National Press Club (Australia)

• Protesters rallied at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday, railing against Darwin’s controversial Middle Arm venture which critics say would benefit the gas industry.
• The project has been thrust into the headlines of late.
• Fyles describes Middle Arm as a “sustainable development precinct”.
• In effect, the Middle Arm project, and others like it, are grand experiments with our climate.

The ‘circular’ economy

• The strategy doesn’t seek to reach net-zero simply by pumping less carbon into the atmosphere – for example, by deploying renewable energy.
• It also involves activities that remove, capture, store or use carbon, therefore “offsetting” or cancelling out emissions from other sources.
• Proponents of the strategy characterise it as a simple matter of inputs (emissions) and outputs (offsets) cancelling each other out.
• largely powered by renewables, master-planned to achieve a circular economy approach of sustainable and responsible production and will use technology to achieve low-to-zero emissions.

‘Sustainable’ claims called into question

• For example, internal government documents make clear the precinct is “seen as a key enabler” of the gas industry.
• One confirmed future tenant will be Tamboran Resources, which plans to frack and drill for gas in the Beetaloo Basin.
• Announcing the project in 2021, the NT government called it a “a game-changer”.
• Claims that Middle Arm would substantially be powered by renewable energy are also in doubt.

Offsets won’t save us, either

• And in 2021, the then Coalition government released a climate plan in which more than half the carbon savings would be achieved via carbon offsets, as well as unspecified “technology breakthroughs”.
• Carbon offsets are used by polluters to compensate for their emissions.
• Carbon offsets are contentious because they allow companies to keep pumping out carbon.

Looking ahead

• Meanwhile, the world has just experienced its hottest month on record.
• At a time like this, we must focus on achieving genuine emissions reductions, rather than playing risky games with our climate.

• In a change of government tactics, Linda Burney this week deployed a sheet anchor to tie the Voice to practical outcomes.
• Now, with polling showing support for the Voice slipping, the government is desperate to arrest the slide.
• With this in mind Burney, the minister for Indigenous Australians, on Wednesday gave the proposed Voice a work program.
• “From day one, the Voice will have a full in-tray,” she told the National Press Club.
• In the contest over the Voice, the government is relying on having time for the “yes” campaign to ramp up.
• More than seven in ten people felt the government hadn’t done enough to explain the voice to the community.
• In retrospect, the referendum vote ideally should have been held earlier, even if the government had to face accusations of rushing it.

• The Albanese government’s review of Australia’s migration system offers a blueprint for overhauling the troubled system and addressing at least some of its shortcomings.
• The review represents a wholesale critique and potential upheaval of the immigration system, rather than, in the words of Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil, “ad hoc” changes.

What did the review find?

• This has the effect that temporary visa-holders engage in a series of visa “hops” before gaining permanent residency.
• The review is critical of temporary migration when it does not provide pathways to permanency.
• The review proposes protections to ensure care workers do not face the same exploitation as other lower-wage workers.
• However, comparative research suggests it is difficult, if not impossible, to create temporary labour schemes without at least some exploitation.

Matching the migrant intake to Australia’s needs

• As a result, Australia is “falling behind in attracting skilled migrants in a fierce global competition for the best migrants”.
• This point is supported by research on migrant desire to come to Australia, which suggests migrants are being put off by backlogs, among other issues.
• The review blames this in part on “cumbersome” and ageing computer systems in Home Affairs, which it suggests needs a complete overhaul.
• Read more:
  Canada needs to consider the user experience of migrants when designing programs that impact them

Now, we need action

• It represents a significant reform agenda, which will take years, if not decades, to implement.
• All of these concerns have been raised for some time, so it is heartening to see them reinforced by the expert review.
• For instance, if a person cannot come as an international student, we may see an increase in sham spousal applications.
• So, the government will need to tread carefully with its transitional arrangements that follow from this review and consider how to slowly change the system.

During her speech at the National Press Club this week, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong argued that the “unprecedented” circumstances our region faces “require a response of unprecedented coordination and ambition in our statecraft”. Wong identified many key tools of Australia’s statecraft:

• Importantly, Wong also also observed that “our national power, more than anything else, comes from our people”.
• Yet, she noted, the number of Australian diplomats working in the Pacific had actually shrunk under the previous government.

What is statecraft?

Statecraft is a word increasingly used by leaders, officials and commentators to describe the actions that states take to try to influence:
• Many believe that, to earn the most influence, Australia’s tools of statecraft should come with big price tags and flashy announcements.
• In the Pacific, for instance, the government is fond of announcing big pledges of developmental aid, infrastructure projects and military assistance.

Diplomats are not all the same

• The past openings of Australian-funded facilities become their announcements, even though the person in the social media thumbnail is not same as the one in the commemorative photos.
• Officially, foreign policy is as emotionless and cut-and-paste as these official Twitter accounts.
• It is as if Australian foreign policy officials are grown from pods in the basement of the R.G.
• But this reality attracts surprisingly little attention in much of the analysis that is done on the effectiveness of Australia’s statecraft.

Why kindness and empathy matter

• This is why we’re studying the role individuals play in implementing Australian statecraft in the Pacific Islands and Timor-Leste.
• It is the kiss of death to a project if an individual is arrogant or patronising or somehow offends their hosts.
• Read more:
  Despite its Pacific 'step-up', Australia is still not listening to the region, new research shows

Roads and mobile networks only go so far

• Australia can build roads, train police, buy telcos and build submarines, but if the people representing the country and implementing its policies aren’t polite, respectful and trustworthy, then it might as well not bother.
• This activity was supported by the Australian Government through a grant by the Australian Department of Defence.
• The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the Australian Department of Defence.