Albanese Is Facilitating Trump’s Brazen Contraventions of International Law

With the 3 January 2026 kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, the US Trump administration signalled the death knell of the edifice of international law established since World War II. And it must be understood that whilst western leaders, like Australian PM Anthony Albanese, have not directly been involved, their silence on the matter is active complicity.

The tearing down of international law commenced at apace in October 2023, when apartheid Israel began an industrial-scale genocide on the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, with western allies framing this mass murder of civilians as “self-defence”, while US president Donald Trump and his hench-secretaries have since spent the last 12 months leading up to the crescendo that is Venezuela.

In the wake of the attack on Caracas, Trump has further signalled the end of international law and order, as the drug war pretext first progressed to justify the assault was immediately discarded, as the US president admitted it was all about Venezuela’s large oil reserves. He then held a meeting with US oil barons on divvying up the spoils, and the US has just cut its first Venezuelan oil deal.

Australia’s top ministers, however, are merrily carrying on in public as if no great tearing down of international norms and conventions is taking place right now.

Indeed, prime minister Anthony Albanese and foreign minister Penny Wong have been weak or stayed silent on the theft of the Venezuelan oil industry, the Christmas Day bombing of Nigeria and ongoing plans to take Greenland.

So, complacent has Labor become as this nation’s main ally attempts to reestablish “might as right” gunboat diplomacy as an valid means of conducting oneself on the global stage, that the Albanese government has not even outright rejected an invitation for our prime minister to sit on the neo-colonial Board of Peace that is to oversee Gaza reconstruction, but it is actively considering the offer.

The blind leading the naked

“Trump’s behaviour has become unhinged and unacceptable,” said Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR) president Andrew Bartlett this week. “For the Australian government to stay silent when international law is being trashed and peaceful nations are being threatened is deeply concerning.”

“This is no joking matter,” the former Greens senator continued. “Trump has said he is going to take control of Greenland ‘whether they like it or not’, but we are yet to hear a word from the Albanese government or foreign minister Penny Wong.”

The AWPR head further pointed out that two former Australian foreign ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans have been sounding the alarm over the future of the Australia-US alliance, which has stood since World War II and formally since the signing of the 1951 ANZUS treaty. Those past Labor foreign ministers have warned that what we’re witnessing now from their party is political paralysis.

The ANZUS treaty is a formal alliance between the US, Australia and New Zealand. Yet, unlike NATO, it does not guarantee US assistance in the case of an attack upon this country. But regardless of this, the prospect of US military protection has seen Australia follow it into eight theatres of war: Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, two post-2000 interventions in Iraq, as well as Yemen and Syria.

“How many countries will Trump have to attack before our government stands up for democracy and international norms?” Bartlett questioned.

“Just last week, Trump also withdrew from 66 international organisations and treaties, including UN commissions on peacekeeping and international law. His priorities seem to be based on ruthless self-interest at the expense of other nations and even his allies.”

Nothing out of the ordinary here

In the wake of the Trump White House invasion of Caracas and the capture of its head of state, Trump confirmed on 8 January 2026, that he could not rule out using military or economic means to take control of both Greenland and the Panama Canal. The US president has also brazenly threatened to invade Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, in the wake of Maduro’s kidnapping.

As Sky News asked him about Washington’s plans to take control of Greenland, Albanese said, “I will deliver on Australia’s national interest rather than having a running commentary on what world leaders have to say about issues that don’t impact directly on Australia.”

“My job is to look after Australia’s national interest, to ensure that Australia has a positive relationship on an ongoing basis with our friends in the United States,” the PM added.

But the point that senior Labor statesmen have been making is that Australia continuing in its relationship with the USA is fast becoming diplomatic poison and to continue on with the current “friendliness” that sees Australia blindly following the US on the world stage, will soon enough propagate a smaller version of the belligerent, trigger-happy and diplomatically ignorant US.

Not only is Albanese’s approach to Washington’s multiple and ongoing violations of international law normalising these foreign interventions, as if they weren’t out of the ordinary and at risk of destroying post-World War II international order, but his refusal to outright condemn them means that on the international stage these actions appear in line with established norms.

New world disorder

Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip has been hinting at the restoration of the barbarism that was a signature of old school western colonial practices. The Trump administration’s capture of a foreign head of state to usurp the largest oil reserves on the planet in Venezuela and the White House posturing in the wake of the illegal action, has officially marked the reestablishment colonialism.

Last Friday saw the White House announce the first members of Trump’s Board of Peace, which is a neo-colonial body run by western oligarchs presiding over the reconstruction of Gaza, which will not consult with the Palestinians of the region, but rather seeks to establish an international zone in the Strip – a playground for billionaires – with locals either participating or vacating.

Those announced as appointed to the Board of Peace to make decisions upon how the land of the Palestinians should be and operate into the future reveals the colonial nature of the body, which ultimately seeks to control the Strip and its unarmed civilian population that has endured a 26-month-long and continuing military assault and starvation program.

The board will be chaired by Trump himself, whilst board members will include former UK PM Tony Blair, US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, along with more MAGA insiders, who have no established link to the region or the Palestinian people.

However, it’s now come to light that the Australian PM is weighing up whether he or another Australian representative will sit upon this board. Trump has further asked the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Canada, Argentina, the European Commission and Middle Eastern states whether they might sit on this neo-colonial board to make decisions about other peoples’ lives.

Monday’s announcement further indicates that the Board of Peace might serve as a “more nimble and effective international peace-building body” or otherwise work as a new replacement for the United Nations, which operates to maintain international order based on justice and cooperation.

So, now it is apparent that the Albanese government is not merely acting diplomatically weak in respect of Trump’s unbridled trashing of international norms that have underpinned the global order since the mid-1940s, but Canberra is now considering becoming part of active manoeuvres to not only undermine the international order, but to replace it with a neo-colonial board of might.