Australia and the United States share a history marked by many similarities and some stark divides.  

Over more than a century, however, our experiences have matured into a strong and solid partnership which, despite its many differences remains a common bond; unlikely to change anytime soon. 

These fundamental facts are not only acknowledged but welcomed by the vast majority of Australians. 

All of which makes Anthony Albanese’s short term and opportunistic foray into foreign affairs last Friday more bizarre. 

In one cheap gesture more befitting of a Twitter troll, the Labor leader has shown he is entirely unfit to hold the office of prime minister. 

It is not often you can use the phrase “pot calling the kettle black”, but it is the perfect description of Albanese’s recent request of Scott Morrison it is perfect. 

The opposition leader demanded the Prime Minister to pick up the phone and speak to US President Donald Trump to tell him that “democratic values and processes must be respected.”  

What a ridiculous request. 

Albanese said it is in Australia’s interest that the USA remained a stable and credible democracy. 

He argued that because the PM has a close relationship with Donald Trump he should speak to him to communicate Australia’s view that democratic processes must be respected.  

“It is important that our Prime Minister speaks out for democratic values at each and every opportunity,” the Labor leader said. 

“The fact is that pressure needs to be bought (sic) by all people who believe in democratic processes,” he said. 

Forget the bad grammar for a moment. 

Imagine how any Australian political party would feel if another Australian leader took it upon themselves to a foreign leader to intervene in our nation’s democratic election process. 

Albanese is apparently now a self-appointed crusader of democracy. If this is the case, Albo, why didn’t you speak up to the Australian people back in 2019? 

Eighteen months ago, your Labor Party’s then leader Bill Shorten’s big red bus was crisscrossing the country in the name of Labor claiming it would deliver true democracy to the Australian people.  

The sickly selfies were even trending with the never-ending hashtags. 

Labor knew what Australia needed. The pollsters and commentators kept telling us that Labor was what we needed – and wanted by a big majority. 

Throughout the campaign, the arrogance was simply oozing from Labor because they thought they had the 2019 election in the bag. Exhibit 1 – Chris Bowen’s flippant yet insulting “if you don’t like our policies, don’t vote for us” statement. 

But Labor failed to understand the aspirational voter. 

The same aspirational voter that Trump appealed to in 2016. The same aspirational voter that Scott Morrison appealed to in 2019. 

In 2016, the USA Democrats failed to even contemplate the fact that not everyone thought Trump was wrong. The same thing has been seen in 2020. Many people like what Trump has done in his administration. Even more have been wary of the Democrats’ hard-left policy agenda, as shown by the handbrake American voters have put on any Biden administration with their choices for Congress. 

In 2019, in Australia, not everyone thought Morrison’s Coalition was wrong either. 

People everywhere in a democracy are free to be passionate about their politics. True, at the moment in the USA, the playbook is being rewritten about passion in politics but democracy is the ability to have your say. 

In the name of democracy, Albo, you put aside past rivalries aside between yourself and Shorten, you were more than happy to be onboard that big red bus. 

You endorsed and sang about the policies of your party from the rooftops along with every other Labor Party member and fan. 

It must be remembered, after the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years following Labor’s defeat in the 2013 election, Albanese stood against Bill Shorten in the party’s leadership election. 

Although Albanese won a large majority of the rank-and-file Labor Party membership, Shorten became leader with support from Labor MP’s. Nevertheless, Albanese was appointed to Shorten’s shadow cabinet and finally got his chance to lead his beloved party after Labor’s third consecutive defeat last year. 

It looks like Albo is pretty good with the old Twitter platform. He has nearly 250,000 followers. 

I am sure he could have reached out to the Donald with his 88,500,000  followers to request personally just what he asked ScoMo to do. 

For this has been nothing but a stunt where Albanese has conflated Twitter games with our most important international relationship. 

It not only shows the Labor leader hasn’t a clue about foreign affairs and national security. 

It shows he hasn’t a clue – full stop.  

One direct tweet is all that would be needed. 

If Albanese was Australia’s Prime Minister and Morrison had suggested the same to him, he would be the first to call out the divisiveness of the request. 

Another country’s domestic policies and democratic elections are a matter for that country. 

Final results will be in soon enough. 

Then Australia will work out where it goes from here. Back in 2016, Australia said that whether it was a Trump or Clinton administration it would work with either. The same will apply with a Trump or Biden administration. Despite Albanese’s posing and posturing.  

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