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iSSETS PRIME MINISTER
ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
AAP CONFERENCE OF ASIAN, AUSTRALIAN AND PACIFIC MEDIA
EXECUTIVES, REGENT HOTEL, SYDNEY TUESDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 1994
* CHECK AGAINST DEUVERY'
I am very grateful for the Invitation to speak to such a distinguished audience as
we have here today and I welcome all of you from overseas to Australia and to
Sydney. It is somehow gratifying that within a week of the Bogor Declaration we have a
conference of media executives drawn from the Asia-Pacific.
Less than a decade ago, the Asia-Pacific was just a concept.
Increasingly today It is a defining reality.
With APEC all the more so, of course.
Mind you, had they read some of the Australian media at the weekend, the
uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking that the Asia-Pacific and APEC were still
unproven concepts, or realities of no great consequence.
Those of us with long experience know that this was the obligatory spray of
scepticism to prevent ary hubris sprouting.
The Australian media are conscientious in keeping us In our places and reminding
us that good works are never an excuse to draw more than a breath of
satisfaction. But in fact. like everyone else, they know that change j1 upon us.
No one I suspect knows it better than the Australian media. 3,137
And if it is a political leaders prime responsibility to anticipate and manage
change, and confront the necessities change brings then I amr sure they aiso
know that the political leaders al Bogor did this as It has rarely been done before.
That was where the sense of euphoria came from: from doing something with
some genuine vision about it.
Not a mandatory genuflection or theatrical squint into the future, but an act which
might actually mark this generation as one with sufficient wisdom, care arnd
foresight to lay the basis of a better world for millions of people In the fUtue.
And sufficient resolve.
That it should have happened and that it should have been so rapidly taken for
granted perhaps testifies to the transforming times in which we live.
It seamns to me that these are times when the most pessimistic among us find ft
difficult to escape the possibilities on offer.
We might even call it an age of possibility.
So much changed with the end of the Cold War.
We watched, millions of us around the world, as its most powerful symbol the
Berlin Wall was broken down.
We all knew that we watching a long chapter in the history of the modern world
come to an end.
How we read its fail depended, I suppose, on our natural disposition.
Pessimists will tend to see only t problems which flow from the collapse of an
old order.
Optimists will fail to see them.
The near-sighted and the nostalgic will see a symbol of a century at it end;
romantics and visionaries will see the start of a new one.
My vote is with the pragmatists.
Pragmnatists will see the possibilities.
And seize them.
3 43 8
It is a great era for those with an eye for possibilities in trade and investment the
envionment cultural development, information technology.
Namie your Interest.
We all know an era has ended.
We all speak of a new " Post Cold War world".
And In Bogor we took a practical step towards defining it.
It Is a cliche to say that much remains to be done, and many hurdles will have to
be jumped but it is just as true to say that an extraordinary amount w-as done
and an extraordinary number of hurdles were jumped.
We cid niot define the next century, but we gave ourselves a chance to shape it as
it should be shaped, which Is to say in all our interests.
In fact a clue to the shape of the new post Cold War world lay hidden In the drama
of events leading up to the end of the Berlin Wail.
While we watched the collapse of the Soviet Union on television and perhaps
secretly wished that CNN had been there in 1917, teenage students in California
were communicating by another means with teenage students in Moscow and St
Petersburg.
As tho Soviet Union disintegrated. and the legacy of older generations fell apart
before our eyes on television, a new generation was talking to Americans on
Internet unfiltered and unedited.
It gives us a glimpse of what awaits us in the 21 st Century.
And I think it gives us a hint of why we are more Inclined to think In terms of the
possible why agreements like the APEC agreement can be credibly pursued.
The barriers of distance and communication awe down and, In the end, It is not
easy to say why others should not follow.
We only need the courage to ask the question.
In APEC we did ask t.
And suddenly we are talking as a region in many forums, like this one. thinkm
as a region. ' 143: .9
That was the source of the little puff of euphoria.
Thol feeling that what we had just done could be done again.
