Albanese declares Australia ‘not shackled to the past’ in pointed speech on US alliance

Anthony Albanese has hinted at a growing disconnect with the US in a landmark speech observers say will annoy the Trump administration at a critical juncture.

Anthony Albanese has hinted at a growing disconnect with the United States in a landmark speech observers say will annoy the Trump administration at a critical time in the strategic partnership.

The Prime Minister delivered a keynote speech in Sydney on Saturday night paying homage John Curtin on the 80th anniversary of the former Labor PM’s death, pointedly declaring that Australia would pursue its interests as a “sovereign nation” and not be “shackled to the past”.

“The great creative tension of Australian Labor is that while we love our history, we are not hostages to it,” Mr Albanese told the audience at the John Curtin Research Centre.

“We are links in a long chain — but we are not shackled to our past. We draw from it, we build on it and we learn from it.”

Mr Albanese described Mr Curtin as not just the leader who founded Australia’s long-held alliance with the US, but one who stood up against allied super powers, in pointed comments amid concerns over Australia’s relationship with America.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

“Undoubtedly, Albanese is sending a message to Washington and the Trump administration that Australia is ultimately in control of its own destiny,” Professor James Curran of University of Sydney told 9News.

“Here we are talking about the opportunity to run a more independent course from Washington. I’d say this will ruffle feathers of Uncle Sam.”

Prof Curran previously noted it was “easily the most significant” speech Mr Albanese had delivered in office.

The Australian’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan wrote in a Sunday op-ed that Mr Albanese had “achieved something astonishing for an Australian Prime Minister, only ever accomplished once before”.

“He now knows, relates to and benefits from the leadership of the People’s Republic of China much better than he knows the leadership of the United States of America,” he wrote.

“The Prime Minister is about to embark on an extended trip to China, where he will have his fourth meeting with President Xi Jinping.

“By contrast, he has never met Donald Trump, who served as president for four years from 2016 and who was elected president again more than eight months ago.

“Albanese finds political comfort in Beijing and apparently political terror in Washington.”

In his speech, the PM noted Mr Curtin’s decision to stand up to the US and the United Kingdom, then led by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, in his decision not to send Australian troops to then Burma, now Myanmar, in what would have been days before it fell to the Japanese.

“Hundreds if not thousands of Australians would have been killed, or taken prisoner,” Mr Albanese said.

“It would have been a disaster every bit as crushing to national morale as the fall of Singapore.”

Mr Curtin’s leadership from 1941 to 1945 lasted during the Pacific War and the bombing of Darwin and Broome by the Japanese.

He died while in office, before peace was declared.

John Curtin served as PM from 1941 until 1945. Picture: National Library of Australia

“John Curtin is rightly honoured as the founder of Australia’s alliance with the United States,” Mr Albanese said.

“A pillar of our foreign policy. Our most important defence and security partnership. And a relationship that commands bipartisan support, respect and affection in both our nations.”

But Mr Albanese said the Australian-US alliance “ought to be remembered as a product of Curtin’s leadership in defence and foreign policy, not the extent of it”.

Instead, Mr Curtin had the “confidence and determination to think and act for ourselves”.

“Because Curtin’s famous statement that Australia ‘looked to America’ was much more than the idea of trading one strategic guarantor for another,” he said.

“Or swapping an alliance with the old world for one with the new. It was a recognition that Australia’s fate would be decided in our region. It followed the decision Curtin had made in 1941 that Australia would issue its own declaration of war with Japan. Speaking for ourselves, as a sovereign nation.”

Mr Albanese added “we remember Curtin not just because he looked to America … we honour him because he spoke for Australia”.

“For Australia and for Labor, that independence has never meant isolationism,” he said.

“Choosing our own way, doesn’t mean going it alone.”

Mr Albanese highlighted the “rights and the role of middle powers and smaller nations” and spoke of the importance of collective responsibility in the Indo-Pacific, despite fears of China’s increasing aggression in the area.

Ensuring that the “sovereignty of every nation is respected and the dignity of every individual is upheld” was another priority, he said.

The PM said his government would continue to rebuild Australia “standing as a leader and partner in the Pacific”, deepen economic engagement in South East Asia, while “patiently and deliberately working to stabilise our relationship with China”.

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. Picture: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Despite touting initiatives to enhance co-operation with Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and India, Mr Albanese made no mention of the AUKUS agreement.

His remarks come as the Albanese government is under pressure by the Trump administration to amp up defence spending to 3.5 per cent, comes amid concerns of fragile global stability and claims from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that China would imminently invade Taiwan.

Mr Albanese has frequently rejected US pressure to amp up defence spending, stating that investment will be calculated according to Australia’s needs.

Labor is also under pressure to negotiate a tariff carveout, however on Friday he said he believed the levy applied to non steel and aluminium imports would remain at 10 per cent after President Trump’s July 9 deadline.

Hudson Institute senior fellow John Lee told The Australian that Mr Albanese “calling for a more independent foreign policy would be understandable and credible if we are prepared to spend more to meet our defence needs rather than rely as much on American capacity, technology and presence as we currently do”.

“It does not appear that the Albanese government is prepared to do that,” Dr Lee said. “Therefore, if Albanese is really serious about a strategic divergence away from the US, this will leave Australia more isolated and vulnerable.”

Dr Lee added that if Mr Albanese’s speech was intended more for domestic political consumption it would “nevertheless add further weight to the suspicion in the White House that the Albanese government is not taking its own agreed strategic assessments about a worsening environment seriously”.

The Pentagon is currently undertaking a snap 30-day review of AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership between the US, UK and Australia announced in September 2021.

Dr Lee said Mr Albanese’s speech would be “likely to affect how the White House responds to the findings of the AUKUS review” and the White House response would be more “influenced by assessments of Australian intent and willingness to pull its weight”.

“Bear in mind that Australia has become an outlier,” he said.

“The NATO countries (with the exception of Spain), and the Asian allies have all increased spending on defence and put more emphasis on the importance of their alliance with the US.”

— with NCA NewsWire

Originally published as Albanese declares Australia ‘not shackled to the past’ in pointed speech on US alliance