Australia 'should accept UNESCO board role'

Updated August 25, 2009 07:06:26

A former member of UNESCO says Australia has made a mistake by not accepting a position on the organisation's executive board. Australia declined the offer fearing it may jeopardise its more preferred goal of a getting onto the UN Security Council.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Professor Kenneth Wiltshire, former Chairman of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO

WILTSHIRE: Well, it's very important for UNESCO, Australia has a wonderful tradition of contribution to UNESCO. We were part of the founding of it in 1946 and ever since then we have played a really prominent part. But the most important thing is that Australia of course leads the Pacific in this case and there are now 16 member countries of the Pacific, and without Australia or New Zealand on the board of UNESCO, the Pacific just gets very little prominence and very little attention.

COUTTS: So what will the region now miss out on, because Australia isn't going to be part of UNESCO, after all this time since it was founded?

WILTSHIRE: Well UNESCO of course is the United Nations body that looks after education, sciences, culture and communication. I mean can you think of anything more important for the whole of the Pacific than those particular functions? And of course we are in the middle of the UN decade for education for sustainable development as well and UNESCO is the lead agency for sustainable development. Now if you had to sum up the challenges facing the whole of the Pacific, I think those two words would summarise it, sustainable development, that's exactly what the whole future in the Pacific is all about. And so therefore, Australia will not be able to help get resources, focus UNESCO's attention and the United Nations attention on the Pacific. It will not be able to bring a whole range of resources and expertise especially, because one of UNESCO's main roles is in capacity-building, is to bring expertise from around the world, to help other countries who need assistance in the areas of education, science, culture and communication.

COUTTS: Professor Wiltshire, you don't think it should have been the case or was necessary to be a case of either or, that Australia could in fact have been a member of UNESCO and the UN Security Council?

WILTSHIRE: Yeah, of course it can, countries do it all the time. I have never heard so much nonsense in all my life and if you really do want a seat on the Security Council, the way that you get people to vote for you is that you play your part in the United Nations' specialised agencies, so whether it be UNESCO or the World Health Organisation or any of the other UN agencies, that's what you do. You get into those agencies, you make your contribution, you help all the developing countries, that's what brings you credit and that's why people vote for you. It's not a matter of going around the world lobbying and spending a fortune to try and get yourself on the Security Council, that doesn't count for anything these days. Countries can see straight through that.

COUTTS: Well, there's been a lot of lobbying and a lot of talk about signing up the smaller island nations, particularly the Pacific, to get votes on the UN Security Council. Will Australia have actually jeopardised those votes in some way by not signing up with UNESCO?

WILTSHIRE: It won't jeopardise those votes. They are not the votes we are talking about. The votes we are talking about are the other countries of the world outside our region and when other countries look at us, if they see we're not playing our part in the UN's systems and the UN specialised agencies and we're not really taking a leadership role for the developing countries in our own region, they take pretty dim view of us and it's going to be a tight contest and they just won't give us any brownie points at all. And there is no problem in all of this. Australia has such a wonderful name, we don't even have to lobby for a seat in UNESCO. I mean in UNESCO, our name stands really tall. We can just walk in. You don't even have to run a campaign. You just mention the word Australia, and everybody remembers our contribution and they just vote for us. I mean it's not as if you have to do any lobbying at all.

COUTTS: Well, you mentioned a moment ago, that the UN Security Council within the greatest scheme of things isn't that important. Why are they so determined to get onto it?

WILTSHIRE: You tell me, I have no idea. It's the craziest thing I have ever heard. Malcolm Fraser tried to do it as well. I think prime ministers get carried away. Mr Rudd I think is getting carried away with his own importance. It's going to cost I think $50 to $60 million for this campaign. I mean this is absolutely scandalous in the middle of a global financial crisis. And when you think what that money could do to help the developing countries around us, it makes no sense the Security Council having one vote when it would not even be a permanent member means absolutely nothing.