Anthony Albanese pays tribute to former Labor prime minister John Curtin for standing up to US, UK

News.com.au

2 days ago

Anthony Albanese will pay homage to former Labor prime minister John Curtin as not just the leader who founded Australia's alliance with the US, but one who stood up against allied super powers, in pointed comments amid concerns over Australia's relationship with America.
Mr Curtin's leadership, which lasted between 1941 to 1945, lasted during the Pacific War and the bombing of Darwin and Broome by the Japanese.
He died while in office, before peace was declared.
In a speech to mark the 80th anniversary of Mr Curtin's death on Saturday, the Prime Minister will credit the Labor figure with forging Australia's long-held alliance with the United States.
However Mr Albanese will also note Mr Curtin's decision to stand up to the US and the United Kingdom, then led by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill his decision not to send Australian troops to then Burma, now Myanmar, in what would have been days before it fell to the Japanese.
'Hundreds if not thousands of Australians would have been killed, or taken prisoner. It would have been a disaster every bit as crushing to national morale as the fall of Singapore,' Mr Albanese is expected to tell attendees at Sydney's John Curtin Research Centre.
Mr Albanese will note that while the Australian-US alliance 'ought to be remembered as a product of Curtin's leadership in defence and foreign policy, not the extent of it'.
Instead, he will say that Mr Curtin had the 'confidence and determination to think and act for ourselves'.
'Because Curtin's famous statement that Australia 'looked to America' was much more than the idea of trading one strategic guarantor for another. Or swapping an alliance with the old world for one with the new,' he will say.
'It was a recognition that Australia's fate would be decided in our region. It followed the decision Curtin had made in 1941 that Australia would issue its own declaration of war with Japan.
'Speaking for ourselves, as a sovereign nation.'
His remarks come as the Albanese government is currently under pressure by the Trump administration to amp up defence spending to 3.5 per cent, comes amid concerns of fragile global stability and claims from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that China would imminently invade Beijing.
Mr Albanese has frequently rejected US pressure to amp up defence spending, stating that investment will be calculated according to Australia's needs.
Labor is also under pressure to negotiate a tariff carveout, however on Friday he said he believed the levy applied to non steel and aluminium imports would remain at 10 per cent after Donald Trump's July 9 deadline.
Mr Albanese is also set to champion to 'rights and the role of middle powers and smaller nations' and speak to the importance of collective responsibility in the Indo-Pacific, despite fears of China's increasing aggression in the area.
Ensuring that the 'sovereignty of every nation is respected and the dignity of every individual is upheld' is another priority.
He will say his government will continue to rebuild Australia 'standing as a leader and partner in the Pacific,' deepen economic engagement in South East Asia, while 'patiently and deliberately working to stabilise our relationship with China'.