Election Interpreter 2016
The end of the sound of silence on defence and security issues?
It is a universally acknowledged truth that foreign and defence policy are not major political issues in elections. Yet at least for Australia's 2016 federal election campaign,…
Indonesia neutral on Turnbull vs Shorten but down on Joyce
With the Australian federal election now a fortnight away, a polling station will open on Monday at the new Australian Embassy in Jakarta, which will be hosting overseas voting…
Plibersek's (and Labor's) journey to the centre
It is not so long ago that the idea of a left-wing Labor woman as the Foreign Minister of Australia would have caused deep consternation, if not panic, in the foreign policy…
How the world sees Australia's election (part 2)
A couple weeks have passed since my last update on how overseas media is covering the Australian election. No real big surprises so far, but bellow are some excellent reflections…
Testing times ahead for Julie Bishop, the celebrity foreign minister
In an election campaign in which foreign policy barely rates a mention, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is playing a high profile and politically important role.
Regular viewers of…
Confucius Classrooms: If government won't pay for language teaching, China will
Language policy in Australian schools isn't likely to become an election issue but perhaps it should be. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald detailing the expansion of…
Globalised homebody: Bill Shorten's view of the world
When thinking about the worldview of the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, it is tempting to use US analogies, partly because the US electoral race is so much more intriguing than…
Scrutiny doesn't extend to foreign policy in election
For someone who follows foreign elections, like that happening now in the US and the one Canada held late last year, I am always amazed at the level of detail at which Australian…
Trump, Sanders and even Clinton: The external economic risks we should discuss
In the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook released on 20 May 2016, the secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance warned that a significant economic shock…
Foreign policy fault lines
It’s trite but true to say that all politics is local. Foreign policy rarely gets a look in at election time in Australia. Moreover, the conventional view is that the divisions…