We can break down language and cultural bamers and Increase the
understanding and respect between us.
And we can break down the barriers to trade and Investment
We can prevent bottlenecks before they develop.
We can find creative ways to deal with issues before they become problems.
Global communications. for instance.
it is difficult to overestimate the impact that global communications wiil have on the
daily lives of all of us.
And, for that matter, on the daily operations of the media.
Interactive multimedia. In particular, now has the potential to become a new force
In education, art, culture and the media.
That Is why In the Australian Government's cultural policy, Creattve Nation, we
took a number of major Initiatives to generate a vibrant multimedia Industry as part
of our push into the information age.
These specific Initiatives seek to build on our creative abilities: a substantial and
innovative film and television Industry; our software skills and our entrepreneurial
traditions. They also seek to utilise what is one of the more advanced telecommunications
networks In the world as a platform upon which the multimedia Industry can be
Most of you here will be aware that our two major telecommunications players,
Teistra. and Optus. have plans to Install broadband cable to millions of Australian
homes before the turn of the century.
The plans involve some of Australias biggest and best known media corporations
which should come as no surprise given the convergence taking place across
media, information and telecommunications industries.
These developments have profound implications for media organisations right
around the world and I am sure that all of you here are already grappling with the
challenges they pose.
I think It is worth making the observation that in all this, there is the real possibility
that those large media organisations. which have traditionally relied on the
broadcast nature of their medium, are going to come under Increasing pressure as
the ' iemocraisatlon of our information-gathering via networks like the Internet
takes effect.
That Is not to say that the major media organisations won't remain global players.
They will because some people will prefer to have their information handed to
themn In an easily digestible form.
In fact, there will be so much Information available that it may well be those who
can h~ est package and tailor it to specific needs who will gain a large share of the
globil information gain.
But for those who actively search for Information arnd news. the means of
communication available will enable them to sidesiep the hierarchical nature of
broacast newis and entertainment.
Via th~ eir PC they will be able to pick and choose publications and author at will.
This wIll also lead to an explosion of communities of interest groups of people
interested In a particular topic macroeconomics or microbiology. Chinese
medicine or the music of Chile will have access to all relevant Infbrmation on the
subject world wide and the ability to communicate with others expeut and
Interes-ted worldwide.
Recipients of information will have far greater choice In the information that they
choose to receive, and this will have considerable effects on media orgariLsatlons
whch are not used to the nature and level of their competition.
As the technology becomes more sophisticated, anyone with a small camera and
notebook computer will be able to show the whole world events taking place
virtually anywhere on the globe.
And, even if they clon't have a camera, they will still be able to descrbe events
taking place as they occur.
Broadcast will continue to exist, but it will be broadcast from the bottom up ralther
than th, 3 top down. 3 4 ' 1
6
And anyone who wants to will be a journalist,
As the technology becomes more Sophisticated more parts of the globe will open
up.
This will, of course. have profound effects on the extent to which individual
governments can regulate the flow of Information both within and Into their nations.
In some cases, It may well be near impossible.
Governments can take steps to restrict the flow of Information and ideas: but they
do so at the nisk of limiting access to the very communication technologies that, in
the information era of the next century, will be so critical to national economic
development. This Ison e of the key challenges facing governments inthe region, particularly
if those~ governments which are less open than others.
And in one sense, this is why last week's Bogor Declaration of APEC leaders was
so profound.
It committed the developed APEC countries to achieving free trade by the year
2010 and the developing APEC countries by the year 2020.
It was a recognition that In the coming century. economic advancement will be
inextricably lInked to the openness of national economies.
Those who embrace the world economy and the information revolution now driving
it will prosper.
Those who don't will pay a heavy price.
I don't for one moment want to underestimate te task of translating the political
commitment of Bogor into an economic reality.
I don't underestimate the challenges we face.
But Bcgor means we will face them.
It means we " a faced the future.
I The commitment we made Is an enormous step forward.
