ASIA’S RISE AND ASIA AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE A collection of essays to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Asia Society Australia About Asia Society Australia For 60 years globally and 20 years The establishment of the Asia Society Australia was led by Hugh Morgan AC (then CEO of WMC in Australia, Asia Society has been Limited) and Richard Woolcott AC (former Secretary building bridges of understanding of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) in recognition of the need to promote greater between leaders and change-makers understanding about the countries, peoples of Asia, Australia and the United States. and cultures of Asia and the Pacific region. Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Asia Society Australia is Australia’s leading national Society is a non-partisan, non-profit institution with centre for engagement with Asia and a part of Asia headquarters in New York, and centres in Hong Kong, Society, a global non-profit organisation and the Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai, San Francisco, leading force in forging closer ties between Asia and Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Washington, DC and Zürich. the West through arts, education, policy and business. Across the fields of arts, business, culture, education, Asia Society Australia was launched in 1997 by and policy, Asia Society provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address present then Prime Minister John Howard to broaden challenges and create a shared future. interest and understanding in Australia of Asian countries and their politics, business and culture. asiasociety.org/australia This publication was made possible through the “Desai-Oxnam Innovation Fund” established by the Asia Society to celebrate generosity and almost 40 years of combined service of former Asia Society Presidents Dr. Vishakha Desai and Dr Robert Oxnam. Contents Welcome 2 Don’t look back, Asian Studies 51 has a positive future Australia. Disrupted. 3 KENT ANDERSON PHILIPP IVANOV Embracing Asia starts at home 56 Time for a Plan-B on living 9 TIM SOUTPHOMMASANE with China LINDA JAKOBSON Cultural diversity in politics 60 and media will create national No longer at the centre: 13 prosperity Australia’s real relationship DAI LE AND KATIE CALVEY with Asia DAVID EPSTEIN Read this: Chinese language 64 media is part of the story An Asia policy for Australia 18 WANNING SUN in the Trump era RICHARD WOOLCOTT Fast train coming: what 69 we can learn from Asia Asia’s democratic dividend 21 JAMES ROSENWAX is hard to bank GREG EARL Digging deep into Asia for new 73 ways to design cities Thinking outside the box with India 25 JOHN ENDICOTT DAVID BREWSTER Making Asia fit for new growth 77 How Japan and Australia can 29 ANUSHKA PATEL fill Asia’s security gap TOMOHIKO SATAKE From food bowl to health 81 food store Making our own luck 33 DERMOT O’GORMAN ANDREW PARKER A new ‘normal’ for Australia 85 Connect don’t compete with 37 and Indonesia on climate change a rising region ARJUNA DIBLEY MARTIJN BLANKEN Contributors 90 China’s innovative nation and 42 what it means for Australia Acknowledgements 96 BRUCE MCKERN Full house: how property 47 pressures impact intercultural relations DALLAS ROGERS, JACQUELINE NELSON AND ALEXANDRA WONG Disruptive Asia 01 Welcome Dear Asia Society Australia Members, Supporters and Friends, 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Asia Society Australia. It is a significant milestone and an opportunity to reflect on our achievements and the work ahead. Much has changed since our founders – Hugh Morgan AC and Richard Woolcott AC led the development of Asia Society’s Australian Centre. The share of the global GDP for developing and advanced Asian economies has grown from 25 per cent in 1997 to a projected 38 per cent in 2017. Australia’s total trade with Asia has nearly quadrupled and is now almost 63 per cent of all trade compared with 48 per cent. China’s trade with Australia alone has increased by 1500 per cent. In permanent immigration, Asia accounted for 33 per cent in 1997 and 47 per cent in 2016. Approximately 16 per cent of Australian students study abroad, and a third of them head to Asia, while in 1997 the number was negligible. Yet despite the progress we have made, there is still much to be done. Our investment in Asia continues to be disproportionally low and our trade lacks sectoral diversity. The teaching and learning of Asian languages has declined since 1997. Populism and intolerance are on the rise. Our Asian Australian community is underrepresented in the leadership of our institutions. It makes our mission of building an Asia-connected Australia ever more relevant. For 20 years Asia Society Australia has been consistently recognised for the quality of its insights and the ability to bring together Australian and regional leaders, networks and communities in a dialogue on the critical issues in Australia-Asia engagement. As the leading Australian organisation with global and regional DNA dedicated solely to Australia’s engagement with Asia, our responsibility to lead and inform a conversation about Asia