JUST over a year ago the Lowy Institute released a report by a panel of experts calling for increased investment in diplomacy to resuscitate Australia's ailing diplomatic infrastructure. As the panel pointed out, Australia has the fifth lowest number of embassies and missions of all 30 nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Australia is a geographically remote, trade-dependent country. It is not a natural member of a grouping such as the European Union and is in one of the world's most dynamic regions. Yet it has fewer overseas missions than Finland (population five million and, by coincidence, a competitor with Australia for a UN Security Council seat), Iceland (population 300,000) and Denmark (population five million). The only OECD countries with fewer missions are the Slovak Republic, Ireland, New Zealand and Luxembourg (our other Security Council competitor).
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With Australia's overseas diplomatic corps slashed by 35 per cent between 1988 and 2008, almost half of our embassies are so understaffed they can do little more than maintain a formal presence, to keep up appearances, in the host nation, much less the other countries to which they are often accredited.
Does this matter? The answer, surely, is yes. In an era transformed by globalisation and the communications revolution, a well-resourced diplomatic effort is more crucial than ever. In dealing with a rising Asia, understanding what is happening in emerging powerhouses such as China, India and Indonesia, and having strong connections not only with government but with business and civil society in these countries will be increasingly vital to our national interests.
At the same time, globalisation is making other demands. More than six million Australians travelled overseas last year (almost double the figure a decade ago) and many are demanding sophisticated consular support; there were nearly 200,000 cases of consular assistance last year alone, three times the number in 1999. This strains our already understaffed consular corps to breaking point and distracts overworked policy staff at embassies and in Canberra from pursuing Australia's strategic interests.
To begin the long task of redressing this diplomatic deficit, the panel report recommended increased investment in Australia's diplomatic network: 75 new Australia-based staff over three years in addition to 20 new diplomatic missions in priority areas such as regional India, China and Indonesia, Africa, Latin America and North Asia.
The panel advocated investing in language skills (particularly vital East Asian languages), better resourcing, a more strategic, less piecemeal approach to public diplomacy and a more co-ordinated approach to policy across the many government departments and agencies that operate in the international arena.
In his 2008 national security statement, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proclaimed that our diplomacy "must be the best in the world". Yet at the time our report was released, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith admitted "there's no doubt there's been an historical under-resourcing of the Department [of Foreign Affairs and Trade]" and that "we need to do more". Smith promised to give the report "very serious consideration".
So what, if anything, has been done to stop the haemorrhaging of Australia's diplomatic capacity?
The 2009-10 budget reversed the cuts that had been made in the previous year and gave a modest boost of $26 million a year for four years. But by the time the revised budget statements were released late last year, even these very modest gains had quietly been swept away.
The government has sent a handful of additional staff to priority missions, including Kabul, and to open new missions in India. But it has also made further cuts at some of the largest and most important embassies.
As seems to be the pattern with many of its commitments, the Rudd government is yet to table the first of the "regular foreign policy reports" promised at the end of 2008 in the national security statement.
Recent media reports have highlighted massive waste in the $25 billion defence budget. This makes the neglect of Australian diplomacy look even more damning: DFAT receives less than $2bn a year and has to scrimp just to send diplomats to international meetings, let alone open new missions overseas.
Australia's overstretched diplomats are being stretched even thinner by the government's ambitious multilateral agenda. Resources are being reallocated to staff the UN Security Council campaign, the PM's Asia-Pacific community initiative and the International Commission on Non-Proliferation and Diplomacy. There are other reasons why these initiatives are struggling for traction, but the impoverished state of Australia's diplomatic infrastructure can't be helping. The fact is that Australia lacks even the basic tools needed to understand our international environment and respond effectively to it: people and skills.
There is no sign, however, that Rudd, a former diplomat with aspirations to be a statesman, recognises this mismatch between ambitious foreign policy aims and resources, or has any real intention of redressing it.
Now is not the time to short-change Australia on the international stage. Our prosperity and security rest on knowing what is going on in markets and hot spots across the world and being able to influence developments in the national interest when necessary.
For decades we have enjoyed security and economic growth. But as a highly globalised economy in a fluid geopolitical location we cannot afford to take either for granted.
We must ensure our foreign policy machinery is in working order. Right now, it is close to being broken beyond repair.
Alex Oliver is a research associate at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Andrew Shearer is director of studies and a senior research fellow at the institute.
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