Peter Dutton:

Well, Michael, thank you for your question. I sat around the Cabinet table when we negotiated with Trump mark one presidency, and we negotiated an outcome for Australia which is much better than what we had today, and it meant that Australia was excluded from the first round of tariffs imposed by President Trump. (That was a very different time – these are global tariffs, which the last ones were not)

I also sat around the table, Cabinet table and the National Security Committee when we went through COVID and the support that we provided to families, to employees, to employers, kept our economy going through a very rough period, and I know that we can deal with whatever comes our way.

One of the great things about living in the greatest country in the world is that whatever is thrown at us, the Prime Minister of the day should have the ability and the strength of character to be able to stand up against bullies, against those that would seek to do us harm, to keep our country safe and to make sure that we can make the right economic decisions for our country as well. And that’s exactly what I would seek to do as prime minister.