To project abroad an image of modern Australia in support of key foreign and trade policy objectives.
The International Public Affairs Branch (formerly the Overseas Information Branch) and the International Cultural Relations Branch of the Public Affairs Division are responsible for this sub program. Full-time Australia-based public affairs officers at 20 posts and cultural officers at five posts manage major overseas elements in collaboration with the two branches. All Australian diplomatic missions and departmental regional offices are involved to varying degrees. (Bilateral councils and foundations funded under the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio and serviced by the International Cultural Relations Branch also make a substantial contribution to developing Australia’s international cultural links. These bodies, which produce their own annual reports, are listed in the appendices to this report.)
Improved understanding of and support for Australia and Australian policies through targeted country and regional cultural and public affairs strategies;
Increased international identification of Australia as a good trade and investment partner, a source of high-quality manufactured goods and services, and a nation of cultural diversity and sophistication;
Public affairs support for high-level visits, internationally distributed print and electronic media products, a range of visit programs and satellite television conferencing created favourable publicity and addressed target audiences.
The cultural relations program projects an image of contemporary Australia to complement key portfolio objectives. A wide range of projects was undertaken in diverse areas, including science and technology, the environment, multiculturalism, the arts, sports, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and Australian Studies.
The International Cultural Relations Branch was restructured in November 1993 to ensure that the cultural relations program would better complement and support departmental priorities. Three new sections replaced 12 former sections and sub-units. Two sections, North Asia, and South and South East Asia, mirror the areas of responsibility covered by the Department’s new Asia Divisions. The Cultural Policy and Coordination Section provides more coordination and effective use of resources among the disparate elements in the branch. It includes responsibility for major promotional activities under the Australia Abroad Council.
Strategies were tailored to particular countries and regions, based on consultation with the relevant geographical area of the Department, Australian missions abroad, and a large number of government and non-government organisations. These included Visions for the Future-Australia, Clean-up the World, the Australia Council, Austrade, Asialink, and Musica Viva.
Cultural counsellors at the missions in Jakarta, Beijing and Washington managed major overseas program elements. At the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, the Director of the Australia-Japan Foundation was responsible for the embassy’s cultural relations program. At the Australian Embassy in Paris, the Director of the Australia-France Foundation ran the embassy’s cultural relations and information programs.
Australia Abroad Council
The second and third of a series of major annual Australian trade and cultural promotions under sponsorship of the Australia Abroad Council were held in Japan in November 1993, and in Indonesia in June-July 1994.
Celebrate Australia in Japan aimed to begin changing Japanese perceptions of Australia, increasing opportunities for Australian exports and diversifying and strengthening Australia-Japan links in a way that benefited Australia’s political and economic interests. The program of around 100 events ranged from a tour by the Australian Ballet to big department store retail promotions and covered the field of business, education, technology, culture, entertainment and sport. Post-promotion evaluation concluded that Celebrate Australia was cost-effective because with seed money of a little more than $2 million it produced events with aggregate worth of $35 million and free publicity with an equivalent advertising worth of $22 million.
Australia Today Indonesia ’94 was the largest promotion ever undertaken by Australia in Indonesia. The calendar of events at this event included business and trade conferences, seminars and exhibitions, department store retail promotions, sport, and showcasing of the arts, science and technology and educational achievements. The Prime Minister launched the promotion in Sydney on 16 March 1994. His opening address highlighted the strong support for the promotion from the business sector, including some of Australia’s largest companies, and emphasised the importance of and the great potential for growth in the bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia. Three hundred Australian business people participated in the business forum and trade exhibitions, and more than 600 Indonesian business people attended. Early indications were that the promotion would generate tens of millions of dollars in export contracts-many times more than its cost.
Both promotions greatly enhanced Australia’s image in the two countries and contributed to improved economic links. Planning proceeded for the next promotion in Germany during 1995.
