Anthony Albanese pays tribute to ‘father’ of Australia-US alliance

Anthony Albanese has trumpeted Australia’s independence in its relationship with the United States in a speech paying tribute to the wartime leadership of John Curtin.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers / Pool/NewsWire

Anthony Albanese has trumpeted Australia’s independence in its relationship with the United States in a speech paying tribute to the wartime leadership of John Curtin.

Amid growing concern about his relationship with Donald Trump, the looming tariff deadline and doubts about the future of the AUKUS submarine deal, Mr Albanese praised Curtin for giving Australia “the confidence and determination to think and act for ourselves”.

In his speech in Sydney on Saturday night, to mark 80 years since the death of the former Labor prime minister, Mr Albanese honoured Curtin as the founder of the Australia-US alliance.

Prime Minister John Curtin with Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of US President Franklin D Roosevelt, upon her arrival in Canberra in 1943

“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,” he said.

“Yet our alliance with the US ought to be remembered as a product of Curtin’s leadership in defence and foreign policy, not the extent of it.”

As WWII spread into the Pacific, Curtin recognised that Australia’s security could not be “outsourced to London” and foreign policy had to be “anchored in strategic reality, not bound by tradition”.

Mr Albanese praised Curtin’s decision to push back on Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt’s demands to deploy troops to Burma, now Myanmar, which would have resulted in the death or capture of “hundreds if not thousands of Australians”.

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

Ahead of an extended trip to China this month where he will have his fourth meeting with President Xi Jinping, Mr Albanese also championed “the rights and the role of middle powers and smaller nations”.

He said Labor was rebuilding Australia’s standing as a leader in the Pacific and “patiently and deliberately working to stabilise our relationship with China”.

Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio. Picture: Getty Images

The Prime Minister’s speech comes amid growing calls for him to do more to strengthen his relationship with the Trump administration, which is demanding Australia lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP.

Mr Albanese has had three phone calls with Mr Trump, but the pair have never met in person, with the President cancelling their talks at the G7 summit in Canada last month to deal with the Israel-Iran conflict.