The election of Donald Trump as US president is about to heap a great deal of pressure on Australia, according to former ambassador Kim Beazley.
The ex-Labor leader is predicting there will be a lot of unhappy people in the United States to whom Mr Trump will have to reach out.
"But that's their problem, not ours," he told ABC's 7.30 program on Wednesday night.
"Our problem is with what he intends to do in the area of foreign policy and great pressure is about to come on us."
Some of his initiatives would seriously disturb people, leaving Australia to play some form of mitigating role in the southeast Asian region.
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"They'll come to us privately and want to hear from us privately on what we intend to do about it," he said.
"We're going to really have to sit down and think through how we handle our responsibilities because running away is not an option."
He said government ministers should turn up in greater numbers in the US and get themselves into senior policy decision-making zones.
