The prime minister travels to Washington next week for a state visit. The talks between Anthony Albanese and President Joe Biden will record progress on the implementation of the AUKUS agreement, Ukraine, China and the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and of course the crisis in the Middle East. Biden will have just returned from his visit to Israel and will brief the Prime Minister on the situation, which is worsening by the day.
In this podcast, Hawke Defense Minister Kim Beazley, former Labor leader and former Australian ambassador to the US, joins The Conversation to talk about the visit to Albania and the international situation.
At AUKUS, progress has been slowed by the need to obtain approval to export sensitive military technology, and there have been some dissenting voices over the supply of Virginia-class nuclear submarines to Australia.
“We have a long way to go,” says Beazley. “The most important thing, at least for me right now, moving forward is the process by which approvals are given for the export of nuclear materials.”
In the Middle East, Beazley, from their past contact, is very impressed with Biden’s grasp of the details of this fraught region.
I saw Biden regularly when I was ambassador to the US and he was extremely impressive in his knowledge of Middle Eastern issues. I remember him having a very interesting discussion with then Foreign Secretary Bob Carr, which I attended, about a change in Australia’s position from opposing the Palestinian resolution at the UN […] to abstention (which really pissed off Americans when this happened); But Biden explaining his perception of Palestinian politics and attitudes – it was extremely complicated.
We are all getting caught up in this Republican propaganda […] that the president is breaking down mentally – it must be said that in this area he was very sharp. […] Biden moving to the Middle East is a man of supreme confidence. He is sure that he knows all the nuances and he is sure that when he gets the intelligence of what is really happening on the ground, he will have a wise opinion about it.
Of the Voice loss, Beazley, a West Australian, says he feels “terribly depressed”. He sees the result as damaging not only to Indigenous Australians, but also to Australia’s reputation overseas:
This is not a government. This is about us, it is about us as the Australian people and it is not really a good advertisement to the region around us that our response would be generous.
Now people are coming out and saying, Oh, go away, this is just elite thinking. it has nothing to do with the roads. This is true. I don’t think anyone in the countries around us, or for that matter in the United States, will give a second thought to the referendum on its outcome. But every elite will be. And in reality it is the elites who make decisions.
You know, it saddens me how race seemed to be a talking point for this whole proposal. This whole sentence had nothing to do with race. It had absolutely everything to do with originality. Who was here? Well, it’s been here for 70,000 years.