Africa 'Pretty Underdone': 2017 Submissions to the DFAT White Paper and Senate Inquiry

Abstract

<p>Public discussion of Africa in Australia is hard to find. This paper is devoted to examining views on Africa as reflected in published submissions to the Federal Government. It focusses on two sets of 2017 submissions: to the Foreign Policy White Paper process and to the Senate Inquiry into Australia's Trade and Investment Relationships with the Countries of Africa. In 2015 Gai Brodtmann (Member for Canberra in the House of Representatives) represented the Opposition at the second Australia-Africa Dialogue held in Zambia. She concluded that the Dialogue highlighted the fact that, "apart from mining, the relationship between Australia and the nations of Africa is pretty underdone." Brodtmann's view reflected Recommendation 5.3 of the 1997 Report of Committee of Review of the Australian Overseas Aid Program: South Asia and Africa were of lower priority than Papua New Guinea, the Pacific Islands and East Asia (AusAID, 1997:14). In 1996 the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade had produced a 164 page report on Australia's Relations with Southern Africa following some 73 submissions, and promoting 42 recommendations. Some of these were not implemented. For example, no. 26 that "Australia reaffirms its commitment to the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for official development purposes". Another apparent non-starter, no 41, concerned the creation of a Centre for African Studies in Western Australia. A similar recommendation for an African Studies Centre, location unspecified, in 2011 was also ignored.</p>