Australian news and politics recap: Anthony Albanese flails on bills and Peter Dutton fails to land knockout

Speers asks what the Government has offered to the US, noting suggestion of a deal on critical minerals being on the table.

“We’ll engage diplomatically not through TV interview,” the PM says.

“A critical minerals reserve is just that. It’s a reserve of the critical minerals and rare earths which Australia has an abundance of.”

Speers presses him for more detail but without success.

Mr Dutton said he had not met the President yet.

“We trust the US, and I don’t know the President, I’ve not met him, the Prime Minister obviously has been able to,” he said.

“I don’t know Donald Trump is my point. My point is who I trust is the Australian people.”

Mr Dutton did not give a yes or no to whether he trusted the Chinese President but said he “didn’t have a reason to distrust” him.

“I believe strongly in the relationship that we have with the President of China for the reasons the Prime Minister outlined,” he said.

“It’s important for our economic stability and sovereignty.”

Albanese says he has no reason not to trust Donald Trump. He says during the last discussion with the US President they agreed on “a series of words that he would give consideration.

“Great consideration was the words he used. And he did that,” he says.

“In the end he made a decision as part of the US administration to put these tariffs on every country. We got the lowest amount. But we made it very clear that was an act of self-harm by the US.”

He says the same for China’s President Xi Jinping.

“I have no reason not to either,” the PM says.

“China’s our major trading partner. One in four Australian jobs depends upon trade. It’s in Australia’s national interest to have a good economic relationship with China.”

Speers asks whether the Albanese is concerned about the expanding defence co-operations between Russia and Indonesia.

He starts by criticising Dutton for having a crack at Indonesia over the reports, saying: “That’s an extraordinary double down from the alternative Prime Minister of Australia who verballed the Indonesian President yesterday.

“Indonesia will be the fourth largest economy in the world. They are an important partner of Australia,” he says.

“The fact that we just saw a double down on it as if there’s nothing to see here, just shows there’s no understanding of the need for diplomacy.”

Peter Dutton has admitted he made a mistake over comments he made about the Indonesian president on reports of a Russian military deal with Indonesia.

Mr Dutton said he made a mistake.

“It was a mistake, and I’m happy to admit that,” he said.

“What we got from the Indonesian authorities in the reports, and the Prime Minister commented on these reports yesterday as well, was that the sources inside the Prabowo government confirmed that that was the case,” he said.

This is the first time he’s conceded he got it wrong on this one.

Speers says many Australians are concerned about the impact of climate change on their insurance premiums. How will the Government help those people?

Albanese says the science is “very clear” but not every weather event is the result of climate change.

“It does mean the science told us the events would be more extreme and they’d be more frequent. That is what we are seeing playing out, whether it be increased bushfires, flooding, extreme weather events that are having an impact,” he says.

“When we talk about the costs, this is one of the costs. The cost to our economy as well as the cost to our environment and not acting on climate change. Not being a part of the global solution are severe.”

Mr Dutton has refused to say if he thinks the impacts of climate change are getting worse.

He said he’d leave it up to the scientists.

“I think you can see there’s an impact,” he said.

“In my home state you made reference to floods and natural disasters and events and we were out in Thargomindah and that is part of the history of our state of this country.”

The PM maintains renewables are the cheapest form of power, but can’t say when bills will come down.

“What we need to do is roll out renewables, make sure there’s energy security, make sure it’s backed by batteries, by hydro and gas,” he says.

“Not using taxpayers’ money to fund something that they never put forward the entire time they were in office.”

Whales have entered the debate.

Speers asks Albanese about locals who are concerned about the rollout of the Government’s renewables plan.

He argues some of the concern is “not real”, “RE whales being unable to steer their way around in the vast Pacific ocean around a wind tower. That’s not right.”

Peter dutton has been pressed for detail on his nuclear policy, especially on the requirement for water.

Mr Dutton said there was already allocations for the sites.

“There are already water allocations to each of the seven sites we located,” he said.

“Coal fired generation uses a lot of water.”

Despite being pressed a number of times for detail, Mr Dutton declined to give it.