As the milestones to US authoritarianism keep coming, Australia’s media remain doggedly fixated on one mightily obtuse question: are you embarrassed that you can’t get a meeting with Donald Trump, Mr Albanese?
Again and again the question comes — it’s taken on a life of its own. The opposition pushes it and the media keep asking it, creating a public debate death spiral we see so often out of Canberra. Thought it had gone away with the last election, the one when the electorate rejected everything Trump and his influence on Australia’s politics? No sir. No ma’am.
Meanwhile, the increasingly despotic US president has carried off his biggest assault yet on America’s free media, in the form of a US$16 million hit on the country’s most decorated and most-watched television news program, 60 Minutes. Trump sued 60 Minutes’ owners, Paramount, over an interview it aired with Kamala Harris before last year’s election. Paramount, which has sought government approval for a separate multibillion-dollar sale, agreed to pay up. The money will go to Trump’s future “presidential library”. (That’s the same “library” which will receive Qatar’s gift of a US$400 million presidential jet.). It was another win for the American people over “fake news”, says Trump.
Back to the future
It’s worth bearing this in mind when we look at another non-issue which has roared back this week: the fitness of Kevin Rudd to serve as Australia’s US ambassador.
The Rudd question raised its head shortly after Trump’s election last year when the former prime minister’s old criticisms of Trump were resurrected. These included his assertion that Trump was a “village idiot” and “the most destructive president in history”. It might be hard to argue with those but he removed them and other comments from the public record to keep the peace in Washington.
Thought it had gone away? No. It’s here again, with a renewed “Rudd must go” campaign being driven by the usual suspects in the right-wing media, including 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
This time a claim has come from a Republican Party pollster, Brent Buchanan, that Trump disliked Rudd and that he was a problem for Australia in Washington. Buchanan said it was a key reason Albanese hadn’t had a face-to-face meeting with Trump. Buchanan deftly joined up the two non-issues of the week: the “Trump snub” and “Rudd must go”.
Fuzzy logic
The “Trump snub” claim has its origins in his decision to leave the recent G7 summit early as the US prepared to bomb Iranian nuclear sites, meaning his meeting with not only Albanese but other national leaders did not go ahead. This was engineered into being Albanese’s fault via a dishonest form of logic promoted by the opposition. This morning Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong assured a fevered media in Washington that Trump was keen to meet Albanese.
It’s worth recalling that the “Rudd must go” call was trotted out in February when Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs. Peter Dutton frothed at the mouth about Albanese’s “failure” to secure a meeting with Trump to gain a tariff exemption. Dutton’s accusation was false and a piece of rank political opportunism. No-one bought it.
Weak spots
Despite this, the game continues. There are several discernible subtexts. On one level it links up with the question of Australia’s defence spending and US demands that it be 3.5% of GDP. It also links up with a move to oust Rudd and replace him with Scott Morrison, who comes with the Trump thumbs-up (and pictures from Mar-a-Lago to prove it). And on yet another level, it links up with the dreadful fear, bordering on hysteria, that the US might back away from AUKUS as part of its “America First” reorientation.
Putting the pieces together, it emerges that Albanese is to blame for not getting a meeting with Trump, not getting rid of Rudd, not stumping up enough defence money and not doing enough to secure AUKUS. He is, in a word, weak. Again. Oh, and driven by Labor mateships.
There are sinister aspects to this. One is that it portrays Trump as a political figure who deserves respect, notwithstanding that he is an existential threat to both a free media and democracy in America, as his assault on 60 Minutes underlines.
The truly deeply disturbing question is this: why is the Liberal Party happy to line up with (alleged) US demands and undermine Australian sovereignty at a time when the country most needs to assert its independence? Is that what it sees as its route back to power?
Can’t we just pretend the US doesn’t exist for the next 3 and a half years?
And the lnp?
I cannot understand how many people believe the failure of the Useless States started with trump and will go away after he has gone.
Agree. The US have always been selfish, arrogant, ruthless and America-first interlocutors. Trump has just removed the veil of decency and partnership from the process.