Japan
The Japan cultural relations program complemented the activities of the Australia-Japan Foundation and the major promotion, Celebrate Australia. As well as continued assistance for an Australian Studies lecturer at Tokyo University and production of an Australian cultural newsletter for distribution in Japan, the program included visits to Japan by textile artists and a curator; familiarisation visits to Australia by Japanese art and dance critics and an academic; the Victorian State Opera’s participation in the 1994 Okinawa International Theatre Festival for Young Audiences; and assistance with exhibitions such as ‘Australia Gold, ‘Location’ and the ‘Art of Adornment’, an exhibition of contemporary Australian jewellery.
In March 1994 the branch coordinated arrangements for the eighth meeting of the Australia-Japan Cultural Mixed Commission which discussed bilateral cultural and educational exchanges. The meeting resulted in an exchange of ideas and the possibility of future cooperation within the region. The commission meets every two years under the Australia-Japan Cultural Agreement signed in 1976.
China
Major activities in the China region included performances by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Shanghai and Shenzhen; and an exhibition of contemporary Australian art, ‘Transcultural Painting’, touring venues in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Contemporary Australian performing artists, arts administrators and critics were represented at an international dance festival and conference in Beijing.
The University of Wollongong organised a major showing of contemporary art entitled ‘Identities-Art from Australia’. This was exhibited at the Fine Arts Museum in Taipei, resulting in increased commercial opportunities.
Under the Post Discretionary Funds program, China region posts organised a variety of events in support of post objectives. These included performances in Hong Kong by the Aboriginal band Mixed Relations, a gala premiere of The Piano and an Australian film festival. In Beijing events included the production of an Australian play, No Worries, and the launch of the translation of Dr Geoffrey Bolton’s Oxford History of Australia Vol 5. In Shanghai, the post funded the establishment of an Australian reading room at Jiaotong University; a visit to Australia by writer Wang Anyi and arranged a visit to Shanghai by science and technology journalists Dr Peter Pockley and Ms Tania Ewing.
An important part of the 1993-94 program was the concentration of activities in Taiwan during the Australia Now promotion in November. Organised by the Australian Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei, the promotion was an umbrella for a range of activities designed to raise awareness of Australia as a partner for Taiwan. Activities included a joint business council conference, a seminar on study in Australia, performances by the Australian Ballet, street theatre performances, participation in an international film festival, Aboriginal dance performances, a photographic exhibition and music performances.
South-East Asia
Participation in the Queensland Art Gallery Asia-Pacific Triennial highlighted Australia’s involvement with the region. Strong representation of artists and academics from Asia was seen as fundamental to building a basis for further growth. This extended earlier linkages developed between Asian and Australian artists, in particular through Artists Regional Exchange events. Several of the artists included in the triennial subsequently participated at both the Adelaide Festival of Arts and the Bougainvillea Festival in Darwin.
The Australia Centre in Manila, co-funded with assistance from the Australia Abroad Council and the Australia Council, has established a reputation for Australia as an interested and active partner with Filipinos across a broad range of activities.
The high profile of Australian visual arts activities continued with the showing of two exhibitions ‘Australia Gold’, an exhibition of contemporary Australian jewellery and metalwork staged in Singapore, Manila and Kuala Lumpur. ‘Location,’ an exhibition of contemporary photo-based works, toured Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Bangkok.
Support for the Australia Council’s artist-in-residence program continued with exchanges in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. Exhibitions of work by the artists participating in this scheme were shown at the conclusion of their appointments to teaching institutions in those countries.
Tours by music groups have been very successful in the region. The tour by Ten Part Invention to Thailand, as part of the celebrations of the third cycle birthday anniversary of HRH Princess Chulabhorn, paved the way for further tours on a commercial basis.
Demand for museum conservation and curatorial skills in the region continued to develop. Sports training opportunities also grew. These fields are expected to attract greater attention in the coming year.
An Australia Week was held in Colombo with displays of two Aboriginal exhibitions and performances by music and dance group, The Sunburnt Country Show. A visit was arranged for an art teacher to lecture at the University of Dhaka and a craftsperson who represented Australia at an international seminar of folk arts and crafts in Bangladesh.
Indo-China
In Laos, the official hand-over ceremony of one of Australia’s major development assistance projects, the Mekong River Friendship Bridge, by the Prime Minister, Mr Keating, to the heads of state of Laos and Thailand, was celebrated by a cultural song festival in Vientiane. Celebrities from seven regional countries performed, including representatives from the Australian music industry, Tommy Emmanuel, Gyan and the Australian bush band the Sundowners. Continued assistance was provided on the Tam Ting Caves conservation project.
