Challenges for Real Bob Carr

Whether Bob Carr proves to be a successful Minister for Foreign Affairs only time will tell.

I wish him well because our national interest is best served when Australia has an effective Minister for Foreign Affairs acting in close concert with the Prime Minister.

As former Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said, there cannot be a “crack of light” between aMinister for Foreign Affairs and a Prime Minister.

Bob Carr will not only need to bridge the yawning chasm that opened up between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd and their respective offices, but he will alsoface a number of major and immediate challenges.

In trying to reconcile his blogging “baggage” with Labor’s formal foreign policy, Mr Carr should resist the temptation to emulate the Hawker Britton style of political spin and distraction that he mastered during his time as NSW Premier.

Already Mr Carr has sought to airbrush from history a number of his now rather inconvenient views.

His description of the Dalai Lama as a “cunning monk”, and his warning that Australian politicians should not be intimidated into meeting “this theological politician” on his “too frequent visits”, have been removed from his website.

Mr Carr has also implored us to ignore his strident criticism of the Libyan intervention, considered by Prime Minister Gillard and former Foreign Minister Rudd to be among their finer foreign policy moments.

His opinion that it was a “wrong headed amateur-hour intervention” of “towering stupidity” is now replaced by an admission that he was “completely wrong”.

Regrettably it seems that we can expect Mr Carr to continue to seek to minimise the embarrassment his actual views will cause Julia Gillard, by adopting the “confession and avoidance” trick – straight from the NSW Labor playbook.

For starters, his opposition to Australia’s ongoing commitment to Afghanistan which he believed has “resolved nothing” , his description of President Obama’s speech to the Parliament last year as “strange” and “inappropriate”, and his views on Iran, will undoubtedly be removed from the record.

After getting his own house in order to align his views with those of the Labor Government, the new Foreign Minister will need to repair the damage the Prime Minister has inflicted on Australia's relationship with Indonesia.

The relationship has been seriously undermined, with Indonesia openly referring to the “dysfunction” of the Gillard government and its failure to consult Indonesia over matters affecting them .

Indonesian Trade Minister Wirjawan expressed concern over the government’s failure to consult Indonesia regarding an illegal logging bill which directly impacts on Indonesia’s forestry industry.

This comes on top of the damage inflicted by Julia Gillard’s unilateral announcement last year of a ban on live cattle sales to Indonesia after video footage collected by animal rights activists was broadcast on Australian television.

The Prime Minister failed to consult with Indonesia and failed to undertake a proper investigation before making her panicked decision.

Julia Gillard's announcement of East Timor as a regional processing centre for asylum seekers, without prior consultation with Indonesia or indeed with the government of East Timor caused offence.

This diplomatic blunder was compounded by her decision to announce the Malaysia five-for-one asylum seeker swap deal, again without prior consultation with Indonesia.

This is more than a breach of protocol, as it directly undermines the official forum of the Bali Process that was established to manage challenges associated with the flow of asylum seekers and people smuggling in our region.

The poisonous relationship that existed between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd meant that the then Foreign Minister and his department were sidelined on these decisions, to Australia’s great cost.

Bob Carr will have his work cut out for him in restoring a sense of mutual trust and mutual respect in our relationship with Indonesia.

I have long been critical of the Labor Government’s neglect of our region and it is time for our diplomatic efforts to be refocused on our neighbourhood.

Mr Carr’s proposed visit to New Zealand to meet Pacific leaders is a good start but it must include a reappraisal of our relationship with Fiji.

Australia should be taking a lead in working with the Fiji Government to find constructive solutions to the many challenges facing Fiji.

TheCoalition will, on coming to government, engage with the Fiji Government to seek to develop a roadmap in order to restore democracy and normalise relations with Australia.

Mr Carr must also make Papua New Guinea one of his highest priorities.

PNG is on the cusp of a major economic upheaval as mining and resource projects come on stream that have the potential to transform the social fabric of the nation and recast the status of its relationship with Australia.

PNG faces enormous challenges in harnessing the benefits of its coming resources boom, in restoring political stability and in raising the standard of living of its people.

There is an urgent need to put our relationship more on the footing of economic partnership, rather than that of aid donor and aid recipient.

Prime Minister Gillard said infamously that she does not have a passion for foreign affairs and she has since gone to great lengths to prove her point.

Mr Carr must shoulder not only the responsibilities that come with his office but also many of the responsibilities traditionally borne by the Prime Minister, to overcome Julia Gillard's lack of skill and competence in this vital area of government policy.