<p>Her seat is safe as houses – she won more than 70% of the two-party vote in 2016 - so she mightn’t even feel inhibited about leaving before the election if the incentive were there. If she departed relatively close to the election, a byelection could be avoided.</p>
<p>With Governor-General Peter Cosgrove’s term due to end early next year, there has been speculation Bishop might be appointed as his successor.</p>
<p>This has prompted Bill Shorten to write to Scott Morrison asking that Cosgrove’s term be extended for six months, to September 2019, so that the next government appoints the new incumbent at Yarralumla.</p>
<p>Given the timing, Labor has a reasonable point.</p>
<p>But if we are talking appropriateness for the role, Bishop would surely have all the qualifications. And there is the precedent of Bob Hawke appointing Bill Hayden, who had been foreign minister.</p>
<p>In last week’s leadership ballot Bishop scored only 11 votes, and none of her fellow WA Liberals voted for her. Nationally, moderates were urged to vote for Scott Morrison in the first round, as the best tactic to defeat Peter Dutton.</p>
<p>When she saw Tuesday’s Essential poll, Bishop would have had her anger with colleagues fuelled. Asked who would make the best Liberal leader she was on 23%, followed by Malcolm Turnbull on 15%, and Morrison on 10%. But the leadership battle was not about electoral attractiveness.</p>
<p>Bishop could have stayed as foreign minister if she’d wanted. She might have chosen to do so if Morrison had been more persuasive.</p>
<p>It would have served his own and the government’s interests for the new PM to have pressed her much harder.</p>
<p>Continuity in foreign affairs for the next few months would have been useful, especially since this is not Morrison’s forte and he won’t have a lot of opportunity to get to grips with it, given an election bearing down.</p>
<p>Morrison is going to Indonesia this week, but he is missing next week’s Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru. In light of the concerns about growing Chinese influence in the Pacific, this is a meeting the Australian Prime Minister should be at. Instead his place will be taken by Marise Payne, Bishop’s replacement as foreign minister.</p>
<p>One of the issues at the Nauru meeting will be climate change, just when question marks hang over the Morrison government’s climate policy.</p>
<p>In domestic terms, Bishop’s high profile as a minister, even without her deputy role, would have been helpful to the Liberals’ pre-election fund-raising and campaigning. “Obviously, as a back bencher, I am somewhat constrained,” she said. Indeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bishop could presumably expect to receive some attractive job offers in the next few months, and if the right one came along, domestic or international, she would be taking it.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1021952018-08-27T04:50:08Z2018-08-27T04:50:08ZVIDEO: Michelle Grattan on the Liberals’ implosion<figure>
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<p>Michelle Grattan speaks with University of Canberra’s Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini about the extraordinary week in Australian politics. They discuss the Liberal leadership spill, Scott Morrison becoming the new prime minister, Julie Bishop’s resignation from the frontbench, what went wrong for Malcolm Turnbull and the challenges that lie ahead for the Coalition government.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102195/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle Grattan speaks with Deep Saini about the extraordinary week in Australian politics.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020492018-08-24T00:44:21Z2018-08-24T00:44:21ZThe economics of Australia’s too-common leadership spills<p>At the end of <a href="https://theconversation.com/moment-after-moment-of-madness-liberals-manage-the-ugliest-messiest-leadership-challenge-in-history-102035">another week of chaos in Canberra</a>, we’re all asking why this keeps happening. Why are our leaders playing politics instead of governing? </p>
<p>A somewhat esoteric sub-field of economics known as <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070314231418/http://www.gmu.edu/centers/publicchoice/pdf%20links/Booklet.pdf">Public Choice Theory</a> suggests it really does come down to two things. First, the technological advances that have given politicians feedback in real time. Second, Australia’s comparatively small parliament. </p>
<p>Politicians aren’t mad or bad, they have an incentive to do what is necessary to hold their seat in parliament. They have no incentive to govern except insofar as it helps them keep their seat. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/moment-after-moment-of-madness-liberals-manage-the-ugliest-messiest-leadership-challenge-in-history-102035">Moment after moment of madness: Liberals manage the ugliest, messiest leadership challenge in history</a>
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<p>The trouble is, the vast volumes of data we generate create a never-ending tsunami of information. It’s not just traditional opinion polls such as Newspoll, but also Twitter and Facebook “trending” feeds and hashtags, Google search data, YouTube, endless online polls and petitions.</p>
<p>All of this changes the incentives politicians face almost in real time. Of course they’d be changing leader more often! And with a comparatively small parliament, it is comparatively easy to do just that.</p>
<p>The irony then is that for all we say we wish the politicians would respect our say and get on with governing, our revolving door prime ministers are the result of the politicians being <em>too responsive</em> to what we think, and our having too <em>few</em> of them.</p>
<h2>The perverted incentives of spills</h2>
<p>Public Choice Theory <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/7687/calculus_of_consent">starts</a> from the presumption politicians aren’t principled heroes or evil dictators in waiting. They’re just regular people like you and me. They face incentives to which they try to respond as rationally as they can.</p>
<p>Now it doesn’t really matter whether a politician has conviction, hunger for power or they’re simply a hack. They can’t do anything unless they win elections. Hence, as Anthony Downs realised in his <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/An_Economic_Theory_of_Democracy.html?id=kLEGAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">seminal work</a> on Public Choice Theory, they have an imperative incentive to do and say what they can to win elections.</p>
<p>What some might call slavish adherence to public opinion is actually, from the perspective of Public Choice Theory, perfectly reasonable behaviour. Politicians can’t do <em>anything</em> unless they can get the votes of the public first, so they need to know what to say and to do to get them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/balmain-basket-weavers-strike-again-tearing-the-liberal-party-apart-102044">'Balmain basket weavers' strike again, tearing the Liberal Party apart</a>
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<p>Our present trouble with “revolving door” prime ministers makes a lot of sense from this perspective.</p>
<p>In the internet age, politicians’ knowledge of what to do and what to say to get the votes and win the elections is changing almost in real time.</p>
<p>Release a National Energy Guarantee policy? You’ll find out within weeks what the public thinks about it. Make a statement about immigration? You’ll find out within hours how it’s playing with the kids on social media. You’ll find out day to day how your leader is performing relative to the other guy just by monitoring the news sites.</p>
<p>Now of course that’s not limited to Australia, and countries with similar systems haven’t had the same revolving door leadership as us. </p>
<p>What sets Australia apart is that our parliament is very small compared with other countries (because of an obscure part of the constitution known as the “nexus” provision). We have only 150 members of the lower house compared with, for instance, Canada (which <a href="https://lop.parl.ca/About/Parliament/GuideToHoC/index-e.htm">has 338</a>) and the UK (which <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/">has 650</a>).</p>
<p>It’s therefore much easier in Australia to respond to changing incentives by building a faction in favour of changing the leader simply because there are fewer people to persuade.</p>
<p>Put that all together, and of course you’d have a revolving door prime minister! What else would you expect?</p>
<h2>Can a stable majority exist?</h2>
<p>So what’s to be done?</p>
<p>One possibility is to do as the ALP has done, and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/kevin-rudd-wins-over-party-leadership-rules-20130722-2qdly.html">require a supermajority</a> of the party room to spill the leadership. This (in theory) makes it much more difficult to change the leadership.</p>
<p>Another, probably unpleasant possibility, is to significantly increase the size of parliament. A larger parliament makes it much more difficult to build factions in favour of changing the leadership.</p>
<p>Another, more direct response is to simply break the cycle and for us to take responsibility for the state of our own democracy. That is, if we actually do care about stable government.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/reporters-or-players-what-is-the-medias-role-in-leadership-struggles-48662">Reporters or players? What is the media's role in leadership struggles?</a>
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<p>The politicians will always respond to their incentives. They’re people. It’s never going to change. So we need to stop changing the incentives they face in real time as much as we can.</p>
<p>You yourself can do something about that. Stop responding to pollsters. Stop “liking” and retweeting the political topics. Stop endlessly following the political clickbait. Ironically, stop paying attention to politics and get on with your life except where your civic duty absolutely demands it.</p>
<p>Public Choice Theory suggests our increasingly regular leadership spills are because politicians are, ironically, too responsive to what we think and there are too few of them. If we want stable government, we can tinker with party constitutions to disincentivise leadership spills: we can increase the size of parliament to make it harder to build factions for changing the leader. </p>
<p>But the most direct way to achieve it is to stop telling them what we think incessantly, and deliver judgement only where it matters most – the ballot box.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Markey-Towler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our revolving door prime ministers are the result of the politicians being too responsive to what we think, and there being too few of them.Brendan Markey-Towler, Researcher, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/973702018-06-03T20:23:45Z2018-06-03T20:23:45ZAustralia needs to reset the relationship with China and stay cool<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221294/original/file-20180601-69493-pi0fsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In happier times: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 2017 APEC summit in Vietnam.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/STR</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Let’s call it the “China syndrome”. This describes a condition that is a bit compulsive and not always rational.</p>
<p>Australia’s response to China’s continuing rise mixes anxiety, even a touch of paranoia, with anticipation of the riches that derive from the sale of vast quantities of commodities.</p>
<p>Economic dependence on China is two-edged and potentially policy-distorting.</p>
<p>To put this in perspective: <a href="https://www.austrade.gov.au/News/Economic-analysis/australias-export-performance-in-fy2017">Australian exports of goods and services to China</a> in 2016-17 were worth $110.4 billion. That accounts for nearly 30% of total exports. This compares with $20.8 billion for the US, or 5.16% of total exports. The EU (including the United Kingdom) accounted for $30.5 billion, or 9.8%.</p>
