When Anthony Norman Albanese set out to defend his government in New York last week, he faced a media that, with some exceptions, had come to view Australian subordination to the US as natural.

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From this uncritical mindset came the reductive focus on whether there would be a face-to-face meeting with America's rudest president. Was it all Kevin Rudd's fault for being mean in a past post, some wondered.

Australian prestige, perhaps even our national validity, turned exclusively on "his" favourable gaze.

National puffery as cultural cringe.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Pictures

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