Nothing new under that rock at all.

This Asia twaddle has been going on for years. Nothing is going to change for Australian while politicians travel the world instead of knuckling down and getting Australia back to working and producing its own goods. Keep it simple. Grow and make for ourselves and trade what is left over.

Long time overdue and we must end our nanny tit trade dependence on China, this would be a good step in that direction.
Alan B.

Syed Atiq ul Hassan said "This partnership has been vital, with nearly one million Australians of ASEAN descent living in Australia and a substantial number of tourists and business operators visiting both ways annually."

Answer- The above seems to indicate that the ASEAN region is trying to offshore it's bloated population rather than taking responsibility for it. Probably not all nations though. One of the ways that some nations try to expand it's influence is by irresponsible population expansion- a better way might be to create value- and use it's scarce resources to reduce misery. The less people the more resources per person. In a sense by allowing ASEAN peoples to come to Australia (1 million) probably doesn't represent "commonwealth". Some rulers seem to create misery and then use this desperation as a spear to attack their neighbours and expand their power- rather than acting for the enlightened interest of the people that they represent.

CM

Peopleing Australia with the cowering poor is policy for good reason, but the fools in control have misunderstood the foibles of human nature.

Thanks Diver Dan. Kudos. I don't think that Indonesian's and Malaysian's and Philipino's will be as cowering when they get to Oz because we don't have police carrying around AK47's- but it will get there I suspect.