<p>In other words, nearly one-third of Australian goods and services trade is hinged to the China market. Putting it mildly, such a level of dependence on a single market is not ideal.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/megaphone-diplomacy-is-good-for-selling-papers-but-harmful-for-australia-china-relations-97076">Megaphone diplomacy is good for selling papers, but harmful for Australia-China relations</a>
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<p>No other country, relatively speaking, has benefited to quite the same extent from China’s extraordinary development since it began opening for business to the outside world after the <a href="http://en.people.cn/90002/95589/6512371.html">Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of 1978 of the Chinese Communist Party (CCCP)</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.austrade.gov.au/News/Economic-analysis/australia-has-experienced-the-longest-economic-growth-among-major-developed-world">In 2017, Australia registered</a> the longest uninterrupted stretch of economic growth in modern history. This surpassed previous record holder the Netherlands with 103 uninterrupted quarters.</p>
<p>That expansion continues. Australia’s commodities exports, driven by Chinese demand, sustain unparalleled growth.</p>
<p>This is the context in which Australia might do a better job managing relations with its cornerstone trading partner and, arguably, its most important bilateral relationship.</p>
<p>This latter observation requires a leap beyond assumptions that security ties with the US mean there is no relationship more critical to Australia’s wellbeing.</p>
<p>That is changing fast as China’s economic might continues to expand and its ability to project military power in the Asia-Pacific grows in leaps and bounds.</p>
<p>None of this is to say that Australia’s security arrangements with the US versus China’s rise represent a zero-sum game. You could argue that security ties to the US have become more important as a consequence. It is simply to acknowledge the world has changed. It is sprinting ahead of the ability of policymakers to keep up.</p>
<p>Take the 2017 <a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/">Foreign Policy White Paper</a>, for example. Formulated over the period 2016-2017, the paper asserted the need for Australia to bolster its relationship with the US to take account of China’s rise.</p>
<p>On the other hand, and unavoidably, it acknowledged that the Asia Pacific is no longer uncontested space.</p>
<p>As the paper puts it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Powerful drivers are converging in a way that is reshaping the international order and challenging Australia’s interests. The United States has been the dominant power in our region throughout Australia’s post-second world history. China is challenging America’s position.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Those “powerful drivers” have become more powerful since publication of the white paper.</p>
<p>At the same time, Australian policy towards Beijing has become more ragged, driven by worries about the impetus of China’s rise, concerns about America as a reliable ally under an “America First” Trump administration, and fears about <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-chinas-influence-on-australia-beware-of-sweeping-statements-and-conflated-ideas-94496">Chinese influence in Australia</a> itself.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s response to the latter became enmeshed in domestic politics, leaving the impression the new laws to forestall foreign interference in Australian democratic processes were aimed at China alone.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/australia-china-bilateral-relations/">Between December 7 and 9, 2017, Turnbull said</a> on three separate occasions Australia had “stood up” against outside attempts to interfere in its internal affairs. This was a pointed and, as it turned out, unwise use of the phrase.</p>
<p>On the last occasion, he said it in Chinese, adding offence to Beijing where such phraseology – “the Chinese people have stood up” – has sacred meaning in Chinese Communist Party history. This was the expression Mao Zedong used when proclaiming the People’s Republic in 1949, after decades of foreign interference, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Chinese at the hands of the Japanese.</p>
<p>Turnbull’s intervention raises questions about the quality of China policy advice from his own office.</p>
<p>Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had, in any case, irritated Beijing in a <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2017/jb_sp_170313a.aspx">speech delivered in Singapore in March, 2017</a>, in which she questioned China’s political model.</p>
<p>While non-democracies such as China can thrive while participating in the present system, an essential pillar of our preferred order is democratic community.</p>
<p>Bishop might have phrased her remarks aimed at “non-democracies such as China” more judiciously, while conveying a similar message.</p>
<p>What is lacking in Australia’s approach to its relationship with China is consistency, so the government speaks with one voice and, where possible, separates domestic politics from the conduct of China policy.</p>
<p>Beijing values consistency. It may not like forthrightness in defence of Australia’s legitimate interests in maintaining its own sovereignty and its own security, but it respects firmness.</p>
<p>Canberra should not shy away from articulating its concerns about China’s continued militarisation of facilities in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-the-legal-implications-of-the-south-china-sea-ruling-62421">South China Sea</a>. It should be on guard in withstanding Chinese efforts to interfere in domestic politics.</p>
<p>Policymakers should bear in mind a simple rule of thumb in dealing with China. It will seek to get away with what it can. That includes bullying and bluster.</p>
<p>Peter Drysdale, emeritus professor of economics at the Australian National University and author of a study of the <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/report-outlines-future-of-australia-china-ties">Australian-Chinese economic relationship</a>, told me the government needs to assert its “control of the China agenda”. This has been pushed off course in the recent past.</p>
<p>Drysdale perceives a “structural problems” embedded in the Australia-China relationship arising from “accelerated complications” in US-China relations. At the same time, Washington’s security establishment is pushing an alarmist viewpoint about China’s regional ambitions. </p>
<p>No reasonable observer pretends China’s impulses are benign. The question is how to manage, in a way that is not counter-productive, China’s attempts to spread its influence.</p>
<p>In Drysdale’s view, the greatest risk for Australia is that an erratic Trump administration will undermine a rules-based international order critical to Australian security.</p>
<p>Canberra’s diplomatic efforts over many years have been aimed at drawing Beijing into a rules-based system, promoting certainty in China’s behaviour as a <a href="https://www.ncuscr.org/content/robert-zoellicks-responsible-stakeholder-speech">“responsible stakeholder”</a>.</p>
<p>That longstanding impulse of Australian foreign policy is now under stress.</p>
<p>However, what also needs to be kept in mind is that <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/sitecore/content/Home/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/CIB9697/97cib23">relations between Canberra and Beijing have had their ups and downs over the years</a>. These blips have come and gone.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-chinas-debt-book-diplomacy-in-the-pacific-shouldnt-ring-alarm-bells-just-yet-96709">Why China's 'debt-book diplomacy' in the Pacific shouldn't ring alarm bells just yet</a>
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<p>The question is whether these latest tensions are more serious and lasting than others such as the chill that occurred after the 1989 <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/15/world/asia/tiananmen-square-fast-facts/index.html">Tiananmen Square massacre</a>. Or frictions that accompanied Australia’s support in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/06/21/us-and-china-nearly-came-to-blows-in-96/926d105f-1fd8-404c-9995-90984f86a613/?utm_term=.6997b237520c">1996 for the dispatch of US naval forces into the Taiwan Straits</a> after Chinese missile tests during the Taiwanese election.</p>
<p>The Australian government needs a reset of the relationship that would move the two countries past a difficult stage caused by a combination of misunderstanding and loose talk.</p>
<p>Australian officials also need to bear in mind that, in a region in flux, Australia’s Asian neighbours are accommodating themselves to new realities at warp speed. Old certainties such as the validity of US security guarantees are being questioned.</p>
<p>The Turnbull government is operating in a much-changed environment. Stakes are high. Levels of anxiety about China’s rise are unlikely to fall. Australia needs to keep its cool and avoid falling prey to a China syndrome characterised by unsteadiness and poor judgement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Anxiety about China’s rise is unlikely to abate any time soon – Australia needs to remain calm and realise the region is changing rapidly.Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/970762018-05-28T19:54:19Z2018-05-28T19:54:19ZMegaphone diplomacy is good for selling papers, but harmful for Australia-China relations<p>The issue of China’s influence in Australia is complex. It ranges from worries about national security, political donations and media infiltration to concerns about scientific collaborations, Confucius Institutes, the patriotism of Chinese students, and allegiance of the Chinese community. The most recent trope is <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/politics/world/us-secret-report-china-debt-trap-on-australias-doorstep-20180513-h0zzwd">China’s so-called “debt trap” diplomacy</a> with Australia’s neighbours in the Pacific.</p>
<p>But there’s a simple reason this anxiety about China’s influence is so vexed. For the first time in history, Australia has had to deal with a world power that is not, as longtime defence analyst Hugh White puts it, <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/policy/foreign-affairs/julie-bishop-and-china-20180517-h1073y">“Anglo-Saxon”</a>, and is not a liberal democracy. To quote The Australian’s <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/china-and-america-australia-is-friends-with-both-ally-of-one/news-story/36f9c8b569a8c7330ffa97e4acd19c74">Dennis Richardson in relation to China and the US</a>: “Australia is friends with both, ally of one”.</p>
<p>The media in both countries have played a significant role in inflaming tensions, as well. Increasingly, China is cast in an adversarial light in the Australian media, and vice versa with Australia in the Chinese media. </p>
<p>There is less and less space for journalists who try to put forth an objective opinion and for commentators who attempt to steer the debate in a more rational and less visceral direction. Each side feels the need to simplify its message and take an increasingly radical position.</p>
<h2>War of words</h2>
<p>Of course, the media narratives in both countries need to be considered in the context of the rise of political populism globally — particularly the triumph of President Donald Trump in the US and Brexit in the UK. </p>
<p>Australia has a free but financially struggling media. This makes for a tricky combination. Take a media sector that is desperate to boost its readership, combine with a populist turn in the political discourse, add a generous dash of fear of China’s growing global power, and stir. The result, while great for sound bites and political posturing, is not a pretty picture, but it does make a good story. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/01/australias-china-relationship-being-bungled-former-envoy">Some commentators argue</a> the public debate about Chinese influence in Australia tends to be dominated by hawkish voices who favour close ties with the US. This strident position runs counter to the diplomatic, business and university communities, who argue for a more culturally sensitive and constructive engagement with China. </p>
