Friday 31 August 2007

Lowy: Climate more of a threat than terrorism

The Lowy Institute for International Policy today released the results of its 3rd annual poll surveying public opinion on Australian foreign policy and global affairs.

This is probably the most comprehensive poll on foreign policy.
It focuses public opinion on:-
  • insights on relations with the US,
  • international trade
  • military involvement in the Middle East
Some of the results show the increasing importance of climate change and what actions we should take.


DOWNLOAD Full Report
Australia and the world: public opinion and foreign policy (2.4 MB PDF)


Relationship with the United States

  • 60% of Australians had a favourable opinion of the US
  • 76% had a favourable opinion of Americans
NB: Between the first Lowy Institute Poll in 2005 and the third in June 2007, the
number of Australians regarding the ANZUS alliance as ‘very important’ for Australia’s
security fell from 45% to 36%.


President George W. Bush caused 69% to have an unfavourable opinion of the United States, with ‘US foreign policies’ causing 63% to hold an unfavourable opinion.

When rating their feelings towards 15 countries on a ‘thermometer’ scale of 1° 100°, respondents ranked:-
  • US at a mean of 60°, equally with Vietnam
  • New Zealand 81°
  • Great Britain 75°
  • Singapore 64°
  • Japan 63°

Climate change
Of all external threats to Australians, climate change causes the most concern, with 55%
‘very worried’ about it.



  • Climate change ranks higher than the threats of ‘unfriendly
    countries developing nuclear weapons’ (50% ‘very worried’ about it)
  • ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ (39%)
  • ‘international terrorism’ (38%)

As a foreign policy goal, ‘tackling climate change’ ranked equal highest in importance for those surveyed (75% thinking it a ‘very important’ goal) together with ‘protecting the jobs of Australian workers’, combating international terrorism’ (65%)

Asked how convinced they were about certain methods of reducing carbon emissions, 65% responded that ‘renewable energy like wind, solar and geothermal’ was very convincing, and favoured far above other methods proposed, including ‘nuclear energy’ (19% very convinced) clean coal where emissions are stored underground’ (15%).

Iraq and Afghanistan
The majority of respondents thought that Australia should not ‘continue to be involved militarily in Iraq’ (57%).

Equal proportions (46%) felt that Australia should continue in Afghanistan.

The rights of citizens to Australia’s protection 81% of survey respondents felt that the government should assist Australians caught up in dangerous events in another country, with a very strong majority (75%) agreeing this was the case even if they were also citizens of that other country.

Migrant worker schemes
The Poll showed that Australians are receptive to the idea of allowing unskilled migrant
workers into Australia for limited periods.

A strong majority of respondents (around 66%) agreed with positive statements about temporary migrant worker schemes such as ‘good because they fill a gap in the demand for seasonal workers’.

Significantly fewer agreed with negative statements about such schemes, such as that they ‘…make illegal immigration easier’ or ‘…take jobs from Australians’.

NB: The Lowy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan think tank which researches international political, strategic and economic issues from an Australian perspective.
1003 interviews were conducted between 21 May and 2 June 2007.

Lunch at Lowy

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is rich.

The institute founded by Frank Lowy is now advising Australians on the comparative threat posed by 'terrorism' and other dangers.

Mr Lowy is an ex-Hagana and Golani Brigade commando from the Israeli 'War of Independence'. I say 'commando', although the British Mandate Authorities, at the time, commonly regarded such people as 'terrorists'. The Palestinians experienced their violent activities as the Nakba.

After emigrating to Australia in the 1950s, Lowy co-founded and currently controls the Westfield corporate empire. These days, Lowy is often said to be Australia's richest man.

In the late 1990s My Lowy teamed up with Mr Larry Silverstein of New York. Mr Silverstein was a board member of Westfield America in the late 1990s.

Silverstein acquired the lease on WTC-7 - and subsequently on WTC-1 and WTC-2. Shortly after, on 9-11, all three of these World Trade Centre buildings collapsed, within their own footprint, at near free fall velocity. The collapse of WTC-7, least reported of these remarkable events, is perhaps most mysterious of all.

Lowy's Westfield America was leaseholder of the shopping concourse at the World Trade Centre.

There have been extensive legal proceedings since over insurance payouts. Readers may be relieved to hear that Silverstein and Lowy do not appear to be severely out of pocket as a result of the 9-11 tragedy.

As well as founding and funding the Lowy Institute, in 2006 Frank Lowy launched the Israeli Institute for National Strategy and Policy, which we are reliably informed has "a focus on issues of critical importance, the foremost being the Iranian nuclear threat."

So yes, when the Lowy Institute speaks on 'terrorism', one should certainly pay close attention.

Indeed, this esteemed Institute has the potential to be uniquely well informed about peculiar goings-on in NYC on 9-11, events that helped launch the so-called 'War on Terror', which naughty and mischievous people regard as little more than a potentially endless assault on Israel's perceived enemies, mainly carried out by dupes and stooges in countries such as the USA, Britain and Australia.

Anonymous said...

We endorse Sid Walkers comments ... but do your own web research eg http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Frank+Lowy&sa=Search&domains=rense.com&sitesearch=rense.com

Inevitably one finds that Think tanks/ Institutes / Polls are used to "mould" public opinion by those hidden vested interests who operate behind the veil, using their stooge politicians, businessmen etc .
Lets wake up and think for ourselves ... things are not what they seem

Anonymous said...

To round out its analysis of the 'terrorist threat', the Lowy Institute could do worse than ponder the recent words of Dr Lynn Margulis, one of the world's most prominent scientists.

"The 9/11 tragedy is the most successful and most perverse publicity stunt in the history of public relations. I arrive at this conclusion largely as the result of the research and clear writing by David Ray Griffin in his fabulous books about 9/11. I first met him when he was a speaker at a scholarly conference unrelated to 9/11. He immediately impressed me as a brilliant, outstanding philosopher - theologian - author, a Whiteheadian scholar motivated by an intense curiosity to know everything possible about the world.

On the plane home and for the next two days I did little else but read Griffin’s first book about 9/11, The New Pearl Harbor. From there I went on to read his even more disturbing account of the bogus 9/11 Commission Report, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, which provides overwhelming evidence that the official story is contradictory, incomplete, and unbelievable.

It is clear to me that David Ray Griffin and his fellow critics are correct: the 9/11 "new Pearl Harbor" was planned in astonishing detail and carried out through the efforts of a sophisticated and large network of operatives. It was more complex and far more successful than the Allende assassination, the US bombing of our own ship the "Maine" that began the Spanish-American war (and brought us Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines), the Reichstag fire that was used to justify the suspension of most civil liberties in Germany in the 1930's, and even Operation Himmler, which was used by Germany to justify the invasion of Poland, which started World War II.

Whoever is responsible for bringing to grisly fruition this new false-flag operation, which has been used to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as unprecedented assaults on research, education, and civil liberties, must be perversely proud of their efficient handiwork. Certainly, 19 young Arab men and a man in a cave 7,000 miles away, no matter the level of their anger, could not have masterminded and carried out 9/11: the most effective television commercial in the history of Western civilization.

I suggest that those of us aware and concerned demand that the glaringly erroneous official account of 9/11 be dismissed as a fraud and a new, thorough, and impartial investigation be undertaken."