Tom Minear: Why Dutton’s Trump response must be Australia First

After weeks of criticising Kevin Rudd, Peter Dutton pivoted to back Anthony Albanese in the face of Trump’s tariffs. Tom Minear argues he changed tack for an important reason.

Amid all the fuss about how Anthony Albanese is handling Donald Trump, it is important to be clear-eyed about one thing: should the President’s policies harm Australia, that will be the fault of no one but Mr Trump.

For all his flaws, the Prime Minister cannot be held accountable for the actions of a foreign leader, especially one so determined to upend the rules-based order upon which we rely.

Last week, as Australia faced the prospect of tariffs on its aluminium and steel exports to the US, Peter Dutton came to realise such a unified response was not only right, but that it would be popular.

Peter Dutton took aim at Donald Trump over tariffs on aluminium and steel exports.

Indeed, the Opposition leader went even harder than Mr Albanese, declaring Mr Trump’s tariffs would “damage the relationship” between the US and Australia.

This was something of a surprise. Since Mr Trump’s election victory, Mr Dutton and his MPs had regularly sought to undermine the government’s dealings with the incoming administration by drawing attention to negative comments made in the past by Labor MPs – as well as Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd – about Mr Trump.

While Mr Dutton stopped short of calling for Dr Rudd to go, others were not so shy. Their concerns were not unreasonable, given hints from Mr Trump’s allies that the ambassador could be frozen out. On the other hand, by fuelling this fire, the Opposition ignored the principle that a foreign government should not be allowed to dictate our representation.

Dr Rudd would evidently not be Mr Dutton’s choice to serve in Washington DC. Nevertheless, there is no evidence so far to indicate Australia’s interests have suffered with the former PM as our ambassador.

Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd.

On the contrary, Australia is the only country for which the President has offered to consider an exemption from his metal tariffs.

The biggest obstacle to that, ironically, is a comment from the former Coalition government rather than the current Labor government, namely a verbal commitment on limiting Australian aluminium exports which Mr Trump’s trade adviser claims has been breached.

In changing tack, perhaps Mr Dutton had been paying attention to Canada, a US ally under far more pressure from Mr Trump with threats of universal tariffs and even annexation.

Like Australia, Canada has an election soon. And while it once looked like a sure thing for Trump-inspired Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, he is slipping in the polls. His response to the President’s “America First” campaign is “Canada First”. Australians expect the same.

Originally published as Tom Minear: Why Dutton’s Trump response must be Australia First