Recognising the Asian Century at last

Still, the report is to be commended for its many sensible aspirations and what it terms 'pathways' to getting there.

It rightly emphasises China, India, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea as Australia's constellation of key Asian partners. The continued indispensable role of the United States as a force for stability in Indo-Pacific Asia is noted, though perhaps less starkly then it could have been. All the same, with this white paper an Australian Government has confirmed that it does not see the Asian century as solely China's century.

The paper is right to point to the goal of ensuring that all Australian schools offer Asian languages. The fine print, however, is that this outcome will need to be negotiated with the state governments. And critics are already noting the fact that government support for Asian languages has been declining for years.

An intriguing idea promoted by the new paper is to set standards and quotas for Australia's business leaders and senior bureaucrats to become Asia-literate. It would have been nice to see something similar required of parliamentarians – for instance, requiring them to focus their taxpayer-funded travel on Asia.

The white paper rightly says that adapting Australia to the Asian century – economically, strategically and at the level of society – will be the work of a generation. The problem is, the clock has been ticking for years.

The Howard, Rudd and Gillard governments – and their oppositions – all share blame for the country's too-often delayed, uncoordinated and underfunded responses to a changing Asia, even while each can claim credit for elements of the new paper's strategy.

There is little acknowledgement that Australia simply will not be able to hold its own in a fast-changing Asia without greater investment in less fashionable instruments of policy like its diplomatic network and defence force. The nation's military faces currently relative decline in its budget, to the lowest proportion of GDP since the 1930s.

To have an overwhelmingly positive impact, the Asian century white paper needs to serve as a rallying point for Australians who care about the nation's engagement with its region. But for their part those constituencies need to be forthright in their responses, and to use the document's stated goals as a set of benchmarks for holding this government – and subsequent governments – to account.

So the real test begins now. Whether we applauded or dreaded its vision of a strong Australian military, the Rudd Government's 2009 Defence White Paper turned out to be a troubling example of a government speaking loudly but, in the end, carrying a small stick – the very opposite of Teddy Roosevelt's celebrated definition of what makes for effective diplomacy. The nation's credibility in Asia will not benefit from another big-talking government report if in a few years it turns out to have been a substitute for action.