In Vietnam activities focused on exchanges and a celebration of Aboriginal indigenous culture. The program included performing arts tours by Redbuck, a desert rock band, as a contribution to the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous People (1993), and Dance North headed by Cheryl Stock. Dance North and conductor Max Olding achieved a major breakthrough in cooperative production in contemporary dance and music between the two countries. Assistance was provided to bring Vietnamese artists to the Queensland Art Gallery Triennial, a film director to the Documentary Film Conference, and a woman playwright to attend the Third International Woman Playwrights Conference in Adelaide and the Association of Australian Literature Conference in Canberra.
In Cambodia, support went to national interest projects associated with the National Museum, the National Library and the Ceramic School at the School of Fine Arts.
Americas
Commercial and political interests were the main focus in North America and were supported through a range of activities during 1993-94.
A special reception was held in Washington in early December to promote the successful Sydney Olympic bid, and another gala event, the screening of the film, The Piano, at the Kennedy centre was warmly received by a large audience. The Hollow-ware Exhibition which toured to Chicago and Washington was enthusiastically received, and helped to raise the profile of Australia in North America. Australian Studies was the major theme at the annual Australia Week promotion in St Louis.
The most significant activity supported in Latin America was an exhibition by Craft Australia in Uruguay and Chile.
Africa
Activities supported during the year were the visit to Australia of the South African soccer team; the visit of a South African to study Australian arts administration and the African Cultural Festival in Canberra. There will be scope for improved opportunities for cultural exchanges with South Africa following the election of the Mandela government in April 1994.
Europe
Funding was provided for the establishment an Australian Institute at the University of Potsdam in Germany with the aim to encourage serious examination of Australia’s history, culture and achievements, and collaboration on industrial research. Activities supported included commissioning an Australian lecturer to address various institutions in Turkey on Australian multiculturalism and the Victorian Tapestry Workshop exhibitions in France, Germany and Turkey. Support was also given to tour the Sydney Opera House Exhibition to several European centres to promote Australian excellence in design, building construction and cultural achievements. Several theatrical groups were assisted for appearances in European centres.
A major project in Central Europe was support for a University of Newcastle program of collaborative research on energy use and production with a university in the Czech Republic. Projects in Russia included the purchase and supply of Aboriginal musical instruments to Russian museums, the visit to Australia of a Russian academic, and a series of concerts in the Russian Far East featuring an Australian conductor.
The Department continued its focus on developing sporting links with the South Pacific.
As well as continuing its funding support for the Oceania Olympic Training Centre Scholarship Program, sponsorship was provided for a Sports Administrators Course run by the Australian Sports Commission. The course was targeted to sports administrators from national sporting organisations within the Pacific region. There were 16 participants from 10 Pacific island countries, and all completed the course successfully.
Departmental input into other sporting programs included assistance with the setting up of the Pikinini Sports Program in PNG, based on the highly successful Aussie Sports Program. There was funding assistance to bring South Pacific participants to attend a strength and conditioning coaches’ course at the Sports Commission.
Other major cultural activities supported by the Department included a highly successful tour in Papua New Guinea by rock group Yothu Yindi, and the production of a Australian documentary film project in Fiji. The documentary, A Lasting Impression-A Cross Cultural Exchange, will be used as a teaching tool in communities and by corporate and government bodies to assist in the establishment of income- generating projects for communities in Fiji and other Pacific island nations.
Cultural relations funds also facilitated a cultural exchange visit by 26 students and eight teachers from Thursday Island State High School to schools in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The visit, initiated to observe the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, was the first encounter for many of the students with their Melanesian family origins.
The South Pacific cultural program assisted and facilitated a large number of other projects in areas including sport, and visual and performing arts.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program
In consultation with Aboriginal Studies Press, a collection of 15 books by leading indigenous Australian writers was compiled. Entitled Marrkin, a Walmajarri (western desert tribe) word meaning ‘message,’ they were distributed to overseas missions for presentation to dignitaries, educational institutions and exhibition centres. This promoted increased international awareness and understanding of indigenous Australians.
