This isn’t policy, it’s cowardice dressed as diplomacy
In truth, it is no longer even a serious country. There was a time not long ago, in historical terms, when Australia understood the stakes of civilisation. When it fought not for territory or dominion but for values.
There was a time not long ago, in historical terms, when Australia understood the stakes of civilisation. When it fought not for territory or dominion but for values. Australians died at Gallipoli beside the British, not out of geographic necessity but because they knew instinctively that Western civilisation was worth defending. They stormed Normandy, held the line in Korea, endured Vietnam and Afghanistan because freedom is not a default setting but a prize maintained by those with the courage to act.
Yet today we see the country that once stood firm now bend with disturbing ease.
In recent months Australia has engaged in the sort of foreign policy that would make a mid-tier EU bureaucrat blush. It sanctions Israeli officials while Hamas digs tunnels under kindergartens. It lectures Jerusalem on restraint while Iran perfects its centrifuges. And it boasts of resettling Palestinians in numbers that suggest some bizarre form of moral reparations, as though absorbing a population steeped in Hamas propaganda were a substitute for strategic clarity.
This isn’t policy. It’s posturing. And worse, it’s cowardice dressed in the robes of diplomacy.
At the helm of this slow-motion retreat are Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong, a pair who appear to believe Australia’s international role is to apologise on behalf of the civilised world, while never quite saying for whom.
When Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a bold, necessary strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, the US stood by the principle of deterrence. Britain recognised a nation’s right to self-defence. And Australia? Australia winced. Its leaders found the courage to condemn not Iran’s pursuit of genocide but Israel’s refusal to be exterminated quietly.
This is not neutrality. It is betrayal by omission.
AUKUS, we were told, was a declaration of resolve. A commitment to standing firm against Beijing’s ambitions. But what is the point of nuclear-powered submarines if the political class has already sunk beneath the waves?
Wong recites from the UN hymnbook of “international norms”, while Albanese mumbles about “independent foreign policy”. Translation: they are too frightened to choose a side – except, of course, when it comes to denouncing the only democracy in the Middle East.
And so, a nation that once contributed blood and steel to the preservation of the West now offers only minerals. We sell lithium to the Chinese Communist Party by day, and by night beg Washington for protection from the monster we feed.
This is not sovereignty. It is serfdom with delusions of grandeur. And history will not forget it. It will not forget that when Israel faced annihilation, Canberra chose caution over clarity. It will remember that when the world needed allies, Australia offered ambiguity. That when the West needed strength, it got a sermon from Wong.
Australia has become the whimpering cousin at the family table of civilisation, reaping the benefits of bravery long past while resenting those who still bear the burden of action.
If AUKUS is to mean anything, if the Western alliance is more than a hollow phrase, then we must ask the obvious question: is Australia still a worthy ally?
Right now, the answer is as painful as it is plain.
No.
This article first appeared in The Times of Israel. Shannon Cummings is a Jerusalem-based political strategist and commentator originally from Sydney.
Let us cast off the illusions. Australia is no longer a reliable ally. In truth, it is no longer even a serious country.