Australia–Zimbabwe relations

The nations of Australia and Zimbabwe both have their origins in British colonies established as a part of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, while Australia experienced much white settlement from Britain and Ireland, eventually becoming a settler-dominated self-governing territory, the lands which made up Zimbabwe only became settled by Europeans from 1890, retaining a native Bantu majority. The colony of Southern Rhodesia became self-governing in 1923, but was not granted Dominion status like Australia or South Africa, and broke away from the United Kingdom in 1965, with the minority white government of Ian Smith issuing a Unilateral Declaration of Independence as the state of Rhodesia. This new state of Rhodesia, despite gaining unofficial support from apartheid South Africa and Estado Novo Portugal (until 1974), failed to gain any international recognition and became increasingly isolated. The Australian government of Robert Menzies did not recognise the declaration, noting "there can be no diplomatic recognition by the Australian Government of a government so formed."[4] Despite this, several backbench government MPs visited Rhodesia in a private capacity following the UDI (Dr Wylie Gibbs, James Killen, Ian Pettitt and Wilfrid Kent Hughes in 1967 and David Connolly in 1976).[5][6][7]

The Rhodesian Government maintained an office of the Rhodesian Information Service in Sydney, but from 1972, following a change in government, the Australian federal Labor government of Gough Whitlam in Canberra sought to close the office.[8] In 1973, the federal government attempted to cut post and telephone links to the Centre, but this was ruled illegal by the full bench of the High Court.[9] However, it remained open despite further efforts to close it under the succeeding government of Malcolm Fraser, operating under the jurisdiction of the state of New South Wales, until the Zimbabwean Government closed it in May 1980.[10][11][12]

During the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1979, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was instrumental in convincing the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to withhold British recognition of the government of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, prompting Britain to host the Lancaster House Agreement at which full independence and majority rule for Zimbabwe was agreed upon.[13] At the independence celebrations in Harare in 1980, Fraser's contribution to Zimbabwean independence was firmly acknowledged.[14] Australia established a High Commission in Salisbury on independence in 1980, with Jeremy Hearder as the first High Commissioner and Zimbabwe established a High Commission in Canberra in 1988, with Dr. Eubert Mashaire as the first High Commissioner.[15]

Robert Mugabe, leader of Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 to 2017.

Relations between the two countries began to sour when the government in Zimbabwe began its controversial land reform programme, occupying farms owned by members of Zimbabwe's white minority, sometimes by force. Following evidence of violence and intimidation in the 2002 Presidential election, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, alongside South African president, Thabo Mbeki, and the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, led efforts which resulted in Zimbabwe's suspension (and eventual voluntary departure) from the Commonwealth of Nations in 2002–2003.[16] In an unusually blunt declaration in 2007, Prime Minister Howard described Robert Mugabe as a "grubby dictator".[17] Howard also called for other African countries to put pressure on Zimbabwe to crack down on the increasingly autocratic Zimbabwean government.[18] Sporting links between the two countries were also disrupted, with the Howard government banning the Australian cricket team from taking part in a scheduled tour of the country, citing the propaganda boost that it would provide for the Mugabe régime.[17]

Howard's successor as Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, was also critical of the Zimbabwean Government. Before the 2007 election, he criticised the People's Republic of China for providing "soft loans" to the Zimbabwean Government,[19] and later offered aid to Zimbabwe only if the 2008 elections in that country were "fair".[20] In December 2013 the Zimbabwean Ambassador to Australia, Jacqueline Zwambila, resigned and sought asylum in Australia due to fears of arrest should she return to Zimbabwe due to her links with official opposition there.[21] On 22 November 2017, following Mugabe's resignation as President following a coup d'état, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop noted that Australia "welcomes the resignation of Zimbabwe’s Leader Robert Mugabe after 37 years of increasingly authoritarian and oppressive rule. His resignation provides an opportunity for Zimbabwe to establish proper conditions for free and fair elections to take place and to transition to an inclusive, peaceful constitutional democracy."[22] With the inauguration of a new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the outgoing Australian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Suzanne McCourt, met with the president and later commented to Zimbabwe state media that the meeting was a positive sign of improving relations between the two countries.[23]