EDITORIAL: Penny Wong the wrong person to win American’s favour

Australian steel and aluminium exports to the US face punishing 50 per cent tariffs.

From July 9 every single other item sent to our third largest trading partner will be subject to levies of 10 per cent.

AUKUS, once touted as the “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to foster international co-operation and boost peace and stability in the Pacific, is at risk with the Americans undertaking a 30-day review of the submarine deal — seemingly in retaliation for Australia’s military budget intransigence.

And US President Donald Trump has made it clear where Australia stands in his list of priorities, standing Anthony Albanese up and making no effort to schedule a make-up session.

Australia’s relationship with its No.1 security ally is at its lowest ebb in memory.

And into this fray we are sending . . . Penny Wong.

The Foreign Minister is off to Washington to meet with her counterparts in the Quad strategic partnership, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The fact that it is Ms Wong, whose procrastination in backing the US’s recent strike action against Iran and repeated conflation of Israel with Hamas’s terrorist leadership has won her few friends in the Republican administration, who is being deployed at this critical juncture is deeply worrying.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is seemingly no closer to securing a long awaited meeting with Mr Trump.

The earliest opportunity for a sit-down is believed to be in September, when Mr Albanese is scheduled to travel to the US to address the United Nations. That would make it 10 months since Mr Trump’s election, and eight since his inauguration, that the Prime Minister and the President have gone with just a handful of phone calls between them.

All the while tensions continue to simmer — over AUKUS, over tariffs and over whether Australia is pulling its weight in our military alliance.

It’s a worrisome situation and one Mr Albanese appears content to play out, unwilling to risk further damage to his ego after Mr Trump blew him off having left the G7 summit in Canada early to deal with the conflict in the Middle East.

Mr Albanese says Australia is continuing to lobby for an exemption to Mr Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, with diplomats working behind the scenes on making the nation’s case.

No doubt that’s true. But it’s clear that those efforts have so far entirely failed to secure any traction.

This is not a problem that will be resolved through diplomats — particularly if those diplomats are Kevin Rudd, who Mr Trump has a public, personal dislike for. Nor is it likely that Ms Wong will secure any meaningful wins.

Australia’s best chance of repairing our relationship with our most important ally comes will come at the highest level.

That means Mr Albanese needs to get to DC sooner rather than later to meet with Mr Trump. And when he does so, he needs to be armed with arguments stronger than those already tried and failed.