Australian news and politics recap for Wednesday, March 12, 2025

We’re winding up our live coverage on The Nightly for Wednesday, March 12.

Be sure to catch up on all the latest news and analysis tonight when the latest edition of The Nightly drops after 6pm AEDT.

And in the meantime, stay up-to-date with all the latest breaking news on thenightly.com.au.

Scroll through the below updates to read the news as it happened today. Thanks for joining us!

Helicopters and boats have been called in to drop essential food, water and medical supplies to communities still cut off by the floods caused by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

NSW’s State Emergency Service says it has received more than 70 requests for help.

Urgent supplies have been dropped to locals in the Lower Clarence including Goodwood Island, Hardwood Island, Warregah Island, Yaragai Island, Chatsworth Island and Woolbin Island.

Helicopters are also dropping essential supplies to isolated communities in Thora.

The Prime Minister says Australia will look to diversify markets for its products in the wake of the US imposing 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium.

“All Australians can join this effort and support our industries by taking the opportunity to buy Australian,” he wrote in a social media post.

From Reuters:

An influential Russian lawmaker, commenting on a ceasefire proposal agreed between US and Ukrainian officials, says that any deal would be on Moscow’s terms, not Washington’s.

“Russia is advancing (in Ukraine), and therefore it will be different with Russia,” said Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, in a post on Telegram.

“Any agreements - with all the understanding of the need for compromise - on our terms, not on American. And this is not boasting, but understanding that real agreements are still being written there, at the front. Which they should understand in Washington, too.”

Latika M Bourke writes for The Nightly that the ball is now in Russia’s court with a potential Ukraine ceasefire, but it could also have implications for the future of the MAGA movement:

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was emphatic.

After talks with his delegation, Ukraine’s agreement to a 30-day ceasefire meant the the ball was now in Russia’s court, he declared, a sentiment echoed by other world leaders.

But in another sense, it is also now in the MAGA movement’s court as well.

The mood in Jeddah was a stark contrast to that in the Oval Office 11 days ago when US President Donald Trump and his attack dog, Vice President JD Vance, tore strips off Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky, a man who Mr Trump had previously called a dictator and accused of starting the war.

Read Latika’s full analysis here.

Richlister Simon Holmes a Court has suggested an election dispute in the WA seat of Fremantle could be on the cards after the Labor incumbent has narrowly taken the lead over his Climate 200-backed an independent candidate.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Mr Holmes a Court said as the vote count continued and Fremantle MP Simone McGurk pulled just 31 votes ahead of independent Kate Hulett it would be “one to watch”.

“It is neck and neck. There’s probably even going to be discussions with the Court of Disputed Returns but that’s a very interesting seat to watch,” he said.

It comes after Ms Hulett on Wednesday declared there was “widespread problems” at Saturday’s election after supporters complaint ballots ran out and there were long queues to vote.

“We’ve received so many reports of people unable to vote in Fremantle due to long queues and ballots running out and instead being advised to cast absentee ballots at booths in other electorates - where, unlike Labor and other parties who had staff, materials and how to vote cards everywhere, my campaign was not represented,” she said.

Donald Trump has followed through on his threat to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US — and ruled out offering Australia an exemption.

So what does it all mean? Here are your questions answered.

​Read the story​

Trade Minister Don Farrell has also denounced the Trump Administration’s decision to forge ahead with imposing tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium, saying he believes Washington was never going to give Canberra a carve out.

Speaking off the back of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s press conference, where he accused the Prime Minister of letting the country down in not securing an exemption, Senator Farrell said the Government had done “absolutely everything we could do”.

“From my point of view, the disappointing thing is that if the Americans had simply told us right at the start that ‘forget about it, there is going to be no exemptions, no country is going to be exempted from these tariffs’, and I think that was their intention all along, looking back at what’s happened over the last few weeks,” he told Sky news.

“I don’t believe there was any intention on the part of the US Government to give us an exemption.

“We did all the things Mr Dutton claimed he would have done.”

Mr Dutton says if the Coalition wins at the upcoming federal election, they would “do a deal” with the Trump Administration to secure a tariff exemption.

“No question about that,” he said.

“Absolutely, I believe we can get a deal done with the Trump administration because we will be a strong government that stands up for a national interest, that fights were national interest and stands up for Australians, jobs and industry and economic growth in our country.”

He said the “first step” would be to talk with US President Donald Trump and the administration “as we did in 2018”.

Mr Dutton also said the Coalition would have put a “competent ambassador” in Washington that would “open the doors in the US”.

Mr Dutton says Australia clearly has a strong argument for tariff exemptions, namely the decades-long trade surplus, which had effectively worked in our favour in 2018.

“The Prime Minister hasn’t been able to mount that argument because the President won’t even pick up the phone when Anthony Albanese calls. He can’t even get a meeting, which is why the Prime Minister hasn’t gone.

“He (Mr Albanese) is the only Quad partner with a leader who can’t get a face-to-face meeting with the President. This is hopeless.

“I think the Prime Minister has let every Australian down.”

He says the Coalition has a proven track record of prosecuting the argument “more effectively” than what Mr Albanese can.

It’s worth noting former PM Malcolm Turnbull, who secured an exemption in 2018, had said even with the same argument it would be nigh on impossible to convince the second Trump administration to carve Australia out.