Anthony Albanese won’t be drawn on prospective US-China war
ALBO’S BALANCING ACT
There’s a fair chance you’re aware of the location of the prime minister this week given the significant commentary and reporting over the weekend. As Anthony Albanese prepares for another day of talks and tricky questions in China, let’s grab that coffee and take a look at the latest this morning, shall we?
Fresh from trying to navigate questions over Taiwan and more demands from the Trump administration on defence guarantees (see The Commentariat below), Albanese will spend today at a roundtable of Australian iron ore producers and Chinese steelmakers in Shanghai, AAP reports. He will then deliver a speech to a high-level business lunch before flying to Beijing for the next leg of his six-day tour.
The newswire says the PM “will raise Australian concerns over Chinese steel dumping” as he urges industry leaders from Australia and China to work together to develop low-carbon steel production methods. The report highlights representatives from the likes of Rio Tinto, BHP, Fortescue and Hancock will be at the event.
“As both countries cooperate to advance decarbonisation, we also need to work together to address global excess steel capacity,” Albanese is expected to say at the roundtable this morning. “It is in both countries’ interests to ensure a sustainable and market-driven global steel sector.”
On the theme of improving and maintaining the relationship between Australia and China, Albanese is also expected to declare in his lunchtime speech: “Our job is to make sure that we manage our relationship so that we can contribute to regional and global peace and prosperity.”
Over the weekend, the prime minister “batted away” questions about fresh defence demands from the Trump administration and insisted Australia supports “the status quo” with regards to Taiwan, the ABC reports.
As you probably saw, The Financial Times on Saturday reported the Pentagon has been pressing Australia and Japan to “make clear what role they would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan, in an effort that has frustrated the two most important American allies in the Indo-Pacific”.
After the report was published in the UK newspaper, the US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, who has reportedly been pushing the issue in meetings with Australian and Japanese officials, wrote on X: “We at DOD [the Department of Defense] are focused on implementing the president’s America First, common sense agenda of restoring deterrence and achieving peace through strength”.
Colby, who you’ll recall is also undertaking the US review of the AUKUS alliance, said that agenda included “urging allies to step up their defence spending and other efforts related to our collective defence”, adding: “Of course, some among our allies might not welcome frank conversations. But many, now led by NATO after the historic Hague summit, are seeing the urgent need to step up and are doing so.”
The Australian Financial Review highlights in its write-up what Albanese said when pushed on Colby’s demands at the weekend: “We support the status quo when it comes to Taiwan. We don’t support any unilateral action there. What’s important when it comes to international relationships is that you have a stable, orderly, coherent position going forward … We want peace and security in our region,” the prime minister said.
“Our alliance with the US is a very important one for Australia, so we’ll continue to engage constructively in a coherent, stable, orderly way. Our aim of investing in our [military] capability, and as well as investing in our relationships, is about advancing peace and security in our region. That’s our objective, and that’s why we invest in our military.”
The ABC reports a US government source “said Australia had rejected overtures from US officials who suggested Australia should give specific assurances to the Trump administration about how they’d deploy Virginia-class submarines acquired through the AUKUS pact in the event of the US going to war”.
The Nine papers also quote an anonymous senior US defence official as saying America wanted to know how Australia would deploy nuclear-powered submarines in the event of a conflict.
“There seems to be a hyper-emphasis on Taiwan in public reporting. But this is broader than any one particular contingency. It is about how we can reasonably expect these kinds of critical assets to be allocated across different scenarios,” they said.
Appearing on ABC’s Insiders yesterday, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said Australia would not provide any advance guarantees of its support for the US in a future conflict, The Australian reports.
“The sole power to commit Australia to war, or to allow our territory to be used for conflict, is the elected government of the day. That is our position. Sovereignty will always be prioritised,” he said.
Elsewhere, AAP reports Albanese also witnessed Tourism Australia signing a deal with Chinese travel giant Trip.com on Sunday, while The Australian flags Albanese will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on his trip tomorrow.
