Anthony Albanese warned over 'cagey' Taiwan stance, with Sky News' Peta Credlin claiming it will lead to US 'reckoning'

Sky News AU

a day ago

Sky News host Peta Credlin has warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese his "cagey" stance on Taiwan risks placing further strain on Australia's alliance with the United States.
Credlin said Mr Albanese's noncommittal answers to questions about sending troops to defend Taiwan would encourage the US to question if Australia were really committed to the alliance.
She added that if "America does defend Taiwan, Australia will have to be involved. There are no ifs or buts here."
Noting the Albanese government refused to send a frigate to the Red Sea in December 2023, marking the 'first time since ANZUS was finalised in 1951 that we have declined a US request for military assistance', Credlin claimed questions about Taiwan were a telling indicator on whether Australia would back its ally.
'Every previous Australian government has recognised that the alliance is a two-way street. We can't expect the Americans to support us in our military campaigns if we're not prepared to support them in theirs,' she said.
'This is where the travelling press pack with the Prime Minister miss the point. The question is not would Australia help Taiwan, it's would Australia help the United States?'
Credlin added Mr Albanese was spending a 'remarkably long' time in China and would meet President Xi Jinping for the fourth time on Tuesday, while still not having met President Donald Trump and continuing to refuse calls to increase defence spending.
The Sky News host echoed the words of former prime minister Tony Abbott, who said defence spending needed to be 'swiftly' increased to three per cent of GDP.
'If we want the Pax Americana to survive, this unprecedented era of global peace in general terms, then we cannot expect the Americans to do all the heavy lifting on their own,' Credlin said.
'There's a reckoning on the way and few Australians really appreciate just how grave things are.'
Credlin said Mr Albanese needed to get some of 'our eggs out of the China basket' given Beijing's aggression economically and militarily, characterised by the rising tension around Taiwan and recent trade boycotts 'only just lifted' against Australia.
'There were $20 billion worth of boycotts placed on our annual exports to China – just because we had the temerity to ask for an independent investigation of the Wuhan virus,' she said.
'For China, trade is politics by other means. Trade is something to be turned on and off like a tap to secure its strategic objectives.
'It's not just the folly of making Australia more economically vulnerable to China. It's the folly of turning trade into a climate crusade.'
Credlin said the 'inconvenient truth' was China relied heavily on billions of dollars of Australian iron and coal.
The Sky News host said Mr Albanese was mistaken if he thought China shared his 'emissions obsession', when in fact it had not committed to net zero and is building two new coal-fired power stations every week.
'How about that inconvenient truth?' she said.
'So not only is Anthony Albanese missing the point on national security, he's missing it on economic security too.'