Donald Trump on Kevin Rudd: ‘I heard he’s not the brightest bulb’
The Republican candidate for the US presidency, former president Donald Trump, has had a few things to say about former Australian prime minister and current US ambassador Kevin Rudd.
Trump spoke to UK conservative Nigel Farage on GB News, saying if Rudd is hostile “he will not be there long”:
Farage asked a question “on behalf of our friends at Sky News Australia”:
The Aukus deal that is in place, America, you know, the UK, Australia, very, very important deal, it is there to try and combat that huge growth in China. But now of course things have changed in Australia, we have a Labor government in Australia. The previous ambassador, Joe Hockey, I think was quite a good friend of yours, you got on pretty well with him. Now they have appointed Kevin Rudd. Former Labor MP, an he has said the most horrible things, you were a destructive president, a traitor to the west, and he is now Australia’s ambassador in Washington. Would you [take a phone call from him?]”
Trump interrupts before he finishes to say:
Yeah, well don’t know. He won’t there be long if that is the case. I don’t know much about him. I heard he was a little nasty. I heard he’s not the brightest bulb. I don’t know much about him, but he won’t be there long if he is at all hostile.
‘If he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long.’
Nigel Farage asks Donald Trump about the appointment of Kevin Rudd to Ambassador of Australia to the United States.
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🔓 Become a GB News Member: https://t.co/mNsRsGC8ef pic.twitter.com/q1Ral2sdvT— GB News (@GBNEWS) March 19, 2024
Ambassadors are chosen by the government’s of the nations they are representing, not the governments of the country they land in. That is not to say that the government of the country they head to doesn’t play any role – ambassadors are usually chosen for how they will work within the country – there is no point having an ambassador who can’t get meetings, or be able to push the diplomatic interests of their nation.
Key events
If a Donald Trump presidency did come to fruition, the most likely outcome is Kevin Rudd would be replaced as ambassador by Australia (which most likely would have occurred even without these comments, as Rudd’s comments on Trump were well known (made before he was US ambassador, but still. Awkward)
Donald Trump is a traitor to the West. Murdoch was Trump’s biggest backer. And Murdoch’s Fox Television backs Putin too. What rancid treachery. https://t.co/HyrvRaj1rY
— Office of Kevin Rudd, 26th PM of Australia (@MrKRudd) February 27, 2022
Professor of international law at ANU, Donald Rothwell tells us there is a way though that Rudd could be forcibly removed as ambassador by the White House (although agrees the most likely outcome would be Australia replacing Rudd by default)
A Trump White House could only effectively dismiss Rudd as Australian Ambassador by declaring him persona non grata under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The result is that he would lose his diplomatic accreditation in Washington and effectively be forced out of the post and have to return to Australia.
This is an exceptional step and would be unprecedented for an Australian Ambassador in Washington and create an inevitable rupture in the bilateral relationship.
Birmingham says Labor will have to work for bipartisanship on religious discrimination bill
Liberal senator Simon Birmingham did a bit of a dance on the question of a religious discrimination bill. Anthony Albanese told caucus (in pointed remarks meant to be reported) that if there was not bipartisanship for religious discrimination, the government would not move ahead with it.
That sent Peter Dutton into conniptions, with the opposition leader holding a press conference straight after question time (the caucus reports landed just before QT, so it didn’t leave him with a lot of time to immediately respond) to slam the government for backing away from its election promise and blaming the opposition for it.
Dutton said the opposition had not seen the bill (because there isn’t one) and therefore can’t offer bipartisanship to something that doesn’t exist. Which is a fair point. But it is also clear from discussions and comments to date that there are some pretty big differences about what the legislation should look like (and whether religious schools should be able to discriminate against LGBTIQ students is one of them)
Birmingham stuck to the Liberal party line but didn’t have the same energy behind it:
Bipartisanship is a worthy aspiration but you have to work for it. And the opposition hasn’t seen the legislation yet. Coalition members haven’t had the chance to consider the detail of it or the implications of it. And nor has there been a transparent process for stakeholders to comment or engage in it. And so I welcome the aspiration for bipartisanship. But the government has to put in the hard yards to achieve it.
Former Labor senator Doug Cameron is one of the leading critics of the Aukus deal. He points to one of the issues Aukus critics within Labor have with the deal – what does Aukus look like with Donald Trump at the helm?
