Oh no, wait, Peter Dutton can’t help himself but bring in some domestic politics. While still saying he is right behind the prime minister in this.

I think the statement of fact is the Prime Minister has made the relationship more difficult through his previous comments, the comments of Penny Wong and Ambassador Rudd which were deeply personal in nature.

The president will have noticed those comments and I think it’s… difficult when that’s the starting point in relationship.

But what’s important now is the Trump Administration hear, there is a bipartisan position in Australia to stand up for our national interest and that national interest is best served by a removal of the tariff as it applies to Australia. And if it stays in place I think it damages the relationship and I’ve been clear about that.

For the record, Trump just called Anthony Albanese a “very fine man”.

Peter Dutton has found an issue he doesn’t want to divide on.

The love in with the United States.

He has called a press conference to speak to Donald Trump, which is the political version of standing outside a window with a boom box

It’s important for the US and the Trump administration to hear there is a bipartisan position in relation to the prime minister’s call to remove the tariff from a very close and dear friend, the US, I want there to be very clear message to the Trump Administration that we don’t believe this tariff should be put in place and if it remains in place and I believe it would damage the relationship between the United States and Australia.

We have an incredible relationship with the United States. It is long-standing. We’ve fought for over 100 years side-by-side with the US, they are part of a five eyes compact. There is clearly a very important people to people link that spans generations through different arrangements we’ve had in the trade space, in science, in many areas of mutual endeavours – we’ve done a lot of work with the US clearly to try and provide support

The USA has ALWAYS had a trade surplus with Australia and it is bigger now than in the past!

In 2023 the 5 biggest items we imported from the USA were

• Gold – $2.4bn
• Goods vehicles – $2.2bn
• Civil engineering equipment & parts – $2.1bn
• Aircraft, spacecraft & parts – $2.1bn
• Passenger motor vehicles – $2.1bn
• Pharmaceutical products – $1.9bn
• Telecommunications equipment & parts – $1.6bn

Peter Dutton has called another Canberra press conference – must be close to election time!

Dutton is not a fan of Canberra press conferences, so he rarely holds them. This is the second one this sitting (he also held one last week) which makes it a doubly rare occurrence.

We will hear from him soon.

In this press conference, Donald Trump is also laying out terms for the Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal.

There is no acknowledgement of the fact Israel blocked food and water (and medicine and bandages and practically everything else) from entering Gaza, which led to mass food shortages for EVERYONE including Israeli hostages, as Trump says he expects all remaining hostages held by Hamas to be handed over or “all hell will break out”.

Trump:

I would say this and this is Israel’s decision but as far as I’m concerned if all the hostages are not returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock I think it’s an appropriate time, I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let held breakout. I said they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday and if thou not returned, all of them, not in drips and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two, Saturday at 12 o’clock and after that I would say, all hell is going to break out. I don’t think they will do it. I think a lot of them are dead, I think a lot of the hostages are dead. It’s a great human tragedy, what has happened. … I would say Saturday at 12 o’clock we want them all back, and speaking for myself, but from myself at 12 o’clock if they are not here, all hell is going to break out.”

He won’t say what he means by “all hell” just to “you’ll find out and they’ll find out”.

Donald Trump insists that foreign companies will be moving their steelworks to the USA. That is not going to happen.

Asked about his phone call with Anthony Albanese, Trump says:

I just spoke to him. Very fine man. He has a surplus. We have a surplus with Australia. One of the few. And the reason is they buy a lot of airplanes. They’re rather far away and they need lots of airplanes. We actually have a surplus. It’s one of the only countries which we do. And I told him that that’s something that we’ll give great consideration to.

…We have a huge deficit with the UK. Big difference.

…We have a deficit with – a little deficit with Argentina. But Australia because of the airplanes, they buy a lot of airplanes, there’s a little bit of a surplus.

You can hear the whiplash in the PMO, followed by the sigh of relief at Trump’s answer from the moon.

Donald Trump speaks more on the executive order on the tariffs for steel and aluminium imports:

This is another way of saying we’re doing a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium.

So the failed American trade policies have led our once incredible United States steel and aluminium industries, once incredible, it’s once incredible, they’re not now, but they’re not bad.

I saved them because of my first term, I totally saved them.

If I don’t do what I did, I put massive tariffs, not the highest level but pretty massive tariffs, we took in a lot of money and we took in a lot of jobs.

But we were being pummelled by both friend and foe alike. Our nation requires steel and aluminium to be made in America, not in foreign lands.

We need to create in order to protect our country’s future. With the resurgence of US manufacturing and production, the likes of which has not been seen for many decades. It’s time for our great industries to come back to America, I want them back to America.

This is the first of many. You know what I mean by that, we’re going to be doing others on other subjects, topics.

Protecting our steel and aluminium industries is a must and today I’m simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminium so everyone can understand exactly what it means.

