Australian news and politics live: US slams Australia as ‘dumpers’ amid tariff war of words

Peter Dutton has brushed off concerns from Coalition MPs he’s not doing enough to convince voters ahead of the looming election.

Several unamed MPs spoke to The Australian of the need for the Opposition Leader to unveil big policies to bolster his economic credentials with some believing it is unclear what he stands for.

There were also concerns he would not be offering income tax cuts at the election or doing enough to unwind Labor’s industrial relations agenda.

Speaking on 2GB this morning Mr Dutton said a lot of families were hurting at the moment, and “we have to make decisions which will help them”.

“There’s a lot of policy that we’ve been working on that we’ll announce between now and the election, but that’s ... where we are in the cycle.

On tax cuts, Mr Dutton said it would depend on how much money was “left in the back by Labor”.

“Now, Labor’s spent a lot of money. They’ve driven up inflation, and what we’re not going to do is fuel inflation further.

“I think interest rates have a prospect of going up again under Labor, particularly if they’re re elected in the big spending Labor/Greens government, and we are not going to fuel inflation.

“So we’ll make the decision that is right for our country at the time, knowing how much money we have in the bank and whether we want to pay down debt or whether we want to put money into tax cuts or provide support through other policy.”

Australia’s Trade Minister says the US has committed a “great act if self harm” after imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium.

During a photo opportunity in Perth, Don Farrell urged people not to panic, the Australian government was still pursuing an exmption.

Mr Farrell denied he should be flying to Washington for urgent talks and said instead he would speak to American trade representatives on Sunday.

“We’ll continue the discussions but we’re not going to panic,” he said.

“We’re not going to panic, we didn’t panic in the relationship with China. We were cool, calm and collected and that’s the way we’re going to be in our relationship with the United States and every other country.”

But Mr Farrell denied the Albanese government had given up.

“No, no we haven’t given up trying. There’s another round of tariff impacts starting the first of April, we’ll be talking with our American counterparts to try and convince them that they’re heading in the wrong direction,” he said.

Mr Farrell said Australia’s total trade with the US, two-way trade, is about $100 billion.

“That’s less than a third of what we do with China,” he said.

“We buy $70 billion worth of products from America, (we) sell them $30 billion, so our trade with China has always been much greater than the US.”

“I think the United States have done a great act of self harm by imposing these tariffs.”

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has come out swinging against Australia as he strongly defended the 25 per cent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on steel and aluminium.

Mr Lutnick labelled Australia as “dumpers” for exporting cheap aluminium to the US market.

He has told Fox Business that the new tariffs that went into effect yesterday will protect America from cheap aluminium coming in from Australia and steel from Japan.

“Look, you’ve got dumpers in the rest of the world. Japan dump steel. China dump steel. What that means is they make it, they over produce and they sell it dirt cheap to try to drive our guys out of business,” he said.

“The President is here to protect American workers. He’s here to protect American industry. We’re going to stop that nonsense and bring steel here.

“So this concept that, ‘oh, prices are going to rise’, you got to remember, President Trump is playing for the strength of America.

“And we’re not going to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping. Australia does a lot of aluminium at below cost. I mean, this has got to end, and the President is on it, and he’s protecting America.”

Brad Banducci, former chief executive of Woolworths Group, has landed the top job with an Australian entertainment giant.

On Thursday, TEG announced current chief executive Geoff Jones has been promoted to chair, with Mr Banducci brought in to fill his seat.

“I am honoured to join TEG at this exciting time in its journey,” Mr Banducci said.

“In this new role, I am following both a personal passion for live events and a strong belief in the increasing importance of live experiences in general,” Mr Banducci said.

Mr Banducci resigned from Woolworths Group after a train wreck interview with the ABC, where the then-chief executive walked out of an interview discussing pricing practices.

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The peak body representing the tech industry - the Tech Council of Australia - will have new leadership with Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar to replace Tesla’s Robyn Denholm as chair.

Mr Farquhar, who stepped down as co-chief executive of Atlassian last year, will take up the new role in March.

Ms Denholm, who is the current chair of Tesla, will step down after three and half years in the role. She will remain on the board of the Tech Council, which was founded in 2021 with support from Australia’s largest technology companies.

“When we founded TCA, the Australian tech sector lacked a unified national voice to advocate for our sector. Today, thanks to the work we’ve done alongside our members, we have a unified voice on the national stage—ensuring the right policies are in place to drive our industry forward,” Mr Farquhar said.

“As we look ahead, there is enormous potential to expand our advocacy in critical areas like digital infrastructure, consumer energy, and emerging technology. I look forward to working closely with governments, industry leaders, and innovators to ensure Australia remains a world-class tech powerhouse

Energy bills are set to soar, bringing to bear more financial pressure on already cash-strapped Aussies.

On Thursday, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), which sets prices for South Australia, New South Wales and south-east Queensland, delivered its draft determination for the Default Marker Offer (DMO) for energy prices in 2025-2026, which is known as DMO7.

The regulator blamed “cost increases across nearly all components” for the price hike in DMO7, warning residential customers to expect increases between 2.5 per cent and 8.9 per cent, depending on their region.

It added small business customers could see rises between 4.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent.

“We know that cost-of-living pressures are front of mind for many households and small businesses.

“We’ve seen cost pressures across nearly every component of the DMO, and we have given careful scrutiny to every element of the DMO cost stack to ensure prices are a reasonable reflection of the costs of a retailer to supply electricity,” AER Chair Clare Savage said.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Australian AUKUS deal is “good” and that the country is not doing it as a “favour”.

“The AUKUS deal stands by itself as a good deal for Australia,” Mr Albanese said on ABC radio.

“That’s why we’re doing it. We’re not doing it as a favour.

The comments come after US President Donald Trump did not grant Australia an exemption on tariffs for steel and aluminum.

“We’re doing it as a way of best defending our island continent.

“When you have an island continent located where we are, then it makes sense to invest in your navy, and the best form of naval assets is submarines, and that is why we have gone down that route.”

Senator Wong says the Albanese Government will not go down the path of retaliatory exemptions as it would “make Australians pay more”.

“The reason is we don’t want to add to people’s cost of living,” she told Sunrise.

“The reality is, tariffs are a tax, they make things more expensive for the people buying things.

“This is actually going to harm American consumers.

“So we’re not going to make the same mistake and make Australians pay more.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the Albanese Government worked “overtime” in the hope of securing a tariff exemption for Australia, saying a previous “mistake” is the reason US President Donald Trump didn’t play ball.

“I think it’s pretty clear that the Government, from the Prime Minister down, has been working overtime to try and land this deal,” Senator Wong told Sunrise.

“The reality is, as we know from what the White House has said, they reckon that the exemption they gave last time to Australia and other countries was a mistake.

“So this time they were very clear that they didn’t want any exemptions.”