Comment

Paul Bongiorno
Anthony Albanese’s seat at the periodic table

Just after sunrise on Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese landed back in Sydney after a trip that positioned Australia exactly where he wanted it to be in international affairs.

He managed to show himself as a champion of multilateralism through the United Nations, a defender of democratic values and an exponent of what he calls “progressive patriotism”. He says the term means to be proud of who we are, sharing the continent with the oldest continuous culture on Earth, a culture that has pioneered women’s rights and a tolerant, inclusive multicultural society.

All of this, he told the British Labour Party conference, is an antidote to the rise of anti-immigration populist intolerance around the globe.

Colleagues say the thumping election win has given the prime minister, a known confidence player, an air of sure-footedness and vindication in the way he goes about his job. That belief will surely be tested when he meets Donald Trump in the Oval Office in a little over two weeks’ time.

There, his differences with the administration on climate action and the recognition of Palestine will have to be juggled with Australia’s status as an ally and what that now involves, especially vis-a-vis this country’s biggest trading partner, China.

Albanese will be hoping to emulate his “good mate”, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who no doubt gave him some tips on how to handle the notoriously prickly Trump when they shared a couple of Albo Pale Ales at No. 10 Downing Street.

Albanese turned up at the official prime ministerial residence in London with a four-pack of the boutique beer, which delighted Starmer, but it’s a trick that won’t work on teetotaller Trump. Back in January, Trump said he liked the British leader “a lot” even though he is “liberal, which is a bit different from me”.

For an American populist conservative such as Trump, “liberal” is a dirty word not far removed from “communist”, and yet the president is happy to concede that Starmer’s done a “very good job thus far” and he is a “very good person”.

On weekend television Albanese was asked what he can take to the White House meeting following the example of Starmer’s invitation to a royal banquet at Windsor Castle, or Qatar’s gift of a Boeing 747 jet. “I feel like I need to treat him with the respect that the president of the United States deserves,” Albanese said, “and I expect that to be returned.”

Albanese said the indications after five conversations, one of them briefly in person in New York, are positive. So far, he said, the exchanges have been “warm, constructive, positive and optimistic”.

The prime minister’s answer was in line with a strategy settled on as soon as Trump returned to the presidency: accept his legitimacy as the leader of Australia’s key strategic ally and avoid at all costs any direct criticism of the way in which he governs the US.

It is a version of “realpolitik”, the diplomatic approach that determines responses based primarily on circumstances and factors rather than strict ideological, moral or ethical premises.

Underpinning this pragmatism is the realisation that the American alliance has been a bedrock of postwar Australian politics. It is being sorely tested by the Trump presidency, but Albanese believes it is not in his interests to challenge it.

Indeed, according to one of his cabinet ministers, Albanese notes the relationship with the US will outlast Trump, as it has other presidents and prime ministers, and it is in the national interest to maintain the status quo.

There may be no Boeing 747 on offer, but Albanese will assure Trump that Australia is pulling its weight and has much to offer that the US needs in geopolitical strategic terms. Just as importantly, Australia has the rare earth minerals that America dearly needs.

As Albanese says, Australia has “everything that is in demand, almost the entire periodic table”. He told David Speers on Insiders, “Whether you are looking at lithium … or cobalt or copper or vanadium, we have great resources.”

Former ambassador to Washington and former defence minister Kim Beazley is urging Albanese to leverage America’s need to replace Chinese supply chains in these minerals that are vital components for defence systems, now called war systems by Trump. Albanese sees scope for this as a way of strengthening Trump’s commitment to the AUKUS agreement, which is still under review in Washington despite encouraging words out of the administration.

This week, Reuters reported Australia is willing to sell shares in its new strategic reserve of critical minerals to allies including Britain, Canada and the US. This would be a way to defray the expense of processing these metals in Australia rather than selling them to China. The arrangement was part of Albanese’s discussions with Starmer and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney at the weekend.

Albanese was coy about the details of what he is offering Trump but sources in Canberra say the government is working on several projects that could be announced at the time of the Washington meeting, with critical minerals top of the list. It would certainly be a feather in Albanese’s cap and would weaken opposition claims he has damaged Australia’s relationship with the US. That is the plan.

On Tuesday, Albanese’s differences with Trump over Palestine dramatically shrank. While on a business stopover in the Gulf state of the United Arab Emirates, news came through that Trump had engineered a 20-point peace plan to end the carnage in Gaza.

Albanese believes the position Australia took on Palestinian statehood, alongside France, Canada and the United Kingdom, played a significant part in Trump pressuring Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a plan he had previously rejected. He says recognition accompanied intense discussions with key players about how to end the war.

In London, Albanese was briefed on the proposal by former British prime minister Tony Blair, who Trump named as a member of the “Board of Peace” to oversee it.

There is much scepticism about the entire plan being implemented by the Netanyahu government, but Albanese, like other world leaders, is desperately hopeful the relentless bombing will end and the hostages will be released. At time of going to press, Hamas leaders had still not responded, despite the offer of amnesty and safe passage out of Gaza for them.

There was a striking similarity between Albanese’s official visit to the UK and then prime minister John Howard’s official visit to the US in 2002. Both combined formal meetings with their hosts with participation in events of a more party-political nature.

Albanese in London participated in the Global Progress Action Summit of centre-left party leaders and held bilateral meetings with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Canada’s Carney. He then went to Liverpool and addressed the Labour Party’s annual conference, where he also met with senior British ministers.

In 2002, John Howard, accompanied by the Liberal Party’s then treasurer, Malcolm Turnbull, and federal director Lynton Crosby, attended the conference of the International Democracy Union, where he gave a speech after being elected its chairman. The union describes itself as an international alliance of centre-right parties.

Despite the similarities, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley accused Albanese of “[crossing] the line” at taxpayers’ expense. She said he flew to the other side of the world to give a “partisan political speech on behalf of a political party in another country”.

Research by former Gillard government minister Craig Emerson shows prime ministers of all stripes can be accused of similar line-crossing on overseas trips. It only becomes an issue if an opposition sees a chance to score points.

In 2019, Albanese as opposition leader condemned then prime minister Scott Morrison for attending a MAGA rally with Donald Trump in Ohio. That was a bullseye politically, as the subsequent Australian election proved.

Emerson says it’s hard in opposition when you are often called on to “say something about something” but says Ley was saying “something about nothing”.

The Liverpool speech was certainly a gee-up for the despondent Labourites and their embattled leader. Albanese said both their parties shared a belief in and commitment to democracy.

He said the key to success is “never … a theoretical exercise – or a rhetorical one”. He said Labor’s success is measured “in deeds, and it depends on delivery”.

Taking his own advice, three hours after arriving back in Australia the prime minister held a news conference in his Sydney electorate to spruik the early relaunch of the uncapped 5 per cent deposit scheme for first-home buyers.

The scheme has its critics, who say it will only push up house prices, but the government expanded it because it had already helped more than 185,000 Australians into home ownership, according to the press release.

Albanese wasn’t about to let jet lag get in the way of a chance to combat any suggestion he is a distracted “Airbus Albo”.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on October 3, 2025 as "Anthony Albanese’s seat at the periodic table".

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