At yesterday’s National Press Club debate between Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and her shadow Tanya Plibersek, both women were circumspect when asked their opinions of possible future US President Donald Trump. Bishop said:

“In our pragmatic approach to foreign policy we deal with the world as it is not how we would wish it to be. It is incumbent on the Australian government to deal with the US Administration of the day. It is in our national interest to work closely with the President, with the White House Administration and, of course, the relationships between our two countries are so deep, so strong, enduring, that it would be against our national interests to start, for example, start hurling personal insults against a person who may well end up being the President of the United States. That is counterproductive.”

Plibersek was a bit more forceful, saying that she didn’t agree with Trump on some issues, and referring to John Howard’s comments before Barack Obama was elected in 2008:

“The result will be what it will be and we’ll be able to work with him. I think Mr Howard, no longer Prime Minister, but he was the first to go and shake President Obama’s hand when he was here for his official State Dinner on that trip and there were obviously no hard feelings. I think some of the ideas that Mr Trump has expressed, however, are wrong ideas and I don’t think there’s any problem with objecting to some of those wrong ideas,including the statements about a decreased American presence in our region, that the allies in the region are not bearing our share of responsibilities for security in our region, and system of the things that he’s said domestically, plainly, I wouldn’t agree with it and I think a lot of Australians wouldn’t agree.” 

Lucky for Trump, there is at least one candidate willing to endorse him (even though no one asked). The Australian Conservative Party’s NSW Senate candidate Peter Wallace has announced in a long blog post that he backs Trump:

“He’s blunt, outspoken, and doesn’t care who he offends. But Trump has the common sense to see the western world’s threats and the straightforwardness to address them. And if he succeeds in delivering on his central promise to ‘Make America Great Again’, that’s largely all that matters — Go Trump!”