This is what Peter Dutton has been left to argue:

Frankly, the US requires Australian beef. It’s not just that we’re, you know, great producers of beef, and that we found an export market. They can’t produce enough beef to satisfy domestic consumption.

So this is why I say it’s a negotiating position, and we need to approach extensively, but we need to have a position here in Australia which is going to be taken seriously by the President and by the Americans.

And at the moment, I think, as the Prime Minister, frankly, has demonstrated over the last three years in economic decisions and the reality of life for Australians that it’s been a bad government, and a bad government here in Australia is not going to be able to negotiate a good outcome on this free trade agreement when they can’t even reduce the cost of groceries or electricity.

Everything has gone up for households and for small businesses under this government, and they have been bad government, and nobody believes that this prime minister could negotiate the best possible outcome with the United States.

Except, comparatively – Australia does have a good deal?

Which even the chamber of commerce essentially agrees with?

Meanwhile, a Texas congressman just openly quoted Goebbels in the chamber. And not in the ‘Goebbels was bad’ way.

Dutton has also given his first response to the Trump tariffs, and of course it is to Sydney radio 2GB.

Dutton seems to think that the 10% tariff – the lowest that Trump has imposed on any nation – is a “negotiating” position, despite other nations having tariffs three times the size of Australia.

Temu Trump seems to think that he could do better with the actual Trump than the best deal that practically any other nation did, just by having a chat.

Oh, but Dutton isn’t going to back down on the issues that the US has with Australia – like biosecurity, or regulating tech giants, or the PBS. So he has no new negotiating tools, but just by the power of his sparkling personality, Trump will concede.

I think in the end, what we need to be able to do is to sit down with the administration and negotiate hard on our country’s behalf. And I think part of the problem is that the Prime Minister hasn’t been able to get a phone call or a meeting with the President, and there’s been no significant negotiation, leader to leader. So that has been the significant failing, and we need to be strong and to stand up for our country’s interests. And I think at the moment, the Prime Minister sort of flailing about as to what to do and how to respond.

There were at least two phone calls and regular communication at a diplomatic level as well as at a business level. And the response has been pretty clear?

We won’t change our stand on what Trump is upset at, we may go to the WTO (for all the good it would do), we won’t put on tariffs of our own, and we are already looking to further diversify trade.

Dutton’s problem is that the deal isn’t as bad as it could have been and that leaves him with not much of a position. Because he is saying he would take the same stance as Albanese, but also that he would just somehow be better at talking to Trump and that would change things. It would not change things.

Peter Dutton and the main Coalition campaign are in Perth (the first time Dutton has been there this campaign) where he has told people that if he can “win Pearce” he can “win the election”.

The idea there is that if the swing is big enough to win Pearce, than he’ll win the 20 or so other seats he needs for majority government.

So far though, Labor’s vote is holding in WA, and there is a bit of a move to independents and the Greens in some seats, so it’s not exactly a shoo-in for Dutton.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has a simple reply to the Trump tariffs:

“End Aukus”

The chief economics commentator for the Wall Street Journal has posted a chart showing how these tariffs Trump is applying will be higher than the Smoot-Hawley ones which destroyed the US economy for years.

Is Anthony Albanese happy with how Australia has come through this?

Albanese:

There is no country that has received a better outcome than Australia. Australia has been presenting our case to the United States very strongly across the board.

We will continue to put our case for what we regard as a reciprocal arrangement just for our products to be tariff free just as products into Australia from the United States are tariff free and importantly, the United States does enjoy a two historical trade surplus with Australia.

Is Anthony Albanese worried about Trump’s strong language?

Albanese:

President Trump’s statements were for him to make. He had raised beef was part of the issues that was raised by the US administration.

We have responded appropriately. We will defend Australia’s interests, whether it be the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the Media Bargaining Code but importantly as well, our bio security.

One of the things that makes Australia products so valued around the world is that people know we produce clean, green agricultural products.

That is why they are in demand, that is why whether it is up beef, sheep meat, wine, our barley or wheat, we have the best products in the world. We’re really proud of that.

Anthony Albanese says there has been clarification between now and his last press conference and there is not a ban on Australian beef as thought, given Trump’s singling out and confused language around Aussie beef imports in his press conference, but the same 10% tariff.

We have received confirmation that what we thought was the case, that it is just a 10% tariff. Similarly, I just spoke with the head of the National Farmers Federation about 15 minutes ago as well and confirmed that with him. I’ve also spoken to beef producers and confirmed it with them. Our Queensland friends who do such an amazing job and a shout out at this point in time to Queenslanders ,in western Queensland who run these big cattle stations who are doing it really tough with the floods.

All-Australian supports are with them at this time and it is a really difficult period for them but it will be a 10% tariff. Brazil has the same so in terms of the competitive position, it is maintained.

On the territories… Norfolk Island has got a 29% tariff. I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giants economy of the United States but that just shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on earth is exempt from this. President Trump has been determined to put this in place. He has indicated that that was the case and we will continue to argue Australia’s case.

Anthony Albanese is still in Melbourne (obviously) where he is holding his second press conference of the day – but this is the campaign press conference. So it is at a pharmacy.

The main announcement is about adding a couple of new medications to the PBS, but the underlying announcement is ‘we love the PBS and won’t be bending on it so suck on that Trump’ but with much more polite, diplomatic language (curse civility politics).

Mark Butler is also there:

This medication the Prime Minister mentioned for kids with glaucoma and also I’m particularly excited about the listing of this drug for bone marrow cancer, a discovery made here in Melbourne at 20 years ago which is now taking the world by storm.

It has been listed for treatment in the US through the FDA and this week it is added to the PBS here in Australia. 1900 patients a year who would otherwise be paying $70,000 on the private market for this life changing, life-saving treatment for this rare form of bone marrow cancer.

That is why we have defended the PBS so hard. We did it 20 years ago in the parliament when the US big Pharma industry tried to get concessions on our PBS under the negotiation of the US free trade agreement. It was Labor that insisted on amendments in Parliament that were resisted and opposed by the US trade representative at the time and opposed by John Howard, who opposed our amendments to secure the PBS pricing arrangements in Parliament right up until the last minute of the parliamentary debate and again, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister have made it clear we will never ever negotiate about the PBS. It is delivered Australians such good health outcomes, great cost measure for decades and we absolutely are confident we can do that for decades to come.