The call has gone out for a PM willing to break with the US – but Albanese shows no sign it will be him

W ithin much of Labor – and particularly the Albanese government – the suggestion that Australia could untether its foreign and defence policy from the United States is an idea that dare not speak its name.

Even amid the Trumpian maelstrom, Labor is mostly unwilling to consider a different reality for Australia’s position in the world.

That’s why a contribution from the strategist and former Kevin Rudd staffer Lachlan Harris stands out this week.

Responding to Hugh White’s recent Quarterly Essay, Hard New World , Harris, a businessman and student of political communications, makes the case that the next great prime minister will be the person who shifts Australia’s gaze away from the US.

Like White, Harris argues America no longer has the means or desire to maintain strategic primac