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.”