They are dangerous and unreliable. We should be planning for pathways and time lines to wean ourselves off vassal state status to something resembling a sovereign country.
There’s been a sea change Evan, and I don’t think there is a going back.
Perhaps the best we can do is respectfully ‘buy some time’ while new relationships are forged.
No. There are plenty of intelligent Americans who are fighting against Trump’s totalitarian moves. They deserve our support. We also need to remain vigilant and determined to fight all the things that will affect us… like his moves to dismantle the PBS, and his moves to ensure his tech-bro mates continue to dodge tax
Can’t we treat them the way they treat us. e,g, Australian Companies pay little or no tax in the USA. We tell them to spend 5% of their GDP (currently they spend 3.5% on defense, our miners in the USA get large depreciation allowances and so on and so forth.
With the greatest respect Evan, I think that’s called wishful thinking.
Same old battle lines .at least albo is not fawning over the current uS president.
Let’s just ignore Trump and the US and assert our independence in all matters of foreign policy for a nice change!?
The Liberal party and these replace Rudd with Morrison people are weak in the head. In every important issue their ignorance shines through!
Just the Murdoch press at their usual stuff, carefully fomenting hatred of anything not Liberal. It is this aspect that concerns me on both sides more than anything but particularly anything with Murdoch attached to it.
And don’t forget that the Murdochs’ have a visceral hatred of Rudd — remember that he had been pushing for a Royal Commission into Murdoch / New$ Ltd.
The Dirty Digger and his Heir Apparent Lachy have a definite agenda with Labor in general and Rudd in particular.
Most Australians can recognise that Trump is mentally unstable and a danger and do not buy the media’s attempt to paint him as a normal human being. The USA is crumbling before our eyes progressed by the passing of the Trump bill, and because of this destructive man and soon such a basket case that it is far better for our nation to seek out other allies. We are fed up with the daily discourse on what Trump has done today.
Given that Trump enjoys embaressing and way-laying world leaders when he is on his home ground in the Oval Office (e.g. Zelensky, the South African leader), it seems to me that Albanese would be smart to meet Trump on the side of an international gabfest where Trump is NOT on his home ground and is out of his comfort zone, while Albanese would be in the company of many world leaders who would be supportive of Australia..
A further existential threat to media is the fact that Ben Fordham now has a gig with the ABC
I don’t disbelieve you but flabbergasted. A twit of the first order.
It’s nothing serious – he’s just voicing the lines for an animated character on Andy Lee’s new show on the ABC called “Don’t Watch This Show”. For the record, I’ll be taking that advice.
WHAT!!!
I agree with Marjorie. I’m glad Albanese hasn’t met trump and I actually hope he doesn’t. Why join the conga line to nothing. Above all I hope Albanese doesn’t go to Washington. There’s not even an American ambassador here. And before Biden sent Caroline Kennedy here, that post was left vacant through trump’s first presidency. So that’s how important the alliance is.
what?????
can we send the entire opposition to the US if they love Trump so much? With luck they will go into detention with the Venezualian gangs!
The shameless opposition. Not worth listening to.
Thanks David Hardaker for your insightful comments.
Thanks for saying so, Bruce. Am grateful that this platform exists.
Maybe Trump will do us a favour by killing AUKUS for us. It’s high time we disengaged from the USA. ANZUS has been a dead letter for years, maybe always.
Well said Oliver. I’m by no means a defence “expert”, but I have never been convinced that AUKUS is in Australia’s interests. The US and even the UK may want it, but does it really do anything more than make Australia a larger target than before, if a war comes to our region? In my 70s now, I probably won’t be around to see what happens if the subs are ever delivered. The problem is the people in Washington who actually do the thinking will realise the US is getting something (our billions) for nothing through AUKUS and they won’t want to let go of that.
As for ANZUS, have no doubt the US would never commit to defend Australia unless it was in their interests to do so.
Has the USA ever done anything for Australia? They fought the Japanese because of Pearl Harbour even though we kid ourselves that they came to “save” us.
