Ex-Labor leader Kevin Rudd says the prime minister's recent speech to the Lowy Institute was all about "crude domestic politics".

Mr Morrison used the speech to decry "negative globalism" and say the Australian government would not take orders from "an unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy" over the will of its voters.

Mr Rudd, writing in the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday, said the argument was mixed.

"The inconvenient truth is that it's not about foreign policy at all," he wrote.

"It's about crude domestic politics. It's throwing a big slab of red meat to the Duttonista far right, the Hansonites, and even certain Christian fundamentalists who have long railed about the evils of 'one world government'."

He said the speech followed a long tradition of Liberals using foreign policy to continue their domestic political battles.

When pressed on what he meant by negative globalism, the prime minister declined to nominate any specific areas in which Australia's national interest was being overridden by global bodies, but referenced border protection.

Mr Rudd believes the prime minister's main target was action on climate change.

"He's smarting because the UN Secretary-General would not allow government leaders to address the UN climate summit unless they had added to their carbon reduction commitments," he wrote.

"So ScoMo thought: why not attack the nasty globalists instead?"

Mr Rudd pointed out Australia's commitment to cutting emissions was made independently and by a coalition government, not forced by any treaty or global body.

Australian Associated Press