Anthony Albanese has responded to the United States’ calls for a huge rise in defence spending amid fears about China, while hitting back at Donald Trump’s move to double tariffs on steel and aluminium.
On Saturday Pete Hegseth urged US allies in the region, including Australia, to “share the burden” and lift defence spending to 5% of GDP, warning that “Beijing is credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific”.
“There’s no reason to sugar coat it,” he said. “The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent.”
Albanese said Australia had already committed to additional investment in defence and would “determine our defence policy”.
“We’ll determine our defence policy, we’ve invested, just across [the next four years], an additional $10bn in defence,” the prime minister said on Sunday. “What we’ll do is continue to invest in our capability but also our relationships in the region.
“Our position in regards to Taiwan is very clear, has been for a long time – a bipartisan position to support the status quo.”
Australia is on track to lift defence spending to 2.4% of GDP by 2033-34, up from the approximately 2% it is on now.
The Pentagon undersecretary Elbridge Colby has previously told a US Senate hearing that the US wanted Australia to reach a 3% defence spending threshold.
On Sunday, Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles said the issue of defence spending was a conversation he was “totally up for”, noting Hegseth had raised it in talks.
The head of China’s delegation at the conference dismissed Hegseth’s warnings as “groundless accusations” and “nothing more than attempts to provoke trouble, incite division and stir up confrontation to destabilise the Asia-Pacific region”, according to Associated Press.
Marles noted that China had developed the single biggest increase in military capability by any country since WWII, and that it had occurred “without strategic reassurance” and “without a clear strategic intent”.
The tussle comes as Donald Trump announced he would double steel and aluminium import tariffs worldwide from 25% to 50% from 4 June to “further secure” his country’s domestic industry.
Albanese reiterated on Sunday that the president’s decision was an “an act of economic self-harm” and “inappropriate” for US consumers.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said Australia would “convince” the US to exempt Australia from the universal tariffs.
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“We’re going to coolly and calmly argue our case for the removal of these tariffs,” he said.
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday “all options” would be considered, including a World Trade Organization dispute, but the first step would be discussions with the US.
Trump had said he would give “great consideration” to an exemption for Australia from steel and aluminium tariffs in February but ultimately decided against any exemptions.
Albanese is expected to meet Trump in person for the first time since both leaders were re-elected on the sidelines of the G7 leaders’ summit in Canada this month.
The shadow finance minister, James Paterson, said the US decision was “harmful” to its relationship with Australia and that the prime minister needed to “robustly defend” Australia’s interests.
“[Albanese] should lay out the case to the president both why these tariffs are unwise and unjustified, generally, but particularly why they’re unjustified when it comes to Australia, a country with which the United States has a trade surplus,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
Australia exports relatively little steel to the US. About 2.5% of US aluminium imports by volume come from Australia, but this is less than 10% of Australia’s total exports of the metal.
The National party leader, David Littleproud, said Albanese should convince Trump of the seriousness of the decision and to return to “rules-based order of trade”.
“We have a compelling case, to have a carve-out, even if you take away the insanity of these tariffs as a whole because of our relationship and the cheque we just dropped for submarines with the United States,” he told Weekend Today.
