Nat Barr has suggested Anthony Albanese might need to apologise to Donald Trump after footage emerged of him saying Trump ‘scared the sh** out of him.
The Prime Minister made the remarks when he was the opposition transport and infrastructure spokesman in 2017, but they resurfaced this week ahead of Trump’s overnight victory in the US election.
The Sunrise host spoke to Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Thursday morning and asked whether the PM had personally called to congratulate the President-elect.
‘When he calls him, will he say, ”Look, I’m really sorry, Donald, for those [comments] years ago [when] I said you scare the sh** out of me?”‘Barr asked.
Senator Wong replied that the PM would concentrate on ‘s strategic partnership with the US rather than his personal comments.
‘I think they’ll probably focus on the issues critical to ‘s interest, obviously AUKUS and we’ve been pleased to see bipartisan support for that.’
The AUKUS deal is a $368billion security pact between , the US and the UK that will deliver a fleet of nuclear submarines to from 2040.
Barr noted that Trump’s former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, previously said the AUKUS pact could be torn up under a second Trump presidency.
‘Now that Trump is back in, do you think the deal will survive?’ Barr asked.
‘We’re confident in the bipartisan support for AUKUS,’ Wong replied.
‘It’s been a priority for the Government and our ambassador leading up to the election and we were pleased to see legislation passed in Congress to support AUKUS.
‘This project spans many governments and decades, so it needs strong political support across all three countries.’
Barr then pointed out ‘s ambassador the US, Kevin Rudd, had made comments slamming Trump.
‘Kevin Rudd once called Donald Trump ”nuts” and ”a traitor to the West”, do you think given those comments and our Prime Minister’s past remarks, Trump will see us as a bunch of wild Aussies?’ Barr asked.
Wong replied that President Trump struck her ‘as a pretty robust individual’ and wouldn’t be offended by the comments.
‘I’d say the alliance is bigger than any individual or past comments. Kevin Rudd has been an excellent ambassador, delivering a great deal for , and I have full confidence in him,’ Wong said.
Asked how he would ‘deal with Trump’ in 2017 at a Splendour in the Grass Q+A, Mr Albanese replied: ‘With trepidation.’
But pressed further, he expanded his answer.
‘Well, you’ve got to deal with who is elected,’ he said, six months into Trump’s first administration.
‘We have an alliance with the US, we’ve got to deal with him, but that doesn’t mean that you’re uncritical about it.
‘He [Trump] scares the sh** out of me and I think it’s of some concern the leader of the free world thinks that you can conduct politics through 140 characters on Twitter overnight.’
Asked if he would say that to Trump’s face, the PM said he would ‘probably be more polite than that.’