New Perspectives in Government Communications

Foreign Minister Penny Wong calls on Britain to confront its colonial past in the Indo-Pacific in a speech in London as the UK pushes ahead with a tilt towards our region. Senator Wong highlights the deep link between Australia and Britain but added, “As the nature of our nations, our regions and our world has changed, so too has the character of our relationship. Today, as a modern, multicultural country – home to people of more than 300 ancestries and the oldest continuing culture on Earth – Australia sees itself as being in the Indo-Pacific and being of the Indo-Pacific”.  She said that understanding of the past ” brought with it the opportunity to find more common ground than if we stayed sheltered in narrower versions of our countries’ histories”. There is now a distinct change in Australia’s official rhetoric after the change of government in 2022 and that helps to reset the nation’s perception of itself and its ever-changing national identity ahead of further change to come. This bodes well for both the Voice to Parliament and the Republic. Naturally, this perspective was strongly criticised by the federal Opposition. [‘Penny Wong has urged Britain to confront its colonial past in landmark speech” report by AAP, SBS News online, 1 February 2023]