An important legacy of the Hawke and Keating Labor governments was to
place the issue of closer engagement with Asia on the Australian polic
y agenda. This article examines public opinion on the issue, focusing
particularly on security threats, defence and security links, and econ
omic integration. A modest resurgence in public fears that significant
security threats to Australia is evident, with Indonesia emerging as
the most likely future threat. There is strong and increasing support
for defence links with the United States, as well as increased trust i
n the United States to come to Australia's assistance in the event of
a threat; few have much confidence in Australia's own capacity to defe
nd itself. Public opinion on economic integration with Asia is more am
biguous, in principle favouring closer links with Asia, but also suppo
rting tariffs to protect industry, and endorsing the view that Japanes
e economic influence in Australia is too great. The defence and securi
ty opinions are generationally bound, with the older generations that
experienced the Second World War being more defence- and threat-orient
ed. This age-related distribution suggests that public opinion will, i
n the absence of a major upheaval or elite disagreement on the issue,
slowly shift to support closer relations with Asia.