JAUSTRAL IA
PRIME MINISTER
FOR PRESS 6 April 1978
COMMITTEE ON AUSTRALIA'S RELATIONS
WITH THE THIRD WORLD
The Government has established a high-level Committee to
examine the wide ranges of issues involved in Australia's
relations with the developing countries of the Third World
and to identify policy options for Australia's approach to
this group of states in the future.
The Prixae Minister said the decision reflected the Government's
awareness that the concerted approach of Third World
developing countries to global issues such as food, energy
and the conditions for international economic growth
represented an increasingly important factor in international
relations.
The issues raised critical political, economic and moral
questions. A growing interdependence between states, an
increasing urgency attaching to the global problems and the
need for co-operative solutions compelled attention to the
character of Australia's relationship with the Third World.
Australia had always paid close attention to its bilateral
relations with Third World countries and to the particular
issues involving them. But the Government believed that
recent developments required a more co-ordinated and
comprehensive approach one which recognised the existence
of the Third World as a collective entity and took full
account of the political significance and complexity of
many of the issues which concerned it.
The membership of the Committee, which would be headed by
Professor Owen Harries, of the University of New South Wales,
had been selected to reflect the breadth of the Australian
interests, both within government and in the community
generally, which were involved in our relations with the
Third World. / 2
The group of eminent people who had agreed to serve on the
Committee were: Associate Professor Owen Harries, of the School
of Political Science, University of New South
Wales ( Chairman)
Mr E. K. Fisk, Professorial Fellow, Department
of Economics, Research School of Pacific Studies,
Australian National University, Canberra
Mr Peter Nolan, Secretary of the Australian Council
of Trade Unions, Melbourne
Dr Brian Scott, Group Managing Director, W. D. Scott
Co. Pty. Ltd., Management Consultants, Sydney
Mr J. A. Uhrig, Managing Director, Simpson Pope Ltd.,
Adelaide Mr J. T. Smith, of Canberra, formerly Minister
( Commercial), Australian Embassy, Washington
Mr J. D. Moore, First Assistant Secretary, Overseas
Economic Relations Division, Department of the
Treasury, Canberra
Mr Neil Mclnnes, Deputy Director-General ( Economic
and Financial), Office of National Assessments,
C anb err a
Mr A. R. Parsons, First Assistant Secretary,
Department of Foreign Affairs, Canberra
The Committee would consult widely among the public, government
departments and agencies, academic bodies and other interested
organisations. The Government hoped that the Committee would
report to it by the end of 1978.