Federal election 2025: Albanese dodges tough Trump tariff questions on campaign trail in caretaker mode

The Prime Minister has dodged questions about the status of Australia’s engagement and negotiations with the Trump administration, as pressure mounts on Canberra to secure a way through the President’s tariffs.

At a press conference in Sydney on Wednesday morning, fresh from his first election debate win, Anthony Albanese said he believes Australia will avoid a recession — despite significant global uncertainty — and touted the “enormous opportunities” which will become available.

But he would not say if he had personally requested to speak with Donald Trump since “Liberation Day”, which have upended share markets at home and abroad.

Mr Trump has taken calls from the leaders of South Korea and Vietnam in the past week, and while Australia is among the 70 countries who are trying to engage with the administration on tariffs, the PM would not go into detail.

Asked when Australia’s “top team” is heading over to the US, and who has spoken to the Trump Administration, Mr Albanese kept his cards close to his chest, saying only “we have continued to make representations through the US administration”.

Pressed on whether it looks like we’re asleep at the wheel, Mr Albanese made the point that the Government is currently in caretaker mode.

“We’ll continue to engage as we are through our officials.”

The PM said he’d welcome a call from Donald Trump to congratulate him should be re-elected Prime Minister, but stressed he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.

“May 3 is a long way away,” he said.

Mr Albanese was also asked about US trade representative Jamieson Greer’s assertion the US “should be running up the score in Australia”, and said it reiterated the point his Government had been making to the US for months now.

“I did see the comments from Mr Greer and he spoke about it, he used a footy term for when you have a lead, trying to get a further lead,” he said.

“The fact is that what he has drawn attention to is what I’ve been saying consistently and what I have said very directly to President Trump, which is the United States has a trade surplus with Australia of around about two to one.

“They have had that since the Truman presidency and therefore not only is it an act of economic self-harm for the United States, but it certainly is not an appropriate action and it certainly isn’t reciprocal that Australia has received a 10 per cent tariff.”