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The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper identifies major themes and recommends preferred strategies in Australia’s engagement with the world. These themes and strategies relate to geopolitics, economics and the ‘new international agenda’; there is also a more specific focus on Australia’s Pacific island neighbours and Timor-Leste. There is a strong emphasis on perceived Australian national interests throughout the document. The geopolitical discussion is primarily ‘realist’; economically the document is pro-globalisation; the discussion of the ‘new international agenda’ involves an Australian-oriented pragmatism; there is an assertion of Australian leadership in the South Pacific. With some minor criticism, Labor has accepted the general direction advocated in the White Paper. The document is thus indicative of the likely future direction of Australian foreign policy. Lack of US response indicates declining US engagement with Australia and the Asia-Pacific or Indo-Pacific region. China, as the other major power highly significant for Australia, has been low-key in its criticisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many nineteenth-century Chinese migrants to Pacific Rim countries died far from their home villages. Diverse approaches were adopted to mark graves, possibly anticipating the subsequent, culturally important, repatriation of their bones. This paper evaluates the morphology of grave markers from eight northeast Australian sites and considers reasons for the variations. Physical appraisal of each site was undertaken and, where they exist, cemetery records and allied documentation examined. In an unusual departure from the norm the inscriptions on most identified grave markers rarely indicate date of death. The seemingly meticulous attention to grave identification in some areas contrasts with others where markers are absent. This study indicates divergent approaches to identification and recording of individual graves over time and place. Rather than indicating full-fledged ethnogenesis, wherein Australian Chinese developed new cultural practices, these behaviors suggest that ca.1870–1930 was a transitional period, during which extant cultural processes were adapted to meet immediate needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the changing geo-political situation in the Asia-Pacific Region from an Australian defense policy perspective. The article focuses on China, the US, and Indonesia and examines Australia's strategic defense needs for the coming decade. The paper concludes by laying out four strategic defense options for Australia, 1. maintaining the US alliance, 2. going back to "fortress Australia," 3. towards Asian integrations, and 4. the "New Zealand" option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Building or maintaining institutional trust is of central importance in democratic societies since negative experiences (potentially leading to mistrust) with government or other institutions may have a much more profound effect than positive experiences (potentially maintaining trust). Healthy democracy relies on more than simply trusting the national government of the time, and is mediated through other symbols of institutional power, such as the legal system, banks, the media and religious organisations. This paper focuses on institutional trust–the level and predictors of trust in some of the major institutions in society, namely politics, the media, banks, the legal system and religious organisations. We present analyses from a consolidated dataset containing data from six countries in the Asia Pacific region–Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Methods: Cross-sectional surveys were undertaken in each country in 2009–10, with an overall sample of 6331. Analyses of differences in overall levels of institutional trust between countries were undertaken using Chi square analyses. Multivariate binomial logistic regression analysis was undertaken to identify socio-demographic predictors of trust in each country. Results: Religious institutions, banks and the judicial system had the highest overall trust across all countries (70%, 70% and 67% respectively), followed by newspapers and TV (59% and 58%) and then political leaders (43%). The range of levels of higher trust between countries differed from 43% for banks (range 49% in Australia to 92% in Thailand) to 59% for newspapers (28% in Australia to 87% in Japan). Across all countries, except for Australia, trust in political leaders had the lowest scores, particularly in Japan and South Korea (25% in both countries). In Thailand, people expressed the most trust in religious organisations (94%), banks (92%) and in their judicial/legal system (89%). In Hong Kong, people expressed the highest level of trust in their judicial/legal system (89%), followed by religious organisations (75%) and banks (77%). Australian respondents reported the least amount of trust in TV/media (24%) and press/newspapers (28%). South Korea put the least trust in their political leaders (25%), their legal system (43%) and religious organisations (45%). The key predictors of lower trust in institutions across all countries were males, people under 44 years and people unsatisfied with the health and standard of living. Conclusion: We interpreted our data using Fukuyama’s theory of ‘high/low trust’ societies. The levels of institutional trust in each society did not conform to our hypothesis, with Thailand exhibiting the highest trust (predicted to be medium level), Hong Kong and Japan exhibiting medium trust (predicted to be low and high respectively) and Australia and South Korea exhibiting low trust (predicted to be high and medium respectively). Taiwan was the only country where the actual and predicted trust was the same, namely low trust. Given the fact that these predictors crossed national boundaries and institutional types, further research and policy should focus specifically on improving trust within these groups in order that they can be empowered to play a more central role in democratic vitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that while the main drivers of economic development in the Asia-Pacific region will be a sound development policy and good governance, migration can play a facilitating role at a national, especially at a regional level within countries. It discusses the role of the demographic dividend and Asia-Pacific youth bulges in assisting development in the region and the potential role of migration in that context. It examines the evidence that migration has delivered developmental advantages to sending countries and regions through