Output 3.1:
Public information services and public diplomacy

• Contribution to awareness and public understanding of Australian foreign and trade policy through departmental engagement with the media.
• Department’s Internet websites and publications updated and enhanced to promote understanding of foreign and trade policy issues.
• Contribution made to greater domestic understanding and support for trade liberalisation and Australia’s objectives in a new World Trade Organization round, through media briefing, addresses to key bodies, including in regional and rural centres, and the development of brochures, reports, Internet-based material and ministerial speech input.
• Benefits of multilateral trade liberalisation, and related Australian and Cairns Group positions, promoted internationally through studies and the provision of tailored information packages; misinformation countered.
• Domestic awareness of trade policy issues, and awareness of the importance to Australia of open markets, promoted through:
  • briefings and public presentations by departmental officers including from the department’s State and Territory offices;
  • establishment of an information booth at the Northern Territory Trade Expo, organisation of a China trade and investment summit, and facilitation of the World Economic Forum Millennium Summit in Australia in 2000; and
  • support to the Minister for Trade for presentations on trade issues to parliamentarians and the public, particularly in rural and regional areas.
• Australia’s resilient trade and economic performance through the economic crisis highlighted to international audiences through post-based investment promotion, speech inputs and the development of public information material.
• Contribution made to increased public understanding of arms control and regional security matters, and nuclear fuel-cycle issues and safeguards, including through interaction with the media, the Internet, the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific, regular production of Peace and Disarmament News, and contributions to internationally recognised publications.
• Electronic database of international treaties maintained and updated to ensure continued accessibility, via the Internet, to the widest possible audience.

• An accurate and contemporary image of Australia projected through public diplomacy activities and initiatives, including targeted international media, special visitor program and cultural award scheme visits, and public affairs material.
• Contribution made to international awareness of contemporary Australia and its cultural achievements through:
  • introduction of an Australia International Cultural Council three-year strategy for the Coordination and Promotion of Australian Cultural Activity Overseas (1999–2001);
  • efforts by the newly established Commission on International Cultural Promotion to promote Australian culture, including art exports;
  • development of a strategy for the international promotion of the Centenary of Federation; and
  • implementation of international touring programs in key markets for the Australia Our Sporting Life and New Directions—Aboriginal Australia and Business exhibitions.
• Non-official linkages and partnerships between Australia and key Asian partners developed, and a positive image of Australia promoted in these countries, through the work of the Australia–China Council, Australia–India Council, Australia–Indonesia Institute, Australia–Japan Foundation, and Australia–Korea Foundation.
• Australian Expo 2000 pavilion in Hanover opened on time (1 June 2000) and within the construction budget (relates to administered item on Expo 2000).
• East Asia Analytical Unit reports successfully launched on East Asia-related topics of interest to Australian business, including on financial market reform in the region, on the recovering economies of South-East Asia, and the commencement of reporting on emerging market opportunities outside East Asia.
• Contribution made to a positive image of Australia in Asia, and trade opportunities and Government support available to business highlighted, through the Asialine magazine.
• Commercially useful information and statistical services provided to business and the public through publication of trade and economic reports, Internet-based information and client-based statistical and market access information services.

• Obligations under the Freedom of Information Act fully met.
• First draft of One Hundred Years of Australia’s Engagement with Asia completed, and submitted to the Advisory Committee, Centenary of Federation Project.
• Documents on Australia and Indonesia’s Incorporation of Portuguese Timor, 1974–1976, published and released.