And Australian leaders, both past and present, are examining the nation's ties with the United States and how they could change.
Now, a group of the country's former prime ministers have offered their thoughts.
"It's time to cut the tag."
That is the message from former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, referring to Australia's relationship with the United States.
He says, in light of the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, it is time Australia shifted its foreign policy away from the United States.
In a rare interview, Mr Keating has told the ABC's 7.30 program the belief that Australia's foreign-policy decisions are taken autonomously is mistaken.
"Of course, we don't. The foreign policy of Australia is, basically, we have tag-along rights to the US, and we conduct our foreign policy ... certainly since I left public office, in the Howard years, with Iraq, you know, and in years since, we've had more or less a tag-along foreign policy, tag along to the United States. It's time to cut the tag. It's time to get out of it."
Historically, Australia has enjoyed a close relationship with the United States, including as part of the ANZUS defence alliance.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has assured the public that will continue into the foreseeable future, despite fears Mr Trump may favour a more isolationist direction.
But former Liberal prime minister John Howard says he does not think that isolationism is a possibility.
He has told the program little will change in Australia-US relations.
"I, in the long run, am pretty confident that the historical warmth of the relationship will continue. I don't believe the administration, the new administration, is going to walk away from old allies. And the most important element of our relationship is, of course, ANZUS, and also underpinning that is the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement, which obviously involves countries other than the United States and Australia. I don't see those things being disturbed. 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."
Mr Keating says Australia should be turning its focus to the immediate region.
"But our future is basically in the region around us, is in South-East Asia. And what we should be thinking about is an independent policy which does worry about Indonesia, that does worry about South-East Asia. I mean, I've suggested, for instance, we should join ASEAN, the Association of South-East Asian Nations. In other words, we'd actually be more useful to the United States, by the way, if we were doing these things."
Another former Labor prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has issued similar warnings against the nation becoming what he calls a "doormat" and bending too easily to the United States' will.
He cites the 2003 Iraq war as an example.
He has told ABC radio he believes Mr Turnbull needs to set a precedent for how a Trump cabinet will deal with Australia.
He encourages the Prime Minister to send a note, as he himself did in 2008 to Barack Obama.
"To explain what specific areas, major policy challenges, do we wish to be in close dialogue with him on, so that he begins to develop patterns of consultation with his closer allies. And 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 particular policies in Asia, and on trade."
Whatever the future of diplomatic relations with the United States, John Howard says Australia's politicians should pay close attention to Hillary Clinton's failure to win the election.
"I agree that there's a lesson in the American result for both political parties in Australia. But everybody has got to do a better job of explaining the benefits of globalisation. And I think everybody has got to understand that it does carry a pain and penalties to some people. And, whilst you should keep going forward with globalisation and freer trade, you've got to try and help the people who are disconnected. And I think that was one of the strengths that Trump had that Hillary Clinton didn't have."
