Enhancing Australia’s influence

The department delivered programs and services advocating our international policy agenda, highlighting our aid credentials and promoting a contemporary understanding of Australia. These efforts included global public diplomacy programs, inbound and outbound scholarships programs and our rapidly growing online presence. Under our Public Diplomacy Strategy 2014–2016, our posts managed strategic public diplomacy programs.

We delivered an effective cultural diplomacy program highlighting Australia’s creative and innovative talent, expanded our network of sports partnerships and implemented the Australia now program in Germany.

Our Australia Awards scholarship program strengthened people-to-people links between Australia and the Indo–Pacific region. It supported 3,500 continuing students and offered 3,500 new scholarships, fellowships and short courses. We released the Australia Awards Global Strategy, which delivers innovative, flexible and responsive options, particularly for women. We completed the first annual Australia Awards Tracer Survey. Responses from 1,500 alumni in 27 countries demonstrated alumni contributions to both sustainable development and ongoing positive perceptions of Australia.

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The New Colombo Plan (NCP) enhanced understanding of the Indo–Pacific region in Australia. It created new people-to-people links by supporting Australian undergraduates to study and intern in 34 countries across the region. In 2017 the program provided 7,440 mobility grants—up from 5,450 in 2016—and 105 scholarships—up from 100 in 2016.

Forty Australian universities participated in the NCP, facilitating new networks and stronger partnerships with institutions across the region. We expanded the NCP alumni program, supporting more than 9,000 NCP alumni to maintain their connections with the region.

We made good progress delivering the Australia Global Alumni Engagement Strategy (2016–2020), which is strengthening our diplomatic influence, increasing business linkages, promoting our education, science, research and innovation education capabilities, and showcasing Australia as a contemporary, innovative and open society.

Our e-diplomacy initiatives reached 5,000 alumni from 155 countries and connected with more than 5,400 followers on LinkedIn. The Australian by Degree series highlighted high achieving alumni and the benefits of Australian qualifications. It was broadcast over 100 times on the Australia Plus network and attracted over 120,000 views on YouTube and Facebook. Forty-four posts undertook alumni engagement initiatives, with official launches of the alumni strategy in Brunei, Pakistan, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

Through the Direct Aid Program (DAP) we funded NGOs and community groups to deliver a range of projects in 112 countries. Many of the projects supported people with disabilities, provided small-scale infrastructure, or encouraged community income generation. For example, DAP enabled the Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India to attend a six-day camp in Thailand and train with Australia’s gold medal winning Paralympian Brad Ness—
promoting the skills of people with disabilities and gender inclusion, while highlighting Australia’s sporting expertise.

We worked with internal and external clients to develop high-quality media and communications products that delivered targeted and timely responses and messaging. These efforts contributed to accurate reporting of our responses to consular and humanitarian crises.

The Public Diplomacy Strategy 2014–2016 strengthened Australia’s influence, reputation and relationships internationally by promoting a clear, creative and confident vision of Australia. Throughout the year, our posts delivered a significant number of public diplomacy initiatives. A key focus was increasing international exposure of the world’s oldest living culture. We launched an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Engagement Toolkit—a practical reference guide for staff on how to represent Australia’s Indigenous culture.

On Australia Day we launched the Australia now program in Germany to promote our culture, innovation and science credentials. Australia’s Chief Scientist led a forum on key science and innovation challenges and opportunities for the coming decades. Over 130 Australian and German innovation leaders from start-ups, established businesses, academic institutions and government attended, building connections and collaborations for the future.

By supporting the Asia–Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts (AsiaTOPA), we leveraged culture for diplomatic and business purposes. AsiaTOPA reached a live audience of 900,000 and an estimated 272 million people through digital and broadcast media—helping to foster institutional connections and advance Australia’s interests.

In 2016–17 the department’s International Media Visits Program hosted journalists from around the world. This program enabled visiting journalists to learn more about Australia’s approach to multiculturalism, science and technology, sustainable mining, foreign investment, creative industries and health policy. The articles published as a result of the visits presented Australia as an innovative, open and highly productive country.

Our sports diplomacy promoted Australia in major events such as the 2016 Rio Olympics and the Queen’s Baton Relay. The Pacific Sports Partnerships program collaborated with 15 sporting organisations, delivering targeted programs in nine countries. The new Asian Sports Partnerships program helped organisations implement sports programs focused on gender equality, disability inclusion and peace building in 18 countries. All posts reported on public diplomacy initiatives, providing visibility across the department and an evidence base for continuous improvement. In 2016–17 the department prioritised improving monitoring and evaluation capability across the public diplomacy program.

Our foundations, councils and institutes managed more than 200 grants for Australian artistic, academic, scientific and technological endeavours and cultural awareness programs in support of our international policy objectives.

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Our departmental website (dfat.gov.au) is 12th in federal government website rankings, receiving over 4.3 million users and 16.7 million page views in 2016–17. Most users were from Australia (61 per cent), followed by the United States (4.3 per cent), Indonesia (2.9 per cent), India (1.8 per cent) and the United Kingdom (1.7 per cent).

Together the department’s global network of nearly 100 embassy websites reached over 10.2 million users with over 33.3 million page views. Australia’s embassy in Beijing had the most website visits with over 5.3 million page views.

In line with the department’s inaugural Digital Media Strategy, our social media presence continued to expand and mature, reflecting the diverse online preferences and interests of the Australian public and our international audiences.

The department continued to test new platforms, such as WeChat, podcasts and blogs, to assess which channel and type of content would best reach local audiences.

