What is happening in the Middle East reflects a world where the ultimate choice is between our Judeo-Christian Western civilisation and the dangerously authoritarian Beijing-Moscow-Tehran-Pyongyang ‘Axis of Evil’.

Meanwhile, an Australian prime minister is, for the first time, pulling away from the US alliance, especially in relation to the Middle East and Beijing.

Unsurprisingly, the last thing he wants is to have to explain himself to Donald Trump.

All this coincides with the crisis resulting from the justified determination of Israel never to allow, as Benjamin Netanyahu insists, ‘those who call for our annihilation to develop the means to achieve that goal’.

When it is recalled that it was Jimmy Carter who pulled the rug from under the West’s great ally, the Shah, Barack Obama who enabled the mullahs’ acquisition of nuclear power, Joe Biden who abandoned the financial strangulation of Iran Donald Trump had engineered in his first term to bring down the regime, the West is fortunate indeed that Trump is again in the White House.

With the mullahs’ rejection of President Trump’s offer that they dismantle their nuclear power peacefully, Israel’s clinical attack on Tehran’s nuclear facilities and key personnel was inevitable.

June 2025 could be like July 1914, one of those pivotal moments in history where a particular conflict escalates into a worldwide conflagration.

Meanwhile, in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claims the people voted for ‘progressive patriotism’.

In fact, only about one-third voted Labor, which then took close to two-thirds of the seats.

As a result, the most incompetent and wasteful government Australia has ever known, one which dallies with certain Axis powers and proxies, has been rewarded with a second term.

It should never be forgotten that the government is led by a ‘hard-left’ (or, as Americans say, ‘far-left’) career politician with next to no experience outside politics.

Although presenting himself as a ‘mainstream politician’ with ‘an enduring commitment to the US alliance’, when he sought the leadership, he subsequently told the hard-left he would return to them once he was no longer leader.

Under his leadership, the picture is grim, consistent with the warning already made here that Australia could become the Argentina of the South Seas.

Everything, from the economy to education, housing, law and order, per capita income, and even our contribution to our own defence, is going backwards.

The fall in living standards has been greater than in any other advanced country.

As already suggested, Albanese is terrified of a White House meeting.

Not only did he constantly misuse the President as a bogeyman in the election, there are serious matters relating to defence and foreign policy which require some explanation to the nation which has long been seen as Australia’s only serious protection against aggression.

The four matters which are in issue are the adequacy of the government’s financial provision for our own defence, Aukus submarines, relations with Communist China and the Middle East.

First, despite Mr Albanese’s recent claim at the National Press Club that his government had the plans and policies to ‘strengthen our defence capability’, the provision is seriously inadequate.

The Rinehart Plan, referred to in this column, necessitates an allocation of 5 per cent GDP, provided that the money is spent wisely.

Second, while planning for future acquisitions is wise, it should not be used, as with Aukus, as a justification for cutting expenditure now.

Given that the proposed Aukus acquisitions are to be delivered years or even decades hence, the government’s proposed fleet consists of too many models to be manageable and they will not be nuclear-armed, the Pentagon’s review should be welcomed.

Third, the tendency under this government to act as if we are a tributary state of the Middle Kingdom, China must be a matter of concern.

Despite Beijing breaking the Free Trade Agreement and the WTO treaty to impose massive burdens and restrictions on Australian exports as punishment for the previous Coalition government’s legitimate proposal for an international inquiry into the origins of Covid, the Albanese government unbelievably blames the previous government for the problem.

Then, when Chinese naval vessels conducted provocative live-fire drills within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone causing commercial flight diversions, the government first claimed it had been informed, which proved to be untrue. Despite intelligence operations around Australia, the government meekly accepts such behaviour by Beijing.

While the government’s multibillion-dollar renewables program has led to increasingly and damagingly expensive and unreliable energy and can have absolutely no effect on the climate, it is achieving one thing. It is enriching Communist China.

Worse, a recent investigation uncovered hidden communication devices in Chinese-manufactured solar power inverters. batteries, and probably wind turbines and electric cars. These could enable the communist government control over Australian energy infrastructure.

The question which must be asked is, why is the Albanese government so accepting of China’s aggressive behaviour and working so arduously to enrich Beijing?

Fourth, the Albanese government needs to explain why it acts as if Israel were a hostile state, and why it is so tolerant of some of Tehran’s terrorist proxies.

Following the incursion into Israel by the terrorist organisation Hamas on 7 October 2023, when more Jews were killed than at any time since the Holocaust, a violent antisemitic demonstration was held on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

No arrests were made or legal action taken against them by state or federal authorities.

Antisemitic demonstrations continued across Australia with impunity.

Then in December, Albanese rebuffed a US request to send a warship to the Red Sea to counter another Iranian terrorist proxy, the Houthis, who were attacking commercial shipping.

Since then, the Albanese government has gone out of its way to attack Israel, even relying on Hamas to justify revoking a visa to a speaker raising funds for the equivalent of the Red Cross and pointlessly imposing sanctions on two Israeli ministers.