Shale gas may be sparking an energy revolution in the United States andpotentially even China , but it has attracted relatively little attention in Australia. All that may have changed with a recent announcement by Brisbane-based energy explorer, Linc Energy. Linc shares surged 24 percent after it told the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on January 23 that its […]
A serious strategic partnership between Australia and India has long been a missing link in the security architecture of Indo-Pacific Asia. Now the gap is at last being filled, if a high-level visit this week is anything to go by. Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr was in New Delhi on January 21st and 22nd, to […]
Australia’s economy slowed last quarter as the government and consumers tightened spending, validating the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates yesterday. Third-quarter gross domestic product advanced 0.5 percent from the previous three months, when it expanded 0.6 percent, a Bureau of Statistics report released in Sydney today showed. The result compared with the median […]
It was the talk of teaching Hindi to schoolchildren down under that grabbed all the headlines in India, but Canberra’s White Paper Australia in the Asian Century merits wider attention because governments today rarely state far-reaching plans of any kind, let alone those involving an epochal reorientation of political sensibility. Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who commissioned the […]
Australia must find new trade opportunities and strengthen its education system to take advantage of Asia’s economic boom, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said, outlining goals for the country to meet by 2025. “As the global center of gravity shifts to our region, the tyranny of distance is being replaced by the prospects of proximity,” Gillard […]
LABOR is pursuing a dramatic upgrading of Australia‘s relationship with China that would put diplomatic ties between Canberra and Beijing on a similar footing to relations with the US, Japan and Indonesia. Foreign Minister Bob Carr revealed yesterday that he had sent the head of his department, Dennis Richardson, to Beijing last month to propose the […]
In Australia-China ties: in search of political trust, Linda Jakobson argues that this is detrimental to Australia’s interests because China is not merely an economic power but also a crucial political and security actor in the region. Underdeveloped political and strategic relations between Canberra and Beijing weaken Australia’s ability to exert influence regionally. Australia risks […]
The last time Australia was mired in recession, Boris Yeltsin had yet to stand on a tank in Moscow, and the Clinton era hadn’t begun. In 1991, Australian trade with China was a modest A$3.6 billion (about the same in U.S. dollars). In the preceding decade unemployment had averaged 7.8 percent, as Australia struggled to develop tourism […]
looking beyond borders 