Well the reverse ferrets and confused policy has certainly made this attack line easier for Coalition opponents:

A lower Australian dollar acts to make our exports cheaper. Tariffs do the opposite, increasing the price of our exports. So, what happens when the Australian dollar drops against the US dollar at the same time the US imposes tariffs on Australian exports? Well they cancel each other out.

The US imposed 10% tariffs on Australia, but the exchange rate has fallen 6%. This effectively means that the tariffs have been reduced from 10% to 4%. If the currency keeps falling Australian exports might actually be cheaper in the US.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says his government will continue to ask US President Donald Trump to lower tariffs against Japan, but admits results “won’t come overnight”, AAP reports:

“As such, the government must take all available means” to cushion the economic blow from US tariffs, such as offering funding support for domestic firms and taking measures to protect jobs, Ishiba told parliament on Monday.

Ishiba said Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on imports from Japan was “extremely disappointing and regrettable”, adding that Japan would continue to explain that it had done nothing unfair to the United States.

Ishiba also said he was willing to visit the United States for a meeting with Trump as soon as possible.

“But in doing so, we must ready a package of steps on what Japan could do,” he added.

Trump’s decision to slap a 25 per cent levy on auto imports, and a reciprocal 24 per cent tariff on other Japanese goods, is expected to deal a huge blow to Japan’s export-heavy economy with analysts predicting the higher duties could knock up to 0.8 per cent off economic growth.

Given that at one point this morning, $160bn was stripped from the ASX (it now seems to have leveled out at about 6.3% lower after PLUNGING into the abyss upon opening this morning) it might be worth revisiting one of Maurice Newman’s favourite sayings:

As this thread shows, maybe we need to change that to ‘go fash, lose cash’ (turns out it is not just books they burn)

Labor says it will push to double the number of senators for the ACT if re-elected. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher told ABC Canberra: “it’s certainly something we all support”.

The populations of the ACT and NT have more than doubled since they got their first senators (fifty years ago this year). While there is one ACT Senator per 227,000 Canberrans, the ratio in Tasmania is 1 Senator per 46,000 Tasmanians.

The Australia Institute has previously advocated for a ‘simple formula’ that would make territory Senate representation ‘proportionate to Tasmania’s population’. Doubling the ACT’s Senate seats would not achieve this, but it would be a big step in the right direction.

The Albanese Government was planning to increase territory Senator numbers in its first term but dropped the reform after the Coalition said it was opposed. Instead, the Labor and Liberal parties did a deal to pass rushed and unfair changes to Australian electoral laws.

A question for Senator Gallagher and the Albanese Government more broadly is: if they are going to continue to let the Opposition decide whether the territories are entitled to more Senators, it doesn’t matter whether the Labor Party “all support” the reform if they give the Liberal Party a veto over whether it happens.

Asked what he means by ‘strong leadership’ Peter Dutton says:

I think when we brokered the arrangement with the United States, AUKUS, a deal never possible under any previous Defence Minister, I demonstrated that we were able to land that deal. (Scott Morrison took credit for that deal. And its one Australians are increasingly questioning)

That will underpin our security for the next century. When I was Home Affairs Minister, I took the decision to deport 6,000 criminals from our country, people who had committed rape and sexual offences against children, I have spent my entire adult life as a police officer, as an Immigration Minister, as Home Affairs Minister, working to keep our community and our country safe. (He always neglects to mention the property developer business he held with his father after he left the police force. He has been a politician for twice as long as he was a cop)

I think I demonstrated leadership skills in relation to economic portfolios as well as the Shadow Minister for Finance and as the Assistant Treasurer as somebody who has the ability to know how to make the decisions that are right for our country.

I have demonstrated in relation to the housing policy and our team has done an enormous amount of work in this regard, that we are prepared to take the tough decision to cut Labor’s big Australia policy so we can get young Australians into housing. (The Coalition’s plans to allow people to have access to their super for deposits and loosen lending restrictions will only make housing more expensive)

If we do that, we can make for much better days ahead and I want to stop the pain that Labor has delivered over the last three years. I want to help families rebuild their position. I want to help get our country back on track. I want to make sure our country is safe. I want to deliver a first-class health system and it’s only a Coalition Government that can do that. (This, historically, has no evidence)

I think we have demonstrated those leadership qualities. At this election, it will be a choice between Mr Albanese who has no economic experience, never held an economic portfolio, only driven up inflation and created a household recession for Australian families – and a Coalition which David Littleproud and I lead. (Is Dutton really claiming that a junior ministry role almost two decades ago is ‘economic portfolio experience?’ And anyway, Albanese has a degree in economics and Labor inherited rising inflation from the previous Morrison government, which was pushed along by the global inflation shocks)

We have demonstrated that we can make the decisions to manage the economy well, particularly if there’s going to be a global recession or a war in Europe or uncertain times in which we live that need to be dealt with. At this election, I believe that the Coalition is the only party that can manage our economy well and help families deal with the cost-of-living crisis that Labor’s created.

Peter Dutton is then asked this question:

Q: Mr Dutton, in January Jacinta Price…

Dutton: The amazing Jacinta Price, she does a great job! But please keep going.

