By Kevin Rudd
AS WE enter the second decade of the 21st century, it's worth taking stock of the great global shifts and challenges facing Australia, and what Australia is doing in partnership with other countries to maintain peace, build prosperity and enhance sustainability for the future.
So here are 10 big ones that aren't going away any time soon:
First, the continuation of global financial instability. While the immediate crisis may have passed, underlying problems remain. The sheer size, complexity and interconnectedness of private financial markets now challenge the ability of any individual national government to monitor and properly regulate them.
Furthermore, the capacity of governments collectively to intervene in the face of further crises is reduced because of the high level of public indebtedness in the major advanced economies.
So what's Australia doing? We continue to work through the G20 where we have a seat at the table, the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee. We continue to seek to lead by example – keeping Australia out of recession, running the lowest debt of all major advanced economies by a country mile, and with a clear and disciplined path back to surplus. But work on the international agenda lies ahead if we are to avoid future crises.
Second, the challenge of nuclear proliferation. Despite recent, positive nuclear weapons reduction agreements between the US and Russia, the problem hasn't gone away. The destructive power of nuclear weapons is beyond comprehension. The suspected proliferation activities of North Korea and Iran are profoundly destabilising. That's why Australia will remain active in the arms control agenda.
Third is the cyber-revolution, which has benefited us all as productivity and prosperity are enhanced by the new technologies. But so too have new weapons been created for use in cyber attacks, threatening the security of the infrastructure of both corporations and states. This requires vigilance at home through the new Office of Cyber Security and abroad with our friends and allies.
This relates to a further challenge in the continuing and mutating threat of global terrorism. Australia must remain active in addressing political and economic factors, including poverty, that fuel global terrorism, just as we must recognise that there are forms of militant extremism that will never respond to reason and can only be dealt with through the hard-edged efforts of our security and intelligence agencies.
We must also work to ensure the peaceful rise of China. The Chinese economy last year passed Japan as the world's second largest and, according to The Economist magazine, will pass the US in 2019. This is of profound significance for us all. It means we must agree on a regional rules-based order, accommodating both China's legitimate interests as an emerging great power, but also the interests of the rest of the region – that's why Australia's so active in the East Asia Summit.
Following China is the rise of India. Its population is reported to pass China's in the next 15 years. Added to its domestic economic reform program, this is also transforming India into a great power across the region and beyond. Together with India and other regional states, we share an interest in rules of the road to preserve and enhance the stability and prosperity of this vast ocean to our west.
Challenge number seven embraces food security, energy security and climate change. These are inter-related – the loss of arable land; the growing demand for energy resources from major emerging economies; the absence of a global price on carbon impeding the large-scale development of the renewable energy sector. For climate change in particular, the clock still ticks. This requires both global and national action.
Then follows the continuing challenge of global poverty. More than a third of our human family lives on $2 a day or less. Effective aid and trade policy are core elements in global poverty reduction – good in itself; good for the global economy; good for regional stability, and good for Australia.
Furthermore, there is the continuing global democratic deficit. Freedom is not universally enjoyed. Where democracy does exist, it's often under challenge. Nation states have agreed to an International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. Australia must continue to lend its voice to these norms to help extend the tent of democracy.
Finally, there's the problem of global governance – so central to dealing with practically all the above challenges. The institutions we created more than 50 years ago are struggling to deliver the goods – the UN, the WTO and the IMF. Australia will continue to work to enhance the effectiveness of these traditional institutions.
Through the agency of what I call creative middle power diplomacy we can make a real difference for our future.
The above comment is based on remarks made at the Woodford Folk Festival.
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