Latest news with #Hawke
West Australian
4 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
Anthony Albanese calls for US-China dialogue, Australia to play ‘constructive middle power' after Beijing
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged Beijing and Washington to step up communication between the two powerhouse countries as he pitches Australia playing a 'constructive' role as a middle power in a turbulent world. The Prime Minister said Australia could be a 'calm, consistent and clear voice for stability, security, economic growth and certainty going forward'. 'I think we can play a positive role. We are US allies, but we have a constructive relationship with China,' Mr Albanese said following his high level meetings with China's top leadership during his six-day tour of the country. 'Australia as a middle power can play a positive and constructive role in the world. We are living in uncertain times and there is turbulence in the world.' The Prime Minister invoked two Labor titans on his tour, first walking in the footsteps of Gough Whitlam as he visited the Great Wall of China and recalled how the former leader opened the door to Australia's modern day relations with Beijing by establishing formal diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China in 1972. Mr Albanese also became the first Australian Prime Minister since Bob Hawke in 1986 to visit Chengdu in the southwest province of Sichuan. Mr Hawke enjoyed access to the senior PRC leadership that was unmatched by other major Western leaders. Professor James Curran had previously highlighted in a 2023 research paper that Mr Hawke played a bridging role between China and the United States. Mr Albanese said he did not view himself in a conduit role given the US and China had a separate relationship but he urged the two global giants to open up dialogue, similar to the 'communication mechanisms' the US and the Soviet Union adopted during the Cold War. 'It is in the world's interests that the two major powers are able to engage and where there are differences talk about them,' he said. Mr Albanese's week-long, trade-focused trip drew together Australian and Chinese industry executives for roundtable talks on widening business collaboration and cooperation on green energy. But the centrepiece of the visit was a series of bilateral meetings in Beijing with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Communist Party chief Zhao Leji, who all rolled out the red carpet treatment for Mr Albanese. 'I have a good relationship with the Chinese president and Premier and we met the number three, Chairman Zhao as well,' he said. 'We had a very constructive meeting, he'll lead a delegation to Australia later this year. 'Having two-and-a-half hours with Premier Li and two-and-a-half hours with President Xi sends a message to the whole of the Chinese government and therefore the whole of the Chinese economic system that they value the relationship with Australia.' Mr Albanese agreed the goodwill of the past week would make it easier to pick up the phone to Beijing if there was a future crisis. 'I have been able to engage in a constructive way,' he said. 'We're able to have discussions both publicly and be able to act diplomatically.'
Perth Now
4 days ago
- Business
- Perth Now
PM calls for US-China dialogue, offers Australia as bridge
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged Beijing and Washington to step up communication between the two powerhouse countries as he pitches Australia playing a 'constructive' role as a middle power in a turbulent world. The Prime Minister said Australia could be a 'calm, consistent and clear voice for stability, security, economic growth and certainty going forward'. 'I think we can play a positive role. We are US allies, but we have a constructive relationship with China,' Mr Albanese said following his high level meetings with China's top leadership during his six-day tour of the country. 'Australia as a middle power can play a positive and constructive role in the world. We are living in uncertain times and there is turbulence in the world.' The Prime Minister invoked two Labor titans on his tour, first walking in the footsteps of Gough Whitlam as he visited the Great Wall of China and recalled how the former leader opened the door to Australia's modern day relations with Beijing by establishing formal diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China in 1972. Mr Albanese also became the first Australian Prime Minister since Bob Hawke in 1986 to visit Chengdu in the southwest province of Sichuan. Mr Hawke enjoyed access to the senior PRC leadership that was unmatched by other major Western leaders. Professor James Curran had previously highlighted in a 2023 research paper that Mr Hawke played a bridging role between China and the United States. Mr Albanese said he did not view himself in a conduit role given the US and China had a separate relationship but he urged the two global giants to open up dialogue, similar to the 'communication mechanisms' the US and the Soviet Union adopted during the Cold War. 'It is in the world's interests that the two major powers are able to engage and where there are differences talk about them,' he said. Mr Albanese's week-long, trade-focused trip drew together Australian and Chinese industry executives for roundtable talks on widening business collaboration and cooperation on green energy. But the centrepiece of the visit was a series of bilateral meetings in Beijing with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Communist Party chief Zhao Leji, who all rolled out the red carpet treatment for Mr Albanese. 'I have a good relationship with the Chinese president and Premier and we met the number three, Chairman Zhao as well,' he said. 'We had a very constructive meeting, he'll lead a delegation to Australia later this year. 'Having two-and-a-half hours with Premier Li and two-and-a-half hours with President Xi sends a message to the whole of the Chinese government and therefore the whole of the Chinese economic system that they value the relationship with Australia.' Mr Albanese agreed the goodwill of the past week would make it easier to pick up the phone to Beijing if there was a future crisis. 'I have been able to engage in a constructive way,' he said. 'We're able to have discussions both publicly and be able to act diplomatically.'