CHILDREN KILLED COLLECTING WATER IN GAZA
Ten people, including six children, were killed in central Gaza by an Israeli air strike while waiting to fill up water containers, emergency service officials said on Sunday. The BBC quotes eyewitnesses as saying a drone fired at a crowd queuing next to a water tanker in Nuseirat refugee camp.
The British broadcaster adds: “The Israeli military said there had been a ‘technical error’ with a strike targeting an Islamic Jihad ‘terrorist’ that caused the munition to fall dozens of meters from the target.”
CNN reports the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday 139 bodies had been brought to Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours.
The article adds that talks are continuing in Doha over a new ceasefire deal, but optimism has faded over an agreement being quickly reached. To highlight that point, US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has said he’s meeting Qatari officials “on the sidelines of the Club World Cup football match in New Jersey”, CNN adds.
Over the past few days, 75,000 litres of fuel was allowed into Gaza — the first time in 130 days — which the United Nations said was “far from enough to meet the daily needs of the population and vital civilian aid operations”.
Over the weekend, nine UN agencies warned Gaza’s fuel shortage had reached “critical levels”, the BBC reports.
“Hospitals are already going dark, maternity, neonatal and intensive care units are failing, and ambulances can no longer move,” the United Nations said.
LABOR ADVISED TO RAISE TAXES
The ABC has published a report this morning revealing the Albanese government has been advised by Treasury that the budget cannot be fixed without raising taxes and cutting spending.
The government has apparently also been told that its 1.2 million new homes target would not be met.
“That declaration was one of several subheadings in a table of contents accidentally included in Treasury’s response to an ABC freedom of information (FOI) request,” the broadcaster states.
Headings and sub-headings from redacted sections of the Treasury’s “incoming government” briefing were mistakenly included when replying to the national broadcaster’s FOI request. Upon realising the mistake, Treasury asked for the document to be deleted, the ABC said.
“The ABC has decided to publish it because it provides a rare insight into how top advisers view the major economic and policy challenges facing the Albanese government as it begins its second term in power, and so is in the public interest,” the broadcaster explained.
In its advice, “improvements to the budget will need to come from economic growth, additional revenue and spending reductions” and “tax should be raised as part of broader tax reform”. Specific taxes were not mentioned.
In a separate piece, journalist Daniel Ziffer revealed it was only Treasury’s insistence that the document be deleted that made him realise he had the story.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Hundreds of people formed a human chain along Bourke Street in Melbourne’s CBD on Thursday to help a bookshop move locations.
Guardian Australia reports everyone from book lovers, children and local builders lined up to pass thousands of books to Hill of Content’s new premises. And when it rained, umbrellas also came out as the books were wrapped up in brown paper and passed along the chain.
“There are a fair number of people I know in the line, lots of loyal customers, we are so grateful they have supported us all those years,” Diana Johnson, who owns the shop with her husband Duncan, said.
“We couldn’t possibly close the shop down on our watch. It’s been in Melbourne literacy for over 103 years. So we decided we would continue it on.”
The human chain came about after Hill of Content put a call out on social media for help after being inspired by the Michigan town that also formed a human chain to move over 9,000 books (as covered in a previous Worm).
Say What?
When you get machines thinking for you, your brain just atrophies.
Irvine Welsh
The Scottish author is concerned we’re heading towards “a post-democratic, post-art, post-culture society” and that we will all “just become these dumbed down machines that are taking instructions”. A cheery thought for a Monday morning.
CRIKEY RECAP
Segal’s antisemitism plan would be the deepest intervention in Australian universities since Federation
Among the most amusing aspects of this farrago of wishful thinking is the touching faith Segal reserves for the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), the sector’s largely ineffectual regulator. TEQSA has done little to stop systemic wage theft from university teachers, arrest dramatic slides in teaching quality or address an epidemic of sexual assault on campuses. Yet somehow Segal believes the agency can “ensure that systemic action is taken to reverse a dangerous trajectory of normalised antisemitism in many university courses and campuses”.
