Albanese doesn't want a bar of Middle East conflict, but that comes at a cost
Anthony Albanese's government looks more distant than ever from the Trump administration following the United States' decision to join Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.
On the face of it, nothing much has changed. Albanese, joined by Penny Wong, announced Australia's support for US strikes on Monday morning because 'the world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon and we support action to prevent that'.
But make no mistake, there are small but subtle shifts under way in the US-Australia relationship now that Donald Trump is back in the White House. The fact he has not met Albanese face to face surely has not helped.
Whatever you think about Trump – and a solid majority of Australians don't like him one bit – the US remains our major military and strategic partner. It is (probably) still selling us submarines under the AUKUS deal that the government views as crucial to Australia's self-defence.
So it matters when Albanese spoke curtly on Monday to point out three times that the US decision to bomb Iran was unilateral, all but confirming that Australia was not briefed ahead of time by the US. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, by contrast, got a heads-up.
Last week, when Albanese was asked if Australia could send a ship to the Middle East in support of the US, he gave a categorical 'no'. That answer made clear the prime minister's view of Australia's potential entanglement in the fight: he doesn't see a need for it in this age of 'progressive patriotism'.
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It was strange, then, that Albanese appeared almost annoyed in his press conference that he had been left out of the loop on the US decision to strike even as he confirmed that 'we aren't a central player in this conflict – that's just a fact.'
When the prime minister was asked for a third time why the federal government had waited 24 hours before expressing unequivocal support for the US bombing, he bit back, arguing 'we issued a statement' on Sunday within hours of the strikes.
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