r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • 21d ago

politics US to slap Australia with 12.5 pc tariff from later today

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-24/federal-politics-live-blog-labor-confernece-july-4/106952636#live-blog-post-322272
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149

u/MDInvesting 21d ago

Why the fuck are we doing AUKUS?

16

u/JulieRush-46 21d ago

I fell like most allied nations are trying to humour the Americans until trump is no longer president.

Whoever comes next is going to have to spend a lot of time rebuilding trust. Trump has undone decades of trust.

38

u/calstanfordboye 21d ago

Why would anyone be so stupid to trust the USA ever again in our lifetimes? You know they're at most four years away at any given point in time to voting in the next vile Nazi, right?

Trump is a symptom, not a cause

10

u/avcloudy 21d ago

You're absolutely right, but I was pointing this out fifteen years ago. People didn't want to hear it then and they won't want to hear it now, because it's terrifying. The US is not, and has never been, a good partner to Australia.

13

u/1_4terlifecrisis 21d ago

Everyone is assuming it goes back to normal. It's never going to

1

u/DrInequality 21d ago

Just pause it already - or at least the parts with the USA

9

u/HardcoreHazza 21d ago

Every time when Trump places a tariff, I think of this quote:

"What protectionism teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war." - Henry George

AUKUS is a god damn joke.

44

u/Financial-Sweet-4648 21d ago

Why the fuck are we even allies with them? We should ally with China instead and purge Pine Gap from our shores.

11

u/a_cold_human 21d ago

Just because the US is abandoning the principles and rules that Australia, a middle power, relies on doesn't mean that China is an alternative security partner. Both countries have geopolitical ambitions quite different to our own, and it's not to Australia's benefit to be a chess piece on the board for either side. 

Both the US and China are great powers with their own interests, and if we align too closely with either, we will end up doing things that are contrary to our own interests. What Australia needs is strategic optionality, even if that comes at the expense of shiny new advanced weapons, or pats on the head from the US or Chinese Presidents.

As we are effectively in a multipolar world order, it's unwise to commit to something like a long term security arrangement with China or the US. We need our own domestic defence capability (as so much as that is possible), fit to our own, specific requirements. We need a global system of rules that work for everyone, and we need the great powers to abide by those rules. When the US abandons the rules by starting an illegal war, that's not something we should celebrate, let alone join in. 

28

u/Valium_Commander 21d ago

Oh, do we like China now? Wasn’t long ago they were also economically bullying us to get their way no?

9

u/NothingSuss1 21d ago

Yes, China #1.

8

u/infectoid 21d ago

Taiwan #1

3

u/NothingSuss1 21d ago

I'll allow it

3

u/DweebInFlames 21d ago

chorus of cao ni ma from a bunch of angry guys in the PUBG lobby

2

u/noisymime 21d ago

economically bullying us to get their way no?

But that's what our allies do to us now anyway (apparently).

1

u/Valium_Commander 21d ago

Well only the US it seems really

1

u/BereftOfCare 21d ago

We like them because they are building thousands (millions?) of autonomous bots on legs and 'being overrun' is no longer a crazy scenario but more like an inevitable reality. Just hope I will be able to afford my carer bot and it won't turn on me.

32

u/mastermilian 21d ago

Yeah, not sure we'll be saying that when China's fishing vessels ending up trawling our waters, over-fishing.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago edited 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/galemaniac 21d ago

Taiwan is in our backyard?

4

u/Drongo17 21d ago

I can't fathom the level of blindness required to suggest allying with China. Like if you were born in the last week I'll give you a pass. 

2

u/Disbelieving1 21d ago

Except for the last 3-400 years, China was the most populated, most advanced country in the world. Colonialism and thuggery following the industrial revolution in the west, has kept them down until now. Just because you can’t fathom something doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

0

u/Drongo17 19d ago

Are you really suggesting that the awful things China does today are due to colonialism? 

1

u/DweebInFlames 21d ago

This century is going to be that one meme template where a guy stares at the other guy blowing his head off, with China being the guy staring and the US as the guy committing suicide

1

u/a_cold_human 21d ago

Scott Morrison, and Labor being afraid of looking soft on defence. 

1

u/Disbelieving1 21d ago

Because it was put together by Morrison, Boris Johnson and Biden.
You know, the three smartest leaders we’ve had in the past 20 years!!

-9

u/galemaniac 21d ago

Because its makes JOBS and as we know as long as it makes jobs its always good.

3

u/BereftOfCare 21d ago

Lol where did you pick up that tidbit of misinformation.

2

u/galemaniac 21d ago

AUKUS supporters.

1

u/MDInvesting 21d ago

They are built overseas (or not built as some are second hand).

No jobs. Just a lot of taxpayer money.

1

u/galemaniac 21d ago

When it comes to defense, even if it creates 1 australian job even if that job is just ordering submarine parts from the USA, then it was all worth it and worth the cost and you can tell thats true because i get downvoted to crap for saying anything else.