Trump is making it clear that ,if elected, he will end Australia’s capacity to independently determine our Ambassador to the US.
It’s a possibility that Trump, despite his obnoxious authoritarian personality, could be elected.
So much for the myth of independence within AUKUS! pic.twitter.com/xmTV7UMBMA— Doug Cameron (@DougCameron51) March 19, 2024
The interview continued:
Q: Can, or should [Kevin Rudd] stay in that role if the president has threatened him?
Sussan Ley:
Well, that’s a matter for the government. I’m not going to give advice to them on this. It’s a matter for them.
Q:
All right, some work needed, some Joe Hockey-style golf, perhaps?
Ley:
Joe Hockey was a good man, and he is a good man.
Ley backs Rudd as Australia’s envoy
Sussan Ley was asked on Sky News about Donald Trump’s comments on Kevin Rudd and mostly decided to stay out of it. Well, stay out of the international space, but she did manage to turn it into an attack domestic political attack on Clare O’Neil:
I’m going to follow my usual practice, which is not to comment on US domestic politics. But I do want to say this, Kevin Rudd is our ambassador, so we want him to do well because he represents Australia’s national interest in the US.
I think members of the Albanese government might reflect, however, that commenting on another country’s domestic political situation is not a good idea. Clare O’Neil, the home affairs minister, also made commentary about the US and certain personnel and it’s just not very smart. So I think they would be reflecting on that today.
Q: This is an attack on our ambassador though, this goes a bit beyond the US domestic politics, wouldn’t you have thought?
Ley:
Well, let’s see what happens in November, let’s see about the next steps in the US and I’m not going to make commentary on what might transpire, Pete, except to say that I think people in this government would now be wondering why they made the comments they did at the time. But Kevin Rudd is our ambassador, we do want him to succeed because he represents our national interest. It’s a very close relationship as evidenced by so many agreements.
‘Subtle’ RBA shift ‘good’, ACTU secretary says
On the slight shift of language Michele Bullock used yesterday when describing the RBA board’s thinking – they are not ruling future rate rises in or out, but they are adopting a more “neutral” policy stance.
That’s a small shift but still a shift. And Bullock wouldn’t have said it without it meaning something (you don’t have Sally Cray on staff advising on communications and say something without meaning).
Sally McManus picked up on it too and said the “subtle change” was “good”.
But she also warned against future rate rises:
We think that last interest rate rise that they made at the end of last year wasn’t necessary, in our view, and that we are just cautioning that any move that’s going to put unemployment up further is also going to hurt people and that we believe that the RBA should be looking to cut rates now as we can see out inflation, inflation continuing to go down and that this is because of the enormous pressure and pain that households the real economy of a country which is households, their consumption has been cut right back and that they can overdo it and cause problems with unemployment.
‘We need to be very careful’ about slowing the economy, McManus says
Back to domestic affairs and ACTU secretary Sally McManus has spoken to ABC radio RN Breakfast about Michele Bullock’s comments on the economy.
(Peter Hannam has you covered here if you missed it.)
Bullock said the RBA expects unemployment to “tick up” (along with underemployment) and the economy to slow to bring inflation under control.
McManus warned against that way of thinking (which is old school economic thought – to cut inflation, unemployment needs to rise. Which may work when it comes to demand-side inflation (albeit still a brutal lever with real-world consequences) but doesn’t do a lot when it comes to supply-side issues – which is largely what we are experiencing now).
McManus said:
So remember, say in 2019 or 2017. Unemployment was over 5%. We had around a million people who didn’t have enough hours. So they are underemployed. That was a big problem. And the reason why unemployment was captured that part there is they thought any lower and the wages would go up. Now, just a year ago, we had unemployment down to 3.5%. And it didn’t push wages up.
So that should cause a raise thinking about how low can we have unemployment and not cause wages pressures.
So all we’re saying is that we need to be very careful about this idea that we need to be slowing the economy further and putting unemployment up.
And the RBA should be driving we believe, for a much lower unemployment rate actually than we’ve got at the moment.
Donald Trump on Kevin Rudd: ‘I heard he’s not the brightest bulb’
The Republican candidate for the US presidency, former president Donald Trump, has had a few things to say about former Australian prime minister and current US ambassador Kevin Rudd.
