The storming of the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump could jolt the nation into correcting course despite its divisions, former Australian ambassador to the US John McCarthy has said.
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Mr McCarthy, who was Australia's top diplomat in the US between 1995-1997, said President Trump bore much of the responsibility for the unrest that temporarily halted Congress as it certified Joe Biden's election win on Wednesday.
"Trump's actions, the things he's been saying even today, have been irresponsible and the fact that Twitter has turned him off says a great deal," the former ambassador said.
"What you have to hope is that the fact this was so shocking and the fact the demonstrations went as far as they did, invading the Congress with at least one death, hopefully that will send such a jolt through the American system that there will be a preparedness to try and put the systems in the US in a better state of repair.
"Hopefully you'll see Republicans now accepting that Biden's won, that Democrats now have control of both houses, and that they will then try and put their opposition into a much more responsible frame of mind."
The US had experienced periods of major division in its history going back to the Civil War and more recently over issues such as the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr McCarthy said.
"The thing about the American system is it does have a capacity to debate and heal itself, and let's hope this is the beginning of such a process, rather than the deepening of the divisions that are obviously present in the US at the moment."
Events of the last four years had undermined the USA's ability to persuade the rest of the world that its policies were correct, Mr McCarthy said.
"What you've seen over the last 24 hours will heighten that perception. Whether Biden can pull the country out of it with the fact he has got a majority in both houses is a very interesting question," he said.
Former Australian consul-general to Chicago Robert Price said the storming of the Capitol was a "betrayal of the American dream".
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President Trump, particularly through his denial of the election result, was responsible for the event, he said.
"He's stirring up passions that he now can't control," Mr Price said.
Liberal MP for Wentworth Dave Sharma, a former staff member at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said the chaos in the city would not change the election result and would not affect the US-Australia alliance.
"We just want to make sure that the United States, which has been highly distracted by these events since the election or before, can put the divisions behind them and continue to play the role that we've always wanted them to play in being a force for stability throughout the world," Mr Sharma said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia hoped for a peaceful transition of government to the Biden administration. He declined to condemn Nationals MP George Christensen for claiming "dodgy votes" had boosted Biden's election result.