It wasn’t that long ago that the Labor Party in Australia was criticising former Prime Minister, John Howard, for being a minion of the U.S President. Howard was too close to him. Howard should have been more independent, according to the Labor Party. So what is the situation now with Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd?

Last week Rudd went to the U.S to confer with Obama. There have been many such visits to the U.S since Rudd became Prime Minister. Interestingly enough, I don’t seem to hear the Laborites complaining that Rudd is too close to the U.S. Where is their indignation now?

Rudd has even postponed going to Copenhagen until his big playmate goes there later on. In fact, Rudd would do nothing without the approval of Obama and this is amazing for a party that wanted Australia to distance itself from the U.S while the Liberals were at the helm. This is blatant hypocrisy.

Quite frankly, I am of the view that we need to be allied with the U.S and I always thought it was wise of Howard to maintain the bond since we don’t have many genuine friends in our region, but it annoys me when Rudd receives no criticism from the Labor Party for doing exactly what Howard did.

We’ll no doubt hear their outrage if Abbott goes to the U.S. Not that he will in the near future, though, because he is more concerned with what’s happening inside Australia than prancing around on the world stage.