In September 1993 the International Cultural Relations Branch’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program executive officer, Roni Ellis, visited Bonn, Berlin, Paris and London. Ms Ellis participated in the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous People events in France, conducted talks on indigenous people in Australia and opened Aboriginal exhibitions attended by local dignitaries. Ms Ellis also conducted a number of training sessions on the native land title (Mabo) issue at Australian missions. She visited officials from French and German art galleries and museums to examine future promotional opportunities and assess the effectiveness of current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and exhibitions in both countries.
The Department continued to increase awareness of indigenous Australians overseas by supporting Asian tours of art exhibitions such as ‘Image Black’ and ‘Art from the Western Desert’. It co-funded the ‘Utopia Silks’ exhibition, from the Robert Holmes a Court collection, in Paris. The exhibition was opened by the Prime Minister, Mr Keating. Tours by painters, dancers, musicians and other performing artists to various countries were also assisted.
Non-statutory and statutory bodies
Funding of bilateral cultural relations activities with some countries is largely carried out by non- statutory and statutory bodies. The following non-statutory and statutory bodies operated in association with the International Cultural Relations Branch of the Department:
Non-statutory bodies
Australia Abroad Council
Australia-China Council
Australia-France Foundation
Australia-India Council
Australia-Indonesia Institute
Australia-Korea Foundation
Australia-New Zealand Foundation
Membership and other background information appears in the appendix on non-statutory and statutory bodies. With the exception of the Australia Abroad Council, please refer to annual reports prepared by each body for details of their activities.
Statutory body
The Australia-Japan Foundation is a statutory body which produces its own annual report. Details of its structure and activities appear in the appendices to this report.
The International Public Affairs Branch (IPB) develops and implements the international public affairs component of the Department’s public diplomacy program. Formerly the Overseas Information Branch, the branch was restructured and renamed in early 1994. The restructuring resulted from re-examination of the branch’s role in meeting departmental priority goals and objectives. It also reflected the branch’s need to evolve with the wide range of techniques and technology applied in mass communications and public relations.
In 1993-94, 22 specialist public affairs officers were posted at 20 missions in 19 countries requiring the most active public affairs programs: Bangkok, Beijing, Bonn, Brussels, Hong Kong, Jakarta (two), Kuala Lumpur, London, Manila, New Delhi, New York, Ottawa, Port Moresby, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, Suva, Tokyo (two), Washington, and Wellington. As part of overseas missions, public affairs officers developed and implemented public affairs strategies directed at the Government’s overseas objectives. They initiated and coordinated relations with the media and other influential target groups, coordinated media arrangements for ministerial and other high-level visits, responded to information requests and were usually responsible for managing cultural relations programs.
IPB consulted posts and geographical divisions in the Department to produce 1994-95 country public affairs plans for 20 major missions. The plans, tied to departmental goals and priority objectives of the missions, created strategies for reaching key target audiences in countries and regions covered by Australian diplomatic missions with specialist public affairs officers.
IPB created and disseminated timely, high-quality print, radio, television, video and pictorial public affairs material to posts to assist their public affairs programs. Periodicals produced included the fortnightly foreign and trade policy magazine, Insight, and Australian Science and Technology Newsletter. Other publications included a trade and investment kit, Australia-Good for Business, the prestige Economist round table conference publication, Australia in the World, and, in consultation with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Native Title Task Force, a major fact sheet, Mabo and Australia’s Native Title Act.
The branch produced numerous daily public affairs items and targeted feature articles on trade and investment, and 18 other fact sheets on a range of policy, economic, business and other topics. Daily public affairs items covered a wide range of topics in support of government interests overseas. The items were tailored for posts to use in newsletters, releases and briefings; to respond to inquiries; and as background for posts on developments in Australia. Topics included statements by the Prime Minister and other ministers, economic affairs (including both budgets presented during the financial year), business developments, Australia’s integration with the Asia-Pacific, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs (including native title issues), investment, industry restructuring, industrial relations, the environment, the republic debate, the 2000 Sydney Olympics, scientific achievement and cultural matters.
