Australia's former ambassador to China, Geoff Raby, has criticised the Government's decision not to become a founding member of the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. China and 20 other countries signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing last Friday to launch what could become one of Asia's biggest lenders.
Speaking at the Future Forum on the Asian Century, co-hosted by the
Australian Financial Review, Raby said that if the Government had concerns about the governance of the new bank it "should get in there and fix it."
"Not being a founding member of something like this is a very big call," Raby said.
He said Australia needed to accept that with the world economy gravitating towards China, it was not unexpected that China would want to "change some of the international architecture."
The United States and Japan had not supported the new bank, expressing concerns about its governance and also arguing that the Asian Development Bank already fulfilled the role the AIIB was setting out achieve.
Australia has until the end of next year to join the bank. India and Singapore were among the founding members, while South Korea and Indonesia were not.