Trump’s actions in Venezuela and rhetoric elsewhere confirm that the United States no longer respects international law or allied interests. Australia should rethink its strategic dependence accordingly.

Trump’s Venezuela actions and grotesque Greenland rhetoric put beyond doubt that his America has zero respect for international law, morality, and the interests of its allies and partners. It’s a wake-up call that can no longer be ignored by the Australian government.

It’s now more than time for the AUKUS submarine project to be abandoned, and our defence capability to be built in our own interests, not those of a now totally unreliable United States.

AUKUS has been problematic from the outset, in terms of its deliverability, cost-benefit, and implications for our sovereign decision-making agency. Above all, the crazy irony of the whole project has always been that it commits Australia to spending eye-watering amounts to build a capability supposed to defend us from military threats which are in fact most likely to arise simply because we have that capability – and are using it to support the US in some conflict not in our interests to engage, without any guarantee of support in return should we ever need it.