Australian news and politics recap April 3: Anthony Albanese falls off stage on campaign trail in NSW

These two issues have been mentioned by the Trump administration as a sticking point, given its close ties with the tech industry.

But Mr Dutton says nothing will change in that space if he is PM.

“I’ll make that clear. We won’t negotiate on that basis. I fought for a long time for kids to be safe online and going back to the Obama Administration, I worked with the Attorney-General in that administration as with Bill Barr in the 45th presidency under President Trump, and I want to make sure that we can put in place a safe environment where kids can go online, mix with friends and live a safe life.

“I’m absolutely non-negotiable in that regard. In relation to the other elements, we’re not negotiating on that basis.”

Mr Dutton is asked whether things would have been different if he was PM.

“I do believe that we could have achieved a different outcome,” he says.

“Firstly, there’s no doubt that we would have had greater connection and greater communication with the White House and we demonstrated that only a few years ago.

“Secondly, we had the ability to talk about the relationship in a more complete way and that is - what are the elements of interest to the United States?

“It is the defence relationship that is critical in this century. We know we live in a very uncertain time. You see what’s happening in Europe, in the Middle East, in the South China Sea. It’s an incredibly uncertain time and Mr Albanese himself points this out and then takes $80 billion out of defence. I think there are opportunities for us and I think that is one of them.”

The Opposition Leader has been pressed on his comments yesterday that he would “fight with” Mr Trump if needed in Australia’s interests.

“We go to this next election asking the Australian people to make a choice about who is best able to manage the economy and national security and I believe I have the strength of leadership and the experience to be able to stand up and fight for us, for our country, whether it’s in relation to our national interests in the trading space, in the national security space or elsewhere.

“The Prime Minister has been weak and missing in action and that’s why we find ourselves in the position we’re in today.

“The Prime Minister has a pathway to an outcome here that can see a better final position for the relationship and for our country. But that has not been pursued so far.”

He’s quizzed further on the use of the word “fight”, but says he won’t water down his stance.

“It involves making sure that we can stand up and fight for our position,” he says.

“I don’t think the Prime Minister has the strength or ability to stand up to a situation that is unacceptable to us. This is a bad day for our country.

“I want to resolve the matter and the question for us now is who is best able to deal with this relationship?

“Who is best able to deal with an uncertain time in the national security sense as well as an economic sense. And the times at the moment don’t require a weak leader and Mr Albanese has demonstrated that again today.”

Mr Dutton is asked if the fact that Australia is on the lowest rung of tariffs meant it was a diplomatic success for the Albanese Government.

“Well, the Prime Minister didn’t know anything about it. It was first made known to him when it was publicly announced.

“So that talks about the influence that the Prime Minister has in relation to this matter. I can say this much - I want success in the relationship but it’s not going to happen if the Prime Minister finds out about things through the press.

“There needs to be proper negotiation and consultation. 10 per cent is a significant impost and it may not be the 26 per cent that other countries have faced but I can tell you this: Jobs will be lost and there will be economic detriment to our country.”

“The Prime Minister hasn’t been able to get a call or a meeting with President Trump, but that needs to change and he needs to do everything he can to leverage the ambassador and others to get the relationship normalised,” Mr Dutton says.

“It’s obvious that the Prime Minister didn’t know anything about this announcement until it was actually released to the press, which also speaks to the state of the relationship at the moment.

“So I want to make sure that we can, as quickly as possible, resolve this matter.”

“We have an opportunity in my judgment to start negotiations with the United States straight away. I think there can be a deal done very quickly with the (Trump) administration and I think it’s important the Prime Minister apply himself to that immediately,” Mr Dutton says.

“I think it’s obvious that ... there is a critical relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom in terms of our defence contract. We have troops in the north of our country. We have the AUKUS deal. We have the ANZUS treaty.

“It is a long and abiding relationship and the core of an arrangement between us and the United States in resolving this matter will centre around the defence relationship.”

The Opposition Leader is speaking now and he says today is a “bad day for our country”.

“It’s not the treatment that Australians deserve, because we have a very trusted, long-standing and abiding relationship with the United States.

“We have a special relationship with the United States and it hasn’t been treated with respect by the administration or by the President and the question now is what do we do to resolve this matter and to do it quickly?”

The local share market has nosedived in the first 30 minutes of trade after President Donald Trump revealed Australia would cop a 10 per cent tariff hit on all good imported into the US.

Continuing a roller-coaster ride for the leading index over the past few weeks as investors braced for the fallout of the looming impost, the S&P-ASX200 dropped more than 2 per cent to 7772.50 points — down 162.80 — as it tested 12-month lows last seen two weeks ago.

The rout took losses on the index for the year to date to 5.3 per cent.

It was a sea of red across all 11 sectors, with the banks (down 2.4 per cent), energy and real estate (each down 2 per cent), consumer discretionary and IT stocks (both down 1.8 per cent) taking the full brunt of the retreat.

Gold miners were the only big winners as the precious metal climbed higher into record territory on safe haven demand to reach $US3160 an ounce.

Bullion was one of the few commodities exempted from the tariffs.

​Read the full story.​

Anthony Albanese has quickly switched back to Federal campaign mode, now speaking from a pharmacy in Melbourne to spruik Labor’s plan to cut the maximum costs of prescriptions for PBS drugs to $25.

But it’s clear Trump is not far from his mind.

“My government will not negotiate or compromise on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. This is not up for grabs, not up for negotiation, because this is a part of who we are,” he says.

He announced the listing of more medicines on the PBS, including one for children’s brain tumours that until now had cost patients $178,000 a year.

He says Labor has listed more than 300 medicines on the PBS since it came to government.

Greens leader Adam Bandt had a two-word response to the tariff announcement: “End AUKUS.”

The minor party has stridently opposed the deal for Australia to buy US nuclear-powered submarines then build its own from the start.

Mr Bandt followed up his simple statement by saying Australia needed to disentangle itself from the US.

“Forget Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’, today should be Australia’s liberation day — when we finally liberate ourselves from being shackled too closely to Trump,” he posted on social media.

“Trump is dangerous. It’s time for Labor & Liberal to act. Let’s cancel AUKUS & set our own independent foreign policy.”