National Political Lead David Speers says Peter Dutton is laying the blame for Donald Trump's tariffs on Australia at the feet of the Government because it's politically expedient.
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00:00How's the coalition positioning itself here?
00:04Look, Peter Dutton has noted this was a bad decision on the part of the Trump administration,
00:10but he has spent the bulk of the time there, as we saw, trying to lay as much blame as
00:13possible at the feet of Anthony Albanese.
00:16Not even necessarily Kevin Rudd, but Anthony Albanese, weak, incompetent, couldn't get
00:21a phone call, should have got an exemption.
00:23We got one last time.
00:25And critically, Peter Dutton is suggesting there that should he win the election, he
00:30could get an exemption for Australia.
00:32Now that's despite the fact that Canada, Mexico, Japan, India, South Korea, the UK, France,
00:38you name it.
00:39No one's got an exemption.
00:40But Peter Dutton is arguing he could.
00:42I think this also ignores Peter Navarro, Trump's top trade adviser in the White House, saying
00:47very clearly this is a no exemptions approach this time.
00:51That's because they feel that the exemptions that were granted last time, specifically
00:55to Australia, that deals that were done were reneged upon, that they backfired, that the
01:00exemption was a bad idea.
01:01His advice is very strongly, he's reiterated this again today, that there's a blanket no
01:05exemptions this time.
01:07But Peter Dutton reckons he could get an exemption to this.
01:11Now, look, I think, you know, there are clearly some risks for the opposition in trying to
01:15sheet as much blame as possible home to Anthony Albanese.
01:17You can understand the political imperative to do that.
01:21What we've seen around the world when it comes to Trump tariffs is communities, local domestic
01:27populations rallying around the flag to a degree in very much blaming Trump for this.
01:32We're seeing it in Canada.
01:33We're seeing it in Mexico.
01:35We're seeing it in Europe as well.
01:37And there's the prospect here that Peter Dutton isn't adequately blaming the real source of
01:43this decision, and that is Donald Trump for the situation we find ourselves in.
01:47So we now have quite a split over why this has been imposed, this tariff, and whether
01:54it can be resolved.
01:55And what do you make of the response from the Prime Minister then?
01:58Has he been more forceful than anything we've seen since Mr Trump returned to the White
02:02House?
02:03Yes, he has.
02:06The gloves are coming off, if you like.
02:07Gone is the softly, softly approach.
02:10Today we saw Anthony Albanese's toughest language in relation to Donald Trump.
02:14He's called this unjustified.
02:16He's called this unfriendly.
02:18He's warned that this will create economic self-harm to the American people by forcing
02:22up prices.
02:23He's made clear we're not about to impose any sort of retaliatory tariffs in response
02:27to this because it would only push up prices here.
02:30But I thought this was perhaps most interesting, a fairly ominous warning about what this does
02:34to the view of the Australian people towards the United States.
02:39It is disappointing.
02:40Australia has a close relationship with the United States.
02:45Australians need to act in a way that reinforces to our respective populations the fact that
02:52we are friends.
02:53This is not a friendly act, but it is imposed on every country, is important.
03:01So it seems, David, that the relationship with the United States and President Trump
03:05is likely to feature in the approaching election campaign.
03:08Will that help or hurt the government?
03:11Well it will feature, very much so.
03:13This decision has come before the proper campaign begins, but where it goes from here, whether
03:18there are further tariff decisions, we have this threat from Donald Trump of further retaliatory
03:23tariffs that could cover everything from GSTs to other government supports for various industries.
03:28Look, who is this going to help or hurt?
03:31It is difficult to know, but I would point to the surging popularity of the Liberal Party,
03:38as it's called, on the left in Canada under new leader Mark Carney, who's set to become
03:42their Prime Minister.
03:43He has taken a very tough response to Donald Trump, and that is helping him in terms of
03:49local popular support.
03:50We're not Canada, we're not facing that level of trade threat.
03:53This is fairly modest, what we're talking about with steel and aluminium, but Anthony
03:57Albanese would be watching that.
03:59He would be looking to see how it's playing in domestic politics in different parts of
04:03the world, the approach being taken to Donald Trump, and I don't think it's any mistake
04:07that after what we've seen from Canada, Anthony Albanese, after this decision, has gone in
04:12harder against Donald Trump as well.
04:14So he'd be confident that Australians will be on his side in blaming Donald Trump for
04:18this rather than himself.
04:20Look, we will see.
04:22In the meantime, he still needs to navigate this relationship.
04:25His warning there that you just heard about how this is going to play out in terms of
04:27popular views of America, of the United States, is interesting.
04:31He didn't go to, you know, what this means for popular support for AUKUS, US access to
04:37Australian military bases, US access to critical minerals, all of those things.
04:42You know, he doesn't want this to affect the defence relationship, but I think it's pretty
04:46evident in what he's saying that there is going to be an impact and a cost for the United
04:50States in what it's done here in terms of how Australians view this relationship.