Rudd’s future as US envoy up in the air under Coalition

Peter Dutton says he will reassess Kevin Rudd’s position as Australia’s ambassador to the US if the Coalition wins the upcoming federal election.

Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd meets with Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee in a photograph posted on February 16. Picture: X

Peter Dutton says he will reassess Kevin Rudd’s position as Australia’s ambassador to the US if the Coalition wins the upcoming federal election, and he is prepared to replace him if it becomes clear the Trump administration has “insurmountable” problems with him.

As Australia’s relationship with Donald Trump and his administration firms as an election issue, the Opposition Leader declared the Coalition was better placed than Labor to do a deal to avoid the President’s tariff blitz.

He told Sky News he was surprised Anthony Albanese had not jumped on a plane to Washington to personally seek a tariff exemption from Mr Trump – an option that remains on the table after the President told the Prime Minister last week he would consider a carve-out for Australia.

Mr Dutton said his “instinct” was to keep Dr Rudd in Washington, but he would make a judgment call on the issue if and when he was elected.

“If he’s the best person for the job he should stay in the job. But if it turns out he has no access to the White House and no real influence … you would have to reassess his position,” Mr Dutton said.

“If there are insurmountable problems that he has, or the administration has with him, then that would make it difficult.”

Mr Rudd – who was prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and again for a few months in 2013 – has been praised by both sides of politics in Australia for his energetic diplomacy in the US capital, and is said to have good rel­ationships with key congressional Republicans.

But he has been dogged by his past attacks on Mr Trump as a “village idiot”, the “most destructive president in history”, and a “traitor to the West”.

Mr Trump hit back, calling Mr Rudd “nasty” and “not the brightest bulb”. But there has been no sign in the months since that the Trump administration will seek to have Australia’s envoy replaced.

The Prime Minister, who said in 2017 that Mr Trump “scares the shit out of me”, was buoyed after his 40-minute phone call with Mr Trump last week – his second since the US election.

Following the call, Mr Trump described Mr Albanese as “a very fine man” and said he would consider exempting Australia from his 25 per cent steel and aluminium tariff hikes.

But Mr Trump’s senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, soon afterwards accused Australia of flooding the American market with aluminium and being too close with China, tempering hopes of an exemption.

Mr Dutton said if the Coalition won the election it would “engage very quickly with the Trump administration, stand up for what is in our country’s best interests, and get a deal for Australia that’s going to create jobs and economic wealth”.

“We’ve already got, obviously, a number of contacts within the Trump administration,” he said.

“Some of those friendships are longstanding, and we will be the best party to have a productive, constructive relationship with the United States.”

But while he anticipated good relations with the Trump administration, he said he was not about to start taking policy ideas from the Trump playbook, preferring that of John Howard.

He said rather than tariffs he believed in a free market, and did not believe there were just two sexes like Mr Trump.

“I’ve been clear in relation to there being two sexes and a group of people obviously outside of male and female, a small group, but nonetheless important to recognise, who are intersex or indeterminate,” he said.

“I’m in the Howard mould of not being interested in what’s happening in people’s bedrooms.”