Dutton says WA mining makes ‘enormous contribution’ to Australia as he denies cooling relationship with Gina Rinehart
Is Peter Dutton’s relationship with mining magnate Gina Rinehart cooling?
Dutton is asked about reports that it is which he denies, saying he has respect for Rinehart and that the WA mining sector makes an “enormous contribution” to Australia.
We’ll have points of difference with many people, but that doesn’t mean it impacts your friendship or your relationship with different business people. So that’s the best response I can give you.
The Guardian’s Sarah Martin is doing an excellent investigation on Rinehart, which you can read about here:
Key events
Dan Jervis-Bardy
We’re in Blacktown in western Sydney for a Daily Telegraph-hosted event, where the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, will shortly deliver speeches and sit down for (separate) Q&As.
Several of Labor’s most senior ministers hold western Sydney seats, including Tony Burke, Chris Bowen and Michelle Rowland, all of whom are here at Blacktown Workers’ Club for the event.
McPherson independent to run 120km boundary of electorate for independent fundraiser
We know political candidates “run” for election, but it seems one independent in Queensland is taking that more literally than most.
Erchana Murray-Bartlett is running the entire perimeter of her 120km seat, she tells us, and is expecting to do it in 20 hours.
The independent is running in the south-east Queensland seat of McPherson which starts from the NSW border and goes to the southern end of the Gold Coast. It was held by Liberal MP and former home affairs minister Karen Andrews, who is retiring, but held a more than 9% swing against Labor at the last election.
The community independents are eyeing the territory, and Murray-Bartlett says she’ll be trying to raise money for the independent movement through her run. She’ll start the run from 6 April. She says:
McPherson has been in the hands of the major parties since 1948. It’s been held by the LNP since 1981 – more than 40 years. With the incumbent Member retiring this election, we have a real opportunity for change here on the Gold Coast.
What I’m hearing out in the community is that so many people don’t feel represented or heard by the major parties. They don’t trust them to put the community before party politics.
Ben Doherty
US trade secretary casts doubt on potential exemptions
Following from our previous post…
Lutnick told CNBC that Australia – which runs consistent trade deficits with the US – had been hit with “the lowest [tariff] rate available”.
Lutnick was asked directly whether, if Australia dropped its ban on American beef imports, it would be granted an exemption from the blanket 10% tariff on all goods.
I don’t think the word exemption is going to be a factor, I don’t that’s such a thing.
I think what there’s going to be is a world of fairness. Let’s go try to figure out ways for the world to treat us more fairly.
Lutnick later appeared on Bloomberg, again emphasising Australia had been given the lowest “baseline” tariff rate, and describing Australia as “a wonderful partner of ours”.
They buy a lot of our planes. If you buy our commodity, gas, that’s really what you need, not really what we need to sell you – it’s not the same. So the president decided: why don’t we have a baseline of 10%.
Ben Doherty
US commerce secretary claims Australian biosecurity beef measures are ‘all nonsense’
The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, did a series of television interviews following Trump’s Rose Garden announcement, telling interlocutors the president would not back down from the tariff regime.
“Trump is going to stand firm because he is reordering global trade,” he told CNN. Lutnick said it was incumbent upon other countries to level their trading relationships with America.
Countries can fix their tariffs, their non-tariff trade barriers which are much, much rougher.
He singled out Australia in several interviews, particularly Australia’s long-standing ban on US beef imports into Australia – in place since 2003 over concerns around mad-cow disease.
Our farmers are blocked from selling almost anywhere … Europe won’t let us sell beef, Australia won’t let us sell beef.
He said biosecurity arguments prohibiting US beef imports were “all nonsense”, and the measures were protectionist.
What happens is they block our markets.
Jonathan Barrett
Ansell hikes prices to offset tariff impact
Australian surgical glove maker Ansell will increase the prices of its protective clothing to “fully offset” the impact of tariffs in a decision that will lead to large price rises for their products in the US.
The company sources most of its US-bound products from facilities in Asia which have been hit with large tariffs. Ansell told the ASX:
Ansell plans to fully offset the tariff increases through pricing, and we have had conversations with customers to this effect including in the past 24 hours.
Ansell currently generates more than 40% of its revenue in the US. However its products will be subject to steep “liberation day” tariffs, given it relies on manufacturing facilities in Malaysia (24% tariff), Sri Lanka (44%), Thailand (36%), Vietnam (46%) and China (34% on top of a previously imposed 20% tariff).
Ansell shares suffered a double-digit fall on Thursday in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s tariff announcement. The company makes protective clothing, including gloves and gowns. It used to be known for manufacturing condoms, but it sold this division in 2017.
Patrick Commins
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristolina Georgieva, has warned that Trump’s sweeping new tariffs “clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth”.
In a brief statement issued this morning, Georgieva cautioned against retaliation to American trade aggression, even as the European Union and China threatened to respond in kind.
