It is time for the Australian government to take a clear and firm stand for justice, equality and moral independence from the current US administration, as the US spirals further into chaos both internally and on the world stage.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is making unlawful arrests and shooting US citizens in the streets. Minnesota ICU nurse Alex Pretti is the most recent victim of five shootings in January involving federal agents, including the fatal shooting of Renee Good on 7 January.
In the meantime Donald Trump has been attempting to coerce unimpressed NATO allies into letting him take over Greenland, if necessary by force, with threats of tariffs. Trump has set up a farcical Board of Peace for Gaza, naming himself as its lifelong head (not the US President). Membership of the ‘peace’ board, which comes with a one billion dollar price tag, has been offered to dictatorial countries like Russia and Belarus. In a January 2026 interview with The New York Times, he told the world that his authority as commander in chief of the US is constrained only by his ‘own morality’ and ‘own mind’, dismissing the relevance of international law to his decision-making. Australia, historically an ally of the US, should clearly articulate the dangers of a ‘might is right’ world order.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney cut through the rhetoric of appeasement recently. He told the crowd at Davos that the old order was dead, and in the new world middle powers needed to stand up together against the bullying tactics Trump is using across both the US and the world. Trump promptly univited Canada from the Board of Peace, proving Carney’s point that even historical ‘friends’ will be bullied by Trump.
The question is, where is Australia’s voice for reality, justice, and equality? Where is our voice that says we are building alternative relationships throughout the world in trade, and calling for justice and equality that we are proud to stand up for?
Why are we not untying the knot that binds us to an increasingly destabilising power like the US? There is endless evidence of Trump’s outright lies, including the denial of climate science by Trump even as Australians see floods wash cars into the ocean on the Great Ocean Road and Victorian residents are told to evacuate due to fire risk – all in the same week.
We need to decouple from the US, end AUKUS, and begin to secure our country by building values-based relationships with other countries who are able to, and willing to, take a stand and be a voice for reason. We need to stop passively supporting the US and look to taking an active role in a future in which we can stand strong against ‘great powers’, as Carney put it.
It is time to join in making ‘a dense web of connections across trade, investment, culture on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities,’ as Carney proposed, so that ‘middle powers act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu’.
Aslan Shand, editor
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