The DFAT blog (blog.dfat.gov.au) launched in December 2016, received 30,000 page views of 49 posts by ministers, ambassadors, our staff and stakeholders. Its conversational style allowed us to communicate policies and priorities in plain language and to engage with the Australian community by responding to comments and answering questions.

We established a corporate Facebook page (facebook.com/dfat.gov.au) in November 2016, which gained 8,000 followers in its first seven months and created a corporate Instagram account (instagram.com/dfat) in June 2017 to illustrate the difference we made around the world.

Beyond the numbers, our enhanced digital engagement meant we were better able to connect with government and non-government organisations, business and community groups, and draw on these conversations to design and deliver more responsive and effective policies, programs and services.

We continued to explore new ways of engaging with audiences, including through live streaming events and hosting Q&A sessions on Facebook with the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the Foreign Policy White Paper, with undergraduate candidates for the New Colombo Plan, and with the Ambassador for Women and Girls to promote gender equality. We used social media to leverage high-profile events around the world. This included international days and observances, and other public diplomacy opportunities, such as Australia’s participation in the Rio Summer Olympics and Paralympics, Eurovision 2017, the Venice Biennale and the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea.

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We handled 2,994 media queries from both Australian and international media and prepared 510 media releases and public statements for portfolio ministers and the department. These figures were 3,293 and 460 respectively in 2015–16, and around 4,000 and 404 in 2014–15.

The decline in the overall number of media inquiries reflects the increasing reach of the department’s online presence. The higher figures in previous years also reflect intense media interest in particular matters that arose during those periods.

Our overseas posts managed several thousand foreign media enquiries. We managed media arrangements for high-level visits overseas, including the East Asia Summit, APEC and the Pacific Islands Forum, and bilateral visits in Australia, including AUSMIN and the visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Two thirds of our media queries concerned consular matters. High-profile cases generated significant media interest, as did the department’s support for Australians affected by major incidents overseas, including terrorist attacks. We also handled a high volume of media queries concerning Australia’s trade agenda and development assistance overseas.

Assessing the quality of our responses to media enquiries is an inherently subjective exercise. However, we are confident that our responses were consistently accurate and appropriate. We did not formally measure media enquiry response times this year but have implemented a new process to measure timeliness that will allow the department to report on this requirement in 2017–18.

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The department engaged Deakin University to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the Public Diplomacy Strategy. The evaluation, which is expected to be received later this year, will provide an evidence base to support a new multi-year public diplomacy strategy, to be developed after the release of the Foreign Policy White Paper.

In 2017 the New Colombo Plan provided 7,440 mobility grants—up from 5,450 in 2016—and 105 scholarships—up from 100 in 2016.

NCP created new people-to-people links by supporting Australian undergraduates to study and intern in 34 countries across the region.

Internships, mentorships and practicums are a major value-add for NCP students, helping them to enhance their skills in real life situations, build cross-cultural competencies and improve their employability.

NCP students and alumni regularly promote the program. For example, scholarship alumni Emma Roberts and Scott Gigante participated in a panel at the annual forum of the International Education Association of Australia in August 2016, and spoke about how they had benefited from their NCP experience. And NCP scholar Xavier Ekkel shared his experience at an event in Seoul, hosted by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in February 2017, to launch the Australian Embassy’s NCP Mentorship and Internship Program in Korea. The event was attended by businesses, Korean officials and Australian students.

NCP created new people-to-people links by supporting Australian undergraduates to study and intern in 34 countries across the region.

Internships, mentorships and practicums are a major value-add for NCP students, helping them to enhance their skills in real life situations, build cross-cultural competencies and improve their employability.

NCP students and alumni regularly promote the program. For example, scholarship alumni Emma Roberts and Scott Gigante participated in a panel at the annual forum of the International Education Association of Australia in August 2016, and spoke about how they had benefited from their NCP experience. And NCP scholar Xavier Ekkel shared his experience at an event in Seoul, hosted by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in February 2017, to launch the Australian Embassy’s NCP Mentorship and Internship Program in Korea. The event was attended by businesses, Korean officials and Australian students.

Forty Australian universities participated in the NCP mobility program, facilitating the building of new networks and broadening partnerships with institutions across the region.

Australian firms participating in the NCP recognised the value to their businesses from graduates and potential future employees who are regionally aware and have practical experience of the Indo–Pacific region. According to Angela Mentis from NAB, providing internships to NCP students in multiple Asian locations has delivered positive returns. ‘Upon graduation, these young Australians are bringing greater language and cross-cultural skills and experience of working in our region to the Australian workforce.’

In his address to the Australian Parliament in October 2016, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, ‘I am glad that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had the vision to champion the New Colombo Plan. By the end of this year, Singapore universities will have welcomed some 800 Australian New Colombo Plan students. They will continue the spirit of exchange and build and renew the connections and goodwill between our peoples into the next generation.’

Other regional governments have also embraced the NCP. For example, in the chairman’s statement of the first ASEAN–Australia Biennial Summit, in September 2016, ASEAN leaders welcomed Australia’s NCP initiative to promote people-to-people exchanges.

We expanded the NCP alumni program, offering opportunities for more than 8,000 NCP alumni to maintain their connections with the region. We held an increased number of professional development and high-level networking events, aimed at keeping alumni engaged with the region. The Australian Universities International Directors’ Forum published data confirming growth in student mobility to Asia by 32 per cent from 2014 to 2015, crediting the NCP for much of this growth.