Chalmers to push tariffs case on Trump team, still no meeting for Albanese

Sydney Morning Herald

4 hours ago

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will attempt to ward off tariffs and massive taxes on Australian superannuation funds investing in the US when he speaks to his American counterpart on Wednesday as the prime minister defends his absence from a key NATO meeting.
Anthony Albanese has sent Defence Minister Richard Marles to the NATO summit in the Netherlands this week, when US President Donald Trump is expected to meet with other world leaders.
The prime minister has not met Trump face to face more than five months into the US leader's second presidency, spurring demands from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley that Albanese attend the NATO gathering to make up for his cancelled meeting with Trump at the G7 in Canada.
'Now is the time for Australia to stand with the United States, our allies and like-minded countries,' Ley said. 'The prime minister should be taking every opportunity to do so.'
But Albanese said other world leaders, including the president of South Korea and prime minister of Japan, were not at NATO and suggested his critics were being hypocritical.
'I've been to the United States on five separate occasions ... as prime minister,' Albanese said on Sky News on Tuesday. 'And I do note that the same people who constantly say I should do more international travel, every time I do, are critical of it as well.'
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Albanese's planned meeting with Trump at the G7 this month was billed as a chance for him to build rapport with the president and make the case for the AUKUS nuclear submarines program and better treatment for Australian exporters and investors in the US.
But the meeting was cancelled when Trump returned to Washington to deal with the situation in the Middle East, and the president did not call Albanese despite doing so for other world leaders who also missed out.