Australia engaging with Asia

Australia has been trying to forge links of identity with Asia since Prime Minister Keating latched on to the idea.
The reason being that although Australia has evolved culturally from England and evolved into a society with a culture very much in sympathy with America, we are geographically surrounded by Asia.
Considering how to improve our relations with Asia...I'm not sure if the people peddling this agenda have Indonesia in mind, or China or the Philippines or Vietnam or Japan or just lump them all together in an amorphous mass referred to as Asia. We're not as bad as the British who lump Indians into the category of Asians but we do seem to exhibit our ignorance of other cultures with a certain pride, a certain condescending naivety wrapped up in the notion of multiculturalism.

Now comes the brainstorm of an idea, lets improve our ties to "Asia" with sport. Sport such as football, surfing and netball. Not all Australians are brain dead, far from it but there are enough of us obsessed with sport, especially football, to cloud our perceptions and judgement when it comes to serious matters.