For instance, it can hardly have escaped anyone's notice that the Bogor
I Declaration involved both developing and developed counties.
34 42
It wasn't a case of developed countries trying to drag developing countries along to
a taible they didn't want to sit at.
To the contrary, the Bogor Declaration was very much the initiative of the
President of one of the worids most Important developing countries.
It is a great tribute to President Soeharto's leadership and standing in the region.
it is also a measure of his vision and grasp of the possibilities on offer In the next
century. The fact that Australia was able to play such an Important role in the whole AP EC
process, by launching the initiative in 1989 and then by turning it Into a Heads of
Government and leaders' meeting embracing a free trade agenda, shows just how
much Australia has changed In recent years.
While I am sure that many people In the region have a reasonable appreciation of
the nature of contemporary Australia. there is no doubt that the vast majority are
not so well informed.
That Is something we want to rectify.
I know, for example, tht it is still widely believed that the White Australia policy
still operates.
It was abolished more than twenty years ago.
Australia is, after all, a country where one In five of our population was born
overseas. And Hyt ou add to that number all the children of overseas-born parents you have
44per cent or almost half, of our total population.
While Australia Is neither a monocultural nor a monolithic society. and while
Australian communities ame separated by vast disances; and vastly different
regional and cultural affections, profound ties of fellow feeling unite us.
These days we ae Increasingly united by the pride and the pleasure we take In
the difference itself In multicultural Australia.
Our respect and enthusiasm for cultural diversity has become a defining element
of Australia's; national sentiment. 3 ' 14 3
It was some indication of this fact when a recent poll revealed that a clear majority
of Australians viewed the recent wave of Asian immigration as of significant benefit
to Ajstralla.
Whatever way you look at it, the contrast between the Australia of today and the
Australia of thirty years or even twenty years ago could not be more marked.
The economic changes have been as profound as the cultural ones.
A decade of reform has given us one of the most open economies In the world.
Some time ago now, we floated the dollar, deregulated our financial markets,
knocked down the tariff wall and pushed ahead with a widespread program of
industry and mlcroeconomic reform.
That reform process has delivered substantial benefits.
We are now growing at 4 to 5 per cent. The Economist believes that next year we
will continua to grow faster than the other major industria. 1ised economies in the
world. We also have increasing business Investment, a big rise in employment, an
underlying inflation rate of two per cent and continued growth In exports.
In fact, 60 per cent of all Australian exports are to t Asian region a share that
has doubled In less than thirty years.
Exports to the ASEAN countries, for example, are at least equal to those going to
either the United States or Europe.
Trhis major shift of national focus to t region has also seen the reach of the
Australian media extend further Into the Asian region.
Radio Australia, which has been bro dating to the region for many years, now
has an estimated sixty mrillion listeners worldwide.
More recently, we have seen the establishment of Australia Television
International which now broadcasts to millions throughout the region.
Its charter Is to build on Radio Austr-alias reputation as an authoritative,
independent and Impartial provider of international news and information, and of
high quality entertainment which Is sensible to the cultural mores of a highly
diverse audience.
3,' 144
9
Accompanying this whole push into Asia has been a large increase in the numbers
of Australan journalists based In th~ e region.
On% 3 problem with the coverage of Asia and the Pacific in the Australian media is
that, In my view, there Is not enough of it
But things are improving as the foreign pages of most of our newspapers show.
All of us get deluged with Information about the US or Britain, but if greater
regional coverage generates only a regional equivalent of an 0 J Simpson or
House of Windsor media soap opera, we're better off without ft.
But what we really need is better coverage: and that depends on first, ensuring we
have a flow of information fro a wide variety of sources and second, that those
sources are well-informed.
This works both ways.
Coverage of Australia in the Asian media also tends to be limited and to fall too
easily Into caricatures of Australians preferring the beach to work.
In this ignorance stakes, things are pretty well matched.
