LATIKA M BOURKE: It’s advantage Albanese as Trump threat overtakes China fears in security stakes

When a Chinese “research vessel” sailed into Australia’s exclusive economic zone, it was the foreign policy intrusion the Coalition had been waiting for - if not secretly hoping might happen - during the Federal election campaign.

But try as they might, the Opposition is unlikely to be successful in forcing the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on to its preferred territory of national security because, for the first time in at least a decade, the President who represents the greatest foreign policy disturbance of an Australian election campaign will not be Xi Jinping but Donald Trump.

And counterintuitively, this could work in favour of the Labor leader more than it does Peter Dutton.

While the PM has hit his stride this campaign and is performing better than any of his colleagues have ever previously observed, his perceived “weakness”, particularly when it comes to defence and national security, remains his major vulnerability.

On Monday, he veered into this territory again when questioned by The Nightly about whether he’d communicated any of his concerns directly to the Chinese.

He hadn’t and despite admitting that he would “prefer” the ship weren’t off the South Australian coast, he again equated Australia’s actions to China’s by claiming that Australian research vessels operate in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, effectively defending China’s actions, despite the Chinese Communist Party deploying civilian resources for military purposes also.

The Opposition Leader seized on what he said was a “completely offensive” false “equivalence”.

“The Prime Minister needs to explain that statement, he’s made it now on multiple occasions, ” he said.

“He does it in a way to try and dismiss what’s happening. This is a test that the Prime Minister has failed.

“Weakness does not prevail in difficult circumstances.”

The Coalition revived the situation that occurred earlier this year when the Government was only alerted to a Chinese fleet of warships live firing in the Tasman Sea by a Virgin airlines pilot.

Just before Mr Albanese walked into his April Fools press conference in Adelaide, in the Labor-held seat of Boothby, the Office of the United States Trade Representative released a full list of its grievances with countries’ trading policies.

For Australia, it cited the refusal to accept American beef, pork, cooked chicken, pears, apples, the news media bargaining code, the failure to compensate US investors in a cancelled NSW mining project and Australian content requirements being considered for streaming platforms.

When he was Opposition leader, Mr Albanese confessed that Mr Trump: “Scares the shit out of me”.

When asked by The Nightly if he was still frightened by Mr Trump, Mr Albanese did not directly respond.

Instead, he insisted that he had a “constructive relationship” with Mr Trump.

The definition of this is about to be tested.

Mr Albanese has been gradually toughening up his language in response to Mr Trump. The ugly Oval Office episode whereby the President and his Vice-President JD Vance tore strips of Ukraine’s popular wartime leader Volodomyr Zelensky has turned many voters around the world against Mr Trump including in Australia.

While there might be sympathy with many of the Make America Great Again movement’s concerns, such as China’s exploitation of the global system to achieve its superpower rival status, there is horror, shock and disgust at its methods.

The spectacle of Kid Rock, dressed in garish costume standing next to Mr Trump in the Oval Office only underlined the spite underlying MAGA’s decision to target Mr Zelensky because he wore combat clothes rather than a suit and tie when he went to the White House.

That was a turning point, triggering the backlash now showing up in surveys measuring attitudes toward Mr Trump, such as Tuesday’s Resolve poll published by Nine which found the number of Australians who believe Trump’s re-election has been bad for Australia jumped by a whopping 20 points to 60 per cent compared to November’s findings.

It is this mood that makes it easier for leaders who were previously timid to take on Mr Trump and MAGA to find their voice.

As Mr Albanese did on Tuesday when he singled out three things that he said were not up for negotiation, medicines, biosecurity and the news bargaining code.

“Those issues are not up for negotiation from the Australian government,” he told reporters.

“We will defend Australia’s interests.

“The idea that we would weaken biosecurity laws, is really, as my mum would say, cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

He said that undermining Australia’s entire biosecurity for the sake of five per cent of exports to the United States was not worth it.

“Not of my watch, we will negotiate sensibly but we won’t undermine the biosecurity system.”

Peter Navarro, the President’s trade adviser, claims the tariffs will raise $US6 trillion

Australia has not been told yet what tariffs if any are coming down the line to mark Mr Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day.”

Which means we could see a repeat — in the middle of an election campaign — of the same spectacle that occurred when the steel tariffs were imposed — the Australian Government learnt of the duties via the media instead of directly from our closest security partner.

Which sets this election up as a contest between who can stand up to, not to the Chinese Communist Party, but the erratic leader of our closest ally.

Asked if a failure to secure an exemption to tariffs would reflect on Mr Trump or Mr Albanese, Mr Dutton refrained from saying a negative outcome would be an indictment on the PM.

He knows he must tread a fine line between questioning Mr Albanese’s foreign policy credentials and appearing to blame Team Australia for Trump’s indiscriminate punitive policies.

“I have the strength of leadership and the experience to stand up to the President of the United States or anyone else if they are acting against our country’s interest,” Mr Dutton said.

Unfortunately for the Coalition, if the more immediate test is a show of strength against Trump versus China this election, there’s no baked-in advantage for Mr Dutton with Mr Albanese growing more assured in how far to push the dial in responding to this new America.