Australia urged to better manage maritime domain
Updated
Australia's being urged to do much more in managing its huge maritime domain as a way of building a more stable Indo-Pacific region.
But former Australian Navy Commodore and long time maritime researcher, Doctor Sam Bateman, says that doesn't necessarily mean more hard military power. Releasing a new paper called "Sea Change: Advancing Australia's Ocean Interests" he's also called for greater caution in Australian statements about hard maritime power in the region, warning the wrong signals are being sent in a rapidly changing region.
Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speakers: Doctor Sam Bateman, Senior Advisor, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Ian McDonald, Australian Liberal Senator and former Australian fisheries minister
- Listen:
- Windows Media
MOTTRAM: Australia is a three-ocean island country, with a coastline of about 60-thousand kilometres and a population that loves leisure time at the sea. It also claims jurisdiction over about 27-point-two million square kilometres, of which about half is ocean or sea .. the second largest claim to the sea of any country behind Russia. So Doctor Sam Bateman says Australia should be an oceanic superpower.
BATEMAN: But currently we are neither a great maritime nation nor a great maritime power. Over the years we have neglected the importance of the oceans to our national prosperity and security.
MOTTRAM: Releasing his report for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Doctor Bateman hastened to caution against equating maritime power with hard military power.
BATEMAN: We need to be careful that our actions and statements do not add to regional maritime instability. And I have to refer here to some of the statements that occasionally crop up from the submarine and air power lobbies in Australia and I suggest that they're very damaging in fact some of those statements where it talks about capabilities of protecting the region, do certain things in the region, I suggest are a cause, or can lead or do lead to some instability.
MOTTRAM: Doctor Bateman says the focus should be on the non-military dimensions of maritime power and influence, with a need for Australia to be more cautious in a changing strategic environment. His recommendations include measures to promote regional maritime security and co-operation, citing particular work by the Association of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN.
BATEMAN: ASEAN has recently established an ASEAN maritime forum to enhance maritime co-operation across the ASEAN region and the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, has recently held its first intersessional meeting on maritime security. Australia has to go with that flow.
MOTTRAM: He also cites the recent harassment of a US ocean surveillance ship by Chinese patrol vessels in the South China Sea as a good example of the need for greater regional co-operation, confidence building and dialogue to build a more stable maritime security environment.
One of the big maritime issues is fisheries, including illegal fishing and the impact of climate change on fish stocks and food security. Doctor Bateman has a range of recommendations on this front. But the world faces a tough battle when it gets down to individual situations. Senator Ian McDonald is a former Australian fisheries minister, who held the post during recent years when Australian surveillance vessels were drawn into dramatic and repeated chases over thousands of kilometres with Patagonian toothfish pirates in Australia's southern waters. He agrees with many of Doctor Bateman's recommendations, including the call for the creation of an Ambassador for the Oceans. Senator McDonald also agrees that the Indian Ocean, desperately needs attention, and particularly where Taiwan's pursuit of the ocean's tuna is concerned.
MCDONALD: The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission during my experience as the relevant minister for three or four years was that it was dysfunctional because of the itnernational politics of the UN and those lines. Australia did play a leading role. We did try to introduce a lot of reform into the IOTC. Unfortunately it fell over. I don't think the current government is focussing perhaps as much as it could on that area but certainly the Indian Ocean is a prime example of dysfunctional management that could be improved to the world's benefit.
MOTTRAM: Doctor Bateman's report also calls for a far greater marine research capacity in Australia, co-ordination between Australia's various levels of government on marine issues and education in schools with a maritime focus.
