Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton are lining up firmly behind their European allies at the expense of Australia’s essential friendship with America.

I say essential because if the Pacific goes pear-shaped, which it very well might, it will be America – not the luvvies of Europe – who come to our aid.

That’s assuming President Donald Trump remains unaware of our current US Ambassador and doesn’t look too closely at the censorial social media policies of our major parties.

Regardless of what your personal position is on the complexity of European conflict, there is an undeniable rift opening in Australia’s domestic politics.

It is set to have an unpredictable influence on the outcome of the looming Federal Election.

This divide has formed between the major parties and the right-leaning freedom parties, both of whom have an overlapping customer base of wandering conservatives and disaffected Old Labor supporters who despise the anti-masculine line of Woke and would quite like their manufacturing and mining jobs back.

When asked the hypothetical of what Australia would do if Ukraine requested peacekeeping troops, Labor Leader Anthony Albanese said he was ‘open’ to it.

‘Well,’ he replied, ‘our position on Ukraine is very clear. We stand with the people of Ukraine and we stand with President Zelenskyy. And the brave struggle of the people of Ukraine to defend their natural sovereignty, but also what they’re fighting for is the international rule of law.

‘Now, Australia stands ready to assist. We have contributed $1.5 billion with $1.3 billion for military assistance directly. There’s discussion at the moment about potential peacekeeping. And from my government’s perspective, we’re open to consideration of any proposals going forward, as Australia has historically played an important role in areas including in Africa, in Cyprus, in a range of peacekeeping areas … if a request was made, we would give consideration to it.’

What Albanese forgets is that there is peacekeeping and peacekeeping, the latter being a situation where soldiers are likely to die rather than observe.

Dutton’s position runs the same headline of support for Zelenskyy and Ukraine, but he must be aware that the conservative vote is a bit shaky on the issue. He said:

‘We should continue to provide support to Ukraine. We have been involved in training and providing support to Ukraine soldiers and I think that should continue. In terms of if we should have boots on the ground, in Ukraine, I don’t see that. I think the Europeans have the task but what Donald Trump pointed out is the Europeans need to do more in the defence of Europe and that is a statement of the obvious.’

While it may seem as if Dutton is playing it slightly safer with America, he said shortly after this that he would ‘lobby’ Donald Trump to ‘reconsider his position’.

‘My job as Prime Minister will be to lobby the President of the United States to reconsider his position in relation to Ukraine. But I think it’s in all of our collective best interests if we’re able to provide support to Ukraine, and that’s something I’m dedicated to.’

Dutton is welcome to try, but the likely outcome is a pile of tariffs and untold damage to the friendship. What Dutton either does not acknowledge publicly, or is unaware of privately, is that America is using Ukraine as a way to force the ungrateful European nations of Nato to finally start taking responsibility for their security.

As for assisting Russia in the war against Ukraine, no one is more guilty than Europe.

The European Union has given Russia more money in exchange for its oil and gas (21.9 billion euros) than it has spent on the defence of Ukraine (18.7 billion euros). They are throwing piles of money on both sides of the fence and Trump correctly lost his patience with their virtue-seeking hypocrisy.

Even if you wish to take the position of the publications who admit those numbers are correct but that a wider net should be used to calculate total aid, it does not undo their dependency on Russia to keep the lights on.

Yesterday, the European Union missed its 100-day promise when it paused a plan to end reliance on Russian fossil fuel and nuclear energy. It simply cannot cut itself off, meaning Russia holds the final card against Europe.

‘We are still moving forward with the Roadmap,’ said the EU. ‘It is being prepared, but the timing has changed in light of the latest geopolitical developments.’

Why are they doing this? Because their green energy revolution crippled the grid. The socialist-Left of the European elite created the conditions for war through their negligence.

The Trump Administration is in talks to replace Russia as the chief supplier of oil and gas to the European Union, which makes the whispers of Trump empowering Russia rather absurd. Trump would not rob himself of a lucrative deal when his primary goal is repairing the US Treasury.

