Aust must not be cheerleader for US: Rudd

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd says Australia's role is to be a strong ally to America under a Trump presidency but not to follow the US on every decision.

Speaking on the ABC's 7.30 program Wednesday Mr Rudd said Australia should also not choose sides in a "dumb binary game" of China and the US.

He said a lesson should be learned from former prime minister John Howard's decision to back then US president George W Bush in the invasion of Iraq.

"We should under no circumstances repeat, I think, the hideous mistake made under Howard by simply being a cheer squad for what was then the Bush administration's determination to invade Iraq," Mr Rudd said.

"If we see a repeat of that in any form, either within the Asian hemisphere or broadly, our responsibility as an ally is not to act as a cheerleader.

"Our responsibility is to say, 'Our friends in Washington, you cannot and must not do this, for the following clear reasons'," Mr Rudd said.