Lowy Institute Executive Director calls for a ‘larger Australia’

In his first address to the National Press Club Dr Michael Fullilove, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, has called for a larger Australia.

‘We are facing unprecedented changes that will test us as a people.  To pass this test, we need to muscle up. We will need to be a larger country, with a larger tool chest, a larger debate and a larger foreign policy’, said Dr Fullilove.

In his address Dr Fullilove took aim at what he described as one of the most pernicious clichés used to describe Australia’s role in the world: the idea that Australia ‘punches above its weight’.

‘The truth is most Australians underestimate our country’s weight class. We don’t punch above our weight; we punch at our weight’, said Dr Fullilove. ‘And we should brace ourselves, because in the next decade we will need to move up a weight division.’

In his speech Dr Fullilove argued out that the international order that has prevailed since the Second World War is changing. Australia’s great and powerful friends are becoming less great and powerful. Wealth and power are moving eastwards, towards our region.

‘For many years, Australians complained about the tyranny of distance. Now the tyranny of distance has been replaced by the predicament of proximity. Our new economic opportunities come with new political risks. We are closer to the world’s booming markets – and closer to the world’s developing crises. We are less isolated – and less insulated’, he said.

Dr Fullilove argued that Australians seem to understand this predicament. He pointed to the forthcoming 2014 Lowy Institute Poll* in which Australians’ sentiments towards China have warmed six points to the equal highest level since 2006. Yet in the same poll, nearly half of Australians think it’s likely China will be a military threat to Australia in the next twenty years, up seven points since last year.

In his speech Dr Fullilove called for a larger economy and a larger population. He also called for a bigger foreign service and a stronger military.

‘Now more than ever, we need a first-rate foreign service. Australia has the smallest diplomatic network of all the G20 nations, and close to the smallest in the developed world.’

‘Australia also needs a more capable military. Australian defence spending is too low given our strategic circumstances. Our defence spending has scaled down at exactly the moment when other countries in the region are scaling up’, he said.

Dr Fullilove called on the Abbott Government to raise defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP.

‘The sooner the journey back to 2 per cent starts, the more likely it is that we will reach our destination’, he said.

Dr Fullilove argued that a larger Australia also needs a larger vision of our role in the world. This requires a more serious discussion of international policy issues in the media. It also demands a larger Australian foreign policy – one that is both ambitious and coherent.

‘Australia has a choice’, said Dr Fullilove. ‘Do we want to be a little nation, with a small population, a restricted diplomatic network, a modest defence force, and a cramped vision of our future? Or do we want to be larger – a big, confident country with the ability to influence the balance of power in Asia, a constructive public debate, and a foreign policy that is both ambitious and coherent?’

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Dr Fullilove has served as the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. This is his first address to the National Press Club. 

Dr Fullilove will begin speaking at 12.30pm Wednesday 12 March, with the speech to be broadcast live on ABC1, ABC News24 and Sky News.  A copy of the speech will be available at 12.30pm at www.lowyinstitute.org

For interview requests please contact Stephanie Dunstan sdunstan@lowyinstitute.org (ph: 0435802629)

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* 2014 Lowy Institute Poll:
The 2014 Lowy Institute Poll is a nationally representative survey of 1,150 Australian adults conducted in Australia by fixed and mobile telephone between 12 and 27 February 2014.

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Dr Michal Fullilove -  Biography:

Dr Michael Fullilove has served as the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy since August 2012. 

He wrote the feasibility study for the Institute in 2002 and was the Director of its Global Issues Program from 2003-2012. He has also worked as a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, an adviser to Prime Minister Paul Keating, and a lawyer. 

He graduated in arts and law from the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales. He also studied as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he took a master's degree and a doctorate in international relations.

Dr Fullilove writes widely on Australian foreign policy and global issues in publications such as the The New York Times, Financial Times, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. His latest book is Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World (Viking).