In the second on our Rethinking Foreign Policy series Kym Davey says Labor’s foreign policy platform is out of step with current realities – clinging to US alliance settings while ignoring its own commitment to self-reliance and the opportunities of the Asia-Pacific.

In July the Australian Labor Party will hold its 50th National Conference in Adelaide. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles will be expecting a tame, media friendly and lifeless event. Their objective will be to administer a strong dose of policy futility to Labor’s delegates and supporters.

By contrast, the efforts of delegates will be critical to Australia’s future on an issue that most voters are allowed to ignore – Australia’s foreign policy. Central to those concerns is the absurdity of Labor’s international relations. At Chapter 7, Australia’s Place in a Changing World, three clauses standout in the current 2023 platform. The first describes the United States as Australia’s “enduring partner” and asserts that America is our closest security ally “formalised through the ANZUS Treaty”.

Only fools and the uninformed would consider the US an “enduring partner” in the Trump era. Displaying his malignant narcissism, Trump’s cowardly bombing campaign and his threat to obliterate the entire civilisation of 93 million Iranian people leaves America now accused of waging aggressive war. This is the “supreme international crime” condemned by the judgement of Nazis at Nuremberg in 1946. Those proceedings bequeathed the rules based order that Labor leaders love to cite.

In this age of fickle alliances, Labor continues to emphasise the security of ANZUS. The NZUS component lapsed in 1986 over the issue of non-declared US nuclear armed ships visiting New Zealand ports. It has been reworked as a bilateral defence and security agreement only. But Australia still clings to the 1951 agreement, although it merely requires consultation between the US and Australia in the event of a foreign act of aggression.

As the war in Ukraine and the treatment........

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