ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE - International Relations

There could be no more important subject to be discussing in today's matter of public importance debate than the importance of Australia's relationships with our key allies. It's appropriate. It's timely.

In politics, as in life, sincerity is everything. Say what you mean and mean what you say; don't say it if you don't mean it. If you post it, stand by it. If you say it, stick by it. Whilst I appreciate that views may change over years, sudden changes of heart for whatever convenient or inconvenient circumstance are a little less believable, which brings me to the interesting scenario that Australia's ambassador to the United States of America, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, finds himself in—quite a predicament all of his own making.

You see, Mr Rudd has only just now removed negative comments that he posted about President-elect Donald Trump from his social media. Some might say, 'Well, at least he's done it.' Some might say, 'It's better late than never.' But it has only happened in the hours just gone. Why has it taken Mr Rudd until today to delete posts about Mr Trump? Oops! Mr Rudd was appointed as our envoy to the US in December 2022. That's almost two long years ago, and a lot has happened since that time. In June 2020 Mr Rudd described Mr Trump as 'the most destructive president in history'. He said:

He drags America and democracy through the mud. He thrives on fomenting, not healing, division.

And he went on and on.

Wouldn't you think, given Mr Trump has long been a Republican candidate and their nominee for the election just decided, that Mr Rudd might have considered those posts and thought, 'Perhaps I should take them down'? Maybe he thought about it months ago, weeks ago or days ago, but, no, he's left it until today to do it. Do you know why? I reckon it's because he has hung on to those beliefs. I reckon he's still of that view. Now, as the dust settles on the Trump versus Kamala Harris presidential election, we have this anti-Trump government scrambling to somehow, in some way, make amends, to supposedly make things right and pretend as though commentary in years past or in recent times didn't happen. But it did.

The Prime Minister has also been backtracking after his 2017 strongly held and strongly expressed views on Mr Trump. Embarrassingly, they emerged on the eve of the US poll. Oops! A big oops! Even then the now PM was—let's face it—a senior parliamentarian. He'd been around for more than 20 years when he made those comments. He was a shadow minister in an opposition with a credible—or, at least, they thought so—chance of forming the next government.

What happened next? Just recently, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs were hurriedly dispatched to go and smooth things over, as it were, with Mike Pompeo, who is tipped to be the US Secretary of State in a future Trump administration. You can imagine the briefing: 'Quick! Go and patch things up. Tidy it up for us. Be nice. Do nice. Pretend as though we care!'

I rather prefer the diplomatic attitude of former prime minister Tony Abbott, who offered a very, very good description in his very well written op-ed in today's Australian. He said:

In today's even more fraught and perilous world, with aggressive dictatorships united in their hatred of the West and determined to overthrow the Pax Americana, which until recently had made the world more free, more fair, more safe, and more rich for more people than at any time before in human history, it's more important than ever that Australia stand with America and do whatever we reasonably can to help like-minded countries under deadly threat.

He is right, of course, and I do worry, given the Leader of the Greens' question today, what will happen to our relationship with our key ally the US if we have a minority Labor-Greens government next time around. (Time expired)