Even if they had, we have lost a lot of lives and had our soldiers suffer great harm by supporting all the Failed USA Wars.
Indeed. I think we should add the cost of Vets Affairs to our Defence Budget. Gotta be another few hundred million there.
When Australia tried to invoke ANZUS over both the imperialistic Indonesian occupation of West Papua (which should be an independent democratic republic, subject to a fully democratic and independent plebiscite under international supervision by the way) and the Indonesian imperialist/genocidal occupation of Timor-Leste, the results from both Kennedy and Clinton were long-drawn-out yawns. So in fact, ANZUS isn’t the paper it is printed on, and in fact is really only a consultative mechanism, and not a binding military treaty, and has been only used to drag Australia and Aotearoa into US imperialist adventures to protect US capitalist and imperialist interests against people that are no threat to us, and wish us no harm, such as the Vietnamese, Iraqis and Afghanistanis. I suspect the AUKUS will be the same against people who are no threat to us and wish us no harm.
Thankyou Bolshibob. I think its ridiculous to suggest that any US president would risk any blood or material to rescue Australia from some belligerent other power.
I think we might find a better place if we start working toward joining BRICS. WE might have a few mentors to help us grasp our sovereignty.
Winston Churchill famously once said ” you can always rely on US to do the right thing after all other avenues have been explored ” !! and his mother was american
Totally agree Oliver. And good article David. Its hilarious that anyone would suggest Morrison as a replacement to Rudd!!!
Stupid things are constant with Australian Governments
Further evidence that the LNP are cemented to the “All the Way with LBJ” mindset. The same mindset that had a US government escalate the demise of the Whitlam government. The same mindset that has Murdoch Junior think that it is okay to follow Daddy’s narrative and create a story that facilitates an Australian Prime Minister’s downfall. Still, with all this evidence, I am not convinced Albanese has the strength of character, conviction or brains to rid Australia of this festering disease and create a truly sovereign, independent, national narrative that actually reflects the will of the people.
All the way with Donald J from the Opposition, News Ltd, Sky and Fordham. We should walk away from Scotty’s disastrous AUKUS and seek closer ties with Asia and Europe. Sucking up to the corrupt Trump is a big mistake. A promise and an agreement from Trump is likely to be broken very quickly. He has torn up the Aust/US free trade agreement and NAFTA.
Totally 100% agree with you Tony Simons. Can’t happen to soon, hopefully before we part with another Billion or 2
When Australia tried to invoke ANZUS over both the imperialistic Indonesian occupation of West Papua (which should be an independent democratic republic, subject to a fully democratic and independent plebiscite under international supervision by the way) and the Indonesian imperialist/genocidal occupation of Timor-Leste, the results from both Kennedy and Clinton were long-drawn-out yawns. So in fact, ANZUS isn’t the paper it is printed on, and is really only a consultative mechanism, and not a binding military treaty, and has been only used to drag Australia and Aotearoa into US imperialist adventures to protect US capitalist and imperialist interests against people that are no threat to us, and wish us no harm, such as the Vietnamese, Iraqis and Afghanistanis. I suspect the AUKUS will be the same against people who are no threat to us and wish us no harm.
When Australia tried to invoke ANZUS over both the imperialistic Indonesian occupation of West Papua (which should be an independent democratic republic, subject to a fully democratic and independent plebiscite under international supervision by the way) and the Indonesian imperialist/genocidal occupation of Timor-Leste, the results from both Kennedy and Clinton were long-drawn-out yawns. So in fact, ANZUS isn’t the paper it is printed on, and is really only a consultative mechanism, and not a binding military treaty, and has been only used to drag Australia and Aotearoa into US imperialist adventures to protect US capitalist and imperialist interests against people that are no threat to us, and wish us no harm, such as the Vietnamese, Iraqis and Afghanistanis. I suspect the AUKUS will be the same against people who are no threat to us and wish us no harm.