<p>To the anti-China hawks, concerns for Australia’s multicultural harmony and social cohesion are secondary. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-mark-how-the-shanghai-afl-game-might-strengthen-australia-china-relations-96725">On the mark: how the Shanghai AFL game might strengthen Australia-China relations</a>
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<p>Meanwhile, China’s extensive soft power ambitions to improve the country’s appeal on the international stage also seem to have been moved to the backburner when it comes to Australia. The charm offensive is no more; it’s now just plain offensive. </p>
<p>Populism also reigns supreme in China, although in different ways. The tighter and wider the scope of the Communist Party’s political control, the less space there is for dissenting voices, and the more fertile the ground becomes for nationalistic discourses to flourish. </p>
<p>In fact, in an increasingly repressive environment of control and censorship, nationalism is the only populist game in town if you want to make a profit.</p>
<p>Over the past two years, the Chinese state media’s reaction to Australia has shifted from indifference to bemusement, and now to anger. This change in tone is evidenced in <a href="http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2017-12/11425288.html">an article in the Global Times last year</a>:</p>
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<p>Australia poses a problem for China. If we mind its silly carryings-on, it will deplete our energy, and it doesn’t seem worth our while; however, if we leave it be and pretend nothing is happening, that would only encourage it, and it may go from bad to worse. Australia is one of the countries that have benefited most from China’s rise, yet it is also one of the most provocative voices in the Western bloc. It is beginning to look like a piece of chewing gum stuck to the bottom of China’s shoe.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Global Times is a subsidiary newspaper of the Chinese government’s mouthpiece People’s Daily, but unlike People’s Daily, it is profit-driven and licensed to drive sales by pandering to populist sentiments rather than to reason. </p>
<p>The question is whether the Australian media should take the bait, trade insults with The Global Times, and allow such visceral responses to shape the debate. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-chinas-influence-on-australia-beware-of-sweeping-statements-and-conflated-ideas-94496">When it comes to China's influence on Australia, beware of sweeping statements and conflated ideas</a>
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<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-18/chinese-state-media-weighs-in-on-beijing-canberra-again/9770124">There are signs</a> the Australian media are not only taking the Global Times seriously but also literally. </p>
<p>In fact, so literally that if you enter the current China debate in Australia and critique some aspect of the anti-China rhetoric — and then get quoted favourably (and possibly out of context) by The Global Times — you may automatically qualify for being labelled a Beijing apologist. </p>
<h2>Impact on relations</h2>
<p>Can this kind of sustained war of words have an actual impact on how the two countries view one another? Yes, it can. </p>
<p>One only need look at the recent rhetoric of top government officials in both countries as an example. Last year, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-09/malcolm-turnbull-says-he-will-stand-up-for-australia/9243274">vowed to “stand up” to China</a> in an unusually sharp statement, while Foreign Minister Julie Bishop <a href="https://theconversation.com/julie-bishop-sends-sharp-message-to-china-about-democracy-74461">made a blunt assessment</a> of China’s lack of democracy. China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, just last week told Bishop that Australia <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/policy/foreign-affairs/china-tells-australia-to-remove-tinted-glasses-on-relationship-20180522-h10e8z">needs to remove its “tinted glasses”.</a> </p>
<p>Anecdotally, I’ve been told by some of my Chinese-Australian friends that their friends and families in China are repeatedly urging them to “stay safe” and “take care of themselves” as Australia becomes more anti-Chinese. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-working-in-china-should-expect-fallout-over-questions-of-political-interference-89072">Australians working in China should expect fallout over questions of political interference</a>
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<p>But are Australia-China relations really as bad as the media have been making them out? If you look at the current number of Chinese tourists and students here, maybe the answer is no, or at least not yet. But the business community <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-04-16/wine-records-tumble-as-exports-crack-1-billion-into-china/9662038">has already started to suffer</a>. </p>
<p>As recently as two years ago, both countries were hoping to use their respective media to promote public diplomacy towards each other. At the moment, media organisations in neither country are doing that. In fact, public diplomacy has well and truly been replaced by megaphone diplomacy, specialising in what The Guardian’s <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/26/andrew-hasties-contribution-to-our-china-effort-curious-and-curiouser?__twitter_impression=true">Katherine Murphy calls</a> “binary and cartoonish talk and analysis”, as is often found in the “graphic novel” genre.</p>
<p>The question we should be asking is not whether the relationship between Australia and China is as bad as the media in both countries portray it. Rather, it’s how much power the media has in shaping this relationship, and whose interests this current megaphone diplomacy is serving.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wanning Sun receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DP180100663: Chinese-Language Digital/Social Media in Australia: Rethinking Soft Power, 2018-2020)</span></em></p>The rhetoric between Australia and China is reaching a fever pitch in the media, with less room for journalists to take a more nuanced, objective viewpoint.Wanning Sun, Professor of Chinese Media and Cultural Studies, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/960462018-05-03T11:56:45Z2018-05-03T11:56:45ZGrattan on Friday: Peter Dutton’s bid for more crime-fighting power has bought him a fight<p>No one should be surprised that the Home Affairs department, with its ambitious minister Peter Dutton and his activist secretary, Mike Pezzullo, is feeling its oats. When Malcolm Turnbull granted Dutton his wish for a mega department, it was obvious how things would go.</p>
<p>Now we are seeing a power play which has set Dutton and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop at odds, and raised questions about striking the right balances in a cyber age that brings new threats but also new invasive technology to counter them.</p>
<p>The issue immediately at hand is whether Home Affairs can drag the Australian Signals Directorate – a defence-aligned organisation which spies electronically on foreign targets – into the fight against a broad range of crime in Australia.</p>
<p>As the head of ASD, Mike Burgess, succinctly put it in a draft note for Defence Minister Marise Payne, Home Affairs wants legislative change “to enable ASD to better support a range of Home Affairs priorities”.</p>
<p>The latest move, as documented in bureaucratic correspondence leaked last weekend – everyone assumes in order to blow up the proposal - came from Pezzullo. But Pezzullo was formalising a plan foreshadowed by Dutton as soon as he was sworn into the Home Affairs portfolio.</p>
<p>In December Fairfax <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-flags-more-counterespionage-defence-cyberspies-for-law-enforcement-in-home-affairs-shakeup-20171220-h080fd.html">reported</a> Dutton saying that ASD would be used more in Australian investigations into terrorism, drug-smuggling, child exploitation and other cross-border crimes.</p>
<p>Put in the simplest terms, under the plan the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and similar agencies would collect the data, as they do now, while an empowered ASD could supply the technical capability to disrupt or prevent the crime online.</p>
<p>After publication of the leaked correspondence in the <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/spying-shock-shades-of-big-brother-as-cybersecurity-vision-comes-to-light/news-story/bc02f35f23fa104b139160906f2ae709">Sunday Telegraph</a>, headlined “Secret plan to spy on Aussies”, Pezzullo, Defence Department secretary Greg Moriarty, and Burgess issued an opaque statement that, when you cut through the bureaucratise, indicated the option for a wider use of ASD was on the table.</p>
<p>Meanwhile Bishop told reporters “there is no plan for the government to extend the powers of the Australian Signals Directorate so that it could collect intelligence against Australians or covertly access private data”.</p>
<p>That would appear to be true, but it is also true Dutton had already flagged publicly a proposal to expand ASD’s remit, and the Burgess draft note clearly stated that the Home Affairs department had advised it was briefing its minister to write to the Defence Minister.</p>
<p>The fine distinction between expanding ASD powers but it not collecting intelligence on Australians is where the confusion lies, and that will need to be carefully laid out.</p>
<p>Bishop and Dutton have a record as sparring partners. The two ministers contrast in style but both are tough operators who don’t take a backward step. This is the second matter on which they’ve recently clashed – the other was Dutton’s desire to bring in white South African farmers on the basis they were subject to “persecution”.</p>
<p>Dutton, announcing this week AFP deputy commissioner Karl Kent as the first Transnational Serious and Organised Crime Coordinator within Home Affairs, told a news conference that the capacities of various agencies had to be looked at “including obviously … the capacity of ASD”.</p>
<p>Dutton stressed any change would have safeguards. “As for some claim that there’s going to be some spying taking place on Australian citizens, it’s complete nonsense,” he said.</p>
<p>“If there was to be any look at ways in which we could try and address the cyber threat more effectively, it would be accompanied by the usual protections, including warrant powers”, ticked off by the attorney-general or the justice system.</p>
<p>Defending his position on Thursday, Dutton talked about child exploitation, a guaranteed hot button, pointing out that people were conveying “images of sexual acts against children in live-streaming on the internet.</p>
<p>"We’ve got to deal with that threat. We have the ability, potentially, to disrupt some of those servers. At the moment the ASD … could disrupt that server if it was in operation offshore, but not if it was operating out of Sydney or Melbourne,” he said.</p>
<p>It is believed that Defence is unimpressed with the move on ASD, from July 1 a statutory agency but traditionally in its bailiwick. But it is Bishop who is most obviously taking the issue on, even though her portfolio is not directly involved.</p>
<p>For Bishop, the exercise has flouted the manner in which such a major bid for change should be handled, leaving most ministers blindsided.</p>
<p>Home Affairs’ case receives some support from a recent submission to the parliamentary joint committee on law enforcement by David Irvine, former head of ASIO and now chairman of the Cyber Security Research Centre, a body set up to promote industry investment in cyber security research.</p>
<p>Irvine writes: “Both national security threats and criminal activity exploit the internet in similar ways. Both need to be countered or managed using similar investigative tools and techniques.”</p>
<p>“Australia’s national capacity to counter threats and criminal activity using cyber investigative tools is relatively under-developed, uncoordinated and fragmented”, making it “difficult for agencies to cope with the pace of technical change,” he says.</p>
