Caroline Kennedy calls for ‘AUKUS visa’ as Canberra braces for election result
By Matthew Knott
United States ambassador Caroline Kennedy has called for the creation of a special AUKUS visa to ensure Australia can achieve its plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, as senior ministers insisted the US-Australia alliance will be in good shape regardless of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the presidency.
As video emerged of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying in 2017 that Trump “scares the s--t out of me”, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley accused Labor of hoping for a Harris victory when the election results are revealed on Wednesday [AEDT].
Federal politicians and policymakers were anxiously awaiting the results of the US election, with Trump widely seen as a more volatile and unpredictable contender compared to Harris, who is expected to continue the thrust of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy.
US ambassador Caroline Kennedy called for the creation of a special AUKUS visa.Credit: Grant Ellis
The Albanese government is insisting that Kevin Rudd will remain Australia’s top diplomat in Washington even though the former prime minister made remarks strongly critical of Trump before taking up his posting.
Pointing to the difficulties involved in the ambitious nuclear-powered submarine project, Kennedy told a Submarine Institute of Australia conference in Canberra the three nations in the alliance needed faster, easier ways for work to proceed.
“We need new ideas to make this possible, and an AUKUS visa is one way to move this along,” she said.
Such a visa could allow defence industry workers in Australia, the US and United Kingdom to easily move between the three nations to work on submarines and advanced military technologies covered by the so-called “pillar II” of AUKUS.
Asked whether he backed Kennedy’s idea, Defence Minister Richard Marles said: “We are working with the governments of the US and the UK to look at how that can be done.”
Kennedy, a close ally of Biden, has said she will step down from her role in January regardless of the election outcome.
Marles pointed to backers across the political divide in the US Congress to support his view that AUKUS will survive either a Trump or Harris victory, saying that “we do have a sense of confidence that going forward this is a program that will be supported in the United States, as it will in the UK, as it will here”.
Ley told the Coalition party room that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had made clear he “would look forward to working with the US administration of any colour”.
“By comparison, the Labor Party and its affiliates and supporters are leaning into the Democrats and publicly doing so, and we can all contemplate what that might mean for future relations with a future US government,” she said.
The Coalition seized upon a video of Albanese criticising Trump at a musical festival in 2017 to ask if the prime minister could work effectively with the former president.
“He [Mr Trump] scares the s--t out of me … and I think it’s of some concern the leader of the free world thinks that you can conduct politics through 140 characters on Twitter overnight,” Albanese told a Q&A at the Splendour in the Grass music festival.
Marles said Albanese had shown “that he is capable of working with anyone” and that the “alliance will be in good shape” regardless of who wins the election, adding that Rudd would be able to prosecute Australia’s interests with either a Trump or Harris administration.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the US-Australia relationship “is bigger than the events of the day” and is “shaped by enduring friendship and timeless values”.
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