Australia needs US alliance, Sir Angus

Australia needs to do everything it can to maintain the US alliance, a former Defence Force chief believes.

Sir Angus Houston says he has been disappointed with some of the comments he's read in Australia since the election of Donald Trump.

"The United States is the stabilising glue that binds the region together, and there is simply no substitute for it," he writes in an opinion piece published by the Australian Financial Review on Thursday.

Defence Department secretary Dennis Richardson said following the election of Mr Trump, it was perhaps the most crucial time in history to maintain the alliance.

"(It) should not and cannot be taken for granted," Mr Richardson told ABC radio.