The White House announces further Australian visit postponements.
US President Barak Obama has once again postponed his scheduled trip to Indonesia and Australia to focus on his health care reforms at home.
President Obama was due to travel to Australia earlier this week with his wife and children. The trip had been timed with the school holidays in America to allow him to spend some time showing his children his boyhood home in Indonesia. However that trip was postponed by 3 days meaning that the First Lady and their two daughters would have to remain at home.
Now the White Office has confirmed that due to pressure on the President to stay at home to sort out health care reforms, the trip will not now take place until June.
The President is facing a critical political battle that, if lost, could seriously damage the President’s reputation and his peoples trust. A vote on his controversial health reforms will take place in the House of Representatives on Sunday and sources say that it is vital that the President is there both during the vote and afterwards.
President Obama had planned to first visit Indonesia for a state dinner before heading to Bali and then Canberra to address the Australian parliament. The trips were billed as highly significant to improving US-Pacific relations.
After the first postponement Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was understanding of the pressures Obama was under, comparing it to the same pressures he is due to face when introducing health reforms of his own in Australia.
Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has also expressed understanding of the President’s decision. It is not thought that the second postponement will damage relations between the countries as most leaders cast an empathetic eye Obama’s way.
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