How to overcome Australia’s foreign policy crisis?

The problem: There is cognitive dissonance between the launch in February 2024 in the Australian Parliament of the whole-of- nation approach to Australian foreign policy and the lived experience of most informed Australians and multicultural communities. Australian society is alarmed by the continuation of the same old foreign policy strategies determined by depraved domestic and foreign actors like the US, UK, the EU, NATO and Israel and the Zionist lobby.

The current approach to the creation of Australia's strategic and foreign policy by the Albanese Government and the Opposition and foreign outlaw states and cartels is deeply concerning, unethical and unsustainable. In particular, to those who reject the unipolar world disorder and advocate for more nuanced and peaceful security and development architecture outside the G7.

At its basic level, the whole-of-government approach to foreign policy involves a wide network beyond government actors. These include stakeholders from civil society, business, academia, think tanks, the independent media, under represented diasporas, sports and cultural groups and state and local government engaged in international affairs.

The Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy and Defence (AP4D) Dialogue produced an excellent Options Paper which explains What does it look like for Australia to have a Whole-of-Nation Approach to International policy. It matters because we need to harness all tools of statecraft and national power such as economic, financial, industrial, scientific and informational power beyond federal government. We need to transform and significantly improve our foreign policy model and performance.

It is a systems thinking approach to creation and implementation of Australian foreign policy beyond core international policy actors in federal government and unelected oligarchs and corporate cartels from the military industrial, financial complex in Australia and the G7.

The consultation by the APFD identified many barriers in practice. These include the siloed nature of government, federalism, competing interests and perspectives, cultural barriers to public engagement in international issues, need for strong value proposition, the need for innovation of systems, mechanisms and budgets to support international policy collaboration.

The Solution: Australia needs to engage in deep and meaningful national, parliamentary and foreign policy debate on the relevance, importance and impact of the whole-of-government approach to international policy on a rotating basis. Way too little time and resources were committed to this democratic process.

Australian society must understand that we need a nuanced, open source and humanistic approach to creation and implementation of Australian foreign policy and our place in the world. We need to constantly innovate our foreign policies and strategies like we did in the 1960 – 1980 s when we rejected the White Australian policy, the Vietnam war, apartheid in South Africa and the US and the need for democratisation of policy making process from core to all key stakeholders.

We need to educate and empower all Australian citizens and under-represented communities with critical thinking skills, mobilisation and new narratives in relation to need for a new nuanced Australian foreign policy.

At the moment, Australian foreign policy is shaped by indoctrinated ideologues working in partnership with the military industrial and financial complex. Unelected oligarchs and corporate cartels must lose their dominant power, special influence and disproportionate role in shaping foreign policy. Sadly, some Australian Ministers and Shadow Ministers, federal MPs and Senators are not working in the national interest by appeasing the military industrial financial complex at great cost to our nation and regional and world peace and development.

The corporate media and oligarch think tanks in Australia are mouth pieces of the war profiteers in Wall Street and the City of London.

Our public broadcasters like the ABC and SBS also are tightly controlled by elected and unelected censors working under the control of the Five Eyes Intelligence network. As we have seen in the US and the UK, intelligence agencies, the POTUS and the US Congress are puppets of unelected oligarchs and corporate cartels producing dishonest, insane and unsustainable foreign policy determined by too few for too many.

Australia needs to develop a Foreign Policy Innovation Strategy which will deliver successful outcomes for us and the rest of the world as defined by the nation. We have talented people and communities that can make a positive and significant difference to Australia and the world. We need to be open minded and ready to use all our national power and capabilities to advance our national and international interests beyond serving as deputy Sherrif in the rapidly changing Asia-Pacific that is outperforming the G7.

We need to explore the full costs and benefits of current Australian and defence policies and outcomes and what is possible if we innovate and form coalitions outside of the G7. In particular, the BRICS+++, ASEAN, Shanghai Cooperation etc.