Australian attitudes towards closer engagement with Asia

Abstract

An important legacy of the Hawke and Keating Labor governments was to place the issue of closer engagement with Asia on the Australian policy agenda. This article examines public opinion on the issue, focusing particularly on security threats, defence and security links, and economic integration. A modest resurgence in public fears that significant security threats to Australia is evident, with Indonesia emerging as the most likely future threat. There is strong and increasing support for defence links with the United States, as well as increased trust in the United States to come to Australia's assistance in the event of a threat; few have much confidence in Australia's own capacity to defend itself. Public opinion on economic integration with Asia is more ambiguous, in principle favouring closer links with Asia, but also supporting tariffs to protect industry, and endorsing the view that Japanese economic influence in Australia is too great. The defence and security opinions are generationally bound, with the older generations that experienced the Second World War being more defence‐ and threat‐oriented. This age‐related distribution suggests that public opinion will, in the absence of a major upheaval or elite disagreement on the issue, slowly shift to support closer relations with Asia.