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Scholar: Australia Uses Foreign Policy to Distract People From Domes

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  • Scholar: Australia Uses Foreign Policy to Distract People From Domes

    Scholar: Australia Uses Foreign Policy to Distract People From Domestic Problems

    Australia's neo-conservative government of Tony Abbott is unpopular at
    home, the expert says.

    (c) REUTERS/ Lisa Maree Williams/Pool
    14:03 04/09/2014

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    MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova - Australia's
    neo-conservative government of Tony Abbott is unpopular at home and is
    using foreign policy to divert attention from domestic issues, Raoul
    Heinrichs, a Sir Arthur Tange doctoral scholar at the Australian
    National University's Strategic and Defense Studies Centre, told RIA
    Novosti, commenting on Canberra's decision this week to increase
    sanctions on Moscow to EU levels.

    "There are really three dimensions that underpin Australian foreign
    policy on these issues," Heinrichs said, when asked about Abbott's
    foreign policy toward Russia.

    "First, the Abbott government has adopted a hyperactive
    neo-conservative foreign policy. It does not believe in geopolitical
    limits on Australian interests, so feels free to tackle global issues
    well beyond Australia's traditional areas of concern. It is highly
    ideological and moralistic, so tends to view geopolitical issues in
    terms of 'good vs. evil'. And it emphasizes the deployment of
    Australian military power, whenever possible and in different
    capacities, often as a first rather than a last resort," Heinrichs
    explained.

    The second dimension, according to Heinrichs, is that the Abbott
    government is wedded to a very traditional version of Australian
    foreign policy, "which emphasizes supporting the United States on any
    issue and in whichever way possible."

    "Third, the government is quite unpopular at home, so is seeking to
    use foreign policy to distract from its domestic problems," Heinrichs
    stressed.

    "It has passed a very unpopular budget, which has cut spending on
    education and health. An activist foreign policy is designed to make
    Abbott look statesmanlike, like a world leader, in an attempt to
    improve the government's popularity in the election polls back home."

    On Monday, Canberra announced an expansion of sanctions against
    Russia, including restrictions on arms exports and goods and services
    used in oil exploration or production, restrictions on the access of
    Russian state-owned banks to Australian capital markets and on
    Australian investment in Crimea. New sanctions also target the
    financial sector and include travel bans on an additional 63 Russian
    and Ukrainian individuals and 21 entities.

    "So yes, actually Australia has gone beyond just lifting sanctions. It
    has also sought to upgrade its status within NATO. It has committed to
    opening an interim embassy in Kiev, and it is now offering Ukraine
    military assistance, at first in the form of nonlethal training and
    supplies, and later perhaps in other forms of military cooperation,"
    Heinrichs told RIA Novosti.

    The expansion of restrictions against Russia, however, was delayed and
    Canberra embarked on new sanctions later than the European Union or
    the United States.

    "The delay in lifting sanctions had to do with [Malaysia Airlines
    flight] MH17. The Australian government needed Russian cooperation to
    pass its UN Security Council resolution, to repatriate bodies and
    begin an investigation. With these objectives in mind, it didn't want
    to jeopardize Russian goodwill," Heinrichs said, adding that now that
    the conflict has escalated, Australia "has no need for Russian
    cooperation and so feels free to adopt a more confrontational policy."

    http://en.ria.ru/analysis/20140904/192628577/Scholar-Australia-Uses-Foreign-Policy-to-Distract-People-From.html

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