Two Australian wars, two Prime Ministers: Australia’s virtual Vietnam, and lessons for today

At the tenth anniversary of the decision to commit Australian troops to the Iraq war, this paper reconstructs the previously unknown, and remarkably casual, process by which the Menzies government committed Australian troops to Vietnam.The paper argues that the dismaying similarities between the Australian entries into these two wars strengthen the call for an Australian Iraq War inquiry, following those in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, “in the hope that what is learnt from it will lead to improved procedures for decision-making, under which the government will have to level with the Parliament and the people.

Negotiating the Australia–Japan Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation : Reflections and Afterthoughts

This projects concern for diplomatic history is admirable, and my remarks will be directed towards encouraging the cause. Despite the best efforts of the Historical Documents Section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), diplomatic history is languishing in Australian universities, as elsewhere, As evidence, I cite the under-whelming reception of Peter Edwards fine biography of Arthur Tange1 and academias muted notice of the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war and the 40th anniversary of Australias involvement, despite, I argue, their contemporary relevance.

Development and evaluation of rapid data-enabled access to routine clinical information to enhance early recruitment to the national clinical platform trial of COVID-19 community treatments.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges for rapidly designing, initiating, and delivering therapeutic clinical trials. PRINCIPLE (Platform Randomised Trial of Treatments in the Community for Epidemic and Pandemic Illnesses) is the UK national platform investigating repurposed therapies for COVID-19 treatment of older people in the community at high risk of complications. Standard methods of patient recruitment were failing to meet the required pace and scale of enrolment. This paper describes the development and appraisal of a near real-time, data-driven, ethical approach for enhancing recruitment in community care by contacting people with a recent COVID-19 positive test result from the central NHS Test and Trace service within approximately 24-48 h of their test result. METHODS: A multi-disciplinary team was formed to solve the technical, ethical, public perception, logistical and information governance issues required to provide a near-real time (approximately within 24-48 h of receiving a positive test) feed of potential trial participants from test result data to the research team. PRINCIPLE was also given unique access to the Summary Care Record (SCR) to ensure safe prescribing, and to enable the trial team to quickly and safely bring consented patients into the trial. A survey of the public was used to understand public perceptions of the use of test data for this proposed methodology. RESULTS: Prior to establishing the data service, PRINCIPLE registered on average 87 participants per week. This increased by up to 87 additional people registered per week from the test data, contributing to an increase from 1013 recruits to PRINCIPLE at the start of October 2020 to 2802 recruits by 20 December 2020. Whilst procedural caveats were identified by the public consultation, out of 2639 people contacted by PRINCIPLE following a positive test result, no one raised a concern about being approached. CONCLUSIONS: This paper describes a novel approach to using near-real time NHS operational data to recruit community-based patients within a few days of presentation with acute illness. This approach increased recruitment and reduced time between positive test and randomisation, allowing more rapid evaluation of treatments and increased safety for participants. End-to-end public and patient involvement in the design of the approach provided evidence to inform information governance decisions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PRINCIPLE is funded by UK Research and Innovation and the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research. EudraCT number: 2020-001209-22 . 26/03/2020 ISRCTN registry: ISRCTN86534580 . 20/03/2020 REC number: 20/SC/058 IRAS number: 281958

Negotiating the Australia–Japan basic treaty of friendship and cooperation: reflections and afterthoughts

The thirtieth anniversary of the signature of the Australia–Japan Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 2006 offered an opportunity to review the significance of this event for Australia–Japan relations. Garry Woodard was the leader of the Australian negotiating team that completed the task of concluding the negotiations. Retiring from his career as an Australian diplomat in 1986 after serving as Australian Ambassador in Beijing, Garry has written extensively about Australian foreign policy at the University of Melbourne, reflecting from his lengthy experience on some of the underlying issues in his writings. Here he provides for the first time a rather personal recollection of the political and other forces that affected his task, positively and negatively. Max Suich approaches this subject from the perspective of a journalist, an outsider who was nevertheless an extremely close observer of the events leading up to, and after, the signature of the treaty. Based on his own analyses of the times, as well as his own extensive contacts with many of the key players in Australia – Japan relations, inside and outside the government, Max offers some salutary thoughts on what happened, and on what might have happened. Why were officials on both sides so cautious when other important stakeholders, such as the business community, were prepared to have a more trusting relationship?, he asks. Moreen Dee is a professional historian working in the Department of Foreign Affairs who has a second-to-none knowledge of the main Australian archives of the treaty negotiations, but who claims no special expertise on Australian– Japanese relations. Her official monograph was published by the Australian Government as \u27Friendship and cooperation: the 1976 Basic Treaty between Australia and Japan\u27 to mark the thirtieth anniversary. Interpreting some of the tensions and pressures that faced the Australian decision-makers, Moreen’s present paper provides insights that did not make it into the official account. Yet, Moreen reminds us, there is even more to be told if the archives from the Treasury and Immigration Departments were to be explored

Ministers, mandarins and diplomats : Australian foreign policy making, 1941-1969

This volume explores key aspects of the development of the Australian Department of External Affairs in the three decades from 1941 to 1969 as it evolved from a small amateur department to a highly professional global operation.<br /