The Backwater that is Australia
Australians have been slow to wake up to the fact that a new level of political decision-making is emerging. It won't be long before decisions in the international arena will have as much impact on our lives as decisions by governments in Australia.

Yet who is interested in how the International Monetary Fund works?

Who debates our role in UN peacekeeping?

Who worries about international transport regulations?

When a major agreement with huge implications for Australia emerges, like the Kyoto agreement on climate change, half the country tries to pretend it doesn't exist.

Hardly any Australians have ever run any major international organisations.

As far as I can determine, the scorecard consists of the World Meteorological Organisation, the International Telecommunications Union, and the United Nations World Food Program.

Australian-born James Wolfensohn ran the World Bank, but he's lived in the US virtually all his adult life. In recent years Malcolm Fraser, Gareth Evans and Allan Fels all failed to win the top jobs in key international bodies.

It's about time we got serious about international politics. The Howard Government is more subservient to the Bush Administration than even the US Congress is. You'd think they could at least manage to get one Australian running a major world organisation.

As a major trading nation, it's an embarrassment that we figure so little in the world of international regulation. International decisions affect our lives. It's time we had a bigger say in them