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Australia’s place in the worldAustralia’s place in the world
About the author
Natasha Kassam
Natasha Kassam was Director of the Lowy Institute's Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program from 2019 to 2022, directing the annual Lowy Institute Poll and researching China’s politics, Taiwan, and Australia-China relations.
The ‘Indo-Pacific’ — the region comprising the Indian and Pacific Oceans and connecting seas, has become a strong theme of Australian foreign policy in recent years, and a new question this year sought to probe Australians’ understanding of this concept. When asked to choose three options where Australia belonged out of the ‘Indo-Pacific’, ‘Asia’, ‘the West’, ‘Oceania’, and ‘not part of anywhere’, the majority (62%) select Oceania. A sizeable minority (38%) select the Indo-Pacific. One in three (32%) say Australia belongs to the West, while just 21% say Australia belongs to Asia. One in ten Australians (11%) say Australia is ‘not part of anywhere’.
