More than 4,000 people from Australia and around the world tuned in to A Conversation with Paul Keating, held by La Trobe University’s Ideas and Society Program. The online discussion between former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, and James Curran, the Professor of Modern History at the University of Sydney and author of Australia’s China Odyssey, uncovered issues fundamental to the future of Australia, such as our relations with China and the United States.

Key to the discussion was the negative impact of our current view of China and the region in which Australia is positioned. Ignoring the historical elements that underpin the issues of the 21st century including the importance of identity and culture, puts Australia in a position of having to make choices.

The rise of China and the escalating tensions driven by  the US have been front and centre. Australia can no longer ignore the geopolitical forces in our region and decision makers need to make a stand against geo strategic enmeshment with the USA and AUKUS, akin to outsourcing our sovereignty, security and strategic relationships. This leaves Australia isolated.

Opening the conversation with the fall of Singapore 80 years ago, Keating reminded the audience that it was WWll that dragged Australia into Asia, showing us that we could not depend on the UK.

He reminded us of Wilson and Roosevelt and the multi-polar world that each envisaged through the League of Nations and the United Nations and the dream to end colonialism. The end of the Cold War saw the US declaring victory. What followed was the failure of the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations who instilled a unipolar view of the world that had no place for China and Russia.

Instead of settling the world’s issues with war and then afterwards asking for conversation, we should be able to have the conversation first.

“There will never be a peaceful, well-operating world while there are western structures like the G7”, Keating reminded us.
He went on to say that there needs to be a place of respect for China:

According to the IMF, their GDP is 20 percent larger than the USA
They have 20 per cent of the world’s humanity
They have a very large navy
They have solved hunger for 20 per cent of the world’s population
They are not exporting an ideology
Stability in Asia can no longer be imposed by a non Asian power, and least of all by direct application of US military power.