TOPIC 4.2: What is Social Globalisation?

Social consequences of a globalised world

By utilising real-time data and listening to public opinion, the government can use some rough controls to influence the impact of international pressures and markets on Australia’s destiny.

The permeability of borders and scrutiny places more pressure on government to be able to instigate actions such as mandatory reporting, discussed in the recommended reading and can lead to lower standards of governance.

Australia is a member of the international community and works in collaboration with other countries to raise living standards and ensure security and custodianship of the planet and human endeavours. As a consequence, we are signatories to numerous treaties and conventions, which require commitment and acquiescence to their spirit and legal requirements, sometimes at the expense of domestic or local interest. These institutions and obligations are discussed in this Topic 2, social globalisation.

We are reminded of the difficulty of defining globalisation but given that economic forces are at play, these sometimes create positive and negative outcomes for individuals, communities and governments. The social consequences are one aspect of social globalisation. As Galloway (2017)^[1] notes about the ‘Big Four’ of Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Google, if the forces are left untrammelled, the effects can be quite negative:

The emergence of COVID-19 and its lightening quick global spread was readily facilitated by the ease and extent of global air travel. It has seen a global health response in both the public and private sectors to control and mitigate its impacts. Many governments have supported measures leading to rapid vaccine development, testing and administration.

Australian governments have used strong public health orders to restrict population movement within communities and between jurisdictions. Lengthy stay-at-home ‘lockdowns’ were experienced in Victoria and NSW in 2020 and 2021. The Federal and state governments successfully sought to ameliorate much of this social and economic disruption with support measures for impacted individuals and businesses. The combination of legal health control and economic support measures has reignited debate on the role of government in society. Examples of this can be seen in the increased government debt funding pandemic support and the demonstrations by people such as ‘freedom activists’ and anti-vaccine advocates against the legal right of government to enact public health orders.

The ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the health, social and economic well-being of Australia will likely be felt for many years. It will continue to have global consequences until the number of persons around the world able to ‘host’ the virus is drastically reduced either by prior infection or successful vaccination

Australia – the global citizen

Being a nation that professes to be ruled by law, we note that Australia is committed to enhancing the adherence to international law to prevent conflict and restore peace and security.

Australia supports the International Criminal Court and its goal of ending impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes.

Australia is dedicated to alleviating human suffering and protecting civilians in times of armed conflict through the application of international humanitarian law.

We have been a strong supporter of the Geneva Conventions since we first signed them in 1950 and have ratified all three Additional Protocols.

• One law which impacts on Australia, as an example, is the law of the sea. As a major coastal state, Australia has contributed strongly to the development of the international law of the sea in a manner that promotes international peace and security and prosperity.

Australia’s reputation as a constructive global citizen has been called into question in recent years with regard to climate change policy. While Australia is a signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, Australian governments have historically been criticised for perceived inadequate positions and policies regarding climate change. In 2021 the Morrison Coalition government announced a plan for a proposed 50% reduction in carbon emissions. However, the plan was reliant on post-2030 reductions and the use of some unproven, or yet to be developed, technologies. The Albanese Labor government secured passage of the Climate Change Act 2022 through the Parliament which legislated a target of reducing Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions to 43% below 2005 levels by 2030^[2]. As the scientific evidence mounts as to the rapidity of global temperature increases and the increased frequency of extreme weather events Australia’s climate policy and actions will face continued global scrutiny

Sanctions

Having signed up to such laws, it behoves Australia to abide by them, and can influence domestic matters (e.g. treatment of asylum seekers). A tool designed to control the behaviour of errant states is the sanction – financial, trade, social, and cultural sanctions can be applied.

Australia takes the Security Council sanctions regimes seriously and faithfully implements them.  Breaches of controls on trade in sanctioned goods and services or dealing with sanctions-designated individuals and entities, are serious criminal offences under Australian law. We can observe quite concretely how globalisation can impose change on ideas and ideology, if the results are often uneven, perhaps leading to war (US/Japan), change of regime (Burma), or, stubborn resistance (Cuba), to mention some.

Australia and the United Nations

Again, as a responsible citizen, Australia has invested heavily in the workings of the United Nations. Australia is firmly committed to effective global cooperation, including through the United Nations (UN) and its specialised agencies and regional commissions. Engaging with the multilateral system is a key pillar of Australia’s foreign policy. This is because we live in a complex, inter-connected world where countries cannot address, on their own, some of today’s major challenges.

Australia is a founding member of the UN, an active participant in UN institutions for over 65 years and the 12th largest contributor to the UN regular and peacekeeping budgets. Australia held the first Presidency of the Security Council in 1946 and provided the first military personnel as peacekeepers under UN auspices a year later, to Indonesia.

Australia is one of the top ten contributors to the World Health Organization; World Food Programme; UN Children’s Fund; UN Central Emergency Response Fund: UN High Commissioner for Refugees; and UN Trust Fund for Indigenous Populations.

Australia obviously believes we gain benefit from investment in the social aspects of globalisation. Aid can not only assist the host nation, but build social and moral capital for the giver; pro-actively intervene prior to societal breakdown of the receiving society, and avoid creating a hotbed for terrorism; can build bonds to assist defence; and, can open markets to Australian goods and services.

