Australian media organisations cherish their foreign correspondents. It’s prestigious to have a correspondent in Washington, London, the Middle East, Russia and as many as possible scattered throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The ABC even covers Africa. But there is one black hole on the planet as far as Australian media outlets are concerned and that’s Latin America.

This is graphically illustrated on the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent website which shows ABC journalists faces dotted around all parts of the globe except for anywhere south of the USA.

The absence of Australian media presence in Latin America is indicative of a media and broader community mindset in this country. It is one that focuses on Asia, the US, the Middle East and Europe, but which seems unaware of the economic and strategic importance of Latin America to Australia in the 21st century. An attitude reflected in the crass portrayal of former Telstra boss Sol Trujillo by radio jocks like 3AW’s Neil Mitchell as some sort of Hollywood “wild west” movie character.

What happens in Latin America today matters very much to Australia. Mexico, Chile and Peru are all members, along with Australia, of APEC. Brazil is one of the emerging economic superpowers — it is the “B” in the BRIC formulation dreamt up by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001 to describe where economic clout is shifting. When it comes to global trade, the Latin American bloc of countries has as much, if not in some respects more importance, than countries such as Thailand and Japan. Certainly in the key area of agriculture, the Latin American interests and where they head are of vital importance to Australia’s agribusinesses and farms.

In fairness, our government and business community is not ignoring Latin America. Australia has diplomatic representation in Mexico, Argentina and Chile, and will shortly open an Embassy in Peru. Two way trade between Latin America and Australia totals almost $6 billion and is growing at a fair clip.

So for all these reasons, Australians deserve to know more about what is going on in Latin America. It is not enough that our policy makers and business leaders simply continue to forge new links and seize further opportunities to cement diplomatic and trade ties. If we are to truly make up for our neglect of Latin America we need our media and educational institutions need to recalibrate and refocus to ensure that the average Australian has a much deeper awareness of the Latin American story.

Why are we not as a country ensuring that Spanish is taught in our schools and universities to as many students as possible? Spanish is not only the national language of most of Latin America, but it is the language of the Hispanic community, the fast growing ethnic grouping in the US — out closest ally. In fact by 2050, over 50 percent of Americans will speak fluent Spanish. We should also be imparting knowledge to students about the history and politics of Latin America, and about the remarkable emergence of vibrant democratic traditions throughout a region where military dictatorships was once, not long ago, the norm.

Latin America is, by sheer force of demographics and economics, a matter of vital interest to Australians. We need our media and educators to recognise this fact and expose Australians to the narrative as it unfolds.

Greg Barns is a non-executive director of Republic Gold Ltd, which is developing a gold mining project in Bolivia.