Not surprisingly, the reportage of Australian journalists has sometimes created
difficulties in our relations with some regional countries, particularly those where
the views and policies of the Australian media are seen by some as
interchangeable with the views and policies of the Australian Government
Media freedom Is a fundamental and unalterable tenet of Australian democracy
and Australian life.
Here in Australia, from time to time, those on both sides of politics may wish it
were a more positive and altoether less irksome and contrary beast, but these
sensibilities only exist at the margins.
At the centre, Australians hold the right to be objectively and critically informed
about current political developments as inalienable.
We do think, however, that when our media go to the region to the extent that
thy are ' our media they should be responsible and sensitive to the specific
circumstances of different nations.
Objectivity and knowledge about a regional audience which constitutes a mosaic
of different ethnic and linguistic groups Is essential if the Australian media are to
gain widespread respect I44.14
However, as we seek to understand our Asian neighbours we are equally Justified
In expecting that they should do the same of us that the tolerance and
understanding should be applied equally to Australia anid its media.
At the same time, it Is important not to overtook the positive role that our media
can play in building a sense of community among regional countries.
With the advent of multimedia as a means by whch culture can be delivered, there
Is a real risk that local culture will be swamped by Imported products.
That Is even more likely to be the case where the Imported culture is of a higher
technical quality: In education and information programTs, for Instance, our children
are more likely to learn through a medium which Is more intuitive, and more fun to
operate.
That places a great responsibility on us to provide programs which take account of
cultural diversity and sensibility.
That was one very Important reason why we launched the multimedia initiatives
we did to build within Australia a multmedia industry which will ensure thal we*
continue to sustain and originate our own culture.
Given Australia's strong links to many of the Asian countries In the region,
Including the great link of migration, I think there is significant scope for Australia
to develop content for the region, content which Is sensitive to local cultures and
promotes them.
While we should seek to use the new communications technologies as a vehicle to
develop greater understanding and a greater regional Identity. we should also
encourage the maintenance of distinctive and diverse cultural values.
Australia Is perhaps better placed than most to do ifuls.
In this. as in so much else, technological change will have greater Impact than
government flat.
In the end ' cultural sensitMWi if we mean by that a thoroujgh understanding of
the cultural and political background within which events are taking place can
only come from the media themselves from journalists, editors and managers
who know what they are talking about and appreciate the complexity of the region.
3,146
Most Importantly, It will come from informed consumers whose knowledge of jhq
countries they are reading about or heaing about Is deeper than what they pick up
from a five paragraph news story about riots or political change or economic
growth. That is why Austrailla has been putting such emphasis on Asia In our education
system.
We are developing a national Asian Languages Strategy designed to Increase the
number of Asian language teachers and to develop teacher training courses as
well as national student proficiency levels in languages such as Mandarn.
Indonesian, Japanese and Korean.
We are very conscious that we must continue to Increase our understanding of the
countries In the region that we will become a more effective player and a more
effective partner as we do so.
Obviously, the Bogor Declaration has commnitted us all to this.
It committed us all to a greater level of regional consciousness.
It therefore committed us Irrevocably to paths of change.
In this we feel confident that we can say we are at least as well advanced as
anyone even, maybe, that we are more advanced than most.
It is now more than a decade since we saw the need for major structural reform In
Austraiia. In tha* time we have learned a lot about change both about implementing it and
about managing It
We learned that it Is a tOring process, but it is also an exhilarating one.
And because it Is so rich In possibilities for all our countries and all our people,
surely none is more exhilarating than the process which so rapidly took us to the
declaration In Indonesia last week.
Perhaps the most important element at work in Bogor and Seattle was the one too
obvious to earn much reporting.
It was that all the countries of the region, in all their diversity, were talking to each
other, In a common forum, with a common interest.
The ac: of communication was the important one. 34 4 7
r1 12
Ultimately it is from this that all those vast post-Cold War possibilities derive.
We need to keep the communication going.
We need to keep it expanding and deepening.
That Is why you, the region's media, have such a crucial and creative role to play
and why I am so gratified to see you here in Sydney.
Thank you.
3448 . iX