{"id":43826,"date":"2018-11-26T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T19:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=43826"},"modified":"2018-11-26T08:51:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T21:51:57","slug":"broadcasting-the-oz-pacific-pivot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/broadcasting-the-oz-pacific-pivot\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadcasting the Oz Pacific pivot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As travel broadens the mind, so summit season<\/a> allows an Australian leader to deepen their understanding of the world.<\/p>\n

The presidential pretensions of the Oz prime ministership get fullest expression at the summit. Working at heights is risky, yet it\u2019s great on-the-job learning.<\/p>\n

Scott Morrison has breathed the rare air at the East Asia Summit in Singapore and the APEC summit in Port Moresby. The new PM, sworn in on 24 August, pedals hard, seeking to power through the wobbles<\/a>. Get some speed. Find balance. Define an agenda. Juggle the politics.<\/p>\n

As well as a close-up experience of the US\u2013China hot peace<\/a>, Port Moresby was another step in Australia\u2019s Pacific pivot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Morrison\u2019s barbecue for island leaders<\/a> offered kangaroo sausages and the chance to chew over future cooperation among \u2018members of the Pacific family\u2019.<\/p>\n

Wearing a Sharks Pacifica shirt of brilliant blues, Morrison thought it a typical \u2018Sunday night family barbeque\u2019. In the way of family gatherings, here was a moment for the new PM to hear home truths.<\/p>\n

If the pivot is to deliver as promised, it\u2019ll be because Australia turns towards what the South Pacific needs and wants. Less punchy \u2018our patch\u2019 language from Morrison and more emphasis on his words offering a new chapter \u2018based on respect, equality and openness\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After announcing an enhanced security deal with Vanuatu<\/a> during his trip, Morrison might reflect on Vanuatu\u2019s call for Radio Australia to resume shortwave broadcasts.<\/p>\n

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation last year closed its shortwave service to northern Australia and the South Pacific. Pivot by turning on shortwave again so the Pacific family can all hear the conversation.<\/p>\n

As the Vanuatu government said in its submission<\/a> to the Oz Senate shortwave inquiry, shortwave saves lives in emergencies, and shortwave\u00a0\u2018contributed a great deal to a feeling of connection to the wider world for citizens in every part of the country\u2019. How\u2019s that for Pacific family language?<\/p>\n

Another bit of leader-learning Morrison could ponder is that only 13% of Papua New Guinea\u2019s people have electricity\u2014the statistic the prime minister used in the first paragraph of his statement on the partnership to connect electricity to 70% of PNG\u2019s population by 2030<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The South Pacific electricity reality should cause the prime minister to reflect on an odd element of his big pivot<\/a> speech: helping Australian commercial TV networks get their programs on island television.<\/p>\n

Giving aid money to Australian commercial networks so they\u2019ll give stuff to the South Pacific might rate as development policy. Just. Morrison says it\u2019s about \u2018our Pacific family switching on to the same stories\u2019 being watched in Australia. Trouble is, outside island capitals, many families can\u2019t turn on the screen.<\/p>\n

Note the politics in the Morrison TV effort\u2014favouring the commercial channels because he doesn\u2019t want to be nice to the ABC. Nor does he want any implied attack on the Abbott government\u2019s 2014 decision to kill the ABC\u2019s international TV service. Morrison obeys one of the bumper stickers of a toxic Liberal caucus: \u2018Don\u2019t taunt Tony\u2019. Angering the former Liberal PM who glowers on the backbench is dangerous for the new Liberal PM\u2014just ask the recently beheaded Liberal PM.<\/p>\n

Embracing the direction of the leader\u2019s learning curve, his commercial TV plan can be one element in fixing a policy disaster.<\/p>\n

To accentuate the positive, Morrison is acknowledging that Australia has trashed the international broadcasting service to its region.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s soft power review and separate review of Asia\u2013Pacific broadcasting services are the chance for a major remake of policy. Involving commercial TV is one part of a much bigger fix.<\/p>\n

Labor embraced an international broadcasting rethink, with these words from shadow foreign minister Penny Wong<\/a>: \u2018Our media and broadcasting presence has to be remedied. So I\u2019d encourage the current review to think outside the square and pitch up options for government. We want to see Australian voices back in the Pacific. And more Pacific voices in Australia.\u2019<\/p>\n

Wong\u2019s think-hard-and-deliver-options line is a message to the Foreign Affairs department: \u2018Have policy recommendations ready for a Labor government next year.\u2019<\/p>\n

Labor pledges that if elected next year it\u2019ll resume shortwave for northern Australia<\/a>\u2014the perfect chance to do the same for the Pacific.<\/p>\n

To help both sides of politics build this new consensus, here\u2019s a set of ideas from ASPI\u2019s Hard news and free media as the sharp edge of Australian soft power<\/a><\/em> report, drawing especially on the chapter by Jemima Garrett and her work with the group Supporters of Australian Broadcasting in Asia\/Pacific<\/a>:<\/p>\n