<p>Irvine argues for a new body to provide “expert technical cyber investigative services in support of law enforcement and national security investigations”, done by Commonwealth and state agencies.</p>
<p>He says such a body might fall within Home Affairs “but it would depend extensively upon the offensive and defensive cyber operational skills of the Australian Signals Directorate, and its offshoot the Australian Cyber Security Centre”.</p>
<p>The tug of war over ASD may have some way to run but with cyber risks becoming an increasing preoccupation, at this stage Dutton and Pezzullo appear to have a head start. It is now a question of where Malcolm Turnbull will come down. It is hard to see him saying no to Dutton.</p>
<p>But the implications of any extension of ASD’s remit should be fully debated sooner rather than later. As the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Margaret Stone <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=64ccc7ab-5a74-46f7-83bf-d20d99089fd1&subId=564258">wrote</a> earlier this year, a change to ASD’s “focus for its covert or intrusive intelligence related activities to people and organisations inside Australia would be a profound one”.</p>
<p>The pros and cons of the Dutton bid need a lot of public airing before the government reaches a conclusion, rather than that conclusion being presented as a fait accompli.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The fine distinction between expanding ASD powers but it not collecting intelligence on Australians is where the confusion lies, and that will need to be carefully laid out.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/918162018-03-13T18:58:15Z2018-03-13T18:58:15ZThe ASEAN-Australia Special Summit marks a step toward a deeper relationship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208630/original/file-20180302-65516-ogivb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are still some hurdles to be overcome for the ASEAN-Australia relationship to reach its full potential.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Mast Irham</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This weekend, ASEAN leaders will be in Sydney to attend the first <a href="https://aseanaustralia.pmc.gov.au/special-summit/about">ASEAN-Australia Special Summit</a>. Proposed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the first ASEAN-Australia Biennial Summit in Laos in 2016, the event will include a leaders’ summit and retreat, a business summit, and a counter-terrorism conference.</p>
<p>In recent years, the <a href="http://asean.org/storage/2012/05/Overview-of-ASEAN-Australia-DR_as-of-April-2017-clean-fin.pdf">ASEAN-Australia relationship</a> has reached several milestones. These include the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement in 2010, the establishment of an Australian Mission to ASEAN in Jakarta in 2013, and an agreement to upgrade the relationship to a strategic partnership in 2014.</p>
<p>Australian leaders have been eager to emphasise ASEAN’s importance. In his <a href="https://www.iiss.org/en/events/shangri-la-dialogue/archive/shangri-la-dialogue-2017-4f77/opening-remarks-and-keynote-address-fc1a/keynote-address---malcolm-turnbull-4bbe">keynote speech</a> at the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2017, Turnbull stressed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We support a strong, united ASEAN that continues to convene and strengthen organisations such as the East Asia Summit … We support an ASEAN that remains committed to liberal economic values.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The point was <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2017/jb_sp_170803.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D">reinforced</a> by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop at an event in Bangkok celebrating ASEAN’s 50th anniversary:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the central and essential role of ASEAN is recognised and respected by the great powers of the world. In a period of opportunity and challenge, we will need to strengthen that role and standing of ASEAN’s so as to advance peace, freedom and prosperity in the region and beyond.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The summit may build on the momentum of recent years. But there are still some hurdles to be overcome for the ASEAN-Australia relationship to reach its full potential.</p>
<h2>Potential for a stronger relationship</h2>
<p>The ASEAN-Australia relationship is longstanding, but has at times lacked substantive action to reinforce mutual commitments. </p>
<p>Australia’s challenge is to prove its utility to ASEAN, and vice versa. Therefore, each needs to be clear on how it views the other, and how the relationship can be of mutual benefit.</p>
<p>Australia became ASEAN’s first dialogue partner in 1974, but took until 2013 to establish a mission and appoint an ambassador to the association. Beyond official ties, Australia has not founded its own ASEAN Studies Centre, which many of ASEAN’s partners have done.</p>
<p>Australia’s alliance with the US and historical ties to the UK have at times <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australia-asean-partnership-at-40-past-dilemmas-and-future-prospects-31279">called into question</a> its role within Asia. Meanwhile, ASEAN has been criticised by some observers as having little consequence to security and diplomacy, and is frequently assessed as <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/asean-australia-beyond-50/">underperforming</a> or unable to meet the challenges it faces in its region. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australia-asean-partnership-at-40-past-dilemmas-and-future-prospects-31279">The Australia-ASEAN partnership at 40: past dilemmas and future prospects</a>
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<p>Currently, there is much talk of shared values and a common commitment to a rules-based order. Yet not all of ASEAN’s and Australia’s priorities align. </p>
<p>Despite these issues, Australia and ASEAN have successfully maintained a constructive partnership. Initiatives such as this weekend’s summit could further alleviate any doubt or misunderstanding.</p>
<h2>Balancing act</h2>
<p>The 2017 <a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/foreign-policy-white-paper">Foreign Policy White Paper</a> framed Australia’s priorities in terms of the Indo-Pacific. Australia is not alone here. The Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NSS-Final-12-18-2017-0905-1.pdf">National Security Strategy</a> emphasised the region, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo <a href="https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/indo-pacific-construct-indonesian-characteristics/">spoke recently</a> of his desire for a “stable, peaceful and prosperous” Indo-Pacific.</p>
<p>Overlapping but also contested ideas of the Indo-Pacific will need <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2017/12/indonesia-and-australias-foreign-policy-white-paper/">close consultation</a> between Australia, ASEAN and other partners. Handled correctly, this could bolster Australian ties with ASEAN, but it also comes with risks.</p>
<p>There is also the question of how Australia’s conception of the Indo-Pacific and commitment to ASEAN will contribute to – or undermine – security efforts, especially in relation to China’s growing assertiveness in the region and renewed momentum of the idea of the “<a href="http://www.deccanherald.com/content/657689/strategic-dilemma-quad-not-quad.html">Quad</a>”. Likewise, the Trump administration’s impact on America’s global role requires careful navigation by Australia and ASEAN.</p>
<p>The foreign policy white paper also <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/asean-still-central-australia">emphasised southeast Asia</a> more than ASEAN, and Australia’s commitment to working with democracies in the region. Both aspects will need careful balancing so that Australia remains steadfast to its interests and values, but does not sideline ASEAN in the process.</p>
<h2>Refreshed debates and opportunities</h2>
<p>Most importantly, there is a need to move beyond binary debates about ASEAN’s effectiveness, which have tended to dominate discussions. Despite ASEAN’s shortcomings, challenges and moments of disunity, it cannot be dismissed or ignored.</p>
<p>As a grouping, ASEAN is Australia’s third-largest trading partner, and its members constitute Australia’s closest neighbours. Without ASEAN-led forums such as the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum, and the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus, there would be far fewer opportunities for Australia to engage with its partners in the region and beyond.</p>
<p>Rather than seeing Australia’s mix of history and geography as a source of contention, ASEAN members can enrich the ASEAN-Australia partnership by drawing on the unique strengths that come from being located in Asia but having ties to Europe. </p>
<p>Relations between the European Union and Australia have intensified in recent years, and the EU and Australia are committed to working together in the Asia-Pacific. This is demonstrated by initiatives such as the <a href="https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/association-southeast-asian-nations-asean/20856/asean-regional-forum-arf-workshop-brussels-discusses-how-better-prevent-radicalisation_en">ASEAN Regional Forum workshop</a> in 2017 on the prevention of violent extremism, which was co-hosted by the EU, Australia and the Philippines.</p>
<p>The Australian government should reflect on how ASEAN expertise can advance its aims, and where Australian support for ASEAN is most valuable. It has been emphasised that Australia <a href="http://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/australia-must-embrace-asean-but-weve-some-explaining-to-do-20180106-h0ejv2">needs to listen</a> to ASEAN thinking to increase its influence and learn about ASEAN’s strategies. ASEAN’s leaders, then, must be ready to share their expectations with Australia. The special summit may just be the place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Allison-Reumann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s challenge is to prove its utility to ASEAN, and vice versa.Laura Allison-Reumann, Research Associate, Nanyang Technological University; Visiting Fellow, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/880302017-11-23T10:31:07Z2017-11-23T10:31:07ZGrattan on Friday: Discovery of the cabinet leaker would present bigger problem than the leak<p>What on earth was Julie Bishop thinking when she declared she’d support a “formal investigation” into this week’s damaging cabinet leak?</p>
<p>Bishop was defending herself as the questions swirled about who might be the leaker, saying it wasn’t her. But to have one of the most senior ministers – she’s deputy Liberal leader too – talking about a probe into cabinet members just underlines the serious breakdown not just in the government’s discipline but in its common sense as well.</p>
<p>The leaked story was by the Daily Telegraph’s Sharri Markson, reporting that a “despondent” cabinet had discussed, in the context of the backbench revolt on banking, whether the government should capitulate and hold a royal commission.</p>
<p>Treasurer Scott Morrison said no; Peter Dutton, one of the conservatives who has had Malcolm Turnbull’s back, was reported to be “opposed in principle” but open to the idea on pragmatic grounds. But Turnbull remains against changing policy and has said this publicly.</p>
<p>For Bishop the affair is a re-run of an old movie. After a leak from the Abbott cabinet, Bishop denied being the source, saying that if the prime minister found the culprit he would “take some action”.</p>
<p>In retrospect, if not always at the time, it seems obvious the 2015 leaks were mostly inspired by those wanting a coup.</p>
<p>This time, the “who” and the “why” aren’t clear. There is no evidence of any organised push against Turnbull, like there was against Tony Abbott, although leadership speculation has become media grist.</p>
<p>The leaks, of which there have been several, may be driven by the general angst around or reflect jostling by various players in uncertain times.</p>
