Prime Minister Albanese\u2019s meeting with US President Donald Trump masks the hard truth of Australia\u2019s defence and trade surrender to Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Trump has publicly backed AUKUS because it has Australian taxpayers building the US a $8 billion nuclear submarine base of Perth while pumping billions more directly into the US nuclear submarine industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s meeting was sweetened by Australia offering Trump reduced environmental protections for critical minerals extraction and a potential US veto on who Australia sells to, and invests with, in this essential industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Trump talked up the US industrial capacity to build nuclear submarines for Australia under AUKUS, his rhetoric is in stark contrast to reality. Whatever Trump says, the US is not producing any spare nuclear submarines for Australia and, as Trump clearly knows, AUKUS doesn\u2019t even require them to deliver any. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a time Australia should be looking to the region to find ways to promote peace and independence, Albanese has aligned Australia closer and closer to Trump with all the instability and divisive hard right politics that he brings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator David Shoebridge, Greens Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence, said:<\/strong> \u201cTrump made no secret of the reason he liked Albanese, he is building Trump a $8 billion nuclear submarine base off Perth and has committed hundreds of billions more for US weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTrump\u2019s statement that there are plenty of submarines is what the Prime Minister wants to hear, but like a lot of what Trump says, it has no connection to reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe US is building barely one Virginia nuclear submarine a year and they need to more than double that rate to make AUKUS work. Whatever Trump may say, there remains no credible plan to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor the US, keeping AUKUS on life support means the US gets new and expanded US bases across Australia, billions of dollars for US industry and US weapons and control over Australia\u2019s critical minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is all upside for Trump because he knows that, even after all this, AUKUS doesn\u2019t require him to hand over a single submarine. It\u2019s no wonder Trump was smiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCritical minerals are key to a green future, but Albanese has put Australia in lockstep with an administration that thinks climate change is a hoax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Albanese Government seems to routinely engage in these rituals to appease Trump, praising him and showering him with gifts and all to bind us to an increasingly erratic US administration.\u201d \u201cAustralia should be fueling global green technologies with strong environmental protections and community benefits, not more handouts to mining corporations and Labor\u2019s billionaire donors whilst being locked to the US\u2019s climate-denialist agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we\u2019re serious about the energy transition, we need strong ambition that ensures a just and fair transition for critical minerals doesn\u2019t come at the cost of our ecosystems and First Nations heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prime Minister Albanese\u2019s meeting with US President Donald Trump masks the hard truth of Australia\u2019s defence and trade surrender to Trump. President Trump has publicly backed AUKUS because it has Australian taxpayers building the US a $8 billion nuclear submarine base of Perth while pumping billions more directly into the US nuclear submarine industry. Today\u2019s … Continue reading “Trump meets Albanese, and leaves with his wallet, his keys and his bank details”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35537,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35536\/revisions\/35537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Resources Spokesperson Senator Steph Hodgins-May:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThis deal doesn\u2019t back in Australia\u2019s renewables transition – it shackles it. We\u2019re signing up to fuel America\u2019s military \u2013 one of the world\u2019s largest polluters \u2013 for the sake of submarines and a photo-op. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n