Australian news and politics live: Anthony Albanese says China green steel talks ‘important step forward’

In 2023, Anthony Albanese made a trip to Washington that was overshadowed by questions of when he would get an invitation to travel to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping.

Two years later and his trip to China is being dogged by questions about when he’ll get an invitation from Donald Trump.

The Prime Minister insists he is focused on the business at hand in China this week, but does say he “look(s) forward to a constructive engagement with President Trump” and reminds people they’ve spoken three times on the phone since November.

He casts forward to the multiple opportunities he will have later this year to cross paths with the President: “Between now and the end of the year, G20, Quad, APEC, a range of meetings as well of course, as the potential for … another visit to the United States.”

That trip to the US is expected to be in late September, when Mr Albanese has flagged he is likely to address the United Nations General Assembly.

Buckingham Palace has announced Mr Trump will be travelling to the UK just prior to the UN meeting.

Anthony Albanese highlights that one in four Australian jobs depends on overseas trade, and says his Government has consistently pursued diversified trade links.

He anticipates a “constructive dialogue” with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday, but points to other discussions he’s had with the leaders of Indonesia and Singapore about growing trade with their countries, along with future meetings at the ASEAN and APEC summits.

“They all represent opportunities for us to put our case about investment in Australia, as I said before,” he said.

“We welcome that. We want a strong economy. That depends upon our international relationships as well as what we do domestically.”

One of the remaining long-term frictions in the relationship is China’s detention of Australian writer Yang Hengjun.

Anthony Albanese is expected to again raise the plight of the writer, whose poor health has raised fears from his supporters that he will die in China.

“We always raise issues of Australian citizens, and if you look at my record, it’s not too bad, certainly compared with any of my predecessors,” Mr Albanese tells reporters.

“I believe that it’s a responsibility, whether it be here in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, the United States and the United Kingdom.

“We have been successful at advocating for Australians, and I will always do that.”

Anthony Albanese will meet President Xi Jinping on Tuesday and has fielded several questions about how he intends to raise or respond to issues such as the sale of the Port of Darwin and the circumnavigation of Australia by Chinese naval vessels.

“I’ll treat him with the respect that I would any leader of another country, and not foreshadow everything today,” the Prime Minister said.

“I’ll continue to assert Australia’s national interest, as I do.”

He repeated his long-held mantra that Australia will seek to cooperate where it can and disagree where it must with China.

Asked about the connection between peace and stability and the economic relationship with China, Anthony Albanese says they are closely tied.

“The economic relationship is obviously based upon a stable and secure region,” he said.

“We’ve seen the disruption that occurs when there is conflict in the world. That’s why we need to make sure that we do everything we can to promote peace and security in the region.”

The Prime Minister says personal links between people are also vital, which is why he has brought a high-level business delegation with him to meet Chinese counterparts.

Anthony Albanese is now taking media questions, flanked by the heads of Australia’s major iron ore exporters, after a green steel roundtable in Shanghai, China.

The Prime Minister says they’ve had a “very successful discussion” with Chinese steelmakers about decarbonising the sector.

“We want Australian iron ore to be part of the solution when it comes to lowering emissions and we understand that China wants that too,” he said.

“These discussions were an important step forward, between our two nations. We want to see a sustainable steel sector in China and globally. We want to build a future that keeps Australian jobs and our economy strong.”

Dr Chalmers said he accepted that the Albanese Government needs to “do better” with its new home target, as highlighted in a Treasury document that was made public through an FOI blunder where key advice was not redacted.

“The point that the Treasury is making, the point that I understand and accept is that the Government will need to do better and do more to meet that target,” Dr Chalmers said.

“Under current trajectories, we would fall short, but that doesn’t mean that between now and over the course of the next four years that we can’t consider ways and work with the states and territories and others, local government and others on ways to build more homes.

“I welcome and I encourage the treasury to think about best and worst-case scenarios.”

Dr Chalmers said he had been in contact with his US counterpart, but uncertainty remains over the date of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“There’s been no change to our baseline tariffs when it comes to the US, but I think it’s clear that every week brings new developments, new uncertainties, and over the weekend we saw more of that,” he said from Canberra.

“We work our way through the consequences for us of these sorts of announcements, which come from time to time.

“When it comes to engaging with the US, we’re engaging at a number of levels - the Prime Minister’s already had three conversations with President Trump. I have had three conversations with my counterpart, Secretary Bessant. Minister Wong was meeting with Secretary Rubio (over the) last week or two.

“We’re engaging at a whole range of levels with our American counterparts, but also in China, the G20, really wherever we can.”

Dr Chalmers says there is volatility in commodity prices, something the Government has allowed for in the Budget, however, he added he remains “optimistic”.

“We have got conservative assumptions about iron ore in our budget. Those assumptions are provided by the Treasury,” Dr Chalmers said.

“There has been a very modest tick-up in the iron ore price in recent times, but it’s been below the glide path in our budget at different times.

“There’s volatility in commodity prices. Copper, oil, gold, and other commodities as well and we’re seeing that in iron ore too.

“Our iron ore industry, our exports, make a really valued and important contribution to our economy, to our labour market, to our budget.

“We’re big supporters of the resources sector.

“It’s why the Prime Minister is convening today a meeting of the major iron ore exporters with the Chinese steel industry, and we expect, we’re optimistic, that iron ore will continue to make a big contribution to our export offering and to our economy more broadly.

“Prices will bounce around a bit and that’s why we have those conservative assumptions.”

Dr Jim Chalmers said he has asked those engaged in the Government’s round table to come up with fresh ideas, which could include tax changes.

“When you ask me about tax reform more broadly - what we have asked people to come to the round table with is ideas which are broadly budget-neutral or better,” Dr Chalmers said.

“People will come with all kinds of suggestions about how changing one tax over here will make it possible to cut taxes over there.

That is in lots of ways, the essence of the tax reform that a lot of people who will come to the round table are grappling with.

“So again - I don’t think it’s particularly surprising that Treasury provides advice to in their incoming Government brief.

“I don’t think it’s particularly surprising that the Treasury has highlighted, as I have personally, that we need to do more to make the budget more sustainable.”