It’s 25% without exemptions or exceptions. That’s all countries, no matter where it comes from, all countries, if made in the United States, however, the United States of America, there is no tariff, zero. So if it’s made in the United States, there’s no tariff.

All you have to do is in make it in the United States. We don’t need it from another country. As an example, Canada, if we make it in the United States, we don’t need it to be made in Canada. We’ll have the jobs. That’s why Canada should be our 51st state.

We’ll bring back industries, we’ll bring back our jobs and make America industry great again. So essentially we’re putting on a 25% tariff without exception on all aluminium and all steel, and it’s going to mean a lot of businesses will be opening in the United States.

Donald Trump has signed his executive order for 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium for all countries.

Trump:

Do you understand what means? It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal. This is the beginning of making America rich again.

He has done it at the same time as he has outlawed paper straws for government agencies;

We’re going back to plastic straws. These things don’t work. On occasion they break, they explode, if something is hot, they don’t last very long like a matter of minutes. Sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s ridiculous situation. So we’re going back to plastic straws. I think it’s OK. I don’t think … plastic is going to affect a shark, as they’re munching their way through the ocean.

Remember what Steve Bannon said about flooding the zone with shit? This is it. Trump signs executive orders for everything from pardons for officials convicted of public corruption, changing how Americans can be prosecuted for illegal business dealings overseas, tariffs and paper straws all at the same time.

Late last week, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles met with newly confirmed US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. He told Secretary Hegseth that Australia welcomes “a very significant increase of the American footprint on the Australian continent”, and handed over AU$798 million to the US naval shipbuilding industry.

On Monday, we got our reward – on AirForce One on the way to the Superbowl, Trump announced new blanket 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum. No mention of a special carve out for Australia.  

This morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had what he described as a “very constructive” conversation with the US President that resulted in…an exemption for Australia being “under consideration”.

Great work, everybody. 

This is how Trump’s America treats its allies. Our Free Trade Agreement with the United States clearly isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, so why would we think the Aukus deal is worth any more? The rule of law – at home and internationally – means nothing to Trump. It’s time we thought about what that means for us and our long-term security. 

Certain people within the Coalition are going balls to the wall fighting against wind power, with Dan Tehan the latest to suddenly develop an interest in ‘the environment’ as cover for wanting fossil fuels to continue to dominate in Australia.

Right wing advocacy group Advance (Advance Australia) is right behind this ‘fight’, involved not only in the protests, but in following the lead of similar groups in the United States and Canada, which turned their attention to renewables, particularly windfarming some years ago (we are always about five years behind the US culture wars, but that doesn’t mean the seeds for the bullshit aren’t planted at the same time).

Wind farms are the next step in the far right hijack of conspiracy issues. You can draw a line from lockdowns, to vaccines, to the Voice – to windfarms and transmission lines.

Now in a lot of cases, governments (state and federal) didn’t help themselves, because the roll out at the beginning wasn’t exactly great. Local councils and authorities not being consulted with, communities feeling ignored, concerns dismissed instead of talked through – even cases of contractors not testing out local roads to see if the infrastructure could handle the heavy loads and then causing chaos – all of this could have been foreseen and addressed.

Since then, the guidelines on how to engage with the community have been issued and there are real attempts to talk though potential issues with people. But that hasn’t stopped the right from hijacking the issue and it now looks like shaping up as one of the undercurrents to the coming election, particularly in regional communities where the Nationals are fighting off community independents who are more sympathetic to the renewables transition.

You can add Tehan to that list. He has started a big campaign against the Southern Ocean offshore wind zone, which the Coalition have said they would scrap if they won government.

Tehan of course, is new to this bandwagon. It wasn’t that long ago he was supporting wind power in the parliament and was smashing the government for not supporting locally made wind turbine manufacturers.

Bowen was asked about Tehan’s about face this morning on ABC radio Southwest Victoria and said:

I was disappointed to see Dan Tehan’s comments last week because it’s a very big change in position from him. When he was in government he supported offshore wind and gave a speech in parliament talking about how important it would be for the Portland aluminium smelter. So, you know, if someone’s consistent in their views I respect that, but when they change them for political reasons I am a lot more suspicious.

But, look, in terms of consultation – and let’s just reminder our listeners of where we are and how we got here, and this is consultation that has worked as it should – we started with an area of more than 5000 square kilometres and asked people what they think. We got 3285 submissions right across the community from a range of people. I listened, reduced the area down to 1000 square kilometres, and now have issued a preliminary licence to one applicant which covers 265 kilometres – square kilometres. So, you know, we’ve really worked through the issues that have been raised. And that 265 square kilometre-zone, even though it’s quite small, would produce 1.2 gigawatts of electricity. That’s enough to provide 650,000 Victorian homes and, of course, importantly, work with the Portland aluminium smelter to give it options for renewable energy. Because I’m absolutely committed to the jobs at Portland, and it’s pretty disappointing Dan Tehan isn’t.