Obama Visit

There were two people at Wednesday’s state dinner for US President Barack Obama at Parliament House who seemed a bit out of sorts. The first was the man who until recently had looked like our de facto prime minister, Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown. The second was our alternative prime minister, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who in the past fortnight has gone from being a dead-cert for PM to being the subject of criticism from conservatives about an election strategy based more on opposing things than proposing things.

As President Obama stood at the end of Parliament’s Great Hall in front of that remarkable tapestry of the Australian bush landscape, hand on his heart as The Star Spangled Banner played, Bob Brown grudgingly lifted himself from his seat to join in the standing ovation. Brown, the man who had shouted across the parliamentary chamber at Bill Clinton on his 1997 Australian visit, was up on his pegs and deferring to the Leader of the Free World, a man who represents pretty much everything Brown loathes.

The symbolism of it was one thing. Of more interest is the enormous and important policy shifts in defence and regional security which Prime Minister Gillard and President Obama have presided over this past fortnight which have helped Labor put some long-overdue distance between itself and its partner in power.

Continue reading "Bob and Tony’s awkward night with Obama" »

President Obama has now delayed his trip to Australia until June. My bet is that he will visit sometime after the 12th when his daughters finish school, but before the 25th when the G8 and G20 meet in Canada. You heard it here first.

President Obama is quickly developing a reputation as a bad guest in Asia.

Despite all the pronouncements that he is the first “Pacific President”, he hardly has much to show for it. In 2009, he visited Europe five times and Asia once.

Continue reading "Obama’s trip will now be a holiday of sorts" »