This is the sort of thing someone might write if they knew very little about the way Australian higher education is actually regulated.
It’s hard to escape the authoritarian implications of this extraordinary proposal. The similarities to the actions of the Trump administration in the US are all too clear. In America, Donald Trump’s government has used vague and unsubstantiated allegations of antisemitism to withhold billions of dollars of funding from institutions like Harvard and Columbia. The impacts on US higher education have been profound.
So, will News Corp, Seven and other platforms for neo-Nazis and promoters of antisemitic theories be censored?
In the curious double standards of the antisemitism “debate” in Australia, the ABC publishing the views of people who have praised Hitler, denied the Holocaust or promoted antisemitic theories would lead to a sustained campaign from News Corp demanding sackings, funding cuts and abolition. The frequent appearance of antisemites and neo-Nazis in rightwing media outlets seems to fall under the rubric of “free speech” and is otherwise ignored.
In any event, Segal’s proposal would almost certainly see her “assisting” Sky News, Seven and The Spectator “to avoid accepting false or distorted narratives” by giving a voice to such blatant antisemites — and the government under pressure to give similar powers to an “Islamophobia envoy“.
One can only assume an angry campaign in support of free speech and against “cancel culture” is in the offing.
Kumanjayi Walker was killed by a racist cop. But our media and courts are more focused on white victims
In many ways, Justice Armitage’s findings were unsurprising to anyone who has been following this case. The community of Yuendumu have, since that horrific day, been consistent in stating that they believed racism was very much a factor in how Walker died, and indeed, in their experiences of policing in general in their community. They have been calling for change for a very long time, including requesting that police not carry guns in their community.
What’s more, after delivering a conciliatory speech at the 2024 Garma Festival, the then NT Police commissioner Michael Murphy (who I acknowledge has since resigned due to a mismanagement of a conflict of interest) was essentially set upon by the NT Police Association and ended up resigning his membership, so scared were they of undertaking even a modicum of introspection.
NT prisons are filled with Aboriginal people. Seven years ago, Aboriginal kids made up 100% of the detainees in juvenile detention, and that situation has not really changed for the better since. I will not forget watching the horrors enacted on Aboriginal children at Don Dale any time soon.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Antisemitism envoy distances herself from husband’s donation to right-wing lobby group (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Russia’s agents killed after intelligence officer shot dead, says Ukraine (BBC)
Trump is gutting weather science and reducing disaster response (The New York Times)
FEMA removed dozens of Camp Mystic buildings from 100-year flood map before expansion, records show (The Associated Press)
Blood and bravado: The Trump shooting upended an election and shook the US (The Guardian)
Sinner outclasses Alcaraz in final to claim maiden Wimbledon title (ABC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
China was the big disruptor in our region. Now the US is determined to take that title — Laura Tingle (ABC): But just as Australia is asserting that its national interests are different from those of both China and the US, it seems the United States may force us into a choice we don’t want to make.
Albanese was careful in his response to the Elbridge story, agreeing that there was some irony in the US expecting Australia to outline its position on an issue which the Americans have not done. And also insisting that Australia’s preference is for the status quo over Taiwan to continue.
Five years ago it seemed China was the big disruptor in our region. Now the United States appears determined to take that title for itself.
Why Albanese will stay vague on US-China war push — Andrew Tillett (AFR): But Pentagon China hawk Elbridge Colby’s pushing for clear commitments from Australia puts Anthony Albanese in a difficult position.
The government’s standard response publicly when asked whether it would pitch in to defend Taiwan is to brush off such questions as hypotheticals. Such an approach is the only way to avoid angering Beijing, especially as Albanese’s visit to China this week is meant to highlight the restoration and strength of Sino-Australian ties.
It is now obvious, though, this won’t cut it with Colby, the US under secretary of defense for policy. And it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that some more deft alliance management by Albanese is required.