The branch also produced, on behalf of other divisions, two periodicals, Peace and Disarmament News and Environment: Australia’s International Agenda.
IPB obtained positive exposure in overseas media for the Government’s position on trade reform, including Cairns Group, Uruguay Round and APEC issues, and also produced sizeable kits on the Uruguay Round for domestic audiences.
IPB developed a new corporate identification system for departmental publications, advertising and stationery. This aimed particularly at enhancing recognition with the Department’s domestic clientele. Work continued on refining the system for a range of uses and to minimise cost and technical obstacles.
Radio programs were produced on science and technology, the environment, various forms of Australian music and special bilateral topics requested by posts. Television and video productions included ‘The Changing Australia’, ‘Cities of Australia’, ‘Australia’s involvement in the Antarctic’ and ‘Clean Up the World’. Eighty-one other video programs on various subjects were supplied to meet requests from 37 posts.
The branch initiated a pilot program of satellite television conferences and broadcasts involving portfolio Ministers, missions, the media and others in South-East Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. The conferences proved to be a valuable, cost-effective means of delivering specific public affairs messages overseas.
IPB assisted print media visitors from target countries to attend the inaugural National Trade and Investment Outlook Conference, which received wide coverage in the target countries of South-East Asia, North Asia, East Asia and India. Assistance was provided to the media visitors to follow up other Australian economic and trade issues.
IPB provided media liaison support, sponsored 13 media visitors and provided public affairs materials for the Celebrate Australia promotion in Japan. It provided similar support and sponsorship for the Australia Today 1994 promotion in Indonesia.
IPB coordinated extensive media arrangements for the visits of the prime ministers of Papua New Guinea and Laos, the presidents of Germany, Chile, and Kazakhstan, the United States Secretary of State, the Czech Foreign Minister and the Prince of Wales. IPB provided program and media support for the visit of the Vice President of India and accompanying media, and the India Today 1994 promotion in Australia.
Extensive media liaison and photographic support was arranged for visits by the Prime Minister to the United States, Ireland, Britain, Belgium, France, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. IPB arranged for Australian and international media coverage of the Prime Minister and portfolio Ministers’ attendance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit conference in Seattle in November. The Trade Minister’s visits to Latin America and Asia also had IPB coverage. Public affairs support for high-level visits was a high priority role for specialist public affairs officers at posts.
Visit programs
The International Public Affairs Branch administered five major visit programs during 1993-94:
Overseas Media Visits Program;
South-East Asia/South-West Pacific Visits Program for Australian Media Representatives;
North-East Asia Visits Program for Australian Media Representatives;
Special Visits Program; and
Asian Business Visits Program.
Overseas media visits
The Overseas Media Visits program encourages senior media representatives to visit Australia to produce material covering Australia’s foreign policy, trade and economic interests, and sporting, cultural and other aspects of life in Australia. IPB arranges extensive programs for these visitors. Usually they are nominated by Australia’s overseas missions, and financial assistance is sometimes provided to help with travel and living expenses in Australia.
Where the Department has public affairs officers at posts they brief media visitors, provide them with background material and story ideas, and encourage them to pursue issues important to Australia.
The majority of visitors in 1993-94 addressed issues concerned with trade and development. Other common topics included bilateral relations, multiculturalism, the republic debate, Sydney’s 2000 Olympics plans and the Mabo land title legislation.
During 1993-94, 90 media representatives from 23 countries visited Australia under this program. Twenty media visitors, just over 22 per cent of the total, were women. Divided by region, 26 came from North and North-East Asia, 19 from South and South-East Asia, 15 from the Americas, 12 from Europe, 11 from the South Pacific, and seven from the Middle East and Africa. These included 12 journalists from Asia, the Americas and Europe who covered the National Trade and Investment Outlook Conference (NTIOC) in Melbourne during November.
