Saturday, April 12, 2014

The Menzies legacy, interview with Geraldine Doogue on Radio National, 12 April, 2014

The Menzies legacy

Saturday 12 April 2014 8:20AM
Sir Robert Menzies not only led the nation for a record breaking number of years, he strode the world stage as well.
As the Liberal party celebrates its 70thanniversary and John Howard’s book The Menzies Era is prepared for publication in October, we can expect greater scrutiny of the man and his legacy.

Guests

Elena Douglas
Convenor, Centre for Social Impact WA, UWA Business School
Troy Bramston
Writer and columnist The Australian
Editor of The Whitlam Legacy (The Federation Press, 2013) and author of Looking for The Light on The Hill: Modern Labor’s challenges (Scribe, 2011)

Further Information

Robert Menzies' stolen legacy
Elena Douglas, The Financial Review
Menzies the true Liberal
Troy Bramston, The Australian

Credits

Presenter
Geraldine Doogue
Producer
Jackie May

Global citizens offer smart power in a networked world, 12 March 2014

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Global citizens offer smart power in a networked world
Kim Beazley . . . Wiggles requests surprised the Washington Embassy team.
ELENA DOUGLAS
“Connectedness” is the new measure of power in a networked world, argues Anne-Marie Slaughter in Foreign Affairs.
Harvard University political scientist Joseph Nye illuminates “smart power”, the triple-decker chessboard of economic power, military power and soft power, the ability to shape the preferences of others by example and attraction.
In a networked world, your power is measured in the number, quality and centrality of your connections.
In a soft-power world, it’s reflected in your attractiveness: to foreign students, academics, migrants, tourists, investors and the success overseas of your businesses, cultural product, and, most importantly, your people.
Australia, then, possesses no greater soft-power asset than our 1 million Australians overseas. These global citizens, in their work, their creativity and drive, are this country’s ultimate smart-power network. You will find outstanding Australians going about their business everywhere from the boardrooms of the Fortune 500 to refugee camps in war zones to the world’s major performing arts organisations and frontiers of science and knowledge. With every step, they are expanding Australia’s footprint.

RECOGNISING TALENT IS A CRITICAL STEP

Advance – Australia’s Global Community, headquartered in New York but with global chapters and reach, was founded with the support of then consul-general Ken Allen, AC, to leverage this talent base to Australia’s advantage. If, as Slaughter argues, “the key to success in a networked economy is being able to harvest the best ideas and innovations from the widest array of sources” then global Australians are a critical resource.
On Thursday, at the Advance Global Australian Awards, a number of outstanding Australians who live and work overseas will be honoured for their achievements. Educated and “made in Australia”, they are the fruit of this country’s world-beating education system.
Australian journalist Prue Clarke has built New Narratives, which provides editorial and business support to fledgling media organisations in countries without strong media, particularly in Africa. Head of the Edinburgh Festival Jonathan Mills, leading cross-border arbitration and litigation expert Caryl Nairn, and United States-based cancer researcher Richard Pestell are among the finalists.
They are joined by senator Sekai Holland, the former Zimbabwean co-minister of state for national healing, reconciliation and integration. Senator Holland, as a graduate of Sydney’s University of Technology, will be presented with the alumni award representing the now millions of global citizens to have enjoyed an Australian education.

CULTURAL PRODUCTS PUNCH ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT

Education and cultural products are central in the new power landscape. Australia’s success as a destination for working holidays and semesters abroad will transform the next generation’s understanding of this country.
Kim Beazley tells the story of a moment of peak Australian power in Washington. To the surprise of the Embassy team, high-powered Capitol Hill insiders under the jackboots of their four-year-olds were calling, saying “do whatever it takes” to get tickets to a Wiggles concert.
I once watched several hundred of the most senior representatives to the United Nations scrambling like schoolboys to take selfies with Nicole Kidman at the special preview of her movie, The Interpreter, hosted by the bemused Australian Mission.
Understanding these new types of power requires different thinking, not in hierarchies of power, but in networks of influence. It’s also harder to measure than conventional power.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has shown early signs of an aptitude for working this way. Witness her instinct on a revival of the Colombo Plan: she wants to engage a new generation of Australians in learning about Asia and bring their knowledge and networks home.
She also intends to pursue a more synthesised, Team Australia approach to the government allocation of investment, so as to promote Australia across public diplomacy, tourism, trade and investment.
Foreign policy will increasingly require the orchestration of networks of actors public, private and civic to better project Australia’s story. Australia is one of the world’s most creative, multicultural and innovative societies, but we could do a much better job of leveraging our global Aussies, those abroad, as well as the incredible depth and breadth of foreign-grown talent now planted in our soil.
The future of nations rests, as never before, on their capacity to nurture and sustain creativity. Australians overseas keep us closer to the centre of the future. They are a source of business connections, access to supply chains, and globally seasoned board and executive talent.
Thinking smartly and differently will allow us to make better use of this powerful resource so that Australians overseas and the foreign alumni of our universities help us stay plugged into all corners of the global brain.
Elena Douglas was the founding chief executive of Advance – Australia’s Global Community from 2002-2007.
The Australian Financial Review