Why did Australia refuse to send a single ship to the Red Sea?

Then there's positioning on the war in Gaza.

Mr. Albanese broke with the United States and other key allies to back a ceasefire resolution in the U.N.-another demonstration of independence and a departure from bipartisan policy stances going back more than 80 years.

2. Politics

The next explanation is domestic politics, and it intersects with international politics.

Australia has two populations that are broadly anti-American and pro-Palestinian. One is ethnic-Australian Muslims-and the other political-Australian Greens voters.

And there is another population influenced by relations with China-expat-Chinese.

Of the 12 electoral seats with Muslim populations over 5 percent, 10 are Labor-held (centre-left), one is Liberal (centre-right), and the other is held by a Liberal-leaning independent.

Of the 15 seats where the Greens win more than 20 percent of the first preference vote-which under Australia's preferential system, can put you on the path to winning over time-the Greens have five, Labor holds nine, and the Teals (an alliance of centre-left independents) holds one.

Pro-Palestinian protesters hold signs outside the office of federal Member for Wills Peter Khalil in Melbourne, Australia, on Dec. 2, 2023. (Diego Fedele/Getty Images)

Three seats have significant Chinese populations, and these are all currently held by Labor, but are generally marginal and not safe for whichever party holds them.

So Labor has a lot hanging on finessing relations with these communities, although why they would overly worry about the Islamic vote is a mystery to me as these voters have never shown any inclination to vote for the centre-right Coalition.

3. Military not up to task

The last explanation is that the Australian Navy is just not up to the task.

It appears that the only vessel capable of doing duty in the Red Sea would be one of our three missile destroyers. Two of those are out of action, and the third has just returned from a tour of duty.