The US consul general has reassured a Western Australian crowd that the presidential election would unlikely change the two countries’ discussion on clean energy and electric vehicles.
The United States consul general has reassured a Western Australian crowd that the presidential election would unlikely change the two countries’ discussion on clean energy and electric vehicles.
Consulate of the United States of America consul general WA Siriana Nair could hardly avoid the topic at the Innovative Industries of the Future conference in Bunbury on Wednesday.
Republican candidate Donald Trump was projected to win the election by Wednesday afternoon, defeating vice president Kamala Harris who was the Democratic party's nominee.
But earlier in the day, as the last few polls closed and counting of votes for the US presidential race only just started, Ms Nair remained confident in the relationship between the US and Australia over certain topics.
“[We’ll have] new administration, whether it’s Harris administration or Trump administration, and they may have different approaches that the [Joe] Biden administration has to electric vehicles and clean energy,” she said at the conference.
“But I think a lot of what you've seen in terms of the legislation that's come out, whether it's the inflation Reduction Act, the Chips and Science Act, bipartisan infrastructure law, all the way to green energy and clean energy, and electric vehicles… That was legislative, not a presidential directive.
“So that is not going to change and nor can a president come in and change that.”
Hours after Ms Nair’s comments, the US election was called in favour of Mr Trump, who had been president from 2017 to 2021.
Mr Trump was defeated after one term in office, succeeded by Joe Biden, former vice president of the 44th US president Barack Obama.
“I have never lived in a country outside of the United States who’s more interested in US presidents than Australia,” Ms Nair joked.
Ms Nair said the US-Australia relationship was different than with other countries, because of the high level of cooperation in many areas.
“The bipartisan support for Australia is extremely high,” she said.
“Anything that Australia cares about, whether it's AUKUS, whether it's the geopolitical situation in the region, all of those things – we have a pretty polarised electorate in the US, but those things are not polarising issues.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has congratulated Mr Trump on his projected victory, around 4pm AWST.
“The election of the President of the United States is always an important moment for the world, for our region and for Australia,” Mr Albanese said.
“Our government will work closely with the new Trump administration to realise the benefits of our strong economic partnership.
“I look forward to talking with President Trump and working with him in the best interests of both our nations.”