an analysis of the effects of remittances, diaspora, interactions and return movements. There also is, however, an evidence of brain drain effects having negative impacts. Nevertheless, it concludes that the potential positive effects of emigration on sending countries are being diluted because of poor quality governance of migration systems in the region. These include excessive rent taking at all stages of the migration process, corruption, lack of capacity in migration management and exploitation. The final part of the paper addresses the important issue of what needs to be done if the full potential of international migration to deliver development dividends to sending countries to the region is to be taken advantage of. This includes a change in the attitude towards migration which recognises its potential benefits, a more development-friendly migration policies at origins especially at destinations, capacity building and a parametric improvement in migration management, greater bilateral and multilateral cooperation and more evidence-based decision-making in policy and programme development. A role for Australia in this is also discussed. Migration is not a substitute for good governance and sound socio-economic policy in the development of Asia-Pacific nations, but it can have positive outcomes in poverty reduction and improving the lives and prospects of many people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Beta is considered an important measure of systematic risk which is arguably present in an emerging market. Daily data for 2200 Australian listed firms is collected for the January 2007–December 2016 period. Various portfolios are considered. Days with announcements (the a-day) related to crucial macroeconomic news are allocated into the group which is separated from the n-day (nonannouncement days) group. Findings indicate that beta is negatively related to daily expected excess returns in the announcement days in comparison with the nonannouncement days. It is the claim of this paper that portfolio formations do matter when empirical studies on asset pricing are conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the initial phases of the Fluid Watchers Pacific Rim project: a participatory action research project that involves developing and trialling an iPad app to provide monitoring and self-care for Indigenous Australians with heart failure. The development phase involved working with health experts, an IT team and Indigenous heart-failure patients through three cycles of development and critical reflection. This was followed by a small pilot study to examine the app's effectiveness. In this paper, the researchers explain why IT-supported health education can be successful in decreasing re-hospitalisation and improving self-management skills. They describe the steps they took to ensure community participation and ownership of the project and present the findings of their pilot study. This pilot project suggests that an iPad app may be a practical and successful way to provide health-care support for Indigenous Australian heart-failure patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime security challenges in the Asia-Pacific are increasingly at the forefront of both academic and policy concerns, both inside and outside of the region. The intense geostrategic competition in the South China Sea partially explains the growing interest, but the attention goes deeper than that. The rise of new maritime powers in the Pacific, as well as increasing concerns over a clash between the United States and China, underscore the burgeoning importance of the maritime Asia-Pacific. While much of the research on Asian-Pacific maritime security focuses heavily on the experiences and strategies of the major powers, it is also important to understand the perspectives and policies of other actors in the region. This article focuses specifically on the maritime security perceptions of Australia and New Zealand: Using interviews with and publications by trans-Tasman experts, I sketch the dominant threats perceived by the countries in their maritime environments. Important policy conclusions can be drawn from this analysis of perceptions of maritime security challenges Down Under. Perhaps the timeliest policy insight is that as the United States considers whether or not to confront China over its behavior in the South China Sea, it is unlikely to receive full support from all of its mates in the region. The paper also argues that understanding key maritime security challenges - from the pragmatic to great powers relations - requires an openness to understanding how maritime security threat perceptions are constructed by identity and other ideational factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a cost optimal 100% renewable energy based system is obtained for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim region for the year 2030 on an hourly resolution for the whole year. For the optimization, the region was divided into 15 sub-regions and three different scenarios were set up based on the level of high voltage direct current grid connections. The results obtained for a total system levelized cost of electricity showed a decrease from 66.7 €/MWh in a decentralized scenario to 63.5 €/MWh for a centralized grid connected scenario. An integrated scenario was simulated to show the benefit of integrating additional demand of industrial gas and desalinated water which provided the system the required flexibility and increased the efficiency of the usage of storage technologies. This was reflected in the decrease of system cost by 9.5% and the total electricity generation by 5.1%. According to the results, grid integration on a larger scale decreases the total system cost and levelized cost of electricity by reducing the need for storage technologies due to seasonal variations in weather and demand profiles. The intermittency of renewable technologies can be effectively stabilized to satisfy hourly demand at a low cost level. A 100% renewable energy based system could be a reality economically and technically in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim with the cost assumptions used in this research and it may be more cost competitive than the nuclear and fossil carbon capture and storage (CCS) alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that examines politically exposed persons (PEPs) and the problems experienced by low-capacity entities in Australia and the Pacific region in implementing a risk-based approach to anti-money laundering (AML) counter financing of terrorism (CTF). It examines low-capacity entities and their implementation of AML/CTF risk-based programs. The study suggests that government should consider revising their existing system to improve management of PEPs and AML/CTF risks.

