APSNet 31 May 2010

1. South Korea, on the rise and forever under threat, has become Rudd’s best friend in Asia
2. Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) chief pitched for Indon deal
3. Call for probe into naval shipbuilding
4. Faulkner falls short on budget transparency test
5. Australia begins legal action against Japan over whaling
6. U.N. official to ask U.S. to end C.I.A. drone strikes

1. South Korea, on the rise and forever under threat, has become Rudd’s best friend in Asia, Rowan Callick, Australian, 2010-05-29

Canberra is demonstrating an unusually strong interest in the drama on the Korean peninsula. Rudd was among the first foreign leaders, some of his fans in South Korean government circles say he was the very first, to express public condemnation of Pyongyang as soon as international military investigators handed down their damning verdict.

• U.S. to aid South Korea with naval defense plan, Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger, NYT, 2010-05-30
• Deadly silence at the DMZ, Donald Kirk, Asia Times, 2010-05-29

2. RBA chief pitched for Indon deal, Richard Baker and Nick Mckenzie, Age, 2010-05-31

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens helped lobby Indonesia’s central bank for a banknote printing contract brokered by a Jakarta middleman accused of paying huge bribes to win an earlier contract. The revelation of the RBA’s involvement in Securency’s Indonesia push comes as the federal opposition has pledged to initiate a Senate inquiry into the banknote affair if it does not receive appropriate answers from the government during estimates hearings.

• Nigeria all out for Securency justice, John Kerin, AFR*, 2010-05-29
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3. Call for probe into naval shipbuilding, John Kerin, AFR*, 2010-05-31

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has called for a Productivity Commission inquiry into the best way to deliver a planned $250 billion in naval shipbuilding and repair work over the next 20 years.
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• Naval gazing: the future of Australia’s naval shipbuilding and repair sector, Special Report Issue 31, ASPI, 2010-05-31, [PDF, 227KB]

4. Faulkner falls short on budget transparency test, John Kerin, AFR*, 2010-05-29

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s forensic analysis of the $27 billion defence budget uncovered a heady mix of obfuscation, weaselling and accounting tricks.
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• The cost of defence: ASPI defence budget brief 2010-2011, Mark Thomson, ASPI, 2010-05-27

5. Australia begins legal action against Japan over whaling, Linda Mottram, ABC Radio Australia, 2010-05-31

Tensions between Australia and Japan over whaling are set to increase after Australia’s decision to file an international legal case against Japan’s scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean. New Zealand has left a similar option open, but is yet to decide whether to proceed, saying there’s still room for diplomacy.

• Don’t bet the whales, US warns, Andrew Darby, Age, 2010-05-31

6. U.N. official to ask U.S. to end C.I.A. drone strikes, Charlie Savage, NYT, 2010-05-27

A senior United Nations official is expected to call on the United States to stop Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes against people suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, complicating the Obama administration’s growing reliance on that tactic in Pakistan.