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Over the past 7 years Australia has been undergoing substantial economic reform under a collaborative Federal and State government program known as national competition policy. These reforms have increased the nation's productivity and international competitiveness, and are generally held responsible for Australia's increased growth rate in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita over the past decade. However, the reforms have been carried out against a background of increased interregional disparities, to which the reform program may have partly contributed. In this study we examine a number of Australian studies that have used computable general equilibrium modeling to uncover the regional economic consequences of national competition policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In common with other advanced market economies, regional and rural communities in Australia have come under increasing economic and social stress. One manifestation of this phenomenon is the growing spatial inequalities in social and economic conditions. This paper briefly reviews the genesis of spatial inequalities and examines their consequences in the contemporary Australian political milieu. The discussion concludes with an analysis of the policy implications of these inequalities for local governments and communities in disadvantaged regional and rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the contradictions and deficiencies of the economic policies, together with its neo-imperialist aspirations, provide the grounds for embarking upon an inquiry about the substance, indeed the existence of change in Australian strategic thought and practice. The starting point for this enterprise as well as the perspective from which it is viewed is that tradition of scholarship which is defined as the realist school of international relations although it should be noted that "realism" in the Australian context is a mutation: a perspective more deservingly described as "what-realism-has-become."

The article discusses the implications of the economic aspects of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) for Australia. 70% of Australia's trade in goods, exports plus imports in 1990-91, is with APEC countries, two thirds of this being on the side of the Pacific and one third across the Pacific. The proportion of Australia's trade with APEC is higher than the proportion of the world's trade with APEC countries, 40%. All but one of Australia's ten largest country markets are within APEC. To say that the APEC countries are of economic importance to the country is to state the obvious. However, to say that the APEC countries are important to each other and to Australia is not to say that an organisation to embrace the countries involved is needed.

The article discusses the questions about the role of knowledge and learning of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Australia. Contemporary exercises in economic cooperation building in the Pacific are what have been described as simple as opposed to complex exercises in learning. While the behaviour of most regional states, in their gradual receptivity to greater economic cooperation in the face of new circumstances, has changed, their values and aims have remained largely unaltered.

The article discusses the rule against external interference in Australia. The balance in favour of 'a right to intervene', certainly as far as human rights are concerned, has shifted because in the post-Cold War era, security considerations are no longer paramount. Governments are now less inclined to ignore violations of human rights for the sake, for example, of the unity of the anti-Soviet alliance where in relation to China, the US has reversed its priority of selling China weapons and naval equipment while overlooking the issue of human rights.