Talk:Australian Strategic Policy Institute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

More information This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:, Associated task forces: ...
Close

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 00:09, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

Allegations of an agenda

In the last few months there have been several stories in the media, most significantly the story in the Australian Financial Review, reporting that some experts/senior figures believe that ASPI is now advancing an agenda (in short, encouraging a hawkish attitude towards China). Others argue against this (also per the AFR story). As such, I don't think it's in line with WP:NPOV to describe ASPI as being "non-partisan" or similar, given that there is a serious viewpoint that it is now partisan. It's best to use neutral language, and let readers reach their own view on the basis of the coverage of this issue in the article. Nick-D (talk) 22:24, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

First, the “story” in the AFR is a column not a story. Second having an “agenda” is not the same as being non-partisan in a domestic sense, a national security think tank like ASPI is expected to be biased towards its home nation but not to favor any domestic political party. Unless you have an assertion that ASPI is favoring a particular political party in Australia then there are no grounds to remove it. You also specifically claimed that the organization was called partisan by multiple politicians and former politicians but none appear to have actually used that word making your jump to "given that there is a serious viewpoint that it is now partisan" OR. Horse Eye Jack (talk) 22:33, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
Can you please provide any recent independent sources which describe ASPI as being independent? Nick-D (talk) 22:36, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
The word independent was removed from the lead by this edit back in November . It does not currently feature in the lead nor do I know of anyone who has proposed that it be returned. Horse Eye Jack (talk) 22:43, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
"Non-partisan" implies that the organisation is independent and free of political agendas, which is now disputed by some experts. Nick-D (talk) 22:54, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
non-partisan implies non-partisan, independent implies independent... Non-partisan means free of *domestic* political agenda btw, it loses all meaning if internationalized (especially for a national security think tank). I see allegation of them being anti-China but they can be anti-China and still not favor a domestic political party which is what non-partisan means in this context. Am I wrong that in Australia opinions on China do not line up neatly along traditional political lines? Horse Eye Jack (talk) 23:03, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
See the wikipedia entry for Nonpartisanism which notes “in most cases, nonpartisan refers specifically to political party connections rather than being the strict antonym of "partisan”.” Horse Eye Jack (talk) 23:07, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
Meriam-Webster states that the term means "free from party affiliation, bias, or designation", which is broader. The governing Coalition parties in Australia are generally, though not exclusively, more hawkish towards China than the Australian Labor Party and some other political parties, and it's notable that some senior ALP figures are criticising ASPI for their view that it's now biased. Former foreign minister Bob Carr argues that it's aligned with the US government (). Given the debate, I don't think that the term is appropriate. Nick-D (talk) 23:20, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
Cambridge "not a member of or connected with a group or political party,” macmillan "not supporting any political party,” and dictionary.com "not supporting or controlled by a political party, special interest group, or the like.” I think you’re misreading the MW definition too, it means free from party affiliation, (party) bias, or (party) designation. The terms bias and designation aren’t independent of party. Horse Eye Jack (talk) 23:42, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
Ok, so all we need is a direct assertion that the Australian Strategic Policy Institute is supporting a specific political party, not sure an allegation of supporting (or opposing) a foreign government qualifies. The source you provided is paywalled, does it say anything specific about domestic political parties? It should also be noted that being described as anti-China or hawkish on China doesn’t make an organization non-partisan, for example Amnesty International is often described as extremely anti-China but is widely regarded as non-partisan and RAND is hawkish on China but is also widely regarded as non-partisan. Horse Eye Jack (talk) 23:42, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Policy think tanks exist to advance political agendas, not necessarily partisan. So adding that there are allegations of "having an agenda" is bit "the sky is blue". --MarioGom (talk) 23:32, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Politically partisan does not imply a bias towards a political party- being in favour of any cause or party is sufficient. I think we have to be shrewd about how we describe this organization because they were originally tied to Australia's defence apparatus- but now strangely seem to be a gun for hire accepting external funding. Many question marks here- we really don't know what these guys do.--Willthewanderer (talk) 01:02, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
Maybe there is an issue here. A naive person would think that that think tanks exist to do analysis, not pursue an influencing campaign to further a set agenda. 2001:8003:A070:7F00:E101:4F00:8714:1DFE (talk) 03:47, 31 March 2024 (UTC)

Funding

Stop removing referenced content that details funding outside the Australian government. This is highly relevant and proven, and any attempts to remove can only be assumed to be in bad faith.  Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:6D01:2701:3998:23A6:1950:5DE0 (talk) 02:04, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

Come on... Its not even from an article, its a column. Also you’re new here but always WP:AGF and abide by WP:NPA. Horse Eye Jack (talk) 02:10, 29 March 2020 (UTC)
It would be good to go into more detail on this: I'll add material from ASPI's annual report. Nick-D (talk) 04:37, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

Removed and rewrote some stuff

In this edit of mine, I attempted to address some glaring issues: Article had clear POV-inserts -- Lede immediately goes into how it's received partly funded by the Australian Department of Defence, foreign governments and military contractors. This is true, but it's heavily cherrypicked. I tried to solve this by instituting a pre-2019 version which is when these POV-inserts seem to have started. The stuff added to the lede was repeated in the funding section, but with the same undue weight and cherrypicking. I addressed this by keeping the mention of that funding, but mentioning the actual, current sponsors, not just government/military and defence contractors. There was a pdf cited, allegedly from the organisation itself, but it too did this cherrypicking thing and was being used in the same way. Eik Corell (talk) 19:29, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

That text resulted from the discussion above, as well as some to-and-fro editing, so I've restored it. Could you please explain why you consider this cherry picking and POV? The issue of ASPI's funding has been discussed in the AFR and elsewhere (for instance, and a bunch of Chinese news reports), so is noteworthy, and the material is referenced to that story and ASPI's corporate documents (I'm not sure why you claim that these references are "allegedly from the organisation itself" - they are its website and annual reports!) so should be accurate. I think that the material here is factual and 'flat', and contributes to an understanding of the organisation. ASPI is quite transparent about its sources of funding through its corporate documents and website, and has also reported multiple sources of funding from foreign governments through the Australian Government's mandatory reporting scheme for this , so it is not disputed or POV for the article to note this. Nick-D (talk) 23:06, 14 May 2021 (UTC)
"Titled" is a misspelling from the original text. Should be "tilted". It needs a (sic). Burrobert (talk) 09:19, 22 August 2021 (UTC)

Blog under Press coverage

Failed verification

AFR article an an opinion column??

A carefully curated repository for Western anti-China propaganda

Ridiculous omissions

Strategic Analysis Australia

Nonpartisan in the infobox

Related Articles

Wikiwand AI