America great? Trump and Hockey disagree

Joe Hockey and a delegation of Australian diplomats are in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention.

Australian Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey

Ambassador to the US Joe Hockey is in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention. (AAP)

Donald Trump and Joe Hockey don't see eye-to-eye on America's greatness.

Mr Trump, just days away from becoming the Republican Party's presidential nominee, wants to make America great again.

Mr Hockey, the former Australian treasurer and current ambassador to the US, shot down Mr Trump's most prominent election slogan in a room full of Republicans in Cleveland on Monday.

"The one thing I want to say to you as an outsider looking in, America was great, America is great," Mr Hockey told an Ohio convention committee breakfast in downtown Cleveland.

"You're the greatest economy on earth, the greatest democracy on earth, you've got the greatest military on earth - as of today America is still great."

Mr Hockey has travelled to Cleveland for the Republican National Convention with a contingent of senior Australian diplomats.

There are no plans for the former treasurer to meet with Mr Trump, who is expected to be confirmed as the Republican presidential nominee on Thursday after four days of pomp and ceremony.

Mr Hockey, in his breakfast speech, did not mention Mr Trump's name which was something the US press noted.

But, he was not alone.

Reflecting the divide in the Republican Party, Mr Trump was not mentioned at all by speakers at the breakfast.

"Speaker after speaker at the first Ohio delegation breakfast of the Republican National Convention talked about the Republican message, vowed that Republicans would keep Americans safe, promised that Republicans were better prepared to lead the nation in November," the Columbus Dispatch reported.

"But one thing nobody mentioned: presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who will accept his party's nomination on Thursday.

"... Australian Ambassador to the US Joe Hockey and former Cleveland Brown Bernie Kosar, also, never mentioned Trump by name, talking broadly instead about the values of the United States."

Mr Hockey also seemed to point at Mr Trump's controversial views on immigration and trade.

One of Mr Hockey's biggest lobbying efforts is getting the US Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal between the US, Australia and 10 other nations.

"If you start to doubt whether freedom is right or democracy is right or enterprise is right or free trade is right, or if you start to doubt that immigration is right, all of the sudden you will see the gravitational pull of the world turn elsewhere," Mr Hockey told the breakfast.

"And we don't want that - because your values and our values are not just shared in joint words, they are shared in joint blood."


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Source: AAP


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