The first topic is ‘Australia’s Future’.

The pair gave opening statements, which went as you could imagine.

Angus Taylor seems nervous.

OK, the first question follows the clip of Democratic Senator Mark Warner who questioned why Australia had tariffs at all – given we are an ally, and also in a trade deficit.

The answer from the Trump administration was because we have banned US frozen beef and pork (we do import a small bit of frozen beef, but also US beef is terrible) and we do have big biosecurity requirements which is why US pork isn’t on the menu.

Asked about Australia’s response, Chalmers says:

I think we’ve got the first contrast of the debate tonight, the first choice, because we’ve got a prime minister standing up for and speaking up for Australia, and we’ve got an opposition leader and an opposition which is absolutely full of these kind of DOGE-ie sycophants who have hitched their wagon to American style slogans and policies and especially cuts which would make Australians worse off, and now they wonder why nobody believes them when they desperately try to pretend to unhitch their wagon from some of the policies and cuts that we’ve seen in the US.

And so this is a pretty important choice, a prime minister speaking up for Australia and standing up for Australians, or an opposition leader and an opposition who have made it clear for some time that they take their cues and their instructions and their policies directly from the US and DOGE sycophants.