in Australia has never been more critical. It is a privilege to share with you our new publication Disruptive Asia. It is a collection of essays from leading Australian opinion-shapers and new voices on how Asia’s rise is altering Australia’s foreign policy, economy and society and how Australia should respond. Disruptive Asia presents new perspectives on Australia’s place in the Asia-Pacific region against the backdrop of the changing world order, a fragile global economy and the rapidly growing mobility of people, technologies and capital. We hope that Disruptive Asia will be a live, on-going conversation about Australia’s future in the region, as well as our domestic transformations. We are grateful to all our members, supporters and friends for making Asia Society Australia a successful, growing, dynamic social enterprise that it is today. We sincerely thank the authors and contributors to this publication for being so generous with their time and ideas. We look forward to the next twenty years of building Asia-connected Australia. Doug Ferguson Philipp Ivanov Chairman Chief Executive Officer Asia Society Australia Asia Society Australia 02 Asia Society Australia PHILIPP IVANOV Australia. Disrupted. Will Australia maintain its dynamism and be an integral, active and agile member of the Asian community of nations? Or will it let itself be shaped by external forces and drift to the periphery, watching the unfolding drama of power and wealth playing out northwards? Everything is changing. An undeniable Buddhist from World War II with a conviction that it needed concept comes alive on anniversaries, when more people to defend itself and prosper, but it also continuity and change inevitably clash. When John wanted those people to be European. The fear of D. Rockefeller 3rd founded Asia Society in 1956, a an Asian population influx manifested itself in continent-sized country in the southern flank of the the so-called White Australia Policy that favoured Indo-Pacific was refusing to recognise its geography migration from the English-speaking and Western and destiny of proximity to Asia. Australia emerged European countries. Disruptive Asia 03 AUSTRALIA. DISRUPTED. But the 1950s also saw the first steps of Australia’s But for Australia Asia’s current renaissance is long and continuing journey to form its new Asia- a disruptive force of a more profound variety. bound identity. In 1957, Australia and Japan – the And there is no better living observatory to witness country Australia had fought only a decade prior it than in Sydney. Walking the length of Pitt Street – signed the landmark Agreement on Commerce in Sydney’s heart reveals a which paved the way for what is now a remarkable story of growing economic bilateral partnership. The agreement was possibly In 2017 Australia and social connectivity our first step towards a realisation that Asia matters is unrecognisable. between Australia and to our future prosperity. In 1950 the Government Its gaze is directed its northern neighbours. instigated the visionary Colombo Plan scholarships, northward where It feels like Asia has arrived which enabled students from Asian countries to the global centre of in Australia. study at Australian universities – the project that gravity has shifted in But behind the streetscape, would ultimately shape Australia’s highly globalized the last two decades. flavours and sounds, there and entrepreneurial higher education sector. Australia’s identity are more powerful forces at Over four decades later, in 1997 when Asia Society – always a work in play. Asia’s resurgence and Australia was founded, the Government’s Foreign progress for any urbanisation are fuelling and Trade Policy White Paper In the National Interest young multicultural a voracious appetite for proclaimed: “Australia has interests across the globe nation – is being energy and resources but its most important strategic and economic reshaped by the and an unstoppable interests lie in the Asia Pacific”, solidifying the new power of proximity quest by Asia’s new middle orthodoxy of Australia’s thinking about its place to a dynamic Asia. class for better lifestyles, in the world. services and experiences. The statistics reflect the In 2017 Australia is unrecognisable. Its gaze is dramatic transformation of a country which found directed northward where the global centre of itself at the right time and place, but also with the gravity has shifted in the last two decades. Australia’s entrepreneurial spirit and foresight to recognize this identity – always a work in progress for any young opportunity. By 2017, six of Australia’s top ten two- multicultural nation – is being reshaped by the way trading partners were in Asia (excluding the US power of proximity to a dynamic Asia. The Colombo and New Zealand), with China leading the pack with Plan has been reborn as the New Colombo Plan – a staggering trade value at $150 billion in 2015-16, an equally farsighted project by foreign minister representing almost a quarter of Australia’s total Julie Bishop – but this time it works in reverse, global trade.1 In the last three years, Australia has sending Australian students to Asia.