<p>We’ve seen publicly the respective positioning by Morrison and Dutton on the marriage equality legislation, with Morrison putting himself at the forefront of the “safeguards” brigade and Dutton – on this issue as on others – looking for a compromise way through.</p>
<p>Anyway, there won’t be an investigation. The Australian Federal Police almost never finds the source of leaks to the media, but imagine if it had an unexpected success. That indeed would present a problem.</p>
<p>Bill Shorten described the situation as the government eating itself. Alternatively, think of an army in untidy retreat, sloshing through heavy mud, when it becomes every soldier for himself.</p>
<p>We’re back to the Gillard days or, for those with a sense of history, to the Liberal Party of the late 1960s, as it lost its way in the post-Menzies years.</p>
<p>Despite cabinet’s now well-canvassed discussion, the government is still faced with the push from the Nationals’ rebels for parliament to set up a commission of inquiry (only marginally different from a royal commission) into the banks.</p>
<p>Turnbull has tried to minimise the scope for the rebels and Labor to make trouble by cancelling next week’s House of Representatives sitting, but the action just exposed his weakness.</p>
<p>The rebels are unbowed, with Nationals senator Barry O'Sullivan on Thursday circulating his private senator’s bill for “a commission of inquiry into banking, insurance, superannuation, financial and related services”.</p>
<p>O'Sullivan confirms he is determined. “I’m not someone who blinks,” he said. He dismissed suggestions his absent leader, Barnaby Joyce, was trying to dissuade him. He’d spoken to Joyce early on – Joyce just “asked me to keep him posted”.</p>
<p>It should be remembered the Nationals generally have no problem in cracking down on the banks. In fact, if a proposal for a royal commission were put to the Nationals’ partyroom, it would likely get up. Nationals assistant minister Keith Pitt was blunt on Thursday: “Clearly the government’s position is not for a royal commission, however we do have a number of members in the Nats who think it’s something that they want”.</p>
<p>Amid the tumult, former prime minister John Howard has used the occasion of Friday’s tenth anniversary of being turfed out of office to buy into the contemporary debates on banking and taxation.</p>
<p>The latter debate was reignited after Turnbull held out the prospect of <a href="https://theconversation.com/income-tax-relief-on-turnbulls-agenda-87794">personal income tax relief</a> in a major address on Monday, albeit devoid of detail. On Thursday Finance Minister Mathias Cormann was dealing with scepticism about its affordability, arguing: “We have effectively already assumed future further tax cuts in our budget projections”.</p>
<p>Howard claimed a banking commission would be “rank socialism” – to which O'Sullivan says: “I don’t understand what he means”.</p>
<p>As for tax, Howard, who nearly lost office in his (successful) pursuit of a GST, told Sky it would benefit the government “if it were to embrace very significant further tax reform”. This should include the GST, which couldn’t be left “where it is indefinitely”.</p>
<p>The best of luck with that. Turnbull is tossing tax into the mix to try to show voters he has some sugar in his back pocket to put on their tables. But sweeping reform would see losers as well as winners. For a government perennially behind in the polls, with the slenderest majority before it fell into its current minority position, a major tax overhaul including the GST would take more bravery than presently in sight.</p>
<p>The tenth anniversary of the Howard government’s defeat is also the anniversary of the loss of his own seat of Bennelong. Now the Liberals are again <a href="https://theconversation.com/shorten-recruits-keneally-for-bennelong-as-citizenship-crisis-claims-lambie-87436">fighting to hold Bennelong</a>, after John Alexander became a victim of the citizenship crisis.</p>
<p>It is too early to get a real sense of how that December 16 byelection will go. On a 9.7% margin, Alexander has a big buffer, as he faces Labor’s Kristina Keneally.</p>
<p>But this week the Liberal campaign, already looking lack lustre, was snagged by an <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/aliceworkman/john-alexander-joke?utm_term=.ioWDVgkZv#.ndG7o25VB">embarrassing 1990s</a> video of Alexander telling a crude Irish joke and another about “a black guy in Chicago” describing a rape.</p>
<p>Alexander wasn’t the only government byelection candidate who became an embarrassment. There was Joyce’s jaunt from his New England campaign to Canberra for “AgDay”, described as the “brainchild” of his good friend Gina Rinehart, who presented him with a A$40,000 cheque, reward for being a “champion of our industry”. He only belatedly declined the money.</p>
<p>It was another example of the poor judgement that infects this government.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/k3zus-7afe23?from=site&skin=1&share=1&fonts=Helvetica&auto=0&download=0" height="100" width="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player"></iframe><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What on earth was Julie Bishop thinking when she declared she’d support a ‘formal investigation’ into this week’s damaging cabinet leak?Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/878492017-11-23T06:23:40Z2017-11-23T06:23:40ZAustralia’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper offers more wishful thinking than concrete ideas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196046/original/file-20171123-6055-5w58c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop launch the long-awaited foreign policy white paper.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A white paper has many purposes and audiences. There are, for example, the other government departments, ministers, opposition, internal staff that have to breach the silos and understand the Grand Vision.</p>
<p>The 2017 <a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/">Foreign Policy White Paper</a> will be snatched up by the diplomatic community in Canberra, analysed to a hair’s breadth, and cabled around the world.</p>
<p>This white paper, after a long pause and significant uncertainty created by the presidency of Donald Trump, attracted strong domestic interest outside the usual “business and boffins” types that follow the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) portfolio. </p>
<p>These disparate audiences usually mean careful phrasing. This white paper is a little different: it is certainly filled with the usual “risk … but opportunity” stock phrases, but at moments is also unusually blunt in tone and stark in its delineation of options. For example, it says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The government is publishing this white paper to chart a clear course for Australia at a time of rapid change.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It goes on to name a most significant change:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The United States has been the dominant power in our region throughout Australia’s post-second world war history. Today, China is challenging America’s position.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull addresses the Trump in the room in his foreword:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>More than ever, Australia must be sovereign, not reliant. We must take responsibility for our own security and prosperity while recognising we are stronger when sharing the burden of leadership with trusted partners and friends.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But whom should we trust?</p>
<p>The question of what we should do is relatively clear, and uncontroversial: </p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><p>promote an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo–Pacific region in which the rights of all states are respected;</p></li>
<li><p>deliver more opportunities for our businesses globally and stand against protectionism;</p></li>
<li><p>ensure Australians remain safe, secure and free in the face of threats such as terrorism;</p></li>
<li><p>promote and protect the international rules that support stability and prosperity and enable cooperation to tackle global challenges; and</p></li>
<li><p>step up support for a more resilient Pacific and Timor–Leste.</p></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>The question is <em>how</em> we should do it. The guidance in the white paper sounds remarkably like that Australia should just keep being its awesome self – strong economy, strong borders, strong institutions (like parliament?) – and everything will turn out fine.</p>
<p>That sounds more like wishful thinking than a foreign policy plan. Trying not to be the grass that gets trampled when elephants fight is not a plan. </p>
<p>The closest the white paper gets to a plan is to double-down on the US relationship, and trust that the Trump administration is a blip. Turnbull has just spent an extended period in Asia with Trump, attending the <a href="http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/doorstep-diplomacy-australia-apec-east-asia-conference/">Asian summit season</a>. Can he really be as confident as this document sounds?</p>
<p>Still, the white paper has to land somewhere, and that the US will wake up to itself soon is a defensible place to land. Acknowledging “<a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/foreign-policy-white-paper/chapter-three-stable-and-prosperous-indo-pacific/united-states-and-china">friction</a>” between our stronger engagement with China and our “different interests, values and political and legal systems” might be the best we can do at present.</p>
<p>Chapter two is probably of the most interest to the reading public – it is an excellent synthesis of all the complexity DFAT faces daily, although the climate chapter must be the rosiest version of facts possible. There is surely a top contender for understatement of the decade in the section headed “An Environment Under Strain”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The coming decade will likely see an increased need for international disaster relief.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Generally speaking, the <a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/foreign-policy-white-paper/chapter-six-global-cooperation/climate-change">climate</a> section is underwhelming. Other nations and international organisations, such as the <a href="https://europa.eu/globalstrategy/en/climate-change-and-european-foreign-policy-after-cop-21">EU Global Strategy</a>, have underlined the strategic risk climate poses to the conduct of foreign policy in a clear-sighted and comprehensive manner. </p>
<p>What is also missing is the will to invest in diplomacy. What will Australia do if US global leadership conflicts with our desire for China to take a stronger role in regional security, which it must, given time? </p>
<p>A white paper ignites a domestic conversation about foreign policy, and this one is certainly substantive and to be welcomed. But there is little point in a foreign policy white paper if it largely apes the <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/WhitePaper/Docs/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf">2016 Defence White Paper</a> and the viewpoint of the intelligence community – as this one does. </p>
<p>It should align, certainly, but it should also add value, the perspective gained from experienced statecraft about non-traditional security threats and relationship-building. When it comes to diplomacy, the government has to “live within its means” (bah), but defence is be described as “strong” or “substantial” no less than nine times.</p>
<p>What if geographic proximity to a rising Asia is not enough to ensure our own rise? What if increased defence spending doesn’t placate the US, and chokes off more creative options to integrate into the region? </p>