Trump spoke to UK conservative Nigel Farage on GB News, saying if Rudd is hostile “he will not be there long”:
Farage asked a question “on behalf of our friends at Sky News Australia”:
The Aukus deal that is in place, America, you know, the UK, Australia, very, very important deal, it is there to try and combat that huge growth in China. But now of course things have changed in Australia, we have a Labor government in Australia. The previous ambassador, Joe Hockey, I think was quite a good friend of yours, you got on pretty well with him. Now they have appointed Kevin Rudd. Former Labor MP, an he has said the most horrible things, you were a destructive president, a traitor to the west, and he is now Australia’s ambassador in Washington. Would you [take a phone call from him?]”
Trump interrupts before he finishes to say:
Yeah, well don’t know. He won’t there be long if that is the case. I don’t know much about him. I heard he was a little nasty. I heard he’s not the brightest bulb. I don’t know much about him, but he won’t be there long if he is at all hostile.
‘If he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long.’
Nigel Farage asks Donald Trump about the appointment of Kevin Rudd to Ambassador of Australia to the United States.
📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604
🔓 Become a GB News Member: https://t.co/mNsRsGC8ef pic.twitter.com/q1Ral2sdvT— GB News (@GBNEWS) March 19, 2024
Ambassadors are chosen by the government’s of the nations they are representing, not the governments of the country they land in. That is not to say that the government of the country they head to doesn’t play any role – ambassadors are usually chosen for how they will work within the country – there is no point having an ambassador who can’t get meetings, or be able to push the diplomatic interests of their nation.
‘The world is watching this horrific conflict’
Reading through the hansard from last night and the Labor member for Moreton, Graham Perrett made one of the strongest speeches we have seen so far on the situation in Gaza.
Perrett took the opportunity during the adjournment debate (the session just before parliament adjourns for the day, where MPs can discuss issue of their choosing) to speak on war crimes:
The term “war crime” is one we hear often, but I want to explain what it actually means. This is important in light of the escalation of civilian deaths in Gaza, despite efforts to negotiate a peace by Australia and other countries with much more influence.
Australia and many other countries have called for Israel to abide by the international court of justice ruling that it must take measures to prevent genocide in Gaza.
It is tragic that, nearly six months on, the situation continues to be devastating, with little progress made towards a ceasefire. Meanwhile, the people of Gaza are suffering on a scale that is unimaginable.
They are living with daily bombings, deaths and starvation, mainly because of Israel’s refusal to let enough food into Gaza. Blocking that is both official and achieved via systemic go-slows and citizen action that is unlawful. How could anyone perpetrate such an act of barbarism on children?
He said he had been to Israel as part of a parliamentary delegation “something not funded by lobbyists” and “witnessed the way Palestinians were treated”:
Their daily lives are ruled by checkpoints. I saw different roads for different races, and I know that there are two systems of justice for children based on race. Societies that have a two-tier system are never harmonious places.
Today there are many in my community who feel helpless and angry and who are struggling to comprehend the enormity of the devastation and death.
This conflict is extremely divisive. Everyone has an opinion, a story and a conspiracy theory, and some are devoted to lying about the facts. But the one thing we can all agree on is that the atrocities committed against civilians, regardless of who has committed them and why, deserve redress via international humanitarian law as enforced by the international criminal court in The Hague.
Perrett finished with:
I’m not here to list the war crimes committed since 7 October last year, but I want to call out the atrocities with the intention that the world holds all perpetrators to account.
I am talking about the deliberate targeting of civilians – especially women and children – indiscriminate rocket attacks and the taking of civilians as hostages.
I’m also talking about Israel’s deliberate obstruction of basic services –water, fuel and aid to Gaza. These are the acts that Human Rights Watch have described as collective punishment that amount to war crimes and include the use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.
The UN high commissioner has grave concerns about Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack.
The world is watching this horrific conflict.
Kooyong independent MP Dr Monique Ryan will today deliver the petition she started, calling on the government to change the way people back their Hecs debt. Some 17,000 people signed the petition in six days. Goldstein independent Zoe Daniel will join Ryan in presenting the petition.
Good morning
Welcome back to parliament for another sitting day we like to call “how is it only Wednesday?”.
Thank you to Martin for starting us off – as he laid out, it’s all about Wang Yi’s visit today. But there is also some more fallout from what looks like the Albanese government decision to shelve the religious discrimination legislation for an indefinite time. There is no bipartisan support for key elements and, after the voice referendum, it doesn’t seem the government isn’t willing to go down another drag ’em out fight that will harm communities.