Please can someone (Kevin Rudd) help ensure that Albo never get dragged into the White House to be ambushed and pilloried (quite unfairly
Clearly part of the long running Murdoch campaign against Rudd (and incidentally, our national interests) as pay back for Rudd trying to get up a Royal Commission into Murdoch media
As a dual national Aussie/Yank, I feel terrible about the chaos that has come with the current president. While loathing Trump and his MAGA cultists, I have a deep degree of sympathy and empathy for those tens of millions who voted for a black woman (Kamala won 48.3% of the vote). It is also important to keep in mind that the votes that Trump gained represent just 27% of U.S. citizens who qualify to vote. Australia’s compulsory voting is an important asset in these times of distraction and apathy.
Unfortunately your post did not mention that Albo is a genocide supporter, he is happy with the ridiculous Aukus project. He has sold out our sovereignty to the US, He is a disgrace and just lucky that the LNP are even worse.
I am not going to provide any further oxygen to the comments of AS above. Our PM is negotiating a careful pathway between all the complexities of the current global dangers Australia faces. Given that Trump changes his mind every 5 minutes there is little value in meeting him.
The insult and embarassment of being sacked and replaced by Scum-mo in any job is unimaginable.
The man is a failed bullshit artist
I agree with Marjorie. I’m glad Albanese hasn’t met trump and I actually hope he doesn’t. Why join the conga line to nothing. Above all I hope Albanese doesn’t go to Washington. There’s not even an American ambassador here. And before Biden sent Caroline Kennedy here, that post was left vacant through trump’s first presidency. So that’s how important the alliance is.
Yes, the impact on Australia through Trump’s tariffs is frightening. Trump always likes to have the cards stacked to his advantage. But, “Marrickville” Albo has his measure.
1. The Aluminium we sell to the US is a specialist product. It’s still cheaper to import our Aluminium to the West Coast of the US than to transport product from the East coast of US to the West coast. Nett result is we sell the same quantity and the Americans pay more.
2. Beef sales in Australia are booming. Sales are up 20-30% this year. Something to do with biological control and being able to speak to our trading partners e.g. China without the rhetoric of yore. We haven’t imported fatty US meat for years. That is not going to change. Nett result is the US public pays more for their McDonald’s hamburgers.
3. Pharmaceuticals. Ho hum. I doubt we will be changing our PBS.
4. US tariffs on China means they are actively looking for alternative suppliers for LNG. Albo will be reluctant to cut Trump’s lunch. But hey, business is business.
5. Defence spending being raised to 5%. Albo says thank you as his aim in this term turns to re-vitalising and re-invigorating our economy. What better catalyst to activating reform is an imperative to find billions of dollars to fund some imaginary boondoggle.
Not meeting Trump is probably the most astute political move Albo has ever made.
Good points and conclusion.
If the U S is counting infrastrucure – roads and bridges etc – as part of its ‘defence spending’, why dont’t we do this too?
Even better – and entirely rational – we should also count action to mitigate climate change as part of our defence budget. In fact, if your aim is to ensure the maximum possible level of peace and stability, both locally and globally, there is no better investment possible.
I find the whole thing demeaning. Why do Australians beat up on one another when, as you say, we need to be proud of our independence – and work more for it. Thanks for pointing out this cringe-worthy pattern of the Liberal Party and its media promoters.
Two things. Fordham on ABC, might be just a voice but thin end of wedge for an organisation now led by former commercial media operators with no apparent understanding ofthe ethos that should rive it, and
Morrison as our man in the US? Tell me it ain’t so.
Oh three things. The further Albo ( and indeed all of our Ministers) stay away from Trump and his dumb henchpeople the better.
I totally agree.
And aside from Insiders, 7.30, and 4 Corners, I never turn the ABC on any more. All the interesting and informative programs have gone, replaced by cringeworthy game shows and other rubbish.
Thank you David.
Wondering if India and Ukraine press dived into bagging their leaders as being SNUBBED?
