So says The Australian:
The bipartisan consensus towards Australia’s 65-year alliance with America is at risk of fracturing after a political row erupted over the strategic response to Donald Trump’s victory in the polarising US presidential race.
Malcolm Turnbull accused Labor yesterday of using Mr Trump’s win to try to weaken ties with the US and pave the way for an exit from the ANZUS alliance after opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong made the case for a switch in priorities from the US to Asia.
The Prime Minister seized on the repositioning to argue that Labor was threatening relations with Australia’s “strongest, most important, most trusted, enduring ally” and placing national security at risk.
In an appeal to Australian strategic interests and values, Senator Wong argued in an opinion piece in Fairfax newspapers that Mr Trump’s campaign rhetoric ran counter to the views of most Australians and embraced positions that did not align with our interests in the Asia-Pacific.
…“What Penny Wong is doing is sending the message from the Left of the Labor Party, which has always been uncomfortable with the US alliance,” Mr Turnbull said in Canberra. “The Labor Party is divided on that point.
“You have Penny Wong going in one direction, wanting to move away from our strongest, most important, most trusted, most enduring ally, wanting to move away — put our nation’s security at risk — and then, on the other hand, you have the Right of the party trying to crab-walk back to where she’s gone.”
Paul Kelly gets it half right:
The battle in Australia over the US alliance under Donald Trump has now begun. It will become a high-risk project for Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull with a certain loser. The alliance itself has been cast into uncertainty with a distinct break in its bipartisanship.
The Labor Party’s decision to criticise and distance itself from Trump is an unwise and premature eruption. It is filled with domestic and foreign policy consequences. With Trump having cast grave doubt on the US alliance system in Asia during the campaign — but exempting Australia from the slightest criticism — it is Labor, not Trump, who now initiates a reappraisal implying a scaling down in the alliance.
…Turnbull’s assault on Labor was predictable and sharp yet dangerous. As Prime Minister, Turnbull has a national responsibility in maintaining US ties under a Trump administration, and has slammed Labor for risking national security. But this locks Turnbull close to Trump. He has no choice, but that is a dangerous place to be.
Don’t be absurd, Paul. It is natural that Australians debate their role in the alliance post-Trump. A reasoned outcome would suggest that even though The Donald is socially obnoxious and economically dubious, he shares greater values and interests with Australia than the alternative partner in China, the region’s most obvious authoritarian regime.
That we can’t have a reasoned debate without it being sundered by false binaries is our real problem.
