Debate: "Australia and its Region"
The ABC gets it wrong on its South Pacific service

The technical bastardry of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in degrading its shortwave broadcasts to the South Pacific has been starkly revealed. The bloody-mindedness helps explain the dumb decision to turn off Australia’s shortwave service that …

A calm and unhurried approach to Indonesia

This post has been adapted from a recent ASPI panel discussion ‘Australia and Indonesia: getting back on track’. The full video of the event is available here.  To get things back on track, Australia needs to …

Symbolism and strategy on 26 January

Mention 26 January and the thoughts of Australians jump quickly to barbeques, beaches and cricket. But this post isn’t about Australia Day. Many Australians will be aware that Indians celebrate their Republic Day on 26 …

The Oz taxi test in the South Pacific

To see how deeply Australia reaches into the South Pacific, try the taxi test. Hop into a taxi anywhere in the Islands and negotiate to pay the fare in Australian dollars. My random survey over …

Reader response: Pacific labour mobility

Graeme Dobell argues in his latest post that ‘the one thing the Islands want from Australia and New Zealand—labour mobility—is the one thing Australia and New Zealand won’t give’. He says that ‘If PACER Plus …

Jokowi’s waves of opportunity

Today ASPI has released Waves of opportunity: Enhancing Australia–Indonesia maritime security cooperation. The full report can be found here [PDF]. At the recent East Asia Summit (EAS), Indonesia’s President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo spoke about Indonesia’s new maritime …

Australia and Fiji go from duel to dance

Q: How do porcupines make love? A: Carefully. The joke sets up the Australia’s ‘new era of partnership and prosperity’ with Fiji. The goal is to avoid being impaled on the points while pursuing the …