‘Humiliation': Andrew Bolt warns Anthony Albanese snubbing by Trump to have serious consequences for Australia

Sky News AU

6 hours ago

Sky News host Andrew Bolt has warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's public snubbing at the G7 summit could be a "disaster" for Australia, with a key discussion on the future of the AUKUS security pact off the cards for now.
The Prime Minister was ready to talk with Donald Trump at the summit in Canada before it was announced the United States President would be leaving early, citing an escalating situation in the Middle East.
Key issues including AUKUS, which is under review by the US, and US tariffs on Australian exports were expected to be covered in the now-cancelled opportunity for a bilateral meeting between the two countries.
Sky News understands the Prime Minister was blindsided by the US President's sudden departure plans.
Bolt blasted Mr Albanese for the snub on Monday night as he outlined consequences he says Australia now faces in its aftermath.
"Humiliation for a Prime Minister, who has no personal connection with US President Donald Trump, who has rejected Trump's demands for more defence spending and, big surprise, now gets treated like dirt," Bolt said on Tuesday night.
Leaders of G7 countries have affirmed their support for Israel's right to self-defence and called out Iran for instability in the region in a joint statement, while Foreign Minister Penny Wong last week urged for both Israel and Iran to exercise "restraint".
Bolt said he thought the Albanese government's stance on the conflict so far "might be another reason for Trump not to care what Albanese thinks."
The host also cautioned that the cancelled opportunity for the Prime Minister to discuss AUKUS with Mr Trump could be a "disaster" for Australia's security.
"It leaves us in even more danger of losing our submarine fleet, just when the threat from China makes that absolutely critical that we don't," Bolt said.
"Albanese was counting on his first meeting with Trump to raise two issues, in particular, Trump's new tariffs on our exports, to ask Trump to give us a break. But most important was to ask him to respect the AUKUS deal... and sell us three of its nuclear submarines to replace our very old diesel ones."
"Without those American subs, we could have nothing fit to use in the next decade to protect our sea lanes just when China is threatening war."
Shadow assistant competition minister and Australia's former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma has labelled the Prime Minister's snubbing an 'abject failure of Australian diplomacy'.
He told Sky News Host Chris Kenny on Tuesday evening 'nearly every other world leader,' has visited Trump in Washington in recent months apart from Mr Albanese.
'Unlike every other world leader or nearly every other world leader who's made their way to Washington over the past six months... Anthony Albanese has not gone,' Mr Shama told Sky News Host Chris Kenny on Tuesday.
'He'd put everything, betting everything on this meeting to try and get us out of punitive tariffs, to try and secure the AUKUS agreement, and now it hasn't happened, and we're left flat-footed.'
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has urged the Prime Minister to be "more proactive" in his efforts to strengthen the relationship between Australia the US following Trump's early departure from the summit.
'This was an important opportunity for the Prime Minister to seek assurances on AUKUS and protect Australia from tariffs,' she said.