Talk:United States–Australia relations

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This article lacks historical information. Please add it if you can. For help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Historical information.

To-do list for United States–Australia relations:	edit · history · watch · refresh
Here are some tasks you can do:

This page needs to link to:

Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement

Association of Southeast Asian Nations - Australia's push to join following East Asia Summit, US not so happy

Other considerations:

PETA & Australia's de-tailing of sheep

Wheat market competition, links with FTA

Mutual fire service help. Personel & equipment.

Historically:

All the way with LBJ - Harold Holt

Also as a source for military: http://www.defence.gov.au/defencemagazine/editions/20051101/groups/strategy.htm Other considerations: Australia's fear of Indonesias growing militarisim, needs strong backing. --everbloom 11:41, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Woohoo 2 culture and history 3 Muslim issue 4 PM visits 5 Sports 6 near end of intreduction 7 Culture and history section (again) 8 Removal

[edit] Woohoo

Thanks for the help in updating this, guys. Sharkface217 00:28, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] culture and history

The current version of the Culture and history section appears to me to be a bunch of unreferenced trivia, some of it verging on xenophobic or racist, mostly identifying claimed similarities of the two countries rather than describing any relationship between them. I think it needs trimming and citing whose opinions they are, but I'm not sure what form it should take instead. Anyone else find it needs significant work, or am I out on my own? --Scott Davis ^Talk 13:55, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

It's opinionated tripe. I'd be tempted to remove it entirely.--cj | talk 14:45, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

I think there is value in a section with that title, but it should say something like "Australians watch a lot of US-produced television, and Americans like Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin." Perhaps it's reasonable for the history to talk about the Kyoto Protocol, if our reasons for not signing are related (I don't know), and could talk about gold rushes and whaling as 19th century "culture exchanges". --Scott Davis ^Talk 14:02, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Muslim issue

It is not alarmist to talk of the shared stance agasint Muslim extremism taken by both countries, as it certainly shapes thier relationship and will continue to do so long term. My initial contribution mentioned the fact; someone then added a whole lot of bigoted stuff; the whole lot was then removed. I hope the current edit reflects the state of the play reasonably well. El Bab

Remember that Wikipedia is not a place for our own opinions. There may be a place for this in the article, but it should be cited from reliable sources, not presented as our own opinions. At the moment, this article is extremely short on references for its length. Most references relate specifically to the facts of presidential and prime ministerial visits, not to culture and trade relationships. --Scott Davis ^Talk 23:18, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

It's a pretty marginal issue and I really don't see how it shapes Australian-US relations. The current actions of the Australian government are driven by a desire to preserve the Alliance, which is covered elsewhere. It also seems strange to claim that "Again, this shared enemy has firmed the US and Australia alliance culturally and militarily." given the low level of public support in Australia for US operations since Afghanistan. --Nick Dowling 07:09, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] PM visits

I received an email from the PM's office giving some scant details of US visits. It's copied to /email. —Moondyne 06:19, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sports

Does anyone think sports is notable enough to talk about in this article? There are some prominent Australian NBA players: Andrew Bogut (number one NBA draft pick) and Luc Longley (multiple NBA championship rings). Also there have been notable MLB players that are from Australia (all-star Dave Nilsson). Australia fieled a team in the World Baseball Classic. Several Australian Football League players have found a second career as NFL punters (Darren Bennett, Ben Graham).

From the other perspective, Australian Rules Football is a growing sport in the US, with a 25-30 team club league, USAFL.

I'm not sure if these issues are notable enough for mention. The only big things that come to mind at the moment are the America's Cup (Australia was the first country other than the US to win it) and the rivalry between the two countries in the pool at the Olympics - and I'm not sure if even these are worth mentioning here. - 52 Pickup ^(deal) 14:47, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] near end of intreduction

In the next to last sentence in the introduction, the link acts like Australia is part of NATO. Australia is certainly not part of NATO. Contralya 12:42, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Culture and history section (again)

This section has been tagged as being unreferenced for a year now. I removed it a week ago as it is a rambling and unsourced comparison of semi-random aspects of Australian and United States history and doesn't have much to do with the topic of the article. However, User:Sharkface217 has re-added it without providing a reason for doing so. Does anybody want to discuss whether this section should be included or how it could be reformed? --Nick Dowling (talk) 00:34, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree that in it's current state it should be greatly pruned, but not scrapped completely. For example, the article on Anglo-American relations has a culture section. This is appropriate, as the respective cultures of both countries have influenced each other to a great extent. I would argue that this could also be argued regarding the United States and Australia, as both countries have exported and imported various cultural staples (I understand that American cinema is well liked in Australia, while the United States has a history of enjoying Australian pop music). --Sharkface217 00:44, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree that this is a worthwhile topic for the article to cover. However, I think that the section is current such a disaster that it should be removed and be re-added by someone who has some sources to cite - the section has been tagged as being unreferenced for a full year now and no-one has improved it, so I don't think that the current text is worth saving. What sources do you think would be suitable to use to improve this section? --Nick Dowling (talk) 00:53, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Could we take some of the references from here?--Sharkface217 01:00, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Probably not: that article only has 8 references and, from a quick read, none of them compare Australia with the US. I don't think that replacing uncited text with other uncited text is a satisfactory solution... --Nick Dowling (talk) 01:21, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

I did some research on Google Scholar and came up with some possible leads, including this, this, and this. I think that there is something here we can work with. --Sharkface217 00:53, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removal

I have removed "It is said that the relationship between the United States of America and Australia is similar to that of the United States and Canada. " as i could find no reference to this at all, if someone provides me with a good ref. then i will put it back, but the only refernce to that fact was similar rates in food poisoning and diarrhoea. Taifarious1 04:15, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, that is something.... --Sharkface217 23:36, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Haha, i suppose it is Taifarious1 04:18, 3 March 2008 (UTC)