Something very unfortunate happened last January when the new US administration scrapped the Trans Pacific Partnership that had been painstakingly built between the US and a dozen countries of Asia IN ORDER TO FORM A BLOCK THAT WOULD CONTROL, OR AT LEAST BALANCE, THE GROWING INFLUENCE OF CHINA in the area. That was more than a trade initiative; that was a geo political initiative to control China outside of China's boundaries.

America's influence in the area and in the world, has been free falling since. America has a death wish, deep in its middle and right. It happens to countries like it happens to people.
What you describe in the case of Australia is part of the same pattern that could have been prevented with a group intervention.