Third China-Australia Media Forum

It is a pleasure to represent the Australian Government at this very important forum this morning.

It is a particular pleasure on behalf of the government to express a very warm welcome to our distinguished guests from the People’s Republic of China:

• Minister of the State Council Information Office, Mr. Cai Mingzhao
• Chinese Ambassador Mr. Ma Zhaoxu
• Consul General Mr. Li Huaxin
• And all other dignitaries and media guests.

Let me congratulate the co-organisers of this very important event, from the Australian side the Australian News Channel and from the Chinese side the China State Council Information Office.

The two previous meetings of this forum have quickly established its reputation.  It has become an important opportunity for very senior participants in the media sectors of our two countries to meet, to exchange views and opinions, to learn more about the other country and share more about your own country – and in turn it has become an important strand in the multistranded relationship between Australia and China.

Let me congratulate the organisers on the extremely impressive attendance list – with people from the media sector, the business world, and government, from both Australia and the People’s Republic of China. 

You have a fascinating range of topics for discussion in today’s event.

I see that the agenda includes the role of the media in China-Australia relations, particularly in business and trade. There should be plenty to discuss, as the growth of the trade relationship between our two nations continues to grow year after year.

The group will also discuss the impact of technology on journalism, and how new media is affecting traditional media in each market.

As everyone gathered here today would be well aware, it is remarkable to see how quickly the media landscape is changing in both nations – a trend which has only accelerated since the second China-Australia Media Forum was held in Guangdong just two years ago.

With these important topics and themes in mind, it seems to me worth highlighting in my opening remarks the ever increasing role of the media – both traditional media and social media – in building improved ties and greater understanding between our two nations.  Indeed this is particularly important because we have built such very strong trade ties in such a relatively short space of time. 

Our close trade relations

Let me start by highlighting our very strong trade ties.

China is Australia's largest two-way trading partner in goods and services, a relationship which was worth over A$150 billion in 2013.

China is Australia’s largest goods export destination - worth A$95 billion in 2013. China is also our largest source of merchandise imports - worth A$47 billion in 2013.[1]

Having spent much of my career in the telecommunications sector, I was particularly interested to note that Australia’s largest import category from China is telecommunications equipment and parts, worth $4.9 billion last year.

When you look at the scale of China’s two home grown telecommunications vendors, Huawei and ZTE, this is perhaps not surprising. Their equipment is widely used in the telecommunications industry in Australia.

Computers was the second-largest import category from China, worth $4.6 billion last year.[2]

When it comes to Australian exports to China, iron ore and coal are very major contributors to $95 billion figure I quoted earlier. However another important contributor to Australia’s export revenues is education.  Four out of ten international students in the Australia’s higher education sector came from China in 2013.[3] Australia’s major service export to China in 2013 was education-related travel, worth over $4 billion.[4]

As well as the year-by-year import and export numbers, another important indicator of the relationship is investment. Chinese investment in Australia currently stands at $31.9 billion, with new investments of $8.8 billion in 2013.[5] Australia's investment in China has grown to $29.6 billion as of last year.

The relationship is building across many fields – and one very interesting area is in higher education. Last year I visited Suzhou Industrial Park, travelling by high speed train from Shanghai.

Incidentally, a little internet research tells me the trip of 85 kilometres takes 34 minutes. As a comparison the trip of 74 kilometres from Sydney to Gosford takes one hour 27 minutes by rail.

In Suzhou I visited the academic precinct, where more than twenty universities from around the world have established campuses – often working in partnership with a Chinese university.

One such pairing is Monash University and China's Southeastern University, Australia’s first partnership with a Chinese University.

Writing about my experience following my return from China, I noted that higher education remains a market with growth potential, alongside tourism, agriculture and food production.

The media, in both Australia and China, plays an important role in this growing relationship. Australian journalists representing a wide variety of Australian news outlets are based in China, and similarly we are seeing a growing number of Chinese media establish themselves in Australia.

Both the Australian and Chinese media watched closely during the Abbott Government-led trade mission during ‘Australia Week in China’ in April this year – the largest ever trade mission to leave Australia.

Alongside Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb, Prime Minister Tony Abbott led a delegation of more than 700 people, representing some 500 organisations, as they travelled through Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai and Beijing to further develop business and trade connections between our two countries.

The role of the media in improving ties

While the business and trade relationship between Australia and China has continued to grow, there is much I believe the media can do to further improve ties between our two countries.

Over the past fifty years, China has been in many ways a reawakening giant. A statistic that Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop likes to quote – she attributes it to Henry Kissinger – is that over the last twenty centuries China has been the largest economy in the world for eighteen of them.

The extraordinary scale of China’s resurgence has become compellingly visible in Australia over the last quarter century – particularly since it has become the largest market for our resources exports.

My own experience I would suggest is quite typical for Australians of my generation. 

In my professional and business life, I first began to have dealings with people in China about fifteen years ago, I first visited China about ten years ago, and since then I think I have visited four or five times.

The point I am making is that in my own lifetime China has gone from being interesting to Australians but not of any direct relevance – to being of absolutely central importance. Whatever field you are working in, China matters enormously.

Yet the average level of China literacy in Australia is not terribly high. And naturally we would like there to be greater knowledge of Australia amongst Chinese.

The ties are certainly strong and growing. As I mentioned, students from China are by far the largest group of foreign students in Australian universities.  Tourism from China to Australia is on the rise and so too are the numbers in the other direction.

There were 709,000 visitors from China in 2013, an increase of 14.5 per cent on the previous year, generating $4.8 billion in total expenditure[6]. By contrast, 399,000 Australians visited China in 2013[7]. More and more Australians are working in China, and Chinese in Australia.

In addition, the number of Australians of Chinese background is growing strongly. As just one indicator, in my electorate of Bradfield, over 10 per cent of residents reported having a Chinese background at the last census.

But I think there is much more we can do to help the people of Australia to get a better understanding of China, and the people of China to get a better understanding of Australia. 

Of course one important initiative towards this outcome is the work that Foreign Minister Bishop has been leading with the New Colombo Plan, under which Australian students will go to study at universities in other countries in our region including China.

But there is much more which can be done – and this is where the media can play a critically important role. I very much hope this is a question you can focus on in your sessions today.

Certainly Australian media coverage of China is vastly greater today than it was forty years ago when diplomatic relations were established between Australia and China. As for Chinese media coverage of Australia, I can certainly observe that in my short time in the Australian parliament I have more than once been interviewed by a journalist from a Chinese media outlet.

No doubt one of the other issues you are likely to discuss is the very rapidly evolving role of the media, particularly with the explosion of social media, with the internet challenging more traditional forms of media such as newspapers, and with the rise of bloggers and citizen journalists.

Again, these raise some interesting issues about mechanisms for better understanding between our two countries.

Conclusion

To conclude, this event is being held at an opportune time to discuss the future of the media industry in both Australia and China.

The media has a key role to play as our two nations build on our business and trade ties, and the media industries in both countries will continue to wrestle with the impact of digital disruption.

I hope that today’s Forum will provide an opportunity to learn from each other on these issues, and to bring our two nations closer together.

Thank you.

[1] http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/china/china_brief.html

[2] http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/china/china_brief.html

[3] http://www.austrade.gov.au/Education/Student-Data/2013#.U_aUkoGSx7E

[4] http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/china/china_brief.html

[5] http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/china/china_brief.html

[6] http://www.tourism.australia.com/markets/market-regions-greater-china.aspx

[7] http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/DetailsPage/3401.0Jun%202014?OpenDocument