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

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.”

Dr Chalmers said the G20 offered the Albanese Government a “crucial opportunity” to better engage with the world to strengthen Australia’s economic position.

“The G20 is another crucial opportunity for Australia to engage,” Dr Chalmers said on Tuesday.

“We are big believers in multi-lateral engagement because Australia is a big beneficiary of global forums like the G20 and also from free and open markets for our goods and services.

“I’ll be heading to Durban this week, later in the week, for meetings on Thursday and Friday.

“I’ll be participating in G20 discussions, but also meeting directly with my counterparts from Indonesia, Japan, Canada, the UK, and Germany, and my focus at the G20 will be on strengthening economic ties, but also with the particular focus on capital flows, on supply chains, on critical minerals, and also dealing with the structural issues in our own economies.

“That’s the focus of our international engagement in July and it’s also the focus of our reform round-table in August.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says he is “pretty relaxed” about an FOI bungle that leaked information about a Treasury-suggested tax increase due to the inability to fix the Budget.

“What’s happened here is a Treasury official has sent those documents in error,” Dr Chalmers said on Monday.

“That sort of thing happens from time to time. I’m pretty relaxed about it, to be honest, because, of course, Treasury provides advice for incoming governments and no government typically goes into the detail of that.”

The FOI information, obtained by the ABC, featured a heading that had not been redacted, where the Treasury told Dr Chalmers to raise taxes if Labor wanted to fix the budget deficit.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says strengthening the Australian economy is in the “interest” of Australians, adding that the Prime Minister and he are working with global counterparts as they ramp up international engagement.

“Global conditions will be the primary influence on our economy and on our choices in the Government’s second term because what we’re dealing with is extreme global economic uncertainty compounded by conflict and trade tensions around the world.

“So our engagement is all about navigating a world where volatility and unpredictability are the norm, not the exception.

“The way we see it is that the best defence against more uncertainty and more volatility is more engagement and more resilience, and that’s our strategy when it comes to engaging with the world.

“It’s why the Prime Minister’s in China, it’s why I’m off to the G20 this week and also why our engagement is good for Australian workers and businesses and industries and our economy more broadly.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has kicked off a business-focused day in Shanghai with an appeal for greater cooperation between Australia and China to produce green energy and cut emissions from iron ore mining and steel production.

“It is in both countries’ interests to ensure a sustainable and market-driven global steel sector,” he told a decarbonisation roundtable of Australian and Chinese industry chiefs, including BHP’s Geraldine Slattery, Fortescue’s Andrew Forrest and Rio Tinto’s Kellie Parker.

Steel decarbonisation involves reducing carbon dioxide emissions in steel production which significantly add to global emissions.

While China remains the world’s largest emitter, it is also viewed as a clean tech powerhouse, funnelling huge resources into renewable energy sources and decarbonising its industrial production.

The Government and industry view greater collaboration with China as vital to meeting Australia’s own green energy goals.

“Steel decarbonisation presents a range of challenges. What we need are enabling policy environments, extensive investments in research to develop new technologies and collaboration across academia, industry and Government,” the Prime Minister said.

Environment Minister Murray Watt has responded to ABC reports that Treasury advised the government it may need to raise taxes and cut spending to balance the budget, and that the 1.2 million new homes target could be unattainable.

Mr Watt did not deny if the report was true and maintained the Labor government has a “pretty good record when it comes to transparency”, but emphasised the need for confidential advice from public service departments.

“It won’t apply to any decisions that are currently under way or that have happened previously,” he said while speaking to ABC Radio National on Monday morning.

“I, of course, haven’t seen them (the advice) myself, but you will have seen that we’ve taken a lot of steps already to ensure that we can meet that housing goal.

“We recognise that it’s ambitious, but it’s certainly our intention to meet it.”