The Gillard Government’s highly awaited Australia in the Asian Century White Paper has been welcomed by legal industry stalwarts.
After a year of consultation, the paper sets out for all of Australia a strategic set of targets for the Australian economy and its people. “We welcome it, in the sense that it is building dialogue around Australia’s future,” said Herbert Smith Freehills deputy senior partner Mark Crean. “I think that is important, both from a generic law firm stance and from Freehill’s position.”
Corrs Chambers Westgarth partner and CEO John Denton was appointed to the advisory panel and to a special sub-committee of cabinet for the paper in September 2011. Having played a role in the preparation and development of the paper, Denton said he was pleased with the final outcome. “The change we are seeing in Asia requires a dramatic mindset shift for the way Australia and the government thinks about Asia” he said. “the paper assists us by having a very clear focus on a long term policy framework which will be supported predictably and consistently.”
Crean added that the changes that will happen will be quite fundamental and it is the government’s role to set the dialogue and context, and conceptualise some of the changes so that reactions are not short term. He said the changes Freehills went through earlier this year in merging with UK firm Herbert Smith were part of a realisation that to be the best firm in Australia, they needed to be international, with a particular focus on Asia. “The Asia Pacific region was the region we saw as being of particular importance and Herbert Smith had the same view,” he said.
However, Denton has a different perspective on increasing Australia’s presence in Asia. “One thing that the paper states is that the road to Asia does not run through London, it does not run through the U.S. or Europe, it runs through Asia,” he said. “The paper reveals the importance of having deep collaboration with Asian indigenous businesses on the ground… Others will have different strategies, but the white paper is very clear that the way to Asia is not through the rear vision mirror. Success in the Asian century is dependent on collaboration. It requires you to engage with local communities to ensure that you show the requisite level of respect and earning your own respect.”
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