Wong’s pointed Dutton rebuke after he calls Albanese ‘limp-wristed’

He said he would also cut off all funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, one of the main providers of aid in Gaza and the West Bank.

Dutton’s bid to make Washington DC his first overseas destination as prime minister represents a significant break from the past three decades of Australian politics, when newly elected prime ministers have ritually made capitals in the Asia-Pacific their first port of call.

Paul Keating, John Howard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison all made Indonesia their first overseas trips as PM, while Albanese visited Jakarta after a Quad leaders meeting in Tokyo.

Kevin Rudd travelled to the UN climate conference in Bali, followed by Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, while Julia Gillard visited Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Asked where he would travel first as prime minister, Dutton said that the US is Australia’s “most important military partner, and there is a lot of repair work to do in that relationship”.

While relationships with Indonesia, Japan and China are also important, Dutton said that establishing a personal connection with Trump would be his most important foreign policy priority.

Indicating that Rudd’s days as Australian ambassador in Washington could be numbered under a Coalition government, Dutton said the former prime minister seems to be “persona non grata” with the Trump administration.

Dutton said he would seek to work with Trump in a “respectful” way but that he would not avoid criticising the president when required.

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“President Trump’s been elected to put America first,” he said.

“My job is to put Australia first, and I will stand up firmly against President Trump or anyone else in our country’s best interests.”

Dutton said he would call for Trump to restore funding to important US aid projects in the Pacific and South-East Asia that have been cut by his administration under an effort led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

“I don’t agree with some of the funding that has been withdrawn, and I think it is detrimental to the collective interests in the region and I hope there can be a discussion between our governments about a sensible way forward,” he said.

Responding to a report in this masthead that American pharma giants have called on the Trump administration to impose tariffs on Australia because of its subsidised medicines, Dutton said “I want the Australian people to know that I will stand up and defend the PBS, which is the envy of the world, against any attempt to undermine its integrity, including by major pharmaceutical companies,” he said.