A senior Liberal Party figure and former diplomat has warned of the "alarming" consequences of a "ghastly" Donald Trump returning to the White House, predicting the Republican candidate would "absolutely" start World War III.
George Brandis, a former federal attorney-general and foreign ambassador, told the ABC's Q+A on Monday that Trump's foreign policy would be "a real danger to the West".
He said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be particularly concerned as the war with Russia ground on.
"He [Trump], in my view, would on day one throw Zelenskyy under a bus," said Mr Brandis, who served as Australia's high commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2022.
"He would send a signal to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that Putin can get away with what he likes. Does anybody believe that Trump would defend the Baltic states? Of course he wouldn't.
"And so what happens to NATO? What? So I'm really alarmed … in a geopolitical sense."
While Australia's current political leadership are careful not to buy into US politics ahead of the November election, former leaders like Malcolm Turnbull have lashed Trump and warned of the consequences of his re-election.
Earlier this year, Mr Turnbull told Q+A that Trump's "creepy" embrace of Putin was a "terrifying" threat to democratic order.
Australians overwhelmingly reject Trump's return to power too, at least according to new polling by Talbot Mills Research released to the ABC, with Trump registering just 27 per cent support compared to 48 per cent for Democrat Kamala Harris.
The race is much closer among likely voters in the US, with Harris marginally ahead in recent polls.
Mr Brandis said the vice-president would have his vote.
"Even though I come from the conservative side of politics, I'm hoping that Kamala Harris wins because I think Donald Trump is so dreadful," he said.
"But then I would have voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because I'm an original believer that Donald Trump is dreadful.
"There are bigger issues at stake here which make him too dangerous a person in my view to be the president of the US again."
Liberal MP Keith Wolahan said, "we respect the decision is the American people's to make".
But he understood the excitement around Kamala Harris, who was born to an Indian mother and Jamaican-American father.
"I was born in Ireland and I remember many houses would have … a picture of the pope and John F Kennedy. For many Irish people, when they saw an Irish Catholic become the most powerful person in the world, it meant a lot.
"These things do matter."
Q+A heard from Indian-Australian Rohan Hora, who said his community had been energised by the Harris campaign.
"Seeing the energy and the hope in my parents' faces when we talk about American politics now, it's something that I've never seen before," he said.
"It shows it's possible for somebody like me to get into politics and that's something I haven't seen in my lifetime."
Egyptian-born Labor frontbencher Anne Aly said it was "touching to hear".
"I never imagined a career in politics for myself," she said.
"And I have to say it's not just politics, [it's] mainstream media as well. There's very little diversity and it's true that you can't be what you can't see."
Watch the full episode of Q+A on ABC iview.
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