Well, we don’t call him “Each-Way Albo” for nothing. Newly-sworn in PM Anthony Albanese’s very first day on the job brought a splendid display of the Labor leader’s penchant for speaking out of both sides of his mouth. There should be no surprises that the issue was Labor’s major financial backer, China.
Albanese specifically by-passed his own party’s rules to get himself and Foreign Minister Penny Wong sworn in immediately, so that he could rush off to Japan and strut the world stage at a meeting of the Quad informal alliance. The Quad is, of course, just one of the phenomenal gifts that the outgoing government is handing to Labor (such as full employment) — it’s up to Albanese to show us how he can bollix it.
Early signs were unusually promising.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told his fellow Quad leaders that his new government is committed to the China-focused grouping.
“We have had a change of government in Australia, but our commitment to the Quad hasn’t changed,” Mr Albanese said in Tokyo on Tuesday.
But then discussions took an uncomfortable turn for the pro-China Labor government.
After congratulating Mr Albanese, Mr Kishida began the meeting by repeating his concerns about Russia’s war and linking it, indirectly, to fears about Beijing’s threats over Taiwan.
“We should never, ever allow a similar incident to happen in the Indo-Pacific,” Mr Kishida said.
Mr Biden said the summit was taking place during “a dark hour in our shared history”.
The American president was the only leader to mention China specifically in his opening remarks.
Even worse for an incoming PM who has promised to “repair” relations with China, and whose deputy is so indebted to Beijing that he clears his speeches with the Chinese embassy, Biden has also taken the momentous step of explicitly promising to defend Taiwan.
US President Joe Biden made a commitment to intervene militarily against any Chinese attempt by force during a press conference alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishisa in Tokyo on Monday, abandoning US “strategic” ambiguity on its potential role in a war over the island for the second time in eight months.
Enter, Each-Way Albo.
Anthony Albanese has confirmed Australia will not change its position on Taiwan, as he reiterated there was no proposal to broaden the Quad beyond its current membership following talks with counterparts in Tokyo on Tuesday.
In other words, still backing China’s reunification agenda. To be fair to Albo, Biden mumbled much the same.
“We agreed with the One China policy, we signed on to it … but the idea that (Taiwan) can be taken by force is just not appropriate.”
Well, as another Australian politician once said, you can’t walk a barbed-wire fence with a foot in each paddock.
As if to remind Albanese just who supplied all those Aldi bags full of cash, the CCP has hastened to congratulate their new Australian PM.
Anthony Albanese has welcomed the letter of congratulations he received from China’s Premier Li Keqiang, Beijing’s first senior government communication to Australia in more than two years.
Speaking to media in Tokyo on the sidelines of a leaders’ meeting of the Quad on Tuesday, the new Australian prime minister said he would “respond appropriately in time” to the post-election outreach by China’s second most senior political leader.
The Australian
As soon as he figures how many obeisances he’ll have to make, he’ll get right back to them.