New York: Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says the Coalition was “crazy” to oppose an EU free trade agreement and would be making a terrible mistake at a time when geopolitics compels Australia to build partnerships with countries other than the US.
Turnbull, who is sceptical that US leaders will return to multilateralism after Donald Trump’s presidency, said it was vital that Australia became more self-reliant in every respect.
“We should pursue our own self-interest as rigorously as Trump pursues America’s,” he said in an interview in New York.
“We’ve got to seek leverage where we can so that we’ve got more influence over global affairs. And we’ve got to build partnerships with other countries in our region and other like-minded nations.”
‘It’s in our interests to negotiate as many free trade deals as we can.’
Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull
The Coalition is poised to vote down the European Union trade agreement in the Senate, led by opposition from the Nationals – although former minister Alex Hawke warned his Liberal colleagues it would be “nutty” to do so, as this masthead revealed on Thursday.
Turnbull said he was “really disappointed” in the Coalition – which he led twice – and that it would be making a “terrible mistake” by opposing the deal.
“Particularly given that that free trade agreement negotiation commenced under a Coalition government – that is to say, mine,” he said.
“Australia is a trading nation. We have low barriers to trade, low tariffs, and we have very few barriers to foreign investment. It’s in our interests to negotiate as many free trade deals as we can.”
At a separate function at the Australian consulate in Manhattan, Turnbull said the Coalition’s opposition to the deal would be “crazy”.
“But our politics has become crazier, like everywhere,” he said. “You can’t replace the United States, but those countries that still do believe in free trade should still nonetheless work together.”
One concern raised by members of both the Liberals and Nationals is that the proposed deal locks Australia into the Paris climate accord.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor called it a “dud deal” that would make net zero legally binding.
“The Europeans will be able to drag Australia through the courts because of a so-called free trade agreement,” Taylor said. “It’s not a free trade agreement – it’s a climate agreement.”
Turnbull, who ratified the Paris Agreement as prime minister, said Australia’s free trade deal with the United Kingdom featured the same language, which was ultimately “very weak” and akin to motherhood statements.
Opposing the trade deal would be “allowing culture war political considerations to get in the way of pursuing Australia’s economic interests”, he said.
Taylor’s office declined to comment on Turnbull’s remarks.
The government does not have a majority in the Senate but could still ratify the agreement with the support of the Greens. The party has not formalised its position, but leader David Shoebridge told Politico he was “looking at it with a favourable eye”.
At a news conference on Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese adopted a similar position to Turnbull’s, noting that when he meets Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at international summits later this year, “Australia wants to be the country that [is] for free and fair trade unequivocally”.
‘A raging bull with a limp’
With Democrats likely to gain power in the US Congress at the next week’s midterm elections, and Trump serving out his second and final term, political attention is turning to what Trump’s final two years will look like, and the post-Trump world order.
Experts are divided on whether Trump – who will retain his executive power regardless of the midterm election results – will resemble a “lame duck” or a “raging bull” in his final two years.
“It’s probably a bit of both,” Turnbull said. “It’s probably a raging bull with a limp.”
But it was far from certain the US would snap back to its multilateral, free-trading instincts, he said.
Former president Joe Biden, a Democrat, kept many of the tariffs that Trump introduced in his first term, and the “America First” doctrine has broadened beyond Trump.
“I’m not confident that there’s going to be this flip back to previous values that were ones that we could share,” Turnbull said.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.