5-Jun-09 5:00 AM CST

New Head of Lowy Institute leads Advance Hong Kong Thought Leadership

You might think that Australians living in China would be easy to convince that effective Australian policy toward the rising superpower is a stand-out priority for our Government and people. However, there is healthy dissent in Advance's Hong Kong diaspora.

What about India? What about climate change? These were some of the counter-proposals raised in the Thought Leadership conversation held today with the incoming Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Dr Michael Wesley.

Ros Coffey (Advance), Michael Wesley and Andrew Macintosh (NAB)

Michael maintained that Australia will need to greatly increase its understanding of China and other key partners in the region for the 'Asia Century' and reduce our mono-culturalism. We will achieve this in part by taking up serious policies over time to redress the fact that over 75% of Australians currently speak only one language.

Ros Coffey, one of Advance’s founding Board Members now based in Hong Kong, introduced Michael, who generously shared some of his thinking on how Lowy Institute’s work may usefully focus on improving our ability to not just 'hear' what Chinese counterparts say in government or business. We need to really 'listen' to their meaning and interpret the cultural cues correctly. He also previewed the release of an important report by Griffith University this week on Asian language teaching in Australian schools. Our diaspora in Hong Kong also had many suggestions for increasing the time that Australians spend in Asia cultivating people-to-people links and cultural understanding, whether on student exchange or through business and work abroad programs.

Lowy and Advance - a brief history

The Lowy Institute for International Policy is one of Australia’s leading think tanks and offers a unique perspective on Australia’s engagement with the world. Michael reflected on how Frank Lowy stands out as a unique philanthropist in the Australian business community. It is hoped that his foresight will serve as an example to others and inspire them to likewise make generous endowments to help further Australia’s understanding of, and engagement with the rest of the world.

The Lowy Institute and Advance have collaborated many times. We contributed to groundbreaking work titled Diaspora: World-wide web of Australians by Michael Fullilove and Chloe Flutter (an Advance member). We enjoyed their partnership on the Advance Global 100 Australians Summit, with an excellent presentation on global diasporas by Michael Fullilove.

Advance, with over 13,000 global members remains a central for Australia’s diaspora policy and research. We have been partnering with academics and think tanks in Australia on the development of better data and a richer understanding of the important economic, social and cultural flows that the diaspora create.

Few policy questions unrelated to China...

Before he takes up his influential role heading the Lowy Institute, Michael said ‘The chance to sit down with some leading Australian expatriates in Hong Kong before I return to Australia is valuable.’ He welcomed push back to his argument on the centrality of China, but pointed out that unlike the rise of India as the world's largest democracy, China's ascendancy poses different and more nuanced challenges. Our traditional alliances will also be tested by the different interests at stake for Australia in engaging with China.

In some respects, we seem well-equipped and open to doing business with China, with Lowy polling demonstrating that over 70% of Australians see its rise in positive terms. However, many expatriates gathered today drew on years of experience working in China to reinforce the vital role for Advance to play in helping Australians better leverage our networks and integrate in the region.

Garry Willinge, Managing Director of CBridge, suggested that we will need to mobilise all our expertise to keep pace with how quickly Asian counterparts are reskilling to excel in the new economy. He described the rapid pace of change in China over the years he had been studying Mandarin Chinese and doing business on the Mainland. In the last two to three years, most officials he deals with have studied abroad to learn a sophisticated level of English for doing business.

Advance welcome’s Michael’s appointment, and we look forward to continuing our record of collaboration
with the Lowy Institute. Whilst he has extensive experience, his appointment at a relatively young age signifies a new generation of foreign policy experts in Australia. Outgoing Director and friend of Advance, Allan Gyngell, has described him as “prodigiously clever and energetic”.

Michael will now start out his new role at Lowy in the coming weeks with Advance members from Hong Kong’s contributions fresh in his mind.