Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of sidelining Australia’s alliance with the United States ahead of his upcoming trip to China.
Albanese acknowledged Australia’s pivot towards the United States during World War II during a speech at an event commemorating former Labor leader John Curtin.
‘John Curtin is rightly honoured as the founder of Australia’s alliance with the United States, a pillar of our foreign policy that commands bipartisan support, respect and affection,’ he told the crowd on Saturday.
‘But our alliance with the US ought to be remembered as a product of Curtin’s leadership in defence and foreign policy, not the extent of it.
In an allusion to ongoing tensions in the AUKUS agreement, Albanese said Australia should be not be ‘shackled to our past’.
‘So we remember Curtin not just because he looked to America. We honour him because he spoke for Australia, he said.
The comments, framed as Albanese’s ‘progressive patriotism’, have drawn criticism for downplaying Australia’s alliance with the US at a critical time.
The address came just weeks after US President Donald Trump cancelled his scheduled face-to-face meeting with Albanese at the G7 Summit in Canada, to deal with escalations in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) this weekend (the pair are pictured at the G20 Summit in 2024)
It also follows Australia rejecting calls from Washington to raise defence spending from around two to five per cent of GDP.
At the same time, key NATO allies have agreed to ramp up their military budgets to the 5 per cent target, following a summit in The Hague and pressure from the US.
Sky News host Paul Murray said Albanese’s attempt to draw similarities between present day and the Curtin-era was ‘taking the piss’.
‘What I did find offensive about the suggestion from the speech on Saturday was, “Oh, well, this is just like John Curtin. We know how to balance things”,’ he said.
‘The only reason we need to build up our military is because of China, not because of America.’
Meanwhile, Nationals Senator Matt Canavan called on Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong to be more transparent about their foreign policy strategy.
‘I think the Australian people deserve to know, does the Albanese government view America as the most important friend and ally to our country… which has been the case since John Curtin made that shift,’ he told Sky News.
‘Or do they think we should replace the United States with the likes of a dictatorial communist regime in Beijing?’
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley also criticised the Curtin speech, saying Albanese needed to do more to build on the alliance in the United States.
Albanese has been criticised for not doing enough to strengthen the US-Australia alliance (pictured, Donald Trump is pictured in Washington on Monday)
‘At a time of global uncertainty, growing conflict and a growing list of issues in the Australia-United States relationship, now is a time to build our influence in Washington, not diminish it,’ Ley said in a statement.
‘Many Australians will wonder whether this speech at this time was in our national interest, given so many things crucial to Australia’s future are currently being considered by the US administration.’
It is understood that artificial intelligence, healthcare and a revised trade agreement will be top of the agenda when Albanese meets with his Chinese counterpart.
It has also been reported the PM will address the potential sale of Darwin Port.
In 2015, Chinese company Landbridge secured a 99-year lease over Darwin Port in a deal struck by the Northern Territory’s then-Country Liberal Government, at a time when Anthony Albanese was serving as the federal infrastructure minister.