<p>There is more depth in the trade section of the paper, perhaps reflecting the increasing dominance of the trade agenda over the other parts of DFAT. The economic vision of the paper is clear–- we will maintain an open economy and manage the winners and losers from this policy. “Strength through openness” is a strong narrative: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The government will continue to work hard to ensure community support for our openness to trade, investment and skilled migration.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a voter wading through a Queensland election at present, I can attest that the federal government has a serious job getting that narrative through to ordinary Australians.</p>
<p>Moreover, the hard sell on trade continues with little acknowledgement that Australians outside the business community might have valid concerns about human rights or gender equality issues arising out of trade negotiations.</p>
<h2>Other notable features</h2>
<p>The promising governance innovation of MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, Korea and Australia) gets a cursory mention in the document, and seems to have been restructured out of existence. </p>
<p>The focus on Indo-Pacific is clear. This is understandable, and the ALP’s “<a href="https://asiasociety.org/australia/step-change-our-relationship-asia">FutureAsia</a>” policy means this is now a welcome bipartisan focus. But Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s investments in innovative pivotal power diplomacy should not be abandoned.</p>
<p>The “cumbersome” <a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/foreign-policy-white-paper/chapter-six-global-cooperation/united-nations">United Nations</a> is treated with a level of ambiguity and grudging acceptance. Australia will run for another Security Council term in 2029. Nonetheless, there is a encouraging focus on supporting international law and the rule of law.</p>
<p>In a breakthrough from the previous white paper in 2003, there is a section on <a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/foreign-policy-white-paper/chapter-six-global-cooperation/promoting-sustainable-development">gender equality</a>. It is expressed as a development issue rather than a strategic foreign policy issue, and comes at the end of a 100-page-plus document. But it is still a step forward. And before the poor old Great Barrier Reef and Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Pacific, all of which surely deserve deeper treatment than is offered here. </p>
<p>But at least our neighbours score a chapter to themselves and a spot as the fifth priority. </p>
<p>It is worth looking at the section on “<a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/foreign-policy-white-paper/chapter-eight-partnerships-and-soft-power/soft-power">soft power</a>” at the very end of the document, an important addition. It covers science diplomacy, sports and creative diplomacy, international education, digital engagement, and people-to-people links, as well as the New Colombo Plan.</p>
<p>It may feel like an afterthought, but much of Australia’s way through the maze presented in the white paper may in fact stem from better investment in these areas of statecraft and a stronger nation brand in pursuit of our five new priorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Harris Rimmer receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Susan is a board member of the International Women's Development Agency. This piece is the author's own and does not reflect the views of IWDA.</span></em></p>The closest idea to an actual plan in the white paper seems to be to double-down on the US relationship, and trust that the Trump administration is a blip.Susan Harris Rimmer, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Griffith Law School, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/865592017-10-30T10:52:41Z2017-10-30T10:52:41ZThe Nationals will be battling to protect territory and clout amid Coalition angst<p>A northern New South Wales bookmaker has got it about right on the New England byelection. “Barnaby will be a shorter price than Winx,” he told a National. “And the only one who could beat Barnaby is Winx.”</p>
<p>Not only has Tony Windsor said he won’t contest, but now One Nation – with its focus on the Queensland election – and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party are also no shows.</p>
<p>So, it’s all good for a relatively clear run in the seat for the man the <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-court-knocks-barnaby-joyce-out-in-dual-citizenship-case-as-byelection-looms-in-new-england-86470">High Court ousted</a> from parliament last week. The only problem for the government is that on the way to victory Joyce will be spending more than a month roaming around his electorate in the glare of publicity when – at least at the moment – he is off the reservation, saying whatever comes into his head.</p>
<p>Such as his proposal for an omnibus referendum, which he said could be held with the next election. “You might have four or five things,” he <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/queensland-election/joyce-blasts-liberals-wekept-you-out-of-opposition/news-story/ad947cb572e94d881506bb072ecc07b2">told The Australian</a>. He suggested it could deal with Section 44 of the Constitution, which brought him undone because of his dual citizenship, Indigenous recognition, and even the republic.</p>
<p>This can only be described as hare-brained. The chances of getting a referendum through to make things easier for politicians would be nearly nil. The Indigenous referendum process <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-government-says-no-to-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-86421">has stalled</a>. As for the republic, well, maybe he was joking.</p>
<p>One can only assume the omnibus referendum was a thought-bubble driven by frustration or by liberation from cabinet discipline. Joyce’s colleague Matt Canavan, during his temporary spell on the backbench, also played on the wild side.</p>
<p>Tapping into something more serious is Joyce’s counterpunch against Liberal complaints about the Nationals causing all this trouble with their carelessness over dual citizenship. He pointed out sharply that the government’s survival in 2016 had been due to the Nationals’ good performance in holding seats and even gaining one.</p>
<p>The fallout from Friday’s High Court decision is putting considerable strains on Coalition relations, and that won’t end with the certain byelection win.</p>
<p>Apart from the Liberal blame game, there is angst in the minor Coalition partner about status, upset over losing the seat of senator Fiona Nash, who was also disqualified, and worry as to the consequences for the party’s frontbench representation.</p>
<p>Julie Bishop was appointed to act as prime minister while Malcolm Turnbull attends the Battle of Beersheba commemoration. Nationals muttered about their acting parliamentary leader Nigel Scullion not getting the gig, although in the end they agreed to Bishop – apparently for some (unknown) trade-off.</p>
<p>But what about when Turnbull is travelling in Asia for the November summit season? The Prime Minister’s Office on Monday night confirmed that Bishop will again be in place, “because there is no deputy prime minister” – that role hasn’t been filled in the temporary arrangement.</p>
<p>It will again be publicly embarrassing for the Nationals.</p>
<p>Then there is the shrinking of the Nationals partyroom and its implications. Nash’s Senate seat will go on a recount to the next candidate on the Coalition ticket in NSW: Hollie Hughes, a Liberal.</p>
<p>Earlier there were calls for Turnbull to intervene to persuade Hughes, once she got the seat, to resign so Nash could return. But even if the Liberals were willing to give up their windfall – never likely – such a course would not help Nash. Hughes could only be replaced by a Liberal under the constitutional provision that a casual vacancy is filled by someone from the same party.</p>
<p>Incidentally, <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/liberal-in-line-to-replace-fiona-nash-could-be-ineligible/news-story/34e5b2c2eb241fce36c364b0c37d7c58">questions have been raised</a> about Hughes’ eligibility under another part of Section 44; the Liberals are confident she is fine but even if she wasn’t, the spot would go to another Liberal.</p>
<p>A further line of speculation suggested that NSW National senator John Williams might stand aside for Nash – not that that would help the party’s numbers. Williams said no chance. “I’m not leaving until June 30, 2019,” he says. He’s got a debt to pay off on his farm. If he pulled out early “I’d need a job, and if I left parliament for a job I would be leaving with a bad reputation – people would say ‘Wacka is as bad as the rest of them, with his snout in the trough’”.</p>
<p>The loss of a Nationals’ number translates into being one down on the frontbench. The Nationals have played tough in the past on what they are entitled to – now the boot is on the Liberal foot. They will be particularly anxious to try to retain five cabinet spots but it is hard to see how they will be able to justify this on the arithmetic.</p>
<p>The cooler heads in the Nationals are trying to keep the situation calm. They want to guard against the Liberals being able to take advantage of their weakened position, which includes their representation being two down in the cabinet during this limbo period.</p>
<p>With a reshuffle coming up some time after the byelection, the Nationals will be battling to protect territory and clout in the difficult circumstances they have brought on themselves.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/czuhk-79b16b?from=site&skin=1&share=1&fonts=Helvetica&auto=0&download=0" height="100" width="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player"></iframe><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A northern New South Wales bookmaker has got it about right on the New England byelection. “Barnaby will be a shorter price than Winx,” he told a National. “And the only one who could beat Barnaby is Winx…Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/809532017-10-17T00:11:52Z2017-10-17T00:11:52ZAustralia’s Human Rights Council election comes with a challenge to improve its domestic record<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190288/original/file-20171015-1509-2qi6re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia’s campaign for a seat on the Human Rights Council opened it to further scrutiny of its record on such issues.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Denis Balibouse</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/10/17/aust-wins-seat-un-human-rights-council">has been elected</a> to a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. It will serve on the council from 2018 to 2020.</p>
<p>The announcement overnight formalised an <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/australia-to-take-a-seat-on-powerful-united-nations-human-rights-council/news-story/5b86ce8a09c5ae1e357c8151ffe0e7ad">assumed result</a>: Australia and <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/1532991/pakistan-elected-un-human-rights-council/">Spain</a> were the only two countries seeking election to the two available seats for the Western Europe and Others group. Most of the other newly- elected council members similarly ran uncontested.</p>
<p>However, all campaigning countries required the support of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/14/australia-to-be-elected-to-powerful-un-human-rights-council">majority of voting countries</a> to ensure their election. Australia received 176 votes and Spain 180 - both survived grilling by an <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/10/16/australias-human-rights-record-no-hurdle-un-council-bid-bishop">expert committee</a>. </p>
<h2>How did Australia present itself as a candidate?</h2>
<p>Foreign Minister Julie Bishop led Australia’s campaign, which had a particular focus on freedoms, free speech, and equality. The <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/international-relations/international-organisations/pages/australias-candidacy-for-the-unhrc-2018-2020.aspx">“five pillars”</a> of Australia’s bid were: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>gender equality</p></li>
<li><p>good governance</p></li>
<li><p>freedom of expression</p></li>
<li><p>the rights of Indigenous peoples</p></li>
