Here is a bit more from Wong:

Well, there’s no question we live in an era, an era of great power competition. And I think you only need to look at some of the comments that have been made to demonstrate that. And there’s also no question that in a world where people don’t want tariffs, the President’s pause on the imposition of higher tariffs and the imposition of lower tariffs is has been received much more positively than than the alternative.

So you know, what can Australia do? We can continue to do what we’ve been doing, which is to advocate for open, fair, free trade, because that has been benefit to us economically and in terms of our power in the region, and to work with others to continue to keep markets open, to continue to try and diversify exports. That’s what our government is doing.

And on Peter Dutton’s approach, Wong said:

What we what we will do is stand on our own two feet. We stand on our own two feet, and we engage with countries in our national interest, and we look to further our national interest in relation to all countries. And we think our national interest requires us to diversify, continue to diversify our export markets, continue to work on resourcing and investing in a range of relationships.

That is what that is, what the Albanese government has been doing for the last three years stands in stark contrast with Peter Dutton. Mr Dutton is lost in our region. Mr Dutton gave a speech just recently billed as his big foreign policy speech.

He did not mention India, he did not mention Japan, he did not mention Korea. He did not mention Indonesia or any country within Southeast Asia, and he did not mention ASEAN.

Now, if you’re serious about Australia’s resilience in a world which is uncertain, in a world where we see increasing tariffs and counter tariffs, one of the things you have to do is to ensure you invest in and resource and build your other diplomatic and economic relationships throughout the Indo Pacific. Albanese’s Labor government’s been doing that. Peter Dutton is lost when it comes to our region.