Whose is this “national interest”?

Written by: Ned K. on 23 October 2025

Prime Minister Albanese said that in his meeting with Trump in Washington D.C. his sole objective was to achieve the best outcome for "the national interest".

The "national interest" for Albanese on this occasion was hearing Trump say that he was committed to AUKUS and nuclear submarines in Australia and an agreement between the Australian and US governments on Australia providing the USA with rare earth minerals from Australia.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has also used the term "national interest" in relation to the genocide of Palestinians by Israeli Government. She said it was in Australia's national interest to support the state of Israel as it was a "democracy" like Australia and had the right to "defend itself".

Both Albanese and Wong's use of the term "national interest" have been in relation to Australia's foreign affairs policies or strengthening military ties with the USA which they equate with making Australia a more secure place for people to live in.

Using their own logic, is it in Australia's "national interest" to ensure that our major airports and defence bases and naval bases are secure?
Albanese and Wong would agree that this is important.

However, the security of our airports, defence bases and naval bases are contracted out to multinational corporations whose allegiances and profits end up overseas.

The major security companies involved in airport, defence bases and naval bases are -

MSS Security - owned by an Indian multinational, SIS Limited
Securecorp - owned by China Security Co Ltd, based in Shenzhen, China
Certis Security - Singapore-owned
Wilson Security - owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties of the Kwok family
ISS - owned by a Danish based multinational
Secom Security- a Japanese owned company
Serco - UK owned 

All of these multinational corporations are involved in cyber security and electronic surveillance services to governments and large corporations. 

They came into existence and grew during the massive privatizations of security services all over the world including Australia under both Liberal and Labor branded governments.

This situation is just one example of how the use of the term "national interest" by this, and previous governments really means the interests, not of Australian people, but the foreign powers that governments serve. 

Currently, that foreign power is US imperialism whose political interests at the moment are served by Trump, who Albanese now embraces as his friend and master.

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