Former prime minister Paul Keating says Australia should "cut the tag" with America's foreign policies now Donald Trump has been elected president, focusing less on the alliance between the two countries and concentrating more on relationships within Asia.

But fellow former prime minister John Howard said the current alliance with the United States did not need any "radical recasting".

Mr Keating told the ABC's 7.30 program the alliance with the United States had taken on a "sacramental quality" to some within the Government.

"We've got to this almost sort of crazy position now where the American alliance, instead of simply being a treaty where the United States is obliged to consult with us in the event of adverse strategic circumstances, it has now taken on a reverential, sacramental quality," he said.

"I'm not talking about simply the Government, I'm talking about some people on the Labor side as well.

"We had the Prime Minister almost saying prayers to the alliance [on Wednesday], and the Foreign Minister."

'We have to make our way in Asia ourselves'

Mr Keating said while he wanted to see the alliance continue, "what we have to do is make our way in Asia ourselves with an independent foreign policy".

"Our future is basically in the region around us in South East Asia," he said.

"What we should be thinking about is an independent policy which does worry about Indonesia, that does worry about South East Asia.

"We'd actually be more useful to the United States, by the way, if we were doing these things.

"Isn't an independent balanced foreign policy the answer? Or do we stay in a crouch saying hail Mary's to the alliance?

"The foreign policy of Australia is basically we have tag-along rights to the US, and ... certainly since I left public office ... in years since, we've had more or less a tag-along foreign policy.

"It's time to cut the tag. It's time to get out of it."

Mr Keating said while he would not have voted for Mr Trump, "he said some interesting things".

"Trump says, 'Can't we have a better relationship with Russia?' Not a bad idea.

"He says, 'Can't we get along better with China?' Not a bad idea. There's two reasonable ideas there."

'The historical warmth of the relationship will continue'

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 7 minutes 46 seconds 7 m Howard says US alliance will remain strong under Trump

Mr Howard told 7.30 the alliance with the United States would remain strong under a Trump presidency.

"I, in the long run, am pretty confident that the historical warmth of the relationship will continue. I don't believe the new administration is going to walk away from old allies," Mr Howard said.

"The most important element of our relationship is of course ANZUS, and underpinning that the Five Eyes intelligence sharing arrangement.

"I don't see those things being disturbed."

He said Mr Trump's focus on defence could be good for Australia.

"I think one of the things we can look forward to is more money being spent by America on defence, and that is likely to end up strengthening the involvement of the United States in the Asia Pacific region.

"So those people who are talking about the need for some kind of radical recasting of our attitude towards the United States forget the reality that this is a relationship so deeply embedded in history and sentiment that it survives changes of personnel both in Canberra and Washington."

'It never serves well to become US' doormat': Rudd

Talking to Lateline, former prime minister Kevin Rudd said that the Australian Government had a responsibility to moderate Mr Trump's policies on climate change, Asia and trade.

"When you look at some of the more extreme policy positions he's taken during the campaign, there's an opportunity, and I'd argue a responsibility, for the Australian Government to seek to moderate those, whether it's on climate change, whether it's on particularly the policies in Asia and on trade," Mr Rudd said.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 9 minutes 28 seconds 9 m Kevin Rudd warns against a doormat approach to an alliance

But Mr Rudd warned against becoming a doormat of the US.

"What I do know is it never serves Australia's alliance interests with the United States well to simply become a doormat," he said.

"In the period of Mr Howard's prime ministership, for example, the worst example of that was the Iraq war and our decision almost uniquely together with the United Kingdom to go with the Americans into the invasion of Iraq to remove weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussain.

"Completely wrong. That was a doormat approach to an alliance."

He said that although Mr Trump believed current trading agreements were unfair, nobody won a trade war but everyone lost.

"Plainly, he seeks to use economic leverage with the Chinese and plainly he believes current trading arrangements are unfair," he said.

"But you are right to point out what then happens once you start engaging in one form or another of a trade war. What happens in a trade war is that nobody wins and everyone loses."