The Age
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Treaty 1 is only the start. Just don't tell John Howard
There is perhaps no word in Australian politics that gives older, conservative whitefellas the willies quite like treaty. Ever since Bob Hawke committed himself to treaty at the 1988 Barunga Festival in the Northern Territory, the T-word has evoked stories of Indigenous people laying claims over suburban backyards and white Australia losing control over our quarries, farms and rivers. Then-opposition leader John Howard opposed Hawke's treaty on much the same grounds as he opposed the Voice two years ago, arguing it would aggravate racial divisions in Australia rather than bring us together. As Fred Chaney, a former minister for Aboriginal affairs, Native Title Tribunal member and chair of Reconciliation Australia, told the ABC during the 2023 referendum campaign: 'It just seems to me that the word treaty is the thing that some people find poisonous – and some people of John Howard's generation think is going to be the end of the world.' It is for this reason that the authors of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, in an attempt to win conservative support for their cause, left the T-word out of their final statement in favour of a less triggering reference to 'agreement-making'. When Yothu Yindi and Paul Kelly wrote their Treaty anthem in 1991, Hawke had already broken his promise to treaty within two years. The opening verse was laced with cynicism. Words are easy, words are cheap Much cheaper than our priceless land But promises can disappear Just like writing in the sand. Treaty 1, as the First Peoples' Assembly refers to the statewide agreement it is close to finalising with the Victorian government, is unlikely to inspire another song. At a time when Indigenous communities are confronting significantly poorer health outcomes, lower education rates, greater rates of family violence, homelessness, incarceration and suicide, and lower life expectancies that white Australians, the treaty is preoccupied with the future power and authority of the body negotiating it. The assembly's likely powers will include decision-making on matters of cultural heritage and indigeneity, making First Nations appointments to government boards and running NAIDOC Week events. This is jarring for Indigenous people who had greater aspirations for what such an historic agreement might look like, and it offers little – at least, in the immediate term – for communities experiencing chronic disadvantage in places like Mooroopna, Lake Tyers and Framlingham. Even the lyrical genius of Paul Kelly would struggle to pen a catchy tune about the creation of new Indigenous bureaucracy. The assembly makes no qualms about the focus of Treaty 1. In its most recent update on negotiations, it made clear its view that securing agreement on an empowered, enduring assembly is a crucial first step towards future agreements on things that directly impact the lives of First Nations people. 'We aren't stopping here,' the assembly wrote last month. 'In fact, this is the beginning of a new Treaty era.' A member of the assembly unauthorised to publicly discuss treaty negotiations said the elected Indigenous leadership, rather than present an ambit claim, was playing a longer game about what it was likely to secure now and what it hoped to gain through future agreements. 'We are not going to get everything but whatever we do, we have got to make sure we have the body to continue the process,' they said. To return to the question posed by our English backpacker on the Greek hillside, no, this isn't it. The treaty expected to be completed by November is planned as the first of multiple state treaties which will negotiate greater self-determination for Indigenous people in policy areas like health, housing and eduction. It will also be followed by separate treaties between the government and each of Victoria's 38 recognised First Nations. Despite the narrow focus and deferred ambition of Australia's first treaty, the nearing of its completion stirred the usual arguments and dark predictions about where it would lead. Whatever you read or hear in the coming fray, rest assured that your backyard and BHP shares are safe.