Q: She told the Australian the public service reductions will take the form of hiring freeze. She then later clarified to the masthead she would actually reduce redundancies and sensible reductions I think she called them. When did this switch back to a hiring freeze?

Dutton does not repeat that he thinks senator Price is “amazing”. He also doesn’t address the question and instead seeks to link himself with the Howard-Costello government from 18 years ago.

Dutton:

We made our announcement to say we got the policy wrong and we made it clear now, our position. Labor will continue to lie about and run scare campaigns, but I think every Australian should hear that at the next election, there’s a choice about who is best able to manage the economy, who can most efficiently spend taxpayers’ money.

One of the things that strikes me as strange – is the Labor Party is telling you if they find waste in the expense of taxpayers’ money, they’re going to continue with that wasteful spending?

Is that what the Government is saying? Because I would think at the moment families who have seen 12 interest rate increases under Mr Albanese, who have seen their household budgets go back in seven consecutive quarters where effectively they have gone back, families are $50,000 worse off, people are not insuring their homes or cars an at the moment just to save money, people are pulling their kids out of low-fee paying schools to just make sure their budgets can be balanced.

They have tripped every dollar out of their dollar, discretionary are spending is down, and they are hearing Mr Albanese say that out of all the taxes that those people are paying, that the Federal Government’s not prepared to spend it efficiently.

I find that quite remarkable.

What it says to me is that they don’t know how to manage the economy and when I was assistance Treasurer to Peter Costello in the Howard years, we did have to make tough decisions and we did have to make sure that we had money for a rainy day.

Now, if there was a global recession, if the United States goes into recession, if there is a broader war in Europe, if there is a – an attack by Iran in the Middle East, if we see uncertainty in trading routes in the South China Sea, Australia is going to have an impact from all of that and Australians need to know they got a Government in Canberra that can deal with uncertain times, economically and in a national security sense as well, and that’s what a Coalition Government would do.

The Howard years were helped by a once-in-a-generation mining boom. And it was before the GFC which broke the world economy (something we are still seeing the ramifications from). The Coalition didn’t have a surplus while it was in government and its hunt for a surplus almost pushed the Australian economy into recession (do you remember the ‘per capita’ recession under the Morrison government, which is when things were supposedly strong?) Now that is not to say that surpluses are good, but if that is the measure by which you judge good government, as Dutton is here, then his government failed it.

What does Peter Dutton think of the polling which has shown the Coalition slipping on the two-party preferred measure (possibly opening up majority government for Labor again) – and this was before Trump’s tariffs?

Dutton:

In relation to polling, there will be scores of bowling between now and the election and we have got work to do, we are the underdog in this race but we are the only party who can provide support to Australians in a very uncertain age.

We are the only party that can manage the economy through difficult headwinds if you see a global recession or recession in the US*.

The party that has always supported small business and the economy is the Liberal Party.

The party who has done damage to the economy and families is the Labor Party and that is a story of the last three years so I have no doubt in my mind that when Australia’s front up on the 3 May, they know if they want to do the best thing for their families, for their businesses, for our economy, then they will vote for the Liberal and National candidates because if you do that, we can put the three bad years of the Albanese government behind us and help people with the cost-of-living pressures they have and we can restore integrity to the budget and help us get through what is obviously going to be a difficult

*Not sure what this is based on – Labor managed Australia through the GFC, and didn’t go into recession when similar economies did. The Coalition has championed austerity during economic crises which has the opposite effect on domestic economies – austerity sends economies into recessions, not stimulate them.

In the first 20 minutes the Australian stock exchange has fallen 6%. This will be the first immediate impact of the tariffs on Australia – it won’t have any impact on prices, but investors are freaking out that a global recession is on the way.

Lower share prices do have an impact on the ability for companies to invest, and yes it does have an impact on superannuation – but people should always remember that superannuation is a long-term thing (this of course is not financial advice!)

Peter Dutton then confirms that the policy the Coalition has now adopted is from the John Howard era:

The policy we’ve adopted is based on John Howard’s formula in government to try and find ways [to save money].

….. I want to get money into front-line services. To train the GPs so we have a replacement for an ageing workforce. I want to be a prime minister to restore the dream of home ownership and we are cutting migration by 25 per cent because we want young Australians to get into housing because I don’t want Australians to be locked out of housing. (There is no evidence that cutting migration will make housing more affordable. Just look at what happened to housing costs when the borders were shut during the covid lockdowns – they skyrocketed. And there was no migration then)

That’s what will happen under this Labor government. I want to deliver a first-class health system. We can only do that if we manage the economy well and afford to pay for those services. Labor and promised to fund everything and they will always spend more money than any other party except the Greens and together they will be a disaster for the economy and I want to make sure we get our country a contract which we can do through good economic management and helping Australians lift their standard of living.

As has been pointed out in a previous post, the 2013 policy to cut the public service by natural attrition did not include costings of the impact to service delivery.

And we know what happened under the almost decade of Coalition governments to service delivery. That is not research, that is experience.