Rise to the moment – less of the trite!

June 27, 2025

Senator Wong,

I have written on several previous occasions urging your independence, strength and influence inside Cabinet to serve our country’s interest on issues such as the AUKUS disaster, our high-risk reliance on, and hosting of, US defence, and the urgency to improve relationships with our Asian neighbours.

Labor’s win in the last election should not be taken as a source of “steady as we go” comfort. It should be heeded as a call to act as a “true Labor” Government, guided by the values and courage of leaders such as Curtin, Whitlam, Hawke and Keating. That is not happening! Instead, the public’s great gift is being squandered and the limp reputation of the first Albanese term continues.

Given the precarious state of world peace and sustainability, reference emerging to "dithering" leadership should remind the prime minister, the minister for defence and yourself (the minister so many of us have invested as a source of hope, grounded values and skilled diplomacy) of the calibre of international representation the public expected with its votes.

For heaven’s sake, overcome the politics that continue to inspire trite, “mealymouthed” vacuity; seize the moment, rise to its terrible challenges.