Vision for the Future – Foreign Policy

A truly independent foreign policy towards other countries would be based on the five principles of peaceful coexistence first put forward by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1954, during border disputes with India .

These principles were largely embraced by the Bandung Conference of 29 non-aligned countries held in Indonesia in 1955, and have formed a basis for principled relations between countries ever since.

It follows that the military posture of a peoples' democratic Australia would be geared towards defence against imperialist aggression and interference, and that regular armed forces and civil defence units would be supplemented by an extensive popular militia based in the regions and communities. There would be no foreign military bases or nuclear weapons on Australian soil.

In the United Nations, Australia would become a strong voice for the peaceful resolution of conflicts and would support moves to systematically disarm and destroy all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. It would support the criminal prosecution of any person ordering armed attacks on civilians or the torture of any individual.

Rather than being a base for imperialist aggression and exploitation, Australia would become a base for assisting under-developed countries with education, vocational training, healthcare and agriculture, in a similar way to the assistance now provided by socialist Cuba to several countries in South America . The fine example of the Australian eye specialist Fred Hollows is a model for the attitude and behaviour we would apply to this responsibility.

Foreign aid and disaster relief would be greatly increased from the miserly amounts now grudgingly doled out, but the main effort would be to assist other countries to build their own infrastructure and services, no strings attached, interest-free, subject only to checks that verified the aid was not being diverted or stolen by crooks.

Trade with other countries would be conducted on the basis of fairness and mutual benefit, taking into account the real needs of people, rather than capacity to pay top dollar on the world market.

In line with its international obligations, a peoples' democratic Australia would embark on a massive turn-around of the pollution and destruction of the environment. It would concentrate on alternative technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; it would actively preserve and protect the river catchments, seas and oceans, marine life, and flora and fauna of our unique part of the world.

These are just some of the principles and policies that would guide an independent foreign policy and ensure that Australia made positive contributions to the peaceful progress of humankind.

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