Asia-Pacific community long overdue
The Rudd Government's plan to form an Asia-Pacific Community should have been implemented 30 years ago according to an academic at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ).
Senior Lecturer in Business Dr Joseph Mula established the concept of Pacific communities when he was commissioned to develop a model to simulate future scenarios for Australia nearly 30 years ago under the Fraser Government.
'Basically I developed an econometric-environment model to simulate Australia's future scenarios to look at the economic and environmental impacts over 50 year timeframes,' Dr Mula said.
'The model considers the implications of policy decisions on future outcomes and takes a holistic approach by producing results in both physical and monetary units.'
In the analysis Dr Mula came up with the idea of Pacific Economic Community (PEC) based on the model operating in the United Kingdom.
'The work indicated the best combination of regions/countries that would provide the best outcome for Australia. The research found that the optimal PEC grouping included Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Eastern South-East Asia and China. It did not include North America.'
Dr Mula said The model was presented to the government but no significant actions were taken.
'The whole point is this was initiated by the Whitlam Government in mid 1975 then commissioned by the Fraser Government in late 1978 after overturning objections by then treasurer. The then Prime Minister overruled Treasury but then didn't utilize the results to any great extent. However, many other countries did.
'The scenarios went on to show environmental impacts and modelled the effects of the OECD's Polluter Pays Principal. The term PPP has in effect been replaced by the new term carbon trading. This model demonstrated the consequences of a pseudo carbon-trading system.
'The results indicated Australia's economy would need to suffer some short term pain but achieve long-term gain.
'Decisions in relation to carbon trading should have been made 20 to 30 years ago. Governments are reluctant to put voters through short-term pain to get long-term benefits.'
Dr Mula has used his expertise in economic-environment modelling for long-term government policy analysis to develop courses for the Bachelor of Accounting and Sustainable Business launched recently at USQ and has also designed a course for the Sustainable Business major within the Master of Business which will be offered from semester two, 2008.
Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559