Australia's Soft Power: The World has an Optimistic View of Australia

I have been fortunate to travel the world and wherever I go the Australian accent opens doors and draws smiles. Bill Clinton shared his love of the beauty of Australia and the plain speaking Australian. Then-Utah Governor Jon Huntsman waxed lyrical about Australian leadership in water policy.  The Chair of one of the world's largest corporations told me, "you Australians remind me of the Americans of one hundred years ago, nothing is impossible." In a route 66 diner, a truck driver said to me, "I love that Aussie beer of yours."

This admiration is reflected globally: The Ipsos Global @dvisor poll Global Changers Poll puts Canada and Australia at the top of the list of countries and organisations that have a positive influence on world affairs today.

The Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs is conducting a review of the nation's unique soft power strengths and capabilities. It "defines soft power as the ability to influence the behaviour and thinking of others through the power of attraction and ideas."

Submissions close on Friday so why not send in a sentence or three on what you think needs to be done?

In Canberra-speak, the Department says "it's looking at considering new and more effective partnerships with other governments, the private sector, development partners and civil society."

In my view, the most important element of soft-power are the people-to-people conversations everywhere from cafes to cruise-ships to business meetings and our speakers at conferences. However empowering those people with positive stories of Australia is an area which is neglected by the foreign affairs establishment although there are many individual diplomats who lead by example every day.

A fine example is our High Commissioner to Nigeria Paul Lehmann, told me "We live in an imperfect world, but when you meet as many talented, generous and resilient people as I do every day, the case for optimism very often makes itself."

What makes Australians so popular? Diplomat Ed Wilkinson formerly in Kabul and now in Port Moresby nailed it by referring to the egalitarianism of Australian leadership. As Ed wisely said to me, "the great value of egalitarian leadership is that is often accompanied by other valuable traits like humility, inquisitiveness, pragmatism, and frankness. Leaders and staff who are comfortable speaking and seeking across hierarchical lines are much more likely to more quickly identify opportunities and combat problems than those in traditional management structures."

Leading global scientist Graham Mitchell put that very well in an Australian Leadership interview. Graham said, "In my experience on the world stage, we Australians, as compared to Indians, Chinese, Americans and Europeans, are characterised by not taking ourselves too seriously. Even when the atmosphere is sombre, we can lighten up the room with humour and vignette of comedy. Our mode of operating is often with humour. We should celebrate this Australian characteristic. I have seen on several occasions at the World Health Organisation, the Food and Agricultural Organisation and at events with UN agencies, that Australians stand out from the crowd with their ability to read a situation and appropriately lighten up the atmosphere. I have observed that straight up honesty, integrity and genuine reflections on the matter at hand are typical of Australians and rather unique."

What does DFAT need to do?

It needs to be more optimistic in its approaches and its trust of ordinary people. It spends enough money on institutions it needs to spend more time and money empowering Australians travelling abroad and meeting foreigners travelling in Australia with the positive truth about Australia. Much of the positive material is already there embedded in its websites and those of Austrade and the like but too little of it gets to the travelling public and expat Australians. Not propaganda just the truth.

What is the problem as I see it?

We live in one of the best countries in the world but, as a people, we have allowed a culture of negativity to take control of the news rooms of the country so people go abroad armed with the worst news about Australia rather than the best news.

Newsrooms are generally led by people who see the glass as half empty. I collect people's optimism but the highest percentage of knock-backs to my requests come from leaders of newsrooms who explicitly tell me they are pessimists. We are not unique in this but Australia has been the hot-bed of experimentation by the global Murdoch empire with Fairfax and the ABC being pale imitators in bringing the worst news from around the world.

So the daily news and hourly and quarter-hourly news is led by the principle "if it bleeds it leads" and make up the rest with stories which sow fear, discord, distrust and dissension. On TV "news" we get the odd baby animal story at the end after the weather.

And, there's an entire pessimism industry led most vocally by opposition politicians, consultants and charity foundations telling Australians they are "doing it hard." Doing it hard compared to whom?

It works! Most people have been convinced that the country and the world is in trouble!

In what is a generally happy country as people look at their own lives and those around them, there is expressed pessimism as to the future of the country and the world.

In a recent study by the Gates Foundation and Ipsos, 22% of Australia said they were very optimistic about their own future; 13% very optimistic about the future of Australia; and, 9% were optimistic for the world.

In results which confounded the Pew Foundation which conducted the study, "The dichotomy between recent personal experience and future expectations is strikingly evident in key countries. Per capita GDP on a PPP basis grew 56% in Australia in the last quarter-century... But in 2018, nearly two-thirds of Australians (65%)... hold the view that children today in their country will not grow up to be better off financially than their parents."

And yet, recent migrants to Australia are very optimistic! A University of Melbourne census of refugee and migrant youth found "refugee and migrant youth are driven by hope and optimism: the vast majority (82 per cent) ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they feel they belong in Australia... the majority of refugee and migrant young people expressed confidence in their ability to achieve their goals, be it at work or study, with 87 per cent saying they feel ‘positive’ or ‘very positive’ about reaching their future goals."

The global Edelman organisation publishes a Trust Barometer. Like Pew, Edelman is confounded by the low Australian result and suggested the place where Brand Australia needed the most work was here in Australia.

On many occasions I found foreigners were better informed on positive facts on Australia and the opportunities in Australia than Australians themselves including business travellers.

Australian Governments federal, state and local spend billions in advertising and information materials.

My suggestion to DFAT is to spend less time focused on sectors, institutions and people who portray themselves as "civil society". Instead, arm ordinary travelling Australians with the facts on Australia in their interactions.

One practical step could be to allow an option on the Smart Traveller registration for the registrant to receive messages with useful positive facts on Australia for relevant conversations in whatever country they are travelling in.

To the extent that people still get boarding cards for planes, three or four facts on the back might be useful.

Social media portrayals of Australia are important but nothing makes more of an impact than face-to-face conversations.

In the film, "My Life in Ruins", the loveable Australian characters Ken and Sue are attached to their beer-cans but have a readily identifiable charm, empathy and care. In my opinion, arming fun-loving travellers with some good news is just as important as arming speakers at major conferences. The latter may be published more but the former probably reach more people.

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