This special issue of PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies emerged from discussions about the need to focus research on the diversity of the Pacific and the sustainability of Pacific peoples and communities for future generations. The issue brings together articles by researchers from Australia and New Caledonia with interests in sustainability from the disciplines of linguistics, cultural studies, social science and history in and across the Pacific region. The papers are drawn primarily from presentations at a symposium on 'Pacific communities acting for sustainability,' held at the University of Wollongong in July 2016, which involved academics from Australia and New Caledonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how Japan and Australia could contribute to a liberal and inclusive order in the Asia-Pacific region. Critics argue that closer ties between Japan and Australia could undermine the stability of regional security, dividing Asia into ‘mutually hostile armed blocs’ consisting of US allies and China. Contrary to such a view, this article argues that deepening and enhancing Japan–Australia security cooperation could, if carefully managed, help to maintain an inclusive regional order based on institutions, norms and values, as well as a stable balance of power relations. In particular, the article contends that Japan and Australia can contribute to regional order by strengthening their ‘middle-power cooperation’ through regional capacity-building, institution-building, rule-making or norm-setting, and coalition-building, while supporting the US military presence in the region. It then concludes that, despite differing attitudes towards Beijing, Tokyo and Canberra can further contribute to the longevity of the current regional order by inclusive institutional architecture and liberal norms and values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues the importance of the relationship of the informal economy to the formal economy in the arts sector. Data on arts workers is presented from two countries in the Asia Pacific region. The article highlights that artists work across both the formal and informal economy during different phases of their career, and even when artists work in less formal settings culture is sustained, grows, and is passed on to others. The conclusion suggests why and how more equitable linkages between the informal and the formal economy should be promoted and acknowledged through an appropriately inclusive policy and regulatory environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracking and analyzing connection and mobility are now conventional in oceanic and world historiography and in many Indigenous historiographies. This article offers a counterargument and counterinstance. On both sides of the Tasman Sea lie human histories of almost incommensurably different temporal orders, separate for several centuries and suddenly connected in 1770, when Polynesians and Aboriginal people met. The Tasman Sea turns out to be one of the more fascinating fault lines for world historians who seek to fold ancient and modern, so-called prehistory and history, together into new periodizations of deep time and shallow time. It suggests the need seriously to consider a Tasman Divide as much as a connected Tasman World. This article recasts James Cook's crossing of the Tasman Sea in 1770 less as a significant first contact between Englishmen and Indigenous Australians on that coast and more as a meeting of three peoples who occupied radically different temporalities: (1) the Polynesian Tupaia, (2) the Englishman James Cook, and (3) Aboriginal people whose names we do not know. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘sexual citizenship’ was largely developed in the Anglophone capitalist liberal democracies of the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The concept is thus inflected by broader understandings of politics in these places. In this article, the author first considers the specificities of ‘sexuality’ and ‘citizenship’ in these Anglophone capitalist liberal democracies. She argues that we need to provincialize these local understandings, for configurations of sexuality and citizenship in the UK, North America, New Zealand or Australia are just as contingent and locally specific as they are in the Asia-Pacific region. She then considers whether the term ‘sexual citizenship’ can be transplanted into places in the Asia-Pacific region with different political and economic systems, welfare systems and social structures, distinctive cultural understandings of sexuality and citizenship and different taxonomies of sexes, genders and sexualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reporting field trip by Australian journalism students to New Caledonia and Vanuatu in mid-2014 produced markedly differing impressions of the neighbouring island societies, linked to their 'independence' status--one as an integrated territory of France, the other as an independent state. The field trip, one of a series from the Queensland University of Technology, aimed at developing reporting skills through work in unaccustomed territory, especially different cultural settings. Over 17 days, six students and the coordinator, and author of this article, generated 18 feature-length reports for online outlets and a radio documentary. The article synthesises the collected work from the field, producing a thematic statement of findings. It records broad consensus in New Caledonia in favour of enacting the Matignon and Noumea Accords on independence, while noting an undercurrent of unresolved conflicts. It characterises public life in Vanuatu in terms of a democratic spirit, and the invocation of traditional ties within society, as the country grapples with problems of development and impacts of the outside world. This work is interpretative, concerned with identifying processes underlying events in daily news. It is proposed as a first step towards a scholarly construction of meta-analyses of the interpretative and informative power of journalistic reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alliances continue to occupy a prominent place in the Asia-Pacific's security architecture. For many regional states such as Australia and Japan, their respective alliances with the USA are the unchallenged foundations of their security. But when the rise of China is causing major change in the region, and when many countries are increasingly reliant on China economically, is the region's network of alliances any longer appropriate or useful? This