‘Get on the plane Albo': Senator's plea to Anthony Albanese
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has implored Anthony Albanese to 'get on the plane' after US President Donald Trump pulled out of a planned G7 meeting at the last minute.
Appearing on Sunrise on Wednesday morning, Senator McKenzie was critical of the Prime Minister's handling of US relations, saying that the reality was 'that meeting President Trump and sitting down and developing a relationship hasn't been our Prime Minister's priority'.
'It shows, and now it would seem, particularly as he's scheduled second last, it's not a priority of the President. This very important strategic relationship has essentially been outsourced to the UK's Prime Minister, with Keir Starmer being designated our handler,' she said.
'Which is a real problem, given the number of issues that we need to talk about with the President. So get on the plane, Albo, please!'
Mr Trump abruptly left the G7 meeting in Alberta, Canada on Tuesday in order to attend to the developing conflict between Israel and Iran.
Mr Albanese's was one of several planned meetings cancelled by the early departure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were also left in the lurch.
Housing Minister Clare O'Neil responded to Senator McKenzie's comment by saying it wasn't the time 'to be trying to play domestic politics about these things' and 'we've all got (our) interests at heart here'.
'Of course, it's not just Australia that's had to defer those bilateral discussions. India, Korea, Japan and other countries have been in exactly the same boat,' she said.
'We're working really closely with the US regime at the moment. You would've noticed that the Deputy Prime Minister was actually sitting down with the (US) Defence Secretary just last week.
'So lots of conversations going on and lots of good work to make sure that we maintain that strong relationship we've had with the US over a long period of time.'
Ms O'Neil added that it was easy to understand Mr Trump's early departure.
'President Trump is uniquely placed to help assist with some of what's going on in the Middle East at the moment,' she said.
'Global events have led him to leave the summit early, so it is what it is. And Australia's got lots of different levels of dialogues we're having constantly with the US. We'll keep doing that in the interests of Australians.'
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