Keating’s Vision Vindicated: Australia’s Future Is in Asia
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating was always ahead of his time. As PM, he championed Australia’s integration into Asia, recognising Australia’s future lay with its regional neighbours rather than its historical ties to the US and UK
At the time, Keating was derided as naïve and overly ambitious by those clinging to outdated colonial mindsets. Yet today, his vision is being spectacularly vindicated.
With the US under Donald Trump once again turning inward—shifting focus away from Europe and towards economic engagement with Asia—Keating’s long-held position is proving not just prescient but essential for Australia’s future prosperity. If the world’s dominant power sees Asia as the future, why is Australia still tethered to the past?
Keating understood decades ago what many in Australia’s political class refuse to accept: Australia belongs in the southern hemisphere, not as an appendage of the northern Anglosphere. This wasn’t just ideological—it was grounded in economic reality and geopolitical foresight.
As early as the 1990s, Keating recognised China’s rise was inevitable and the world’s economic future would be shaped in Asia. He pushed for Australia to take a leading role in APEC, laying the groundwork for deeper trade and diplomatic ties with key Asian economies.
At a time when Australia’s establishment was still clinging to its colonial past, Keating had the courage to articulate a different future—one where Australia engaged with its neighbours as an equal, not as a subordinate partner of the US and UK.
Keating’s vision was clear: Australia needed to embed itself in the economic networks of Asia rather than relying on outdated security guarantees and economic ties with its Anglo-Saxon allies.
Successive Australian governments have resisted Keating’s logic, preferring blind loyalty to Washington, particularly in defence. But recent geopolitical shifts have made his vision more relevant than ever.
Trump’s first presidency saw the US retreat from its commitments in Europe. Now, his return, sees him doubling down on this policy. His America First doctrine marks a fundamental shift in US priorities. Europe is being left to fend for itself, while Washington deepens economic ties with Asia.
This exposes the folly of Australia’s continued reliance on outdated alliances. If even the US sees Asia as the future, why is Australia still clinging to its colonial past?
The answer lies in the persistence of racist and colonial attitudes that have long plagued Australian politics. Many in the political and media establishment refuse to accept Australia is, geographically and economically, an Asian country.
The instinct to prioritise ties with the UK and US isn’t based on economic logic but on a lingering colonial identity—the outdated notion Australia is politically tied to the northern hemisphere – a mindset that’s held back economic growth for decades.
Even as China became Australia’s largest trading partner, some argued that deepening ties with Beijing was dangerous. While Australia must navigate its relationship with China carefully, outright hostility has cost billions in lost trade opportunities.
Keating understood this. His critics, however, have spent decades denying it.
The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than half the world’s population and is projected to drive 60% of global economic growth in the coming decades. Australia’s prosperity depends on engaging with this reality.
Keating’s vision of a strong, independent Australia—deeply integrated into Asia’s economy—is no longer just a good idea; it’s a necessity.
A stronger relationship with Asia means more than just trade—it means deeper cultural ties, greater foreign investment, and economic security. Yet many Australian politicians still resist this reality, preferring ideological battles over economic pragmatism.
The question now is whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should he win the next federal election will recognise the need to shift Australia’s economic focus to Asia—or whether he will remain trapped in an outdated Anglosphere mentality.
Labor has taken steps to stabilise relations with China after years of diplomatic hostility under Scott Morrison. However, Albanese has yet to articulate a grand vision for Australia’s place in Asia, on the scale of Keating’s leadership.
Albanese’s spoken about deepening ties with Indonesia and India yet remains committed to AUKUS— binding Australia to the military ambitions of the US and UK rather than positioning it as an independent regional actor. The contradiction suggests a government hesitant to embrace Asia’s economic reality.
If Peter Dutton becomes PM, any hope of realigning Australia with Asia will be extinguished. Dutton’s positioned himself as a defender of a rigid, white, Anglosphere-aligned Australia, pushing for stronger ties with the UK and US even as those nations shift their priorities elsewhere.
Under Dutton, Australia would double down on policies that alienate China and Southeast Asia while reinforcing outdated colonial ties. His rhetoric on national security and immigration reflects deep-seated hostility towards Asia, and his leadership would entrench economic vulnerabilities by sidelining key trading partners.
If Trump’s return signals anything, it’s America is moving on from its traditional allies. The US is no longer interested in propping up old alliances in Europe or blindly supporting Australia’s reliance on outdated economic ties.
Australia can either embrace Keating’s vision and fully integrate into Asia—the only viable path for long-term economic growth—or remain tethered to a crumbling Anglosphere under leaders like Dutton, whose backward vision will stifle the nation’s prosperity.
Keating envisioned this reality decades ago. Will Albanese have the courage to act on it—because Dutton won’t.
At the close of the 1980s I became part of a governmental push to implement the teaching of Asian languages (in my case specifically - Japanese) - Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Bahasa, Arabic, etc. That lasted a decade until the 1990s equivalent of Peter Dutton - one small JWHoward came to office - and in a sideways wink-and-nod the NSW state LNP brought the exchange program I had been on at its start in 1991&1992 - to an end. So short-sighted. And the same thing happened to Bahasa Indonesian - and then later to Chinese when the Confucius Institute (the equivalent of the various national cultural arms of their countries such as the Japan Foundation, the Alliance Française, the Dante Alighieri Society, the Goethe Institute or the British Council) was demonised and basically folded. In any event I was in Japan for most of the 1990s and 2000s and thinking much more seriously of my own Kable family's trading links around the Asia/Pacific region in the early decades of the 19th-century - out of Sydney-town - ranging from Calcutta (sic) to Thalang (Phuket), the Malaysian Peninsula (Malacca) around to Macau down to Tahiti, etc. What I am trying to articulate here is that trade with Asia - out of what later came to be known as - and is still called - Austral-asia (Tamworth is the Australasian country-and-western music capital...keeping in mind that "austral" means "south"! Paul Keating was and remains right. Australia is the South Land in a region to the north generally proclaimed as south-east & north Asia. One recent PM was a fluent speaker of Chinese - one of his successors has a Chinese daughter-in-law and grand-children from her. Are we "grown up" yet? Adrienne Clarkson is a former Governor-General of Canada - born in Hong Kong. Her father was born in Chiltern in north-east Victoria - to a Chinese father and mother of Irish background. I have cousins near and distant out of China along with friendships - former colleagues and students and neighbours. Kinfolk not only out of China but The Philippines, Japan, Indonesia and Viet Nam. Unfortunately - apart from the occasional politician - very few politicians who can speak to their own family attachments much beyond the anglo variety. It makes most them deaf and blind, one might argue, to the geo-political realities of our place in the world.
I note an interesting analogy to the situation in the USA last year. << If Peter Dutton becomes PM, any hope of realigning Australia with Asia will be extinguished. >>
I stated repeatedly that as horrible as the Biden-Harris agenda was, things could only get worse for the Palestinians with Trump in the White House. Recent events have proven me correct. I sense that as disappointing as the Albanese regime has been (particularly vis-a-vis the genocide in Gaza), things can only get worse under Dutton.
Sometimes we must settle for the lesser of two evils.