Australian news and politics live updates: Trump must be ‘taken by his word’ after tariff move, diplomat says

Former ABC boss Ita Buttrose has arrived at court in a wheelchair as she prepares to give evidence at the hearing into the unlawful dismissal case brought by freelance journalist Antoinette Lattouf.

Ms Buttrose, 83, who ended her reign as chair at the public broadcaster last year, is expected in the witness box after the lunch break and after former ABC head of capital city networks Steve Ahern takes the stand.

Lattouf is seeking compensation and penalties, alleging she was fired for her political opinion and race after the ABC bowed to pressure from pro-Israeli lobbyists who coordinated a campaign of complaints against her.

Earlier, the ABC formally apologised after confidential information relating to those who complained about a casual radio host’s views on the war in Gaza were accidentally disclosed to the public.

The details, which were suppressed by the Federal Court, were revealed on Monday in an affidavit tendered during an unlawful dismissal hearing in a case brought by Lattouf.

The hearing continues. Get the latest here.

Sorry, couldn’t help myself with that pun.

But seriously: Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned Aussie households could see grocery prices rise as the impact of deadly floods in north Queensland continues to spread.

The floods in the Sunshine State swamped “about four per cent of agricultural production in Australia”, including sugar and banana supplies, which may have a minor impact on prices, Dr Chalmers said.

Treasury estimates up to 20 per cent of Australia’s banana crop could be affected by the disaster, as damage to road networks hampers supply chains.

Dr Chalmers said there might be a “quite narrow but significant impact” on some goods, but said Treasury does not expect the “impact on inflation to be subtantial in aggregate”.

Treasury estimates reveal lost economic activity from the floods will amount to a 0.1 per cent reduction in March quarter gross domestic product, or output.

“That might not sound like a lot, but at a time when growth is not especially thick on the ground in our economy, that is not inconsequential,” Dr Chalmers said.

“But in the context of an economy, which is already quite soft, another 0.1 per cent of activity in the quarter we’re in now will make a difference.”

Australia’s economy grew at a subdued 0.3 per cent in the September quarter and 0.8 per cent over the year, which was the lowest annual growth rate in decades.

Dr Chalmers promised a “serious financial commitment” to help flood-hit communities recover and rebuild.

Anthony Albanese has won a stay of execution on Australia’s steel and aluminium sectors as the world braces for the guillotine fall of a 25 per cent tariff by order of Donald Trump.

Mr Albanese’s 40-minute phone call with Mr Trump on Tuesday morning was one of the toughest diplomatic tests of his premiership — a high stakes negotiation to protect Australian industry and jobs from the fallout of the punishing levy.

He emerged from the conversation with the POTUS praising him as a “very fine man” and publicly confirming their agreement to consider an exemption on the sweeping tariff exclusively for Australia.

The result, while not a full guarantee of relief, is a sign of the Prime Minister playing to his strengths as an effective, behind-the-scenes negotiator.

​Have a look at the full analysis.​

Just before he wrapped his presser, Peter Dutton urged the Governor of the Reserve Bank not to feel “pressured” to cut rates at its upcoming meeting in February.

The Opposition leader said while he hoped for a rate cut, “for the sake of families and small businesses”, he doubted RBA Governor Michele Bullock would be “swayed” one way or another.

“I think Australians deserve rate relief because they’ve had 12 increases under the Albanese Government,” Mr Dutton said.

“The Reserve Bank Governor I think has shown her indpeendence and she’s not going to be pushed one way or the other by the Government or the Opposition or commentators or anyone else. She will do what’s in our country’s best interest.”

He said Ms Bullock deserved “respect” for putting “our country’s best interests first and foremost... in the past”.

The crossbench have accused the major parties of teaming up to do a “dirty deal” on electoral reform, which they expect to be announced in the next 48 hours.

Special Minister of State Don Farrell told the Labor caucus this morning the parliament will decide in the next 24 hours whether it wants to let “billionares determine who gets into” power.

He told MPs negotiations were ongoing across the Parliament, but expects a decision before the end of the week.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was also coy about the prospect of a deal, saying the work was ongoing.

“We have been conducting good-faith negotiations with the government and that continues on,” he said.

But the Greens and members of the crossbench believe the deal has already been stitched up and plan to make their anger known.

“The long-rumoured fix is in. Rather than improve their policies to improve their falling popularity, Labor and the Coalition are agreeing on rigging the system to lock out their competitors,” Greens democracy spokeswoman Larissa Waters said.

The legislation is listed to be debated in the Senate on Thursday morning.

US President Donald Trump says hell will break out if all the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are not released by midday on Saturday.

“I looked at the hostages that came in, and they are emaciated, it looked like something out of the 1930s. It is an absolute disgrace,” Mr Trump says.

“I think they saw the way the world viewed it and they are looking for a reason not to send more because they are all, you look at that it looks like it was a concentration camp.

“It looks like it came out of the Holocaust.

Mr Trump went on to clarify why he thinks Hamas have halted delivering hostages to Israel.

“I think one of the reasons they are doing this is because they probably are sending the best. Because they want to send people that look at least healthy.

“I think Hamas is looking at that and saying well, it’s not going to get much better than that.

“As far as I’m concerned if all the hostages are not returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock I think it’s an appropriate time, I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out.”

Interesting comments from the Opposition Leader there.

He rarely holds press conferences and we have it on good authority from the Canberra team that two in a week is unheard of.

What does this tells us?

Firstly, that he feels the tariff issue has the potential to be massive for Australia, and it was great to see him show bipartisan support.

Secondly, we are most definitely in election campaign mode. I think we can expect to see more of Mr Dutton over the coming months as we head toward what will be a fascinating Federal poll.

Donald Trump says that countries around the world have the opportunity to work with the US to lower trade tariffs.

“We don’t want it to hurt other countries, but they’ve been taking advantage of us for years and years and years,” Mr Tump said from the White House.

“And they’ve charged us tariffs. Most of them have charged us, almost every one, you would say almost without exception, they have charged us, we haven’t charged them.

“It’s time to be reciprocal.

“You’ll be hearing that word a lot. If they charge us, we charge them. If they’re at 25, we’re at 25. If they’re at 10, we’re at 10. If they’re much higher than 25, that’s where we are too.”

Mr Dutton was asked about whether it was a mistake to seek to stop the Attorney-General, Australia’s most senior Jewish MP, from speaking about anti-Semitism in Parliament yesterday.

Last night’s story on this is here.

“It is absolutely not, he was closed down because he made a suggestion that we were politicising anti-Semitism, he was completely out of order and if he had the decency that you would expect from the first Law Officer he would have withdrawn that without us requesting him to do so.

“It was a show, it was misplaced, he apologised to the Prime Minister on the front bench afterwards, and so he should. Mark Dreyfus has largely been missing for 15 months.”

President Donald Trump has issued a full pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who was sent to prison for soliciting campaign funds and other favors in exchange for former President Barack Obama’s Senate seat.

Blagojevich who has been a strong supporter of Mr Trump, entered prison in 2012 and served eight years before his sentence was commuted as Mr Trump left office in 2020.

“He was set up by a lot of bad people. Some of the same people that I had deal with,” Mr Trump said.

“He wasn’t quite as successful but he had someone who saw what was going on. I believe he was on the Apprentice for a little while.

“Just a very nice person. He had a fantastic wife, she fought like hell to get him out. He was given a sentence of, like, 18 years.

“And it was sort of a terrible injustice, they were just after him. They go after a lot of people. These are bad people, the other side. So I think he’s just a very fine person. And this shouldn’t have happened.

“Let him have a normal life and let him go out and do what he has to do. I’m signing this as a full pardon.”