<li><p>strong national human rights institutions and capacity building.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Australia presented itself as a <a href="https://dfat-media-portal.publish.viostream.com/media-distribution?v=6aoztqb779hwh">“pragmatic and principled”</a> candidate for the council position. Bishop cited Australia’s <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2016/jb_sp_161212.aspx">“strong track record for human rights”</a> as well as its <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2017/jb_sp_150518.aspx">active and practical involvement</a> in international affairs. </p>
<p>Such active and practical involvement can be seen in Australia’s advocacy for the <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2015/jb_sp_150929a.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D">abolition of the death penalty</a>, as in the case of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/28/memories-of-andrew-chan-and-myuran-sukumaran-can-help-us-fight-the-death-penalty">Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan</a>. Furthering global advocacy for death penalty abolition is one of Australia’s <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/international-relations/international-organisations/un/Documents/ga-doc-a-72-212-voluntary-pledges-hrc-australia.pdf">primary pledges</a> as a new council member. </p>
<p>Australia’s involvement in multiple UN treaties and its <a href="https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2017/FirstQuarter/Improving-oversight-and-conditions-in-detention.aspx">anticipated adoption</a> of the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/OPCAT.aspx">Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture</a> were also cited as evidence of its worthiness for election.</p>
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<h2>Australia’s bid and opportunities for human rights advocacy</h2>
<p>However, Australia’s campaign opened it to further scrutiny of its <a href="http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2fC.12%2fAUS%2fCO%2f5&Lang=en">human rights record</a>. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/17/australia-vies-un-human-rights-council-seat">Human rights organisations</a> in Australia and overseas have been lobbying to ensure that Australia’s practices are well publicised and subject to oversight and critique.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2016/jb_sp_161212.aspx">December 2016</a>, Bishop sought to pre-empt such criticism, claiming <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/news-and-media/multimedia/audio/julie-bishop-australia-and-un-human-rights-council">“no country is perfect”</a>. Bishop pledged to be “honest and open” about Australia’s human rights record during the campaign. </p>
<p>Yet the campaign’s pledges failed to acknowledge Australia’s human rights abuses. As such, Australia remains open to accusations of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/22/australia-human-rights-council/ready-leadership-role">hypocrisy on human rights</a>.</p>
<p>Australia’s <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/australia">human rights track record</a> is more chequered than it would claim. The UN has condemned Australia for its <a href="http://un.org.au/2016/11/18/australias-human-rights-record-blemished-by-punitive-approach-to-migrants-un-rights-expert/">asylum-seeker policies</a> and <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/the-point-with-stan-grant/article/2017/04/03/un-rapporteur-slams-governments-record-indigenous-issues-hopeful-change?cid=inbody:australia%E2%80%99s-poor-record-on-indigenous-affairs-could-jeopardise-its-bid-for-a-unhrc-seat">treatment of Indigenous peoples</a>. </p>
<p>Bishop frequently praised Australia for its success in building a <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2017/jb_sp_150518.aspx">multicultural society</a> and valuing the diverse background of migrant settlers. Yet asylum seekers arriving by boat <a href="https://theconversation.com/fake-refugees-dutton-adopts-an-alternative-fact-to-justify-our-latest-human-rights-violation-78175">continue to be dehumanised</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/fake-refugees-dutton-adopts-an-alternative-fact-to-justify-our-latest-human-rights-violation-78175">‘Fake refugees’: Dutton adopts an alternative fact to justify our latest human rights violation</a></strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Another key area of human rights controversy is the current postal plebiscite to survey public opinion on <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/punjabi/en/audiotrack/marriage-equality-human-rights-issue-says-law-lecturer-rita-verma">marriage equality</a>. Australia’s council bid promised the <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/international-relations/international-organisations/pages/australias-candidacy-for-the-unhrc-2018-2020.aspx">protection of LGBTQI rights</a>. But <a href="https://www.psychology.org.au/community/public-interest/marriage-equality/">as was forewarned</a>, the plebiscite campaign <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/21/homophobic-anti-marriage-equality-material-surfaces-in-postal-survey-campaign">has exposed</a> LGBTQI people to harmful fear campaigning and social exclusion.</p>
<p>It is incongruous for a claimed champion of human rights to put the rights of a minority group to a <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/question-of-gay-marriage-should-not-be-put-to-a-toxic-plebiscite-20160929-grrgkj.html">popular vote</a>, potentially in an effort to prevent that group from gaining marriage equality.</p>
<p>Australia strikes a similarly dissonant note in relation to its treatment of Indigenous people. A <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/international-relations/international-organisations/un/Documents/ga-doc-a-72-212-voluntary-pledges-hrc-australia.pdf">key pledge</a> of the council bid was the recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution. However, a constitutional convention <a href="https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-05/Uluru_Statement_From_The_Heart_0.PDF">rejected</a> the form of “recognition” the government-sponsored Recognise campaign had promoted.</p>
<p>The Recognise campaign has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-11/recognise-campaign-wound-up/8797540">since been abandoned</a>, and the future of the proposed referendum is unclear. The Australian government is yet to embrace the Referendum Council’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/listening-to-the-heart-what-now-for-indigenous-recognition-after-the-uluru-summit-77853">proposals</a> for treaty, truth-telling and a First Nations Voice. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/listening-to-the-heart-what-now-for-indigenous-recognition-after-the-uluru-summit-77853">Listening to the heart: what now for Indigenous recognition after the Uluru summit?</a></strong></em></p>
<hr>
<h2>France’s withdrawal was a loss to the election campaign</h2>
<p>Given Australia’s record, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-13/australia-likely-to-win-seat-on-un-human-rights-council/8703976">France’s withdrawal</a> as a third candidate for the two available seats was unfortunate. The lack of competition reduced pressure on Australia to extend its human rights commitments. </p>
<p>The weight of international disapproval of Australia’s practice in relation to refugees, in particular, could well have weakened the bid had France stayed in the race. </p>
<p>No doubt this was also true for Spain. The recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-spain-represses-catalonias-show-of-independence-the-rest-of-europe-watches-on-nervously-84463">Catalan independence referendum</a> exposed Spain’s problematic record in relation to self-determination and political rights for minority groups.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-spain-represses-catalonias-show-of-independence-the-rest-of-europe-watches-on-nervously-84463">As Spain represses Catalonia’s show of independence, the rest of Europe watches on nervously</a></strong></em></p>
<hr>
<h2>In interesting company</h2>
<p>The UN’s orientation is to promote inclusion rather than marginalisation of member countries on international bodies. The UN is committed to <a href="http://www.un.org/en/charter-united-nations/">universal values and obligations</a>, and seeks to enforce these through universal involvement in its processes. </p>
<p>It is undoubtedly difficult to countenance <a href="http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/628741/phl-at-risk-of-being-removed-from-un-human-rights-council-hrw/story/">egregious</a> human rights <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/01/how-saudi-arabia-kept-its-un-human-rights-council-seat">violators</a> participating in human rights processes. But it is at least arguable that their involvement promotes the progressive realisation of human rights more effectively than their marginalisation would. </p>
<p>However, in some cases, it may be that a country’s membership should be postponed until it can show improvement in a deplorable record. Leading up to the election, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/13/un-dr-congo-unfit-serve-rights-body">Human Rights Watch</a> campaigned against promoting the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the council due to its grave human rights violations. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the US warned it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/un-elects-congo-to-human-rights-council-despite-abuses/2017/10/16/840b45f2-b292-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?utm_term=.c915903bdfdb">may withdraw</a> if the council continued to elect countries responsible for gross abuses.</p>
<p>Australia is not in this category. It aspires to be an exemplary member of the council. And its election should act as impetus for progressive gains in its human rights performance. </p>
<h2>The value of Australia’s election for human rights</h2>
<p><a href="https://alhr.org.au/indifferencetohumanrightsviolationsdamageaustunhrcbid/">Human rights advocates</a> will take the opportunity to draw attention to any gaps between Australia’s international legal obligations and its domestic practices. </p>
<p>Bishop was right to highlight the value of Australia becoming the <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2017/jb_sp_150518.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D">first Pacific country</a> to join the council. Strong diplomatic and trade relationships will hopefully enable Australia to influence human rights development in its region. It is the <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=fyDmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA658&lpg=PA658&dq=asia+pacific+lacks+human+rights+treaty&source=bl&ots=hbXzwCbZiN&sig=eK8BhPG9VR7pRIIrOEolUBqH2eQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL2eOl9_PWAhUEGJQKHQesDLQQ6AEITjAG#v=onepage&q=asia%20pacific%20lacks%20human%20rights%20treaty&f=false">only place</a> without a regional human rights treaty or institution.</p>
<p>An important focus in this context will be Australia’s advocacy for the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/Death_Penalty/Report">abolition of capital punishment</a>. Allied to that concern for the <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtections/HumanRights/Human-rights-scrutiny/PublicSectorGuidanceSheets/Pages/Righttolife.aspx">right to life</a>, perhaps Australia might also consider lobbying other countries – notably the US – for <a href="https://castancentre.com/2016/03/16/what-does-human-rights-law-say-about-gun-control/">gun laws</a> that prioritise human life and wellbeing. </p>
<p>Australia could substantially increase the legitimacy of such efforts, though, by working to build adequate domestic <a href="http://www.naclc.org.au/cb_pages/news/AustraliasHumanRightsRecordCriticisedbyUNExpertCommittee.php">human rights architecture</a>. Without federal human rights legislation, Australia cannot demonstrate the social and legal value of building human rights protections into law. </p>