An Indonesian journalist, Mr Tantyo Bangun Wirupati, through the assistance of the Australian Antarctic Foundation, visited Antarctica under the program. Mr Michael Lim, of the Singapore Television ‘Inside Asia’ program, made a comprehensive documentary of Australian attempts to integrate into Asia during his one-week visit. New Zealand journalist Mr John Goulter contrasted the operations of the Senate in Australia and New Zealand, and addressed Mabo-related issues. A Seoul newspaper feature writer, Mr Nam-Kyu Lee, prepared an Australian version of his world series dealing with youth activities and sport; and three Pacific journalists were brought to Australia for Mr Bilney’s major policy statement on Australia’s relations with the South Pacific and to follow up other important regional stories.
Overall the year’s activities resulted in positive feedback. The visits program gave significant print and electronic media coverage of Australia’s role and its interests in the Asia-Pacific region including economic and political developments.
Regional visits
The regional visits programs for Australian media representatives are designed to encourage informed perceptions of neighbouring countries. In 1993-94 they enabled 12 Australian journalists to undertake working visits to 12 countries in the Pacific, South-East and North-East Asia.
Five journalists visited nine countries-Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands-under the South-East Asia/South-West Pacific Visits Program. This program, established in 1984, is funded by the Department and administered by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (Australian Journalists’ Association).
Seven journalists visited China, Hong Kong and the Republic of Korea under the North-East Asia Visits Program, funded and administered by the Department. The two visits programs resulted in significant Australian print and electronic media coverage of developments in the region, and encouraged links between Australian media representatives and their Asia-Pacific counterparts.
Special visits
Visitors to Australia under the Special Visits Program include influential or eminent people in particular fields who can contribute to a greater overseas understanding of Australia’s policies and institutions and heightened awareness in Australia of key foreign policy, trade, economic and social issues.
Visits by 30 people from 23 countries were funded directly under the Program. Assistance was provided to 16 officials who accompanied visitors to Australia.
The number of visitors by region was: South and South-East Asia eight; North and East Asia five; South Pacific six; Europe three; Americas five; Africa and the Middle East three.
Visitors included Mme Deng Nan, Vice Minister, State Science and Technology Commission, China; Ms Rigoberta Menchu, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Guatemala; Mr Michael Sze, Secretary for the Civil Service, Hong Kong; Dr Mohammad Larijani, Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Iranian Parliament; Dr Yoshio Suzuki, Chief Counsellor, Nomura Institute Limited, Japan; Mrs Sarah Hogg, Head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit, Britain; and Mr Craig Smith, Political Director, Democratic National Committee, United States of America.
Asian business visits
The Asian Business Visits program was one of 18 initiatives announced by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in March 1993 to forge closer economic links between Australia and Asia.
In its inaugural year, 47 visitors from 11 countries were brought to Australia. Business visitors included 42 delegates to the National Trade and Investment Outlook Conference (NTIOC) in Melbourne in November 1993. A further five individual visits completed the program. The number of visitors by region was South-East Asia 13, East Asia 19, North Asia nine and South Asia six. Networking on business issues was a feature of the conference. It brought together some 900 representatives of major companies in Australia, Asia, the US, Chile and Germany. Resulting media reports raised awareness of business opportunities with Australian companies.
Visitors included a delegation led by Governor Zhu Senlin from Guangdong Province, China; Yu Zhenseng, Mayor of Qingdao City, China; Shahid Hasan Khan, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the Economic Sector; Syed Naveed Qamar Shah, Chairman of the Pakistan Privatisation Commission; Park Se-Yong, President of Hyundai, ROK; Mr Tanri Abeng, President of the Bakrie Group, Indonesia; Khun Suthichart Chirathivat, President of Retail Business, Central Group of Companies, Thailand; and Tunku Sri Dato’ Seri Ahmad Yahaya, Deputy Executive Chairman, Sime Darby Berhad, Malaysia.
From 1 July 1994, the Asian Business Visits program will be managed by the Department’s Business Affairs Unit.
Satellite television
The International Public Affairs Branch launched ‘Australia Link’, a new international television program using satellite technology to project Australia’s interests abroad.
The first of three live pilot broadcasts went to air via Indonesia’s Palapa satellite on 29 March, to five ASEAN countries, soon after the first ASEAN visit of the Minister for Trade, Senator Bob McMullan. Senator McMullan was introduced from a Canberra television studio to a multi-national media audience assembled in Australian missions in Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, and a television studio in Manila. He answered media questions from each ASEAN capital consecutively for an hour. The broadcast resulted in extensive print and electronic media coverage of significant bilateral and multilateral issues.
