From Swartzmedia. I'm Daniel James. This is seven Am. Kevin Rudd doesn't appear to like Donald Trump, and the feeling is mutual. The Australian Ambassador to the US has a history of criticizing Trump, making it hard to imagine how the two can have a destructive working relationship. Once the President of leat gets into the White House in January, the speculation that Kevin Rudd may not survive in the
role for long. Today's special correspondent for the Saturday Paper, Jason Kottsukus on whether the Albanezi government can stand up to the pressure from the Trump administration and the message it sends if it doesn't. It's Friday, November fifteen, and thanks for joining us.
Daniel. It's a pleasure to be with you.
A few months ago on this podcast, you said that if Donald Trump wins the election, we may see a lot more of Scott Morrison. Is that still potentially the case?
I think so, Daniel, because Scott Morrison is on the same side of politics as Donald Trump. He knows Donald Trump. He's dealt with him when he was Prime Minister. He's also had some meetings with the President elect since he was no longer Prime Minister. He's been over there in Washington, He's had a couple of meetings with Donald Trump. And of course Scott Morrison is the original architect of the
Orcus security partnership with the US and the UK. And if Donald Trump is going to need some convincing that ORCAS is good for the US as well as been good for Australia, then Scott Morrison's probably a really good person to try to convince Donald Trump of that.
Do you think Scott Morrison is positioning himself to become ambassador at at some point?
I think Scott Morrison would love to be Australia's ambassador to the United States, But I do think that's very unlikely, mainly because of the personal enmity between Anthony Albanesi and Scott Morrison. Anthony Albanezi has such little respect for Scott Morrison as a parliamentarian, as a politician that I just cannot see him wanting to ever appoint Scott Morrison do anything, let alone Australia's most important diplomatic posting.
So we're talking about this because since President Trump has been President Elect Trump, it's exposed the relationship between our Karen Ambassador, Kevin Rudd and Trump himself. They don't have the best relationship, do they.
Well, I'm not sure if they've ever met, But what we do know is that Kevin Rudd spent a lot of time in recent years disparaging Donald Trump. Since Joe Biden became president, Kevin Rudd has been out there making some very highly, highly critical comments about Donald Trump.
General consensus amongst anyone concerned with the public policy process, domestic or international, thinks he's nuts.
He's also called Trump a village idiot in one television interview that was unearthed this week.
In the last four years has been run by a village idiot, competent international state craft, and the United States increasingly incompetent and international state craft under Trump.
You know, one person I spoke to this week said that a lot of these comments that rut has made about Donald Trumper like a ticking time bomb that are just sort of waiting to be discovered by the media. And as soon as Donald Trump sees that, you know, he's probably going to seize on it and start hitting back. Pretty hard of think.
And he's now Australia's ambassador in Washington.
Yeah, Well, I don't know he won't be there long if that's the case. I don't know much about him.
I heard he was a little bit nasty. I hear he's not the writer's bulb, but I don't know much about him.
But if because Kevin Wright's being cleaning up his social media, hasn't he removing a lot of old posts in which he's been critical of Trump and people around Trump, hasn't he?
That's right? And I think people here in Cabra and probably in Washington are asking why it's taken Kevin Rudd so long to delete those social media posts. And does it suggest that perhaps Kevin Rudd didn't think that Donald Trump was going to win in the first place and so.
He didn't have to Is that he has decided to delete the comments after President Trump has been elected doesn't show a great sincerity If Kamila Harris had been elected, and I'll presume the comment and still be up on online.
But you probably right. Act of deleting those social media posts has certainly got a lot of attention. The New York Times ran a story about it. A lot of Australian media outlets have covered it, so it certainly would not have been missed by the incoming members of the next Trump administration.
So apart from deleting his previous social media posts, he's actually been quite active and trying to repair he's standing with Trump and Hise people. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Well, I think what everyone has been saying about Kevin Rudd is that he's worked extremely hard since he became Australia's ambassador to Washington in March last year, building strong ties not just with the Biden administration and people in the Biden White House, but reaching across that congressional aisle to build strong ties with senior Republicans who are in the Senate, in the House of Representatives, and Republicans who are in Trump's orbit. The question, of course is can
he sustain that with Trump in the White House? And I think you know, one very worrying sign for Kevin Rudd is the tweet that Dan Scaveno is going to be Trump's deputy chief of staff, posted Wednesday. It had an image of Trump's congratulations, but above that he posted a gift of an hourglass, suggesting that Rudd's time as ambassador is running out. Dan Scaveno is a very aggressive
player of the political game. If he's posting things like that about Kevin Rudd already, it suggests that Rudd's going to be in for a pretty hard time and that members of the Trump administration are not going to forget what Rudd has said about Trump, and then they're not going to let Trump forget that either.
