Anthony Albanese and Don Farrell contradict each other if Donald Trump raised the matter of Australia's beef biosecurity rules during tariff negotiations
The Australian Financial Review revealed on Thursday that Australian officials had notified their US counterparts that restrictions on the importation of US beef would be lifted following a scientific review of the biosecurity risks.
Following the decision the government was urged by the Coalition to explain its backflip on the US beef ban after the Prime Minister previously insisted Labor would not 'compromise' on biosecurity.
Responding to the reports on Thursday, Nationals Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie said the decision could pose a risk to our beef industry with Nationals leader David Littleproud also questioning the timing of the decision.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday Agenda Trade Minister Don Farrell squatted away assertions that the decision was made to appease the US President, and insisted Australia had the strictest biosecurity laws in the world.
'These are decisions that are made by the Department of Agriculture, they do their scientific research and we've gone through a ten-year process,' Mr Farrell told Sky News host Andrew Clennell.
When pressed directly if the two things had nothing to do each other Mr Farrell bluntly said 'yes, that's exactly what I'm saying, we don't make decisions about our biosecurity issued based on the requests from Presidents of other countries.'
Senator Farrell also acknowledged that the 'President of the United States had raised it with the Prime Minister.'
However, in a major contradiction Mr Albanese said on the ABC's Insiders program that the US President had not directly raised the issue of Australian biosecurity rules on US beef.
"Did Donald Trump raise this with you directly?' Mr Albanese was asked by host David Speers, to which he responded with a curt 'no.'
'Donald Trump did raise it at the so-called Liberation Day, of course, he raised it publicly,' Mr Albanese said.
Mr Albanese insisted the decision was not 'a political decision' and that the course of action had not been made due to political pressure from the US administration.
Mr Farrell also revealed that he had no hand in the decision, and that the call was made by the Department of Agriculture and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins who cut her press conference short on Thursday when taking questions on the matter.
'I don't sign off on it, these are agriculture issues, they have an impact with trade as we have a trading relationship with the US, but this is an independent process, the department of agriculture undertakes, they make decisions on all of the scientific decisions on a biosecurity basis.'
The restrictions had been cited by President Donald Trump as a justification for his decision to impose a 10 per cent across the board tariff on Australian imports as well as much larger tariffs on steel and aluminium.
On Friday the US President greeted the news of a change in the ban on US beef being imported into the country remarking 'we are going to sell so much to Australia.'
As the deadline for trade deals with the US looms, Mr Farrell said the government was 'going to try' to secure a new trade agreement with the Trump administration and that the tariffs themselves were 'an act of economic self-harm.'
A raft of Coalition figures including Bridget McKenzie, David Littleproud, Barnaby Joyce, Michaelia Cash and James Paterson have all called on the government to explain its sudden policy reversal on the matter.
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