Turnbull Says The EU Referendum Hasn’t Jeopardised The UK’s BFF Status

For all the pro-republican arguments the fine nation of Australia can muster, it’s preeetty hard to deny the cultural attachment we have to the United Kingdom. While we may very well be living in the so-called ‘Asian Century‘, the first sixteen years of it haven’t seen any massive deviations from our chummy relationship with the folks way up north. 

So, after they decided to bust out of the European Union as a tough, independent nation who don’t need no supranational governing body, our nation peed its pants a little. Our stock market experienced its worst day of the year on the back of the news, as investors scrambled to work out what the flaming heck this new reality will bring.

Well, according to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, we’re definitely in for an adjustment period. Speaking to Leigh Sales on ABC’s 7.30, the PM said there will be an “immediate impact”, with “a period of instability in markets, and we’ve already seen that.”

Despite the financial hullabaloo the referendum has wrought, he reiterated Australia’s commitment to being a BFF of the UK. He told Sales “we respect the decision of the British people, and we know that we will continue to have in the future the very closest of relations with the British people.”

Us, essentially. 

Going further, he said we’re as close as any two nations could be, but he also doubled down on his push to establish new trade export deals within the EU. So, it’s fairly unlikely we’ll be showing mainland Europe the cold shoulder because our island-bound mates have had enough. 

PM Turnbull intimated that he ideologically supported the push to Remain, but conceded their choice to Leave came from the feeling Britons had “lost control of their own country. Rightly or wrongly that’s their perception.” In their eyes, he said, the UK is now “free from the shackles of a bureaucratic Europe.”
Back at home, it’s interesting to note the interview came one day after Sales held Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to account over his continual claims the Liberal Party was deadset on privatising Medicare... despite constant, vehement denials from the party itself. When pushed on the matter, Turnbull said Shorten’s claim is just “a desperate lie” Labor won’t relinquish.

So, in the end, knowing our homegrown pollies will continue to scrap over proposed domestic policies and the lies surrounding ’em was almost comforting in the fallout of the UK’s world-shaking referendum.

Source and photo: ABC.

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