The Canadian government may be walking on eggshells trying to maintain cordial relations with the new American government, but Paul Keating thinks Australia needs a different strategy. He called for a new attitude to Australian foreign policy in the circumstances created by the Trump administration:
The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has called for a “more independent, balanced foreign policy”, particularly towards China and Indonesia, following the election of Donald Trump as US president.
Keating said Trump had signalled that he was a “big power guy” with little regard for alliances. Australia should take the hint that it was on its own and develop an independent policy rather than regarding the alliance with religious reverence, he said.He did not hold back on American society generally
The former Labor leader said that Australia boasted a “better society” than the US, citing greater equality and fairness, growth in incomes, universal healthcare, retirement income system and gun laws. “We don’t shoot our children in schools...."Keating's longtime political ally Gareth Evans was not far behind in identifying why Australia needs a more independent stance in world affairs..
Donald Trump is “the most ill-informed, under-prepared, ethically challenged and psychologically ill-equipped president in US history”, the former Australian foreign affairs minister Gareth Evans has said.Both Keating and Evans are members of the Australian Labor Party, currently in opposition but leading in the polls.
