{"id":42696,"date":"2018-10-15T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T19:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=42696"},"modified":"2018-10-15T09:06:24","modified_gmt":"2018-10-14T22:06:24","slug":"blind-spot-fix-rebuild-australias-international-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/blind-spot-fix-rebuild-australias-international-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Blind spot fix: rebuild Australia\u2019s international voice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australia is witnessing an explosion of blind spot exposures, as important institutions are blindsided by their own shortcomings.<\/p>\n

The blind spot eruption reveals big organisations with incomplete vision, unable to see key elements of what they are and what they should do.<\/p>\n

A royal commission exposes ethical and legal failings of the banks as they stared only at profits.<\/p>\n

A government party room turns regicidal and beheads a prime minister, even as the government claws its way back in the polls and the election looms. The Liberal Party caucus turned inward and obsessed about itself, not the country. That\u2019s a big blind spot moment.<\/p>\n

And one of Australia\u2019s vital journalistic and cultural institutions, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, went the full Oscar Wilde: \u2018To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.\u2019<\/p>\n

For the ABC to mislay both its chairman and managing director<\/a> in the same week is a blind spot epiphany. The chairman fired the managing director because she wouldn\u2019t bend to his will; then the chairman had to go because he was too eager to bend to the government\u2019s will. Amid the blunders, a blind spot bonanza!<\/p>\n

Those at the top of the ABC and at the helm of the federal government lost sight of a central truth: the vital, defining value of the ABC\u2019s editorial independence. In the words of a press gallery doyen, Michelle Grattan<\/a>, the coalition government waged a \u2018shock and awe\u2019 campaign against Aunty that touched the dividing line between politicians\u2019 legitimate whinging about coverage and \u2018unacceptable political interference\u2019.<\/p>\n

The madness of thinking it\u2019d be a great idea to fire troublesome ABC journalists (\u2018Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?\u2019)<\/a> is a blind spot warning to government and other major institutions: the legitimacy of power is defined by its limits as well as its use.<\/p>\n

In the catalogue of blind spots and the ABC, consider a new ASPI report\u2014Hard news and free media as the sharp edge of Australian soft power<\/a><\/em>, which is being launched in Canberra tomorrow night<\/a> (a few seats still available).<\/p>\n

The decline of Australian international broadcasting\u2014in both cash and reach terms\u2014is one of the untold stories of our strategic debate over the last decade. In few other areas of Australian international policy have focus and resources declined so markedly, with such little discussion in the policy community.<\/p>\n

The argument I make in the ASPI strategy paper along with two of my hack heroes, Jemima Garrett and Geoff Heriot, is well summarised by Michael Shoebridge\u2019s foreword:<\/p>\n

Commentators and ministers have been concerned at the rise in influence of other states that don\u2019t share Australian values and that seem to be using their power and influence in disruptive, and at times coercive, ways. Beyond concern, though, little seems to be being done to strengthen Australia\u2019s voice and influence outside formal defence and development partnerships.<\/p>\n

For about $75 million per year, Australia could fund a new separate arm of the ABC\u2014the Australian International Broadcasting Corporation\u2014to reach out and engage with audiences in Pacific states, and in nations across Asia, through a variety of platforms\u2014online, mobile telephony, and traditional broadcast tools such as radio and satellite.<\/p>\n

The influence and credibility that comes from an independent but state-funded broadcaster like the ABC has an impact far outweighing propaganda-driven content and broadcasts from state-owned media entities that are now broadcasting to the peoples in our near region\u2014sometimes precisely because it\u2019s critical of its \u2018home\u2019 government\u2019s actions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jemima and I had a broadcast discussion of this (on the ABC naturally) with Phillip Adams on Late Night Live<\/em>: \u2018Is Australia losing its soft power the Asia Pacific?<\/a>\u2019<\/p>\n

Kicking off the interview, Adams referred to a piece I\u2019d written about the launch of Australia\u2019s international radio service<\/a> in December 1939, when Prime Minister Robert Menzies famously declared:\u00a0\u2018The time has come to speak for ourselves.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

World War II woke Australia to the need for its own, distinctive international voice; our journalism would matter for our regional role as much as our diplomacy. Rating WW\u00a0II as a wakeup call is a tad flippant, but that\u2019s life in the blind spot universe.<\/p>\n

Today Canberra needs a fresh awakening\u2014to be convinced anew of the value of what our journalism can do in and for our region.<\/p>\n

The discussion of what faced Menzies and Australia at the start of the war prompted me to ponder the then-and-now parallels between 1939 and 2018.<\/p>\n