article reviews alliances in theory and practice, and argues that, while alliances are unlikely to disappear, their utility is nothing like as clear-cut as many of their supporters would have one believe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the role of two regional actors in the Asia-Pacific region, namely the Bali Process and the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), a platform of civil society organizations, as two very different models of mechanisms and agenda-setting on Global Refugee Policy (GRP). The Bali Process has limited actors and a narrow discourse on refugees which reflects a hierarchical agenda-setting process or 'steering mode'. By contrast, the APRRN is a non-state network actor which works through non-hierarchical mechanisms as a transnational activist network (TAN) and has a normative agenda. This article demonstrates the tension within GRP which is being created within the region through these two intermediaries between the global North and the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary responds to the research report by Marie Cronqvist and Christoph Hilgert on the value of transnational and transmedial approaches in media historiography. It reflects on my introduction to the concept of ‘entangled media histories’, and its potential application to the study of the history of media in Australia and the Asia-Pacific as the field continues to grow in the region, as sketched out in the piece. It considers the value of the historiographical approach to the Asia-Pacific, and also some of the challenges, principally language barriers, and including the national construction of many digital and other media history resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes the main institutional features of Australia's TVET sector, focussing particularly on the qualifications framework, how it relates to the labour market, and the role of industry. It also looks briefly at two current policy challenges for Australia. Seeking lessons for other countries in the Asia Pacific region, it discusses the importance of context, particularly the size and structure of the economy, and notes that TVET can be judged to be effective as an investment if it leads to employment and better-paying jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensions in the Asia-Pacific region are rising as a consequence of the U.S. "pivot" to Asia and China's increasingly assertive foreign policy. Other states in the region must try to reconcile potentially conflicting economic and strategic imperatives as a consequence. Australia illustrates these dilemmas. We ask what role regional institutions can play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using sequences of 5′ region of the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene, large subunit rDNA, and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit gene as genetic markers to elucidate their phylogenetic positions, six unknown species from Western Australia, Tasmania, Lord Howe Is., and Norfolk Is. cluster with Meredithia in the Kallymeniaceae ( Gigartinales), and are described as new members of this previously monospecific genus. Specimens from Bermuda referable to Kallymenia limminghei Mont. in the 20th century also clustered with this genetic grouping, not with the generitype of Kallymenia. The Bermudian specimens are further shown to be morphologically distinct from the type of K. limminghei ( Guadeloupe, Caribbean Sea) and are described as a new species, Meredithia crenata. Using these Indo- Pacific and Bermudian collections, our analyses further show that Psaromenia is closely related to Meredithia, and that Cirrulicarpus nanus sensu stricto should be returned to Meredithia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lagged oceanic and atmospheric climate indices are potentially useful predictors of seasonal rainfall totals. A rigorous Bayesian joint probability modeling approach is applied to find the cross-validation predictive densities of gridded Australian seasonal rainfall totals using lagged climate indices as predictors over the period of 1950-2009. The evidence supporting the use of each climate index as a predictor of seasonal rainfall is quantified by the pseudo-Bayes factor based on cross-validation predictive densities. The evidence strongly supports the use of climate indices from the Pacific region with weaker, but positive, evidence for the use of climate indices from the Indian region and the extratropical region. The spatial structure and seasonal variation of the evidence for each climate index is mapped and compared. Spatially, the strongest supporting evidence is found for forecasting in northern and eastern Australia. Seasonally, the strongest evidence is found from August-October to November-January and the weakest evidence is found from March-May to May-July. In some regions and seasons, there is little evidence supporting the use of climate indices for forecasting seasonal rainfall. Climate indices derived from sea surface temperature anomalies in the Pacific region show stronger persistence in the relationship with Australian seasonal rainfall totals than climate indices derived from sea surface temperature anomalies in the Indian region. Climate indices derived from atmospheric variables are also strongly supported, provided they represent the large-scale circulation. Many climate indices are found to show similar supporting evidence for forecasting Australian seasonal rainfall, leading to the prospect of combining climate indices in multiple predictor models and/or model averaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article had its genesis in a background study for the development of a new Australian Army counter-insurgency doctrine. Archival research showed that the Australian counter-insurgency doctrine employed in such post-1945 conflicts as Burma, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam originated in the jungle campaigns of the South West Pacific Area during World War II. The historical record also showed that the Army's counter-insurgency doctrine, as with its World War II-jungle warfare doctrine, was a pragmatic amalgam of Australian experience and British doctrine. The article traces this process through the development of a series of doctrine manuals. It also considers the contribution of key individuals to both counter-insurgency theory and practice. This distinctively Australian approach to the development of doctrine was responsible for producing a highly successful manual, The Division in Battle: Pamphlet No. 11, Counter-Revolutionary Warfare (DIB 11), which the Army used during its involvement in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]