As we all know by now, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese didn’t get his ‘sideline’ meeting with US President Trump at the recent G7 meeting in Canada. The media and opposition talking points were awash with speculation that Albanese might get a meeting, then it was confirmed and then Trump left the G7 early, which apparently was a deliberate snub to Albanese, ‘Sky after dark’s’ Andrew Bolt
blasted Mr Albanese’s public snubbing at the G7 summit and claimed the lack of discussions could be a “disaster” for Australia.
“Humiliation for a Prime Minister, who has no personal connection with US President Donald Trump, who has rejected Trump’s demands for more defence spending and, big surprise, now gets treated like dirt”.
Defence and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles is attending a NATO meeting in Europe as Australia’s representative in the next week. The opposition and media are telling us that Trump might also be going to the meeting, so Albanese should be there just in case. The same people that were accusing Albanese of being ‘Airbus Albo’ two years ago, claiming he was losing touch with Australians are now telling him he should get on the plane and fly to Europe to potentially meet with Trump, assuming Trump even attends the NATO meeting. While a couple of years is a long time in politics, does the opposition believe Albanese should be in the country or travelling around the world to chance upon a meeting with the increasing unpredictable and unreliable US President? Australia (and Canada) are both exploring the potential of a defence pact with the EU, logically our Defence Minister should be there.
Have the coalition and parts of the media explained to us why it is so important that Albanese and Trump physically meet up? The answer is not really. There have been various discussions about Albanese personally discussing with Trump how barriers to free trade might hurt Australia, or discussing the future of the AUKUS submarine program but there has been nothing provided that suggests that life in Australia will be measurably better the instant Trump and Albanese shake hands. Don’t forget that the same coalition when last in government couldn’t get even a phone call with the leaders of China – a country that is closer, larger, has a lot more weapons at its disposal and with a significantly greater trading relationship than we have with the USA.
The whole Albanese-Trump meeting speculation is like a ‘strawman’ argument put up by the coalition and parts of the media that Albanese will never ‘win’. The position is that somehow Albanese will be able to change Trump’s mindset if they speak, and every time that there is a ‘missed opportunity’ for them to speak it is a failure on Albanese’s part. For better or worse, Albanese cannot control Trump’s movements or actions and as such he can’t be judged on them.
Its a similar case with the current discussions around tax reform in Australia. While Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced that the tax rate on Superannuation balances over $3million is likely to change pending the approval of legislation that will be presented to Parliament next month, he is also refusing to rule in or out what else he is thinking about. Chalmers has announced he will be convening a taxation summit later in the year and there are a lot of challenges with funding the standard of living that Australians expect. The opposition and media are asking questions on a range of potential changes as they should, but expecting a definitive answer to a future policy is somewhat unrealistic. The problem is the form of the question – once again the questioner is setting a up a strawman type argument. If Chalmers was to agree to rule something out and subsequent policy work determined the measure would be highly beneficial, Chalmers either has to discount it anyway or suffer considerable adverse publicity for ‘breaking a promise’, reducing further Australians trust in the political system.
Really we should question our media and politicians to a far greater extent than we do now. Why is it so important for Albanese to meet Trump? Why should Chalmers be ruling things in or out before they have been considered properly? We all get a chance to determine who we think should be the government every three years – it’s called an election. By law we all have to list our preferred option and then rank the remaining candidates from next best to least preferred. When we elect a government, we are putting our trust in their ability to manage the things that matter most to us, regardless of what happens locally or globally. If the majority of us believe they can’t, they are removed from power. Putting impossible challenge up and then criticising people for not meeting them is not only pointless, it crowds out genuine criticism of the government of the day when they truly do stuff it up.
Next time someone suggests that Albanese needs to meet Trump, Chalmers should rule taxation changes in or out on the spot, or someone sets an impossible challenge to any level of government – before joining the pile on – ask why is there a need for the challenge to be met.
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A. Bolt was mentioned, who, along with the orange orifice is a relentless dick polisher, and represents the ratbag right of local media, mentally challenged, a bludging dropout. From a vague background of European fascist cultural error, Bolt remains irreversibly idiotic, casually stupid in bold assertion, a Merde Dog misfit itchydog scribbler. We are cursed here, in media profiteering and inadequacy, unfit and often dishonest.
The slime laden right wing sleaze meedja and rabid LNP pollies neglected to mention, as usual, the truth that Albo was one of a number of sideline leaders that The Dumpster ignored when he pissed off back to the US in a childish huff to go with their Rupert inspired bullshit that the PM was weak and wishy-washy.
Trump ticks every box as a dangerously undemocratic fascist; an arrogant self-promoting narcissist who won’t be happy until he starts Word War 3 for no other valid reason than “just because I can!”
Not only is Trump a shameless, recidivist misogynistic predator with a long-standing, total disrespect for women and has, indeed, proven himself to be a vindictive, mentally unhinged, power-obsessed, egotistical tyrant, he is an unapologetic CONVICTED CRIMINAL with ZERO regard for America’s (once) close allies such as Australia, Canada, the UK and other nations throughout Europe! Trump’s disrespectful, contemptuous snub of Australia’s Prime Minister is a RED FLAG WARNING as to Trump’s vindictive nature and (undeserved) arrogance against any leader who refuses to “toe the line” or jump to attention and/or refusal to submit to Trump’s irrational demands that are tainted with Trump’s self-serving, narcissistic and insular view of the world. Trump is mad, bad and very dangerous to everything intelligent, compassionate American and Australian citizens value. Trump has PROVEN himself to be an irrational, attention-seeking tantrum-throwing intellectual midget who is fully prepared to destroy everything in his playpen (ie the close relationship and respect that American allies ONCE had for America which, tragically, Trump has now negatively impacted for the long term) in order to enforce his ultimate ambition: “It’s either MY way or the highway!”.
If there was EVER an insane, erratic, truly dangerous and totally vacuous political psychopath willing to annihilate everything and everyone who stands in his path to absolute psychotic power, Trump is it! As such, it is absolutely IMPERATIVE that Albanese (and other Australian political leaders) now distance our nation from this irrational sociopath (Trump) and NEVER EVER allow Australia to get involved in another one of America’s dirty little wars again! If the Vietnamese, Iraqi and Syrian wars have taught us ANYTHING, it is that America can be compared to a big schoolyard bully willing to lord it over smaller nations (including Australia) in order to get what they want and they don’t care how LOW they have to stoop to get it! Australia must NEVER forget that during WW2, America was quite prepared to allow Hitler to invade Europe and do NOTHING! Hitler was terrorising Europe for nearly 2-1/2 years before the United States entered World War II … and the ONLY reason the United States officially entered the war on December 11, 1941, was because the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Indeed, America stood by, watched and DID NOTHING to assist Australia (supposedly an ally) whilst the Japanese army marched down the Malay peninsular and reached Darwin! Despite this treacherous betrayal of Australia by a disloyal and ungrateful America during WW2, the Australian government (the LNP at the time who proved themselves to be crawling American sycophants) were willing to later sacrifice the lives of countless Australian soldiers during the American-led wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and its illegal invasion of Iraq and Syria!
If the Australian government is foolish enough to align our nation with the treacherous, thoroughly disloyal, serial adulterer: Donald Trump, we are supporting a dangerously undemocratic, backstabbing psychopath who not only maintains a condescending contempt for Australia – and other nations that America ONCE considered allies – but are supporting a dangerous, self-serving and inherently corrupt tyrant with ZERO moral fibre who has neither the compassion nor intelligence to control his stratospheric, egotistical megalomania and thinly-disguised, born-to-rule fascism!