Strategic value as Albanese steps up in global forums

As Anthony Albanese returns to domestic political reality on Monday, he is correct to defend his decision to travel overseas for a week of the voice referendum campaign. The business of government needs to continue and, amid a challenging strategic and economic climate, Australia must take its place at the table in international discussions. In between ASEAN and the G20, and on the sidelines, the Prime Minister addressed bilateral issues vital to the national interest. After meeting Chinese Premier Li Qiang he confirmed he would travel to Beijing by the end of the year. On the sidelines of the G20 he urged French President Emmanuel Macron and EU commissioner Ursula von der Leyen to finalise a free-trade agreement with Australia, amid a stalemate in negotiations due to upcoming European elections. And while indicating that Australia would begin to wind back its fossil fuel exports in favour of renewables and critical minerals vital to the green energy sector, pragmatism prevailed in his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Mr Albanese assured Japan that Australia would remain a reliable exporter of fossil fuels, emphasising that “gas will play an important role in stabilising energy grids, as we move to more use of renewables”.

En route to the G20, Mr Albanese’s well-timed trip to The Philippines was the first bilateral visit by an Australian prime minister for 20 years. As Ben Packham wrote, the elevation of the relationship with The Philippines has been on the cards since it kicked out its erratic former leader, Rodrigo Duterte, whose “shoot first, ask questions later” war on drugs killed more than 12,000 people. Mr Duterte also cosied up to China and Russia, shifting away from the country’s traditional ally, the US. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, elected last year, is recasting Filipino foreign policy, seeking closer ties with democracies and reasserting The Philippines’ claim to the Spratly Islands’ Second Thomas Shoal.

A closer relationship between Australia and The Philippines makes sense, economically and strategically. Mr Albanese said both nations have a “collective responsibility for security”, including “support for the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”. Last month, Chinese troops used water cannons to block attempts by The Philippines to resupply its troops guarding a shoal in the sea that Beijing has tried to claim as its own.

When Mr Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles face question time, the opposition must press them on the government’s decision to keep the White House in the dark until the 11th hour over its decision to cut a $1.2bn NASA-backed satellite program. Drawing on emails and briefing documents released under Freedom of Information, Geoff Chambers reported on Saturday that advisers to Industry Minister Ed Husic told ­embassy officials in Washington that Mr Husic and the Prime Minister’s office did not want the Biden administration and NASA to know about the terminated program until hours before it was announced on June 29. The funding was secretly axed in the May 9 budget, 11 days before Mr Albanese and Joe Biden met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan and endorsed “reaching new frontiers in space’’. The investment is far smaller, but the government’s delay in informing the nation’s most important ally has sparked memories of Labor’s scathing criticisms, in opposition, of the Morrison government for not telling France earlier about the decision to scrap the French submarine deal in favour of the AUKUS agreement.

Peter Dutton, sensibly, has backed Mr Albanese’s upcoming visit to China. The visit will test the willingness of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party to release Australian hostages, journalist Cheng Lei and academic Yang Hengjun, who have been imprisoned under terrible conditions for years, and to return to a trade relationship free from coercion.