It is important to avoid steps that could further harm the world economy. We appeal to the United States and its trading partners to work constructively to resolve trade tensions and reduce uncertainty.
Trump has said he is ready to negotiate and willing to dial back import taxes if countries can offer him something “phenomenal”.
It’s not clear what such a deal Australia could offer. Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have both categorically ruled out watering down rules on biosecurity and the pharmaceutical benefits scheme to appease American complaints.
ANZ triples rate cut expectations for 2025 and ‘wouldn’t rule out’ a major cut next month
Luca Ittimani
ANZ has joined the other three major banks to predict an interest rate cut in May as markets shudder in the wake of US president Donald Trump’s tariff announcements.
Until Thursday, the bank had maintained the RBA would deliver only one more rate cut this year, and probably not until August. It now expects a cut at each of the next three meetings of the RBA board. ANZ economists wrote:
In the wake of yesterday’s US tariff announcements and given the likely impacts on global growth and those already evident in market sentiment, we now expect the RBA to ease in May, July and August (25bp at each meeting). That would see the cash rate at 3.35% come August.
Tariffs had already seen global markets lose confidence and worsened forecasts for international economic activity, which would affect Australian households and businesses, ANZ’s forecasters flagged.
ANZ warned the RBA could get ‘more aggressive” and deliver a two-for-one cut, depending on how low confidence and forecasts fall”
We would not rule out a 50bp cut in May, if sentiment sours and the global growth outlook deteriorates sufficiently.
The RBA board on Tuesday held its key interest rate at 4.1% but said it was “well placed to respond” to tariffs and other global events, while the governor, Michele Bullock, said policymakers had “room to move”.
Other Australian major banks had already expected a cut at the next meeting on 20 May plus another two by the end of the year. But that was before Trump’s tariff announcement and ANZ is now expecting the three cuts to arrive earlier than any of them.
Australian shares open down 1.9% after Trump tariffs bruise global markets
Patrick Commins
The S&P/ASX 200 sharemarket index has dropped 1.9% in early trade to 7707 points and is still falling after a turbulent night on global sharemarkets.
The early morning sell-off comes after Wall St suffered its worst day since Covid, dropping nearly 5% after Trump’s promise to use sweeping new tariffs to “make America wealthy again” erased $US2.5tn (A$3.95tn) from the value of the S&P 500 index. Nike stock plunged by 14%.
Investors are rattled that the dawn of the most protectionist era for the US in over a century will drive the world’s largest economy into recession even as it sends consumer prices higher.
JP Morgan overnight lifted its estimate of the chances of a US recession to 60% if the tariffs as announced remain – an open question as attention turns to whether Trump will wind back some of the import taxes if he can strike “deals” with other countries.
Reporters ask Dutton for further clarity on whether he’ll repeal the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard set up under the Albanese government.
The Coalition had voted against the policy, and has promised to repeal the “ute tax” as they call it.
We won’t proceed, as I say, with the ute tax and the car tax that the Prime Minister doesn’t want to talk anything about, but that is going to be felt in a hip-pocket hit by this Prime Minister.
But it’s understood the Coalition wouldn’t scrap the standards altogether, just remove the penalties for car companies if they fail to meet the standards.
The Coalition claims scrapping the penalties would save vehicle owners money.
Dutton backs Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie for frontbench after reports of internal dissent
Following reports this morning that there’s a tussle between the Nationals for who will remain on the frontbench, Dutton backs in Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie.
Nine papers report McKenzie, who is at the press conference with Dutton, is on the chopping block, as the junior Coalition partner could lose some of its frontbench numbers after the next election.
How can you dump somebody like a Senator McKenzie, [she] was a great minister in government and will be a great minister in the next Coalition government as well. But … all of that is for another day.
Under the Coalition agreement, the parties are awarded cabinet positions based on the proportion of MPs they each have elected to parliament. The Nationals are currently overrepresented in the shadow cabinet.
PM tells students ‘in Australia, you can be anything you want to be if you study hard and work hard’
Anthony Albanese has told pupils at Cabramatta Public School to study hard and be determined, saying in Australia young people can achieve anything they dream of.
The Prime Minister met pupils from grades 5 and 6 on Friday morning, and was asked his message for children around the country.
Make the most of while you’re at school, enjoy yourself. But in this country, you can be anything you want to be. So study hard, create an opportunity for yourselves.
All your parents will want more for you than what they had. That’s the Australian way.
When I was your age, there was just me and my mum, and we lived in a council house in Camperdown, in the inner the west, and no one would have believed that I could be the prime minister.
But in Australia, you can be anything you want to be, if you study hard and work hard.
He praised the school’s teachers and paid tribute to the education minister, Jason Clare, and Labor’s candidate for the seat of Fowler, Tu Le.
He asked if there were any South Sydney Rabbitohs supporters in the class. Two pupils somewhat reluctantly raised their hands.
