That same sort of realism continues in the Australian political parties' responses to Russian behaviour - and misbehaviour - today. The Coalition government and the Labor opposition are in close agreement in clearly seeing and naming Russian outrages and resisting them. Unremarkable, you think? Think again. Compared to the countries that it has looked to for leadership traditionally, Australia stands out as robust and cohesive. The political systems of the US and Britain are staggering under the pressure of Russia's roguery. The united verdict of the US intelligence agencies was that the US elections of 2016 were the victim of simple Russian cyber-subversion. You don't need to form a view on the vexed question of any possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign - that's the job of the Mueller special investigation. Put that aside. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The Russians meddled with the American political system yet the US President refuses to confront the problem. In Congressional testimony in February, the head of US Cyber Command, Admiral Mike Rogers, said he had not been given authority by President Donald Trump to disrupt the at their points of origin.

Yet Russian interference is doing daily harm to American interests. In the last fortnight US intelligence officials have reportedly said that Russia is running continuing cyber operations into the US electricity grid and other vital systems, presumably planting software time bombs to be set off in case of future crisis. Donald Trump has not authorised action to disrupt Russian hacking at its point of origin. Credit:AP The supreme commander of NATO, American General Curtis Scaparrotti, says that: “Russia aggressively uses social media and other means of mass communication to push disinformation, test the resolve of the United States, and erode our credibility with European partners.” And a range of top US officials says that Russian hacking remains a danger to the US congressional elections due in November. Why, with its actions exposed, is Russia continuing this blatant campaign? Admiral Rogers drew the obvious conclusion: "President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that there’s little price to pay." Quite simply, the US is failing to deter Russian intrusions into its most important systems. British Prime Minister Theresa May has firmly named Russia as the culprit in the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil. But the UK, too, is struggling to deal with Russian provocation.

The British response of expelling Russian diplomats, and marshalling a coalition of nations to do the same, is a "message" to Moscow, as many of the governments involved have said. But it is not a deterrent to Moscow. It is a one-off stamp of the diplomatic foot that will not harm any vital Russian interest or inflict any serious ongoing penalty. Loading Perhaps London is working on other responses, yet to emerge. If not, the British government will have failed to deter Putin from further adventurism. One of May's biggest difficulties has been that Britain's opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, refused to breathe a word of criticism against Russia. Corbyn undermined Britain's response by questioning the basis for the government's verdict. He gave greater credence to Putin's denials than to the case mounted by British officialdom. The weight of probability was enough to convince 29 countries around the world to expel Russian diplomats, but not enough to convince the Labour leader.

The old-style socialist apparently retains some outmoded ideological attachment to a long-defunct entity called the Soviet Union. By putting misdirected socialist solidarity above Britain's national interest, he called down a firestorm of criticism. One of his frontbenchers said that Corbyn had "diminished his position on a warped anti-Western ideology", according to The Financial Times. Corbyn relented somewhat after days of pressure, yet he still gave Putin an out by saying that Russia was responsible "directly or indirectly". By contrast, Australia's response has been cohesive and consistent. The Coalition government has been decisive and the Labor opposition fully supportive. As the former Australian diplomat Allan Gyngell describes the US and UK, "our old friends are self-absorbed and distracted" by their intense internal polarisations while "there is an essential bipartisanship in the Australian responses". Australia has not been a major target of Russian antagonisms. But the downing of a passenger jet, MH17, and the deaths of 298 civilians including 38 who called Australia home, was a searing moment of illumination for Australians.

The Russian-made missile that killed them was fired by Russian-backed rebels who were waging war against the Ukrainian government. Putin has never acknowledged any Russian involvement, either in the war in eastern Ukraine nor the mass murder of civilians from 10 nations on the jet flying high above the battlefield. When Malaysia asked the UN Security Council to set up a tribunal to investigate and prosecute the culprits, it was vetoed by Russia. But Australia has shown national unity and seriousness of purpose under challenge from other, bigger challenges in recent years, too. Both major parties have responded firmly to China's flagrant disregard of international law in grabbing disputed maritime territory from its neighbours, for instance. "You would have to say it's a pretty sophisticated and assured response to the world, or to the problems that the world is continually throwing up to us," says Gyngell, former head of the Office of National Assessments, onetime Keating adviser and author of Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World Since 1942. Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop have to get credit for leadership, naturally, as must Bill Shorten. But so do the other key Labor figures.

The current and former Labor shadows on foreign affairs, Penny Wong and Tanya Plibersek, are both drawn from Labor's left faction. It's a tribute to them that both have held to a principled defence of the national interest, neither tempted to play politics on the vital issues nor show Corbyn-esque inclinations to play to outmoded constructs of socialist solidarity. The shadow defence minister, Richard Marles, of Labor's right faction has been similarly firm. The notable exception was the case of the Labor right's Sam Dastyari, but "that simply reinforced the blindingly obvious - we have to protect the interests of democracy", says Gyngell. And we did. Dastyari was forced out of Parliament and both major parties support tougher laws against foreign interference, though differing on details. For all the failures of Australia's political class, in foreign affairs, by and large, it has been robust and realistic, even as America and Britain stumble. It's a realism that Putin would understand. Peter Hartcher is international editor.