French President Macron has been presenting himself as the leader of the European Union, shaking a lot of hands and making a lot of dangerous speeches about war with Russia.

He does this as Russian gas flows through French ports like illegal migrants hop on boats in Calais bound for the UK.

Guess who else buys Russian oil … Australia.

According to a report, despite Australia placing sanctions on Russia, we can still use a loophole to purchase it via Turkey and India.

This is where Albanese and Dutton sit, but what about the right-leaning independents?

One Nation is the closest to the centre line on this issue with Senator Malcolm Roberts saying that we must ‘completely reject any call to put Australian Army boots on the ground in Ukraine. The Australian Defence Force should be for exactly that. Defence of Australia.’

And in an earlier discussion he said:

‘I informed the Senate that it had lost its way by focusing too much on international conflicts and spending over a billion dollars on Ukraine while neglecting to fund essential healthcare and hospitals in Queensland and other parts of Australia. This obsession in providing international aid is misplaced when our own homeless and vulnerable citizens are struggling to access the basic necessities needed for survival.’

Senator Gerard Rennick of People First has long argued that Australia should re-direct Ukraine aid to Australia calling this war ‘nothing but a bloodbath’. In October of 2024 he said:

‘If politicians want to commit to the Ukraine cause, they should send themselves or their children, not taxpayer-funded military equipment. Australians are sick and tired of being involved in foreign wars.’

Most recently in March of this year: ‘Our closest ally is the United States. Not only is it our closest ally, it is the only ally that can defend Australia. What goes on in Europe has nothing to do with Australia … the idea that Dutton can persuade Trump to do anything is not only laughable, it is downright dangerous … the Deep State Democrats took over Ukraine in a coup in 2014 and remote-controlled it into a war designed to bleed Russia to the last Ukrainian. Defending Ukraine has nothing to do with defending democracy.’

Libertarian MLC for NSW John Ruddick said yesterday, ‘The Ukraine War is the Left’s new mass formation psychosis.’ A few days earlier, he posted a map of Ukraine broken down by native Russian speakers adding, ‘These ethnic Russians accidentally ended up in Ukraine thanks to the Soviet’s rejigging what was then a meaningless border during the USSR.’ And in February:

‘The Ukraine War is an ethno-border dispute. Most corrupt industry on Earth is also the biggest weapons manufacturing. The snouts in the trough want to escalate this border dispute into a superpower standoff.’

Fellow Libertarian and also former Liberal MP Craig Kelly has pinned a tweet from his party that reads: ‘We stand for a non-interventionist, Australia First foreign policy. And we mean it. Many of you know we oppose Australian involvement in Ukraine, but we also stand against foreign intervention in Israel and Gaza … if you thought your money was only going to Israel, you’d be mistaken. After being used to bomb Gaza, your money is then sent as humanitarian aid to the survivors.’

UAP Senator Ralph Babet is likely the most outspoken on the topic, at least on social media. He released a video discussing his views titled Zelenskyy has been exposed to the world where he describes modern Ukraine as a relatively new invention. ‘The division between Ukraine and Russia was provoked, not by Russian aggression, but by Western interference.’ In an earlier tweet he adds:

‘Are you ready to stand with Labor, Liberal, and Nationals to send Australian men to die in Ukraine to further the globalist agenda? If you think that the establishment in Australia isn’t going to send troops into Ukraine when/if the time comes then you’ve not been paying attention.’ And, ‘Zelenskyy is a man who is burning his country to the ground so he can rule over the ashes.’

This matters, because there are plenty of voters in both major parties sympathetic to the minor party anti-war perspective. Even if you disagree with them, they are statistically present and they will make themselves known in what’s shaping up to be a cost-of-living election, even if Albo tries to frame it as Mediscare and Dutton desperately orients it toward defence.