The second ‘Australia Link’ program was broadcast to Latin America on 6 May, shortly before Senator McMullan’s visit to five Latin American countries. Although marred by technical difficulties in Brazil and Mexico, the hour-long program was well received in Argentina and Chile.
In the third live ‘Australia Link’ broadcast on June 15, the Minister for Development Cooperation and Pacific Island Affairs, Gordon Bilney, delivered a major policy statement on Australia’s relations with the South Pacific to 11 countries, via two international satellites. Mr Bilney’s speech to a Foreign Correspondents’ Association lunch in Sydney was transmitted to Western Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia, Kiribati, Tonga, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. It resulted in extensive print and electronic media coverage throughout the Pacific.
Predominantly positive feedback from overseas posts and the international media have indicated the benefits of developing and diversifying the use of satellite technology as a vehicle for Australia’s international public diplomacy.
The Historical Documents sub-program, managed by the Department’s Historical Documents Branch, embraces research and editorial functions required to produce volumes in the series Documents on Australian Foreign Policy 1937-49. Successive governments have indicated the importance of documenting the evolution of Australia’s external relations. By government direction, the project is covering the period 1937-49 first because those were the years during which Australia established diplomatic relations with other countries and began to develop an independent role in world affairs.
The content of volumes in the series is scrutinised by a Committee of Final Review comprising the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Leader of the Opposition and advised by the Editor of Historical Documents. An Editorial Advisory Board, comprising eminent scholars and with representatives of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in attendance, advises the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The sub-program also provides policy advice on the Archives Act, 1983 and the Department’s responsibilities under it. It attends to official and public inquiries concerning the archives of the Department and its predecessors, and to requests for access to those records. It assists a varied clientele, from researchers, journalists and academic historians to other departments.
Research expertise is applied also in responding to official and public historical inquiries; and publication of scholarly monographs and papers.
Historical Documents Project
Volume X of Documents on Australian Foreign Policy 1937-49, covering July to December 1946, was published in July. In accordance with a decision of the Editorial Advisory Board, documents selected for publication in volumes dealing with years from 1947 onwards will be arranged by topic. Volume XI, on relations with Indonesia in 1947, was prepared for publication in August 1994 in hard and soft cover format. Selection for publication was completed for Volume XII, which will cover all other aspects of Australia’s external relations in 1947. Research was completed for Volume XIII, (relations with Indonesia in 1948).
Officers of the Historical Documents Project Section assisted with a range of official and public inquiries.
Historical records information and access
The Historical Records Information and Access Section is mainly concerned with meeting requests for access to 30-year-old records and their clearance, often in consultation with other departments and agencies, with which it maintains close liaison. It also advises the Department on its responsibilities under the Archives Act, 1983.
The clearance workload increased in 1993-94 because of growing public demand for highly-classified foreign policy files of the 1950s and 60s, many requiring referral to the Department for expert examination. The 22% increase since 1992-93 does not include more than 1000 files requested under section 40 of the Archives Act still awaiting referral by Australian Archives. The sharp drop in the completion rate reflects the greater complexity and sensitivity of the file contents.
The section also collects on database, for administrative and historical purposes, information about overseas posts and biographical information about former Foreign Affairs and Trade officers and overseas representatives in Australia.
Significant activities during the year included:
negotiations with representatives from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on agreements for mutual clearance of 30-year-old shared records;
reference assistance to several major projects, including special access to departmental records, including:
- a historical survey of Australian cultural relations with Asia;
- an official history sponsored by the Australian War Memorial of Australia’s involvement in United Nations peace-keeping activities;
- a documentary by Film Australia for the ABC on the life of Francis James;
- a committee of inquiry into defence and defence-related awards;
- the official history and accompanying film on the history of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions from 1946.
preparation of guidelines on DFAT records for use by other agencies;
training for Australian Archives staff engaged on clearance of DFAT records;
organisation of old London records in Australian Archives following a sentencing program, involving several thousand files.