Human Rights and Gender Equality

In relation to human rights and gender equality, Australia:

• Promotes the ratification and implementation of human rights treaties.
• Delivers practical initiatives to promote human rights, including through grassroots activities in vulnerable communities.
• Supports national human rights institutions regionally.
• Engages constructively in bilateral human rights dialogues and exchanges.

Australia has an enduring commitment to human rights internationally and is a party to major human rights treaties. Australia was one of the eight countries that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and we have been a leading proponent of its consistent and comprehensive implementation.

Australia believes the protection and promotion of human rights is every nation’s responsibility. We take this responsibility seriously including through our national human rights institution, the Australian Human Rights Commission and our Human Rights Framework. We have a strong democratic tradition, a transparent and independent judicial system and a free media. Our society is characterized by a sense of egalitarianism. We are committed to ensuring economic, social and cultural rights for all.

As a signatory of treaties, Australia has found it has also been subject to scrutiny by the bodies it has supported. For example, the UDHR has been invoked to prompt better treatment for Australia’s indigenous peoples, and to deinstitutionalise mental health patients. The Commonwealth invoked the world heritage treaty to save the Franklin River from dams proposed in Tasmania, and Fraser Island from sand mining in Queensland, both in the province of State powers in the constitution, through appealing to the High Court.

Conventions regarding treatment of people at sea, human rights, and asylum seeking have been invoked in the ongoing debate over policy settings and treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat to Australia.

In addition, the public service itself is subject to UN influences through benchmarking activities of UNESCO, enabling local bureaucracies to compare their performance against member countries.

So numerous are the treaties that a Parliamentary Treaties Committee exists to manage the implications and a treaties library is available to assist in the management and co-ordination of their obligations. You need to be conscious of the prospect that an international obligation might guide the work you do.

Foreign Policy

Many social issues impacted by globalisation are dealt with through Australia’s foreign policy and will be discussed in the following section.

In 2017, the Turnbull Coalition Government released its Foreign Policy White Paper. The Ministerial Forward states:

Good diplomacy is using all the tools at the government’s disposal to ensure the sustainable interests of Australia. Each supports the other. Overseas aid can support defence for example.

An issue for the public sector and political institutions is that foreign policy is often handled by the executive without consultation with Parliament. Requirements for commercial-in-confidence and defence secrecy means policy is often controlled by a very small group of ministers (prime minister, defence and foreign affairs ministers) and is worked up by public servants in conjunction with the PM&C Department. Even the decision to go to war is not usually brought before parliament for discussion. If international matters are so influential in these times, it may mean the executive wing has too much power and the role of the parliament as oversight and representatives of the people is diminished. (Singleton et al 2013, p.438)^[3].

The changing landscape of global has had, and will have, ongoing foreign policy implications for Australia.

International travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the global movement of people and reinforced the view of national sovereignty in terms of border policy management.

The free flow of global goods and services, increasingly taken as normal in Australia since the Whitlam government reductions in tariffs in 1972 and the deregulation of the Australian dollar by the Hawke government in 1983, has been challenged since 2018 with the introduction of foreign interference laws in Australia and the subsequent rise of Chinese trade sanctions against a range of Australian industry sectors.

The rise of Chinese foreign policy assertiveness has paralleled Australia’s attempts to enhance national security through enacting laws to restrict foreign influence on Australian politics, increases in defence expenditure and preparedness and the instigation of closer defence ties with the US and UK (AUKUS). This coupled with Chinese trade sanctions and the lack of government-to-government dialogue between Australia and China reflects a considerable change in attitude and policy with our largest trading partner.

Social and political resistance across many countries to ‘offshoring’ of production and jobs and calls for ‘reshoring’ and ‘onshoring’ has been on the rise for over a decade in many countries. The weakness in the global production and logistical systems exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has seen many countries re-evaluate their strategic supply lines and access to production capacity to bring back into their countries more critical productive capacity. The rising geopolitical tensions in many parts of the world from the South China Sea to West Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans has led to calls for more ‘friendshoring’ – i.e. ‘the rerouting of supply chains to countries perceived as politically and economically safe or low-risk, to avoid disruption to the flow of business (Ellerbeck, 2023). The US appears to be taking this concept further with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in 2022 outlining a new approach to preference and deepen trade relationships with countries ‘that have strong adherence to a set of norms and values’ and ‘to work together to make sure that we can supply our needs of critical materials’ (Ellerbeck, 2023). ^[4]

Security

Globalisation continues to have a significant impact on our national security. Australian security, as a consequence of our colonial roots, has always been responsive, both strategically and reactively, to international affairs from our involvement in the Boer War in Africa, to the European wars, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.  The modern implications, as a consequence of improved communications, and dispersed refugee populations are evident, and demanding a different response from government.

Terrorism, ideological challenges, failed states, porous borders, ‘stand-off’ weaponry, nation state sponsored terrorism and online political disinformation campaigns, weapons of mass destruction, international drug cartels, bio-security and cyber security concerns, add to the complexity.

The Department of Defence in its’ 2023 strategic review (DOD, 2023, p. 17)^[5] states: