Latest news with #AlbaneseGovernment
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia's trade minister says Trump plan to double steel and aluminium tariffs to 50% ‘not the act of a friend'
Australia's trade minister, Don Farrell, has described Donald Trump's trade tariffs as 'unjustified and not the act of a friend', after the US president announced he would double import duties on steel and aluminium to 50%. Trump told a steelworkers rally in Pittsburgh that raising the tariff would 'even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody is going to get around that.' In a social media post on Saturday, Trump clarified the increase from 25% to 50% would be effective from 4 June and would apply to steel and aluminium. 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. Reiterating Australia's stance on the tariffs, Farrell said on Saturday: 'Australia's position has been consistent and clear. These tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend. 'They are an act of economic self harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade. We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The shadow trade minister, Kevin Hogan, said on Saturday that Trump's announcement was concerning for Australian jobs. 'The Albanese government needs to double its efforts to protect our steel industry and local jobs for our steel workers,' he said. 'We expect the United States to honour its obligations under the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, just as Australia has always done. The strength of our economic partnership has been built on trust and mutual benefit, and any deviation from this agreement undermines the principles of free trade.' Hogan said the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, needed to personally meet with Trump during the G7 talks in Canada taking place in two weeks 'to develop a personal rapport with the United States President and protect Australian industries'. Hogan said: 'The Coalition want the government to succeed because that is in the national interest.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Trump's sweeping tariffs were initially blocked by a US court this week, which ruled them illegal, before the administration won a temporary pause on that ruling on Thursday. It is understood a national security provision – section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act – does give the US president authority to unilaterally raise tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. Marghanita Johnson, the chief executive of the Australian Aluminium Council, said a key concern was the potential for international trade flows to be distorted. The council would keep working with the government, she said. In March, when the steel tariffs came into force, BlueScope Steel, which exports about 300,000 tonnes of steel a year to the US, said it was disappointed the industry had not received the same tariff exemption that was negotiated during Trump's first term. The company produces more than 3m tonnes of steel each year at its Ohio plant. BlueScope said at the time it was working closely with the Australian government's trade and diplomatic staff 'to ensure the BlueScope investment proposition is fully understood'. Industry group the Australian Steel Institute has previously said it was working with the government to secure an exemption on the steel import tariff. The institute said during the previous Trump administration, Australia had been granted an exemption after nine months of lobbying.
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
The contentious decision to extend the North West Shelf gas project
The Albanese government's decision to approve an extension of the North West Shelf gas project in WA has been highly contentious, but it's also raised the question of why we are selling most of our gas overseas, while we are being warned of shortages here at home. Here's political editor Laura Tingle with her take. Plus, Sarah Ferguson interviews Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Stop giving concessions': Major warning on first-home handouts
Potential first-home buyers are falling further behind due to the very schemes designed to get them into a home. Independent economist Saul Eslake said the best thing the government could do to help first-home buyers would be to remove concessions that allow them to buy a home. 'The question isn't what they should be doing, it's what they should not be doing,' he told NewsWire. 'What they have to stop doing is things that needlessly inflate demand for housing. 'Stop giving out what I call second-home vendor grants as I call them because that is where the money ends up.' 'Stop giving stamp duty concessions, all they do is allow people to pay the vendor what they would have paid to the state government and back away from the mortgage deposit guarantee schemes and shared equity schemes,' he said. Mr Eslake said these policies, which are designed to help first-home buyers, simply end up inflating house prices. 'While a shared equity scheme sounds like a good idea, in practice, if you're willing to buy a $400,000 house and the government says 'hey, we will give you 20 per cent', then buyers say 'oh good, I can now afford a $500,000 house'. 'So a $400,000 house becomes a $500,000 house, so it's more a matter of just stop needlessly inflating demand.' One of the key election policies the Albanese government ran on was its expansion of the First Home Guarantee scheme, which is sometimes called the 5 per cent deposit scheme. This program allows first-home buyers to purchase property with a deposit as little as 5 per cent, with the government effectively guaranteeing the other 15 per cent, allowing first-home buyers to avoid paying lenders' mortgage insurance. But in an updated version of the scheme to come into effect at the start of 2026, caps of $125,000 for singles and $200,000 for couples will be removed. The PropTrack April Home Price Index showed national house prices hit a new record high over the month of April, increasing by 0.2 per cent monthly or 3.7 per cent compared with the same time last year. Helia chief executive and managing director Pauline Blight-Johnston said the main risk to the latest policy was the removal of the income caps to get government help. 'Our belief is that we will achieve the most as an economy if the government help is directed towards those that need it the most, and those that are able to help themselves through private enterprise do so without the taxpayers' dollar,' she told NewsWire. 'At the end of the day, our view is that taxpayers' dollars should go to those that really need the help to get into the market, such as essential workers or others that are really struggling.' Ms Blight-Johnston said expanding the HGS didn't address the fundamental underlying issue for those struggling to buy their first home – a shortage of affordable supply. She fears that the government's housing schemes just worsen housing affordability by fuelling demand and driving up prices. Instead, she pointed to first-home buyers using lenders' mortgage insurance as a 'really powerful tool' that is often misunderstood. 'People think of it as a fee …. But if you think of it differently as a wealth creation tool and it allows you to get into a home earlier, on average people that use LMI get in around nine years earlier and around $100,000 better off after five years because they got into the market earlier,' she said. Ms Blight Johnston said mortgage holders would typically pay 1 to 2 per cent as a premium above their usual repayments if they took on LMI. 'If you think property goes up on average 4 or maybe 5 per cent a year, if it is going to take you more than six months to save the deposit, the extra 15 per cent — as LMI takes the deposit down from 20 to 5 per cent – you're going to be ahead by getting into the market earlier and paying the premium.' Mr Eslake said LMI could increase demand for property if it acted like a reduction in interest rates. 'We know whenever interest rates go down, people borrow more and pay more for the house they buy which results in higher prices,' he said.
ABC News
3 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Laura Tingle on when politics is at its best
Laura Tingle joins Fran and PK for one last party — and more importantly, one last strawberry daiquiri -- before she wraps up her 40-years in the press gallery. And the Coalition is officially back together, and leader Sussan Ley has announced the make-up of her shadow cabinet. But while plenty of fresh faces have been elevated, some key names have been overlooked. So, will Sussan Ley and David Littleproud be able to maintain party unity? And it's reconciliation week, so will a second term Albanese Government use its strong majority to push forward on Treaty and Truth like former Labor Senator and father of reconciliation Pat Dodson has called for? Patricia Karvelas and Fran Kelly are joined by Laura Tingle, ABC's 7.30 Political Editor on The Party Room. Got a burning question? Got a burning political query? Send a short voice recording to PK and Fran for Question Time at thepartyroom@
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia will keep pushing US to drop Trump tariffs after court ruling, trade minister says
Australia will continue to push Donald Trump to abandon his administration's tariff regime entirely, after a US court blocked the president's 'liberation day' tariffs from coming into effect. The Manhattan-based court of international trade said the US constitution gives the Congress exclusive powers to regulate commerce with other countries, and ruled that power was not superseded by the president's self-declared 'emergency' he cited to safeguard the US economy. The Trump White House filed an appeal against the judgment minutes after it was handed down. The regime imposed a 10% across-the-board tariff on all Australian imports to the US. Several specific products, including steel and aluminium, are subject to higher tariff rates, up to 25%. The Australian trade minister, Don Farrell, said the Australian government would agitate for tariffs on Australian goods to be dumped entirely. 'We will study this ruling of the US Federal Courts on reciprocal tariffs closely and note that they may be subject to further legal processes through the courts,' he said. 'The Albanese Government has been consistent in the view that these tariffs on Australian imports into the US are unjustified,' Farrell said. 'We will continue to engage and strongly advocate for the removal of tariffs.' 'The Albanese Government will always stand up for Australia's national interests, including Australian jobs and Australian industries.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The US court found Trump overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board tariffs on imports from countries all over the world. Trump called the tariffs, announced on 2 April, America's 'liberation day'. 'The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President's use of tariffs as leverage. That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because (federal law) does not allow it,' a three-judge panel said in the decision. The ruling came in a pair of lawsuits, one filed by the nonpartisan Liberty Justice Center on behalf of five small US businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the duties and the other by 13 US states. The companies – which range from a New York wine and spirits importer to a Virginia-based maker of educational kits and musical instruments – have said the tariffs will hurt their ability to do business. The lawsuit argued that the statue invoked by the president – the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – does not give him the authority to unilaterally issue across-the-board worldwide tariffs. 'His claimed emergency is a figment of his own imagination: trade deficits, which have persisted for decades without causing economic harm, are not an emergency. Nor do these trade deficits constitute an 'unusual and extraordinary threat',' it argued. Court documents specifically cited the tariffs imposed on Australian territories where there are no people, and, hence, no commerce. 'The Liberation Day Order imposed sweeping new tariffs at rates not seen since the Great Depression – including a global 10% tariffs on nearly all countries in the world – regardless of whether they impose tariffs on United States products, the rates at which they do so, or the existence of any trade agreements governing the relationship. 'These tariffs even applied to places with no civilian population or international trade activity, such as [Australian territories] the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are inhabited only by penguins and seals.' Australian financial analysts have warned that significant uncertainty remained around the ultimate fate of Trump's tariff regime. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Kyle Rodda, a senior financial market analyst with in Melbourne, said the court's ruling was massive news. 'It's long been suggested that the emergency powers Trump has used to implement tariffs were unconstitutional and that the power to enact tariffs sits with Congress,' he said. 'It sets up a battle that will likely end up in the supreme court now. It's a situation fraught with danger because the administration may ignore the court's ruling, potentially placing greater strain on US institutions at a time of increased stress.' Sean Callow, a senior analyst at ITC Markets in Sydney, said while there must be significant caution over the ruling being overturned by higher courts, 'for now the weight of money is being placed on the possibility that US courts prevent the White House from self-imposed economic damage, brightening US growth prospects and the US dollar'. The White House and lawyers for groups that sued did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and one of Trump's lead policy advisers, rebuked the court in a brief social media post, writing: 'The judicial coup is out of control.' At least five other legal challenges to the tariffs are pending. The attorney general of Oregon, Dan Rayfield, a Democrat whose office is leading the states' lawsuit, called Trump's tariffs unlawful, reckless and economically devastating. 'This ruling reaffirms that our laws matter, and that trade decisions can't be made on the president's whim,' Rayfield said in a statement. Under US law, tariffs must typically be approved by Congress. Trump has claimed broad authority to set tariffs under IEEPA, which is meant to address 'unusual and extraordinary' threats during a national emergency. The law has historically been used to impose sanctions on enemies of the US or freeze their assets. Trump is the first US president to use it to impose tariffs. AP and AAP contributed to this report
