Good International Citizenship: Gareth Evans AC QC In-Conversation with Hugh White AO

Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre
Why should Australia care about poverty, human rights atrocities, environmental catastrophes, weapons proliferation or any other problems afflicting faraway countries, when they don’t have any direct or immediate impact on us? Former foreign minister, Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC FASSA FAIIA, Gareth Evans has the answer.
In his new book, Good International Citizenship: The Case For Decency, Gareth Evans argues that to be, and be seen to be, a good international citizen is both a moral imperative and a matter of hard-headed national interest. He examines the four key benchmarks in assessing a country’s record as a good international citizen: its foreign aid generosity; its response to human rights violations; its reaction to conflict, mass atrocities, and the refugee flows in their aftermath; and its contribution to addressing the global existential threats posed by climate change, pandemics and nuclear war. Measured against them, Australia’s overall record has been patchy at best, lamentable at worst, and is presently embarrassingly poor.
Evans suggests that the public need to persuade our political leaders, on both moral and national interest grounds, to change their ways, and to vote them out if they don’t.
Gareth Evans’s book will be the starting point for a wide-ranging discussion on current foreign policy issues with Emeritus Professor Hugh White AO.
www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au