Julie Bishop will kick-start her second term as Foreign Minister with a new white paper that will establish a "philosophical framework to guide Australia's engagement, regardless of international events".
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The new work will be the first foreign affairs white paper since the Howard Government's 2003 paper Advancing the National Interest, and its creation will be driven by Ms Bishop and the new secretary of her Department, Frances Adamson.
In the nearly 14 years since Advancing the National Interest was released in February 2003, Australia has experienced an unprecedented mining boom and benefited from the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, signed up to new free trade agreements including with South Korea, China and Japan and more and participated in peacekeeping missions in hotspots around the world.
The Asian Century white paper, produced by former Treasury chief Ken Henry, who worked with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for then prime minister Julia Gillard, came closest to replicating a foreign policy white paper and was widely welcomed at the time, but has since fallen by the wayside.
During the campaign, the Coalition's foreign policy document promised as a "contemporary and comprehensive foreign policy strategy within 12 months of the election".
Ms Bishop told Fairfax Media that, in fact, a formal white paper would be produced and that it "will look at how to maximise our influence through our policies, but also shape the thinking of other nations. Its about strategy – our global focus and our global interests."
"We need a contemporary foreign policy strategy; we are a significant regional voice; we have achieved a considerable amount over three years. This will look at the challenges, the threats, and the opportunities," she said.
"This will be a government-generated document, it will go to cabinet."
The ANU's director of the Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs, MichaelWesley, welcomed the decision to conduct a white paper process and said the aim of the white paper should be to "produce a medium-term, high-level strategic picture of what is happen in Australia's international environment," he said.
"Secondly, it should set out some clear principles of what Australia stands for, what its basic foreign policy framework will be in dealing with the world between now and, say, 2025."
