Piers Akerman: A historic day looms in the US, but history will condemn Albanese government

While Donald Trump is making history, the Albanese government should be consigned to it so Australians can proudly lift their heads in the wider world, writes Piers Akerman.

The last US presidential inauguration I attended took place 44 years ago on a freezing Washington morning.

Ronald Reagan was being sworn in for his first presidential term.

I was seated next to his friend, the great actress Ginger Rogers, who thoughtfully spread her capacious mink coat over us both as we huddled outdoors on the National Mall.

I wish I could attend Donald Trump’s second inauguration this week to apologise for the presence of Australia’s two official representatives, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and ambassador Kevin Rudd.

Guts and gutlessness will be on full display during the ceremony which has been moved indoors as temperatures are expected to plummet to -6C on the Mall.

Donald Trump has cowed the Hamas barbarians into a deal in which hostages will be returned and a ceasefire will take effect. Picture: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP

Despite the ridicule heaped upon him by members of the Australian government – including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, former PM Rudd and Wong – Trump has achieved what they and their favoured candidate, the incompetent Joe Biden, failed to do.

Promising to deliver retribution on the murderous Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and its allies in Hezbollah and Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, has cowed the barbarians into a deal in which hostages will be returned and a ceasefire will take effect.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sided with the corrupt forces within the UN providing for its disgraced Palestinian welfare agency, UNRWA. Picture: Hilary Wardhaugh/AFP

Trump defied the United Nation’s cowardly and shameful embrace of the dishonest claim of equivalence between the only civilised democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and the barbaric inhumane terrorist regime that has ruled Gaza since 2006.

To the great shame of our nation, Albanese and Wong sided with the corrupt forces within the UN providing for its disgraced Palestinian welfare agency, UNRWA, and organised visas for Gazans fleeing their blighted territory without the benefit of thorough security checks.

Since the carnage of October 7, 2023, the Green-Left ALP government has done nothing to support Israel. Only now, as Trump returns to office, has an Australian minister, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, visited burnt-out sites in Israel where 6000 Hamas terrorists raped, tortured, murdered, looted and seized civilian hostages.

The Israelis will be fully aware of the hostility towards their country that is the hallmark of the Albanese government’s Middle East policy and which, in turn, has fuelled an unprecedented wave of vicious anti-Semitism in Australia.

Nor will members of Trump’s team be unaware of the government’s disgraceful treatment of Israel.

The lack of decisive action against terrorist supporters openly displaying Hamas and Hezbollah flags and slogans at the pro-Palestinian rallies is an indelible stain upon the federal and state governments.

Having Rudd and Wong attend Trump’s inauguration, and having Dreyfus visit Israel, will disgust most Australians.

Albanese is a disgrace.

Australians are bleeding. The soaring cost of living, led by increased power prices caused in part by the massive subsidies needed to build inefficient wind and solar factories and duplicate existing transmission networks, is smashing businesses and families. The Albanese government is on the wrong side of history.

Only when it is consigned to history will Australians be able to proudly, credibly, lift their heads in the wider world.

Originally published as Piers Akerman: A historic day looms in the US, but history will condemn Albanese government