Sydney Morning Herald
02-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese is the conservative who mugged the Liberals. Let's hope he seizes the moment
Anthony Albanese is a man who likes props. In the 2022 election campaign, he regularly brandished a one-dollar coin to emphasise his support for a pay rise for workers on the minimum wage. And in the lead-up to this year's election, he employed his Medicare card as a talisman to ward off Peter Dutton's supposedly evil plans for the nation's healthcare system. Clearly, his approach has worked. Everyone has a Medicare card and Albanese was wise to embed in the public consciousness that Medicare is a Labor Party creation, implemented by Bob Hawke's government in 1984 against the fierce opposition of the Coalition. Because Medicare, for all its shortcomings, is an entrenched and popular feature of everyday Australian life, the Labor Party of today has been able to leverage Hawke's long-ago policy success to its great advantage. There's upside for the ALP in portraying itself as a defender of institutions, as it can make the party look less risky, and Albanese leant into this heavily during the election campaign. At his recent post-election address at the National Press Club, he outlined the reasons Labor had won a second term. Electors, he said, had voted for Australian values and for doing things 'our way' – that is, not like Donald Trump and Trump-wannabe Peter Dutton. He also cited Labor's 'commitment to fair wages and conditions, universal Medicare and universal superannuation' that 'set us apart from the world'. In some respects, it's a conservative formulation for a centre-left party: preserving what's already in place. And that signals some potential downside for the government. Universal super was the joint brainchild of Paul Keating and the ACTU's Bill Kelty as part of the union movement's Accord agreement, which also gave rise to Medicare. The historically transformational nature of universal super has been brought into sharp focus this week, with the attainment of the compulsory 12 per cent super contribution and the wider discussion about super balances in the millions of dollars. Inevitably, talk of that achievement invites comparisons between the current Labor government and the all-conquering five-term government led first by Hawke and then Keating. Hawke and Keating wasted no time in office. The Albanese government is 38 months old. Inside the same timeframe, the Hawke government had held two summits – on the economy and on tax – and introduced Medicare, a new incomes policy, an assets test on pensions, floated the dollar, changed the banking system, begun the march on super and produced a comprehensive new package of tax measures. Loading Somewhere within the Labor Party, people will eventually start to ask what a Labor leader 40 years from now will be fighting to preserve from the Albanese years. The course that the prime minister is pursuing – backed strongly by Labor's national secretary Paul Erickson, who has definitely earned his status as the nation's campaigning guru du jour – is the one that secured the government's second victory. In short, the government's first priority will be about delivering methodically on its promises, namely reducing HECS debts, building 1.2 million homes, continuing the push towards renewables, increasing the number of Medicare urgent clinics, and continuing to keep inflation down. That makes sense, especially since the national political scene is now a bunch of players who have, to an extent, been mugged by reality. Everyone is a smartie after the event, but no one expected a Labor landslide. The government wasn't geared up for it. The Liberals had even less of a clue. None of the polls predicted it. YouGov got closest; its central projection was 84 lower house seats for Labor – a mild increase on its majority but still 10 short of the actual, stratospheric result.
The Age
02-07-2025
- Business
- The Age
Albanese is the conservative who mugged the Liberals. Let's hope he seizes the moment
Anthony Albanese is a man who likes props. In the 2022 election campaign, he regularly brandished a one-dollar coin to emphasise his support for a pay rise for workers on the minimum wage. And in the lead-up to this year's election, he employed his Medicare card as a talisman to ward off Peter Dutton's supposedly evil plans for the nation's healthcare system. Clearly, his approach has worked. Everyone has a Medicare card and Albanese was wise to embed in the public consciousness that Medicare is a Labor Party creation, implemented by Bob Hawke's government in 1984 against the fierce opposition of the Coalition. Because Medicare, for all its shortcomings, is an entrenched and popular feature of everyday Australian life, the Labor Party of today has been able to leverage Hawke's long-ago policy success to its great advantage. There's upside for the ALP in portraying itself as a defender of institutions, as it can make the party look less risky, and Albanese leant into this heavily during the election campaign. At his recent post-election address at the National Press Club, he outlined the reasons Labor had won a second term. Electors, he said, had voted for Australian values and for doing things 'our way' – that is, not like Donald Trump and Trump-wannabe Peter Dutton. He also cited Labor's 'commitment to fair wages and conditions, universal Medicare and universal superannuation' that 'set us apart from the world'. In some respects, it's a conservative formulation for a centre-left party: preserving what's already in place. And that signals some potential downside for the government. Universal super was the joint brainchild of Paul Keating and the ACTU's Bill Kelty as part of the union movement's Accord agreement, which also gave rise to Medicare. The historically transformational nature of universal super has been brought into sharp focus this week, with the attainment of the compulsory 12 per cent super contribution and the wider discussion about super balances in the millions of dollars. Inevitably, talk of that achievement invites comparisons between the current Labor government and the all-conquering five-term government led first by Hawke and then Keating. Hawke and Keating wasted no time in office. The Albanese government is 38 months old. Inside the same timeframe, the Hawke government had held two summits – on the economy and on tax – and introduced Medicare, a new incomes policy, an assets test on pensions, floated the dollar, changed the banking system, begun the march on super and produced a comprehensive new package of tax measures. Loading Somewhere within the Labor Party, people will eventually start to ask what a Labor leader 40 years from now will be fighting to preserve from the Albanese years. The course that the prime minister is pursuing – backed strongly by Labor's national secretary Paul Erickson, who has definitely earned his status as the nation's campaigning guru du jour – is the one that secured the government's second victory. In short, the government's first priority will be about delivering methodically on its promises, namely reducing HECS debts, building 1.2 million homes, continuing the push towards renewables, increasing the number of Medicare urgent clinics, and continuing to keep inflation down. That makes sense, especially since the national political scene is now a bunch of players who have, to an extent, been mugged by reality. Everyone is a smartie after the event, but no one expected a Labor landslide. The government wasn't geared up for it. The Liberals had even less of a clue. None of the polls predicted it. YouGov got closest; its central projection was 84 lower house seats for Labor – a mild increase on its majority but still 10 short of the actual, stratospheric result.
