Carr takes on Chinese relationship

BOB Carr has given Julie Bishop’s New Colombo Plan the thumbs up.

BOB Carr has given Julie Bishop’s New Colombo Plan the thumbs up and says he hopes he can play a small role in increasing the number of students who sign up for the program.

The former foreign affairs minister, Professor Carr took up his new role as director of the Australia China Relations Institute at the University of Technology, Sydney this week, adding to the long list of politicians who have entered academia in recent months.

Professor Carr’s predecessor in foreign affairs, Stephen Smith, was also appointed as a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia this week.

Professor Carr said he was looking forward to working with Ms Bishop, his successor in the foreign affairs portfolio, in getting a healthy number of students to take up the new Colombo option.

“I think it’s a very good program and we will be very keen to work with the minister and her department on the seeing UTS students contribute to the number of students studying in Asia and china climbs steeply,” he said.

Professor Carr said the UTS centre would be the only one devoted to the Australia-China relationship.

“No side of politics own the Australia China relationship,” he said. “Its very important to the country and the role of this think tank is to illuminate and explore that relationship in all its dimensions.”

The centre will use data analytics and choice modelling to “dig deep and excavate” certain dimensions of that relationship, such as how Australia is referred to in Chinese social media, for example.

“I’d also like to convene a circle for former Australian and Chinese ambassadors to get them talking about the relationship. I’d like to get former Australian correspondents in Beijing and former Prime Ministers to about their experience of the relationship,”

Professor Carr said claims of Australian campuses crawling with Chinese agents and overly zealous Chinese students agitating against pro-Tibet activists was not an issue that had crossed his desk when he was foreign affairs minister.

“If it had been I guess I wouldn’t be talking about it, it being about security and intelligence.”