This is all a hangover from 2016 when the Liberal’s right flank, then led by Cory Bernardi, demanded changes to 18C and 18D of the Racial Discrimination Act. To get the marriage plebiscite over the line in the party room, and again appease the right flank of his party Malcolm Turnbull later agreed to a religious discrimination act. Scott Morrison turned that into “religious freedoms” and even had a bill, but he pulled it from the senate after five Liberals crossed the floor to support an amendment which would prevent religious schools from discriminating against children of different sexualities as well as trans kids.
Each time the debate has been held, it has caused some harm.
We’ll follow the results of the latest foray into this space as the day unfolds. You have Amy Remeikis for most of the day, with Paul Karp, Josh Butler, Karen Middleton, Daniel Hurst and Sarah Basford Canales bringing you the news. Mike Bowers is already out and about.
It’s a four-coffee morning. Ready? Let’s get into it
Sarah Basford Canales
FoI system ‘dysfunctional and broken’
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner appeared at an additional Senate estimates hearing last night where it discussed the state of the freedom of information system – described as “dysfunctional and broken” in a Senate inquiry report last December.
Its boss, Angelene Falk, said in her opening statement the OAIC had 2,213 review applications on hand. That’s an increase of last year’s figure of 2,008 matters under review.
When someone is not satisfied with the outcome of an FoI, or if there are significant delays to an FoI request, they can go to the OAIC to have it reviewed.
The agency has been plagued by staffing and funding restrictions for years and has struggled to deal with the growing backlog. Falk said about 60% of the applications were more than 12 months old. She added there had been an increase in the number of information commissioner decisions over the last financial year.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge took issue with the way Falk was describing the statistics, suggesting the backlog would never get resolved at this rate:
It’s going to take you 15 years or more to deal with the backlog. That’s not a strategy to deal with the backlog, that’s a strategy of managed decline.
The new FoI commissioner, Elizabeth Tydd, said there had been a steady increase in the number of review requests being made. The OAIC said it was looking at improving how agencies dealt with FoIs to lower the number of reviews required.
Natasha May
Healthcare change will help rural communities
Australians will more easily receive care from nurse practitioners and midwives under reforms the government says will particularly help rural and remote communities.
Nurse practitioners are experienced registered nurses who have completed a master’s degree. They and endorsed midwives are now prevented from autonomously providing Medicare services and prescribing Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme medicines without the supervision of a doctor.
An independent review found this legislated requirement created several barriers to accessible, high-quality care for patients, particularly in rural and remote communities where it can be harder to see a doctor.
The government will introduce the health legislation amendment (removal of requirement for a collaborative arrangement) bill which will remove those barriers and, subject to its passage through parliament, the change will come into effect from November.
The assistant minister for health and aged care, Ged Kearney, said:
This change is long overdue and one that just makes sense.
As a former nurse, I understand just how underutilised nurse practitioners and midwives are in our health system. Labor’s legislation is about getting the best out of the existing health workforce and attracting more people to the professions.
Annie Butler, the federal secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, said:
Removing these unnecessary restrictions, which are completely out of step with international best practice, will allow highly trained NPs and endorsed midwives to utilise their full-set of skills and experience. With increased demands for healthcare and with chronic workforce shortages across the country, the ANMF and our members believe this is a common-sense solution.
Sarah Basford Canales
AFP pressed on satisfaction survey
Continuing with the AFP appearance at Senate estimates last night: the acting top cop was asked why questions had been removed from an internal survey the agency rated poorly on in prior years.
Each year the AFP holds an internal census allowing its staff to respond on how they’re feeling and areas for improvement.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge asked why questions about senior leadership in the AFP and HR processes had been stripped from the latest census.
In the 2022 survey about a third of the more than 5,000 respondents gave positive answers when asked whether senior management communication was effective, while 31% answered positively when asked whether recruitment and promotion decisions were fair and based on merit.
Shoebridge asked the acting AFP commissioner, Ian McCartney, whether he agreed it was an embarrassing result:
It’s not embarrassing. It’s information we asked for and we received and it’s information we build upon to improve the organisation.