The journos who wrote that rubbish (incl an ABC journo who followed this ugly path) have no pride in their work…
Who is helping/training new journos these days? … teaching the unspoken role of impartiality? Seems there’s a void there…
It’s another brick in the wall toward dumbing down the population – defunding the ABC and styling it like another horribly boring commercial channel. (SBS News now gets my vote.) …so can only agree with you Catherine.
We don’t have to listen to the Murdoch + minions press. We can share articles like this and consolidate behind the counter opinion of being happy that Albo hasn’t slithered a path to the White House; be indignant that another nation is telling us to up our defence spending; use our ‘national security’ real estate as leverage in ANY dealing with the US.
I think the scariest truth is…Trump is normalising his bullying, autocratic behaviour and the citizens of the US will lose sight of what a democracy looks like. They’ve been derailing for several decades.
We DON’T have to join them…. and I think Australians agree given the severe dumping of the LNP in May.
LNP tacit support for a US government that slaps unfair tariffs on its Asia-Pacific ally, Australia, smacks of treachery. Am I getting it wrong?
As to whether Daffy Donald Dump is a fascist or not, there is a simple saying to clarify the issue, ‘If something looks like a dog, wags its tail like a dog, barks like a dog and sheds like a dog, then it is not to unreasonable to assume that it is a dog’. Looking back on history, the first thing the Nazi and the Fascist dictators did, when they destroyed liberal democracy in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Apartheid era South Africa, and Israel today, under Benjamin the Butcher Boy, and Gilead, under Daffy Donald Dump, is to destroy and gut an independent judiciary, stacking it with their like-minded stooges.
It’s a pity that Albo the little grey dormouse didn’t show some backbone, and stand up to those two increasingly loony neo nazis, BENJAMIN THE BUTCHER BOY and DAFFY DONALD DUMP!!!!!! In fact, now that they have a substantial landslide and mandate for progressive and strong policies under their belt, rather than sucking up to Gilead, with its fanatically racist Sinophobia, and bigoted Islamophobia, as Richard Marles, who seems to be a right wing cold war warrior who has travelled through time from the 1950s/60, to our time, seems very keen to do, (and largely created by Genocidal Joe Biden), so allowing Daffy Donald Dump to win a khaki presidential election. This makes Gilead (aka the USA). Still, the planet’s No. 1 rogue state, by the way, both little grey dormouse canary coloured Labour jellyfish and the simple superstitious Sus(s)as/dopey Dave toxic totalitarian LNP Political gangsters, are enthusiastically complicit in making Australia a henchman and hitman for the gangsters running Gilead. Don’t forget that it was that gutless amoeba and unlamented piece of fish food, Harold Holt, who said, “All the way with LBJ”, so getting us into the disastrous Vietnam quagmire. The only results from our slavish arse licking to Gilead, which is the world’s number 1 rogue state in both its mendacity and brutal imperialist aggression, (before that it was the geriatric Colonel Blimp run and controlled UK, whose smelly brown stained backside we licked!!!), have been uncritical and unquestioning involvement in wars designed to promote and protect Gilead imperialist and capitalist interests from Korea, through to Vietnam. Iraq, Afghanistan, and now both Palestine and Iran, against people who are not our enemies and who are no threat to us.
Interesting comments, and thanks David for pointing out, yet again, the insanity of the cringing attitudes towards the U.S. Not even sensible questions about Albo and Rudd. although Albo is far too keen to go along with AUKUS….I’m hoping the U.S. will ditch it, although they’re on such a damned good wicket, with Oz paying to stump up their submarine building programme, and offering Stirling Naval base to homeport the Virginias. there has never been a better time for us to re-calibrate the dangerous alliance (as former P.M. Fraser called it in his 2014 book of that title)…. and we must continue to say that we have no enemies of our own making. 4th July tomorrow – independence FROM America day!
The real problem is that a significant number of people actually believe this crap. Where have we gone wrong within our education system that this is possible? Don’t know how it happened, or what the solution is, but surely this is worth some serious study by someone somewhere?
Rudd’s comments of Trump as the village idiot and the most destructive person in modern history still ring true.