Opinion: Malcolm Turnbull intervention on tariffs unhelpful during delicate time
It is incredibly poor timing that two of the biggest egos from both sides of the Pacific have decided to get into a slanging match amid delicate negotiations with the US over tariff exemptions.
Opinion
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It is incredibly poor timing that two of the biggest egos from both sides of the Pacific have decided to get into a slanging match just as Australia attempts to convince the US to exempt us from the tariffs it is levying on much of the world.
Yet here we are.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has undoubtably suffered from relevance deprivation syndrome since he was rolled by Scott Morrison in 2018.
But surely he didn’t expect the reaction a few relatively tame quotes in some interviews about US President Donald Trump would have provoked.
In one interview he described Mr Trump as “very transactional” – hardly an original comment, and in fact one that the President’s supporters often echo.
“Mr Trump is deliberately unpredictable, that’s his style,” Mr Turnbull said, before adding about our military alliance: “We cannot assume that the US would come to our aid.”
Again, given current the state of the NATO alliance and America’s apparent abandonment of Ukraine, this was hardly earth-shattering stuff.
In another interview, this time with Bloomberg TV, Mr Turnbull suggested that nations would start to see China as a more stable partner than the US: “Trump seems to have a view that America can prosper at the expense of everybody else.”
How Mr Trump learnt of the comments is unknown (perhaps he has “Malcolm Turnbull” on Google Alerts), but he fired back in a late night post on his Truth Social site.
“Malcolm Turnbull, the former prime minister of Australia who was always leading that wonderful country from ‘behind’, never understood what was going on in China, nor did he have the capacity to do so,” Mr Trump wrote.
“I always thought he was a weak and ineffective leader and, obviously, Australian’s (sic) agreed with me.”
While we will forgive Mr Trump for failing to appreciate that it was Mr Turnbull’s own party, rather than the Australian people, who voted Mr Turnbull out, the reply was just another example of his famously thin skin.
This was of course followed by Mr Turnbull demonstrating his own famously thin skin, rushing to the ABC to explain that people were “deluding themselves about Trump”.
When it was suggested that perhaps as a former prime minister he should perhaps be more cautious during delicate tariff negotiations, Mr Turnbull bristled.
“Has the ABC become so pusillanimous that you’re seriously suggesting that we shouldn’t be free to speak the truth in Australia, for fear of Donald Trump?”
While it’s very easy to sit on the sidelines and speak about standing up to bullies, in practice it can be very different – as Mr Turnbull himself should know.
Perhaps he felt humiliated when he donned a tuxedo in 2017 and said to Mr Trump “we thank you sir” after negotiating tariff exemptions in the President’s first term.
More likely he was happy to swallow his pride and do as prime minister what he needed to do to get the best result for Australia, as the Albanese government is attempting to do at the moment.
If the negotiations do fall over, it probably won’t have been because of Mr Turnbull’s
11th-hour intervention. But this pointless sideshow certainly will not have helped.
And while Australians would be within their rights to be appalled by Mr Trump’s treatment of America’s most loyal ally, many would agree with him on one thing – Malcolm Turnbull turned out to be a reasonably ineffective leader.
Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details are available at www.couriermail.com.au/help/contact-us
Originally published as Opinion: Malcolm Turnbull intervention on tariffs unhelpful during delicate time
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