How long can Anthony Albaneza keep backing Kevin right in the face of mounting pressure. That's after the break, Jason. The Albanezi government is publicly standing by Kevin Rudd, and people in the opposition are as well. How sustainable do you think that's going to be in the long term?
Well, I think in terms of members of the Albanezi government, certainly the Prime Minister is standing by Kevin Rudd, and members of his cabinet, certainly in public are coming out very strongly in favor of keeping Rudd in Washington, and yes, Peter Dutton and other members of the opposition are also offering qualified support for Rudd.
Lookause, as many would point out, the president elect is just named Secretary of State who had some pretty sharp things to say about him, but who ultimately campaigned alongside him. He's been elected alongside Vice President who had very sharp and pointed things to say about him, but who he chose to make his running mate. So I think we've got to be conscious of keeping an open mind, which is what we have tried to do in relation to the question around Kevin.
But I think below the surface, Peter Dutton and his team are very happy to keep this issue bubbling along, and they see this as a huge chance to score a big political win on the Prime Minister, to damage his credibility. And you know, because if Kevin Rudd does fall and he saw that's going to be hugely embarrassing for Anthony Albinezi. He made this choice to send Rudd to Washington, you know, and Peter Dutton would see political opportunity here. So they'll be stoking this fire for as
long as they can. I think, I mean, up till this point, Kevin Rudd would be able to brush this off. Kevin Rud's a very experienced politician. He's got a very thick skin, you know, up to this point, it's probably water up for Duck's back. But being you know, the stud diplomat that Kevin Rudd is and a stud reader of international politics, he'll know when his position does become untenable.
I think if he sees himself that he doesn't have any access to the White House, then I don't think he's going to have any trouble coming to the view that he would need to go.
What would to say about Australia's relationship with the United States if Kevin Rudd was withdrawn or whether he fell on his sword. What kind of message does that send from the outset of a new Trump presidency.
Well, a lot of the senior sort of foreign policy establishment here in Caner, I think it would be the ultimate sort of craven act. Dennis Richardson one of you know, the most respected public servants Australia has. He's a former ambassador to Washington himself. He is a former secretary of the Departments of Defense and Foreign Affairs. He's made it pretty clear in the strongest possible terms that he thinks that a decision to recall Kevin Rudd would be just
absolutely craven, active cowardice. He thinks that the only thing that Anthony Alberaneze should be doing right now is offering Kevin Rudd. He's on qualified support and to stand up to any pressure to recall Kevin Rudd or put pressure on him to resign. You know, in Dennis Richardson's words, this is really just a media sort of few or that's been created by the Murdoch media empire here in Australia, and that the government should just ignore it.
Finally, Jason, that's all well and good, but do you think the Albenzi government can and will stand up to Donald Trump if that amount of pressure starts to come Albanese's way, Well, I.
Think if Donald Trump comes out and directly criticizes Kevin Rudd, perhaps he might be watching Fox News and they start running a story about Kevin Rudd's past comments about Trump, and that Trump comes out and attacks Kevin Rudd, then I think Kevin Rudd's position does become untenable and he would have no choice but to fall on his sword.
Anthony Albaneze's probably not going to try to get in the way of Kevin Rudd doing that, because the thing that is fundamentally in Australia's national interests is that Australia's ambassador to Washington has access to the US President and if Donald Trump makes it clear, then that's not going to happen. Then Kevin Rudd probably would have to go.
Jason, it's going to interesting times. Thank you for your time.
Daniel, it's been a pleasure talking with you.
Thanks very much. You can read Jason Coottsukus's full report in tomorrow's edition of the Saturday Paper. Also in the News today, prominent to Albanesi has joined world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese Premier Jijing Ping in Peru for the Apex Summer. Although Donald Trump won't be there, is expected his American First Doctrine will be top of mind as Trump continues to announce his second term cabinet of figures that support his hardline tariffs and protectionist agenda.
And up to fifty one percent of migrant women have been harassed at work, with only three quarters too afraid to report it over fears that could impact their immigration status. The findings were published in a survey by Union New South Wales, which found that construction, horticulture and hospitality were the main industries where migrant women experienced harassment and that many he did report their experiences were met with bullying, underpayment,
or were fired. The report calls for specific visa protections for women to report harassment without fear of recrimination. Seven Am is a daily show from Schwartz Media and The Saturday Paper. It's made by Atticus Basto, Shane Anderson, Chris Dane gate Me, Daniel James, Eric Jensen, Ruby Jones, Sarah mcvee, Travis Evans and Zoltenfeio. Thanks for listening, See you next week.