Poll speeds up the Asia dividend as Coalition focuses on action

WHERE does the election result place Australia in relation to Asia -- our chief, though not the only, source of economic growth?

The answer is: quite well.

Labor has long claimed Asia as its zone of special expertise.

But its results have not always matched its rhetoric.

Ross Garnaut laid down the template in 1989 with his paper Australia and the North-East Asian Ascendancy, written after his term as ambassador to China.

Then prime minister Bob Hawke raised the idea of APEC in a speech that year in Seoul, and remarkably swiftly, a few months later, 12 countries met in Canberra to establish the forum.

More recent efforts have not proven so rapidly fruitful.

The idea of an Asia white paper was raised by Julia Gillard in one of her best speeches as prime minister. But the implementation was mostly lame, probably because so many interests were involved, and because targets were pushed out to 2025.

Although many Asia experts expressed deep frustration at the defeat of Paul Keating, who was perceived as a champion of engagement, they had forgotten that early in his term as treasurer he had notoriously tended to fly over Asia en route to the source of French antique clocks.

John Howard, in contrast, was pilloried as lacking any understanding of, or even interest, in Asia.

Yet by the end of his lengthy prime ministership he was viewed positively in the region -- not only for being a source of stability, but also for his inherent empathy for core Asian values: family loyalty, discipline, thrift, respect for religion, support for business.

Overall, the embrace of Asia has been a bipartisan one. Few Australians now seriously dispute the description of Asia and the Pacific islands as "our" region.

While Penny Wong remains the most successful Asia-born politician at the national level, we had two aspirants standing at the recent federal election -- David Lin, originally from Taiwan, who stood for Rankin in Brisbane for the LNP, and Jason Li, born in Australia of Chinese heritage, for Labor in Bennelong.

While some in Asia still criticise Australia for being culturally different, few electorates in the region have featured candidates who have migrated from Australia -- or migrated from anywhere else in Asia.

The job now is to build on the steady past progress and to find ways to help our businesses -- especially our smaller companies -- build markets and investments in Asia.

Tony Milner, a professor at the Australian National University and international director at Asialink, says that the Coalition's foreign policy platform "says the right things about deepening Australia's relations with the region -- including personal links". Incoming foreign minister Julie Bishop has the personal mobile numbers of everyone who counts in the region already in her phone.

Milner says: "The emphasis on adequate consultation in the region is vital, as is the statement about not trying to create new regional institutions, but working with existing ones.

"The way then-prime minister Kevin Rudd pushed his Asia-Pacific Community plan some years ago upset many across the region. The Abbott stress on 'no surprises' will be welcome." So will the Coalition's "bottom-up" approach, which stresses bilateral relations, and "making strategic use of non-government endeavours" including business, the arts, and "track two" diplomacy.

The constant recent attempts to fine-tune the 457 visa arrangement, which smacked of labour protectionism to the growing dismay of the neighbourhood, will be over for now.

Labor's fixation with refusing even to negotiate any trade deal that includes international arbitration -- in the wake of Philip Morris using a 1993 investment treaty to take Canberra to arbitration over plain packaging for cigarettes -- is in the past.

This opens the way to finalise, at last, the trade agreements with South Korea and Japan -- and to negotiate the double-tax agreement and the economic partnership deal that Hong Kong sought but the Labor government spurned.

The China trade deal remains a more complex challenge, but with new ambassador Ma Zhaoxu just arrived in Canberra, clearly keen to progress relations, a fresh start and an earlier finish may now be in sight.

That still leaves the foreign investment challenge, in which it's important to keep the rural protectionists at bay.

If Andrew Robb takes on the trade and investment portfolio, that will be a sign of determination on this front, though he may have to remain as finance spokesman if Arthur Sinodinos fails to make the Senate.

The overall prospect, especially for greater economic engagement, is encouraging.

On this as on other fronts, it's often the case of less "vision" but more action.