<p>Australia’s election also calls for a renewal of political commitment to the value of international human rights review processes. Recent years have seen expressions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-international-condemnation-on-human-rights-mean-so-little-to-australia-53814">frustration</a>, <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/australian-government-dismisses-united-nations-concerns-on-northern-territory-intervention/news-story/9c82c381ba5eac2bc24f16a363ee8b54">dismissal</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-13/lynch-human-rights/4190968">poor faith</a> that undermine Australia’s strong record of commitment to international human rights treaties. </p>
<p>Nowhere was this troubling attitude toward human rights protection more clear than <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/attorneygeneral-george-brandis-censured-over-gillian-triggs-affair-20150302-13sm22.html">in efforts</a> to tarnish the reputation and work of former Human Rights Commission president <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2016/04/23/human-rights-commission-president-gillian-triggs-speaks-out/14613336003160">Gillian Triggs</a>. </p>
<p>Such mixed messages sit poorly with Australia’s continued efforts to review the practices of other countries – particularly now that it has an official role on the Human Rights Council.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-international-condemnation-on-human-rights-mean-so-little-to-australia-53814">Why does international condemnation on human rights mean so little to Australia?</a></strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Australia has claimed leadership in the areas of gender equality, good governance, freedom of expression, the rights of Indigenous people, and strong national human rights institutions. </p>
<p>Imperfect performance in these areas indicates key targets for immediate focus – for example through human-rights-informed approaches to <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/family-and-domestic-violence/why-domestic-violence-human-rights-issue">gendered violence</a>, and concern for limitations on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-speech-is-at-risk-in-australia-and-its-not-from-section-18c-64800">freedom to express</a> views about politically sensitive matters.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-11/closing-the-gap-progress-woeful-un-says/8892980">Considerable progress</a> will be required on the <a href="http://www.nzlii.org/nz/journals/NZYbkIntLaw/2014/7.html">rights of Indigenous people</a> for Australia to claim success on that key pillar of its council campaign. The federal government could look to <a href="http://nationalcongress.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Media-Release-VIC-funding-Aboriginal-body.pdf">progress on a treaty</a> in Victoria as evidence that such a conversation can be inclusive and productive.</p>
<p>Importantly, Australia must also be held accountable in the key area its bid sought to avoid: the treatment of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-10/nauru-a-blemish-on-australias-human-rights-record:-un-official/8606960">asylum seekers</a> and <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54669#.WeQ6F2iCzIU">refugees</a>. Its election provides an ideal opportunity for Australia to show leadership and commitment to durable <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/news/how-australia-can-shape-global-compact-refugees">regional and global responses</a> to refugee flows.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Maguire is Co-Chair of the Indigenous Rights Subcommittee of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights and a member of Amnesty International. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgia Monaghan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s Human Rights Council election provides an ideal opportunity for it to show leadership and commitment on issues such as refugee flows and the death penalty.Amy Maguire, Senior Lecturer in International Law and Human Rights, University of NewcastleGeorgia Monaghan, Research Assistant, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/842772017-10-03T18:45:56Z2017-10-03T18:45:56ZBeyond sanctions: a diplomatic path to peace on the Korean Peninsula<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188281/original/file-20171002-21580-6hnol7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">North Korea has placed the Kim regime's survival before any other priority.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/KCNA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-02/trump-says-negotiating-with-north-korea-is-a-waste-of-time/9006146">ongoing war of words</a> between the leaders of North Korea and the US has created international fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe. But each side’s actions go well beyond words.</p>
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<p>North Korea has conducted <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2017/09/04/timeline-north-korea-six-nuclear-tests">six nuclear tests</a> since 2006, including its recent hydrogen bomb test and a spate of ballistic missile tests with ever-increasing range. The Trump administration, for its part, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-north-korea-aircraft-carrier-sailing-opposite-direction-warning-a7689961.html">dispatched a naval armada</a> to the region earlier this year, and recently conducted <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/23/us-bombers-fly-close-north-korean-shores-show-force/">bomber flights</a> close to the North Korean border.</p>
<p>But with much attention focused on both sides’ military moves, and on the rigorous enforcement of economic sanctions against North Korea, there has been little focus on calls for a diplomatic solution.</p>
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<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-assumptions-we-make-about-north-korea-and-why-theyre-wrong-84771">Five assumptions we make about North Korea – and why they’re wrong</a></strong></em></p>
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<h2>Where are we at currently?</h2>
<p>Recent statements by the Trump administration and allies such as Australia appear to assume the impact of sanctions, coupled with demonstrations of overwhelming military capacity, will secure North Korea’s unilateral back-down.</p>
<p>Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, <a href="https://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2017/jb_sp_170922.aspx">emphasised to the UN General Assembly</a> recently that Australia would be vigorously pursuing sanctions of its own against North Korea. She argued such sanctions would “compel North Korea to abandon its illegal programs”.</p>
<p>Absent in Bishop’s speech, however, was an equally emphatic commitment to pursuing a negotiated diplomatic solution.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2375(2017)">most recent UN Security Council resolution</a> against North Korea unanimously (China and Russia included) imposed a set of severe economic sanctions on the isolated country.</p>
<p>Less noticed in the US-drafted resolution was a quasi-military imposition of a naval interdiction of vessels transporting prohibited items from North Korea. This opens the way to a naval blockade of the country comparable to that imposed on Cuba at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. It also potentially creates a further source of military confrontation with North Korea.</p>
<p>At the same time, the resolution called for a diplomatic resolution of the crisis. This was little noticed in subsequent public debate. </p>
<p>The resolution seeks a resumption of the <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/6partytalks">Six-Party Talks</a> involving China, North and South Korea, Russia and the US on the basis of negotiating verifiable denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula, a commitment to peaceful resolution of the crisis, mutual respect of sovereignty, and economic co-operation.</p>
<h2>Sanctions might not work as they have in the past</h2>
<p>Sanctions played a key role in the successful multilateral negotiation of the Iran nuclear agreement. However, they may not necessarily have the same impact in the case of North Korea. Its regime has long cultivated the ethos of self-reliance, and has <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-assumptions-we-make-about-north-korea-and-why-theyre-wrong-84771">made regime survival</a> its top priority.</p>
<p>In this context, if war is to be averted, sanctions will need to be accompanied by a willingness to engage in substantive negotiations that might engage with the North Korean regime’s security and survival concerns. </p>
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<p><em><strong>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/north-korea-and-iran-arent-comparable-but-trump-cant-tell-the-difference-84395">North Korea and Iran aren’t comparable – but Trump can’t tell the difference</a></strong></em></p>
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<p>It is sometimes argued that North Korea has never responded positively to negotiations. However, the 1994 agreement brokered by former US president Jimmy Carter <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/diplomacy-with-north-korea-has-worked-before-and-can-work-again/">did result in</a> a significant pause in the North Korean nuclear program. There was verified compliance of North Korea’s ceasing plutonium production from 1991 to 2003. </p>
<p>The breakdown of the arrangement in 2003 was not wholly attributable to North Korea. The Bush administration’s delay in proceeding with agreed US oil shipments and full normalisation of political and economic relations played a key role.</p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>In the case of the current crisis, <a href="http://www.recna.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/recna/psnaactivities/16578">it is unrealistic</a> to expect North Korea to immediately surrender its nuclear and missile capabilities. Instead, it is important to initiate, without preconditions, a negotiation process involving phases. </p>
<p>Such a process would first seek an initial North Korean freeze on its current nuclear and missile testing programs in return for constraints on military drills close to its border. It would then move on to a possible longer-term resolution that tackles all parties’ legitimate security needs. </p>
<p>Experts such as Morton Halperin, a former senior security adviser to the Clinton, Nixon and Johnson administrations, have argued strongly for the need for a <a href="https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-policy-forum/a-comprehensive-agreement-for-security-in-northeast-asia">comprehensive agreement</a> that would include elements like: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>a Korean War peace treaty; </p></li>
<li><p>negotiation of a regional nuclear-weapon-free zone; </p></li>
<li><p>security guarantee inducements for North Korea to join such a zone; and </p></li>
<li><p>economic and energy assistance to North Korea. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Countries outside the region also have a key mediating role to play in breaking the current impasse on starting negotiations. Most recently, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has offered to <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/chancellor-angela-merkel-there-is-a-clear-disagreement-with-trump-on-north-korea/a-40608769">play such a role</a>, citing the process involved in the Iranian nuclear agreement. </p>
<p>Rather than talking of being <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-11/australia-would-enter-conflict-with-north-korea/8796586">“joined at the hip”</a> in support of any US military “solutions” to deal with North Korea, Australia too could be far more proactive and constructive in promoting and facilitating multilateral negotiations to avert a catastrophic war or nuclear holocaust.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Hamel-Green is a co-chair of the Panel on Peace and Security in Northeast Asia (PSNA). He is also a member of the Australian Greens, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW), and Australians for War Powers Reform.</span></em></p>With much attention focused on military might and economic sanctions, there has been little focus on calls for a diplomatic solution to the North Korean crisis.Michael Hamel-Green, Emeritus Professor, College of Arts & Education, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.