Australian news and politics recap: February 10, 2025

We’re wrapping up our live coverage of news and politics for Monday, February 10, 2025.

Thanks for joining us and make sure you check back in with The Nightly tomorrow for all the latest news from across the country and the world.

From Katina Curtis in Canberra:

Critical minerals companies that set up downstream processing and refining will get a tax break from mid-2027 after the Government won agreement from the Greens to pass its Budget centrepiece.

The 10 per cent production tax incentives for critical minerals and green hydrogen projects passed the Senate late on Monday night with a minor tweak to explicitly prevent uranium projects from receiving any of the benefits.

Under the plan, projects will get a tax break for up to 10 years on production starting in 2027-28 for the materials needed to build things like batteries, solar panels and wind turbines.

Resources Minister Madeleine King, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the $17.5 billion measure was one of the largest ever packages of support to the sector.

Full story here.

A draft cap on how much Australians can donate to political candidates looks set to be increased. So too is the threshold to declare the cash.

Labor and the Liberals are on the precipice of an agreement on electoral donation reform.

Sticking points for the Liberals were increasing a $20,000 donation cap for individuals and a $1000 threshold, above which donations would have to be disclosed.

It’s understood Labor has agreed to raise both to around $40,000 and $5000 respectively in line with what the Liberals were pushing for as Special Minister of State Don Farrell works to clinch a deal ahead of a slated debate in the Senate on Thursday.

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The US President has taken time out from slashing and burning waste from government departments to announce pennies will no longer be produced.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he announced on social media.

Defence Minister Richard Marles and Leader of the House Tony Burke both looked shocked at Mr Sukkar’s move to silence Mr Dreyfus.

Labor members shouted “shame” after the motion failed.

In only his second week running chamber tactics for the Opposition, Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar has just shut down Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus while he was speaking about his personal experiences of anti-Semitism.

Katina Curtis reports the Opposition had asked Mr Dreyfus to detail “the benefits of mandatory sentencing” after it was reported the A-G had been steamrolled by the Prime Minister into accepting them in the hate crimes bill that became law over the weekend.

Labor has a long-standing opposition to mandatory sentences.

Mr Dreyfus noted that over the past few months, he had stood in the shadow of the gate of Auschwitz, visited the music festival site in Israel where the October 7 attacks occurred and visited a burned-out synagogue in his home state of Melbourne.

“I do not need the Leader of the Opposition or any of those opposite to tell me how serious anti-Semitism is,” he said, before Mr Sukkar rose to force a vote on silencing the Jewish minister.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he has a discussion with Donald Trump ‘scheduled’.

He made the comment to the House of Representatives hours after the US President announced he would be imposing a 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminium products imported into the US.

“Australian companies have significant investments in US steel industry creating thousands of jobs in both the US and in Australia,” he said.

“We will continue to make the case for Australia’s national interest with the US administration and, what’s more, we regard this as also being in the US national interest as well, because tariffs of course don’t tax us, they tax the purchasers of our products.”

Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, has issued a stark warning after Donald Trump’s steel and aluminium tariff bombshell, saying “nothing could be taken for granted… in a rapidly changing world”.

“We cannot be sanguine about one of our most important trade and investment links. Pollyannaish hopes that we would fly under the radar have proven to be sadly misplaced,” he said.

“That this advice has been given the day after our deputy prime minister was in Washington to hand over billions of dollars to secure the AUKUS submarine deal is particularly troubling.”

Mr Willox said it was a “national priority” to reverse the US tariff decision.

“It is now up to the Federal Government.. to protect Australian industry and producers from being caught up in a rapidly escalating global trade war,” he said.

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Australian steel producer Bluescope Steel says it will work with the Trump administration and the Australian Government as it waits on further details about Donald Trump’s plan to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium.

“We are aware of media reports this morning that President Trump has said he will announce tariffs on steel and aluminium imported to the US,” a spokesperson said.

“BlueScope has been investing in the United States for 30 years.

“Most recently, we have spent $2 billion on acquisitions and brownfields expansion of our operations there. BlueScope is now the fifth largest steel producer in the US, employing 4,000 American workers.

“BlueScope abides by all trade rules and agreements. We will continue to work with the Trump administration and the Australian Government, as we await further details. We have no further comment to make at this stage.”

The Government will continue to “advocate” for Australia to be exempt from US President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda, after he announced a blanket impost on steel and aluminium imports.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the Government would await further information still to come, but felt Australia was in a “strong position” given months of “good engagement” with the new administration.

She said if President Trump’s tariffs did hit Australia, that would “clearly have some impact” on local businesses, which she and Treasurer Jim Chalmers would be “watching closely”.

“I’d say we are engaging very proactively with the Trump administration. We believe there’s some very strong arguments around the mutually beneficial trade relationship between the two countries, and we’ll continue to do that,” she said.

“We’ll advocate in our national interest. We want to protect industry, or support industry and jobs, and that means here in Australia and also in the US as well, and we’ll continue to do that.”