YouSaid · the spoken record

Malcolm Turnbull

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61
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2026-06-28
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2026-06-28
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  1. “That were detained on islands in the Pacific, detained by Kevin Wright, I might add, but that's another story. The deal with Obama was that they would be resettled in the United States, and in return we would help the Americans out for some of their asylum seeker issues. And when I say that it was a deal, it began in the Oval Office with a handshake, but it was a signed agreement between the two governments. You know, the United States of America, the Commonwealth of Australia. We were initially told by Trump's people that he would stick with it. He obviously didn't like the deal, and he would stick with it. Then just before I was due to have a call with him, his National Security Advisor Rang Mine, Mike Pence rang my deputy truly bishop, and said the PM must not mention that this is not going to happen. President's not going to do it. And actually, I had to raise it with him.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “I had never done business with Trump, so I didn't know him, but I knew a lot of people who knew him very well, right? And so we knew a lot about each other. I was very fortunate. In that our first proper interaction was a gigantic row. I had done a deal with Barack Obama to resettle asylum seekers.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Our own sovereignty and seek to mitigate those dependencies wherever we can. Because the US, we all grew up with, is not the US we are dealing with today, very sadly. And big mistake on their part, but it's not. We have to look at the world in a clear-eyed manner.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “What he said. He didn't use that word, what the national defence strategy said was, and I quote, it is a cloud castle abstraction. Now, you know, that's a posh way of saying it's BS. He says might is right. He says America first. He is prepared to use the dependencies that close friends and allies have developed over time as leverage in order to extract advantage for the United States at the expense of the United States friends. So this is a gigantic change and we can't, we can say, well, maybe this is a blip and it'll all be over in a couple of years. I don't think so. I think this is a big change. And we have to, Mark Carney spoke very eloquently about it at Davos earlier in the year. We've got to focus on ourselves.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “It certainly does. I'm a great believer and I've talked about it when I was in office before I was in office since I was in office in strategic autonomy. The only people we can rely on in a pinch are ourselves, are our fellow countrymen and women. And so if you're an Australian or if you're a Brit, you've got to look to your own sovereignty. Sovereignty really matters. Again, this is one of the other problems with AUCUS. It's a sacrifice sovereignty for the sake of security and as the French Foreign Minister said at the time, we'll end up with us losing both. And I think he was right. In terms of the US, I mean, look, Australia and the UK, each of us have very, very close ties with the US. We feel very much at home, but we cannot ignore the reality of Trump. You know, Donald Trump has said the rules-based order is bullshit.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Japan, yes, draw Japan is again, as Japan is important, seen as a strategic partner in a way that just would have been unthinkable to, say, my parents' generation. Australians generally regard Japan with great affection. There is now a lot of tourism between Australia and Japan. So yes, Australians are very familiar with Japan. It's really sweet of you You've been in the US too long. Let's not fall into that. In my view, there's only one person you should call Prime Minister, and that's the Prime Minister.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “China is very important to Australia at many, many levels and we do not want to be put in a position of choosing between China and the United States. You know, the UK is important, I suppose, in a historical family connection, but it doesn't feature a lot in our geopolitical thinking, Aucus notwithstanding, and the European Union is obviously important because it's big. You know, we've got many, many connections there. We look like we're getting a free trade deal done with the Europeans at long last, which a process I kicked off, I might say, many years ago, but which got dynamited by the orcus. So you guys would remember the French were very aggrieved. They were misled and lied to. And, you know, withdrew their ambassadors and so forth.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “I think the most important would be a toss up between China and the US for sure. I mean, the US is Strategic partner. Econom Trading partner is China Also, With population of 27 million, there's probably now well over one and a half billion Australians of Chinese heritage, including two of our four grandchildren.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Partner on those, and then the Australian should come along with that as well. Would be the sensible outcome. Know you guys know the animosities across the channel better than I do. I've never been able to understand them They're very intense. So there it is. So I'm sorry, I don't have, I'm not I'm not a fan of the deal, but I'm an Australian, you see, so Got my own country's interest to look after.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Can't maintain them. Most of your submar Your SSNs can't go to sea. In UK circles Dreadful lack of investment The UK Submarine industrial base. Got you into that situation. By contrast, France is doing a much better job, I might say. Be honest, I mean, Paul Keating, Alistair mentioned him. Summed it up really well. AUCUS was announced in San Diego. He said there are three leaders Set of this In San Diego, but there's only one of them bringing the money. Sadly, that's our bloke. I'm afra It is so I'm not What the answer is If I was the British Prime Minister, I'll tell you what I would do Would pick up the phone to Macron and I would say And France should partner on the new French SSN, the suffering class, which the French Navy is getting. Getting six of those, they're being built, they're being delivered. A real thing”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “I think that aucises are a really bad deal. Austral The proposition is that Australia is acquiring. Naval nuclear propulsion for submarines Is to acquire second Virginia class submarines from the United States. Is in the 2030s. The United States has made it very clear they can't sell them to us unless they can spare them. And their industry is not producing enough for their own needs, let alone ours. Likelihood is we won't get any subs from the Americans. As far as UK shipbuilding is concerned, The British government The time did a brilliant job conning Scott Morrison into agreeing to this. Because we're pouring billions and billions of Australian taxpayers' dollars to support a British. Building industry and submarine industrial base. Cannot build Submarines in any sort of timely fashion for the Royal Navy.”

    2026-06-28 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 195. Can the West Reclaim its Power from Trump? (Malcolm Turnbull) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source