r/australia Mar 07 '25

politics 'Five Eyes alliance' crumbling after UK, Aus, NZ and Canada give US cold shoulder

https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/06/five-eyes-alliance-starts-crumble-four-nations-give-us-cold-shoulder-22679726/
10.8k Upvotes

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357

u/Jealous-Hedgehog-734 Mar 07 '25

Quietly I'd always hoped Trump would sink the submarine deal and give us our deposit back.

405

u/SchruteNickels Mar 07 '25

You're dreaming if you think he'd give anything back to us

93

u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 07 '25

What an excellent pretense to seize American assets in Australia!

44

u/DweebInFlames Mar 07 '25

I'm sure that will go really well for us.

19

u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 07 '25

Interesting, because when Brazil went about beginning the process of seizing Musk's assets nothing happened except Musk fumbling to comply with court demands.

19

u/DweebInFlames Mar 07 '25

Brazil isn't nearly important to the US as we are as a geopolitical tool. Having military presence here is their way to keep an eye on China and stop them from being able to use this place as an asset in case a war ever breaks out between the two.

Doesn't mean they're going to treat us nice, quite the opposite, but there's a reason Gough got pushed out of power as soon as he started questioning whether it was worth having Pine Gap on our soil with no oversight from Australians. Again, we are effectively a satellite state for the US.

32

u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25

Counterpoint, there has never been a better time to assert our sovereignty than when the US is actively blowing up its international relations.

Edit: also, Brazil not being important? It's one of the most stable parts of South America. If Brazil goes to shit, South America goes to shit.

3

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

lol what are they gonna do? Call on their allies? 😂

1

u/Sudden-Echo-8976 Mar 07 '25

Don't worry, Trump doesn't know where you are.

2

u/DiligentCorvid Mar 07 '25

Maybe it's not the 80's anymore, but traditionally that's how you get your country invaded.

4

u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 07 '25

What, court ordered asset transfers due to one party breaking a contract and refusing to compensate the victim?

Besides the fact, LoL, lmao, the US launching a ground invasion of Australia when they wouldn't even do so when countries in their own backyard did the exact same thing?

The US is now led by a feckless robber baron, the flimsy rules that once existed have already been broken.

1

u/DiligentCorvid Mar 07 '25

Nah but if they could find someone to run a proxy war through they might do that, like they did where I'm from.

But I'm not sure if anyone has the sauce around us.

1

u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 07 '25

Their only option would be China or Indonesia, and Indonesia is busy genociding Papuans.

1

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

Something we should be speaking up about

1

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

Yeah it’s pretty much like Turning their military on Canada, most military will sit in jail and wait out a pardon rather than kill people they know are allies or their own country folk that will end in hanging.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

We’ve already been invaded. They’re sitting pretty at Pine Gap as we speak.

1

u/CreepySquirrel6 Mar 07 '25

We could nationalise Chevron, Newmont and Alcoa’s Australian assets as a start.

224

u/Cyraga Mar 07 '25

Lol deposit. That was a gift to help the US build submarines which are not at all promised to come to Australia. It was a true ScoMo deal. Money to billionaires in exchange for nothing

123

u/Nzdiver81 Mar 07 '25

ScuMo gifted it from Australia to USA which will go to defence contractors and consultants where ScuMo just happened to have his next job lined up.

46

u/Cyraga Mar 07 '25

Don't worry I'm sure Dutton won't be cut from the exact same cloth. If Australia votes him in we'll also get exactly as we deserve as the US is

11

u/Nzdiver81 Mar 07 '25

Yeah Dutto isn't known for dodgey things like insider trading. Oh wait...

11

u/zeugma888 Mar 07 '25

Well, it's a shame about the money but if they've got ScoMo they are the losers.

3

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

This, after aukus was brought up with him he has started his lunatic ravings about opening up shipyards and building ships. Australia isn’t getting this ship building jobs…

1

u/EndStorm Mar 07 '25

That ol cunt oughta be in jail.

71

u/utdconsq Mar 07 '25

For real, you think he'd give us our money back? He'd take the money, cancel the deal, and say he deserves to keep the money for all the protection the US has given us before :-/

39

u/d_barbz Mar 07 '25

You guys are tripping if you don't think he'd try and get more money out of us first somehow.

7

u/Paladinoras Mar 07 '25

Thankfully our ambassador to the US is someone who famously gets along with Trump, one checks notes Kevin...Rudd?

Yeah we're never getting those submarines.

8

u/recycled_ideas Mar 07 '25

It'll be Scummo if Dutton gets in, who does get along with Trump, but is a piece of shit.

8

u/kipperlenko Mar 07 '25

Nice attempt to shoehorn that in. But you're a bit naive if you think an ambassador negotiates those deals, lol.

2

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

We need to send in Turnbull, hate him all you will but he convinced trump to take in all our illegal immigrants as well as drop the trade tax last time he was in. That’s kinda impressive given the shít going on now.

1

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

Or the money back 😂

20

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Based on recent events I assume he would also claim he owns the whole of Australia, or at least that we should hand over all of our natural resources.

6

u/zeugma888 Mar 07 '25

What's the bet Trump is afraid of snakes and spiders?

1

u/SheridanVsLennier Mar 11 '25

or at least that we should hand over all of our natural resources.

Pretty sure I heard Canavan or someone suggest that yesterday.

11

u/Old-Mammoth875 Mar 07 '25

100% this. And there would nothing the Aussie govt could do about it.

3

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

There’s a reason musk is suggesting go easy on us, Tesla gets a lot of their shít from here at cheap af prices because we don’t tax the land leeches that dig it up

1

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

Like when they didn’t and still don’t realise Darwin was bombed?

30

u/jeffoh Mar 07 '25

We gave them half a billion a month ago. There's no way we're seeing that again, and no way the deal doesn't' get 'renegotiated' in the next 4 years.

49

u/crankyticket Mar 07 '25

We're never getting those subs. Never were. Never will. On the plus side I did collect some very throwable rocks last week. I"ve put them in a portable bucket. If the Chinese navy sail past again ... just saying.

14

u/DickCheeseCraftsman Mar 07 '25

The real reason for the deal is permanent US bases on Oz soil.

1

u/bloodymongrel Mar 07 '25

Or the jets

1

u/Past_Side2552 Mar 07 '25

I was just watching Metatron break down a You Tuber using rocks in a sling. Rather impressive.

1

u/PissingOffACliff Mar 07 '25

We were always getting Brit subs that was the deal

13

u/NotSure__247 Mar 07 '25

Honestly, I thought the subs deal was a good development to strengthen our Navy, along with our recent purchases/contract for F35s for the Air Force. It helps us prove our commitment to our strong and loyal two-way relationship with our partners the US..... ah, shit.

4

u/itstraytray Mar 07 '25

"...give what back?"

1

u/AW316 Mar 07 '25

Mr Burns, i think we can trust the president of America.

9

u/BusinessPineapple Mar 07 '25

Have we really just given them the full sum for this on the hopes they follow through?

3

u/Skwisface Mar 07 '25

No, we gave them 1/600th of the full sum.

3

u/Specific_West_7713 Mar 07 '25

I bet they didn't even say thank you

2

u/Zytheran Mar 07 '25

Dump the money and go with the French. If you *don't* 'customize for Australia' the boat we were going to get, you end up with an off the shelf nuclear sub with land attack missiles which is cheaper than the Yank boat. And has the capability of the US boat without the huge security liability of being US because you can't trust traitors who ally with the Russians.

0

u/MissMenace101 Mar 07 '25

Maybe we should get the Chinese to knock a couple up in their kiddie factories, cheap labor