During a meeting in March 2009, Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, advised US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be in a position to use force against China "if everything goes wrong".
[1] In October 2006, the government led by John Howard made it compulsory for vessels sailing in the narrow and hazardous Torres Strait to navigate using a pilot in order to reduce the risk of oil and chemical spills in the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef.
The cables show that, in July 2008, the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's international law branch told the US embassy in Canberra that "Australia recognises that it has not handled the Torres Strait pilotage issue particularly well" and that the government was willing "to explore ways to address US concerns".
In August 2008, a secret compromise was agreed upon, under which the compulsory requirement for pilotage would remain, but in practice no penalties would be levied against ships that passed through the Torres Strait without a pilot if they did not call at an Australian port.
[4] A cable from October 2008 recorded Rudd telling a group of visiting U.S. congressmen that "the national security establishment in Australia was very pessimistic about the long-term prognosis for Afghanistan".