Well before Donald Trump unveiled his country’s punitive tariffs, the graffiti was being figuratively scrawled on Labor’s walls, a reflection of the deep disquiet of party members about the continuation of the $368bn Aukus deal with the US.
The message has been simple. RETHINK AUKUS NOW.
After Trump’s 10% tariff announcement (cloaked as it was in nauseating terms about “wonderful” Australia), prime minister Anthony Albanese was quick to say “this is not the act of a friend”. Something of an understatement, that, though a welcome one for many of Albanese’s supporters who, with good reason, now view Trump’s America not only as a perfidious ally but also a downright dangerous one.
Dangerous? Listen to what the man says about acquiring – “taking” – Greenland, the Suez Canal, Gaza and even Canada as a 51st state. Must we wait gormlessly for the proof that he’s doing more than talking tough?
Look at how he wants to defy the US constitution to somehow snatch a third presidential term. Consider, also, his philistine attacks on revered US cultural institutions including ivy league universities and the Smithsonian, an illustration of the man who would be king’s fervour for rewriting his nation’s history – a foundational pillar of authoritarianism.
And then wonder where that leaves Australia, a rusted-on middle-power at the bottom of the globe seemingly wedded – unquestioningly, financially, strategically and in terms of interoperability with the US military for continental defence – because of its undying commitment to Aukus.
That is why, across this country, Labor’s various organisational elements – including branches and federal electoral councils – are in revolt against the federal parliamentary party’s unwavering support of Aukus, while America threatens and cajoles the world, and wreaks havoc on its economies.
At least 100 of these ALP organisational elements, many in Labor electorates, have passed resolutions condemning Australia’s continued commitment to Aukus and demanding a change in policy. The organisation, Labor Against War, has written to all federal members and senators, and election candidates, decrying America’s hostility to traditional allies and urging a rethink on Aukus.
Former Labor senator Doug Cameron, the national patron of Labor Against War, recently described a growing internal party concern “about developments in the US under Trump and how the US government cannot be relied upon to either deliver these submarines or come to Australia’s assistance if something happens”.
Further uncertainty about the veracity of America’s nuclear submarine program, which is already behind schedule, has been sparked by indiscriminate cutting of the US public service, courtesy of Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency sackings. The New York Times reported, “a half-dozen staff members left a unit in the agency that builds reactors for nuclear submarines”.
“I’m sure that there would be ministers and members of caucus who are extremely concerned about this,” Cameron said.
Cameron is correct. With every increasingly erratic utterance from Trump, each act of aggressive cultural and territorial posturing, and with every slight to traditional allies, concern about Aukus intensifies among Labor ministers and backbenchers alike.
There also remains a simmering disquiet in the parliamentary party about the process – or lack of it – by which, after a two-hour briefing while in opposition in 2021 (absent of what might be considered requisite paperwork given the enormity of the decision), the shadow ministry signed up to Aukus and it became Labor policy without caucus support.
As Labor’s Kim Carr wrote in 2023: “Labor MPs were expected to leap into bipartisan support for the Aukus deal.”
A senior Labor figure describes the concern thus: “I haven’t spoken to anyone inside the Labor Party – that includes the [federal] parliamentary party. . . who’s been able to say they support it [Aukus] without qualification since Trump’s re-election and the subsequent madness. This was a policy born out of an acute caution of being seen to say anything critical of the US when [Joe] Biden was president and it has continued since, and now in an election, out of fear of being labelled weak on national security.”
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Increasingly Labor sources point to the possibility of some type of “reassessment or review” of Australia’s commitment to Aukus after the election if Labor is returned.
Indeed, party sources privately canvas the possibility that Labor’s capacity to form minority government with either the Greens or with some of the more generally likeminded teal independents would depend on some sort of re-evaluation of Aukus.
To quote another Labor figure: “Times have changed and any re-evaluation of the policy could be put in terms of ‘We can’t do this anymore with such an erratic, unstable ally’, rather than any admission that signing up to Aukus was a mistake in the first place.”
The drums of Labor dissent on Aukus are beating. They’ll get louder if Labor is returned on 3 May.
Meanwhile, come what may in the White House, a feckless bipartisan policy of supporting Aukus – along with an unquestioned, sanctified, US-Australia alliance – will continue together with the transparent gaslighting of the Australian public.
Instructively, it was barely a week ago that Albanese even invited Trump, though he’s not acting like a friend today, to visit Australia.
I can almost hear the shouting in the streets.
#friends #Trump #Aukus #ALP #members #demanding #answer #Paul #Daley