The Greens senator then asked why those questions didn’t appear in the latest survey. The acting chief operating officer, Katherine van Gurp, rejected the suggestion the questions had been “stripped” out, saying the survey instead focused on determining the “psychosocial hazards in the workplace”:
I’ll also note that the staff survey in and of itself is … there to actually support the workforce and help us understand factors impacting our workforce, to make improvements. It’s not used as a performance management tool for our senior leaders.
Press China to release Yang Hengjun, rights group say
Daniel Hurst
Human rights groups have urged the Australian government to demand the immediate release of Australian writer Dr Yang Hengjun and press other human rights issues strongly during meetings with China’s top diplomat today.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will hold talks with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Canberra today, with trade, regional security and human rights among the topics expected to be raised.
Amnesty International has written to Wong saying it “joins Uyghur, Tibetan, Hong Konger and Chinese human rights communities in urging you to address the Chinese government’s human rights violations and secure tangible improvements”.
Sam Klintworth, the national director of Amnesty International Australia, wrote that Wong should “call on the Chinese leadership to release Dr Yang immediately and unconditionally on humanitarian grounds and ensure that he receives urgent and appropriate medical care”.
Tibetan community associations urged the government not to “repeat past mistakes of sacrificing human rights at the altar of trade”. Zoe Bedford, from the Australia Tibet Council, said:
Normalising trade deals with China at this time is an unacceptable act while China violates the human rights of so many.
Human Rights Watch said the Australian government “should move beyond statements of concern and make clear their intention to seek accountability for China’s ongoing human rights violations”.
Six former detainees accused of breaching visas have had charges dropped, AFP says
Sarah Basford Canales
Six of the 10 former indefinite immigration detainees charged with breaching visas that were later found to be invalid have had their charges dropped so far, Australian federal police have revealed.
In a late-night Senate estimates hearingAFP assistant commissioner Kirsty Schofield said the figure included the three who had been remanded in custody for more serious breaches of conditions attached to the now-invalid visas.
Last Tuesday it was reported the visas given to the NZYQ cohort after their release from indefinite immigration detention had been issued incorrectly. It meant the charges against 10 of the cohort for conditions, such as breaching curfew, were likely to be dropped.
Schofield said the commonwealth director of public prosecutions was working through withdrawing charges for the remaining four.
She also said there were now 152 in the NZYQ cohort, up from 149 previously.
Earlier in the hearing the Liberal senator James Paterson asked whether the AFP was preparing to monitor additional former detainees in response to further high court rulings.
Acting commissioner Ian McCartney said there were “ongoing discussions” and the AFP was ready to “pivot” if further detainees were released. But he also said it was not the police force’s role to monitor any of them.
The AFP’s role is not to monitor, it’s to enforce breaches.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the political day in Canberra. I’m Martin Farrer and these are the top overnight lines to digest before Amy Remeikis cranks up for another day.
The Albanese government is heading for a roadblock in its attempts to ride out the politically damaging fallout from the immigration detention imbroglio. Our exclusive story shows many more people could be released than previously thought if the government loses the latest legal challenge to the scheme. A leaked internal estimate obtained by Guardian Australia shows more than 170 people in immigration detention could be released if a court decides the scheme is illegal – many more than the 40 reported so far.
Last night at Senate estimates Australian federal police revealed that six former immigration detainees charged with breaching visas that were later found to be invalid have had their charges dropped so far – more on this soon.
The visit by China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, will begin in Canberra today with human rights activists calling on Penny Wong to demand the release of the Australian writer Dr Yang Hengjun, who has been jailed in China on espionage charges since 2019. Wang’s arrival in Australia has already caused political and diplomatic waves, with former Labor prime minister Paul Keating riding at the crest. But if the visit is the hard end of Australia’s relations with China, then Adelaide zoo’s two pandas are the softer, more cuddly end, and we’re looking today at how Wang Wang and Fu Ni tell the story of the relationship’s ups and downs.
Tasmania’s Liberal and Labor leaders will go head-to-head in their final election campaign debate this afternoon as they count down to Saturday’s vote. Liberal premier Jeremy Rockliff will butt heads with Labor leader Rebecca White, who is having a third crack at leading the state, at a peoples’ forum in Hobart. Opinion polls point to the Liberals getting the most seats but not enough for majority government. Our reporter has been to the island state and finds that the campaign has been dominated by one issue: the failing health system.
